Episode 73

full
Published on:

28th Apr 2025

59:: breakdown for the baddies:: what exercise is right for my body & how can I be more disciplined in my healthy routines?

Let's break it down for the wellness baddies as we chat what exercise is right for our bodies and how to build the motivation and consistency to be more disciplined in our healthy routines. In this episode, we cover atomic habits, how to find the exercise that will help you reach your goals and be the "right" exercise for your body, the need to remove judgement from other girl's form of movement, and so much more! Join us & let us know what you think!

Dr. Dixie Episode

Rep Ranges Episode

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00:00- 00:33 Introduction to Wellness Big Sis the Pod

00:34- 01:18 Guest Spotlight: Dr. Dixie Stanforth

01:19- 02:20 Understanding Exercise Choices

02:21- 03:23 The Importance of Enjoyment in Exercise

03:24- 05:33 Experimentation and Personalization

05:34- 11:37 The Role of Variety in Workouts

11:38- 13:15 Balancing Enjoyment and Discipline

13:16- 17:32 Building Consistency and Identity

17:33- 21:25 Final Thoughts and Upcoming Episodes

Transcript
Kelsy:

It is time to break it down for the wellness baddies as we chat about what

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exercise is truly right for your body.

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Welcome back to Wellness Big Sis, the Pod.

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I'm your host, Dr.

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Kelsy Vick, a board certified orthopedic

doctor of physical therapy, a pelvic floor

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physical therapist, and the owner and

founder of the elää Wellness Sisterhood.

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And today's breakdown for the baddies

episode is going to tag along with Dr.

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Dixie Stanforth's episode over

exercising as women and the.

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Things to keep in mind when

trying to figure out what exercise

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is truly right for our bodies.

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So if you didn't get to

listen to that episode, it is

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episode I believe 57 with Dr.

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Dixie Stanforth.

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She is a PhD, a kinesiology professor.

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She's a fellow of the American

College of Sports Medicine.

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She is a wealth of knowledge.

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She's one of the people that have

influenced me the most, especially in

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my professional life and helping me to

get to where I am today and just giving

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me a passion for the field of exercise,

but also for just movement for life.

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So I was very grateful to have her on.

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I get the question a lot what

exercise is right for my body.

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We see so much about Pilates and strength

training and yoga, and bar and hiking

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and walking, and low intensity, steady

state and high intensity interval training

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and cortisol lowering workouts and lower

impact workouts, and it gets to be so

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confusing to know what exercise truly

is supposed to be working for my body in

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order to set me up for success long term.

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So I really wanted to have Dr.

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Dixie on to discuss this because

it can be so confusing with so many

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different opinions and so many different

people promoting one form of exercise

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that I felt like it was important

to chat about the basics of it.

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So we'll run it back today.

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We'll run through some of the

concepts that we covered and dive a

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little bit deeper so that you guys

can truly know how to structure your

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routines and your systems and your

healthy movements and healthy fueling

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so that you guys will know how to

approach your body when it comes

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to movement and how to know what

exercise will be right for your body.

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So when we talk about exercise

and what exercise is right for

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you or right for me, there's a few

different pillars to look at, and

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the first one is the most important,

but it's what do you enjoy doing?

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And I don't want this to go

unnoticed because it's one of the.

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Pillars that I feel like

a lot of people miss.

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What do you actually enjoy doing?

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If you enjoy doing something, you're

gonna be that much more consistent

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with it, and you're gonna see the

positive changes that come from that.

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The second pillar is what does

my body positively respond to?

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And that's based on your injury

history, what goals you have for

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yourself, and is your body reaching

those goals that you have for yourself?

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And how do you feel in your body after

that movement or after that exercise.

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And this can be applied.

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To a lot of different routines in our

body from fueling to mindfulness to sleep.

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But we'll focus today on the

movement and exercise side of

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things since that's where Dr.

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Dixie's episode focused on primarily.

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So when we're trying to figure out how

to mesh, what does your body positively

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respond to with what do you enjoy doing?

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I cannot overstate the

importance of experimentation,

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and this is one of the primary.

