Crystal O'Keefe: Welcome to The MetPro Method podcast. I'm your host, Crystal O'Keefe. Today I am joined by Met Pro coaches, Cat Ramirez and Ryan McMullin, and today we're discussing dos and don'ts of exercise. Thank you so much for joining me, you guys! We get two for one. This is very exciting!
Cat Ramirez: Yeah, thanks for having us.
Crystal O'Keefe: Alright, so we talk about dos and don'ts of exercise. Can't, you start doing something and not think too much about it? So why is it important that we discuss this?
Cat Ramirez: So to answer that yes and no. So it just depends on the person, right? If you're not doing anything, then yeah, do anything that's fine. I don't care what it is: walk around, get up a few more times from your chair, whatever it is, just do it that's, for that person. For somebody that's got like specific goals in mind… maybe their aesthetic goals, then okay, we really wanna focus in on a type of workout or a type of training that's gonna service those goals and then dive into it deeper, right?
And what's gonna optimize your results based on who you are in your body type and what you're doing and your lifestyle. And then if we've got an athlete, that's a totally different beast. So an athlete is an athlete, right? Like it doesn't matter what my body type is as an athlete, I need to perform well at my sport.
So I'm not , Oh, what's gonna give me the best delts or whatever it is, right? I'm like what's going to increase my clean and jerk? What's gonna increase my snatch? So focusing in on workouts, strength and conditioning. And other types of activities that are all related to physical fitness.
Your recovery, your stretching, all of that's gonna best service that sport. So it just depends on the circumstances of the client and what we're really asking them to do.
Ryan McMullen: Yeah, and I would, I agree with everything Cat said, obviously. I think for most people it's just what, can I start doing?
And my answer to them is, what you have done and what you're comfortable with, or what you've been taught how to do start with that. And if you haven't been taught anything, I think that's a good starting point, is. Do I need to be taught how to do something? And I think Cat and I have talked about this before, maybe even on this podcast, which is go find a personal trainer for 2, 3, 4, 5 sessions.
I know it's a big investment for a lot of people. You're seeing a personal trainer two, three days a week, that money can stack up, but it doesn't need to be forever. Go see someone to build out a program and teach you the right way to move the proper way to, and whatever discipline that is, maybe it's running, maybe it's weight lifting.
Get someone to teach you the basics and build out a program. That way when you go into the gym or whatever that exercise is you're doing, you have been taught and you know that you're comfortable doing those and they're safe.
Crystal O'Keefe: Okay so, basically it just depends on the person and it also depends on what their goals are.
So the reason that you wanna be discussing this with somebody who's more knowledgeable than you, whether it's a personal trainer or it's just like some go to a gym and get a consultation it's because you want to understand where to start depending on what your goals are. So if you're incredibly sedentary, that could look very different than an athlete who is looking to increase their, run pace or looking to increase how much they lift. That makes a lot of sense. As somebody looks to start exercising, are there things that people should be doing as they start every workout? And if so, does it depend on the type of workout? Does that vary?
Cat Ramirez: So the workout itself, yes, it can depend but, most often we really wanna get like a good warmup in, right? Like a good warmup. You wanna have a focus for the day. Go into it knowing what you're doing so that you're not just like aimlessly walking around trying to like, pick out things and maybe not creating the best combination again where a professional can help you.
So either your Met Pro coach can direct you. In terms of like how to optimize your fitness based on what your goals are and give you a little bit of a cadence in terms of your workout. Some of our coaches like Ryan and myself we have a strong fitness background. It, is our business outside of MetPro and giving somebody a little bit more direction might be within our scope of practice. Otherwise you're going again, seeking out a coach or an instructor.
But yes, you absolutely wanna warm up. Make sure that your joints are warm, your body's warm. That if you're running the first 10 minutes of a run is always that Oh my gosh, I don't think I'm gonna be able to do this today.
Kind of bit where your body's still figuring out , Is somebody chasing me down? Are we in fight or flight, or are we like hanging into this? So warming up really well to get that out of the way, Get the breathing under control and make sure that the, system is adequately primed. Also, if you're dealing with a specific set of circumstances an injury or just a weakness or whatever it is, right? We want to also be addressing that as well and making sure that we are properly Working with that system to get it firing in the correct way.
