April 11, 2022 • 57 mins
Jennifer Kirsch, a personal trainer who's specialty is working with women over 40, is Tom's guest on this episode of the Fitness Disrupted podcast. Listen as they talk about some considerations that all of us must take into account as we get older, and how taking a slightly different approach to training can actually lead to better results in less time.
You an find Jenn online at jenniferkirschfitness.com and on Instagram @jenniferkirschfitness
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. I
did a podcast a while back about how my workouts
(00:24):
have changed after age fifty and still to say fifty
and I'm fifty three now, I feel like mentally i'm eighteen,
you know, physically much younger. But I'm loving I'm loving
(00:47):
being this age as well, loving it the wisdom and
the experience and all the work I put in. It's
all good. Age is truly a number. But that show
I did super popular. You guys like that, you know.
I think that's a big part of this demo. You
are some of the smartest listeners I've ever had, and
(01:11):
I know that because you reach out with questions and
comments and I appreciate it all. But I've talked about
exercise and nutrition issues for men and women later in life,
common question, you know, And so I said, you know,
I gotta do a specific show, and I need a
(01:32):
guest to help me with this. I've talked about it.
I've trained thousands of women over the years, back when
I was a trainer and teaching class and holding camps,
and the books and the lectures and all that stuff.
But it is always great to have a really good expert,
(01:53):
someone who's been in the trenches, as they say, and
walk the walk, discuss this and have that perspective, the
female perspective. So that's what today shows about. So excited
And I have known this person, haven't spoken with this
person a while, Gonna give the insight. We have a
connection that actually did a podcast about it. We'll bring
(02:15):
that up with her. So we go ways back. But
I've been watching her on Instagram and she is now
an online trainers, does a bunch of stuff. I'll let
her tell you that as well, and I'll read you
here by it in a second. But just the best
(02:35):
approach common sense has put it into practice is living proof.
Has the credentials, has the experience. And I said, it's time,
it's time to have her on and do this show
talking about women and nutrition and exercise after forty. What's
(02:56):
the difference, what are the mistakes? And she will help
you if you are a woman, if you are over forty.
But let me say this, so much of what we're
going to talk about applies to everyone. There are differences
and different challenges, and you know, physiological changes, psychological change.
(03:17):
We can talk about all that, but a lot of
its common sense and a lot of it applies to everyone,
and what she will tell you works people. It works.
We're gonna we're gonna dispel all those myths. You're gonna
hear it again. You're gonna hear it again in a
different way from a different person. But that is a
huge part of this show, is you hearing it over
(03:41):
and over from so many different people and perspectives where
you finally go, oh, maybe maybe that's right, Maybe I
should try that, because that's what works. All right? So
who is this person? Jennifer Kersch all right? She has
been a personal trainer and coach for over twenty five years.
(04:02):
We have we have some similar longevity and time spent
in this industry. She's now an online fitness and nutrition
coach specializing in yes women over forty. She specializes in
helping women and men, but women especially make meaningful changes
to their bodies, especially in midlife. She believes, I love this.
(04:26):
It's never too late to become a better version of yourself.
It's never too late. She's the creator of the Straight
Up Strength System and Nourished You Academy. I will give
her chance to tell how to connect to her. So
for those of you who want to connect, what a
crazy world we live in, you can literally work out
(04:48):
with her regardless of where you are in the world.
All right. She has a bunch of credentials, or I
wouldn't have her on people. She has been certified by
the American Council on Exercise in numerous different areas personal trainer,
health coach, exercise fitness, nutrition specialist. She's a Precision Nutrition
(05:09):
Level one coach. She's done the two hundred hour Yoga certification.
She's spinning certified, Stages indoor cycling certified, tr or X certified.
And I love that many different specialties because clients have
many different likes and dislikes, as do trainers themselves, right,
(05:33):
but so many different perspectives on the cardio, on the strength,
on the flexibility and core strength and all of that stuff.
So very excited to bring her to you. Enough when
we come back from the break, Jennifer Kersch, We'll be
right back, and we are back. I say it every
(06:03):
time I have a guest on because I only bring
you the best, and I bring you guests from all
different worlds. And Jen Kirch is just one of the
best when it comes to women over forties. So Jen,
thank you so much. I can't believe we're having this
conversation because you and I are close to the same age,
But like, is it weird because you're now are you
over fifty? I think you are right, like yeah and
(06:27):
a half. Actually do we get back to that after age,
like fifty we start going to the halves again, just
for like when we and you know, trying to think
about it too much, but you know, but you know
what I said, it I love and we'll talk about this.
Like you and I have been in the industry for
a really long time. I read your bio at the start.
(06:49):
You know, you're over twenty five years, which is, by
the way, a huge accomplishment in this crazy industry. Right
it's um, you've seen it all. We started at the
same time. I'm you know, there was the internet was
just starting all of that crazy stuff. Um, so congrats
and like, yeah, as I said in the intro, I
was reading your Instagram for a while and I said,
(07:12):
I gotta have her on, but let me let me
back check a little bit. I'm gonna be all over
the place, so I said the intro that like, we
have a connection. So many years ago you helped me out.
I started a fitness clothing line and I did a
podcast jen that where I said, this is my one
fitness mistake, and I qualified it because I don't believe
in any mistakes. It's all part of the journey. But
what I said was, here's something I started within the
(07:34):
fitness world that I realized I couldn't do half half,
you know, half of the time, a quarter of the time.
It had to be all in. So I cut bait
and moved on and learned the lesson. And so I'm
glad I did it. But you were you were a
model you have and I don't think we've spoken since then,
but you're close. You're a couple of towns away, and
I've watched you teach and now you know, pivot to
(07:56):
the online stuff and you're still doing all of that.
But yeah, so we have that action and now you're
doing like a crazy amount of online stuff, right. Yeah.
Actually I really pivoted hard March. I honestly didn't really
give it too much thought. I just went all in.
I was pretty comfortable with trading folks online because I
had had a couple of clients that you're already doing
(08:17):
like face time sessions when they would travel. So it
didn't it didn't. Um. I didn't really think about it
too much. I just dove in and um, you know,
as it progressed, I just I had wanted to get
into the online space. So that was if there was
anything good to come out of that time period, it
was that for me and I just really I just
went in both feet first and just figuring it out
(08:39):
as I go along. And it's really working out very
well for me. And I said in the intro as well,
Chan that they're there. There are no more yearbots. They're
all gone. Right, So when you and I started this industry,
you know, people could go yeah, but you know, um,
I don't have a lot of money. Yeah, but I
don't have a lot of time. Yeah, but I don't
have access to a gym. Yeah, but now they're all gone.
(09:00):
And I said in the intro, like, you can work
with Jen, and you should work with Jen if this
is one of your goals, Like, no matter where you
are in the world, it's just crazy fitness technology. I mean,
you and I have watched that progression in the most
incredible way. Right. I mean, it's amazing. So I gotta
start with this question, and it's it's gonna lead to
every other question after after, after twenty five years, Jen,
(09:23):
don't you feel like you're a little nuts with this industry?
In other words, like you just want people to get
it right, Like you're like, we're gonna go through all
the myths and all this stuff. But it's like it's
so much it's it's challenging to figure out what you
want to do and what you like. But people are
struggling for the wrong reasons. Yeah, I mean I think,
(09:44):
you know, I just think that a lot of people
really want they want something instant. They want to know
that they're on the right track, especially when they get
to a point where they're ready to make change. They
make the you know, they they've made the decision to
actually make change, and then it seems to me that
they want it like very quickly, and and I think
sometimes that they're you know, their wisdom gets a little clouded,
(10:05):
not really all their fault because there's just so much
information out there. But I also always when I work
with people, I always think the beginner's mindset because what
maybe you and I know, because we've been doing it
for so long, we know it in our bones, and
not everybody knows that, and it's okay. Like I was
doing my taxes last week and I thought, oh my gosh,
I would have made the worst accountants, Whereas you know
(10:25):
a friends that accounts and they're like, what, it's not
so hard, you know. So I always try to appreciate
that when it comes to fitness and nutrition with my clients,
is that you know, they don't know everything, and that's okay.
You know, that's okay. But I try to simplifie for
folks and and clear the noise, so to speak, so
that they can really focus on what's important and what
works and not get so distracted by the other things,
(10:47):
as sexy as they may be. And see, that's such
a great point, Jen, is that with the good comes
to bad, right. So in other words, what you're alluding
to is that there's so much information out there and
there's so much bad information. I say that when I
started this podcast, I was like, and I love that
you called it noise, because it is noise, and so
you know, even though people have access to you, there's
(11:07):
the shiny other stuff. And as you said, the promises
of the quick fixes and stuff like that. So in
in in one sense, it's harder than ever before to
get in shape because you have to make sense of
all that noise. Yeah, I mean, and you and I
could both speak to this. I mean, you could do
the same workout you did in still get a result
in two. It's just we we there is so much
(11:30):
to to pay attention to, to distract. And I think
you know, anybody who has been who has made fitness
a sort of a lifestyle for any amount of time,
probably with would be able to understand what I'm saying
with that is that, Yeah, of course you have to
change it. You need to progressively overlooked, uss with and
all that stuff. But the fact is you don't have
to veer off to these extremes to get the results.
(11:53):
And um, I think it's you know, we have to.
It's it's a marketing machine. It's what seventy billion dollar
industry and and you know we have they have to
keep freshening it up. I you know, sometimes I feel like,
oh gosh, am I just boring making it sexy enough?
You know, I try to u incorporate other other skills
to keep people interested. And keep them reaching their goals.
(12:14):
But I do think things changed too as you get
later in life and different issues to begin to come
up that that maybe weren't there present when you were
in your twentiesties. And I think that's a huge challenge
to Jen, is what you just said about, you know,
making it sexy and is this boring? And I have
so many people say to me, like, your workouts are boring, Tom,
(12:34):
and I go, I get it. I mix them up
like what I do, but like boring works. That's the problem, Jen.
And I'm not saying we have to be bored, but
it's the simple stuff. And I know that you agree
with this, and I have some quotes I'm gonna pull
that I did pull from your I g about this
type of stuff. But but that's part of the problem,
right is people are looking I watched a guy looking
to Instagram for craziness. I watched a guy yesterday hold
(12:58):
a forty five pound or hold a barbelt with plates
on either end. They're probably not forty five and do
a flip hold the barbe like like I had to
watch it a couple of times. Well right, right, first
you go why why exactly? Um? But because that's what
what's getting the eyeballs. I mean, it's just crazy. So
there is like this unfortunate need for you, as someone
(13:22):
who is online to compete with the crazy stuff, right,
to constantly try to make it sextual when it's still
kind of the continuation of the basics that we're so
you have to kind of tread those waters, which are
it's difficult for sure, and I just want to I
want to dove tail off that. So just a quick
side note. So several years ago, pre pre covid, I
started posting on Instagram as a means to share workouts
(13:46):
with my current clients when we would have like snow
days and things like that. I never had any intent
of being like an instagramm or and I'm like, oh,
you know, I mean my in my old posts are
so funny because it's literally like a screenshot of the
notes on myself. But um, and beginning, you know, it
was more about what I was showing a lot of
just exercise related context. That was it. That was what
I was comfortable showing of myself. So I would demonstrate
(14:08):
some different moves and I would be creative with it,
with its safe of course. But then I started to think,
you know, but that's not my clientele. Most of my
clients tell the people that I work with daily aren't
doing stuff like that. They're still working on basic kettle
bell swings and a pull up and push up and
stuff that's not sexy. So I really started to beer
(14:30):
off of that and say, you know what, I'm going
to show more realistic stuff that people actually can do,
not the stuff that is like a circus act. I mean,
I was never doing a flip over a bar, but
you know what I'm saying, So yeah, I mean stuff
in the TRX that maybe is a little bit more
advanced for the average exerciser. And so what I didn't
want to do is scare people away by saying this
is what you have to do to be in shape,
(14:51):
because it's just not true. Doing those things can be
fun if you have a base level of efficiency of
your built right how to come first? That has to
come first. So exactly, people don't know how to do
a squat right, people don't know how to do push
ups right. You know the number of pulses I call
them pulses. I'm like, oh my gosh, stop going for
fifth year? Right? Do ten? And you brought up. I
(15:14):
remember when my wife, who's not a fitness person, said
she was going to take a TRX class, And this
is like right when it came out, like years and
years ago, and I was like, oh my gosh, she's
gonna die for for a number of reasons. It seems simple,
but it's not. The instructor is going to teach to
the strongest person in the room generally, and you have
to know how to position your body like TRX. As
(15:34):
simple as it seems like it is, it's super challenging
and you kind of have to know what you're doing
and you need someone like you to walk you through it.
