Ask the Trainers: Your Fitness Questions, Answered (Part Three)

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Transcript: Ask the Trainers: Your Fitness Questions, Answered (Part Three)

Season 11, Episode 27  | October 28, 2025

[MUSIC PLAYING]

Welcome to Life Time Talks. I’m Jamie Martin.

And I’m David Freeman.

And back by popular demand is one of those episodes that our listeners ask for. We are talking to a few of our trainers and answering some of your favorite fitness questions. Our trainers on Life Time are working with thousands of people every single day, helping them make progress towards their health and wellness goals, and often seeing some pretty common questions that come through. So we are excited to have two of our dynamic personal trainers joining us today to answer your common questions.

Yeah, we’ve got Jeff, which Miss Jamie is going to introduce. And then I’ve got my fave over here, Miss Lo, Lindsay Ogden in the building. So let’s hear a little bit about Jeff.

OK, I’m going with my favorite Jeff here to start with.

[LAUGHTER]

Jeff Rosga has over 20 years of experience at Life Time, serving as a leader in product, program, and people development, as well as a team member education. He’s known for building engaging Life Time’s signature programs Heart Rate Zone Training, which is still one of my favorites, and Metabolic Testing, as well as founding the Life Time Academy.

Currently serves as a director of team member development for the Dynamic Personal Training Division. And his credentials include being a certified personal trainer, performance, corrective, and group exercise specialist, as well as certified behavior change coach. He also serves on the NASM Strategic Advisory Board.

Hmm, LinkedIn better watch out with that resume, huh? [LAUGHS]

Awesome! All right. So we also have Miss Lindsay Ogden, also known as Coach Lo. She’s a certified personal trainer, nutrition coach, and a group strength instructor. Throughout the tenure of Life Time, Lindsay has developed small group training certifications, helped with national programming when it came to GTX, Alpha, Ultra Fit, created digital content with the LTH Nutritional Team, and has worked alongside myself and Coach Elevation Clinics. So she’s currently back in her roots coaching at the local Eden Prairie Athletic Club. Welcome, Lo. How are you feeling?

I’m good. Happy to be here.

Yeah, all right. It’s time to get right into it.

Right. So we are just going to ask you both some questions. You can take turns answering. You can both chime in. It can be like a game show if you want. Whoever buzzes in quickest —

All right. So one of the first questions, and we get a ton of these in the inbox is, how can I lose body fat while maintaining or even gaining muscle?

You want to go first or do you me?

You got it, Linds.

Is it ladies first? Is that what it is? OK.

Y’all look at that.

Yeah. So to repeat the question here, we’re trying to gain muscle while losing fat. So I think the first thing is creating an environment to do so. So in order to gain muscle, we need to stimulate that muscle. So we’ve got to have some resistance training, ideally minimum two to three days a week. Then from there, we’ve got to repair, right? So that protein, that sleep, making sure we’re hydrated. From a muscle-building standpoint, we need those things to be happening consistently.

Then from a fat loss perspective, we want to lose some weight, I’m assuming they mean fat when they say losing weight, we have to be in a slight deficit. So I think that’s where people can kind of get in some trouble because if you go too low, you’re not refueling, you’re not repairing, you’re not fixing that tissue to build that muscle. So you want a slight deficit in order to lose fat, but not so much that you’re not able to refuel. So having enough but a slight deficit.

Jeff, I want to go in the same vein because you have lifestyle factors. So when we look at nutrition, lifestyle factors, and exercise, I know Linds was just talking a little bit about exercise, how much does it come to, when it comes to fat loss, does exercise play a role into that?

Well, exercise from a balanced perspective is really critical. But it does start with just your nutritional habits. How you think about — so the quality of calories that you’re taking in, but it’s still about the equation. As much as we’d like to work around how many calories am I consuming and how many calories am I actually exerting, exercise contributes to a small portion.

So if you start to make some of those lifestyle and behavior changes just around your nutrition quality, timing of the eating, and some of those things, now you start to add exercise, you can start to compound that. And then, as Lindsay alluded to, with strength training combined with the right attention to cardiovascular training, you can really make a change.