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Blessings that has come from being in the

exercise science realm, in the physical

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therapy realm is I get to learn the

science and the physiology of how the body

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works and experiment with my own body.

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Your body is the ultimate

form of experimentation.

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You can.

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Use some of the things that you're

learning in these podcast episodes

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and apply them to your training

to see how your body responds.

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We know the science, we know the

physiology behind all of these

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different things, but only you

know how your body responds to it.

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So my hope is that by giving you the

science, by giving you some of the

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rep ranges that we talked about in the

hotter and smarter episode last week,

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giving you the specifics of how your body

responds to certain exercises, it will.

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Empower you to try different things,

sprinkle in different types of movement,

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different types of exercise into your

routine so that you really can hone in on

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what does my body positively respond to

when it comes to my injury history, when

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it comes to my goals, when it comes to

what I enjoy doing, and be able to figure

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out what truly is the right exercise

and the right routine for your body.

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So with experimentation, we know there

are certain ways to improve certain

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metrics, and that's the education that Dr.

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Dixie shared with us, and that's the

education I'm trying to share with

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you so that I can give you the science

and we can give you the science with

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all of these experts and then you can

go and experiment with your own body.

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One of the best things I did in

college when I was studying under Dr.

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Dixie and Phil was experimenting

with all of the different.

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Metrics and rep ranges and types of

exercise that we were learning about.

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So I was able to adjust some of the

cardiovascular workouts that I was

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doing to optimize my VO2 or optimize

my speed or some of the strength

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workouts to optimize my power.

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And if you're questioning how to do that,

I did a really quick five minute episode,

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hotter and smarter in five minutes that

I'll link in the show notes below for the

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specific rep ranges to improve muscular.

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Metrics, and then also

to improve cardiovascular

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metrics within your own body.

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In the episode with Dr.

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Dixie, we also mention the importance

of variety when it comes to exercising

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as women and as a human in general.

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Variety is so good for so many

different things, not only

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to keep enjoyment because.

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Sometimes we just get tired

of one form of workout.

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If you're like me, I know I go through

so many different phases of workouts

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where one phase, I'm in this like summer

phase right now where I'm really into

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running and strength training, mixed

with a little bit of Pilates work, and

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that's what I'm really enjoying right now.

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Sometimes I'll throw in from my old swim

team days and I'll swim a little bit,

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but in the winter I start to get more.

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Inside and taking my workouts indoors, a

little bit less running, possibly a little

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bit more Pilate style, strength style.

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So I definitely go through phases

with my own workouts, but I've

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noticed that my body positively

shifts with those phases of training.

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For example, if I've strength

trained with the same programming

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for a few years, honestly.

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It's really nice to shift to a

different sort of programming or a

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different style of movement to notice

those positive changes within my body.

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I went through this probably about two

years ago where I was strength training

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religiously for a long time, and strength

training has never truly left my routine.

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But I was just realizing I was going into

my workouts, less motivated, and so I took

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time to learn some basic Pilates and try

and incorporate Pilates in my own routine,

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and my body really changed for the better.

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With that shift, I stuck with Pilates

and strength training for a little bit,

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and then I was like, you know what?

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I'm starting to not be as

excited about my Pilates.

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Let me start adding in running.

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And so it's this very fluid process

and there's no right answer.

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It really just depends on how

you feel in your body and what

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your body positively responds to

and how you enjoy the movement.

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Because for me, I know strength training's

so good for me and I've been able to.

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Incorporate some of my favorite strength

training and shift my strength training

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to be more motivated in it and enjoy

it more throughout these different

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like years and years of training.

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But it doesn't always look the same

because I get bored and it's okay to

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shift and it's okay to have phases in your

training and in your exercise routine.

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With variety.

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It is so nice to be able to incorporate

so many different types of movement, and

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we should not be demonizing something

like barre or yoga or strength training

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or running or Pilates for someone

because that might be what they enjoy.

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Even hiking or walking, sometimes

those sorts of things are really

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just grounding and mentally.

