Not Your Daughter's Workout | Not Your Mother's Workout

It’s time for some fun in this not your daughter’s workout Not your mother’s workout episode. We spent an hour comparing and contrasting Millennials & Gen X/Boomers (50+). So get your long hike shoes on and be ready for the ride. There are a lot of pearls inside. Moms round up your daughters, in-laws and let’s do this.

Are you working out with your daughter? Giving her tips so she can start exercise or get better results? I’m here with my good friend and the Millenial health expert Dr. Debbie Bright to discuss what’s same and what’s different about your workouts.

My Guest

Weight loss and gut-health expert Dr. Debbie Bright is an internationally recognized and board-certified Functional Medicine Physician, Exercise Physiologist and Nutritionist. As the Founder and CEO of the International Millennial Health™ Movement, Dr. Debbie helps millennials discover their hidden food sensitivities so they can heal their face (skin), fat and fatigue all within 21 days or less. While weight loss is what Dr. Debbie does—restoring self-worth is who she is.

Not Your Daughter’s Workout Not Your Mother’s Workout, Or Is It?

Both generations know they need to exercise/move more. When it comes to weight loss the first thing they think is, “I need to get into the gym.” They both falsely believe in the old science of eat less, move more — they think body composition is all about calorie restriction and cardio. So, they start eating more fruit, skipping meals, feeling like crap and jogging. The results they do get are not sustainable and they 

rebound or yo-yo diet. I think it’s very common for both generations to always be on a diet in some way shape or form. They still falsely think they should be grazing too or eating their 100-calorie snack packs!

Gen X & Boomers go for the treadmill (or the elliptical or walking) and Millennials go for the spin bike. Very cardio-driven mindset.

We all need to move more.

For Millennials it’s a very sedentary lifestyle due to long hours sitting at the desk and scrolling social media.

For Gen X & Boomers it’s being planted in front of the computer too, and then the TV, and caring for aging parents. There’s a little social media time there too. 

What Happened?

BOTH: What used to work before is no longer working anymore (caloric restriction).

Depending on age of Millennial (24-38), they’re also starting to experience hormonal shifts. Gen X & Boomers 50-75 experiencing after-effects of no weight lifting while working and no emphasis on it while they were young adult women.

Stress Levels?

Millennial women are career-driven, typically have a lot of student loan debt, depending on where they’re at in the age-range they are moms…very busy lifestyle and challenging to keep up with…

Dads are getting the dad bods and I don’t see them recovering from it.

Women 50+ are still working, juggling home, or now home and juggling more at home, more college kids not at college, young adults displaced due to COVID, aging parents whether very close or very far – both cause stress.

Male boomers are losing muscle (and hair) gaining belly fat and slowing down…especially if alcohol is still a big part of social life.

For men and women - Still working, don’t want to be working, stopping working, identifying with the career, or worrying about not having the income from working and will it be enough.

What’s driving the Millennial generation to choose their workouts?

Social interaction and a sense of community, which is why they’re skipping out on the regular do-it-yourself gym memberships and aiming for boutique-style group classes.

What’s driving 50+ Women to choose workouts?

“Don’t Hurt Me!” and fat loss, belly fat loss promises. So, they’re vulnerable. They can fall for the snake-oil salesman and a savvy marketer. Look, even a beautiful 50 something trainer with flat abs doesn’t guarantee she’s using a hormone balancing exercise prescription that is based on YOU and individual need.

What are the top 5 most popular fitness activities among the Millennial generation?

1. Yoga
2. Spin like SoulCycle
3. HIIT training or bootcamps
4. Pilates
5. CrossFit

Women 50+ exercise favorites

1. Walking
2. Pilates
3. Yoga, Barre
4. Zumba
5. Elliptical, rowing, “toning classes"

What do you see as beneficial or not with these workouts?

Let’s be real…spin is NOT a full-body workout! Yoga keeps you soft. Lots of injury with CrossFit and bootcamps. Moving is great, but only focusing on any one of these and skipping weight training does you no favors at all!

There are (7) functional human movements include:

• pushing,
• pulling,
• squatting,
• lunging,
• hinging,
• rotation/anti-rotation 
• gait

We never drop into pushups on a bike or lift your baby with your feet pedaling beneath you — not functional. Dr. Debbie Tip: When I’m on a spin bike and they go to weights, I crank my resistance up so high that I can now use the pedal as a ground reactive force so I can engage my core and I don’t blow out my shoulders with 2 pound weights. I understand grip strength and how that protects the shoulder… I frown on this style of false "full-body" workout. Debra Tip: I leave.  I’ve got less time on this earth for nonsense than you.