At the beginning of your workout, it might also include a pep talk with your coach too, if you have somebody that is working with you in terms of what are we focused on today, where are the things that I really want you to drill in on. I had an injury when I was weightlifting on my right side. So as a result, my left side would always [00:06:00] overcompensate.
I had a twisty movement. It threw everything off. I was always sore in the wrong way. So we really wanted to focus in on warming up that system and get the, getting the central nervous system firing so that I was more aware of my body, was listening to what I was demanding of it.
Ryan McMullen: And then again, piggyback everything Cat said, Absolutely. Just in the simplest terms of dos and don'ts, I think at least is identify what you're doing and do this most simplistic form of that first for a warmup, right? If you are going to go on a run, Do a five minute walk first, right? That is the most simplistic version of a run. If you're going to bench press, do you know, don't load up plates, do some banded work, right?
Banded press, work with a, light machine and warm up, like it doesn't need to be over complicated. Just identify the muscle groups that you're working the exercise and do the lightest weight, the lowest load, the most simplistic version of that. And then I'll probably add on there, and I, don't know about Cat, but I have this conversation with my clients often is do not static stretch prior to exercise.
Cat Ramirez: Oh my gosh. Thank you. Thank you. Do not.
Ryan McMullen: I still have people doing this.
Crystal O'Keefe: Okay. We gotta explain what static stretching is because some people don't know.
Cat Ramirez: Got it. All right. Yeah, so static stretching is where you're just like, nothing is happening. You're just like stretching something and holding it, right?
Instead of a dynamic stretch, which might look more like line drills, like butt kickers or high knees or leg swings, or something like that, where there's movement involved, right? You're not just picking a position and holding it for a long time. And that's, it's a lot of people like will be like, Oh yeah, I did this and that and I did my stretches.
Crystal O'Keefe: And that's how they taught us in school. I know you guys might be too young for them, but I remember that's what they told us
Cat Ramirez: I think I'm older than you.
Crystal O'Keefe: I have no idea. Cat, let's not discuss it publicly . But okay but why is static stretching not.
Ryan McMullen: Optimal? So static stretching is going to you.
You have to look at it again, simplistic version. It is relaxing the muscle tissue, right? It's lengthening, it's stretching out that muscle tissue. When you are wanting the goal, look at the goal of exercise. , you're priming muscles to fire, to turn on, to fill with fluid and blood flow. And, that's what's gonna keep them engaged.
So if you're doing something prior, like stretching or another big no-no is do not foam roll before you're exercising , no foam rolling before you do that you're, doing the opposite of what the next goal is, which is engaging, firing. And filling that, muscle tissue with blood flow.
So we just, we don't want static stretching like cat said, dynamic, right? Move around. Leg swings. Butt kicks. It's okay to go into a brief lunge stretch, but come out of it immediately. You want to be going into things slightly coming out of them and not staying in a stretch for too long because you're, again, you're just turning that muscle off and asking it to relax before you're about to put it through stress, so it of confuses your body instead of preparing your body.
Cat Ramirez: It would be like if you were like, I'm gonna do sprints. I'm gonna lay down and take a nap and then go into my first sprint. It's not gonna workout. You'll be really rested. You're gonna, you're gonna be so rested
Crystal O'Keefe: Cat. I mean like the first one might be okay cuz of that fight or flight, but you also might hurt yourself, so you wanna be like, get your mind going in that same track.
Or if I was just. Hey, I want you to play the drums, but before that, like I want you to meditate right now and then just start playing the drums, right? Like you, you're not like warming up into the activity.
Crystal O'Keefe: So you wanna gently get the blood flow going. You wanna gently wake up your muscles.
Cat Ramirez: You don't wanna do anything that is, is going to relax your muscles, but you also don't want to do anything that's too intense right away. So don't start off by sprinting, don't start off by doing static stretches. Got it. You guys remind me of something that I have learned just as I've gotten older I, didn't start running until I. Like in my late thirties Never had run a mile in my life except when they made me in grade school. That's it, . And I hated it. I hated it then. And and I don't do that either.
Crystal O'Keefe: I know you guys don't.
Cat Ramirez: but you do. I'm like, Oh, we have to.
Crystal O'Keefe: But you guys do work out a lot. You do exercise a lot and something that is not obvious to everybody.
