Do you find yourself doing repetitive weight routines often using the same equipment?
In this episode of “Random Fit,” NASM Master Instructors Wendy Batts and Ken Miller share their insights on “resistance training” and, more specifically, the best weights to utilize in different exercise reps.
The weight-ing is finally over when it comes to maximizing your workouts and ultimately reaching all your fitness goals!
TRANSCRIPT:
Wendy Batts:
Hello, everyone, welcome to another episode of random fit. I am Wendy Batts and I will be one of your hosts with my special co host, Mr. Ken Miller. So Ken, how are you today?
Hello, everyone, welcome to another episode of random fit. I am Wendy Batts and I will be one of your hosts with my special co host, Mr. Ken Miller. So Ken, how are you today?
Ken Miller:
I am well. Wendy, how are you?
Wendy Batts:
I am just living a dream. I know, right? Well, today we're gonna actually talk about playing the waiting game. And what we mean by that is we're going to discuss some amazing topics, on the differences between using selectorized equipment, otherwise known as machines, we're going to talk a little bit about some tubing, talk about some free weights, and then talk about of course, and doing your bodyweight. So I think when we put it all together, sometimes it can be a little overwhelming when you go into the gym, and you're not sure where to start. And then, you know, I think we're going to be able to hopefully provide some great information, and then talk about some pros and cons of each one.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, and this, this topic actually brings me back to when I was still working in the health club down in San Diego. And, you know, occasionally, even though I was on the fitness side of things, you know, just the personal training and, and, you know, being responsible people do inside the gym, occasionally, I'd have to take people through the gym and kind of give them the tour of what amenities we have. And, you know, one of the one of the sales pitches that the sales guys would have is like, we have over 10 tonnes of equipment. And you know, the big point was, you're not going to lift 10 tons of equipment. So the next question is, well, what do you lift, I mean, because you had your, you know, we're going to talk about the selectorized, or the specific pieces of machinery that you're going to use to, to work on some specific muscles, you have the dumbbells and the barbells, and the medicine balls and all of those things. So it just took me back to when I was actually talking to people about the gyms and what amenities that they haven't, you know, what there's, there's a lot out there and what to use what winds up being one of the big questions that people have, when they walk into a health club or a fitness facility.
Wendy Batts:
I'm gonna agree with that, because I know even in all the major clubs, even when I joined, you know, when I moved, I joined a gym that was close to my house. And the first thing they say to me because I don't always tell people that I'm a trainer, you know, I tell people I'm an educator, and and I don't always wear my NSM gear and because I know if people see it, then they're gonna watch my every move. However, they're like we can give you a for like your first free personal training and you know session that's on the house. But basically what they do is just that, let me show you how to use this, you know, like seated machine seated leg press seated row and I'm thinking to myself, why is everything just about machines. However, when you think about it, when you're new to gym, I think that is a huge benefit for people. So they at least understand how to set things up correctly. And so, you know, with me because I have a foundation and I understand all the different pieces out there, I think is a great place to start. However, when I really take two steps back unless I'm doing some specific strength. I usually use machines at a meet I very, I very seldomly are use them at all. I don't know if you do but right, no, not really.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, and this, this topic actually brings me back to when I was still working in the health club down in San Diego. And, you know, occasionally, even though I was on the fitness side of things, you know, just the personal training and, and, you know, being responsible people do inside the gym, occasionally, I'd have to take people through the gym and kind of give them the tour of what amenities we have. And, you know, one of the one of the sales pitches that the sales guys would have is like, we have over 10 tonnes of equipment. And you know, the big point was, you're not going to lift 10 tons of equipment. So the next question is, well, what do you lift, I mean, because you had your, you know, we're going to talk about the selectorized, or the specific pieces of machinery that you're going to use to, to work on some specific muscles, you have the dumbbells and the barbells, and the medicine balls and all of those things. So it just took me back to when I was actually talking to people about the gyms and what amenities that they haven't, you know, what there's, there's a lot out there and what to use what winds up being one of the big questions that people have, when they walk into a health club or a fitness facility.
Wendy Batts:
I'm gonna agree with that, because I know even in all the major clubs, even when I joined, you know, when I moved, I joined a gym that was close to my house. And the first thing they say to me because I don't always tell people that I'm a trainer, you know, I tell people I'm an educator, and and I don't always wear my NSM gear and because I know if people see it, then they're gonna watch my every move. However, they're like we can give you a for like your first free personal training and you know session that's on the house. But basically what they do is just that, let me show you how to use this, you know, like seated machine seated leg press seated row and I'm thinking to myself, why is everything just about machines. However, when you think about it, when you're new to gym, I think that is a huge benefit for people. So they at least understand how to set things up correctly. And so, you know, with me because I have a foundation and I understand all the different pieces out there, I think is a great place to start. However, when I really take two steps back unless I'm doing some specific strength. I usually use machines at a meet I very, I very seldomly are use them at all. I don't know if you do but right, no, not really.
Ken Miller:
But when you think about the V environment today, when it comes to training facilities, it's a lot more I guess, I don't say complicated but there's a lot more to it now than there was 25 years ago. So if you remember Wendy, I think you're probably about 10 or nine years old 20 years ago but back in the day it was just heavy equipment, you know, like you were saying the seated chest press seated row Leg Press. But the only other option was dumbbells and barbells there was no you know, stretching and flexibility area there was no foam rolling and and these other amenities and functional fitness areas that exists today. So the choices and selection of equipment was a lot simpler. You know, 20 I mean, I'd say even 15 years ago versus what it is today. So now the selection of what to do and when to do it and where to do it and how to do it winds up being more complicated now. And I think with you know as we are today as the gyms and health clubs have reopened and people are going back into the gym facilities, you don't just you're not just relegated to what's in your living room or in your garage with your tubing in your in your dumbbells. However, heavier dumbbells minds mind that being but now as we're going back to facilities dedicated to exercise there's, there's a lot more we need to be educated on as far as what should we be doing and when should we be doing it?
