Shadowing Practice: The FACE Framework: How to Build Strength, Cardio, and Balance in Midlife | Dr. Wright - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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Where do you start?
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Where do you start?
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So like you just mentioned deadlifting,
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you mentioned running on a treadmill,
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neither are things that I do.
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So does Pilates or yoga count?
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Does a HIIT class count?
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Like if you're somebody like me where I work out at home,
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if I walk into the hotel gym,
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I don't know what to do.
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Like I'll start that little circuit of machines.
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I'm not quite sure how to position the machine.
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Yeah.
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Like, where do you recommend you start?
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If you're thinking, you know, she's right.
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I do need to move more.
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Walking, I got it.
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But I keep hearing about strength training and the importance of muscle mass.
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How do you make this simple in a world where it's easy to get overwhelmed?
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So I have an acronym that I use to help form the ideas of exercise for midlife people.
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It works for everybody, critical decade.
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But I call it facing your future.
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Here are the four components we need to work into our life.
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Facing your future.
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F-A-C-E.
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Face your future.
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Number one, flexibility and mobility.
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Meaning, if we do not move our joints through their full range of motion,
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like an old car sitting in a junkyard, we will become stiff.
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Because the natural history, meaning what happens in time with our tendons and ligaments,
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is they become tighter and tighter and tighter.
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That is a natural, that is the way nature happens if we don't invest in making it not so.
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Pilates and yoga are amazing for maintaining flexibility, mobility of the joints.
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It's also great for core, a solid core.
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So that's number one.
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Number two, aerobic.
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We must invest in a healthy cardiovascular engine.
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So how do we do that?
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Well, we grew up in a time where we were high intensity all the time.
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Yes.
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We know now, and my philosophy on this has changed over the years because I'm a curious,
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evolving person, that I want to work at the two extremes,
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meaning most high-intensity interval training,
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and I can name several brands of gyms that do this,
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work you out in a mid-range where it's not light enough that you're not going to get hurt,
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and it's not intense enough that it's going to stimulate real change in your body.
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So these HIIT classes where you're working in the middle zones
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of your heart range are a good way to get injured and see me in my office on Mondays.
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So when I prescribe aerobic exercise to people,
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I say walk or slow biking or low heart rate, any apparatus works.
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I say walk, but hear me,
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any apparatus works or the ground.
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Do that.
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and then we're going to sprint our guts out a couple times a week.
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Sprinting does not mean you're Usain Bolt on a track.
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Sprinting is a heart rate phenomenon.
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So we're going to work as hard as we can go
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so that we're almost so working hard we're going to throw up a couple times a week.
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Literally, that sounds absolutely horrible.
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No, but Mel, this is what happens.
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You're going as fast as you can.
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Your fast is probably faster than my fast.
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I'm a short person.
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Unless somebody's chasing me, I'm not running these days.
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There is that.
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But the concept is low heart rate most of the week.
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So I'm asking you to walk every day.
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Yep.
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And then twice a week after you've done your walk,
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I'm asking you just to go as fast as you can,
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whether it's on a rower, an alpine, a treadmill.
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But here's the kicker.
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It's only 30 seconds.
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You can do anything for 30 seconds.
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So I'm going as fast.
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I choose to do it on a treadmill.
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So I'm just going to give your audience an example.
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For my walking, I'm at an incline of four to five and a speed of about four.
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So I'm just going along.
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I'm listening to your podcast.
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I'm learning.
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I use it as a multitask learning time.
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When I'm done with that for 45 minutes,
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I take off all the apparatus because I need my brain to concentrate.
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And I hit 11 on the tread,
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the whatever, I don't even know how many miles,
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it's fast as my legs can go.
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And I go for 30 seconds and then I totally turn it off and I fully recover.
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30 seconds with full recovery, four times.
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This is what happens.
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It sounds daunting.
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It is not.
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It's only 30 seconds.
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That is going to stimulate more connections between our brain and our muscles to contract better together.
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That is going to build a big cardiac muscle, right?
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So let's stop wasting our time in the middle.
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We can take classes because they're fun,
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but unless you get these two things in on the ends,
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in midlife, we're not stimulating ourselves enough.
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So that's F, flexibility.
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A, aerobic.
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C, carry a load.
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Notice I didn't call it weightlifting,
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although it is weightlifting, but you can do it in your house.
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You can pick up the five-gallon bucket and farmers carry across the front yard.
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We need to lift weights.
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We need to lift heavy in midlife because for women in particular,
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around 45, we enter perimenopause where our regular cyclic hormones go up,
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go down, go up, go down,
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become total chaos as our ovaries retire such that by the time we're 50 and our ovaries have completely retired,
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we do not have the stimulus of estrogen on our muscles anymore.