So it's such a great point that, um, you know,
there's so much nuance that that people aren't aware of.
So let me get right to it because I know
people are gonna scream at me in uh in the
messages just about like just let her talk. So you
(15:55):
have so many good points on your Instagram top let's
just of them what they want to start off at least,
top weight loss mistakes, um, talk about diets, talk about
all that stuff. Top top mistakes you see. Um, well,
you know, we just full disclosure. I work mostly with
women over forty. I do work with men as well,
but mostly women over forty. And back to what I
(16:17):
was saying before, so many times when we when women
reach a point where they're like, Okay, I'm ready. I'm
ready to change my life. Right, I'm ready to change
my body, and they want to do it all really quickly,
and they get a little bit overwhelmed and they want
to do all the things, so they will try things
like internet fasting because they've read a sound bite on it.
They're like, oh, just don't eat for twelve hours, sixteen hours,
(16:39):
and so they start with that, or there you don't
eat enough, or they try to add too much, too
much exercise, and especially in women over it's that can
really have diminishing returns because you're just adding exercise. Great
as it is, is a stressor. It's a stressor, and
as you get older, your body just simply needs more
time to recover. So I I see those those mistakes,
(17:02):
and I really encourage people to look at it as
a long game. Even even if you're starting in your fifties.
You know, if you want to do this to have
a healthy sixties, seventies, and eighties, you have to really
commit to it. Being a lifestyle, and that's not something
that's going to happen in six, eight, nine, twelve weeks.
That's going to be something that happens a little bit
(17:25):
over time. Just like any any any new habit that
you're trying to build, you're you're gonna have a better
chance of making that part of your repertoire if you
go a little slower and get those winds under your
belt before you try, you know, more higher level things. So, um,
that that is I'm just thinking. You know, currently, I've
worked with some women who I can always tell when
people come to me with sort of this sense of
(17:46):
desperation and they want to make the changes, and I
already know. I'm like I have to talk them down,
like we got to slow down. Is going to take
it one one step at a time. Um. But you know,
being in this industry for a long time, you start
to you do start to those personalities for sure. And
you know a lot of what I do because I
am working one on one with folks, I can I
(18:07):
can see that and you know, we could speak to
the psychology of what's going on there as well. Right,
I do think I I do really like to work
with people at that level. So you know what some
one one person's mistake. Maybe, So let's take the intermitt
fast thing thing. We were joking about that earlier. There
are people that I work with that are They are
very knowledgeable, they read a lot. So for that person,
(18:29):
I think I've made an example about this on my stories.
I'm like trying to do intermittent fast thing as the
first little level strategy is like time to take ap
Spanish as an eighth grader. You know, you've got to
learn how to eat before you start learning how to fast.
So many people don't know how to eat period, so
but you know, we choke, but because we were, I'd argue,
(18:54):
like again, I'm dying that these people are are depriving
themselves and struggling. And as you said, starting off that way,
I will throw one of my brothers under the bus
all the time with this kind of stuff because I
got five and so you won't know who it is,
but you know he is the king of this stuff,
like the quick thing, and so he you know, will
do the intermittent fasting, but then he eats garbage after that.
(19:17):
And as you said, and this is my thing too,
you can't start we can get into science quickly, but
like you have to learn to eat first. You said it.
I love that you said it. Right, If you're eating healthy,
then we can talk about like gaps of time and
you know what it does to your cells. And I
think this is where I actually responded to you on Instagram.
You were talking about this, and I said, most people
aren't doing it for the autophagic you know effects they're not.
(19:40):
They're not doing it because they're cells or so you
gotta you gotta start, as you're saying, you know, thinking
it's gonna take time. I'm gonna do it right this time.
I'm not going to torture myself um with these with
these fat diets. I think sometimes I don't know if
part of this. I do think it's our culture, the quick,
fixed culture. But it's almost as if we feel as
(20:02):
though we need things to be difficult in order for
them to actually make a difference, to be effective. And
I would argue otherwise, you know, I would argue otherwise,
like get some I always say this, get some wins
under your belt with the easy stuff first, and then
you can start to challenge and whether we're talking exercise
or changing the nutrition habits, try to walk before you run.
(20:24):
You know, you didn't get to do you know, multiple
iron men by going out and running a marathon from
day one, right. It took years and years and years
of training to get to that point. And I think
when it comes to changing our fitness regimen or the
way that we feed ourselves, it's the same analogy. You
have to start slow. I have to start slow and
(20:45):
get it to be so that it's almost automated and
feel easy, and then you can start to add more complexity,
more challenge, whatever that looks like to you. I'm not
I don't. I don't believe that your diets should be
a challenge. I don't think it should be automated in easy.
But I do think back to when you asked me
about what mistakes people are making. I think, like with women,
the whole i'm diet, I should just say I'm I'm
(21:09):
diet agnostic. I don't necessarily feel like there's one best diet.
But what I will say is this, women in my
age group vastly underneath protein, and I think in some
ways they're afraid of it. It's just as they are
afraid sometimes of strength training. There's a lot of old
messaging in there that they're hanging onto. And to them,
it's like, you know, strange training means CrossFit means bodybuilding. No,
(21:33):
um thinking the protein like, oh, plant based is better,
And I would argue, I'm like, you could still eat
a lot of plants. Yeah, and all that protein if
it's animal protein, I know it's you know, that's if
I could go on a hawk on a whole tangent
with that. But I do see that as a common
thing that is that comes up. Oh yeah, And I
(21:53):
will just say this like really quickly. I think it's
just easier to get your protein requirements and if you
do eat animal protein bigs, fish, meat, chicken, whatever, yeah,
and not try to you know, I I don't I
put this way. I have had clients that will vegan
before insisted on being vegan. I'm like, I don't know
that I'm an interesting coach for you, because that is
(22:15):
that is a lot harder to do in a healthful way. Yeah,
to each throne. And I love that you said, um diagnostic.
Did you have you read Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald?
Yet it's on the list of the many wellness books
I try to make it no no, no, like move
that to the top. That's one of the terms he uses.
One of these single gen smartest guys I've ever met
in this business. I mean, he goes through all the
(22:37):
diets and say and starts off by saying, just the
fact that there's so many should tell you something right away,
right um. And he just goes through the science and says,
it's more about belonging to something than it is eating. Hell,
I mean, just so smart everything you just said. And
then he expands up a most points. And so I
would agree, because a good cocktail party conversation, right, you go, oh,
(22:58):
I'm doing internet investing and it's a name thing, or
oh I'm doing key too, it's the best thing ever.
You mean, you hear you're around and I know you're
in the business, and I get this to people will
ask me, stop me in the grocery struggle, Well, what
do you think, jen? I have the opposite experience. When
I'm in the grocery store. People run away from me,
the women with their cards like they're like, oh my god,
(23:18):
I don't want him to see what I have in
the cart. I'm not kidding, Like, no, I get that,
don't look in my car, like, don't get in my car. Yeah,
well they they say it's for my kids. They'll say
it's for their kids, and I go, this is for me.
The ice creams for me, and I'm not sharing all
right again, people are gonna get people want to. I
love this because it's so great to have you on
(23:39):
and have this perspective, you know, from from again, I
said in the intro. Someone who's been in this industry
for as long as you have, someone who has walked
the walk and run the run, and you've had the issues.
I know you had hip issues right and things like
that thanks to Instagram. So we all have obstacles. But
what you're saying is people need to find their their way, right, So,
(24:01):
in other words, find what foods work for you. It
doesn't have to be a struggle, right, It's a challenge
at the start to figure out what you like and
learn about carbs and protein. As you're saying, But if
it doesn't have to suck, it shouldn't suck. Right. It
doesn't for you, and it doesn't for me, and it
doesn't have to for anyone. When you figure out what
you like. On that note, if you make it suck,
(24:22):
you're less likely to stick with it. Right, So, whether
that's the dietary practice or a mode of of exercise,
you have to find some level of enjoyment. I always think,
you know, I think I have encountered people to be
fair working in a fitness studio for the past twenty
five years. Most of the people that are coming to
me actually do enjoy exercise. That's taught group fitness for
(24:44):
a really long time. I've been a personal trainer for
over twenty five years, so the majority of the people
in my classes really enjoyed fitness. However, a lot of
my clients did not enjoy exercise, which I was thought
was interesting, and I think that they felt put it
this way, they they knew that in order to be
successful they had to hire a professional to keep them accountable.
(25:04):
But it's, you know, I worked really hard to make
it as enjoyable as possible, whether it's um, you know,
making it fun, um intense enough to be productive accessible.
I really have worked hard to to be that kind
of trainer. But you know, there are some people that
still really don't like to move their bodies. Personally, I
(25:26):
try to understand, like, if it is somebody with a
significant weight issue, I would I completely understand that's probably
not comfortable to be in that body that just you know,
is a lot to move around. Might be sensitive way
I say that, you know, but I think that I
can totally understand that. Um I have always been a mover.
I've been a mover since I was a kid, and
it's looked different every five years. Really, if I look
(25:48):
back at my life, UM, I would not have qualified
myself as an athlete, per se. I didn't play a
team sport in high school. Um, but I was really active.
I was big into running and my bike and hiking
and swim and all that stuff. UM So I like,
I like to move, and I find different ways of moving.
But to your point, talk about stepbacks and and especially
(26:09):
as you get into your fifties, because so many people
are dealing with injuries. I always call it my clients that,
you know, the island of misfit toys, because we started
every session with like, Okay, how's your body feeling. It's like, oh, well,
my neck is this and my ankle is that, and
we just you know, we work around it. We work
around it. I've been doing long enough that I can
I could change their workout on the fly and work
(26:31):
around what is and not worry so much about what
the plan was, because I am I was listening to
one of your podcasts I think it was from last
year about things too, how you've changed your workouts over
fifty and I will say, I do that. I trained
myself this way and I'm training my clients this way
now too. I'm very I approach it in the moment.
(26:53):
The plan is not even a plan. The plan is
to be in the moment and be intuitive about what
your body needs on that day. So yes, somebody might
be coming to me and they want to do a
hit workout, but I'm like, yeah, you know, you didn't
sleep last night and we need to stretch and do
some mobility and let's work on that. So I think
that when you give yourself permission to deviate from the
(27:16):
plan and and meet yourself where you're at on any
given day, that that's why I think that's really powerful.
It has been for me. That's so true. And I
love these interviews always go I have notes and they
just go in different directions and and that's that's why
I say, Jen, and I'm sure you agree you need
your exercise arsenal. So when people always ask us what's
the best, and you know, I'm sure you've gotten that
(27:36):
for twenty five years as well, and you go, it's
all good. And to your point, like if you have
twenty minutes and no equipment, that's when you go online
and you do one of your you know, body weight
only workouts, right, if you have an hour and you're
you know, with your then you go for a walk.
But there it's kind of making the workout based on
your mood and your time, and then within the week
(27:59):
you go, okay, I want a certain number of strength
basically some cardiosums, all the five components. But to your point,
you can't be regimented. And that's what's so isn't it
bizarre when you have clients. I mean, I'm not doing
the training anymore. But when you would say to your clients,
we're not going to be that strict, and they're like
shocked right there, like wait a minute, no, no, no,
I'm paying you to tell me exactly, like to really
(28:20):
beat me up. And you're like, no, no, no, there
will be times when we don't do that. Yeah, and
I still do you know, I still have It was
funny now that i'm you know, my husband and I
are working from home and we're I'm away right now,
we're working remotely. And he was listening to me train
to Colant the other day. I said, you know, you
realize that some people actually really like that level of intensity,
and I it's my job to take them down a
notch because I know that it has diminishing returns. Like
(28:42):
if somebody was bringing to sleep, you know, somebody who
might have some high octane type A types that they're like, yeah,
I still want you to punish me even though I'm
sleep I'm getting bio three hours of sleep like I
I like, no, it's gonna happen. Um, but do your
put to your point, like I think kind of saying
the same thing about saying, you know, like be be
(29:02):
respectful of where your body is that day. But also
everything has a season. I know for you as an athlete,
you know, doing them races that you're doing, you're not
training like that three days a year. It's seasonable. So
what are we Yeah, what are we doing on the
off season. We're still staying mobile, but maybe we're working
on other things. I always joke as a sidebar, I
(29:25):
used to have a client that was a dermatologist, and
he was you'll laugh at this. He was always insistent
on doing bicep curls. A kid do not you just
always want to do is bicep curls. I understand that. Yeah,
so I know so. But I'm looking at him and
I'm like, actually, that's probably that. That's fine, we could
do those, but what we really need is to kind
(29:45):
of you alleviate your chest tightness. Work on your back boxes.