Wendy Batts:
I think you bring up a great point, because when the pandemic hit those of, you know, those of us that would go into the gym, and that's really all we knew how to use those machines, then it really became this, I have no idea what I'm doing when we're like, hey, just workout at home, get you some dumb, but you know, dumbbells, get you a couple pieces of tubing, you know. And when you do that, and you're just so used to being lifting heavy just sitting in something, and just pressing or pulling, or some, you know, I think, I think that was the big change, too. And I was excited to do this podcast, because it came to us as like, this is a topic you guys should discuss, because there are so many benefits to so many different things. Plus, as you guys know, can I talk all the time about moving for the speed of life. And if you're always in a seated position, all day at your job, and then you're you know, in the car and you're in traffic and you're seated in your car, and then you go home and have dinner and you're seated there, and then you sit down to watch TV, when you go to the gym, if everything you do is still in that seated position, you really could be cooking, you know, feeding into some compensations that those muscles that are always in a shortened position all day long, because you're seated all day long. And so that's one of the reasons when I say I don't use machines as often is because I want them standing, I want them to use muscles that have been lengthened and you know, that need to be strengthened in order to help rebuild my posture. And so I think that's one of the benefits when when we talk about, you know, we've been, we've been talking, talking so much about machines, that if you can use things such as just your own bodyweight, and you can get yourself realigned, so you move better, then then you should be able to do that first, because I think that's one of the most important points, why start adding external load to your own bodyweight if you can't even move your body weight correctly.
Ken Miller:
Exactly. So to get into that, I think we need to kind of clarify first what what options there are generally in a, in a gym or health club. So we've talked about selectorized equipment, and that's, that's equipment that's pretty much dedicated to one. One goal, like you mentioned, when the the seated seated chest press seated this seated that seated bicep curl, seated tricep extension. So these, these machines actually do have a specific goal and purpose. And they're only really meant to do one thing. And one of the ways you can figure it out what a selectorized piece of equipment is, is that they'll generally have a picture of a person standing a human figure, and it'll highlight those muscles that that machine is intended to work on. So if it's a seated row, it might have the backside of a, of a figure, and it'll show highlighted in red, the upper back muscles, and that will be the the goal of that particular piece of equipment. And then the next one was, you know, when we talk about free weights, these are your dumbbells and your barbells, things that are meant to be lifted, picked up and then put down again, right. So that's, that's what we'll consider as free weights. And that's where you know, your home gyms and things like that will usually be outfitted with that type of equipment, a lot of your hotels, and you know, when you're traveling and they happen to have a fitness center fitness facility available, that's just one modality that they'll usually have, because you can do a lot with it. And then of course, there's bodyweight. So bodyweight exercises, which, you know, over the last five or so years is gained a lot of notoriety through different programs and different systems, one of our friends have NSM with with, with neysa, Nathan hellberg, with zoo, you know, is a training system based on bodyweight exercises. And, of course, the ever popular tubing or bands, where you're just again, something that stretches and adds resistance based on, you know, however big the band is made, may have different tensions to it. But that's something that as we'll talk about is really convenient, for the most part when it comes to being one of the modalities that you can choose.
Wendy Batts:
Yes. And if you're just joining us, we are talking about playing the waiting game, which says, As you just heard can talk about is mainly the four, the four big ones that we see that are commonly talked about and discussed when we're talking about working out and doing, quote, resistance training. And so I think, you know, based on what you said, you know, Ken with when we're talking about doing things with your bodyweight doing things on equipment, you know, doing things with free weights and doing things with tubing, there are some pros and there's some cons and so, you know, I tried to sit in on more of the positive. So let's talk about some of the negative things about all of these pieces. And so I'll start with the first one. Again, I talked about machines. So when we're talking about selectorized equipment, when you're sitting down and you're doing something or even if you're standing and like you said you've got your anatomy guy and these pieces of you know muscle are highlighted, it's going to show you what you're doing. But you're really just isolating and targeting that one area. And even though we can't specifically target an area to lose body fat or anything like that, we can target specific muscles to fire based on the movement patterns. However, it's not really an integrated movement to what we do each and every day. And so to me, I find that to be a little bit of a net negative. plus, again, when we have the pandemic, and people couldn't go to the gym, if you don't have a full gym at your house, you know, it's very, very expensive to have those pieces of equipment, they take a ton of space, they're really expensive. And there's so many other things that you can do to still work on those specific areas without having that cost involved.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, and that this is where you'll have, you know, I have clients that have favorite pieces of electrolyzer equipment that bill just that's their go to, because a lot of times, it's just because they feel comfortable with it. And, you know, and there is a little bit of ego involved, when, you know, you can sit down at the seat at chest press machine, and you take that pin out, and you plug it into that weight stack, and you're at the bottom of the weight stack, you know, like, yeah, I am strong on this piece. So there is a little bit of ego on there, you know, when when it comes to some of these electrodes piece of equipments like having your favorite cardio piece, because this machine shows that you spent 900 calories, and this is this machine for the same amount of time shows that you spent 700 calories. So I mean, it could be because you feel more successful at it, you're comfortable with it, you like the way it makes you feel because it is isolating or focusing on a certain movement pattern that you're not going to get with me maybe a compound movement or another exercise, you know, variation of what you're trying to do. But you know, there are there limitations, because like you said, when the as, as a small gym owner, I can't get a full line of push pull and leg selectorized piece of equipment, because one, they're heavy, and they're one dimensional, but they take up a big footprint. So a lot of people you know, not until going back into the gym and health club didn't have, you know, access to these specific pieces of equipment. So if you're relying on a good workout being dependent on a seated row, and you're only going to get that when you go to the gym, well, a lot of people might chalk that up as not getting a good workout.
Wendy Batts:
And then it kind of brings us then to to think about free weights. Now I'm a huge fan of free weights. And to your point, now they actually have those blocks of free weights where you know, you can just have two actual dumbbells, right, but then you can adjust the weight. So you can either lift 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, whatever it is by just turning the knobs and then it'll add, like external load to that. So when you're picking it up, you know, you're able to do a lot of different things at whatever, you know, resistance you can handle without compensation. So to me on a, when you're looking at how much like you said, the footprint, that's nothing in comparison to you know, like you said, these machines. However, when you're doing free weights or dumbbells, then you really need to have good coordination and movement patterns. So you've got to be able to, you know, when you're telling your left arm to do something, you want the right arm to be able to do it as well. And sometimes we really, as a trainer, we start to see what's the dominant side, and I find it very beneficial. And I know we're talking about the negative parts of this right now. But I find it very beneficial because when I'm training one side of the body, the other side has to do the same thing, because there's no machine Now remember, if I'm sitting doing a chest press, if I'm stronger on my left arm, I may push more with my left arm, but my right arms there for the ride. With the free weights, you don't have that. So I think on a negative side, if you're you're not really sure about the exercise, then you can hurt yourself because it is your extra resistance. And you could end up you know, causing some pain and injury if you're not careful and being smart in your movement patterns with these with these dumbbells.