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Resetting your mindfulness state and how

you're viewing that movement and that

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exercise that it is really healthy, even

if you're not focusing on these metrics

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of, okay, I have to lift this certain

amount in order to gain muscular strength

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or muscular hypertrophy or muscular power,

or I have to run at this pace in order

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to improve my speed or my endurance.

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It's sometimes nice just to throw in those

extra workouts that are just fun for you.

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And that you look forward to.

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So a big thing for me too is

understanding the physiological

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and neurological benefits of

variety and of experimentation.

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I'll mention this, I mentioned it

in the hotter and smarter episode

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previously, but when you're starting

a strength training routine,

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specifically the first four weeks,

the increases in strength are actually

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from a better mind muscle connection.

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We have this ability to utilize, as we

start to lift more and more weight, we

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have this ability to cue in to some of

these pathways, mind muscle connections

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that we might not have previously had.

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And so in the first four weeks of

adding a variety with your strength

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training workouts, you might notice an

increase in strength, but that's not.

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Necessarily because the muscle size

is increasing or you're getting more

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cells, but you're better recruiting the

ones you already have because you are

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driving down some of those highways, mind

muscle connections that might not have

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been as strong as some of the pathways.

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So that's one example of

how variety actually helps.

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But variety also helps

in so many other ways.

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We mentioned in the episode with Dr.

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Dixie novel movement patterns and

when we're doing any sort of novel

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movement patterns or new movement

patterns, a lot of the time.

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It is our body relearning how to do

something or figuring something out,

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which is so healthy for not only our like

musculoskeletal system, but also for our

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brain and learning new movement patterns

and driving down some of those pathways

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that we might not drive down as much.

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If you've ever started strength training

and then switched to Pilates or barre, you

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might notice that I can lift, I can squat,

super heavy weight, but all of a sudden

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throw me in a barre or Pilates class,

and your muscles start to get a little

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bit more sore because you're challenging

them in a different way, and you're

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usually challenging some of those smaller

stabilizing muscles in a different way.

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Variety really helps you access a lot of

different parts of not only your brain,

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but your musculoskeletal system of your

movement patterning, and it's a really

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helpful way to make sure that your body

is positively responding to exercise

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and not staying stuck trying to adapt to

the same stimulus over and over again.

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Variety helps us to add a new stimulus

so that our body can be learning those.

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New movement patterns, accessing

those different mind muscle connection

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points, accessing different parts of

our musculoskeletal system in order

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to positively adapt in the way that we

want towards the goals that we want.

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So I think a key to figuring out

what exercise is right for your

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body is actually being okay with

variety and challenging your body.

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Challenging those new movement patterns,

challenging those mind muscle connections

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in a new way so that your body's not

getting stagnant in a certain routine

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or movement, and it's constantly having

to adapt and change and be resilient

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towards whatever stress or stimulus you're

placing on it in the form of movement.

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It is so beneficial for our brain

and body to have that variety.

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And then I think the last key to figuring

out what exercise is truly right for your

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body is understanding the balance between

doing what you enjoy and then discipline

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for what is truly good for your body.

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Sometimes our bodies and what we enjoy

might be being lazy, watching TV on the

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couch, and those days are okay, but we

also need to have the discipline and

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understanding that yes, we do need to

actually involve movement and have.

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These stressors placed on our body

in order for our muscles to adapt

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and strengthen our bones and have

all of these positive neurological

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benefits fighting back against

some of these neurodegenerative

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diseases later on in life.

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Improving our balance, our reaction

time, so many different things that

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improve with exercise that sometimes

even if we want to be lazy and lay on the

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couch, which is okay some of the time.

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But we do have to balance what we

enjoy and what we wanna do, which

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might possibly be lie on the couch

and be lazy with the discipline for

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what we should do and what we need to

do in order to healthily prepare our

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bodies for now and later on in life.

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So yes, as much as I want to say just

do what you enjoy, there is this balance

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that needs to happen where we do want

to especially do what we enjoy because

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that helps to build consistency, but also

challenge our muscle system, challenge

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our heart system, challenge our brain.

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Our nervous system challenge so many

other parts of our body in order to have

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some of the positive effects of movement,

even when we might not feel like it.

