How To Keep Your New Year's Resolution To Get Fit & Improve Your Diet

SPEAKERS

Jim du Bois, Brent Goodermont

Jim du Bois  00:00

Dialogue Minnesota...conversations about the issues that matter to you. I'm Jim du Bois. We're a little over a month into 2022, and many of us are looking to improve our fitness and overall health this year. If your New Year's resolution to start or resume an exercise program is off to a slow start, we have some advice from an expert. Brent Goodermont is a certified personal trainer, and during the pandemic, he left a major fitness company to start his own business called Health 171. Brent, welcome back to Dialogue Minnesota.

Brent Goodermont  00:35

Thanks, Jim. Thanks for having me back.

Jim du Bois  00:37

Well, it is a new year, and many of us have made resolutions, and probably one of the most common resolutions is to return to a more fit lifestyle and perhaps lose some weight. First of all, Brent, though, let's talk about how you decided to become a personal trainer. It was a bit of an encore career for you, wasn't it?

Brent Goodermont  00:56

That's a true statement. You know, I was in a corporate position for over 25 years. Liked that. It was challenging. I liked the social aspect of it. I liked solving problems, and all of that. But in the back of my head, I didn't think I wanted to work until I was 65, or seventy years in a corporate environment. And I always wanted to try something different. And that was helping people and probably to become healthier. I knew I wasn't going to be a medical doctor. But watching my father pass away at a young age, he was only 53 when he passed away, and in my corporate life, seeing medical claims, you know, rising. And some of the reasons why these medical claims came through was because of obesity, or people that were overweight, and some of the secondary issues that came after that. And so, I thought maybe, just maybe, I could help people in my second career avoid hospitalization, maybe not be overweight, maybe be able to move better. And I thought, physical therapy, personal training. Personal training came around. I had some individuals in my life that were very good personal trainers at the health clubs here in town. And they were my role models. And so, I started asking them questions. One thing led to another, took some tests, and got hired, and away I went, and that was in 2005.

Jim du Bois  02:18

Well, what should you do before you start a fitness program, particularly if you are an older adult?

Brent Goodermont  02:25

Well, first thing you should receive permission from your doctor. Your doctor will know your internals in terms of your blood pressure, your resting heart rate, and some of those issues, maybe even your joints and the way you move arthritis issues or what have you. Are you cleared for exercise? Because if you're going to exercise, you probably are going to increase your intensity. And you're going to be putting your body in new movement patterns and maybe lifting weights, maybe your heart rate is going to be elevated more than it's been in the past. And so, with that in mind, one has to get that medical clearance.

Jim du Bois  02:57

We know that the pandemic has really upended a lot of people's fitness programs and activities. You know, some people obviously, like the atmosphere that a gym or fitness center provides, the camaraderie, the energy. What should you look for if you are comfortable working out in a gym environment? How do you go about choosing a good place to work out?

Brent Goodermont  03:24

Some of it might be geography, can you get there on a regular basis? Part of health success or a successful health plan is consistency. And if it's hard to get there because of traffic, or it's too long of a drive, you don't like the parking, you might not be going there on a consistent basis. So, I think geography is one. To your point, the camaraderie, can you connect with people in a group setting? Can you find a trainer that can help you one-on-one? Are there programs that fit what you sort of like to do? That could be yoga, that could be Pilates, that could be group training with strength training, that could be a cycle class, that could be a step class, and you want to sort of see that type of programming offered at your club.

Jim du Bois  04:15

Many people are wary of working out with others in an indoor setting, given the pandemic. What advice could you give someone who would like to work out in their home but really doesn't know where or how to start?

Brent Goodermont  04:29

Hire somebody to help them. I think if you're somebody who hasn't worked out before, you haven't been part of a gymnasium or a fitness center, you're going to need some guidance. There are some resources obviously on the internet. There's a lot of digital applications you can subscribe to in order to have a class on demand. In the cardiovascular world, Peloton is a shining example of that. With a subscription you can follow along. Now, you have to invest over 1000 or $2,000. I don't know the price of a Peloton. But now you have that piece of equipment in your home, and you will be led through safe and hopefully effective workouts for you. That's one thing you could do. But there are many people now during the pandemic, who started their own businesses, and they will train clients via Zoom, via FaceTime, and walk them through, understand their goals, map out a program, train them during that program, hold them accountable during that program, measure their results, etc. Those are two things that I would consider.

Jim du Bois  05:40

What should you look for when selecting a personal trainer. Are certifications important to look for?