Yeah. And he was talking about an equation. So we think of calories in, calories out, energy in, energy out. And the strength training component is going to add in what’s known as the BMR. So building more lean mass can elevate your Basal Metabolic Rate, which is 70% of your daily expenditure. And then just daily movement.

So you’ve heard of NEAT, Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis. So that’s basically outside of your workout. We tend to overindex our workouts and underestimate how important just daily movement is. So we hear about steps. You should get 10,000 steps, 7,000 steps, whatever it is. Just increasing your daily movement is going to be about 15% of that daily expenditure. So I would say, yes, the calorie and component is important, where are we at with that. But then the strength training is going to add to that BMR. And then the daily movement is going to be that 15% of that non-exercise activity.

I want to go back to what you said, too, Jeff, because you’re like the godfather of our LT Connect. Well, seriously, the LT Connect and utilizing metabolic training as a fuel source for people to know how to teach their body how to burn fat. So can you break that down a little bit as far as how people can actually activate utilization of fat being a primary energy source as it should, versus it going to carbs instead?

Yeah. So when you think of just from a basic biology and how our body utilizes energy, but at a macro level, you think of aerobic or anaerobic conditioning. Most people understand those two concepts. So when you’re in an aerobic state, oxygen is present, fat will burn. You go anaerobic, you’re now without oxygen. It’s grabbing any energy from the muscle, which is typically carbohydrate.

So when we think of creating body composition change, it’s the 80/20 rule. The more time we can spend at a lower intensity relative to cardiovascular training, the more we can create that impact. However, it’s not to overindex and not spend any time doing higher intensity work because then that starts to raise where what we refer to as anaerobic threshold level is.

I love that. And this goes back to I know — I probably said this the last time you’re on the podcast, Jeff, we were talking about Heart Rate Zone Training, that is still, I remember, when I first joined Life Time and Experience Life. That was one of the first programs I went through. What was the name of the program originally, the OT Training?

O2 Training.

O2 Training. Well, that would make sense.

It would make sense.

That would make sense for us than OT.

Overtime!

Overtime training, exactly. But I’ll never forget because I remember I had trained a certain way through high school sports, through college, and that Heart Rate Zone Training was the first time I remember seeing that body composition change in a really significant way, while also balancing it with my strength training program and all those pieces. And that was a game-changer for me. It’s been something since early on has changed how I move. And always knowing my zones and where I need to become more efficient has been always been a part of my program now going on 20 years now.

Well, and oftentimes where people get lost is they gauge their intensities by rate of perceived exertion. And RPE is certainly important. However, based on your sleep, your recovery, your preparation for exercise, all these things without having some objective measure, i.e. heart rate in this case, it’s really hard to know, oh, I feel like I’m in zone 4, where in reality you might be in zone 3. Or I feel like I’m in zone 3 and you might be in zone 4 because just how all those other factors are starting to measure in. So how do you start to blend those two together really creates the change.

And I like how Jeff said that they’re both important, both ends of the spectrum because I think it’s important to know that you can only go as high as you are wide. So we hear a lot about zone 2 and aerobic base building. And it’s important to get that, but also to stimulate and to go into those higher zones because they’re all important. They all have their time and place. But really that base, you can only go as high as you are wide. So developing that aerobic base.

OK.

All right.

Question 1, done.

[CHUCKLES]

My turn?

It’s your turn.

Oh, shoot. OK, here we go. All right. The first one that I’m going to hit you with is, how often should I change up my workout routine to see results? I’ll start with you, Jeff.

[CHUCKLES] I’m not even going to go with it depends.

[LAUGHTER]

That’s always the common answer. One thing that I think most people fail when it comes to how they approach exercise program is when does my body start to plateau, when do I start to hit some of those. And it can vary for people. It has to do with training age. It has to do with training experience. It has to do with where they’re at in training cycle.