Professional and Olympic athletes don’t even do crazy stunt workouts, so why would you? There is exercise (full of creativity and variety for variety sake) and then there’s training.

ME: Let’s clarify that statement. We don’t want necessarily to train like professional and Olympic athletes … they train twice a day, they nap and treat nutrition like it’s their job between, it’s their life. But … the point… that you train with specificity. What do you want to be better at? What aren’t you good at now? What hurts? What doesn’t feel good? What do you want to be able to do?

Not Your Daughter’s Workout Not Your Mother’s Workout on Social Media

True for BOTH: Too many Instagram stars doing the most ridiculous workouts! Oh, god, thank you for that! And too many who have clearly had surgery – be it boob, belly or butt – that viewers are believing they’ll get that look if only they repeat.

True for BOTH: Pink dumbbells outside of rehab are just embarrassing. Skipping weights is a huge disservice to longevity.

Me: and it’s asking for disability. End stages of perimenopause, early stages of post menopause, muscle and bone losses are accelerated. So offsetting those with strength training and protein is mandatory unless you just want to say… okay… just say bring it on aging. But during COVID if you felt more stress, isolation, flirted with depression or anxiety and you’re taking medications, those can also compound body composition changes.

This minute we’re in right now is lasting longer than anyone wants it to…and we need to decide right here and now we take back control in 2021. Your choices during the pandemic especially if you’re in menopause will determine your next 10, 20, and 30 years.

Spin Bunnies?

Spin bunnies and boot campers are NOT functional trainers. They don’t even know human anatomy or those basic 7 human movements if you asked them!! It’s embarrassing!!

Me: And they literally just “spank” participants. As if the worse you feel, the more you can barely walk leaving or tomorrow, the more “it was a great workout.” In 2020 that kind of mentality costs you immunity. That kind of muscle breakdown – catabolism – on top of emotional, financial, stressor…

Example: Pull-ups or chin-ups work the core. Put in a tampon and do them and tell me your core and pelvic floor aren’t activated enough to push that thing out of place.

Me: True! And that I hope ever Flipping 50 listener has at least one tampon lying around to go try this.

Where Not Your Daughter’s Workout Not Your Mother’s Workout Collide

Weights do not make you bulky, weights make you toned, sexy, lean…you need to be strong as you age.

Me: Truth.

Let’s get to the bottom of "bulk" when doing weights.

1. A sign you are retaining water, puffy, and a hormone imbalance
2. A sign you are not eating enough protein but have justified just eating more, and making it carbs – of the not so resistant starches kind
3. A sign you’re not adhering to a smart schedule of training and recovery.

What drives Millennial women crazy if you say/advise them ______________

Being confronted with the idea that what they’re doing isn’t really serving them—cardio, caloric restriction. They don’t know how to train functionally. They don’t understand they need to rest!

They think it’s go harder, stronger, 

longer and they’re heading towards burnout with the poor food choices and excessive exercise. 

Frequency Reality

Dr Debbie: I only train 2x a week coming out of burnout myself, but people look at me and claim I must train 2x a day, 7 days a week. 

And to dive deeper into rest. After about 40 the need for recovery time increases. I always like to emphasize there isn’t a reduced need for stimulus, meaning you need to lift, and you need to lift to fatigue. But you will enjoy greater strength and fitness gains if you recover fully and that is more often 72 hours than the 48 between strength training sessions you used to do.

You can workout once with your daughter and then the rest of the week you’ve got unique needs for recovery.

Me: Yes, A 67-year old client of mine recently crossed the 100 lb weight loss threshold, and she recently had a PR doing a virtual 5k (she does many). A member of our community asked in a post whether she runs every day? She runs just twice a week at most, one is a short hill interval workout and another is a low to moderate mileage easy jog – always with a purpose.

That might be she does 2.5 miles and I ask her to go out easy and then have a negative split – making her second half of the run significantly faster. We don’t just log miles. That’s like eating chips. Junk food – junk miles.

Where can you connect more with Dr. Bright?

https://www.Weightlossawarenessquiz.com

Instagram:

@drdebbiebright

Show notes:

/notyourdaughters