And it certainly wasn't obvious to me. Is that not all of your muscles know to engage before you start working out. So like you think this is how I thought that like when you start running, because it's something that you can, anybody can do that your body will just know how to do it. But if you sit all the time like me and when it, because I've had a very sedentary lifestyle your glutes don't engage, your hamstrings don't, engage, and that's how you get injured.
In, addition to The kind of warmup that you guys are talking about, the dynamic stretches. I think kind of activations are really good for people that are super sedentary when they're first getting started, especially if you're starting with running. I don't know if that's necessary for strength.
I, know that it's, helpful to warm up, but I don't know if you have to really activate. I don't know if that's the same.
Cat Ramirez: A hundred percent. A hundred percent. Like a lot of people will be like, Oh, my glutes don't fire. You're standing, so they're doing something. Can you go to the bathroom?
They're probably doing something , but it's okay. But but to what you're saying, right? For instance, running is a really front body movement, right? And so a lot of times, like we're. Activating the other parts of the body in a conscious way, right? So that we're not holding like a focus there, we're not being mindful of like correct positioning or utilizing other smaller muscles or other muscle groups that will help us to better what we're doing, right?
So yeah, everybody can. And that's fine, but, and just by, go out to a public place and watch a couple people run. Like you can see differences in how people run. You can see differences in their body positioning, differences in their backs, differences in the way their feet strike, right?
Everything. So dependent upon the type of running, depending upon the person, depending upon like how they are being trained or untrained, right? And so you can absolutely do anything, I guess like anybody can do anything, right? Like you can just tiger it and get in and, do it, right?
But you're gonna do it better with, more focus and risking injury. Less so if you are priming a system and getting your central nervous system to fire, like I can't stress that enough. Especially like you can see it a lot in people that have Neurological disabilities, if you ever watch somebody like there are a lot of things that they need to do to get both sides of the body firing, to get both sides of the brain firing, to be able to execute a complicated movement.
Fine motor skills, gross motor skills. And I say that and my son has a cerebral palsy, like I watch his therapy a lot. You can take a lot away from that and translate it into the fitness world, right? It's all neurological. [00:14:00] Some these are complicated movements and we're not just. Standing there, right?
There's, complication to it, asking front and back body to work at the same time. Lateral movement, forward movement, backward movement, right? Executing those heavier lifts with some explosiveness whatever it is that you're doing. It's not simple. And so we can't think of it.
Yes, I like how Ryan breaks it down into an extremely simplistic form. Absolutely. But that doesn't mean you're. Thinking in a simple way in terms of dis servicing yourself by not completing a warmup or getting everything firing, et cetera. Yeah. And they're, and as coaches when we're working with people there's, so many tools and people our clients, at least when we're working with them in person, they can't really see that we're doing this.
Ryan McMullen: But there's so many tactical things that you can do to start engaging those muscles. Which is probably back to the conversation of Get a professional, right. Hire somebody to look at what you're doing. If you're a runner, get a running coach to look at your gait, to look to make sure your posture is correct, right?
If you are squatting, make sure that you're working with a trainer that knows like where your knees should be tracking and where your toes go. In terms of, again, those like tactical cues and things we do there's simple little things like we want, during a squat, the knee is driving out lateral to the body.
So we may put our hand on the side of their knee and say, push out into my hand or wrap a band around their knees and, say, push out into this band. My favorite one to do with runners if they're like nervous or unsure of their form when they're running, is go walk uphill.
It is impossible to walk uphill with bad form. And run uphill. It's impossible, flat, downhill, absolutely possible to have weird stride or gait and, movement pattern, but uphill, nearly impossible. You can fix everything with that. So if you want like a good again, simplistic version, good warmup for running, go walk uphill for five minutes and it'll start like Cat is.
Talking about firing that, that neurological system, your central nervous system, and making sure that your movement pattern is gonna mimic what you just did. . Okay.
Crystal O'Keefe: I know we've talked about a wide variety of kind of workouts that people could do and things that they might need to think about, but when it comes to somebody who, their basic goal is just, I wanna get started, I wanna be active I want to, make sure that I am moving in some way and start to feel better , is there like an optimal kind of workout plan for someone to start at that level? .