Brent Goodermont  05:45

They are important, it shows that somebody has taken time to invest probably their own money, certainly their own time. And the certifications are worthwhile. You learn about the body in terms of its anatomy. You'll learn how it's moved in the form of kinesiology. And you'll learn about the profession itself in terms of how to interact with different personality types, how to program, how to use weight training, how to use cardiovascular training, to your advantage. And I think that's, that's important. But I don't think it's the end all be all if somebody has six or seven of them. I think somebody who has a base certification, and beyond that, it's really how well the trainer connects with the client, listens to the client, and really has the client's needs first and foremost. When a client really feels like they are being listened to, and that trainer is on their side, good things can happen. That's the more important part of the equation. Certifications, yes. But even more important is that connection with that individual

Jim du Bois  06:53

Brent, you just mentioned that as a result of the pandemic, quite a few personal trainers hung out their own shingle, went into business for themselves. That certainly was the case for you. You had worked for Lifetime Fitness since 2006. How big of a change was that for you, and also for your clients?

Brent Goodermont  07:13

It was a big change. And almost all of it positive. There was a slight emotional cost of not being in the gymnasium and around the energy that was Lifetime Fitness. It was wonderful energy. And whether it was the music, the one-on-one conversations, being part of a group, whether it was a row challenge, or in a part of a big spin class, or riding outdoors, some of the outdoor ridings that I led, I missed all of that. But in return, in return, I started a business where if something goes right or wrong, I look in the mirror. And it's me. And I like that. That was an unexpected benefit of doing this and filing an LLC, choosing an accounting system, and running a small, small business. But I'm in charge. And I'd like that. And I'm responsible for its success, and any mistakes I've made along the way. The other is simply, I don't miss driving on icy roads, snowy roads, cold temperatures, walking five minutes from the parking lot into the gym. I don't miss any of that. And on a positive side, I'm home, I'm safe during the pandemic, I'm close to my wife, I can schedule time throughout my day to have a nice meal and eat a meal slowly instead of rushing. And finally, the connection with my clients, I think is even stronger. Because remember, when personal training session happened at Lifetime, great equipment, great space, great energy, lots of people. One problem with lots of people, sometimes a client might have something they want to talk about that's pretty private. A lot of clients did not like talking about those conversations in front of a lot of people. And now, there's one on one training. When they're in the comfort of their home, the quiet and privacy of their own home, and I'm in mine, they're more apt to talk even longer and deeper about certain subjects. And sadly, I have some clients who are going through cancer treatments. And so, talking about those issues are far more feasible in this new format. And secondly, thanks to big screens on my iPad, I can really see my clients. You know, they move their camera or phone the way I need it. I can see every articulation. I can see the way their feet might be moving, incorrectly or correctly. And I don't have any problem cueing. And so, I think my clients are getting even better results than they did when we were doing it in person at the gym.

Jim du Bois  09:57

Brent, you formed your own company called Health one 71 What's the significance of that name?

Brent Goodermont  10:02

Health 171 was named after my clients. What I did when I retired, Jim, is I added up the years of tenure of this small group of individuals that I've been training, a lot of them since 2006. It added up to 171 years, that was in July of 2020. And I just thought, it's not a real creative marketing, pizzazz name. But it was an authentic name. And sincerely, I wanted to honor my clients who are really the reason I was successful, that I had clients that stuck with me, I retained them, I wound up being good friends with them. But more importantly, I believe I helped them develop healthier habits. And as a result, they have healthier lives.

Jim du Bois  10:47

Brent, if someone is just starting out working out, and they've resolved to do this for New Years, and they look around and say, gee, I really have no equipment whatsoever. What kind of exercises can you do simply using your own bodyweight?

Brent Goodermont  11:03

If you have a floor, you can try to do a push-up. If you can't do a push-up with straight arms and going down, you can go on your forearms and do a forearm pushup. You could lie on your back, and you could try to roll like a baby does in his or her crib without using your hands or your feet on the floor. You can do a squat, you can do a lunge, you can do a jumping jack, you can climb stairs, you can walk backwards, you can walk sideways, you can sit in a chair and practice getting out of a chair. That's a very functional movement. You could do a backbend, you could try to touch your knees, you could try to touch your toes, you could rotate your arms in 360-degree circles and feel all the muscles that attach to your scapula or your wing bones. And feel those stretch out. You could do a warrior pose, you, there's a lot of different things you can do with just your body and a floor.

Jim du Bois  12:04

What are some relatively inexpensive types of fitness equipment that are suitable for working out at home?

