Are Your Workouts Functional? | Episode 139: Angie the Expert
Your physical fitness can benefit from both a structured workout routine and changing up the structure of your workout routine. Understanding how to tie functionality into your workouts will change your physical fitness and your active lifestyle.
In this episode of the Carrying Connected Conversations podcast, Ang is bringing her fitness expertise and sharing about how lifting heavy as a workout can be beneficial. She is wanting to shed light onto important information that a lot people might not consider in their workout routines, and that is tying in complex movements in order to turn your heavy lifting into a more functional workout. Focusing on your fitness is not only about your physical body, as Ang shares your routine can actually positively affect your mental health as well.
Press play to learn all about the benefits of your workout routine and where you may be lacking support in functionality.
You can continue reading about the conversation Syd & Ang had on the podcast through the transcript below.
Syd: Hello everyone, welcome back to another episode of Carrying Connected Conversations. This is Sydney and I am really excited to be here today because we are diving into Angie’s expertise. More specifically we are talking about your workout routine and different benefits of having a structure, not having a structure, basically all the things workout routine. Trust me, you want to hear the information that she has for us today. Before we jump in, let me introduce my co-host. I am staring into her eyes and it feels so good to be here. Angie, how are you doing?
Ang: Hey! I am so excited. It’s so funny because whenever we are recording in person I am always thrown off. I want to look at the computer screen but then I remember I can look into your eyes.
Syd: It’s so funny! Whenever I am thinking I often look into different areas, but whenever you are having a conversation you want to make eye contact.
Ang: Exactly!
Syd: Throws me for a loop every time.
Ang: At the same time we are currently looking at a mountain while we are looking into each other's eyes.
Syd: Life is good. Life is so good! Let’s jump in to this because I know that you have a lot of information that you want to share. I really want to start off by asking you what is the main reason why you wanted to talk about this today?
Ang: I love this! To be quite frank, this is a quick little catch up for those that might be listening for the first time ever. I have moved completely, I live in a different province, I have a different jobs. Everything is super different in my life and the reason why I wanted to chat about this topic today is because I am currently coaching at a functional fitness center. I know that’s not the proper name for it. It’s not a cross fit gym, it’s not a heavy lifting gym. I categorize it as a functional fitness gym. I am really glad that I am categorizing it in this sense because earlier this morning I had a workout and it was a very different style workout. It was one that I wouldn’t normally do all of the time and it was one that I wanted to do for a couple reasons.
Reason number one, a lot of the members at this gym that I work at love to lift heavy. If you know me, you know I am 100% on that side of the game. Let’s go lift something super heavy and put it right back down. But, what I have noticed in my personal training as well as in research I have done, is that if you lift heavy, you need to complement that lift with other things.
For example, at what point in your life do you just lift something heavy and then put it down outside of the gym? I want you to answer that question. Syd?
Syd: I don’t personally?
Ang: Ya, but when have you seen someone lift something super heavy and then put it back down?
Syd: You are talking about movers, maybe somebody that works in a retail store that is having to move a product that is really heavy. Actually it makes me think of my tires when I have to change my winter tires.
Ang: Yes, there you go. We are getting on the right track, we are lifting heavy things outside of the gym, but what happens when you lift those heavy things? You explained tires or lifting..
Syd: Like a dryer.
Ang: A dryer, that’s so funny. We had to get a dryer replaced here. Okay, so lifting your dryer and lifting your tires. What is different between lifting these versus lifting heavy at the gym is that there is more than happens then just lifting it up and putting back down. There might be some twisting involved, your feet might be moving as you are trying to move the tire from the ground up. You are not following the same plane of motion. You catch my drift?
Syd: Yup.
Ang: So, when you are lifting super heavy all of the time it’s great, but it's not functional. It's not functional for your everyday life all of the time. You aren’t picking up the dryer and putting it down. You aren’t picking up the tire then putting it down. You need to tie in the reality of what is going on in your life into the gym workout routine. Is that making sense so far?
Syd: Ya that really makes sense. I like what you said about it not being functional in your everyday life. Yes, it’s probably beneficial to lift heavy and build muscle in that way, but if that’s all you are doing, how is that actually impacting your life on a daily basis? I’m picturing myself changing my tires and I am hunched down on the ground in a small position, lifting something super heavy up. I have a car so it doesn’t go very high, and then trying to get it onto the bolts. Every time I do it I think it’s so challenging. With this, why is this something you feel is important to talk about and important for people to know? I bet the people that lift heavy are so focused on lifting heavy. Let me ask you this. Why do people lift heavy?
Ang: Because it’s fun. That’s my reasoning. It’s so fun. It’s such a rush to be able to say, “hey I can squat 400 lbs. I can deadlift 500 lbs. I can hip thrust 425 lbs.” It's kind of like this bragging rights per say. That’s how I feel about lifting heavy and what I personally enjoy about it. I also really like that fact that I can goal set. Last week I did 225 and this week I want to try 230.
