70:: I haven't worked out in 3 WEEKS?! (The shocking revelations I've learned as a Dr. of Physical Therapy)

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I haven't formally exercised in three

weeks, so let's talk about what I've

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learned, how I felt, and the shocking

revelations that I've found along the way.

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Welcome back to Wellness Fixes the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsey Vic, a board

certified orthopedic Dr.

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Physical Therapy and a pelvic

floor physical therapist, and as a

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doctor of physical therapy, I am.

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Obsessed with movement.

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I love movement.

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I love exercising.

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And to say that it has been three

weeks since I've formally exercised

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is huge for me because I think

it's probably been since I started.

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Working out like started sports as a

young kid when I was like two or three

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that it's been, three weeks since

I've actually formally worked out.

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That is saying something huge and

typically I would not recommend that at

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all, but I found some shocking things that

have happened within my body with these

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three weeks off of purposeful exercise

that I wanna chat about today and sort of

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problem solve through it with you guys.

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So hopefully to.

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Not necessarily say you should take

three weeks off, but to give a little

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insight into how I think about my body

and how I always say it's experimentation,

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when it comes to movement, when it

comes to fueling, when it comes to

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sleep and hydration and how you live

your life and how you live your days,

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it is experimentation and this is

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one experiment I did not anticipate

having to do, but it's something

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that I'm kind of glad I was forced

into because of the insights I've

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been given within my own body.

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So we're gonna chat about it today.

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So I guess a little background.

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If you've been listening

to the pod and you.

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Been a long time listener.

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You know that I previously used to do two

episodes a week and after the May Podcast

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Festival where it was just like, go,

go, go, interview, interview, interview.

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Like so much fun in May, and I had been

doing two episodes since January and

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I absolutely loved doing two episodes.

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I.

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Began to hear this

whisper in May of Kelsey.

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Let's start dialing back a little bit.

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Maybe let's go down to just the

one time a week episode during the

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summer, and then pick it back up to

two times a week, starting back in the

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fall for some reason, it was just a

whisper that I had heard, and I have.

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I rely heavily on my faith.

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So I felt like it was a whisper from

God for some reason that I needed

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to listen to, and it was a very hard

decision because I love being creative.

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I love educating.

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I love doing the two podcasts a week.

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It's a lot of fun for me.

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So it was really hard for me to, I guess,

listen to that and step away from that.

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Part of my creativity and that part of

my work that I really, really enjoy.

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But I really felt called to decrease

that frequency, to decrease the

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amount of effort I was giving

to the podcast for some reason.

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And that next week was when the

reason sort of revealed itself to me.

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I guess, I think I said back maybe a

few episodes ago that I would give an

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update, and you guys might notice that

the last two episodes, I'm in a different

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location, but we actually purchased

our first investment property, which

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has been something that my husband

and I we dated in high school and we

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used to talk about in high school as

something that we would really like to

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do is just like host people in our home.

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Whether that be.

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Through short-term rental, long-term

rental, just be able to host people

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and serve people in a way, because I

love the idea of creating a space that

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people can come and enjoy, their family,

their friends in, and just creating this

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atmosphere of community and enjoyment.

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And so we were finally able

to do that after not planning

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on doing that this year.

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So it was definitely a shock

and definitely something that.

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We did not anticipate doing this year,

but this house came on the market and

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we were like, wow, that is perfect.

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It's in the area that we

would really like to be in.

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So we are going to live here for

a period of time while we sort

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of like prepare everything and

dip our toes into everything.

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But it's very exciting because it is

something I'm very proud of us for.

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But it has been an absolute whirlwind

of a journey over the last probably

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five or six weeks now, and our families

have been so, so helpful, so great.

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We could not have done

it without them, but.

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That is why over the last three

weeks since we've actually moved

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into this new home and have been

trying to prepare our other home for

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the new tenants that are moving in.

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It has just been chaotic and something

that we brought upon ourselves, but

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something that I did not anticipate

not working out for three weeks.

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So it was a shocking sort

of switch in my routine, and

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it was a switch in my routine and this

choice that we made in order to go

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through with this house has brought

about a lot of chaos within our lives.