Cat Ramirez: So somebody that's never done anything. Absolutely. 100%. Ryan said I, really recommend that you go and work with a professional if you haven't been doing something and you're gonna launch into doing something, Of course we wanna do it well, right?
Ryan is studying finance as we were talking about before we hopped on. I am not going to just start accounting because I don't have finance like, simple financing. We're good. But so you don't wanna just like launch into something that you have never done or have no knowledge around and just we're just gonna wing this now.
Of course. Things that you can do. We walk around daily to go get things from the bridge to move from place to place, room to room a hundred percent. Great. Just start walking, right? That's a great place to start. Start walking, walk uphill. Ryan said, make it more challenging, right?
Ryan McMullen: Walk with a kid that's even more challenging, right? Or a dog?
Cat Ramirez: Push a stroller that's very challenging. yes, a hundred percent. There are things like that where you can jump into it if you don't have the financial support. To go see a professional. There are a million places like the Y M C A or other facilities like that where it's really not very much money, It's not a large investment, just to get in and do small group class or an evaluation up the very least.
And most places will either do a complimentary evaluation or a discounted evaluation and some sort of package around that. That's great. Simple things like sitting and standing. Sit and stand off your chair a bunch. We do that every day, right? Like you use the restroom, you get in and outta your car, you sit to eat, sit and stand every day.
Walking is great just doing like normal movements that you've already been doing. Think about the things you need to execute on a daily basis. If you've got a kid, you gotta bend down and pick up your kid a bunch, right? Like you do that without thinking. That's something that you can do also, right?
And enroll your kid into it. Other things like getting up off the ground from your knees, stuff like that. That's very challenging for a lot of people, right? So that's something we should all be able to do, things like that. And just working towards like small goals, but the best place that you can start just so that we're not overlooking something or risking injury.
Just throwing your body into a place that it doesn't wanna be. And then creating another like subset of issues is to go work with somebody for at least a few sessions, and then from there, decide what's gonna be the best thing for you. Maybe it is home workouts. Maybe that person can direct you to an online platform where it's very simple home workouts.
Maybe it's coming in for a group session. Maybe it's continuing those private sessions, or maybe we've got something else going on and we really need to address it with some physical therapy first and then move into whatever it is that we wanna do.
Ryan McMullen: Yeah, there's, man, there's so much to exercise, . It's like, how long do we have?
I stress on my clients so much and a lot of what Cat talked about is like general movement pattern that you're gonna do on a daily basis. Start with that, right? Walking, sitting down, picking things up off the ground. Like those are basic, fundamental movement patterns that everyone is gonna do.
And you can find. General activities that probably no one really wants to do. They're looked at like chores, but can help a lot like washing your car, right? No one washes their car twice a week. But if you don't know where to start with exercise, go outside and wash your car twice a week. There is so much bending down and squatting and standing up and moving around and walking and a lot of work being done. Simply by those like couple pieces.
Crystal O'Keefe: And Ryan is throwing out the Karate Kid method
Cat Ramirez: it, I was gonna say, and then Ryan turned into Mr. Miyagi. Wax on. Wax Off… Paint your fence guys .
Ryan McMullen: But but it's a great, easy, great suggestion though.
And, that just trickles into so many things like walk your dog, go garden, mow your lawn, wash your car, vacuum your house. Sweep your floors, right? Like I know people don't look at those like exercise, but if you start with, My order of operations with all of my clients is always frequency, intensity, and then complication of movement, you can really boil it down to that, right?
How many days a week are you doing something physical currently, Because it's useless for me to say, I want you to start working out three days a week if you're doing nothing. Start with frequency. I'm going to go on a walk four days a week, period, end of story, right? Start with frequency. Once you have that done, up to five, up to six, up to seven.
Once we have that done, then we go intensity, right? You're walking seven days a week. That's awesome. Now I want you to increase your pace. You're doing the same activity, but we're increasing, right? We're making that walk harder. And then once you have that down, then we can go to complication of movement, right?
We bring that walk to a run or a jog, right? And that goes for whatever you're doing. Same with weightlifting, right? If you don't know how to squat, sit down and chair and stand up. Do that every single day, 50 times, right? You go from that to, Okay, can I lower the chair? Can I increase my intensity here?