Syd: It seems like something where you can hit these benchmarks and grow and you can get higher and higher. It's not that I workout to workout. I workout because it's fun and I get to see the progress in how I’ve grown and how my goals keep getting higher and higher because I am getting better.
Ang: Exactly. Which leads us to the first point of why following the same fitness routine every single week is beneficial. What we just chatted about right there, hitting those benchmarks is called progressive overload. When you are progressively overloading your load, so you are adding weight every single week, doing the same movements, you are increasing your strength by being able to lift heavier consistently.
That is great up to a certain point. When I say up to a certain point, we all reach a plateau in our fitness. If anyone listening right now is one of those heavy lifters and you feel like you’ve reached a plateau and you aren’t sure how to change things up, doing some complex movements where you are constantly changing the exercises, not just sticking to one stopping and then moving to the next, has a bit more functionality. This is because you will start using muscles that you have used. With progressive overload you are constantly adding more stress to your body on the same muscle group every single week.
Maybe it’s back and thighs one day and then your doing squats the next workout, but what about your core, your stabilizer muscles. What about the little muscles attached to your bigger muscles? They aren’t being focused on as much inside of heavy lifting. It’s outside of heavy lifting when that starts to come into play.
The topic that I am bringing forward is about how I brought a completely different style of workout to the gym today. It was a complex workout, so there was a barbell complex, a hanging complex, and a push press complex. A lot of crazy crazy things. A lot of times heavy lifters don’t love that style of routine because they think it’s more HIIT based and cardi based. This is true, however if you are still lifting heavy there is nothing wrong with adding a little complexity to your workout routine.
What I noticed today with the feedback, and I am a feedback oriented person. I am new to this gym and of course every trainer has their own ways of creating workouts. It’s a little more challenging for me jumping into a gym and a routine that someone else is already used to. When I say someone I mean all of the members are used to something for so long. I want to know what they like, but I also want to show them what they need. SOmetimes what we miss is the obvious, the functionality of our life. The obvious is the gym, getting a sweet workout routine of lifting things because it’s fun to lift things at the gym and then get back to your everyday life. But, what about someone that has a shoulder injury for example or they aren’t having certain muscles in their body firing to help them do a certain movement and they are compensating all of the time. If you get to a point in your training routine where you are limited and you now can’t lift heavy, what are you going to do? You have to find another way to adapt your training style.
Going back to the feedback that I was receiving from the clients, they love to lift heavy, but it was too much to think about. I want to touch on this as well because one of the expert calls I shared 5 things you need to know before hitting rock bottom.
Syd: What you need to know about your body. Or something like that was the title.
Ang: Ya it was just a couple episodes ago, I think it was back in December when it was launched. In that I talked about how to exercise consistently, and obviously it depends on your programming. We aren’t going to get into the actual logistics of it. The more often you are working out throughout the week it decreases your chances by 35% of getting dementia, Alzheimer's disease and any sort of mental illness. Why does it do this? Well, first go back to that episode 126 and it’s called 5 Facts You Didn’t Know About Your Body.
When you are switching from one exercise to the next super fast, and you are doing a complex, so you aren’t putting down the bar or dumbbells and you are moving through different consistent movements. You are actually forcing your brain to think about what you are doing. When you are getting into heavy lifting and you are getting into the same repetitive routine over and over again. Say you are 8 weeks in, 12 weeks in, 16 weeks in, for the past few months you’ve been doing the exact same thing and you haven’t been stimulating your brain. Let’s be real, for myself anyways and I’m sure most of our listeners can agree, when we go to the gym we want to release the stress, tension and craziness that our life has to offer. Then we go back to our everyday auto-pilot routine. Like I said, routine, it’s the same thing over and over. If you’re not stimulating your brain in all of that regular routine it’s not that there aren’t any benefits, it’s just a different way of looking at things.
I want to give you what you want but I also want to show you what you need because there is a misconception with lifting heavy for example.
Syd: It shows the expertise of what you have and why not everyone has this expertise. Oftentimes people find something that they like and enjoy and then they just keep pursuing that. Which is great, it’s good to do things you like doing, it’s good to do things you enjoy doing. At the same time, as humans we are meant to be constantly learning and growing. This is what expands us and expands our lives. So these people, whoever, not just the people that were in your class, but anyone who lives heavy and that is all they do, I think this is a great conversation for you the listener to maybe better understand why changing up your workout routine is beneficial. Not waiting until you are injured, obviously if you are injured and you can’t lift heavy then there is another way you can workout and still enjoy it. I am going to guess, or assume that it might actually help you heal quicker.
Ang: You just hit the nail on the head. You are absolutely correct because what happens when you have an injury and you are consistently training through progressive overload, you will get to a certain point where you can’t lift anymore. What are you going to do? You probably aren’t going to do anything because that’s all you have been doing, that’s all you know. Not only will it help prevent injuries, it’s also going to help you stay consistent and remind you mentally at the gym. It’s challenging and you want to quit. When your mind says you want to quit, your physical body actually has 60% capability and willingness to continue. It’s just your mind that believes you don’t have the energy. So, when you are constantly repeating you will get to a certain point where it will get mentally frustrating. You will be frustrated that you can’t do certain movements because you haven’t been doing them for 4, 8, 12, 16 maybe even 24 weeks. Who knows. It’s a reminder that changing up your routine every so often it does have some benefits. It’s not to say you need to get rid of heavy lifting, I want to preface that, I love to lift heavy. Don’t get rid of that. Just keep in mind that everything you do in your life you want to complement what you do in the gym to benefit what you do in your every single day life.