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To stimulate our muscles to grow so that we do not become the one in three women who ends up frail
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in a nursing home or with a broken hip,
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which I'm happy to give you the dire statistics on that,
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we must build muscle mass.
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I am all for Pilates, for balance and flexibility.
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I am not for anything except learning to lift heavy to build muscle.
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So what if you've never done it?
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There are great online programs.
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We are not without resources these days.
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This might be the time to invest in yourself by investing in an expert.
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You take your car to an expert.
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take yourself to an expert and have someone teach you the proper techniques
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so that you don't get hurt walk you around the gym
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so that you have a friendly face taking you around you don't need years
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and years of personal training or strength conditioning coaching to learn you need a few lessons
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and then you can build on that and
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so once you're starting to lift weights we want to progressively load to lifting heavy.
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No mamby-pamby pink weights for midlife women.
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We can put down the little weights in the attractive pastel colors that...
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I know, I'm being so patronizing,
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that we lift 30 times.
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I freaking love it because there's actually a really important reason around muscle mass.
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Can you break down why building muscle mass is actually important for your health?
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Well, if we think about this from a purely structural standpoint,
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muscle is what will help us get up and down from a chair, right?
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Want to live alone or have the opportunity to live alone?
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You have to get up and down from a chair.
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You have to be able to transport yourself to the bathroom.
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You have to be able to lift addition to the microwave.
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But if you want to enjoy your life,
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you need to be able to be strong enough to get out of your house, right?
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So from a very practical standpoint.
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But muscle, like bone, are not just structures.
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They are metabolic organs that talk to each other in a community.
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So when a muscle contracts,
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skeletal muscle, like your biceps contract,
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it sends out all these communication factors.
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One is called irisone.
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It talks to the bone and helps you lay down more bone.
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It is critical for glucose metabolism,
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which is our ability to process our food, right?
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It is critical for the brain.
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It goes to the brain.
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But that's not all.
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Muscle releases a protein when you contract it called clotho.
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Clotho was the goddess of the threat of life, right?
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And it was first described in a journal called Nature about 30 years ago.
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The simple act of contracting scuttle muscle causes our muscle to make this protein clotho,
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which is the longevity protein,
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and goes to all of our organs and keeps them functioning in a healthy, more youthful way.
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And we know from animal studies that mice that can't make clotho die old, very young.
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So do your muscles behave this way no matter how old you are or what shape you're in when you start?
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They have the potential to behave this way.
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Let me tell you about another study we did with this protein clotho.
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So if I say to you,
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contract your skeletal muscle, it's going to keep you younger.
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And you're like, right.
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Well, we did this study where we measured circulating levels of this protein clotho in three groups of people.
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Clotho, the longevity protein.
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I measured it in active people over 70,
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and I measured it in sedentary people about 35.
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Well, not surprising, people in midlife who were active had the highest level of longevity protein.
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But you would think 35 trumps all.
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It does not.
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The active people over 70 produced more Clotho longevity protein than 35-year-old sedentary people.
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Wow.
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So there is not an age or a skill level when the positive stress
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that we do with our bodies can't change our health.
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And this is one simple example through a protein called Clotho.
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So Dr. Wright, you've talked about flexibility,
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aerobics, you've talked about carrying, which was...
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Oh, weightlifting.
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Carrying a load is weightlifting.
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Carrying a load.
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What's E?
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Oh, E.
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E is equilibrium and foot speed.
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I'm so glad you brought us back to that.
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Equilibrium means can we balance?
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Every year from about 20,
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the neuromuscular pathways that connect our brain to our muscles can degrade.
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And that's why you reach over for something and fall over, right?
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Or trip and can't catch yourself.
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So in every exercise program I prescribe,
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we not only have flexibility and mobility,
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aerobic, carrying a load, but I teach people foot speed.
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Meaning we're in my office,
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my office is in a giant performance center,
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and we're teaching people to rapidly move their feet because this is what I do.
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I come into my office,
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I throw my work bag next to my desk,
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and if I'm not thinking when I get up from my desk,
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I get up too soon and I will catch my foot on my bag.
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Well, if I didn't have the foot speed to hop over my bag,
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I would land flat on my face, fallen.
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We break when we fall.
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So, in my book, we can build all the muscle we want,
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but if we have no balance and can't stay upright,
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we can still break.
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And so I teach people that.
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And you know, something simple to regain balance that I ask people to do is brush their teeth on one foot,
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like in tree pose, because that's one foot.
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It's usually on a carpet or a bath track.
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You're moving your body.