Ken Miller:
Yep. And, you know, going from from the trainers aspect of things if you're going to guide a client on how to use free weights, whether it's a dumbbell or barbell properly, you have to be pretty versed at understanding regressions and progressions and all I'm talking about there with regressions and progressions is how do you make something easier with the variables that you're working with or progression or just how do you make things more challenging with what you have at hand. So if all I've got if I don't have one of those, those adjustable dumbbells that you mentioned when the which I have a set at home which has just been amazing, just because you move one pin or your turn, and you've got now a 15 pound dumbbell versus a 10 pound dumbbell. But if if all I had Have is a 10 pound dumbbell. How do I make that 10 pound dumbbell lighter? Right? If it's too challenging, or how do I how do I increase the challenge to make it seem heavier? So you do have to have some base of knowledge and information on how do you make things easier and harder with just one set of weight. So that's the other thing. So that's where education and understanding leverage and body mechanics on using a dumbbell or barbell, because if you don't have a full line from five, to 55, and five pound increments, you're gonna have to, you know, shade things a little bit one way or the other. So I think one of the negatives about the freeway is that you got what you got.
Ken Miller:
Exactly. So to get into that, I think we need to kind of clarify first what what options there are generally in a, in a gym or health club. So we've talked about selectorized equipment, and that's, that's equipment that's pretty much dedicated to one. One goal, like you mentioned, when the the seated seated chest press seated this seated that seated bicep curl, seated tricep extension. So these, these machines actually do have a specific goal and purpose. And they're only really meant to do one thing. And one of the ways you can figure it out what a selectorized piece of equipment is, is that they'll generally have a picture of a person standing a human figure, and it'll highlight those muscles that that machine is intended to work on. So if it's a seated row, it might have the backside of a, of a figure, and it'll show highlighted in red, the upper back muscles, and that will be the the goal of that particular piece of equipment. And then the next one was, you know, when we talk about free weights, these are your dumbbells and your barbells, things that are meant to be lifted, picked up and then put down again, right. So that's, that's what we'll consider as free weights. And that's where you know, your home gyms and things like that will usually be outfitted with that type of equipment, a lot of your hotels, and you know, when you're traveling and they happen to have a fitness center fitness facility available, that's just one modality that they'll usually have, because you can do a lot with it. And then of course, there's bodyweight. So bodyweight exercises, which, you know, over the last five or so years is gained a lot of notoriety through different programs and different systems, one of our friends have NSM with with, with neysa, Nathan hellberg, with zoo, you know, is a training system based on bodyweight exercises. And, of course, the ever popular tubing or bands, where you're just again, something that stretches and adds resistance based on, you know, however big the band is made, may have different tensions to it. But that's something that as we'll talk about is really convenient, for the most part when it comes to being one of the modalities that you can choose.
Wendy Batts:
Yes. And if you're just joining us, we are talking about playing the waiting game, which says, As you just heard can talk about is mainly the four, the four big ones that we see that are commonly talked about and discussed when we're talking about working out and doing, quote, resistance training. And so I think, you know, based on what you said, you know, Ken with when we're talking about doing things with your bodyweight doing things on equipment, you know, doing things with free weights and doing things with tubing, there are some pros and there's some cons and so, you know, I tried to sit in on more of the positive. So let's talk about some of the negative things about all of these pieces. And so I'll start with the first one. Again, I talked about machines. So when we're talking about selectorized equipment, when you're sitting down and you're doing something or even if you're standing and like you said you've got your anatomy guy and these pieces of you know muscle are highlighted, it's going to show you what you're doing. But you're really just isolating and targeting that one area. And even though we can't specifically target an area to lose body fat or anything like that, we can target specific muscles to fire based on the movement patterns. However, it's not really an integrated movement to what we do each and every day. And so to me, I find that to be a little bit of a net negative. plus, again, when we have the pandemic, and people couldn't go to the gym, if you don't have a full gym at your house, you know, it's very, very expensive to have those pieces of equipment, they take a ton of space, they're really expensive. And there's so many other things that you can do to still work on those specific areas without having that cost involved.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, and that this is where you'll have, you know, I have clients that have favorite pieces of electrolyzer equipment that bill just that's their go to, because a lot of times, it's just because they feel comfortable with it. And, you know, and there is a little bit of ego involved, when, you know, you can sit down at the seat at chest press machine, and you take that pin out, and you plug it into that weight stack, and you're at the bottom of the weight stack, you know, like, yeah, I am strong on this piece. So there is a little bit of ego on there, you know, when when it comes to some of these electrodes piece of equipments like having your favorite cardio piece, because this machine shows that you spent 900 calories, and this is this machine for the same amount of time shows that you spent 700 calories. So I mean, it could be because you feel more successful at it, you're comfortable with it, you like the way it makes you feel because it is isolating or focusing on a certain movement pattern that you're not going to get with me maybe a compound movement or another exercise, you know, variation of what you're trying to do. But you know, there are there limitations, because like you said, when the as, as a small gym owner, I can't get a full line of push pull and leg selectorized piece of equipment, because one, they're heavy, and they're one dimensional, but they take up a big footprint. So a lot of people you know, not until going back into the gym and health club didn't have, you know, access to these specific pieces of equipment. So if you're relying on a good workout being dependent on a seated row, and you're only going to get that when you go to the gym, well, a lot of people might chalk that up as not getting a good workout.
Wendy Batts:
And then it kind of brings us then to to think about free weights. Now I'm a huge fan of free weights. And to your point, now they actually have those blocks of free weights where you know, you can just have two actual dumbbells, right, but then you can adjust the weight. So you can either lift 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, whatever it is by just turning the knobs and then it'll add, like external load to that. So when you're picking it up, you know, you're able to do a lot of different things at whatever, you know, resistance you can handle without compensation. So to me on a, when you're looking at how much like you said, the footprint, that's nothing in comparison to you know, like you said, these machines. However, when you're doing free weights or dumbbells, then you really need to have good coordination and movement patterns. So you've got to be able to, you know, when you're telling your left arm to do something, you want the right arm to be able to do it as well. And sometimes we really, as a trainer, we start to see what's the dominant side, and I find it very beneficial. And I know we're talking about the negative parts of this right now. But I find it very beneficial because when I'm training one side of the body, the other side has to do the same thing, because there's no machine Now remember, if I'm sitting doing a chest press, if I'm stronger on my left arm, I may push more with my left arm, but my right arms there for the ride. With the free weights, you don't have that. So I think on a negative side, if you're you're not really sure about the exercise, then you can hurt yourself because it is your extra resistance. And you could end up you know, causing some pain and injury if you're not careful and being smart in your movement patterns with these with these dumbbells.