But I always like to use the athlete analogy. And, David, you, as a former high level athlete yourself, you didn’t train the same way all year long. You had in-season training. You had out-of-season training. And you had just some of those general things. Jamie, you mentioned being a high school athlete, same sort of thing.

But oftentimes as adults, we just fall into the repetitive nature of doing — we’re varying workouts, but we’re not varying training plans. And so how often really depends what your goal is. That’s where it depends comes in. What your goal is, how far out from that goal, and what’s your starting point. So you could look at things that could be — you could make changes every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks, every 8 weeks, 12 weeks, 16 weeks based on what you’re trying to achieve and where you’re trying to go.

And I would answer the question with a question, why do we feel the need to change? So he’s talking a lot about what do we have access to, what’s our fitness ability, what are our goals. But then I feel like a lot of times people just want to program hop because they get bored. So it’s like, OK, what is the goal? And are we prioritizing these things that are going to get us closer to it or are we just mentally not engaged? And if you aren’t, why aren’t you engaged? So I think we just get a little, I don’t know, impatient? We’re not consistent. We’re not persistent. And so we’re like, I want to change things up.

And here’s the thing. There’s a lot of people not even meeting minimum standards. So move however you will move. But if you’re having a goal, be strategic with it and follow a program. And that program isn’t just for six weeks. You’re looking a year out. And you’re changing things based off of what that longer term goal is.

And you’re really referring to looking that far out, there’s the concept of periodization happening in there, right? You’re not going to train the same way that whole year. That plan is going to respect the ebbs and flows of when your event is happening, whatever X is for you.

Yeah.

I think acute variables is really — most people, you can add variety in the movements and the exercises. It’s the changes in the acute variables. So when you think of our SGT Programming at Life Time, there’s different phases. But there’s a variety of exercise on a consistent basis. Because regardless of what you think the workout of the day is or isn’t, the premise is is that any good programming probably has variability in its acute variables, volume, rep time, all those elements that then contribute to making that change without people necessarily having to think about it.

I was going to say the bright, shining light there is I know the question was saying change up workout. Workout is different from program. And then I think, Linds, you said two to three days out a week or if you can get four, great. But now you’re following a program. If you’re only coming one or two times a week within that “12-week program,” you’re getting workouts in.

So I think also understanding the full picture of a program and understanding all the different “variety.” I put air quotes on for people who are listening. Variety comes with more of the frequency if you’re able to get that into your schedule. So just knowing what you’re capable of doing is key there, too.

Yeah. OK. Question number 3, how do I avoid injuries and train sustainably? And as I age, are there certain movements I should avoid to reduce the risk of injury?

It’s funny because, I don’t know, I hear the word avoid and I think that’s where the injury comes. I think we especially as we age, we maybe get scared of doing things. And rightfully so, because maybe something happened to our friend or family member. But avoidance is more likely going to cause the injury. And it’s happening outside of the gym, typically.

So I think of plyometrics. I think of running, jumping. These are things that as we age, we maybe shy away from. But if anything, you need more of it. You need to stimulate the muscle. You need to address the tissue. You need to put it in that environment so that it has exposure to it so that when you do, outside of the gym, have something come up, you’re playing with your grandkids or doing whatever, your body is more prepared for it. And accidents will happen, but your body’s going to be in a better place if you keep training that way and exposing it to that versus trying to avoid it.

As the elder at the table —

[LAUGHTER]

—the one thing that’s hard to overcome is recovery. Recovery and how your body is going to respond to exercise. I use the term earlier called training age. What’s your experience with training? That opens up the potential toolbox of more things that you can potentially do. As Lindsay alluded to, incorporating a variety of movements and exercises from stability, to plyometrics, to jumping, and running, and things that happen in everyday life are critically important. Lifting heavy things, just keeping it really simple, right? Being able to move. But also where someone at in their ability to do more compound, more complex movements.

Because what will happen from an injury perspective is as you age and your mobility decreases, your ability to get into more complex movements, if you don’t have movement efficiency, sets you up potentially for injury versus when you’re younger, you’re just naturally more pliable. You recover faster. A whole host of other things come into play that just change as we age.

