Remove the Guesswork: Health, Fitness and Wellbeing for Busy Professionals

Are you doing enough strength training? What are its benefits?

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

5 reasons why you should add lifting weights into your routine

Bone density

Body composition

Metabolism

Injury risk

Strength and functional fitness

Key Takeaways:

Strength training is good for your bone density. When we lift weights, we increase the strength of our bones.

Lifting weights improves your body composition because you can change the ratio of fats to water to bone to muscle.

A healthy percentage of body fat varies from men to women. Increasing our muscle mass can help balance out that ratio of predominantly fat to muscle but water and bone as well.

Muscle is more metabolically active than any other tissue. This means a pound of fat versus a pound of muscle will have a different metabolic burn rate. The muscle will have a higher caloric burn than the fat will.

You burn more calories when you carry more muscle mass, so it increases your metabolism as well. That is a fairly significant point in terms of appetite regulation and body weight management.

The more musculature we have, the better we hold our skeleton together.

Action Steps:

Include strength training in your workout.

Consider getting a hex bar.

Get some assistance, either through someone who knows what they’re doing or watching some online videos. Just make sure you’re comfortable with the form and the technique.

Consider getting online coaching or a personal trainer for guidance.

Don’t go heavy and don’t go hard. Ease yourself in.

Leanne said:

“Lifting weights isn’t about getting bulky with it.”

“[Functional fitness] is what we should focus on over and above the aesthetic.”

As always, if you want to register your interest in some of the ideas that I’m putting together with Bodyshot Performance, send an email to [email protected].

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

Let me know your thoughts and feedback. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

Links to things mentioned in the episode:

Leanne's TEDx talk on Why fitness is more important than weight

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Why do people sleep? What do we get from it? Leanne shares her thoughts on this very important activity that we can’t live without.

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The sleep cycle

How sleep keeps the brain healthy

The role of sleep in appetite regulation

Key Takeaways:

One sleep cycle is about 90 minutes. Half of that is light sleep. Of the remaining half, one quarter is deep sleep, and the other quarter is REM sleep.

Deep sleep is where we get a lot of the physiological adaptations to exercise and cellular repair. It’s the restorative portion of sleep.

REM stands for rapid eye movement. REM sleep is where we do our dreaming, memory consolidation, and learning consolidation. It’s a very important aspect of sleep.

Sleep gives us an opportunity to repair and restore our body. It also gives us an opportunity to repair and restore our mind.

Sleep also serves to flush out the brain of beta-amyloid plaques, thereby strengthening the brain and mitigating our risk of cognitive decline.

Action Steps:

Prioritize your sleep.

Leanne said:

“What we tend to see, if you’ve had a very physical day, you may get more deep restorative sleep. If you’re under a lot of emotional load, you may notice that you get more REM sleep.”

“[Sleep] needs to be right up there as a non-negotiable.”

As always, if you want to register your interest in some of the ideas that I’m putting together with Bodyshot Performance, send an email to [email protected].

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

Let me know your thoughts and feedback. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

Links to things mentioned in the episode:

Link to James Wilson episode

Link to Greg Potter episode

Link to book Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker

Link to book Sleep by Nick Littlehales

Link to book Sleep Smarter by Shawn Stevenson

Link to Oura Ring - Use discount code BODYSHOT for €50 off

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

Are you feeling a lack of control over what’s happening in your life? How is that affecting your wellbeing? What can you do about it?

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

Feeling a lack of control and frustration about the pandemic

Tips on how you can get more control and create more spontaneity in your life

Internal vs external locus of control

Key Takeaways:

There are a lot more things that you can control than you think.

If you have an internal locus of control, you feel in control of things, that your decisions and your say matter, and that you profoundly affect your life and the direction it takes.

An external locus of control is when you don’t have any feelings of power, agency, or control. You feel that life will happen to you and that you can’t change it.

Action Steps:

Pick out what works for you. Pick out what you think you can tangibly implement rather than trying to absorb everything.

Look to focus on what you can control. Have daily goals. Define your non-negotiables.

Pick a cause and get behind it.

Change your locus of control.

Leanne said:

“I’m starting to see people’s wellbeing suffer from a lack of control and the frustration about the pandemic. The frustration that we can’t do things, we can’t travel, we can’t see people, we can’t connect in some of the ways that we are designed to and really want to.”

“I think we can take such positive messages from nature. No matter what’s happened to you, no matter how upended and uprooted you feel, you will find a way back to the light, you will find a way to thrive again. So hang in there!”

As always, if you want to register your interest in some of the ideas that I’m putting together with Bodyshot Performance, send an email to [email protected].

Let me know your thoughts and feedback. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer

What can you do to achieve your goals and your desired outcome? What is the key to getting consistency?

Visit https://www.bodyshotperformance.com/topic/podcasts/ for the complete show notes of every podcast episode.

Topics Discussed in this Episode:

The difference between consistency and intensity

The corporate athlete

Why we need to prioritise recovery more

The formula to getting consistency

What recovery really means

Key Takeaways:

Consistency is about avoiding stop-start. It’s about having something that is structured, scheduled, diarised, flexible, adaptable, and enjoyable.

You get consistency when you connect it to a particular outcome.

A key part of consistency is about being flexible.

A common mistake that people make is that they prioritise intensity over consistency, but that’s not sustainable.

Intensity can be various things. It can be the difficulty, the duration, the type, or the frequency of whatever it is that you’re trying to do.

As individuals, as professionals, we need to see ourselves and treat our bodies and our minds in the same way that an athlete would.

Sometimes we need to do less in order to build in more time for recovery. By doing so, we get the adaptations we want from whatever it is that we’re putting effort into.

Intensity balanced with recovery equals consistency.

Action Steps:

To be consistent, be prepared to be flexible and adaptable.

See and treat yourself like an athlete.

Prioritise recovery more and do recovery-based activities.

Leanne said:

“I’d love for you to come away from listening to this episode with the view that consistency beats intensity every single time.”

“You’ve got to start small, go steady, and get that consistency. That’s what is sustainable.”

As always, if you want to register your interest in some of the ideas that I’m putting together with Bodyshot Performance, send an email to [email protected].

If you’re interested in finding out what your health IQ is, take the Health IQ test to find out, and get a free 39-page report built around our six signals, which are sleep, mental health, energy, body composition, digestion, and fitness.

Let me know your thoughts and feedback. If you’ve enjoyed what you’ve heard on this episode and it’s added value to you, share the episode with someone you think could benefit from it. And don’t forget to leave a rating or a review and subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts.

More from Leanne Spencer:

Bodyshot Performance

Bodyshot Performance Limited Facebook page

Remove the Guesswork BOOK by Leanne SpencerRise and Shine BOOK by Leanne Spencer