And then complication of movement pattern, we start adding in a weight, a barbell, right? So frequency, intensity, and then movement. ,
Crystal O'Keefe: great explanation. So when you guys have talked to you, a lot of people, you both, like you said, you, you both do fitness outside of MetPro that's your whole gig.
What, do you hear the most from people that , you're just like, Oh, please don't do that. Never do that. And you guys talked about static stretching. We know that's one, but I feel like there's probably other things that people come to you and you're just like, Oh no, don't do that. Do this other thing.
Cat Ramirez: I think like over training for some people is a big thing. Especially like some of our more athletic individuals where sometimes more is just more and so they'll be like, Oh, I did nine workouts today and seven days a week, and whatever. And their body's just shot, right? And then they're like, I'm not making any progress.
I'm not making any progress. , your body's just shot, man. It's worn out like doesn't wanna do anything. It's over it. Like your central nervous system is shot so I think that's like a big thing for my athletes, for beginning individuals. YouTube heroes is like my pet peeve. You can Google anything you want on YouTube, right?
We've all done it. Oh, jeez, this just broke at my house. I'm just gonna Google it on YouTube, right? I'll figure out how to fix it. You go to a professional for most things in your life, right? Like you're gonna go to a dentist for your teeth, you're gonna go to, if you're me, you're gonna go to pest control for large bugs.
Heck yeah. You're not gonna try and attack those on your own, right? So no spider zone . I know my limitations
It's one of those Oh Jesus, take the wheel. So why would you like not do that for your body, your health, your muscles, your bones, your structure, everything like that, right? You're not gonna be like, I'm not a chiropractor, but I'm gonna just try and adjust my you break your back, right?
So you wanna go seek out again professional, opinion or help at the very least. So that's, my biggest thing. We have a lot of people that are like, I've never done anything before, but I learned on YouTube and now it's a little big lifter. And I'm like, Are you, Cause you almost just died right there
I love Ryan's explanation with the frequency, intensity, and then complication or complexity of the movement. Absolutely. So speaking to the frequency, there are some things you can do seven days a week, a hundred percent like your normal movement patterns, natural movement patterns, right?
And then there are some things that you just can't do seven days a week. And then on top of that intensity or complexity of the movement pattern. I don't need people learning how to do really complex movement patterns by just watching a, how to video
Ryan McMullen: I, Yeah, and I'll again piggyback off of something Cat said is the, over-training and more being, more, being more.
I think my biggest pet peeve is probably not doing the restorative work. So I know we made the devil out of stretching prior to exercise, but I don't see enough of that happening. After.
Crystal O'Keefe: So there's a, there is a good time that you should be doing those static stretches is what you're saying?
Ryan McMullen: A hundred percent. Oh yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Just post exercise or in the evening like, stretch when you're getting ready to relax and, you wanna stretch. It's so good for. Your joints, your muscle tissue, right? When you exercise and do anything you're, tearing and shortening and making those, muscles tighter and more tense.
And we wanna do the polar contrast to that, right? We wanna do the complete opposites of that frequently too. Not Yeah. Stretch. Once a month for five minutes, right? Like it's, that frequency should be there just as much, or maybe slightly less than the frequency of your exercise.
And for me, that's probably my biggest pet peeve is I might see someone working out 5, 6, 7 days a week sometimes, and what am I gonna hear from them? Oh, my back is tight, my shoulder hurts, my knee is bothering me. And my first question, How many times a week are you stretching? How many times a week are you doing yoga?
What are you doing for yourself Restoratively? And their answer, nothing. It's always nothing .
Cat Ramirez: And I am, that is my area of opportunity, for sure. .
Crystal O'Keefe: See, when you're a hard driving person, It is hard to be like, Now I will slow down. Cause it feels like you don't have time.
Cat Ramirez: Exactly. And also I, I'm a single mom. I've got three babies. I've got two businesses. There's like something to be cooked. There's only so much time in the day. I do have to sleep at some point. Like I, I'm like, when I do my workout, I'm like, We are warming up, like we're doing like the hardest warm up.
We're gonna win the warm up in 10 minutes and then we're gonna get into this workout. Cause I gotta go do something else too. So a hundred percent. And I'm always like, I was a ballerina way back in the day and so for me, I'm like, I'm really flexible so I'm good. But that's not obvious that's not a thing.