Well, I think what’s interesting is my husband and I talk about this all the time, how we want to be functionally fit for as long as possible in our lives. So it’s like we want to be able to run after our kids and run after eventually our grandkids down the road. Or we want to be able to put the suitcase overhead —

Oh, I already have a grandkid.

I know.

[LAUGHTER]

You’re well ahead of me there, I will say. I mean, my kids are teenagers right now. But it’s one of those things where it’s like, how do we be as functionally fit? And it’s having that base. And we want to be able to continue to do the things. And so if we can create the sustainable plan that we can maintain over the years. That doesn’t mean injuries aren’t going to happen, but we have a base. I don’t know.

And I like what Jeff said, too. It’s almost we think about training programs where we’re talking about resistance training, cardiovascular training. I think it is having a smart program, for sure. Not doing too much too soon. And that’s where a coach can be helpful. But then he alluded to a recovery plan. Having that in place, too.

And I will say, I’m not as old as you, but I’m 37 and I’ve done more in the past two years than I had for a long time. I’ve intentionally sought challenges and done harder things. And that’s the thing that I have to be more diligent with is, is what’s my nutrition. What’s my sleep. What’s my recovery plan. Who’s there to support me, whether it’s my acupuncturist, chiropractor. Whatever it is, you have to address that as much as you do the training plan.

Yeah. And I’ve witnessed it as far as from Lo, seeing her actually have a bad accident with her ankle and then to get back on that horse and go rim-to-rim in the Grand Canyon. Like, me, I sprinted against my wife, tore my hamstring. I haven’t sprinted since.

[LAUGHTER]

And that was in 2017.

Is that because you lost your wife or because of your hamstring?

A little bit of both.

You’re talking Olympics.

Yeah.

She’s an Olympic sprinter. She’s an Olympic sprinter.

I still don’t know if I would have lined up, [INAUDIBLE].

Yeah.

I didn’t make a wise decision. But I will say is, it is that PTSD as far as me now thinking of what I felt in that moment and Lindsay said avoidance. So now you’re not doing something so now you’re least prepared — you’re not as prepared whenever you do need to sprint now. So with that, I need to start training like a sprinter again.

So we’re going to have a podcast a year from now and you will go up against Michelle again.

Well, I don’t need to sprint against her again but I can get back into sprinting.

There you go.

[LAUGHTER]

What is that going to look like? We all need goals.

We all do. So thank you for that. OK. All right. Next question, you ready? All right. Is cardio or strength training more important for heart health?

Both.

All right.

I agree, combination.

All right. We’ve got to know why for both.

Well, you’re Mr. Heart Rate over here. He’s looking at me. [LAUGHS]

The heart’s a muscle. And so just as important from a cardiovascular standpoint creating different intensity levels to create a stimulus and a response. Well, strength training can do a lot of the same things but just in a different way. When you think of the comment of lifting heavy things, it creates a cardiovascular response due to the taxation of just lifting heavier things and what it does from a muscular standpoint.

So being able to incorporate strength training, intelligent cardiovascular training really from an overall heart health perspective is really, if you think of, hey, where is the science leading us, we’re finding more and more evidence that it’s a combination of both things.

Yeah.

What do you mean when you say intelligent cardiovascular training?

Goes back to the very beginning conversation.

The heart rate?

Heart rate. Heart Rate Zone Training.

That’s what I figured. But just wanted to clarify that.

Yeah. Because oftentimes, to reiterate, we have a perceived exertion, but is that perceived exertion matching where our body physiologically is responding? That’s where heart rate comes into play.

Right. Perfect.

Well, Linds, I want to throw it at you. We obviously go through it a lot within the group setting. So whether we’re teaching GTX or Alpha, there’s something that we bring about when it comes to the metabolic conditioning portion of the class and we’re speaking objectively to intelligent heart rate training in a group setting.

And obviously, each individual in that setting have different heart rates as far as their intensities, threshold, and anaerobic versus aerobic. In that type of setting, can you say that the value is still there or is it too many variables for it to be accurate?