And I said to him, I said, with all due respect,
it's like somebody coming to you with a faithful of
acne and they want botox. I said, that's how I'm
seeing your need to do bicep girls. I think it's awesome.
We can still do it, but you've got to trust
me that I, um, you know, I have my own
(30:07):
insight as to how I want to approach this. So
because I mean, you know, the thirty year old trainer
and me probably wouldn't have been that um forthcoming and forthcoming,
and I would have just let the client drive the session.
But I've been doing this too long anymore, again, like
totally deviating from all my notes. But that's why, let's
(30:30):
you know, pat ourselves on the back at this age
someone put out there recently, Jen It was such a
great meme. It was something the effect of, you know,
I don't want a fitness trainer who's twenty. I want
the fifty year old with a couple of kids who's
you know, got the help replacement right and got these
and I'm not listening. You and I both started then,
you know, young, and we learned along the way. But
there's a certain amount of experience and education and just
(30:54):
um time in the business where yeah, you're gonna say
to this person, Hey, you're paying me for my expertise, right,
let me do my job. And that doesn't mean it's
not different every day and yeah, like quiet like that,
you go, okay, do what I ask for eight of
the session. Then we'll do your bicub girls at the end.
But we're gonna you know, focus on and the other things.
(31:14):
That's as such a great point. Um, let me get
this because I know I'm gonna forget and people are
gonna yell at me. Um a couple of lines. I
loved that you said in your Instagram posts and everyone
tell people right away, Um, what's the Instagram it's Jennifer Kersh. Yes, yeah,
at Jennifer at Jennifer Kersh Fitness at Jennifer Yeah, okay,
(31:34):
I are Yeah, that will all be in the notes,
so people will see that in the post um. So
go there and check this stuff out. Um so much
there And I'll say that again at the end. But
one of your lines, ladies, it's so it's it's time
to stop being so afraid of lifting weights because heavier
lifting weights, heavier than your handbag. In my experience that
the four letter word jen that almost ran me out
(31:55):
and still to this day is bulk, the fear of birth.
Like just like so women you know at this age,
especially how truthfully strength training as a fountain of youth. Yeah,
I mean you. I I always say to people like,
look at think about people that you know in your periphery,
(32:16):
in your neighborhood and your community that are over sixty
five that are still moving and grooven. Right, You're like, oh,
look at that, and they're so vibe or whatever. I'm like,
what are they doing? What are they doing? Well? What
this is what they're doing. They're moving their bodies. They're
moving their bodies and they're surrounding themselves with community. Right.
I don't know that they're getting all worked up about
putting on bulk. In particular, you know their posture is better,
(32:42):
especially if they're strength training. UM, So go back to that.
I mean, I've listened. I've been battling that whole conversation
my entire my entire adult training life. Have been a
certified trainer since I was twenty five years old, and
I you know, truthfully, I've never personally wanted to get
into power lifting or CrossFit. That's just not my cup
(33:03):
of tea. But I love kettlebells and I don't look
as heavy as I used to because it just doesn't
feel as good as on my body still, meaning like
I don't dead lift my body weight anymore. Um, and
I'm okay with that. That's how I've modified as I've
gotten into my fifties. Um, but I don't worry about
putting a bulk anymore. I just think that that I
think it connects back. You could probably understand this, you know,
(33:24):
when you'll say, like, if you really want to make
a change, you've got to connect to your inner why
of why you want to do the thing right. There's
a there's a drive within you. So I think at
this stage of the fitness game. Whether it's for other
folks I see it coming up, but also for myself,
like I want to age. Well, that's it, you know,
that's Yes, aesthetics are great, but so that that's what
(33:48):
drives me. So but when you think about, like the
whole bulk question, I think women get really too caught
up and like these weights are going to make me heavy.
Therefore I have to stop at five pounds. Like you
think about what are you doing. You're pushing a vacuum
cleaner along or picking up a suitcase or whatever it
is that you're doing that weighs heavier than that five
pound weight. What do you think that's going to do
(34:08):
for you? Really? Right? Right, really, I know I just
went offut a long tangent there. There's so much there.
There's so much there, And I think when I guess
what I'm saying, Tom, is that when when we tie
it back into aesthetics only, we really lose the point
of why you would string train to begin with, not
just about aesthetics. And that's spoken from someone who's been
(34:30):
in the industry for twenty years. Are right, and it's
so true. And listen, I always say three main reasons, right,
you look better, feel better, live longer. Right, most people soon, Right,
it doesn't matter what the reason is. So I used
to be way more in it from vanity. Now it's
for my sanity. I use that line all the time.
But yeah, it's for my sanity. So I don't kill
(34:53):
my children, my teenage, like so many different things. But
you still get the other two regardless of why you
start or what your main focus is. Right, So it's
just the bulk thing. And we could do five hours
on this because in my experience and in your it's
interesting to hear you from the female perspective. You know, Um,
(35:13):
it's it's tougher for you because you're you're dealing with
the women in a in a different way than I
am are used to at least. Um, the bulk, it
just kept it kept, it keeps. It keeps women from
achieving their best bodies. Right, And and let's just put
it in perspective as you said, you know, lifting five
pound weights not gonna make you huge. Uh, the guy
next to you who wants to get huge, who's lifting
fifty pound weights is not getting huge. Right, So we
(35:36):
could go into the hormones and so, so don't worry
about it. You're keeping yourself from, as you said, quality
of life. Right, do you want to be walking when
you're eighty nine? We're gonna live to be longer than
ever before. Exactly? Well, I mean, and to be fair, like,
it's hard as a as a woman in ruse. It's
hard enough to put on my book. It's not impossible.
(35:56):
I gotta state that I get so much pushback, not
without hr to you all that. Okay, well that might
be true, but that still doesn't take away the fact
that resistance training is one of the best things you
can do for longevity at your health period. And you
know it is hard enough to put on muscles, you
need a little bit more. This is what you know
where women in my age group they do again, they're
(36:18):
afraid of the weights, but they're also afraid of the protein. Like, listen,
this is just a fact. You know. This is if
you keep, if you keep trying to think that the
little weights are going to do it, and that eating
a you're going to do it. If you're you're you're
missing out on a wonderful opportunity to change your body
composition and your and your overall health and the way
(36:38):
that you age. Right, now is the time. Now is
the time right to do it right? And you can
be You and I live in an area and others
do as well where there's a lot of skinny, unfit people,
you know, men and women. Um, and so it's about
being healthy, it's about being injury free. It's about, as
you said, you know, getting away from the aesthetics and
going what's your you know, annual physical tell you right,
(37:02):
so you know the non scale victories. I'm just gonna
go through a list because you have so much great stuff. Again,
you got to go to Jennifer curse fitness Instagram account
to see so much of the stuff in the workouts
and everything like that. But you say, am I mastering
the basics? Or am I looking for a distraction? And
you were talking about I think red cider vinegar or
something like that. But so, and there's so many things
(37:26):
we could talk about, but back to the basics, right, So,
you know, strength training, giving it time. Just give people
those things you have learned after twenty five years back
to like what they need to focus on, especially after
forty Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I you know, to be fair,
like some of those little those tweets and stuff are
(37:46):
a little pifthy things that kind of come out of
my mouth when I'm not thinking about them, like, oh,
I'm gonna write that down because it gets you know,
it gets people the tension. But generally like the apple
cider vinegar, you know, that's the whole thing is oh,
you know, it'll help to lose burned body fat. It's
a one of those questions I get from my actual
clients and or d M, So what do you think
of this? Like listen, you know, I know what goes
(38:08):
back to the very first thing we talked about, like
are you willing to focus on the boring basics? They're simple,
they're simple in theory, but they are not so easy
for everybody to implement. That's just a fact. And it's
always been that way. I think, you know, I'm short
of going off on a big old tangent. One of
the things that I see it really trips people up.
(38:29):
I think it's for men and for women. I mean,
we live busy lives. We live busy lives, and it
can be hard to make your health a priority. It's
maybe easier to say, well, I'm gonna do um my
workout at noon whatever, three days a week with my trainer,
and that's like about all you can handle. But yet
when it comes to eating healthy food or eating on
(38:51):
a regular basis, that kind of falls by the wayside.
And so getting all of the pieces of the puzzle
to work together can be I find really really challenging
for people. You know, and they just say that I
think talk back to what you were saying before, is
like they just not even so much of the quick
fix is that they want, like they always say, I
want a plan to follow, like this is the plan.
The plan is. You need to be able to pivot
(39:12):
at any time. Yeah, at any time, pivot from the workout,
pivot from the meal plan, and have confidence in that
choice that that's not going to derail your efforts if
you can't have it just line up perfectly right. And
this is why again it's so great to talk to
you someone who's been in the business for so long
(39:33):
and when people and when I first started with one
of the fitness companies I can sold for many years
before Peloton, and they said, you know, part of its
thought leadership, they said, what should we be doing? I said, content? Content? Content.
People want to be told what to do right, They
want to and p ninety X and just like I
was killing it, and I said, people want to follow
a plan. It could be crazy, and they will what
people want for the most part, but now they're learning, hey,
(39:55):
just tell me what to do every day. But to
your point when we talk about and you talk a
lot about goal setting and how it shouldn't be in
all and nothing approach, this is why when you have flexibility,
you have to have structured flexibility, is what you're kind
of alluding to as well. So in other words, in
the course of a week, I'm going to do four
cardio you know workouts, I'm gonna do three strength and
then within the week you kind of go by, as
(40:17):
we talked about earlier, what do you feel like that day?
What do you have time to do that day? And
that's where the structured unstructured approach really starts to work,
right Yeah, And I think that can really only come
when you've had some experience under your belt. Especially I
would say say, let's just say, for example, somebody is
brand like completely brand new to regular strength training, and
(40:38):
so they might not know that right because all they've
ever done is right a peloton, right, So then they're like, wait,
I don't know, I get this a lot. I have
a have a beginner strength training program that I actually
started running online and I got really got a lot
of beginner level women or women who had done it back,
you know, twenty years ago, but just wanted to get
back into it, and they wanted a little bit more strong.
(40:59):
They wanted this structure to your point um, somebody to
do the work for them, which I did, but there
were still I could see a little bit of apprehension,
like and in fear like oh my gosh, I'm like
really sore from this, and and just coaching them through that, like, Okay,
a little sorence is normal. But we got to ask ourselves,
like I would say, real rest and reassess, take a beat,
(41:19):
and really ask yourself, is this you know? Do I
need a day off? Or am I okay? And I
think people just they need permission to trust themselves. Are
always you know, they probably know innately, but they're just
not sure and they need reassurance that they're on the
right track or that what they're doing is going to
get them a result. And I mean that is part
(41:40):
of what I do as a culture, just kind of
hold it down for them and say you know it's okay,
Sure we're gonna be. You need someone who's experienced, you know,
who has your goals in mind, you know, especially when
you're over forty, over fifty, and to not get you hurt.
You know, people want to be told what to do,
but they wanted from a qualified coach. And I think
(42:00):
what I'm saying here, and that's why I was so
excited to have you on to give your perspective on
all of this. And I want to again, I gotta
say it every time I have someone on Jen because
it was the best of the best. I could have
you on for five hours. I understand why Joe Rogan
does like four hour podcasts, although I don't ever want
to do that. No, it's funny you say that too.
When you're passionate about something you're you're because all health
(42:23):
and wellness and fitnesses it is a nuance. So there's
so many discussions that could be had, right, So it's
really easy to at least for me to kind of
go off on tangents about um about this stuff. It's
because it's what I know, you know, and not only
it's it is it my career. But I love it. Yeah,
and I know how much you can help people. And
that's that's what my career is about. It's what your
(42:46):
career is about. It's like, you know, people are struggling,
they're wasting time and money in the most important aspect
of their lives, like living better and living longer. And
that's why I get so frustrated. So let me just
hit the points that Now I'll go back to my notes.