You have to stretch. So for people, my people that are out there that ha that are like, I am, I can't do yoga, man. I will sit there and be like, What's on my grocery list? What has to come next? Oh, did I forget to take out the garbage? What day is it actually? What is going on? Did, I feed the chickens?
Like whatever. For my people that have the no chill in their brain. Yes. Work on it. Obviously area of opportunity, right? Calm down. Maybe get a meditation app. Start with three minutes , but also like, in our app, we've got a great posture series and it is all restorative and Amazing for kind of resetting the, body system and unilaterally, bi unilaterally bilaterally.
Awesome for that. I can go through one of those series. And then call it a day. But if you're asking me to sit in the yoga I could put on some Metallica and go through that But if we're gonna sit there and listen to bells, like it's not gonna happen for me.
Crystal O'Keefe: No restorative yoga for Cat.
Cat Ramirez: No, You have to find what works for you. Ryan is great at stretching. I can't chill that much. and I
Ryan McMullen: I wouldn't even say I'm great at it. I, actually needed to like, distract my mind a little bit from it too. And I think most people fall under this category is when you're doing the activities that are sitting around I can think of 10 separate stretches that I can do while I'm working on my computer.
Crystal O'Keefe: I do a lot while I watch tv. Like it, like at night, that tends to be like, our household is very much Ooh, let's watch this, series together. And I will be sitting on the floor while everyone else is watching TV and on.
Ryan McMullen: That's where I'm getting my stretching done cuz it doesn't happen otherwise. And I was gonna, Yeah, and I was gonna say that's, a great opportunity to stretch. Like you are just sitting there doing nothing, but you're paying attention to something. So that's a great opportunity to stretch. Again, there's simple things you can do like just sitting at your desk, cross your hands behind your chair and pull your shoulders back.
It doesn't have to be this I'm going to sit down for 30 minutes like Cat said and do yoga. Probably not gonna happen, but it's, once again, the same thing as frequency, intensity, and then complication, right? Get the frequency down. I'm gonna do two or three stretches every single day while I'm watching tv.
And then up the intensity maybe those stretches get a little bit, you're getting deeper into them, right? And, you just move through that pattern. But it's, the restorative part is so, important and whatever way you can find to do it is more than you're currently doing.
Cat Ramirez: The other thing that is great and that I used to do all the time, if you're not gonna do it, have somebody else do it. So If my coach would come up to me after the session and be like, All right let's stretch out and like they would stretch, me or help me stretch or whatever, or sit there with me.
Great. I had a little buddy. I could do it. It was just like I was still in training mode, like my coach was telling me to do it. Great. And then the other thing I would do is just get regular massages all the time or Activation work or cupping or scraping or whatever it is. But still taking care of your body is important. Is what we're trying to stress . Yeah, absolutely.
Crystal O'Keefe: What, have we not covered today that you guys wanna make sure people know?
Ryan McMullen: Shameless MetPro plug. Yeah. The amount of exercise you do will not out train an awful diet. Yeah, that's,
Cat Ramirez: Yeah, a hundred .
Ryan McMullen: I'm sure that's been on dozens of our podcasts, but I'm gonna throw it out there for the people listening to this that are like, Oh, what do I do for exercise? It won't help if you are not controlling your diet.
And that's by far the most important part. Start with diet, moving to exercise, that's your second lever.
Cat Ramirez: Yeah. And conversely, like for our current clients or for people that are currently doing MetPro, if you're not moving, you're not using this to it's full capability, right? Like we've started, like Ryan said, start with your diet, then move into movement.
We've started with the diet. Great. You're handling your nutrition, you're bettering your overall health and wellness. Now move into the movement, right? And let's build on it. Let's enhance it and move forward from that. The other thing, I think that for fitness, a lot of people The type of workout.
We spoke to this in the beginning, but the type of workouts that they're doing. So if you are somebody that has specific goals, you have been working with a coach, This is more of a health wellness, but also maybe aesthetic thing. I wanna lose 12 pounds. I wanna taper my waist, I wanna fit into my jeans.
Like I, whatever it is, right? Like I want my arms to look better for summer. Stuff like that. Then talk to your coach about you, your circumstances, your body type, what is the best way for you to do that? What's gonna be the most optimal training? And, in addition to that, we have to think about other things like you and I were laughing about who's older.