No, it’s absolutely still there. Yeah.

I agree. And I think Jeff hit on it earlier, when we do, let’s say, an active metabolic assessment, that’s a snapshot of time. And there’s things that go into that assessment, like how you slept, how your nutrition was. You alluded to some of these things.

So on any given day, let’s say I wake up and my resting heart rate is higher, well, that might affect my workout. So maybe that workout isn’t going to be the same or feel the same as when I did my AMA. But I think if they still have ranges and they have something to guide themselves, they’re still getting more intelligent training, versus just I’m going to go hard. And I’m going to run myself into the wall and then not be able to sustain, or not be able to recover, or whatever that looks like.

So when you refer to the group training setting, heart rate is such an amazing tool because it can individualize that workout. And not only can it individualize it by you paying attention to, hey, how’s my body responding, but when you think of some of the metabolic conditioning or metcon work that people do.

And when it comes to strength training or it comes to high intensity followed by lower intensity, how quickly am I recovering? I can use it not only to establish my zones, but I can use it in reverse to see how quickly am I recovering. Hey, when I did these kettlebell swings, two weeks ago, I needed a minute and a half. Now I need a minute to get back to that same, like, when do I re-engage so as people are going through AMRAPs, or EMOMs, or things that they’re trying to do in a HIIT-type setting, they start to can start to pay attention to where that recovery is telling them and then they can re-engage.

Love that. Love that.

All right. Another what’s more important question, what’s more important in a fitness plan, consistency or complexity?

Consistency, always. And I have this saying of basic and build versus complex and cut. It’s always better to start basic and build from there and something you can be consistent with versus going too much, too soon. Maybe it’s an injury. Maybe it’s just you can’t adhere to it. You feel discouraged because of that. So I always go with that approach.

I like that.

I think it’s pretty straightforward. We want to be consistent. To your point, if we’re going too hard, too fast, we’re making it harder than it needs to be, how likely are we to come back to that or stick with it? It goes back to that word sustainable. Is it sustainable?

And normally complexity equals intensity, too. So if you think about a road trip and if you are pedal all the way down to the floor and you’re trying to get to a destination that’s further away, your car is probably going to have issues before you get there. So there’s a speed limit for a reason. There’s things. You have to refuel. You’ve got to stop sometimes.

So I’m assuming most people listening to this are not trying to reach a goal in a month and then be done. You probably want to have sustainability with that goal. So it’s the consistency and not so much intensity. It’s good every once in a while, and that’s more probably like your competitions or your events. That’s where that comes into play. But not every day.

Yeah, I’m going to play off of that. So you’re looking for the longevity portion of it. So when we look at the next question, what’s the best way to train for longevity in health? And is it ever too late to start training for longevity?

Never too late. Never too late. You hear of stories all the time of someone, hey, they just did their first X at 78 or what have you. So it’s more about being intelligent, A, when you start, where you were, and then where you’re going.

So if you’ve been consistent for a long time, your ability to add more complexity, that door is open. If you’re new to it and you haven’t been really in the exercise game for a while or concerned about your health in a way that you’ve remained active, now all of a sudden you need to start to step into that space but you have to start with consistency before you can start to add complexity.

With longevity, I think of what do I like and what do I want to learn. And so I think that you have to start with things that you like, because that’s going to keep you coming back. There’s so much out there now with social media, too, of these shoulds, should do this, shouldn’t do that. And we get so caught up in it. Just start with what you like, and what you look forward to, and what you enjoy, and then build from there. And by that I mean what do you want to learn. What do you want to learn about your body. What do you want to learn about different movements, different styles. And it’s that process.

I think that as long as we keep learning, we’re growing. And there’s enjoyment in that process. It doesn’t have to mean that you’re always improving lifts or you’re always getting faster or whatever. But when we learn as human beings, that keeps us going. There’s that growing aspect to it.

