But first, can you start us off by telling us a bit more about you and about what you do?

Yes.

Well, and I will let you know, too, it was a lot of fun to dig into preparation for this.

So this is my 43rd year full time as a strength and conditioning coach, personal trainer back in the day before personal training was a thing.

And I've taught at a university.

I've internationally trained other trainers.

And yet there's so much that you don't deep dive into a topic very often.

me.

But I guess how... slowly or quickly should they progress as far as building up that resistance training?

So let me see here.

So in terms of starting, number one, those of you who are just starting, I mean, I'm jealous really, because you're a virgin and you will save results from almost anything because you're not doing anything.

So you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

So- Let's just say that the longer you've been doing it, the fewer changes you're going to see.

But it's a really exciting time for you.

If you're just starting out, you will see strength gains, feel strength gains, probably within a couple of sessions.

Yeah, but what are your thoughts about I guess those three modalities and when it comes to especially building bone density.

Mm-hmm

...

so should we get that for your mother? And, uh, Dustin, my son, is like, "Oh no, she wouldn't eat that." [laughs] Like, you know, and so it was very clear that he had been paying attention.

You know, that there were certain things that mom did and didn't do.

So it was interesting, but I think it's decades later you begin to see or hear little things said.

You know, my son says to me, "Y- you're gonna live to 120," like [laughs] you know, and kind of nonchalantly.

And it's like, "Huh, okay.

And how do you sleep yourself strong?

I know this will be a truly invaluable conversation.

[upbeat music] I think right now we're in this moment of time where it's predictions of trends, and it is countdown, but there's a very popular thing going on with influencers who, by the way, for the most part, do or don't have any background in exercise and in exercise science.

Although they may be physicians, and they may see the lab numbers and what's happening on the other end, I think it's, this is just a, "I'm doing this because it's popular, and it will get me lots of views." And people are like, "Rate exercises for women." And so all of a sudden I'm seeing Pilates and walking and running and biking, and then they're giving their number out of ten, and here's a rating.

And that's one of them.

And I'm like, here's my response to that.

We can't possibly rate it with simply a- an answer like that, because walking can be done slowly, leisurely.

I love it out in the woods, or I'm in my dreadmill with a low-hanging basement.

This occurs with loop cycles, and I find it really fascinating why estrogen plays such an important role in muscle and bone health and recovery as well.

If their desire is to change body composition, or if their desire is to get rid of some fluff, or if their desire is to be able to, you know, improve how much weight they're using in the gym, et cetera, what are some of the common things that you feel like are... women are consistently or perhaps not realizing they're doing that are undermining their, their best efforts?

Well, number one, I think is prioritizing strength training.

They're not prioritizing strength training at all.

And then if you could go deeper into that layer, it's the how to do strength training.

So I think many of us grew up with, as young adults, as group fitness junkies, you know, and feeling, "Well, if I'm going to BTS or Body Pump systems, you know, I can check that box off." And, you know, when I wrote You Still Got It, Girl, that was 2015, there was a study included in there that says, like, Body Pump is not proven to enhance bone density, you know.

And the reason for that, I don't think we could say collectively that's everybody, it's true for everybody.

There may be individuals in that, but there wasn't statistically on participants enough because most of us are not picking up heavy enough weights.

Yes.

What does the research show about how much strength training and how often to support our bone health?

Yeah.

So glad you asked.

And it's so exciting, actually, to be a woman post-menopause now, because we are going to create the results, the data for, again, for our daughters to come through.

So Think of this, in 1995, when I first personally started lecturing on osteoporosis and osteopenia, I had to define it.

People didn't know what it was.

I had to draw pictures, you know, and look at, this is modeling, this is remodeling.

How has HRT impacted your clients in terms of being able to build and maintain muscle, build and maintain bone? Because I'm starting to see, like I always say, my N of several hundred, if not a couple thousand, you know, the sleep piece is where I see the most benefits, you know, in terms of like consistently, if women come to me with HRT, they're sleeping through the night.

Absolutely.

You know, the time we really want to start thinking about a woman's menopause or her older ages when she's a little girl.

You know, right now, I think we're living in a time where we do talk about children and childhood obesity and screen time.

So getting kids back out, getting them playing, getting them jumping, getting them experiencing different sports, number one, so that they become lifetime advocates of it.

And I love it.

And they find what they love and they become good at it so that they want to continue when they're teens.

Because at that teenage years, it gets tricky.

I was wondering what we can do to intervene on those kinds of subsets and any tips, tidbits, what you're seeing as outcomes and how they shift, just take us through it.