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And along with that, I know a lot

of us do struggle with consistency

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and struggle building that routine.

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So the last thing I wanted to talk

about that we mentioned in Dr.

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Dixie's episode was the book

Atomic Habits and truly how to.

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Build motivation and build consistency

in any sort of habit that you wanna

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form, whether that's movement, fueling,

sleep, mindfulness, meditation,

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prayer, any sort of healthy practice.

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We're using this for healthy behaviors,

not for non-healthy behaviors, but how

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to truly build that consistency and build

that routine with motivation and without.

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And one of the key components

that we talked about was really

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internalizing this new habit or this

new routine as part of your identity.

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Rather than saying, I am trying

to be an exerciser, changing

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that to I am an exerciser, Dr.

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Dixie mentioned the.

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Classic example of smoking.

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When people try and quit smoking,

a lot of the times they're saying,

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I am trying to quit smoking.

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No thank you.

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I'm trying to quit.

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where that trying still indicates that

they do not identify as a non-smoker.

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They are trying to

quit, but they have not.

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Put that as part of their identity

and put that I am a non-smoker

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as part of their identity.

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We're changing that from I am trying to

stop smoking to I don't smoke anymore.

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Now puts that as part of your

identity as a non-smoker.

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So it's really about

changing this hope and this.

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Desire for change to making that

change a part of your identity.

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And we talked about the book

Atomic Habits, which is an

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absolutely incredible book.

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It's one that I had been

rebelling against, as I

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mentioned, and it is so amazing.

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I highly recommend it for anyone because

it truly does help us understand how

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to make small changes with how we

approach healthy routines and healthy

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behaviors, rather than these drastic

changes that are so hard to stick with.

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And it talks about this concept of

making that change in that routine

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as part of your identity, and slowly

compounding those small changes over time.

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And that will truly help build

consistency in some of the routines

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that we're all trying to create.

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So to answer the question, what

exercise is right for my body and your

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body, it comes down to a few pillars.

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What do you enjoy doing?

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That's probably the most important.

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What does your body positively respond to?

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What does your body need?

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How does your body handle these workouts?

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So we take into account injury history.

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And of course we take into account

your goals and what you actually want

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to do because a lot of the time this

variety and this experimentation is

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great for people who are just looking

to maintain and improve their life.

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But if you do have a goal, there

is a concept called specificity of

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training where if you're training

for a marathon, you need to train

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like you're running for a marathon.

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That includes.

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Increasing some of the distance

that includes speed workouts.

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So there is a little bit of a disclaimer

where if you do have a goal in mind,

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like you can't just do strength training

and Pilates and expect to be able to run

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a triathlon or perform in a triathlon

in the best way, you actually need to

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train like you're going to compete.

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So this, I guess is the disclaimer,

is if you do have a goal in mind, we

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want to train based on that goal and.

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The experimentation, the variety, the

things that you might enjoy doing.

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Hopefully you enjoy your training,

but the things you might enjoy doing,

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those might start to lessen in priority

based on this goal that you have.

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And then if you do struggle with

consistency and discipline, thinking of

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how can I change my self-talk to relate

to this habit that I'm trying to form or

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this routine that I'm trying to change.

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I am trying to exercise

versus I am an exerciser.

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I am consistent.

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I am disciplined with my exercise routine.

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And that's why I can't stay up late

tonight because I have an early

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morning workout in the morning.

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Changing your mindset and then also being

willing to experiment and understand

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what your body positively responds to,

what you enjoy doing, what your body

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needs, and listening to your body when

it comes to possibly needing to be

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lazy or have a little bit of rest day.

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But also balancing that with.

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The movement and the healthy routines

that we know are good for our

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bodies, and not just shifting to

that laziness that we sometimes feel.

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The episode with Dr.

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Dixie was one of my absolute favorites.

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It's a memory that I'll always

cherish, and I'm so glad I have

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that audio and video and laughter

because she is truly one of the most.

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Brilliant people I know from an

intellectual standpoint, but also such

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a role model in how she approaches

her movement and her healthy

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routines throughout the lifespan.

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So I'm so glad we got to break it down for

the wellness Baddies today covering Dr.