And, Jamie, you alluded to earlier, talking about your kids, and that’s a longevity play, right? That is really the word that’s being thrown out now is healthspan. So it’s not just how old we become but how healthy are we as we age. And so when you think of longevity and what that looks like as a family grows, or as you grow, or grandkids, or what have you, longevity becomes important. Just like you said, being able to chase them around, being able to move with them and do different things versus become sedentary and not be actively engaged with them.

David brought up the Grand Canyon I just finished this weekend. The guy that was the fastest, he’s 68 and he finishes anywhere between 7 and 8 hours, 21 miles across the Grand Canyon. He does that because he exposes himself to it. He’s done it for years. He’s done it 12 — he’s done the rim-to-rim-to-rim, which is 42 miles 12 times. And you wouldn’t look at him and be like, oh, he’s this phenomenal person. But he does it. He keeps moving. It’s like, you don’t use it, you lose it. There’s some truth to that.

Wow.

I have a question that’s not on our list that I want to add. Because you just mentioned the Grand Canyon. And when we were off camera, Jeff, you mentioned that you have a big race coming up, Leadville. So I want to just ask you both, what place do big adventures? Why are they important or big challenges for yourself important potentially as part of someone’s fitness routine?

It’s the mental game. It keeps you — it’s something out there that it creates a different level of motivation, different attention. It almost is more mental than it is physical. Now it’s 15 years since I did Leadville, but my son wanted to do it. So, OK, I’m in now. I’ve got to get ready. But the point is, is I think it’s just that mental challenge, and then that chase, and then you naturally have that — I’m sure, Lindsay, just coming back, that euphoria of just, hey, look at what I just accomplished.

Yeah.

Yeah. It’s kind of twofold. We get one life. And why not explore? Why not test things. And the thing is, I don’t succeed at all of them. And I think there’s more learnings in that than when I do complete it successfully. But you have to seek those things. Especially as we get older, we get in routine, we get in structure. You have to go out of your norm and get uncomfortable. And that’s where that growth happens.

I also think for people that even if you’re starting out right, we talk about consistency, he alluded to something external to yourself to hold you accountable. When you set a date, when you pay for a thing, when you book a flight, you’re way more likely to adhere to whatever those daily things are that you need to do than if you’re like, oh, I didn’t do the thing again because it won’t matter as much. But if you have to show up to that start line and you know everything that you did leading up to that is going to determine that outcome, you’re more likely to stick to whatever that program or plan is.

Yeah.

Yeah, fitness is a journey. Destinations in between.

Yeah.

And having those kind of milestone moments is pretty cool. And it’s like, what’s my potential. I think it’s kind of cool to discover, wow, I can do that thing. Who knew?

And I also think of it this way, there’s a lot of people that have weight loss goals, and there’s nothing wrong with that. But let me put it this way, when you cross the Grand Canyon and you finish, I’m going to tell you you’re going to remember that a lot more than when you reach a goal weight. You just are. That’s going to stay with you so much longer. You step on the scale and you’re like, yay, I hit it and then you step off. It’s the process of it. It’s what you put into it to get to that point, not just that number. So oh, it’s just so different. I got little goosebumps. Can you see them?

[LAUGHTER]

Flip it. Let’s go to you. Because we’re talking about the adventure. When you had the whole preparation for marathon, walk us through that and that accomplishment.

Well, it was one of those things, again, I had that date on the calendar. I knew what I had to do to get there. And it wasn’t always easy. There were days I wanted to quit. There were, like, I questioned why am I doing this. But when it came to that day of, it was like, I’m here, I got here. There are things I would do differently in hindsight. There’s always something, like, oh, hindsight, I would trained slightly differently.

But as I was crossing off each mile, it was like, oh, wow, look at — for me, it was all about, look at this potential that I didn’t really know I had until I did this thing. And then it just opens doors to the next thing. Now what am I excited about? What’s that next thing I want to push myself to maybe see if I can do? And even like you said, Lindsay, if I don’t get there, that’s OK. But it’s just kind of like that challenge and belief in yourself that I think I can do that hard thing. So I don’t know.

I love it. I love it. All right. Next question, you ready?