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So if you alternate legs every day,
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you will regain the core strength,
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the muscle strength, to stay upright with a little bit of imbalance.
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So Dr. Wright, you just mentioned that you have this exercise routine that you prescribe.
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Yeah.
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What is it?
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On a weekly basis.
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Okay.
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We need to be spending at least three hours a week walking.
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Okay.
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Broken up into 45-minute sessions.
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So put on your favorite podcast,
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go learn all week, right?
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So that's four, go for a walk four times.
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At least four times a week, right?
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At a brisk pace, not so fast that you're out of breath,
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but not so slow that you can solve world peace in your conversation.
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A minimum of twice a week,
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minimum of twice a week,
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we must learn to lift heavy.
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And listen.
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How heavy?
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Yeah, I know.
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I don't expect you to power lift right out the door,
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but what I do expect you to do is learn to lift your own body weight.
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Every woman should be able to do 11 push-ups, regular push-ups.
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On the knees, okay?
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No. Oh, my God.
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But listen, you can build up to that.
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I used to teach classes at Pittsburgh called Start,
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and I did it for nine years.
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My starters started out with 51% body fat.
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They could not hold a plank and literally couldn't walk around the track.
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Over a three-month period, we met with them twice a week.
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We did a variety of weight-bearing exercises is they not only completed a 3.2 mile walk run
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which was our goal they could hold a plank for two minutes wow i know
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so 11 push-ups 11 push-ups start on our knees
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but we got to be able to get to we have
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to be able to get up upper body strength is critical for women got it
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so we've got walking four times a week at a brisk
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pace we have 11 push-ups you got to be able to
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lift your body weight we have to start by learning to lift our body weight
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and progress until we can lift heavy And what lift heavy is defined as,
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that is the weight in an upper body push-pull.
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So something like a bench press,
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something like a pull-up, lower body push-pull,
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something like a squat, something like a deadlift.
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heavy means what you can lift four to six times to keep it simple for my people like four times
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which we want to lift to to fatigue listen you don't get there overnight
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if we're starting at at at just body weight it may
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take you six months maybe nine to learn the technique
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and to work up but it is so worth it
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and listen i have plenty of examples of women starting in their 60s There's no age limit on this.
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So heavy is an individual thing and it just is something we work towards.
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So walking, lifting at least twice a week,
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twice a week when you're comfortable with walking,
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I want you to get your heart rate up really high.
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And you had a very simple way of doing that.
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30 seconds.
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Complete recovery.
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It takes me...
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My example is I can get my heart rate up to about 186.
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And then I...
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Two or three minutes, I completely recover.
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It's down to 130, 140.
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And four times you do that.
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Four times.
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And then that's it.
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And then I work on balance every day when I brush my teeth.
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And foot speed.
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You can jump around.
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You can skip rope.
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But that's something else.
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Bones require impact.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will practice English speaking skills by exploring the FACE Framework, a method designed for improving fitness in midlife. Through this video transcript, you will learn how to incorporate elements such as flexibility, aerobic exercise, strength training, and balance into your daily routine. By focusing on the key concepts presented, you will not only enhance your understanding of health-related vocabulary but also improve your English pronunciation and fluency.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Flexibility and mobility - The ability to move joints through their full range of motion, crucial for maintaining physical health.
- Aerobic exercise - Cardio activities that improve cardiovascular health, such as walking or cycling.
- High-intensity interval training (HIIT) - A training technique involving short bursts of intense exercise alternated with low-intensity recovery periods.
- Core - The central part of the body that supports posture and stabilizes movements.
- Cardiovascular engine - The system responsible for delivering oxygen and nutrients to the body during physical activity.
- Natural history - The way our bodies naturally change over time if not actively maintained.
- Invest - To devote time and effort into a practice to achieve better results.
- Routine - A regular pattern of activity that can improve fitness and health.
Practice Tips
To effectively utilize the shadowing technique with this video, focus on mimicking the speaker’s pace and tone. The speaker’s conversational style is key to mastering the nuances of pronunciation and rhythm in English. Here are some strategies to enhance your practice:
- Play the video at a slower speed if needed, to ensure you can catch every word and phrase clearly.
- Repeat phrases immediately after the speaker, acting as if you are part of the conversation. This will help improve your English pronunciation and fluency.
- Use a shadowing app or site that allows for easy access to the transcript and audio. This enables you to practice in real-time while also visualizing the text.
- Focus on key vocabulary by saying them aloud multiple times, ensuring you are comfortable in incorporating them into your own speech.
- Lastly, practice regularly to see significant improvements in your speaking skills, particularly for IELTS speaking practice or similar evaluations.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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