Ken Miller:
Yep. And, you know, going from from the trainers aspect of things if you're going to guide a client on how to use free weights, whether it's a dumbbell or barbell properly, you have to be pretty versed at understanding regressions and progressions and all I'm talking about there with regressions and progressions is how do you make something easier with the variables that you're working with or progression or just how do you make things more challenging with what you have at hand. So if all I've got if I don't have one of those, those adjustable dumbbells that you mentioned when the which I have a set at home which has just been amazing, just because you move one pin or your turn, and you've got now a 15 pound dumbbell versus a 10 pound dumbbell. But if if all I had Have is a 10 pound dumbbell. How do I make that 10 pound dumbbell lighter? Right? If it's too challenging, or how do I how do I increase the challenge to make it seem heavier? So you do have to have some base of knowledge and information on how do you make things easier and harder with just one set of weight. So that's the other thing. So that's where education and understanding leverage and body mechanics on using a dumbbell or barbell, because if you don't have a full line from five, to 55, and five pound increments, you're gonna have to, you know, shade things a little bit one way or the other. So I think one of the negatives about the freeway is that you got what you got.
Wendy Batts:
And that's what yeah, well, I guess you know, when you think of it, but to your point, I guess, because I also have the adjustable one, just because of my smaller space in my house, and makes a lot of sense to your point to on the footprint, it could, it could take up a lot of a lot of space. And if you don't have a rack, you've got all these random, you know, dumbbells laying all over your floor. So that that is also I think, a negative. But a negative that I have, if we move on to tubing is I like tubing, because you can easily order it, it's available, you can choose your thickness, which means the resistance again, that's more of the positive. However, on the negative side, and this is something that people don't often think about is if I'm doing a chest press, and I have my tubing anchored behind me, right, so I'm standing here, and I'm just going to push it forward. And as I push it forward, meaning when I start, there's not a lot of resistance unless I walk forward and add that resistance to my starting point. But when it's when it's actually the weakest, I'm the strongest. And as I push it out, it becomes more elongated mean, there's more tension to that to being. So as I push it out, and I become weaker, because I'm actually pushing trying to work my pecs, then that is actually stretched even more. So you've got to think it's even harder. So as I continue to push out, I have to become stronger at my weakest point. And if I'm not careful when I just bring it back, it can actually bring me back at a faster pace, which is an ideal, because we always definitely want to control the movement coming back more so than even pushing it sometimes because we really want to control that East centric motion, which is going back to your starting position. And so that's one thing that I find, you know, as a as a big negative, plus, you have to also have a really good anchor point. Because you have to be able to anchor that tube down to something or wrap it around something and you need to make sure that it's heavy enough that it doesn't move, and either come towards you, which could hurt you. Or you know, also to that it's not so wide that it makes that tubing already really, really strong. Because of the you know, the the width that you have to put it around something. So you know, having a good anchor point. And they do have those two things that you can actually put on something. I like that a lot. But that's just one, those are probably my two big negatives. And I don't know if there's anything else you see,
Ken Miller:
Yeah, this is where again, as somebody being responsible for their own safety. And as you know, when you when you when you own a facility you are or even if you were to go to a park, and do outside or group training in the park, which I've done, you know, tubing is one of the things that I bring, but in order to ensure the safety of my clients, I have to make sure that especially if it's just the plain exposed rubber tubing, if it gets dry, it's gonna loses elasticity and make it more susceptible to cracking. And if it cracks, it might tear and if it tears, it's going to break. So there's been times when I've seen some some bands that are just, they're just trash because they've been sitting out they haven't been used, they've been exposed to the sun or they've gotten wet and then exposed to the sun, which makes it you know, just kind of messes with its elasticity. So you have to be very, very attentive to the quality of the tubing that you've that you've got. Because all it takes is for you know, you're you've got a lot of resistance in that one band to just snap and next thing you know, you've got two handles in this rubber piece flying all over the place. And I've and I've seen it happen and it's it can be pretty dangerous if you're not paying attention. So I think you just have to really and this goes for any of these pieces of equipment that we're talking about, right? You just have to make sure that it's it's it's in good safe condition to be using. tubing winds up being one of those things where you really have to watch out for that but there are those tubing That have the, the wrapping around it. So like stoops comes to mind, when it when it comes to protecting the elasticity of the of the of the band, when you have this kind of this folding up, I guess wrapping around it. So that's another that's another feature that I look for when it comes to to the band. So you just really have to watch out because when that band breaks,
Wendy Batts:
Yeah, that's happened to my clients and me multiple times, usually when I'm using the mini bands like doing lateral to blocks. It's like it comes in, in in it breaks. And of course, you know, if I have a client doing it, they'll say, Oh, look, I'm so strong. I broke the band. I'm like, Yeah, but you also hit me in the process. So I don't know, I feel about that. But great point, that very, very good point. And then if you guys are just joining us, we're talking about the, you know, playing the waiting game. Right now we're talking about some of the negatives. We've already talked about machines, we've talked about some free weights, we've talked about tubing. And I guess really, if you think about bodyweight, the only negative I could really come up with was if you don't like lifting what you have, then maybe you should lose some weight. Or if you want to live more, and you don't have anything besides yourself, maybe you should gain some weight. But yeah, you know, all kidding aside, it really, I really want people to focus on what they have, first get good quality of movement, because then we can use, you know, these other pieces of equipment that we've just discussed, because there really is some great outcomes.
Ken Miller:
But yeah, and bodyweight I think, you know, for you, and I, Wendy, you know, when we you know, as much as we've traveled, it might have to be one of those things that, you know, if you've got five minutes, that's what you got. Right? And that's, that's, that's all the workout I'm going to get for this morning. Or if I just need to wake myself up that, you know, having a good understanding of, of movement patterns, you know, because a lot of people, you know, when you when you if I were to take a survey of, of 100 people walking down the street, you know, what bodyweight exercises would you? Would you do right now? Or how many bodyweight exercises? Do you know? I mean, how many of them do you think would come up with, with more than five?
Wendy Batts:
Right? Exactly. Yeah, well, and and into your point, because we do travel a lot, I don't travel with a bunch of excess stuff, because I already have a ton of things that I usually have to bring with me for whatever workshop or whatever it is that we're doing. And so I find, and I guess, now we can move on to the pros. And just because you're talking about bodyweight first, I find being able to do you know, push ups, lunges, squats, you know, some different shoulder patterns and movement patterns, you know, for my back, and then even, you know, just grabbing a towel, and, you know, just wrapping it around something and doing isometric polls for my back. If I did that, and I slowed down my speed, like really slowed everything down, it is extremely difficult. And that's one thing, I think, sometimes we forget about that your speed can dictate how hard something is. And so if you try to do on your own, I'll challenge all of you to get into a push up position and do 15 repetitions of a push up, going down for four seconds, hovering at the floor for two seconds, and then pushing all the way out for one. And you did that 15 times, keeping your abs and your glutes squeezed and making sure that you've got good good movement pattern and quality of movement. It is extremely hard to do. And I didn't have to travel with anything other than what I you know what I have, which is my clothes or whatever I'm learning. Yeah.