Let’s go.

Is there a place for AI in fitness and training?

Absolutely. It’s coming. You have to adopt it. You have to embrace it. And then it’s what you do with it. So the four of us at this table, there’s an inherent energy being in the community of others. So AI, it’s only as good as its inputs, and that’s outputs. But it will learn very fast. And so in the space of fitness, health, wellness, et cetera, it’s going to be smarter than any one of us at this table. But what it can’t bring is that human interaction. It can’t real time adapt. It can’t do some of the things that just inherently happen when people are together.

Yeah.

Yeah. I think the human connection piece, community is huge that it will never be able to touch. I also think, I hear this all the time, I know what I need to do. I just need to do it. AI is still not going to do it for you. You’ve still got to put in the work. It can give you the best program, but the best program is only as good as it’s executed. So you still have to show up. And you still have to do the work.

Are there any particular innovations in AI that you’re seeing in the fitness space that are exciting to see, other than like, hey, it could build a program for you? Which we know that’s something at Life Time we are developing, what’s AI’s place in that. But what are you seeing that’s kind of cool or innovative in this space right now?

From a nutrition standpoint, I do like that, let’s say, you have certain ingredients at home or you want ideas on meals, it’s great about ideas, grocery lists, recipes. It’s just type a prompt and it’s going to give it to you because I think that’s where a lot of people get caught up is, I need this recipe. You don’t really need a recipe, but it gives you ideas of what to put together if you have a certain protein goal or a certain calorie goal. You can type all that in and it can output it for you.

Awesome.

Yeah.

How about you, Jeff?

I’m excited as it starts to learn us, meaning individually, and then it can start to make recommendations, and program adaptations, and so forth. It doesn’t take away the human person, or the element, or the coaching, or the form, or the technique when it comes to exercise or experiences that you’re doing with others or running a marathon.

But it being able to adapt and start to understand your behaviors, understand your tendencies, start to be able to take more and more data input from smartwatches, blood work, like we’re doing in MIORA, and then all of a sudden be able to customize certain things for you in such a rapid fashion I think is going to be really exciting.

I love that.

Cool. OK, so the last question that we have, unless we have a surprise question, maybe.

Never know.

Bonus questions. And this goes back to just kind of a fundamental, how do I know if I’m lifting the right amount of weight?

Well, I think it depends on what the goal is, again. But in general, I say, by the end, it should be challenging but doable. So you want to try to keep good form. And good form, hopefully, if you’re not sure what that is, you’re asking someone or getting some guidance there.

But then the weight you’re selecting, depending on what’s assigned to you, rep range, then sometimes there’s RPE or RAR, which Rate of Perceived Exertion or Reps And Reserve. But by the end, should have about 2 to 3 at minimum left in the tank, so in general. If your goals are different and you’re maxing out, that’s going to feel different than just a basic lifting program.

I’ll even simplify it. No, as much as you can. As much as you can. So now that has varying degrees of difficulty and intensity. But as much as I can. I would venture to bet David will deadlift more than I will deadlift at this point. But as long as it’s as much as I can, as much as he can, we’re going to create change.

Hmm.

I love that.

I like it. I like it.

Any other not really mic drop moment questions, but any other surprise fitness questions that you often get or any —

That I get?

Or any of you.

He answers them all.

Yeah. I feel like, yeah. Linds, I think it was in the beginning, it was talking the most common thing that we get is or complaints that we get is not enough variety. We want this to be different. So we get complaints around programming.

And don’t get me wrong, I never think there will be perfect programming because once again, so many variables with the people that you’re working with. But I say the one constant, which will lead into the mic drop moment, is the one constant is the coach. And the coach can either be that thermostat or that thermometer.

So like, empowering them with the education. And if it’s the same movement for 12 weeks, speaking to the journey of what it is that we’re leading to and those little acute variables that you were speaking to, like those change the stimulus for whatever the work might be.

And that’s the one thing that I think as coaches that if we champion more around education and the why versus I just want to do something different because I’m bored with coaching this and they’re bored with doing it, that’s the one thing that just I want our coaches to continue to elevate in that space. Yeah.