But this is what I love to Janet's is going
off on the tangents, because that's where the great stuff
UM comes from. I never want to have this scripted,
(43:07):
but you did say, um, and I love this about
five bullet points. You're talking about motivation, but applies to
everything basically. You know, after forty what are some of
the things you would focus on? And you say, and
just give me, like, you know, a couple of sentences
after each one, like what you think about them or
how to you know, kind of clarify them? You say,
focus on shorter workouts. They don't all have to be long.
(43:27):
First of all. First of all, I would say it
alleviate burnout, right, I think to ask yourself to do
Let's just say we're talking workouts, we're talking to strength training.
Asking somebody to strength train for sixty minutes is a lot.
I think a lot of people get really attached to
the idea that in order it goes back to that
extreme is better and more difficult is better. I disagree.
I think better is better. I think you can really
(43:48):
knock out three great thirty minute workouts a week and
get a great result if you are if you're focused
on your time right you. A lot of people are
on their phones and they're kind to messing around and
they're not particularly focused on what they're doing. And that's
a different story. But I know for me, when I
about the motivation thing, like people think trainers are always motivated,
(44:10):
that's not the case. I have just found from myself
to just start moving and and just and just get
it done, knock it out, and it's much more enjoyable
when I lower the when I lower the bar of
the of the expectation for myself. Um, I can't say
that would have been where I was twenty years ago,
but it's most definitely where I am now. And I
find that my body actually needs a little bit more recovery.
(44:30):
So that's a better that's a better schedule for me
to to do that totally and so much there it's
not you know, so much of this industry is all
or nothing, right, it's on the pendulum, so it's one
or the No, it's not do both. I do both.
I do some you know, three minute core exercises every day.
I do you know, three hour bike rides sometimes. But
(44:50):
it's not an all or nothing proposition. So I love that. Um.
And by the way, you had a great point to
you just talking about time. And you know, we often
say when you said fourteen four two minutes in a day,
you know, Jim is good. But and I love flipping
the script because they used to say or they still say,
Jen Like, you know, one hour at the gym is
four percent of your day, and you can look at
(45:11):
that both ways. In other words, you can go to
the gym. As you were saying in your post, it's
what you do outside. You're talking about neat activity and
stuff like that. But our point here to everyone is,
you know, go to the gym, work out at home.
It's about movement throughout the day. You want to do
everything in moderation, right, Um, there's no one way and
mix it up because it will be more fun. And
(45:32):
you're more likely to do it right. Yeah, I know.
We just want to add to that too. I have found,
you know, especially when you come from a background like
as an endurt I was an endurance athlete, marathon or
century rides, the whole thing, and I don't do any
of that anymore. And I that was a really interesting
shift for me to make to be okay with less,
because when you're a bit of a cardio junkie, um,
(45:54):
you know, it's hard to break that because because you
just kind of think, oh, I got it, you know, more,
more time on the road, more miles, it's better. But
it's not. It's not necessarily better, um, not for everyone.
And so but I do see people get caught in
that trap, and so they're like, oh, if I don't
have time for my six mile run, then I'm just
gonna work through my lunch hour and keep sitting at
(46:15):
my desk. You know what, it would be better for
you to just go take that phone call and walk
around your house, even if you know, just to get
the movement in. Just to get the movement in. And
I do think that that's just more of like, um,
it's more of like a philosophy more than anything. Else,
you know, like this is I'm just a person who moves.
That's it. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a
(46:36):
structured exercise workout session all the time. Yes, we still
need to be building our muscles and and and strengthening
our heart and all that, but let's let's let good
enough be good enough sometimes, um especially you know, especially
as we age. And I don't know, you know, anecdotally,
like I know for myself, if I sit for more
than thirty minutes, my body is supposed to hurt, like
(47:00):
I need to get up, like I'm bad if I'm
changing position more often, like not just you know, I
don't want to be on my feet all day either,
but I want to just be intermittently changing my um,
you know, my position, whether it's sitting on the floor,
sitting in a chair, or standing up at a desk.
So joking aside, I think that's evolutionary. I've talked about that,
like in other words, I'm getting ready to go to
(47:23):
Brazil another iron Man, and the flight is what I'm
more worried about. It's the sitting still for fourteen hours
and coach because I'm too cheap to and it wouldn't
even matter if I'm upfront, which I've done before too,
but it's like that's more painful than the race itself,
right is sitting still and and that's but you know what,
we need to do another show after this, UM, so
(47:43):
we will have you. I will have you back. UM.
But you know what's you touched on, and it's so
important and my experience in years as well. I'm sure
you know, the people who are not doing enough think
they're doing enough, and the people who are doing enough
don't think they're doing enough. And it goes to the moderation.
And I'm with you, like it's been really hard for
me at fifty three to pull back, but I now
(48:07):
do things like instead of going for a ten mile run,
I'll cook for a five mile run in the morning
and then I'll do something else. So you know, we'll
finish up with that because people want those takeaways you said.
You know, recovery is so important, protein is so important
for men and women. So agree strength training, sticking to
the basics. And then I'm gonna give you, UM, give
(48:28):
your four more points you outlined, UM, schedule your exercise
by signing up for a class. I'm gonna say, go
to Jen's site and start there. But take a class
and this is all your secrets to UM having success.
Find accountability partners. You've heard it before, but so few
people do that. Hire a coach. That's Jen people. If
you're looking for a coach, you want someone who knows
(48:50):
what they're talking about, is certified, has been around, and
knows how to tailor the workout to you. That's really important.
Jen is a phenomenal option. And then and the is
where were gonna have to have you back connect with
your hy I mean, that's that's like so important. Um.
And as you said, for you and I, now it's
less about the vanity. It's more about you know, being happy,
(49:11):
feeling good, right, and we forget about that. Yeah, And
I do think I think that as I look back
and I reflected my life, my my y has definitely changed. Um.
You you had brought this up before, So I actually
had both of my hips replaced in the past five
years and that definitely changed the way that I approached
my fitness routine. I still work out almost every day,
(49:33):
is at the same level, and my running marathons no, uh,
just redefining what it meant to move my body and
be strong. But if I had been you know, got
caught up in we almost went down this road but
like about what I can't do and then just said,
you know, forget it, I'm not doing really anything, which
I think happens to a lot of people when they
get to be our age. They have one injury and
(49:54):
that's the next thing, you know, they're not moving for
a couple of years. I think it's really really important
to try to find something that you actually just can do.
It may look totally different than what you did in
your thirties and forties, but and and different, but different
isn't bad. Different is can be an opportunity for for
me personally. It was an opportunity to try other things
that I wasn't kind of making time for before um
(50:19):
movement and all that. But also when when you were
talking before about the just this I meant to say
this earlier, when you were talking about when people get
to be our age, I remember thinking, as a you know,
thirty five year old trainer, like, oh, I gotta really
challenge these people and do all this now. And I
had to admit I was a little apprehensive about still
staying in the game in my fifties. And doing this
(50:41):
for a living. I'm like, oh, you know, how long
am I going to do this professionally? But now this
is why I specialized in the group that I specialize in,
UM that I'm niched into the over fifty crowd and
do have some clients stole in their forties, but because
for them, I think that they find that somebody understands
what their struggles that they're going through is really powerful. Like, yeah,
(51:02):
I've had injuries, I've had surgeries, Like, I get it.
I know. I think it's made I think it's made
me a much more empathetic trainer. So in that way,
I'm grateful that I had that experience, UM just a
lot more able to meet people, you know, with with
their injuries and things like that, and to your point,
Taylor workouts for them, but also know what it's like
(51:24):
to be, you know, be in physical pain and try
to work through that and keep showing up through it,
and then also have the look at doing things maybe differently.
So you know, maybe you were a marathon runner and
you're not doing that anymore, and that's okay, you know
in your case, so like, Okay, I don't do ten
miles at a time. I do five in the morning,
five and me after him, like whatever, just being able
to be willing to redefine what it looks like for
(51:47):
you right right, and so grateful to have you on,
to have that. It's exactly why I want to have
you on, is to to talk about it through that
lens um lens that you have you know, been looking
through for for decades. But we we have different perspective
and and that is it's so helpful. There's so many
people so thank you. I'm gonna leave them with two
of your quotes. I think that are perfect to end
(52:09):
this all with. You said, the silver lining to this
whole thing is that you do have some choice in
how well you weather this time of life. It's all
about consistency and getting curious. Um. One thing Jenn, I
want people to know, and that's what you just said
here is is we have control and and too often
people think, as you said, you know, I have this injury,
I have this aches and pains, I can't do anything
(52:29):
about it, and we're both here to tell you, yeah
you can. UM. So Jenn, thank you so much. I'm
going to have you back because like I have pages
and pages of notes, but but the the tangents are
what I love because that's where it gets real and
we talk about, you know, what people are are wanting
to know. So tell people again where they can find you.
But you can find me at my website Jennifer Kersh
(52:50):
fitness dot com or on Instagram at Jennifer Kersh Fitness.
Thank you so much, and again it's been great to
catch up. I want to do this again, talk more
about why, you know, finding your why and all of
that kind of stuff. But it's been so great catching up.
I mean, I want to say so much more, but
I'm just gonna cut it up there, so Jed, have
a great day. Speak soon and I look forward to
(53:11):
doing this again. Alright, alright, and we'll be right back
after this quick break, and we are back to thank
Jen Kersch once again for coming on and lending her expertise.
(53:35):
It is so great to speak with someone who has
been in the industry a really long time, has been
in the trenches, as we say, you know, doing doing
the hard work of of trying to break through the
myths motivate people. It's a tough jobs and I'd argue
it's tougher for women. The fitness industry in certain regards.
(53:59):
I think getting up in front of a class as
a woman to teach a group exercise, I think it's
harder than than males. I think it's harder the criticism
and the critique that I've seen, at least my experience
has been, so it's it's just invaluable to have someone
like her come on and give her perspective. And you know,
I wish we had eight hours. I feel like we
(54:19):
were just starting to scratch the surface. And even though
we go off on those tangents, that's that's part of
the show. I don't I don't have it heavily scripted,
and I want us to talk about um, what flows naturally,
because that's that's the conversation between two people who have
had the experiences that we have had. So I hope
(54:41):
that started to help those who are confused. The women
forty fifty plus, there's so many of the similarities though,
regardless of fear male or female, or what age you
are that we talked about. Yes, there's different issues hormone
really for women and men. You know, testosterone changes, estrogen changes. Uh,
(55:05):
there's there's more what loss of muscle men and women,
there's the psychological but it's cliche to say, but I
have to say it. At the end of the day,
it still comes down to the basics. And that's what
Jen was saying. She's agreeing, it's strength training, it's cardio,
(55:29):
it's not torturing yourself with diets, it's being consistent. And yeah,
what what are the changes over forty You know, when
we have those hormonal changes and and we're getting those
aches and pains, we need longer recovery, we need shorter workouts,
we need more variation, we need to be smarter. And
as we finished up with, for those of you who
(55:51):
were super athletic maybe in your youth and maybe trained
a lot and trained hard, maybe trained too hard in
your youth, it's psychologically challenging to pull back. And that's
what Jen finished up talking about. But I had to
end with her quote, this is gonna say it again.
(56:12):
The silver lining to this whole thing is that you
do have some choice and how well you weather this
time of life. I would change some to a lot,
not that that's proper grammar. We have control, and Jen
saying that too, no matter your age, no matter your sex,
no matter where you are now, you can better your
(56:34):
circumstances through what you put in your mouth, how much
you move, and your state of mind. And so let's
start to control things. Let's start to live our best lives,
all right. If you want to reach out, Tom h
Fit is Instagram as well as Twitter, Tom h Fit, questions, comments,
(56:54):
you can reach out to me through direct message and
go to Fitness disrupted dot com as well email me
through the site. My most recent book, The Micro Workout Plan,
is available wherever books are sold. And so if you
need a plan, as we talked about, there's a great
place to start. Also, as we said, check out Jen's Instagram,
check out her website, Jennifer Kirsch Fitness. So many ways
(57:21):
to achieve your goals people, but you've gotta start with
the right information. Stop wasting your time and money, all right,
what's all with our best, longest, happiest lives. All right?