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And so exercise for me, formal exercise

for me has been placed on the back burner.

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As a little bit of a side note, in August,

I actually switched over our newsletter

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provider to Substack, and I'm not sure

if you guys are familiar with Substack,

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but I've been really enjoying it as a

consumer and then also as a creator too.

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It's more long form written content,

but they do allow free newsletters and

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so that is where I've migrated all of

our newsletters over to, and I am going

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to actually start doing some sort of

female founder type content, which that

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word is such a buzzword to me right now.

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And I, I love watching female founder

content, but I feel like it's one of those

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words that is getting a little irritating

in my brain because it's, ugh, I dunno.

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I have mixed reviews on the concept of

a female founder, but I decided since we

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are going through a lot of change and.

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We are doing , some exciting things

that both my husband and I have really

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wanted to do and then also, building

this podcast and building this like

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community of people is so much fun for me

and I'm able to be so creative with it.

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I want to do more,

journaling about the process.

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So for others who want to possibly

do the same thing or who are just

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curious about how it works, because I

know I love that kind of content, but.

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I also want something to look back on,

to be like, what are the mistakes I made?

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What are the challenges we went through?

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What lessons have I learned?

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Oh, look at little Kelsey.

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You know, I'm hoping to look back in

like five, 10 years and see what I wrote

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and be like, wow, look how I've grown.

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Or, wow, what a silly girl, you know,

thinking that she knew all back then.

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So I'm going to start.

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Putting out more of that sort

of content on our substack.

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So we are going to have our normal

sort of newsletter content migrated

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over there starting in August.

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So those of you guys who are

already subscribed probably saw our

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first newsletter through substack.

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And you don't have to have the Substack

app, it'll be no different on your end.

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But I did wanna just like say I have

been loving Substack, so if you want to.

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Migrate over there for some just like

different sort of content that you might

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not be used to from other creators.

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And it's just such a positive

environment, which I love.

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So I will also be starting to do

more like personal female founder

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content over there as well too,

if you wanna subscribe to that.

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I'm gonna keep it separate from

the, wellness Girl chat newsletters

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because I just feel like some people

might not be interested in that.

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So yeah, if that's something

you're interested in, I'll leave

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both of the links below, but I.

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because we're doing all of these

fun things and in this period of

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massive creativity, massive change.

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Dreams coming true.

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I guess I want to be able to document

this and we've already had so many

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challenges already, but it has been fun

and just different lessons learned from

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different experts that I've talked to

that I'll probably share over there.

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So if you wanna join in on that, I'll

leave both of those links below for

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the new newsletter platform that we're

using, which nothing will change on

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y'all's end, but then also the female

founder content, if that is something

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that you guys are interested in.

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Okay.

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Now back to the normal

part of this episode.

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But I didn't exercise for

three weeks because of all

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of that chaos and fun, chaos.

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And I never wanna feel like I'm

complaining about it because we

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wanted this, we chose for this

to happen, but it was chaos.

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And because of that, I didn't

formally exercise for three weeks.

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And as a little bit of a disclaimer,

I am one of those people, one of the

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like soap boxes that I'll stand on is.

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That exercise has to be purposeful and it

has to be goal oriented towards improving

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your health and wellness in some way.

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So mowing the lawn counts as

movement, not formal exercise.

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Cleaning the house movement, great,

but it's not formal exercise.

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Walking to pick up and move boxes

like we were doing is movement.

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Great.

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But it's not formal exercise because

my goal of the exercise is not in order

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to improve my health and wellness.

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So that is the actual goal of exercise

and I have a lot of people who will come

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and say, oh yeah, I exercise every day.

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I garden.

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Which again, amazing, great.

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Not formal exercise.

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So that is one of my soapbox that

I'll stand on, that it does have

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to be purposeful, which is why I'm

saying I didn't out in three weeks.

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Because for me it was not purposeful.

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I was moving, moving.

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If you've ever moved, you have to fill

up boxes, you have to load 'em, you have

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to walk 'em into the house and into the

moving truck and all of these things.