Love it.

All right. Are you ready? You’ve got the question.

Yeah. So question —

I think this is like, hmm, what’s the key?

Linds, you’ve been in the game for 15 years. And how many years, Jeff?

So it’s not even worth discussing, David. [LAUGHS]

So out of the 15-plus years, we’ve put it all together, what’s the one thing that’s been the constant for you that you’ve seen over the years as far as health and fitness? The one thing that’s a constant, a non-negotiable that you’re like, this is just part of health and fitness. And then what is something that has changed? Like, your mindset has probably evolved from I thought it was this but actually, it’s not.

Ooh, that’s a good one.

Are you saying for ourselves personally or for people we work with?

Ooh, well, it is ask the trainers. Maybe we should make it about — I want to know you personally. Let me ask you personally.

What’s constant and what’s changed? Shoot, this is a good question. Do you have yours? Do you know?

Working on it.

I’m too. The wheels are turning. [CHUCKLES]

It’s like you need the Jeopardy music for this moment.

I was thinking more of the people I work with. And I think the level of care. So it’s funny because after COVID, we went through and we rebranded training into dynamic personal training. And a big piece of that is being engaged. And for me as a trainer is like, I always care about the person in front of me, maybe sometimes more than they care or I shouldn’t care as much. But I believe so much and have high expectations of others as much as I have of myself.

And so I think that’s been a consistent thing for me. And anyone that’s worked with me or anyone that’s been in my class, they know when they show up, I’m going to push them, not because I want to just be this hard trainer, but I believe that they can do more. And that goes to other areas of their life. That’s not just in the gym. Yeah.

Love that.

Love that.

And then from a change, I think for me, this is more personal. I think almost I don’t want to speak for every woman, and maybe guys too, but going through phases of if you want to lean out, if you want to lose fat, what that looks like and the things we get caught up in. And I will say for the past two-ish years, transitioning to eating for performance and eating enough is a game changer. Energy levels, recovery, I think that’s been a more recent change for me versus when I started 15 years ago of maybe how little can I get away with versus how much are we eating tonight? [CHUCKLES] And how is that going to show up tomorrow when I’m training? Yeah.

How can I fuel myself enough, right?

Yes. Yeah.

I love that.

So the constant has probably been consistency. That one I know if I fall off that consistency train, the things, they don’t happen as quickly. Can’t recover as quickly. Can’t get back into it as quickly. So consistency has been one over the years.

I think the exciting change that I’ve noticed is the byproduct of cross-training into other things. So you mentioned Leadville as an example. I’m really anxious to see because I’ve done more cross-training, plugged into Alpha, plugged into different types of metcon-type HIIT workouts what that does for me. Where before I would have just biked. I just would have got on my bike. I just would have ridden my bike. I just — unfortunately aren’t afforded that time.

But now I’ve gotten into some weekend rides recently. And it’s, hey, not great, but I’m not bad, where I would expect with the less volume on the bike. So how your body can take a different stimulus around intensities and still be able to make it a transferable skill. Not to necessarily be on a podium, but just to be able to effectively complete it. So I’m anxious to see what that leads to.

Very cool. All right. Well, we love these episodes. We’re going to bring you back again. You’re both back for a second visit. I think you’re like third or fourth, Lindsay. You’ll both be back. We’ll bring you back sooner than later. If our listeners and viewers want to follow you, they’ve got Jeff. You can reach out to Jeff at jrosga@lt.life. Lindsay is @LifeWithCoach_LO, L-O, on Instagram. You’re on Instagram too, aren’t you?

I’m on Instagram, but it’s not very fitness related. More family related. More family.

We’ll leave it as that. But awesome. But we’ve also have content from both of you at Experience Life with different things, so we’ll make sure to link to all of that in the show notes. So thank you both for [INAUDIBLE] our experts today.

And thanks for doing this with me, Jeff. It was our first time together.

Yes, it was.

Thanks, you guys.

Yeah, thank you.

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