Cat Ramirez: I don't train the same way that I did when I was 20. Oh, also hashtag facts for three reasons. A, I don't have, the life that I had when I was 20 is not just about me. And also I am old. Like I like the just. The bottom line bike is just, is what it is. So I cannot train like I did when I was like 20 to 28 just like crushing life and not appreciating what I had.
Crystal O'Keefe:Also, if you're 20 to 28, appreciate what you have. Announcement. It goes away and it's not the same. Okay, . You take a look at that booty every day and you would love it so you know, like you have to be aware of like where we are in life and the intensity that we can put forth.
I used to train for. A couple hours because it was like playing, right? Like I was with my buddies. Like we worked at a gym, like we would eat, train, do a little bit of work, train like whatever. It was just like fun. And then, and we would compete all the time.
Now I don't have friends, but my friends are gone, right? So now it's different, right? We've had to work other jobs. We've got kids, we've got a limited amount of time, I'm over 40, like you have to account for those things. My body type now is a completely different, I have a different body than I did.
Then I weigh the same that I did when I was actively competing in my sport and The current world champion. I am not a world champion now, , right? But I'm the same weight and I still have a good amount of muscle for a woman that it's, that's my age, right? For absolutely somebody that's been through a few pregnancies here.
Ryan McMullen: But this is not the same. I don't carry my muscle in the same way. Like things change. And so you need to have a come to Jesus, talk with yourself sometimes and be like, Hard truth. We are not 25 anymore. What do we need to change to make our movement or our fitness and challenging and fulfilling, but you're realizing where we are.
Cat Ramirez: In other words, be in tune with your body, don't do the things or have someone else who's gonna tell you .
Ryan McMullen: Yeah. Yeah. And I think if anything that's that's primarily probably what we're gonna stress is go see someone one session, two session. I can't tell you the amount of things I can teach someone fitness wise in one hour of their time.
Give me one hour of your time and I can teach you 10 different movement patterns that you're gonna feel comfortable with and know how, know what to do. And it's a perfect program for you to execute for the next 12 to 16 weeks.
Cat Ramirez: Go see a professional. And lastly, get a yeah, get a battle buddy, man. Don't just die by yourself.
Get somebody to do it with you. Like even if it's like an online support group or something like that, like a Facebook group. Whatever. I'm horrible at social media, so I don't know about these things, but I use like a Facebook group for mom questions in the area, like why get on a Facebook group for like local run people or the, mom and me park fitness, or the local Y or your local CrossFit or whatever it is, right?
Get into a group, get with a person, go to a group class. It's, it might be intimidating at first, but I guarantee that every person in that group or class was intimidated at one time and they are there for similar reasons. They need support. They need community. They need somebody there to help them and.
Like I've said in a previous podcast with you, like you don't know who you're gonna affect while they are helping you achieve your goals as well. Even myself now do I know how to work out alone? Absolutely. I used to train by myself all the time. It was the only way I could do it cuz otherwise I was training somebody else now.
Like I need somebody to work out with. I own a CrossFit affiliate. I have an entire CrossFit set up in my gym. I still go to the local CrossFit and that's where we are currently living and go drop into classes and take that or I'll any studio if I'm gonna run again, I don't love running, but I'll do it a hundred percent.
I'll make somebody else run with me that is good at running or that does like running, or even somebody will just yell at me from the sidewalk.
Ryan McMullen: Cat is lying. She will not run. She's I know.
Crystal O'Keefe: I'm like that. Know you won't.
Ryan McMullen: I've been, Everything you said was perfectly acceptable up until the run.
Cat Ramirez: I won't guys, I've been working on my running and I just wanna say, That my mile is down to pretty good time.
Crystal O'Keefe: I'm pretty happy with it. Congrats Cat. That is awesome.
Cat Ramirez: I'm sure he helps too, guys.
Crystal O'Keefe: Okay, guys, thank you both. Cat, Ryan, thank you both so much for your time today. I really appreciate it. And listeners, that is all for this week. You can find all the MetPro Method episodes anywhere you get podcasts, or you can go to metpro.co/podcast. Please be sure to follow the show and rate and review so other people know what to expect and you can learn more about MetPro at MetPro.co.
I'm your host, Crystal O'Keeffe, and I will be back next week. Until then, remember, consistency is key.