Brent Goodermont  12:10

One is called a hip circle. And it's just a circular strap that's elastic that goes around your knees just above or just below. And as one exerts pressure by separating their legs, it fires up your glute muscles. It's portable, it probably cost $25. And it's very, very effective. Another would be a piece of resistance tubing with or without handles. And you can do different exercises with tubing. You can wrap it around a doorknob and do some punching, you could step on the middle of the tube and hold on to the handles and do bicep curls. You can pull it apart and fire up those muscles that attach to the scapula again. Those are two pieces of equipment that could get you started for under $40. That's the very basic

 Jim du Bois  13:02

At some of the big box stores now, they have a dedicated fitness area in the store. Target comes to mind, and they have a pretty wide range of equipment. What are your thoughts on hand weights? What kind of hand weights might be worth investing in?

Brent Goodermont  13:16

I'm a big fan of hand weights for a couple of reasons. One is when you have one in each hand, and you do either an overhead press or some exercise, it isolates the limbs and sometimes we can discover, hey, it's easier with my right than my left. Well, that tells us something that maybe we need to do something about the left. Two, heavyweights are relatively inexpensive, and they're effective, it just clearly adds more stress. So, instead of doing a walking the stairs with your bodyweight, if you had two extra hand weights or two hand weights in your hand, and they're each 10 pounds, now it's like 20 pounds of weight going up the stairwell. So, hand weights have a great advantage because they don't take up a lot of room, either. One person does not need to have 20 pairs of hand weights. You can start out, to your point, if somebody is just starting out, a pair of five pounders, a pair of eight pounders just to start.

Jim du Bois  14:17

What are some fitness equipment options for folks who are willing to make a more significant investment?

Brent Goodermont  14:24

I would say a rowing machine. I'm a little biased because it's one of my favorite exercises. The reason I like the rowing machine, Jim, is it works just about every single muscle in the body. It's easy to learn. It does take up a little bit of room in a home. But if someone is willing to spend a little bit of money, I think a rowing machine would be my first choice. For those that don't like sitting down on that rowing machine, the Peloton, as I mentioned earlier, is a highly popular piece of equipment. Sample size of three, but I have three clients who really enjoy their Peloton experience and their Peloton investment. Beyond that, the company called TRX makes some equipment. The company bowl work. Bought the ball worker makes a piece of equipment to do isometric exercises. I've had some clients buy medicine balls. I've had clients buy jump ropes, that's not a very expensive investment. And they've developed a little bit of a home gym. I installed pull up bars in our basement. That was a $70 investment. Glad I did.

Jim du Bois  15:39

What advice do you have for people who struggle to stay motivated and engaged in a workout program?

Brent Goodermont  15:46

One is to find a workout partner. One is to find a trainer. One is to set a very simple goal. And just go after that goal. Don't have the goal of I want to have a perfectly chiseled body by the Super Bowl, or I want to lose 40 pounds before my high school reunion in June. You know, goal setting can be as simple as one goal. And it can be, say, drink five glasses of water a day. And you keep track of it on a paper calendar, on a digital calendar. You tell someone about it and say, hey, for the month of January, the month of February, I'm going to try to drink one extra glass of water or X amount of glasses of water every day. And just start like that. If you want to ramp that up in terms of exercise, how far can you walk? Can you walk for five minutes, can you walk for 10 minutes? And sometimes the power of measurement and watching yourself progress can help you. And if you share that goal, and some of this is basic goal setting 101 that many of us learn in either corporate life or in other forms of social interactions with goals. But in fitness, if you establish a reasonable goal and start measuring it, and not be scared about, I've got to get everything done in one month, you know, time passes by so quickly and maybe three, four or five, six months from now, you find yourself walking more than you ever have. You find yourself drinking more water than you did before. Maybe it's an elimination goal, you've started to eliminate the amount of Diet Coke you drank or the amount of white wine you're drinking, or the amount of ice cream you're having a nine o'clock at night. Or now you can do, instead of that one pushup you couldn't do on January 15, hey, I now can do 10 push-ups because I tried to do one additional push-up each week. And all of a sudden, six weeks later, 12 weeks later, all right, now I'm on a roll. Not saying that will happen for sure. But that's a great way of starting, setting simple goals. Probably a simple goal and having a way of tracking that. Better yet if you can share it with somebody.

Jim du Bois  18:00

How can you best avoid injury when working out?

Brent Goodermont  18:05

Do not try to get healthy overnight. It's clearly baby steps, small incremental changes. And taking time to listen to your body. If you think you have an ache or a pain and your ankle's hurting, maybe I'm not going to go for a long walk today. Listen to your body. If something's acting up, take a day off. I'm not a big fan of just saying hey, go drink a bunch of water and take some Advil, but no, listen to your body, and don't overdo it. And don't try to get all your weight goals done right away. Small steps. If you can do one pushup, don't try to do 15 the next day. Do two the next day or two the next week.