Thank you for listening. I am Tom holland this is
Fitness Disrupted, Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production
(57:48):
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to Fitness Disrupted, a production of I Heart Radio.
I am Tom Holland, and this is Fitness Disrupted. I
did a podcast a while back about how my workouts
(00:24):
have changed after age fifty and still to say fifty
and I'm fifty three now, I feel like mentally i'm eighteen,
you know, physically much younger. But I'm loving I'm loving
(00:47):
being this age as well, loving it the wisdom and
the experience and all the work I put in. It's
all good. Age is truly a number. But that show
I did super popular. You guys like that, you know.
I think that's a big part of this demo. You
are some of the smartest listeners I've ever had, and
(01:11):
I know that because you reach out with questions and
comments and I appreciate it all. But I've talked about
exercise and nutrition issues for men and women later in life,
common question, you know, And so I said, you know,
I gotta do a specific show, and I need a
(01:32):
guest to help me with this. I've talked about it.
I've trained thousands of women over the years, back when
I was a trainer and teaching class and holding camps,
and the books and the lectures and all that stuff.
But it is always great to have a really good expert,
(01:53):
someone who's been in the trenches, as they say, and
walk the walk, discuss this and have that perspective, the
female perspective. So that's what today shows about. So excited
And I have known this person, haven't spoken with this
person a while, Gonna give the insight. We have a
connection that actually did a podcast about it. We'll bring
(02:15):
that up with her. So we go ways back. But
I've been watching her on Instagram and she is now
an online trainers, does a bunch of stuff. I'll let
her tell you that as well, and I'll read you
here by it in a second. But just the best
(02:35):
approach common sense has put it into practice is living proof.
Has the credentials, has the experience. And I said, it's time,
it's time to have her on and do this show
talking about women and nutrition and exercise after forty. What's
(02:56):
the difference, what are the mistakes? And she will help
you if you are a woman, if you are over forty.
But let me say this, so much of what we're
going to talk about applies to everyone. There are differences
and different challenges, and you know, physiological changes, psychological change.
(03:17):
We can talk about all that, but a lot of
its common sense and a lot of it applies to everyone,
and what she will tell you works people. It works.
We're gonna we're gonna dispel all those myths. You're gonna
hear it again. You're gonna hear it again in a
different way from a different person. But that is a
huge part of this show, is you hearing it over
(03:41):
and over from so many different people and perspectives where
you finally go, oh, maybe maybe that's right, Maybe I
should try that, because that's what works. All right? So
who is this person? Jennifer Kersch all right? She has
been a personal trainer and coach for over twenty five years.
(04:02):
We have we have some similar longevity and time spent
in this industry. She's now an online fitness and nutrition
coach specializing in yes women over forty. She specializes in
helping women and men, but women especially make meaningful changes
to their bodies, especially in midlife. She believes, I love this.
(04:26):
It's never too late to become a better version of yourself.
It's never too late. She's the creator of the Straight
Up Strength System and Nourished You Academy. I will give
her chance to tell how to connect to her. So
for those of you who want to connect, what a
crazy world we live in, you can literally work out
(04:48):
with her regardless of where you are in the world.
All right. She has a bunch of credentials, or I
wouldn't have her on people. She has been certified by
the American Council on Exercise in numerous different areas personal trainer,
health coach, exercise fitness, nutrition specialist. She's a Precision Nutrition
(05:09):
Level one coach. She's done the two hundred hour Yoga certification.
She's spinning certified, Stages indoor cycling certified, tr or X certified.
And I love that many different specialties because clients have
many different likes and dislikes, as do trainers themselves, right,
(05:33):
but so many different perspectives on the cardio, on the strength,
on the flexibility and core strength and all of that stuff.
So very excited to bring her to you. Enough when
we come back from the break, Jennifer Kersch, We'll be
right back, and we are back. I say it every
(06:03):
time I have a guest on because I only bring
you the best, and I bring you guests from all
different worlds. And Jen Kirch is just one of the
best when it comes to women over forties. So Jen,
thank you so much. I can't believe we're having this
conversation because you and I are close to the same age,
But like, is it weird because you're now are you
over fifty? I think you are right, like yeah and
(06:27):
a half. Actually do we get back to that after age,
like fifty we start going to the halves again, just
for like when we and you know, trying to think
about it too much, but you know, but you know
what I said, it I love and we'll talk about this.
Like you and I have been in the industry for
a really long time. I read your bio at the start.
(06:49):
You know, you're over twenty five years, which is, by
the way, a huge accomplishment in this crazy industry. Right
it's um, you've seen it all. We started at the
same time. I'm you know, there was the internet was
just starting all of that crazy stuff. Um, so congrats
and like, yeah, as I said in the intro, I
was reading your Instagram for a while and I said,
(07:12):
I gotta have her on, but let me let me
back check a little bit. I'm gonna be all over
the place, so I said the intro that like, we
have a connection. So many years ago you helped me out.
I started a fitness clothing line and I did a
podcast jen that where I said, this is my one
fitness mistake, and I qualified it because I don't believe
in any mistakes. It's all part of the journey. But
what I said was, here's something I started within the
(07:34):
fitness world that I realized I couldn't do half half,
you know, half of the time, a quarter of the time.
It had to be all in. So I cut bait
and moved on and learned the lesson. And so I'm
glad I did it. But you were you were a
model you have and I don't think we've spoken since then,
but you're close. You're a couple of towns away, and
I've watched you teach and now you know, pivot to
(07:56):
the online stuff and you're still doing all of that.
But yeah, so we have that action and now you're
doing like a crazy amount of online stuff, right. Yeah.
Actually I really pivoted hard March. I honestly didn't really
give it too much thought. I just went all in.
I was pretty comfortable with trading folks online because I
had had a couple of clients that you're already doing
(08:17):
like face time sessions when they would travel. So it
didn't it didn't. Um. I didn't really think about it
too much. I just dove in and um, you know,
as it progressed, I just I had wanted to get
into the online space. So that was if there was
anything good to come out of that time period, it
was that for me and I just really I just
went in both feet first and just figuring it out
(08:39):
as I go along. And it's really working out very
well for me. And I said in the intro as well,
Chan that they're there. There are no more yearbots. They're
all gone. Right, So when you and I started this industry,
you know, people could go yeah, but you know, um,
I don't have a lot of money. Yeah, but I
don't have a lot of time. Yeah, but I don't
have access to a gym. Yeah, but now they're all gone.
(09:00):
And I said in the intro, like, you can work
with Jen, and you should work with Jen if this
is one of your goals, Like, no matter where you
are in the world, it's just crazy fitness technology. I mean,
you and I have watched that progression in the most
incredible way. Right. I mean, it's amazing. So I gotta
start with this question, and it's it's gonna lead to
every other question after after, after twenty five years, Jen,
(09:23):
don't you feel like you're a little nuts with this industry?
In other words, like you just want people to get
it right, Like you're like, we're gonna go through all
the myths and all this stuff. But it's like it's
so much it's it's challenging to figure out what you
want to do and what you like. But people are
struggling for the wrong reasons. Yeah, I mean I think,
(09:44):
you know, I just think that a lot of people
really want they want something instant. They want to know
that they're on the right track, especially when they get
to a point where they're ready to make change. They
make the you know, they they've made the decision to
actually make change, and then it seems to me that
they want it like very quickly, and and I think
sometimes that they're you know, their wisdom gets a little clouded,
(10:05):
not really all their fault because there's just so much
information out there. But I also always when I work
with people, I always think the beginner's mindset because what
maybe you and I know, because we've been doing it
for so long, we know it in our bones, and
not everybody knows that, and it's okay. Like I was
doing my taxes last week and I thought, oh my gosh,
I would have made the worst accountants, Whereas you know
(10:25):
a friends that accounts and they're like, what, it's not
so hard, you know. So I always try to appreciate
that when it comes to fitness and nutrition with my clients,
is that you know, they don't know everything, and that's okay.
You know, that's okay. But I try to simplifie for
folks and and clear the noise, so to speak, so
that they can really focus on what's important and what
works and not get so distracted by the other things,
(10:47):
as sexy as they may be. And see, that's such
a great point, Jen, is that with the good comes
to bad, right. So in other words, what you're alluding
to is that there's so much information out there and
there's so much bad information. I say that when I
started this podcast, I was like, and I love that
you called it noise, because it is noise, and so
you know, even though people have access to you, there's
(11:07):
the shiny other stuff. And as you said, the promises
of the quick fixes and stuff like that. So in
in in one sense, it's harder than ever before to
get in shape because you have to make sense of
all that noise. Yeah, I mean, and you and I
could both speak to this. I mean, you could do
the same workout you did in still get a result
in two. It's just we we there is so much
(11:30):
to to pay attention to, to distract. And I think
you know, anybody who has been who has made fitness
a sort of a lifestyle for any amount of time,
probably with would be able to understand what I'm saying
with that is that, Yeah, of course you have to
change it. You need to progressively overlooked, uss with and
all that stuff. But the fact is you don't have
to veer off to these extremes to get the results.
(11:53):
And um, I think it's you know, we have to.
It's it's a marketing machine. It's what seventy billion dollar
industry and and you know we have they have to
keep freshening it up. I you know, sometimes I feel like,
oh gosh, am I just boring making it sexy enough?
You know, I try to u incorporate other other skills
to keep people interested. And keep them reaching their goals.
(12:14):
But I do think things changed too as you get
later in life and different issues to begin to come
up that that maybe weren't there present when you were
in your twentiesties. And I think that's a huge challenge
to Jen, is what you just said about, you know,
making it sexy and is this boring? And I have
so many people say to me, like, your workouts are boring, Tom,
(12:34):
and I go, I get it. I mix them up
like what I do, but like boring works. That's the problem, Jen.
And I'm not saying we have to be bored, but
it's the simple stuff. And I know that you agree
with this, and I have some quotes I'm gonna pull
that I did pull from your I g about this
type of stuff. But but that's part of the problem,
right is people are looking I watched a guy looking
to Instagram for craziness. I watched a guy yesterday hold
(12:58):
a forty five pound or hold a barbelt with plates
on either end. They're probably not forty five and do
a flip hold the barbe like like I had to
watch it a couple of times. Well right, right, first
you go why why exactly? Um? But because that's what
what's getting the eyeballs. I mean, it's just crazy. So
there is like this unfortunate need for you, as someone
(13:22):
who is online to compete with the crazy stuff, right,
to constantly try to make it sextual when it's still
kind of the continuation of the basics that we're so
you have to kind of tread those waters, which are
it's difficult for sure, and I just want to I
want to dove tail off that. So just a quick
side note. So several years ago, pre pre covid, I
started posting on Instagram as a means to share workouts
(13:46):
with my current clients when we would have like snow
days and things like that. I never had any intent
of being like an instagramm or and I'm like, oh,
you know, I mean my in my old posts are
so funny because it's literally like a screenshot of the
notes on myself. But um, and beginning, you know, it
was more about what I was showing a lot of
just exercise related context. That was it. That was what
I was comfortable showing of myself. So I would demonstrate
(14:08):
some different moves and I would be creative with it,
with its safe of course. But then I started to think,
you know, but that's not my clientele. Most of my
clients tell the people that I work with daily aren't
doing stuff like that. They're still working on basic kettle
bell swings and a pull up and push up and
stuff that's not sexy. So I really started to beer
(14:30):
off of that and say, you know what, I'm going
to show more realistic stuff that people actually can do,
not the stuff that is like a circus act. I mean,
I was never doing a flip over a bar, but
you know what I'm saying, So yeah, I mean stuff
in the TRX that maybe is a little bit more
advanced for the average exerciser. And so what I didn't
want to do is scare people away by saying this
is what you have to do to be in shape,
(14:51):
because it's just not true. Doing those things can be
fun if you have a base level of efficiency of
your built right how to come first? That has to
come first. So exactly, people don't know how to do
a squat right, people don't know how to do push
ups right. You know the number of pulses I call
them pulses. I'm like, oh my gosh, stop going for
fifth year? Right? Do ten? And you brought up. I
(15:14):
remember when my wife, who's not a fitness person, said
she was going to take a TRX class, And this
is like right when it came out, like years and
years ago, and I was like, oh my gosh, she's
gonna die for for a number of reasons. It seems simple,
but it's not. The instructor is going to teach to
the strongest person in the room generally, and you have
to know how to position your body like TRX. As
(15:34):
simple as it seems like it is, it's super challenging
and you kind of have to know what you're doing
and you need someone like you to walk you through it.