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Dixie's episode.

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If you missed it, I will link it in

the show notes below so that you guys

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can go back and listen to it and enjoy

that conversation because she truly

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has such nuggets of wisdom that she

shares, and this is only covering.

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A small bit of it, but I hope it

starts to answer the question and

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starts to help clarify the question,

what exercise is right for my body?

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That way we don't have to ever feel

like the type of movement we enjoy

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is demonized or bad for us, i'm gonna

bring it back to a book that I recently

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read called The Courage to Be Disliked.

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But it talks about how a lot of our

thought processes and how we can view

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certain things gets clouded based on

us not staying in our own lanes, and.

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Veering into someone else's lane or

letting someone else veer into our lane.

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And so it talks about staying in your

own lane, staying focused on your goals,

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your body, rather than comparing your

life to someone else's or allowing their.

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Viewpoints in the way that their

body works to cloud your view of your

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body and come more into your lane.

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So I liked that thought of, oh my

gosh, Pilates works so well for her.

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Her body looks great.

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That's really working well for her.

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I'm gonna let her do that because my

body responds well in this way and not.

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Judging people for the type of movement

that they choose to do, knowing that

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they are just trying to figure out

their balance between what they enjoy,

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what's healthy for their body, and

what their body positively responds to.

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So I hope this episode provides some

clarity on the exercise that's right

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for your body, but also helps to.

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Throw away judgment on anyone

who is exercising in the way

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that feels right for their body.

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And throw away judgment on everyone

else and how they move because.

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Movement should not be so controversial.

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It should really come down to some of

the pillars that we talked about today.

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So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode.

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If you enjoyed it, if you been along for

the ride, I'm so grateful for everyone

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who listens, and I thank you so much.

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If you enjoyed this episode,

please share it comment, subscribe.

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It really does help the podcast.

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We have so many exciting

episodes coming up.

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The next episodes.

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will be all about Mama Palooza,

which is our podcast festival focused

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on women's health, motherhood, and

all of the, topics that we're too

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afraid to talk about sometimes.

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So we'll be covering pregnancy,

postpartum sexual health, pelvic health.

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Exercising during pregnancy and

postpartum, and I'm so happy to have a

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lot of these experts on to share because

even if you're not in that stage, I'm

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saying it's for new moms, veteran moms,

moms to be, and moms eventually, which

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I consider myself a mom eventually,

where I'm not quite in that stage yet.

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But I really do think even if you're

not in that stage, learning about some

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of these topics and being aware of them

because as my friends are going through

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these stages, I'm hearing all of their.

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Concerns and challenges and the

blessings that come with it.

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But I really do think having that

education and that knowledge before

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you even get to that stage is going

to help you and help me so much.

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So I'm so excited to share that.

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Stay tuned for the Mama Palooza

podcast Festival coming up.

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Share it with all your friends.

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I'd really appreciate it because

I do think we have so many great

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interviews that I've already.

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Done and have scheduled and

so many coming up that I'm

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excited to share with you guys.

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So that's all.

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Thank you so much for listening and

I'll see you guys again on the next

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episode of Wellness Big Sis, the pod.

Show artwork for wellness big sis:: the pod

About the Podcast

wellness big sis:: the pod
wellness big sis:: the pod, by elää wellness, includes wellness girl chats by founder, kelsy vick, a board-certified orthopedic doctor of physical therapy. join us as we learn about our bodies, movement, and all aspects of physical, spiritual, psychological, and environmental wellness, creating a sisterhood of empowered wellness big sisters... without the clothes-stealing ;)
elaa-wellness.com
@elaa_wellness
@dr.kelsyvickdpt

About your host

Profile picture for Kelsy Vick

Kelsy Vick

Dr. Kelsy is a Board-Certified Orthopedic Doctor of Physical Therapy, a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist, and the Founder of elää wellness, a global wellness education and action agency for women. As the host of wellness big sis:: the pod, she hopes to share science-backed education for young women in a fun and simplified way. Join us!

elaa-wellness.com
@elaa_wellness
@dr.kelsyvickdpt