Ken Miller:
And I think you know, just to tap into that to that same idea, you you're talking about changing your tempo, right, doing something. And I think when it comes to bodyweight exercises, even if you were to take what you know, and you just added a little twist, and what I mean by that is you, let's say go into a different direction on something. So a very popular exercise, if I'm going to work on lower body, one thing to do is squats but if I'm going to do something like lunges, which winds up being pretty popular, a lot of times people will do with dumbbells in their hands. But if I take a lunge, typical lunch, if I asked you to do a lunch when a people, usually they would go with a forward lunch, right, they would step forward, and then they'd step back to their start position, then they'd step forward with the other leg and stand back into their upright position. But what if you took that same lunch instead of stepping forward, you stepped backwards, so you did a backward or a reverse lunge. Or even if you took that same lunge and even stepped to the side, so you do a side lunge, and then back to center, or even a turn lunge to add a little rotation at the hip. Now a lot of these can be you know, pretty, you know, because it's new and novel to a lot of people that add that little extra bit of challenge. So even though it's a lunch, you know, it's just a lunch you just took into a different direction, the perception of it being harder or more Challenging winds up being a real thing. So this is where I can have a client, you know, they'll do what they'll normally do feel comfortable doing, because they're good at it, you take that same general emotion, you have them go into a different direction out, now it's got a totally different dimension. And it's got a whole new set of challenges, which makes it harder for them to do so you can, you can elevate easily a bodyweight exercise that you might traditionally know but you add a little bit of a twist to it, it's it's got a challenge that your body is new to. So now it's more challenging for that body to do that same exercise.
Wendy Batts:
Absolutely. And I think you make a great point with the the multi direction as well as adding the balance component, I think that's a big one. Because you know, saying with the lunch, if you do a side lunch to balance, most people don't do that. And remember, the more that you challenge your body and you do something that you're not comfortable doing, you're going to have better results, because you're going to burn more calories, you have to think through it. And you really have to slow things down to get proper movements, you're probably going to get more out of that exercise versus doing something very quickly, just for the sake of doing it you have you know, like I've been, I've been doing my headspace and they say, you know, really be aware of your movements when you're at the gym, and you know, in your hotel room or whatever, think about what you're doing, think about the muscles that you're focusing on. And it really does work. And so to slow things down, change it up, have fun, but definitely a huge, huge Pro, for bodyweight. And, you know, it kind of brings us then now to talking about free weights, some of the pros that come to mind, for me, we kind of mentioned this before, so I won't, I won't spend a lot more time on it. But what I'm doing with one arm, I have to do with the other what I'm doing, you know, when I'm when I'm using dumbbells, or if I'm holding on to them and doing like you said lunges, whatever I'm doing, I'm adding external load, but it can be independent of what's what the other side is doing. Plus, if I want to really challenge my chord, challenge my body challenge my positioning, then I could just drop one one dumbbell and do let's say if I'm laying on a ball, or laying, you know, on something that's unstable, and doing a single arm, chest press, I have to keep my posture up, you know, like my core and alignment. Good. So I'm putting a lot of demand on my body. But I'm also now working that one prime mover, which is my chest, my pecs at that point. So I love doing single arm things. And so I think that's a huge, huge bonus that often times we automatically go and grab two free weights and do something. And so my challenge to people is to say, Don't grab to just grab one, and try to do things singular, like unilaterally. And then at that point, you know, switch it up, alternate your movement patterns, add some rotational stuff, as you said, be creative. And I think free weight or free weights allows us to have that creativity.
Ken Miller:
Without a doubt, without it out. And yeah, and you are definitely limited by your imagination when it comes to free weights. But you know, we just have to make sure that as we are lifting we we space pay as you're talking about special attention to our posture and our position. And when you brought up speed, speed kills, if you go too fast, you know, faster than what the joint can stabilize, again, you get off that selectorized piece of equipment, now you're having those those deeper stabilizing muscles deeper within the joint and having to do more work. And if you're going too far too fast, or even with heavier weights, again, one of the downfalls of heavy weights is that as you get older, you tend to go back to what you did long ago, right. So if I did that, I'd be picking up the 30 and 40 pounds and doing some shoulder presses there. But now, these guys can handle that. So you have to go with what you're capable of doing now, because things have changed. So you know, eating a bit of humble pie, you know, going with what's appropriate, right sizing, the resistance for the exercise, you want to be creative, you want to be you know, you want to challenge the body, but you have to be smart as far as what level of resistance that you're going to impose upon your body. And I think too, you know, so with free weights, I think we've we've said a lot of the pros, when we think about tubing, there's a lot of commonalities that could also you know, when we're talking about you know, doing things enter Ender inter dependently. So what I'm doing on one side and doing the other, we can still do with tubing because now we've got, you know, external load, we're still trying to think about that. However, with that being said, if we know that we have a good anchor point, and you're going to do something single arm or single leg, then oftentimes you're going to have to either hold let's say you're got the ones with the handles the tubing with the handle, and you're doing a chest press, you would actually have to hold both handles in your hand so it's going to actually double that load. So to your point, you're going to have to be careful with You're positioning your form. However, another very big Pro is if you want external load, they're super inexpensive in comparison to the other stuff we're talking about. Plus, you can easily throw it in your bag and travel with them.