So it's such a great point that, um, you know,
there's so much nuance that that people aren't aware of.
So let me get right to it because I know
people are gonna scream at me in uh in the
messages just about like just let her talk. So you
(15:55):
have so many good points on your Instagram top let's
just of them what they want to start off at least,
top weight loss mistakes, um, talk about diets, talk about
all that stuff. Top top mistakes you see. Um, well,
you know, we just full disclosure. I work mostly with
women over forty. I do work with men as well,
but mostly women over forty. And back to what I
(16:17):
was saying before, so many times when we when women
reach a point where they're like, Okay, I'm ready. I'm
ready to change my life. Right, I'm ready to change
my body, and they want to do it all really quickly,
and they get a little bit overwhelmed and they want
to do all the things, so they will try things
like internet fasting because they've read a sound bite on it.
They're like, oh, just don't eat for twelve hours, sixteen hours,
(16:39):
and so they start with that, or there you don't
eat enough, or they try to add too much, too
much exercise, and especially in women over it's that can
really have diminishing returns because you're just adding exercise. Great
as it is, is a stressor. It's a stressor, and
as you get older, your body just simply needs more
time to recover. So I I see those those mistakes,
(17:02):
and I really encourage people to look at it as
a long game. Even even if you're starting in your fifties.
You know, if you want to do this to have
a healthy sixties, seventies, and eighties, you have to really
commit to it. Being a lifestyle, and that's not something
that's going to happen in six, eight, nine, twelve weeks.
That's going to be something that happens a little bit
(17:25):
over time. Just like any any any new habit that
you're trying to build, you're you're gonna have a better
chance of making that part of your repertoire if you
go a little slower and get those winds under your
belt before you try, you know, more higher level things. So, um,
that that is I'm just thinking. You know, currently, I've
worked with some women who I can always tell when
people come to me with sort of this sense of
(17:46):
desperation and they want to make the changes, and I
already know. I'm like I have to talk them down,
like we got to slow down. Is going to take
it one one step at a time. Um. But you know,
being in this industry for a long time, you start
to you do start to those personalities for sure. And
you know a lot of what I do because I
am working one on one with folks, I can I
(18:07):
can see that and you know, we could speak to
the psychology of what's going on there as well. Right,
I do think I I do really like to work
with people at that level. So you know what some
one one person's mistake. Maybe, So let's take the intermitt
fast thing thing. We were joking about that earlier. There
are people that I work with that are They are
very knowledgeable, they read a lot. So for that person,
(18:29):
I think I've made an example about this on my stories.
I'm like trying to do intermittent fast thing as the
first little level strategy is like time to take ap
Spanish as an eighth grader. You know, you've got to
learn how to eat before you start learning how to fast.
So many people don't know how to eat period, so
but you know, we choke, but because we were, I'd argue,
(18:54):
like again, I'm dying that these people are are depriving
themselves and struggling. And as you said, starting off that way,
I will throw one of my brothers under the bus
all the time with this kind of stuff because I
got five and so you won't know who it is,
but you know he is the king of this stuff,
like the quick thing, and so he you know, will
do the intermittent fasting, but then he eats garbage after that.
(19:17):
And as you said, and this is my thing too,
you can't start we can get into science quickly, but
like you have to learn to eat first. You said it.
I love that you said it. Right, If you're eating healthy,
then we can talk about like gaps of time and
you know what it does to your cells. And I
think this is where I actually responded to you on Instagram.
You were talking about this, and I said, most people
aren't doing it for the autophagic you know effects they're not.
(19:40):
They're not doing it because they're cells or so you
gotta you gotta start, as you're saying, you know, thinking
it's gonna take time. I'm gonna do it right this time.
I'm not going to torture myself um with these with
these fat diets. I think sometimes I don't know if
part of this. I do think it's our culture, the quick,
fixed culture. But it's almost as if we feel as
(20:02):
though we need things to be difficult in order for
them to actually make a difference, to be effective. And
I would argue otherwise, you know, I would argue otherwise,
like get some I always say this, get some wins
under your belt with the easy stuff first, and then
you can start to challenge and whether we're talking exercise
or changing the nutrition habits, try to walk before you run.
(20:24):
You know, you didn't get to do you know, multiple
iron men by going out and running a marathon from
day one, right. It took years and years and years
of training to get to that point. And I think
when it comes to changing our fitness regimen or the
way that we feed ourselves, it's the same analogy. You
have to start slow. I have to start slow and
(20:45):
get it to be so that it's almost automated and
feel easy, and then you can start to add more complexity,
more challenge, whatever that looks like to you. I'm not
I don't. I don't believe that your diets should be
a challenge. I don't think it should be automated in easy.
But I do think back to when you asked me
about what mistakes people are making. I think, like with women,
the whole i'm diet, I should just say I'm I'm
(21:09):
diet agnostic. I don't necessarily feel like there's one best diet.
But what I will say is this, women in my
age group vastly underneath protein, and I think in some
ways they're afraid of it. It's just as they are
afraid sometimes of strength training. There's a lot of old
messaging in there that they're hanging onto. And to them,
it's like, you know, strange training means CrossFit means bodybuilding. No,
(21:33):
um thinking the protein like, oh, plant based is better,
And I would argue, I'm like, you could still eat
a lot of plants. Yeah, and all that protein if
it's animal protein, I know it's you know, that's if
I could go on a hawk on a whole tangent
with that. But I do see that as a common
thing that is that comes up. Oh yeah, And I
(21:53):
will just say this like really quickly. I think it's
just easier to get your protein requirements and if you
do eat animal protein bigs, fish, meat, chicken, whatever, yeah,
and not try to you know, I I don't I
put this way. I have had clients that will vegan
before insisted on being vegan. I'm like, I don't know
that I'm an interesting coach for you, because that is
(22:15):
that is a lot harder to do in a healthful way. Yeah,
to each throne. And I love that you said, um diagnostic.
Did you have you read Diet Cults by Matt Fitzgerald?
Yet it's on the list of the many wellness books
I try to make it no no, no, like move
that to the top. That's one of the terms he uses.
One of these single gen smartest guys I've ever met
in this business. I mean, he goes through all the
(22:37):
diets and say and starts off by saying, just the
fact that there's so many should tell you something right away,
right um. And he just goes through the science and says,
it's more about belonging to something than it is eating. Hell,
I mean, just so smart everything you just said. And
then he expands up a most points. And so I
would agree, because a good cocktail party conversation, right, you go, oh,
(22:58):
I'm doing internet investing and it's a name thing, or
oh I'm doing key too, it's the best thing ever.
You mean, you hear you're around and I know you're
in the business, and I get this to people will
ask me, stop me in the grocery struggle, Well, what
do you think, jen? I have the opposite experience. When
I'm in the grocery store. People run away from me,
the women with their cards like they're like, oh my god,
(23:18):
I don't want him to see what I have in
the cart. I'm not kidding, Like, no, I get that,
don't look in my car, like, don't get in my car. Yeah,
well they they say it's for my kids. They'll say
it's for their kids, and I go, this is for me.
The ice creams for me, and I'm not sharing all
right again, people are gonna get people want to. I
love this because it's so great to have you on
(23:39):
and have this perspective, you know, from from again, I
said in the intro. Someone who's been in this industry
for as long as you have, someone who has walked
the walk and run the run, and you've had the issues.
I know you had hip issues right and things like
that thanks to Instagram. So we all have obstacles. But
what you're saying is people need to find their their way, right, So,
(24:01):
in other words, find what foods work for you. It
doesn't have to be a struggle, right, It's a challenge
at the start to figure out what you like and
learn about carbs and protein. As you're saying, But if
it doesn't have to suck, it shouldn't suck. Right. It
doesn't for you, and it doesn't for me, and it
doesn't have to for anyone. When you figure out what
you like. On that note, if you make it suck,
(24:22):
you're less likely to stick with it. Right, So, whether
that's the dietary practice or a mode of of exercise,
you have to find some level of enjoyment. I always think,
you know, I think I have encountered people to be
fair working in a fitness studio for the past twenty
five years. Most of the people that are coming to
me actually do enjoy exercise. That's taught group fitness for
(24:44):
a really long time. I've been a personal trainer for
over twenty five years, so the majority of the people
in my classes really enjoyed fitness. However, a lot of
my clients did not enjoy exercise, which I was thought
was interesting, and I think that they felt put it
this way, they they knew that in order to be
successful they had to hire a professional to keep them accountable.
(25:04):
But it's, you know, I worked really hard to make
it as enjoyable as possible, whether it's um, you know,
making it fun, um intense enough to be productive accessible.
I really have worked hard to to be that kind
of trainer. But you know, there are some people that
still really don't like to move their bodies. Personally, I
(25:26):
try to understand, like, if it is somebody with a
significant weight issue, I would I completely understand that's probably
not comfortable to be in that body that just you know,
is a lot to move around. Might be sensitive way
I say that, you know, but I think that I
can totally understand that. Um I have always been a mover.
I've been a mover since I was a kid, and
it's looked different every five years. Really, if I look
(25:48):
back at my life, UM, I would not have qualified
myself as an athlete, per se. I didn't play a
team sport in high school. Um, but I was really active.
I was big into running and my bike and hiking
and swim and all that stuff. UM So I like,
I like to move, and I find different ways of moving.
But to your point, talk about stepbacks and and especially
(26:09):
as you get into your fifties, because so many people
are dealing with injuries. I always call it my clients that,
you know, the island of misfit toys, because we started
every session with like, Okay, how's your body feeling. It's like, oh, well,
my neck is this and my ankle is that, and
we just you know, we work around it. We work
around it. I've been doing long enough that I can
I could change their workout on the fly and work
(26:31):
around what is and not worry so much about what
the plan was, because I am I was listening to
one of your podcasts I think it was from last
year about things too, how you've changed your workouts over
fifty and I will say, I do that. I trained
myself this way and I'm training my clients this way
now too. I'm very I approach it in the moment.
(26:53):
The plan is not even a plan. The plan is
to be in the moment and be intuitive about what
your body needs on that day. So yes, somebody might
be coming to me and they want to do a
hit workout, but I'm like, yeah, you know, you didn't
sleep last night and we need to stretch and do
some mobility and let's work on that. So I think
that when you give yourself permission to deviate from the
(27:16):
plan and and meet yourself where you're at on any
given day, that that's why I think that's really powerful.
It has been for me. That's so true. And I
love these interviews always go I have notes and they
just go in different directions and and that's that's why
I say, Jen, and I'm sure you agree you need
your exercise arsenal. So when people always ask us what's
the best, and you know, I'm sure you've gotten that
(27:36):
for twenty five years as well, and you go, it's
all good. And to your point, like if you have
twenty minutes and no equipment, that's when you go online
and you do one of your you know, body weight
only workouts, right, if you have an hour and you're
you know, with your then you go for a walk.
But there it's kind of making the workout based on
your mood and your time, and then within the week
(27:59):
you go, okay, I want a certain number of strength
basically some cardiosums, all the five components. But to your point,
you can't be regimented. And that's what's so isn't it
bizarre when you have clients. I mean, I'm not doing
the training anymore. But when you would say to your clients,
we're not going to be that strict, and they're like
shocked right there, like wait a minute, no, no, no,
I'm paying you to tell me exactly, like to really
(28:20):
beat me up. And you're like, no, no, no, there
will be times when we don't do that. Yeah, and
I still do you know, I still have It was
funny now that i'm you know, my husband and I
are working from home and we're I'm away right now,
we're working remotely. And he was listening to me train
to Colant the other day. I said, you know, you
realize that some people actually really like that level of intensity,
and I it's my job to take them down a
notch because I know that it has diminishing returns. Like
(28:42):
if somebody was bringing to sleep, you know, somebody who
might have some high octane type A types that they're like, yeah,
I still want you to punish me even though I'm
sleep I'm getting bio three hours of sleep like I
I like, no, it's gonna happen. Um, but do your
put to your point, like I think kind of saying
the same thing about saying, you know, like be be
(29:02):
respectful of where your body is that day. But also
everything has a season. I know for you as an athlete,
you know, doing them races that you're doing, you're not
training like that three days a year. It's seasonable. So
what are we Yeah, what are we doing on the
off season. We're still staying mobile, but maybe we're working
on other things. I always joke as a sidebar, I
(29:25):
used to have a client that was a dermatologist, and
he was you'll laugh at this. He was always insistent
on doing bicep curls. A kid do not you just
always want to do is bicep curls. I understand that. Yeah,
so I know so. But I'm looking at him and
I'm like, actually, that's probably that. That's fine, we could
do those, but what we really need is to kind
(29:45):
of you alleviate your chest tightness. Work on your back boxes.