For example, for me, I don;t need to lift something super heavy and put it back down in my job, but what is helpful, I also teach ski and snowboarding, so lifting heavy helps me to lift someone off the ski hill, you know when they have fallen. I like to go for hikes, so doing a complex, something that can keep up my endurance, helps me so I can enjoy a hike and climb the mountain. I like to rock climb, so doing a lot of pullups and chinups, compound movements where both your hands and feet are fixated on the object and the rest of your body is moving, that compliments my lifestyle because it allows me to climb more proficiently. Because I’m not just lifting heavy, I have a lot more capability and energy, and even mobility to do all the other things that I love to do in my life a lot easier.
Syd: Ya I think that makes a lot of sense. It ties back to your expert episode that came out last month which was about building an active lifestyle and how having different workouts or fitness activities, or whatever, having different ones is ultimately what helps you to build an active lifestyle.
Ang: Exactly.
Syd: I love how you’ve shared that yes having a structured workout routine is good because it allows you to set goals and it allows you to really see your growth. It allows you to better understand your body. If you are doing that same sort of thing regularly you can really feel your body and you can feel the way that you are growing and strengthening. At the same time, if you only stay with that structured routine it is actually creating a limit. So I want to ask you, as we wrap up this conversation, is there anything else that you feel like people that lift heavy need to know? Or even why bringing something else into their routine will be helpful?
Ang: Well, just to further the point I made earlier in terms of why it’s helpful, it’s more functional bottom line. It’s way more functional to do different things of variation. Maybe if you are a heavy lifter you don’t want to ruin your lift days. Okay fine, don’t just do it at the end of your workout. Go through a little complex. Let’s say you did legs and you crushed the leg press, you did some squats and deadlifts, those heavy compound movements. Do a little burnout session at the end where you through a band on your legs, and you start doing jump squats, regular squats, side step outs, monster walks, lateral walks forward and back because you’ll be engaging your stabilizer muscles, the smaller muscles in between the bigger muscles you just burnout. You will notice a difference because it will aid in your lift so you can get better next week. You don’t have to do it all the time, just try it every once and awhile. You can even set an extra optional workout day.
Syd: I really like this idea that obviously if you lift heavy it’s because you love lifting heavy. You don’t have to skip that workout, at the same time you can tie in other complex moves that are going to support you. You don’t have to do it every single workout, maybe start off a couple times a month, then maybe once a week in your workout depending on how often you workout.
Ang: Exactly.
Syd: I love this! I think there is so much information in there that people didn’t know they needed to know, you know?
Ang: Yes! I know! Hahaha! I love that!
Syd: So much goodness in this for all of you, especially those of you that love to lift heavy. Even for those of you that are new into working out, or haven’t worked out but want to start working out. For some people, having more information really helps us to better understand our bodies, which is ultimately what we are trying to do with this kind of conversation. It’s about bringing the listener more information so you can understand yourself in a better way.
Ang: Yes yes yes!
Syd: So beautiful! Thank you so much to everyone for choosing to press play and listen. I really hope you were able to take something away like I did. I could go through and list it all out again, but I think Ang wrapped it up great there, it’s about functionality. Whatever you are doing in your workout routine, how can it bring more functionality into your everyday life? This is why we workout to use our bodies, to prolong our lives.
Ang: Yes and to push ourselves. Push your limit and work within it. It’s okay to consistently find a new limit. There is a safe way of doing it and it’s through proper guidance and training and all the things.
Syd: I think that’s a great way to put it. There is a safe way of doing it and it comes with proper guidance. If you don’t know what you are doing and you are going to the gym and starting to lift heavy, maybe you should book a call with Ang and do a lifestyle audit first, figure out where you are at, where your baseline is, and what you can do to start showing up for yourself to create an active lifestyle and a workout routine that compliments you and your life.
Ang: Yes! Just before we wrap up completely guys, I wanted to talk about this today but I think I am going to hold off for another expert call, and it’s injuries. If you have injuries and you have certain limitations and we are talking about finding a new limit and working within it. Sometimes those injuries can really limit what you do and there are ways for you to continue on with that. I will leave that for another expert call and I let you guys get moving in the meantime. That’s it today from me.
Syd: Absolutely beautiful way to wrap it up and to give you insight about what’s to come in the future. Next week will be my expert call, coming in as the Spiritual Mentor, totally flipping the script here, we will be talking about intuition and emotional wellness.
We love wellness and well-being, whether it’s our physical world, our mental world, or our spiritual world and emotional world. Stay tuned for that next week, don’t forget to give us a 5 star rating. That is where we are going to love you and leave you. Bye everyone!
Ang: Bye!