Wendy Batts:
Yep. Yeah, I throw that that is a go to for me. So when I'm packing my shirts, and my pants and all that stuff, I throw a band in there because it doesn't cost any weight, when it comes to traveling doesn't take up any space. It's, you know, something that I'll just hook up onto the, you know, the foot of the bed, if, if that's available, or table in the hotel room. And, you know, you can have 1015 curls, or rows or squats or whatever, but very, very convenient. But I laugh, just, I'm not trying to cut you off. But I did that at a hotel, I got my tubing, tied it around a desk. And remember, when you're in a hotel room, it's probably not the most quality furniture. And so I started doing, I started doing some chest presses. And then I turned around and started rowing. And all of a sudden, I noticed that the dust starts coming towards me, and then I stepped back and it keeps moving. And then there's a lamp that's connected it was almost going to be it's gonna be really, really bad. However, that's why it's important to always make sure that everything that you're doing the anchor point and everything that you have, it's safe, because that could have been that could have been disastrous. Yeah, I've had, I've moved some furniture myself. I think we all know, what would I need to move it? I can't when I don't want to move it. It's easy to move. So yeah, that's exactly, yes. And then, of course, some pros, for me when we're talking about selectorized equipment or machines is if you're new to the gym, is the pictures will help you, it teaches you the proper movement patterns, when you're trying to focus on specific body parts, it really does take the guesswork out. And if you're trying to gain size, it is a great you know, those are great pieces of equipment. I just say, as a side note, if you're going to use machines, try to switch it up and use some of these other resistance, you know, pieces of equipment we're talking about. So therefore, your body is moving the way that we move in life. But then you're also working on specific isolated strength.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, I remember my very first personal training client, Laurie, she comes in, and you know, she's got her goals, you know, she's, she's got this shoulder thing going on. But you know, this was, again, mid 90s. And we had all this wonderful, this wonderful line of selectorized equipment. So what did I do? I mean, this is how I was trained, this is what I knew. So I put her on the seated chest press. And my script as it went with Laurie was alright, Laurie, this is a seated chest press machine, right, it's designed to challenge the front of your chest and your shoulders. And this is how we adjust those seats. Here's where we adjust the weight. When you set up on here, here's how you grab the handles, and then you push, right and I want you to go at this speed up and this speed down. And that was how I taught my first client was on a selectorized piece of equipment. And I bring that up right now because it was easy, right? I don't have to tie I didn't have to talk about mechanics head position over the shoulder, shoulders over the hips, I just taught her here's, here's how you position yourself, here's what it's for. And here's the motion and have at it, right so for me to bring that up, it's just it as we brought up earlier, it's it's an easy way to challenge the body because the bench or the seat or whatever it is, it's it's stabilizing you There's nothing to control, if I'm sitting down, there's I don't have to control my hips, I do want to make sure I have a good you know, position with my low back, I want to make sure that I'm sitting as tall as I can. But outside of that the machine is taking care of a lot of things that your body doesn't have to when it comes to posture and position. So that's one of the that's one of the easier things, you know, whether it's good or bad is up to up to the listener but it's one of the one of the benefits of having selectorized equipment because somebody can exercise. You don't have to inundate them with anatomy and, and exercise physiology on why, you know, it's important to stand up or sit down but, you know, it was it was how I started off my career was using selectors. But then as my education grew, so did my level of instruction. But you know, that that was you know, for better for worse. That was how I got started with with teaching people exercise.
Wendy Batts:
I can't even remember the first thing that I use, I'm trying to go back and like what was it you know, but I we definitely had machines and like I said, I worked mainly I started my career in physical therapy. So we did have machines, but we had a ton of you know, movement or like cables and free weights so we could work on proper movement patterns, because most of the people were coming out of some kind of, you know, post op or something. So I was there to help with movement. But I think you My key takeaways from today and hopefully you guys enjoyed this is very it up, but be smart in your choices. And if you're always doing machines do something different because eventually every four to six weeks, your body is going to adjust to whatever demand you're placing on it. And it's just going to get to know if you're used to doing machines. And that's all you've ever done. Think about how often in life do you have just one specific movement, and you're not adding in all different types of movements, it's very seldom, meaning if I'm going to press I may press outward forward to the side. But if I'm going to lock a piece of equipment, I'm only pressing this one way. So train for life, add some variation to your workout, just understand that if you are going to use some of these different pieces of equipment, you want to think about the pros and cons. And always set yourself up for success. So choose the right band and your tubing, the thicker the band, the harder the resistance, so be smart. And like you said, check your ego at the door and really focus on slowing down your tempo work on your movements. And then just have fun, be creative, like you said, be creative.
Ken Miller:
And and I think, well for me, you know, one of the takeaways is, you know, people, trainers, clients will always ask, well, what's what's the best exercise to do? or, in this case, what's the best piece of equipment to use? And my question that I know it's impolite to answer a question with the question, but I'll ask I'll ask them. So what's the best chess move? Or what's the best move in checkers? It depends on the situation. So as we mentioned with selectorized, equipment, free weights, body weight or tubing, it depends on what the goal is.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, this is where again, as somebody being responsible for their own safety. And as you know, when you when you when you own a facility you are or even if you were to go to a park, and do outside or group training in the park, which I've done, you know, tubing is one of the things that I bring, but in order to ensure the safety of my clients, I have to make sure that especially if it's just the plain exposed rubber tubing, if it gets dry, it's gonna loses elasticity and make it more susceptible to cracking. And if it cracks, it might tear and if it tears, it's going to break. So there's been times when I've seen some some bands that are just, they're just trash because they've been sitting out they haven't been used, they've been exposed to the sun or they've gotten wet and then exposed to the sun, which makes it you know, just kind of messes with its elasticity. So you have to be very, very attentive to the quality of the tubing that you've that you've got. Because all it takes is for you know, you're you've got a lot of resistance in that one band to just snap and next thing you know, you've got two handles in this rubber piece flying all over the place. And I've and I've seen it happen and it's it can be pretty dangerous if you're not paying attention. So I think you just have to really and this goes for any of these pieces of equipment that we're talking about, right? You just have to make sure that it's it's it's in good safe condition to be using. tubing winds up being one of those things where you really have to watch out for that but there are those tubing That have the, the wrapping around it. So like stoops comes to mind, when it when it comes to protecting the elasticity of the of the of the band, when you have this kind of this folding up, I guess wrapping around it. So that's another that's another feature that I look for when it comes to to the band. So you just really have to watch out because when that band breaks,
Wendy Batts:
Yeah, that's happened to my clients and me multiple times, usually when I'm using the mini bands like doing lateral to blocks. It's like it comes in, in in it breaks. And of course, you know, if I have a client doing it, they'll say, Oh, look, I'm so strong. I broke the band. I'm like, Yeah, but you also hit me in the process. So I don't know, I feel about that. But great point, that very, very good point. And then if you guys are just joining us, we're talking about the, you know, playing the waiting game. Right now we're talking about some of the negatives. We've already talked about machines, we've talked about some free weights, we've talked about tubing. And I guess really, if you think about bodyweight, the only negative I could really come up with was if you don't like lifting what you have, then maybe you should lose some weight. Or if you want to live more, and you don't have anything besides yourself, maybe you should gain some weight. But yeah, you know, all kidding aside, it really, I really want people to focus on what they have, first get good quality of movement, because then we can use, you know, these other pieces of equipment that we've just discussed, because there really is some great outcomes.