And I said to him, I said, with all due respect,
it's like somebody coming to you with a faithful of
acne and they want botox. I said, that's how I'm
seeing your need to do bicep girls. I think it's awesome.
We can still do it, but you've got to trust
me that I, um, you know, I have my own
(30:07):
insight as to how I want to approach this. So
because I mean, you know, the thirty year old trainer
and me probably wouldn't have been that um forthcoming and forthcoming,
and I would have just let the client drive the session.
But I've been doing this too long anymore, again, like
totally deviating from all my notes. But that's why, let's
(30:30):
you know, pat ourselves on the back at this age
someone put out there recently, Jen It was such a
great meme. It was something the effect of, you know,
I don't want a fitness trainer who's twenty. I want
the fifty year old with a couple of kids who's
you know, got the help replacement right and got these
and I'm not listening. You and I both started then,
you know, young, and we learned along the way. But
there's a certain amount of experience and education and just
(30:54):
um time in the business where yeah, you're gonna say
to this person, Hey, you're paying me for my expertise, right,
let me do my job. And that doesn't mean it's
not different every day and yeah, like quiet like that,
you go, okay, do what I ask for eight of
the session. Then we'll do your bicub girls at the end.
But we're gonna you know, focus on and the other things.
(31:14):
That's as such a great point. Um, let me get
this because I know I'm gonna forget and people are
gonna yell at me. Um a couple of lines. I
loved that you said in your Instagram posts and everyone
tell people right away, Um, what's the Instagram it's Jennifer Kersh. Yes, yeah,
at Jennifer at Jennifer Kersh Fitness at Jennifer Yeah, okay,
(31:34):
I are Yeah, that will all be in the notes,
so people will see that in the post um. So
go there and check this stuff out. Um so much
there And I'll say that again at the end. But
one of your lines, ladies, it's so it's it's time
to stop being so afraid of lifting weights because heavier
lifting weights, heavier than your handbag. In my experience that
the four letter word jen that almost ran me out
(31:55):
and still to this day is bulk, the fear of birth.
Like just like so women you know at this age,
especially how truthfully strength training as a fountain of youth. Yeah,
I mean you. I I always say to people like,
look at think about people that you know in your periphery,
(32:16):
in your neighborhood and your community that are over sixty
five that are still moving and grooven. Right, You're like, oh,
look at that, and they're so vibe or whatever. I'm like,
what are they doing? What are they doing? Well? What
this is what they're doing. They're moving their bodies. They're
moving their bodies and they're surrounding themselves with community. Right.
I don't know that they're getting all worked up about
putting on bulk. In particular, you know their posture is better,
(32:42):
especially if they're strength training. UM, So go back to that.
I mean, I've listened. I've been battling that whole conversation
my entire my entire adult training life. Have been a
certified trainer since I was twenty five years old, and
I you know, truthfully, I've never personally wanted to get
into power lifting or CrossFit. That's just not my cup
(33:03):
of tea. But I love kettlebells and I don't look
as heavy as I used to because it just doesn't
feel as good as on my body still, meaning like
I don't dead lift my body weight anymore. Um, and
I'm okay with that. That's how I've modified as I've
gotten into my fifties. Um, but I don't worry about
putting a bulk anymore. I just think that that I
think it connects back. You could probably understand this, you know,
(33:24):
when you'll say, like, if you really want to make
a change, you've got to connect to your inner why
of why you want to do the thing right. There's
a there's a drive within you. So I think at
this stage of the fitness game. Whether it's for other
folks I see it coming up, but also for myself,
like I want to age. Well, that's it, you know,
that's Yes, aesthetics are great, but so that that's what
(33:48):
drives me. So but when you think about, like the
whole bulk question, I think women get really too caught
up and like these weights are going to make me heavy.
Therefore I have to stop at five pounds. Like you
think about what are you doing. You're pushing a vacuum
cleaner along or picking up a suitcase or whatever it
is that you're doing that weighs heavier than that five
pound weight. What do you think that's going to do
(34:08):
for you? Really? Right? Right, really, I know I just
went offut a long tangent there. There's so much there.
There's so much there, And I think when I guess
what I'm saying, Tom, is that when when we tie
it back into aesthetics only, we really lose the point
of why you would string train to begin with, not
just about aesthetics. And that's spoken from someone who's been
(34:30):
in the industry for twenty years. Are right, and it's
so true. And listen, I always say three main reasons, right,
you look better, feel better, live longer. Right, most people soon, Right,
it doesn't matter what the reason is. So I used
to be way more in it from vanity. Now it's
for my sanity. I use that line all the time.
But yeah, it's for my sanity. So I don't kill
(34:53):
my children, my teenage, like so many different things. But
you still get the other two regardless of why you
start or what your main focus is. Right, So it's
just the bulk thing. And we could do five hours
on this because in my experience and in your it's
interesting to hear you from the female perspective. You know, Um,
(35:13):
it's it's tougher for you because you're you're dealing with
the women in a in a different way than I
am are used to at least. Um, the bulk, it
just kept it kept, it keeps. It keeps women from
achieving their best bodies. Right, And and let's just put
it in perspective as you said, you know, lifting five
pound weights not gonna make you huge. Uh, the guy
next to you who wants to get huge, who's lifting
fifty pound weights is not getting huge. Right, So we
(35:36):
could go into the hormones and so, so don't worry
about it. You're keeping yourself from, as you said, quality
of life. Right, do you want to be walking when
you're eighty nine? We're gonna live to be longer than
ever before. Exactly? Well, I mean, and to be fair, like,
it's hard as a as a woman in ruse. It's
hard enough to put on my book. It's not impossible.
(35:56):
I gotta state that I get so much pushback, not
without hr to you all that. Okay, well that might
be true, but that still doesn't take away the fact
that resistance training is one of the best things you
can do for longevity at your health period. And you
know it is hard enough to put on muscles, you
need a little bit more. This is what you know
where women in my age group they do again, they're
(36:18):
afraid of the weights, but they're also afraid of the protein. Like, listen,
this is just a fact. You know. This is if
you keep, if you keep trying to think that the
little weights are going to do it, and that eating
a you're going to do it. If you're you're you're
missing out on a wonderful opportunity to change your body
composition and your and your overall health and the way
(36:38):
that you age. Right, now is the time. Now is
the time right to do it right? And you can
be You and I live in an area and others
do as well where there's a lot of skinny, unfit people,
you know, men and women. Um, and so it's about
being healthy, it's about being injury free. It's about, as
you said, you know, getting away from the aesthetics and
going what's your you know, annual physical tell you right,
(37:02):
so you know the non scale victories. I'm just gonna
go through a list because you have so much great stuff. Again,
you got to go to Jennifer curse fitness Instagram account
to see so much of the stuff in the workouts
and everything like that. But you say, am I mastering
the basics? Or am I looking for a distraction? And
you were talking about I think red cider vinegar or
something like that. But so, and there's so many things
(37:26):
we could talk about, but back to the basics, right, So,
you know, strength training, giving it time. Just give people
those things you have learned after twenty five years back
to like what they need to focus on, especially after
forty Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I you know, to be fair,
like some of those little those tweets and stuff are
(37:46):
a little pifthy things that kind of come out of
my mouth when I'm not thinking about them, like, oh,
I'm gonna write that down because it gets you know,
it gets people the tension. But generally like the apple
cider vinegar, you know, that's the whole thing is oh,
you know, it'll help to lose burned body fat. It's
a one of those questions I get from my actual
clients and or d M, So what do you think
of this? Like listen, you know, I know what goes
(38:08):
back to the very first thing we talked about, like
are you willing to focus on the boring basics? They're simple,
they're simple in theory, but they are not so easy
for everybody to implement. That's just a fact. And it's
always been that way. I think, you know, I'm short
of going off on a big old tangent. One of
the things that I see it really trips people up.
(38:29):
I think it's for men and for women. I mean,
we live busy lives. We live busy lives, and it
can be hard to make your health a priority. It's
maybe easier to say, well, I'm gonna do um my
workout at noon whatever, three days a week with my trainer,
and that's like about all you can handle. But yet
when it comes to eating healthy food or eating on
(38:51):
a regular basis, that kind of falls by the wayside.
And so getting all of the pieces of the puzzle
to work together can be I find really really challenging
for people. You know, and they just say that I
think talk back to what you were saying before, is
like they just not even so much of the quick
fix is that they want, like they always say, I
want a plan to follow, like this is the plan.
The plan is. You need to be able to pivot
(39:12):
at any time. Yeah, at any time, pivot from the workout,
pivot from the meal plan, and have confidence in that
choice that that's not going to derail your efforts if
you can't have it just line up perfectly right. And
this is why again it's so great to talk to
you someone who's been in the business for so long
(39:33):
and when people and when I first started with one
of the fitness companies I can sold for many years
before Peloton, and they said, you know, part of its
thought leadership, they said, what should we be doing? I said, content? Content? Content.
People want to be told what to do right, They
want to and p ninety X and just like I
was killing it, and I said, people want to follow
a plan. It could be crazy, and they will what
people want for the most part, but now they're learning, hey,
(39:55):
just tell me what to do every day. But to
your point when we talk about and you talk a
lot about goal setting and how it shouldn't be in
all and nothing approach, this is why when you have flexibility,
you have to have structured flexibility, is what you're kind
of alluding to as well. So in other words, in
the course of a week, I'm going to do four
cardio you know workouts, I'm gonna do three strength and
then within the week you kind of go by, as
(40:17):
we talked about earlier, what do you feel like that day?
What do you have time to do that day? And
that's where the structured unstructured approach really starts to work,
right Yeah, And I think that can really only come
when you've had some experience under your belt. Especially I
would say say, let's just say, for example, somebody is
brand like completely brand new to regular strength training, and
(40:38):
so they might not know that right because all they've
ever done is right a peloton, right, So then they're like, wait,
I don't know, I get this a lot. I have
a have a beginner strength training program that I actually
started running online and I got really got a lot
of beginner level women or women who had done it back,
you know, twenty years ago, but just wanted to get
back into it, and they wanted a little bit more strong.
(40:59):
They wanted this structure to your point um, somebody to
do the work for them, which I did, but there
were still I could see a little bit of apprehension,
like and in fear like oh my gosh, I'm like
really sore from this, and and just coaching them through that, like, Okay,
a little sorence is normal. But we got to ask ourselves,
like I would say, real rest and reassess, take a beat,
(41:19):
and really ask yourself, is this you know? Do I
need a day off? Or am I okay? And I
think people just they need permission to trust themselves. Are
always you know, they probably know innately, but they're just
not sure and they need reassurance that they're on the
right track or that what they're doing is going to
get them a result. And I mean that is part
(41:40):
of what I do as a culture, just kind of
hold it down for them and say you know it's okay,
Sure we're gonna be. You need someone who's experienced, you know,
who has your goals in mind, you know, especially when
you're over forty, over fifty, and to not get you hurt.
You know, people want to be told what to do,
but they wanted from a qualified coach. And I think
(42:00):
what I'm saying here, and that's why I was so
excited to have you on to give your perspective on
all of this. And I want to again, I gotta
say it every time I have someone on Jen because
it was the best of the best. I could have
you on for five hours. I understand why Joe Rogan
does like four hour podcasts, although I don't ever want
to do that. No, it's funny you say that too.
When you're passionate about something you're you're because all health
(42:23):
and wellness and fitnesses it is a nuance. So there's
so many discussions that could be had, right, So it's
really easy to at least for me to kind of
go off on tangents about um about this stuff. It's
because it's what I know, you know, and not only
it's it is it my career. But I love it. Yeah,
and I know how much you can help people. And
that's that's what my career is about. It's what your
(42:46):
career is about. It's like, you know, people are struggling,
they're wasting time and money in the most important aspect
of their lives, like living better and living longer. And
that's why I get so frustrated. So let me just
hit the points that Now I'll go back to my notes.