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So I was moving, I was active and I did

actually surpass my move goal on my A ring

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every day of those three weeks by a lot.

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But I also wasn't recovering as well.

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I wasn't sleeping as well because

we really were in this time

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crunch of moving in order to.

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Get out of our old house

and get into our new house.

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So although I was active, I did

not have purposeful exercise and

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stress was also like off the charts.

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You could see that on

my A ring scale that.

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My stress levels.

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Some days were okay, but most days

they were crazy where it was like,

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Kelsey, you have not been very restored.

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You have not had very much

restorative time today.

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You've been in a high stress state.

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And that was just based on the amount

of activity that I had every day

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from, you know, sun up to send down.

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Because again, we were

in that time crunch.

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However, throughout all of that, I still

was also trying to prioritize sleep.

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So I say I haven't exercised, which is

true, but I have been moving and just

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generally active over the day without

it being considered a formal exercise.

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And our new neighborhood

that we're in is walkable.

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So we have been going on walks

to a coffee shop, but again, not

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necessarily purposeful exercise for me.

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And it's not lengthy walks like

half a mile there, half a mile back.

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It's really nothing crazy, but.

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I still, I guess as a little disclaimer,

if you consider exercise as something

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that's just generally moving throughout

the day, maybe I have exercised over

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the last three weeks, but for me

it has to be purposeful exercise to

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improve my health and wellness in

order for me to consider it exercise.

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I, so here are a few things I've noticed

after three weeks off of not working

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out and a lot of these objective.

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Measurements are based on my R

ring, which I absolutely love.

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I'm, uh, obsessed with R Rings, but.

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My, what I've noticed is that my

cardiovascular age has decreased,

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actually, which is a good thing.

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So it says my cardiovascular age.

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Previously in this high stress state,

it was maybe five years younger,

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and now it's like six years younger.

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So it has actually decreased,

which is a good thing, right?

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You want your heart health to

be younger than your actual age.

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That's usually a good thing.

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And so throughout these three weeks,

my cardiovascular age has actually

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decreased, which is a good thing.

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My resting heart rate has continued

to stay low, but it has stayed lower

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than normal in my luteal phase.

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So in my follicular phase, oftentimes my

heart rate ranges from like low to mid

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thirties, I'd say, which a lot of that

is genetic, and some of that is training.

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My rest and heart rate is a variable that

I know Responds very favorably to the

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right type of cardiovascular training.

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So I had been doing that for 12 weeks

prior to the move, and my goal was

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really to see that number change and

that number to get a little bit healthier

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because it had been creeping up a

lower resting heart rate in general.

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Is indicative of a more

efficient heart, right?

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Because if it's not having to pump for

as many beats and still deliver the

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same amount of oxygen to the working

muscles and organs and working parts

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of our body, that's a good thing we're

able to do the same amount of things

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with the same amount of oxygen, the

same amount of blood being delivered,

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the same amount of cardiac output

without as many beats per minute because

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typically our stroke volume increases

when we are working our heart muscle,

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So typically in my follicular phase,

it's in the low to mid thirties and in

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my luteal phase, which is that back half

of my cycle, it'll rise up to like low

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to mid forties, which was a very typical

pattern for me and very typical based

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on what we know happens physiologically

within our body and our cycles

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I have a lot of episodes on the

menstrual cycle and the physiological

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effects and the neurological effects

and the psychological effects of

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different phases of our menstrual

cycle and different hormones.

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So if you're interested in those, I'll try

and leave those links below too, because

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it's so interesting and something that

you can find a lot of different patterns

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within your body if you understand what's

happening to your body physiologically.

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So what was very interesting to

me is without these three weeks of

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exercise, what happened was my resting

heart rate actually stayed in the

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thirties and my luteal phase as well.

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So this one's kind of

puzzling to me a little bit.

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It still raised up a little bit, so

maybe it was in the high thirties

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versus like the low to mid thirties

in my follicular phase, which again

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is that front half of my cycle, but

it still didn't raise up to that like

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42, 43, that it can get at night.