Ken Miller:
But yeah, and bodyweight I think, you know, for you, and I, Wendy, you know, when we you know, as much as we've traveled, it might have to be one of those things that, you know, if you've got five minutes, that's what you got. Right? And that's, that's, that's all the workout I'm going to get for this morning. Or if I just need to wake myself up that, you know, having a good understanding of, of movement patterns, you know, because a lot of people, you know, when you when you if I were to take a survey of, of 100 people walking down the street, you know, what bodyweight exercises would you? Would you do right now? Or how many bodyweight exercises? Do you know? I mean, how many of them do you think would come up with, with more than five?
Wendy Batts:
Right? Exactly. Yeah, well, and and into your point, because we do travel a lot, I don't travel with a bunch of excess stuff, because I already have a ton of things that I usually have to bring with me for whatever workshop or whatever it is that we're doing. And so I find, and I guess, now we can move on to the pros. And just because you're talking about bodyweight first, I find being able to do you know, push ups, lunges, squats, you know, some different shoulder patterns and movement patterns, you know, for my back, and then even, you know, just grabbing a towel, and, you know, just wrapping it around something and doing isometric polls for my back. If I did that, and I slowed down my speed, like really slowed everything down, it is extremely difficult. And that's one thing, I think, sometimes we forget about that your speed can dictate how hard something is. And so if you try to do on your own, I'll challenge all of you to get into a push up position and do 15 repetitions of a push up, going down for four seconds, hovering at the floor for two seconds, and then pushing all the way out for one. And you did that 15 times, keeping your abs and your glutes squeezed and making sure that you've got good good movement pattern and quality of movement. It is extremely hard to do. And I didn't have to travel with anything other than what I you know what I have, which is my clothes or whatever I'm learning. Yeah.
Ken Miller:
And I think you know, just to tap into that to that same idea, you you're talking about changing your tempo, right, doing something. And I think when it comes to bodyweight exercises, even if you were to take what you know, and you just added a little twist, and what I mean by that is you, let's say go into a different direction on something. So a very popular exercise, if I'm going to work on lower body, one thing to do is squats but if I'm going to do something like lunges, which winds up being pretty popular, a lot of times people will do with dumbbells in their hands. But if I take a lunge, typical lunch, if I asked you to do a lunch when a people, usually they would go with a forward lunch, right, they would step forward, and then they'd step back to their start position, then they'd step forward with the other leg and stand back into their upright position. But what if you took that same lunch instead of stepping forward, you stepped backwards, so you did a backward or a reverse lunge. Or even if you took that same lunge and even stepped to the side, so you do a side lunge, and then back to center, or even a turn lunge to add a little rotation at the hip. Now a lot of these can be you know, pretty, you know, because it's new and novel to a lot of people that add that little extra bit of challenge. So even though it's a lunch, you know, it's just a lunch you just took into a different direction, the perception of it being harder or more Challenging winds up being a real thing. So this is where I can have a client, you know, they'll do what they'll normally do feel comfortable doing, because they're good at it, you take that same general emotion, you have them go into a different direction out, now it's got a totally different dimension. And it's got a whole new set of challenges, which makes it harder for them to do so you can, you can elevate easily a bodyweight exercise that you might traditionally know but you add a little bit of a twist to it, it's it's got a challenge that your body is new to. So now it's more challenging for that body to do that same exercise.
Wendy Batts:
Absolutely. And I think you make a great point with the the multi direction as well as adding the balance component, I think that's a big one. Because you know, saying with the lunch, if you do a side lunch to balance, most people don't do that. And remember, the more that you challenge your body and you do something that you're not comfortable doing, you're going to have better results, because you're going to burn more calories, you have to think through it. And you really have to slow things down to get proper movements, you're probably going to get more out of that exercise versus doing something very quickly, just for the sake of doing it you have you know, like I've been, I've been doing my headspace and they say, you know, really be aware of your movements when you're at the gym, and you know, in your hotel room or whatever, think about what you're doing, think about the muscles that you're focusing on. And it really does work. And so to slow things down, change it up, have fun, but definitely a huge, huge Pro, for bodyweight. And, you know, it kind of brings us then now to talking about free weights, some of the pros that come to mind, for me, we kind of mentioned this before, so I won't, I won't spend a lot more time on it. But what I'm doing with one arm, I have to do with the other what I'm doing, you know, when I'm when I'm using dumbbells, or if I'm holding on to them and doing like you said lunges, whatever I'm doing, I'm adding external load, but it can be independent of what's what the other side is doing. Plus, if I want to really challenge my chord, challenge my body challenge my positioning, then I could just drop one one dumbbell and do let's say if I'm laying on a ball, or laying, you know, on something that's unstable, and doing a single arm, chest press, I have to keep my posture up, you know, like my core and alignment. Good. So I'm putting a lot of demand on my body. But I'm also now working that one prime mover, which is my chest, my pecs at that point. So I love doing single arm things. And so I think that's a huge, huge bonus that often times we automatically go and grab two free weights and do something. And so my challenge to people is to say, Don't grab to just grab one, and try to do things singular, like unilaterally. And then at that point, you know, switch it up, alternate your movement patterns, add some rotational stuff, as you said, be creative. And I think free weight or free weights allows us to have that creativity.
Ken Miller:
Without a doubt, without it out. And yeah, and you are definitely limited by your imagination when it comes to free weights. But you know, we just have to make sure that as we are lifting we we space pay as you're talking about special attention to our posture and our position. And when you brought up speed, speed kills, if you go too fast, you know, faster than what the joint can stabilize, again, you get off that selectorized piece of equipment, now you're having those those deeper stabilizing muscles deeper within the joint and having to do more work. And if you're going too far too fast, or even with heavier weights, again, one of the downfalls of heavy weights is that as you get older, you tend to go back to what you did long ago, right. So if I did that, I'd be picking up the 30 and 40 pounds and doing some shoulder presses there. But now, these guys can handle that. So you have to go with what you're capable of doing now, because things have changed. So you know, eating a bit of humble pie, you know, going with what's appropriate, right sizing, the resistance for the exercise, you want to be creative, you want to be you know, you want to challenge the body, but you have to be smart as far as what level of resistance that you're going to impose upon your body. And I think too, you know, so with free weights, I think we've we've said a lot of the pros, when we think about tubing, there's a lot of commonalities that could also you know, when we're talking about you know, doing things enter Ender inter dependently. So what I'm doing on one side and doing the other, we can still do with tubing because now we've got, you know, external load, we're still trying to think about that. However, with that being said, if we know that we have a good anchor point, and you're going to do something single arm or single leg, then oftentimes you're going to have to either hold let's say you're got the ones with the handles the tubing with the handle, and you're doing a chest press, you would actually have to hold both handles in your hand so it's going to actually double that load. So to your point, you're going to have to be careful with You're positioning your form. However, another very big Pro is if you want external load, they're super inexpensive in comparison to the other stuff we're talking about. Plus, you can easily throw it in your bag and travel with them.