But this is what I love to Janet's is going
off on the tangents, because that's where the great stuff
UM comes from. I never want to have this scripted,
(43:07):
but you did say, um, and I love this about
five bullet points. You're talking about motivation, but applies to
everything basically. You know, after forty what are some of
the things you would focus on? And you say, and
just give me, like, you know, a couple of sentences
after each one, like what you think about them or
how to you know, kind of clarify them? You say,
focus on shorter workouts. They don't all have to be long.
(43:27):
First of all. First of all, I would say it
alleviate burnout, right, I think to ask yourself to do
Let's just say we're talking workouts, we're talking to strength training.
Asking somebody to strength train for sixty minutes is a lot.
I think a lot of people get really attached to
the idea that in order it goes back to that
extreme is better and more difficult is better. I disagree.
I think better is better. I think you can really
(43:48):
knock out three great thirty minute workouts a week and
get a great result if you are if you're focused
on your time right you. A lot of people are
on their phones and they're kind to messing around and
they're not particularly focused on what they're doing. And that's
a different story. But I know for me, when I
about the motivation thing, like people think trainers are always motivated,
(44:10):
that's not the case. I have just found from myself
to just start moving and and just and just get
it done, knock it out, and it's much more enjoyable
when I lower the when I lower the bar of
the of the expectation for myself. Um, I can't say
that would have been where I was twenty years ago,
but it's most definitely where I am now. And I
find that my body actually needs a little bit more recovery.
(44:30):
So that's a better that's a better schedule for me
to to do that totally and so much there it's
not you know, so much of this industry is all
or nothing, right, it's on the pendulum, so it's one
or the No, it's not do both. I do both.
I do some you know, three minute core exercises every day.
I do you know, three hour bike rides sometimes. But
(44:50):
it's not an all or nothing proposition. So I love that. Um.
And by the way, you had a great point to
you just talking about time. And you know, we often
say when you said fourteen four two minutes in a day,
you know, Jim is good. But and I love flipping
the script because they used to say or they still say,
Jen Like, you know, one hour at the gym is
four percent of your day, and you can look at
(45:11):
that both ways. In other words, you can go to
the gym. As you were saying in your post, it's
what you do outside. You're talking about neat activity and
stuff like that. But our point here to everyone is,
you know, go to the gym, work out at home.
It's about movement throughout the day. You want to do
everything in moderation, right, Um, there's no one way and
mix it up because it will be more fun. And
(45:32):
you're more likely to do it right. Yeah, I know.
We just want to add to that too. I have found,
you know, especially when you come from a background like
as an endurt I was an endurance athlete, marathon or
century rides, the whole thing, and I don't do any
of that anymore. And I that was a really interesting
shift for me to make to be okay with less,
because when you're a bit of a cardio junkie, um,
(45:54):
you know, it's hard to break that because because you
just kind of think, oh, I got it, you know, more,
more time on the road, more miles, it's better. But
it's not. It's not necessarily better, um, not for everyone.
And so but I do see people get caught in
that trap, and so they're like, oh, if I don't
have time for my six mile run, then I'm just
gonna work through my lunch hour and keep sitting at
(46:15):
my desk. You know what, it would be better for
you to just go take that phone call and walk
around your house, even if you know, just to get
the movement in. Just to get the movement in. And
I do think that that's just more of like, um,
it's more of like a philosophy more than anything. Else,
you know, like this is I'm just a person who moves.
That's it. So it doesn't necessarily have to be a
(46:36):
structured exercise workout session all the time. Yes, we still
need to be building our muscles and and and strengthening
our heart and all that, but let's let's let good
enough be good enough sometimes, um especially you know, especially
as we age. And I don't know, you know, anecdotally,
like I know for myself, if I sit for more
than thirty minutes, my body is supposed to hurt, like
(47:00):
I need to get up, like I'm bad if I'm
changing position more often, like not just you know, I
don't want to be on my feet all day either,
but I want to just be intermittently changing my um,
you know, my position, whether it's sitting on the floor,
sitting in a chair, or standing up at a desk.
So joking aside, I think that's evolutionary. I've talked about that,
like in other words, I'm getting ready to go to
(47:23):
Brazil another iron Man, and the flight is what I'm
more worried about. It's the sitting still for fourteen hours
and coach because I'm too cheap to and it wouldn't
even matter if I'm upfront, which I've done before too,
but it's like that's more painful than the race itself,
right is sitting still and and that's but you know what,
we need to do another show after this, UM, so
(47:43):
we will have you. I will have you back. UM.
But you know what's you touched on, and it's so
important and my experience in years as well. I'm sure
you know, the people who are not doing enough think
they're doing enough, and the people who are doing enough
don't think they're doing enough. And it goes to the moderation.
And I'm with you, like it's been really hard for
me at fifty three to pull back, but I now
(48:07):
do things like instead of going for a ten mile run,
I'll cook for a five mile run in the morning
and then I'll do something else. So you know, we'll
finish up with that because people want those takeaways you said.
You know, recovery is so important, protein is so important
for men and women. So agree strength training, sticking to
the basics. And then I'm gonna give you, UM, give
(48:28):
your four more points you outlined, UM, schedule your exercise
by signing up for a class. I'm gonna say, go
to Jen's site and start there. But take a class
and this is all your secrets to UM having success.
Find accountability partners. You've heard it before, but so few
people do that. Hire a coach. That's Jen people. If
you're looking for a coach, you want someone who knows
(48:50):
what they're talking about, is certified, has been around, and
knows how to tailor the workout to you. That's really important.
Jen is a phenomenal option. And then and the is
where were gonna have to have you back connect with
your hy I mean, that's that's like so important. Um.
And as you said, for you and I, now it's
less about the vanity. It's more about you know, being happy,
(49:11):
feeling good, right, and we forget about that. Yeah, And
I do think I think that as I look back
and I reflected my life, my my y has definitely changed. Um.
You you had brought this up before, So I actually
had both of my hips replaced in the past five
years and that definitely changed the way that I approached
my fitness routine. I still work out almost every day,
(49:33):
is at the same level, and my running marathons no, uh,
just redefining what it meant to move my body and
be strong. But if I had been you know, got
caught up in we almost went down this road but
like about what I can't do and then just said,
you know, forget it, I'm not doing really anything, which
I think happens to a lot of people when they
get to be our age. They have one injury and
(49:54):
that's the next thing, you know, they're not moving for
a couple of years. I think it's really really important
to try to find something that you actually just can do.
It may look totally different than what you did in
your thirties and forties, but and and different, but different
isn't bad. Different is can be an opportunity for for
me personally. It was an opportunity to try other things
that I wasn't kind of making time for before um
(50:19):
movement and all that. But also when when you were
talking before about the just this I meant to say
this earlier, when you were talking about when people get
to be our age, I remember thinking, as a you know,
thirty five year old trainer, like, oh, I gotta really
challenge these people and do all this now. And I
had to admit I was a little apprehensive about still
staying in the game in my fifties. And doing this
(50:41):
for a living. I'm like, oh, you know, how long
am I going to do this professionally? But now this
is why I specialized in the group that I specialize in,
UM that I'm niched into the over fifty crowd and
do have some clients stole in their forties, but because
for them, I think that they find that somebody understands
what their struggles that they're going through is really powerful. Like, yeah,
(51:02):
I've had injuries, I've had surgeries, Like, I get it.
I know. I think it's made I think it's made
me a much more empathetic trainer. So in that way,
I'm grateful that I had that experience, UM just a
lot more able to meet people, you know, with with
their injuries and things like that, and to your point,
Taylor workouts for them, but also know what it's like
(51:24):
to be, you know, be in physical pain and try
to work through that and keep showing up through it,
and then also have the look at doing things maybe differently.
So you know, maybe you were a marathon runner and
you're not doing that anymore, and that's okay, you know
in your case, so like, Okay, I don't do ten
miles at a time. I do five in the morning,
five and me after him, like whatever, just being able
to be willing to redefine what it looks like for
(51:47):
you right right, and so grateful to have you on,
to have that. It's exactly why I want to have
you on, is to to talk about it through that
lens um lens that you have you know, been looking
through for for decades. But we we have different perspective
and and that is it's so helpful. There's so many
people so thank you. I'm gonna leave them with two
of your quotes. I think that are perfect to end
(52:09):
this all with. You said, the silver lining to this
whole thing is that you do have some choice in
how well you weather this time of life. It's all
about consistency and getting curious. Um. One thing Jenn, I
want people to know, and that's what you just said
here is is we have control and and too often
people think, as you said, you know, I have this injury,
I have this aches and pains, I can't do anything
(52:29):
about it, and we're both here to tell you, yeah
you can. UM. So Jenn, thank you so much. I'm
going to have you back because like I have pages
and pages of notes, but but the the tangents are
what I love because that's where it gets real and
we talk about, you know, what people are are wanting
to know. So tell people again where they can find you.
But you can find me at my website Jennifer Kersh
(52:50):
fitness dot com or on Instagram at Jennifer Kersh Fitness.
Thank you so much, and again it's been great to
catch up. I want to do this again, talk more
about why, you know, finding your why and all of
that kind of stuff. But it's been so great catching up.
I mean, I want to say so much more, but
I'm just gonna cut it up there, so Jed, have
a great day. Speak soon and I look forward to
(53:11):
doing this again. Alright, alright, and we'll be right back
after this quick break, and we are back to thank
Jen Kersch once again for coming on and lending her expertise.
(53:35):
It is so great to speak with someone who has
been in the industry a really long time, has been
in the trenches, as we say, you know, doing doing
the hard work of of trying to break through the
myths motivate people. It's a tough jobs and I'd argue
it's tougher for women. The fitness industry in certain regards.
(53:59):
I think getting up in front of a class as
a woman to teach a group exercise, I think it's
harder than than males. I think it's harder the criticism
and the critique that I've seen, at least my experience
has been, so it's it's just invaluable to have someone
like her come on and give her perspective. And you know,
I wish we had eight hours. I feel like we
(54:19):
were just starting to scratch the surface. And even though
we go off on those tangents, that's that's part of
the show. I don't I don't have it heavily scripted,
and I want us to talk about um, what flows naturally,
because that's that's the conversation between two people who have
had the experiences that we have had. So I hope
(54:41):
that started to help those who are confused. The women
forty fifty plus, there's so many of the similarities though,
regardless of fear male or female, or what age you
are that we talked about. Yes, there's different issues hormone
really for women and men. You know, testosterone changes, estrogen changes. Uh,
(55:05):
there's there's more what loss of muscle men and women,
there's the psychological but it's cliche to say, but I
have to say it. At the end of the day,
it still comes down to the basics. And that's what
Jen was saying. She's agreeing, it's strength training, it's cardio,
(55:29):
it's not torturing yourself with diets, it's being consistent. And yeah,
what what are the changes over forty You know, when
we have those hormonal changes and and we're getting those
aches and pains, we need longer recovery, we need shorter workouts,
we need more variation, we need to be smarter. And
as we finished up with, for those of you who
(55:51):
were super athletic maybe in your youth and maybe trained
a lot and trained hard, maybe trained too hard in
your youth, it's psychologically challenging to pull back. And that's
what Jen finished up talking about. But I had to
end with her quote, this is gonna say it again.
(56:12):
The silver lining to this whole thing is that you
do have some choice and how well you weather this
time of life. I would change some to a lot,
not that that's proper grammar. We have control, and Jen
saying that too, no matter your age, no matter your sex,
no matter where you are now, you can better your
(56:34):
circumstances through what you put in your mouth, how much
you move, and your state of mind. And so let's
start to control things. Let's start to live our best lives,
all right. If you want to reach out, Tom h
Fit is Instagram as well as Twitter, Tom h Fit, questions, comments,
(56:54):
you can reach out to me through direct message and
go to Fitness disrupted dot com as well email me
through the site. My most recent book, The Micro Workout Plan,
is available wherever books are sold. And so if you
need a plan, as we talked about, there's a great
place to start. Also, as we said, check out Jen's Instagram,
check out her website, Jennifer Kirsch Fitness. So many ways
(57:21):
to achieve your goals people, but you've gotta start with
the right information. Stop wasting your time and money, all right,
what's all with our best, longest, happiest lives. All right?
Thank you for listening. I am Tom holland this is
Fitness Disrupted, Believe in yourself. Fitness Disrupted is a production
(57:48):
of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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