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I guess as a side note, that's

usually when it happens, your

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lowest resting heart rate at night,

because again, you're relaxed.

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So that's typically when Aura will

catch my lowest resting heart rate.

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But it will typically be in those

low thirties to mid thirties range

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at the first half, and it actually

stayed in that range, maybe up to the

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high thirties in that luteal phase.

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So something interesting that

I'm watching for, based on these

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two cardiovascular variables is.

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The intensity of my workouts mixed with

my sleep and my recovery and my stress,

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because I really do feel like because

my body was so stressed, backing off of

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that purposeful movement was actually

healthy for me and for my heart.

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So something that was just very

interesting to me because I had been

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training and I'd been running more,

I'd been doing that cardiovascular

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training more in order to lower it.

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But what really also helped was.

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Having that right balance of

activity and recovery, especially

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during a chaotic moving phase.

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Some of the negatives I guess that I've

noticed with three weeks off of working

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out is that I feel weaker overall.

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I feel a little bit flabbier

overall, and I, yeah, I just feel

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weaker, especially with moving.

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I notice it more where my back and

my SI joint, which is sort of that

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junction between your low back and your

pelvis and where a lot of load transfer

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happens and torque and torsion and all

of this twisting and stuff that happens

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at your pelvis and your low back.

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That's sort of that transition zone, but.

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I was having a little bit more back

tweaks and SIJ tweaks happening when

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I wasn't exercising and when I wasn't

activating those postural and those core

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muscles, and just muscles in general,

like my glute muscles, anything like I

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was moving and I was working those muscles

in that way, but I wasn't purposefully

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activating them or working on what we

call that, like anticipatory control

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that happens when we're about to move

something heavy or carry something

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that's out of our base of support.

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So I noticed I felt weaker

overall, which is not something

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that I want to have happen.

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And then I also felt a little bit

more cheekiness in my low back and

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my pelvis that might have been staved

off have had I been exercising more

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consistently during those three weeks.

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And then the last thing I noticed

was that I was less hungry.

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It was harder for me to eat the

right amount of calories and get

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the right amount of nutrients

in my body every day because.

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I wasn't purposefully like expending

those calories with exercise.

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And I think although it's not

necessarily the amount of calories

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burned during exercise that relates

to the hunger, the lack of hunger,

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that I feel, I really do think that it

was more of a long-term effect where

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I wasn't activating those muscles,

I wasn't activating my heart in a.

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High enough intensity way in order to

cue my body to refuel in the way that it

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needed in order to build those muscles

and to build that heart muscle back up.

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So I think it wasn't necessarily

that I was burning less calories

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because I wasn't working out.

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It was just this long term effect of

when you exercise, your body's going

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to naturally need more fuel in order

to build the body up in a better way,

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so, I think, yeah, it was just a lot

harder for me to eat the right amount

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of calories, a sufficient amount of

calories, and I definitely noticed

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myself eating less overall, whether

that was because, partially because of

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just the moving and the chaos, but also

partially because I wasn't providing

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: 00:16:15

my body with that stimulus to need

those building block components in

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: 00:16:19

order to build back up those muscles

that I was working through exercise.

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: 00:16:23

So with three weeks of not working

out, I'm excited to get back into it.

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It was an interesting experiment,

something that I don't necessarily think

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everyone should do, but it was very

healthy for me to understand, especially

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the cardiovascular variables, because it

helped me to realize that maybe I wasn't

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giving my body enough time to recover, and

that I might need to tweak the balance of.

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: 00:16:44

How I'm working out, how I'm recovering,

how I'm resting in order to maximize

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: 00:16:49

some of those cardiovascular variables.

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: 00:16:50

So thank you guys for listening.

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: 00:16:52

If you want any of those links

to any of the newsletters,

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: 00:16:55

I'll leave those down below.

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: 00:16:56

I'll also leave the links to all of the

like previous episodes that I mentioned,

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: 00:17:00

if you want to check those out too.

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: 00:17:02

But thank you guys so much for listening

and I'll see you guys again in the next

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: 00:17:05

episode of Wellness Exists, the pod.