Wendy Batts:
Yep. Yeah, I throw that that is a go to for me. So when I'm packing my shirts, and my pants and all that stuff, I throw a band in there because it doesn't cost any weight, when it comes to traveling doesn't take up any space. It's, you know, something that I'll just hook up onto the, you know, the foot of the bed, if, if that's available, or table in the hotel room. And, you know, you can have 1015 curls, or rows or squats or whatever, but very, very convenient. But I laugh, just, I'm not trying to cut you off. But I did that at a hotel, I got my tubing, tied it around a desk. And remember, when you're in a hotel room, it's probably not the most quality furniture. And so I started doing, I started doing some chest presses. And then I turned around and started rowing. And all of a sudden, I noticed that the dust starts coming towards me, and then I stepped back and it keeps moving. And then there's a lamp that's connected it was almost going to be it's gonna be really, really bad. However, that's why it's important to always make sure that everything that you're doing the anchor point and everything that you have, it's safe, because that could have been that could have been disastrous. Yeah, I've had, I've moved some furniture myself. I think we all know, what would I need to move it? I can't when I don't want to move it. It's easy to move. So yeah, that's exactly, yes. And then, of course, some pros, for me when we're talking about selectorized equipment or machines is if you're new to the gym, is the pictures will help you, it teaches you the proper movement patterns, when you're trying to focus on specific body parts, it really does take the guesswork out. And if you're trying to gain size, it is a great you know, those are great pieces of equipment. I just say, as a side note, if you're going to use machines, try to switch it up and use some of these other resistance, you know, pieces of equipment we're talking about. So therefore, your body is moving the way that we move in life. But then you're also working on specific isolated strength.
Ken Miller:
Yeah, I remember my very first personal training client, Laurie, she comes in, and you know, she's got her goals, you know, she's, she's got this shoulder thing going on. But you know, this was, again, mid 90s. And we had all this wonderful, this wonderful line of selectorized equipment. So what did I do? I mean, this is how I was trained, this is what I knew. So I put her on the seated chest press. And my script as it went with Laurie was alright, Laurie, this is a seated chest press machine, right, it's designed to challenge the front of your chest and your shoulders. And this is how we adjust those seats. Here's where we adjust the weight. When you set up on here, here's how you grab the handles, and then you push, right and I want you to go at this speed up and this speed down. And that was how I taught my first client was on a selectorized piece of equipment. And I bring that up right now because it was easy, right? I don't have to tie I didn't have to talk about mechanics head position over the shoulder, shoulders over the hips, I just taught her here's, here's how you position yourself, here's what it's for. And here's the motion and have at it, right so for me to bring that up, it's just it as we brought up earlier, it's it's an easy way to challenge the body because the bench or the seat or whatever it is, it's it's stabilizing you There's nothing to control, if I'm sitting down, there's I don't have to control my hips, I do want to make sure I have a good you know, position with my low back, I want to make sure that I'm sitting as tall as I can. But outside of that the machine is taking care of a lot of things that your body doesn't have to when it comes to posture and position. So that's one of the that's one of the easier things, you know, whether it's good or bad is up to up to the listener but it's one of the one of the benefits of having selectorized equipment because somebody can exercise. You don't have to inundate them with anatomy and, and exercise physiology on why, you know, it's important to stand up or sit down but, you know, it was it was how I started off my career was using selectors. But then as my education grew, so did my level of instruction. But you know, that that was you know, for better for worse. That was how I got started with with teaching people exercise.
Wendy Batts:
I can't even remember the first thing that I use, I'm trying to go back and like what was it you know, but I we definitely had machines and like I said, I worked mainly I started my career in physical therapy. So we did have machines, but we had a ton of you know, movement or like cables and free weights so we could work on proper movement patterns, because most of the people were coming out of some kind of, you know, post op or something. So I was there to help with movement. But I think you My key takeaways from today and hopefully you guys enjoyed this is very it up, but be smart in your choices. And if you're always doing machines do something different because eventually every four to six weeks, your body is going to adjust to whatever demand you're placing on it. And it's just going to get to know if you're used to doing machines. And that's all you've ever done. Think about how often in life do you have just one specific movement, and you're not adding in all different types of movements, it's very seldom, meaning if I'm going to press I may press outward forward to the side. But if I'm going to lock a piece of equipment, I'm only pressing this one way. So train for life, add some variation to your workout, just understand that if you are going to use some of these different pieces of equipment, you want to think about the pros and cons. And always set yourself up for success. So choose the right band and your tubing, the thicker the band, the harder the resistance, so be smart. And like you said, check your ego at the door and really focus on slowing down your tempo work on your movements. And then just have fun, be creative, like you said, be creative.
Ken Miller:
And and I think, well for me, you know, one of the takeaways is, you know, people, trainers, clients will always ask, well, what's what's the best exercise to do? or, in this case, what's the best piece of equipment to use? And my question that I know it's impolite to answer a question with the question, but I'll ask I'll ask them. So what's the best chess move? Or what's the best move in checkers? It depends on the situation. So as we mentioned with selectorized, equipment, free weights, body weight or tubing, it depends on what the goal is.
Wendy Batts:
So like you said, when they use a mall, it just depends on Okay, what are you trying to focus on for that session for that month, for that quarter as far as your fitness and and wellness goals when it comes to resistance training. So be versed at all four of those examples that we've given you. Because at some point in time, they're all going to be appropriate and it does take a certain level of education, understanding and experience to to give you you know, nice safe experience when it comes to all those pieces. So So yeah, that's that's the question I like to ask when they ask me questions. So what's the best route that I'm currently rude because I always ask other questions like huh, so I do have quite a bit deeper so before I answer that, I need to get a little more information. But this was fun. So I'm glad that we did this. So thanks for thanks for hanging out with me doing this today.
Ken Miller:
Likewise, Wendy Um, so thanks, everybody, for spending your time with us and learning about playing the waiting game and hopefully you took something away with with your time with us as we always I always learned something from you Wendy. So if you like what you heard today and want to hear more from us, like follow subscribe and till next time, we will see you here on the random fit show and till then take care, and be well.
Ken Miller:
Likewise, Wendy Um, so thanks, everybody, for spending your time with us and learning about playing the waiting game and hopefully you took something away with with your time with us as we always I always learned something from you Wendy. So if you like what you heard today and want to hear more from us, like follow subscribe and till next time, we will see you here on the random fit show and till then take care, and be well.