Jim du Bois  18:51

Are there any exercises or stretches that you do not recommend and could actually cause injury, if done improperly?

Brent Goodermont  18:59

I try to avoid having clients bending over forward at the hip, and then rotating their shoulders. Rotating their spine while the hips are flexed forward can be an unsafe motion, especially if you're doing it with weights in your hand. Or you're doing it fast. I don't really see too many people hurting themselves stretching for two reasons. One, I think people will feel pain if they're stretching too much. And the body thankfully has some things in place that will retract the muscle if you're stretching it too far. The body will say not so fast, not so far, I'm retracting and not allowing me to do this. So, I don't, I haven't seen too many people hurt themselves stretching too much. I've seen people hurting themselves doing movements that are unwise.

Jim du Bois  19:53

Many people want to lose weight as well as improve their fitness. While we should point out that you are not a registered dietician, what advice can you give to people who want to improve their diet and avoid unhealthy eating?

Brent Goodermont  20:06

Find a registered dietitian, and realize that our weight loss, 80 to 90% of it, is what we eat. In general terms, I find people who are truly self-aware, they have a pretty good idea what's wrong. And it's some of the things I mentioned earlier. Ice cream at night, maybe more than one glass of white wine with dinner. Too much diet soda, too much processed foods, too much food at every meal. Eating for emotional reasons, not eating for fuel. And so, I've written about this before. Even though I'm not an author, I send out a newsletter, a tip every week to my clients. I think one key and again, I'm not a registered dietitian, thanks for clarifying that, but for those individuals that can find food that is healthy, that they crave or that they like, is a key. Because I'm not a big fan of green beans, and even though they might have a healthy value, I'm not gonna eat them because I don't like green beans. But I've come to really enjoy roasted broccoli. So, I'll eat that whenever I can. I like roasted broccoli. I like sauteed spinach with eggs. And so, the more combinations and patterns I can find foods that I like that are healthy, I don't, I don't worry about counting calories. I enjoy every meal. And I know I'm getting a pretty balanced diet. And so, I don't think it's very hard for anybody who's listening to this to understand what good food is. And now, it's just a matter of finding those foods that you like. That's the advice I would give people.

Jim du Bois  22:07

Brent, as someone who has studied fitness and done a lot of reading on the subject, are there any authors or books or perhaps online resources that you have found particularly helpful, and you might recommend to someone who is interested in learning more about fitness and starting a fitness program?

Brent Goodermont  22:25

Absolutely. I'll start with a medical doctor, Dr. Mark Hyman. He runs the Cleveland Clinic. We've actually used his services in the past. He wrote a book called Ultra Metabolism, which changed the way I viewed eating. Dr. Mark Hyman. Gray Cook, physical therapist, absolute master on movement, has plenty of videos out on YouTube. I've read many of his books, have bought many of his DVDs. Gray Cook. Dr. Eric Cobb. He is a Doctor of Chiropractic Medicine, but he didn't like chiropractic medicine because it was putting a bandaid on problems. It wasn't finding the root cause, at least from his perspective. He started a company called Z Health, the letter Z Health. His website has a blog, and you can type in just about any joint or body part. And he has wonderful five-to-seven-minute videos with a transcript, which can walk you through how to improve performance or reduce pain or eliminate pain with simple exercises. Dr. Stuart McGill, probably one of the top five experts in the world on the spine. He's a professor of spine biomechanics. And he used to teach out of Waterloo University in Toronto. And he has written many books, has many DVDs out there as well as YouTube videos on how to train the core. Those are my top four where I send people right away.

Jim du Bois  24:02

Brent, you touched on this a bit earlier. But how important is it to have reasonable expectations when you begin a fitness or perhaps even adjust your diet to eat more healthy foods? Do you need to pay a lot of attention to being realistic? I mean, certainly, there are things you might set as a goal that are clearly unrealistic. You may not realize that, but any kind of change and improvement in your health or fitness is a gradual process, and you can't expect overnight results. How should you set reasonable, attainable goals?

Brent Goodermont  24:38

I think you could start with weight loss. Most medical experts will tell you that a pound a week is on, near the high end of how much weight to lose. I don't think I'd want anyone trying to lose more than two pounds a week. So, a pound a week maybe. And check with your doctor, what they might think as well. There could be some low-hanging fruit for somebody who might be in a obese category. And that person may have some early on success losing more than one pound a week. And I think with strength training, you do not want to try to increase the amount of weight you do more than say 5%. So, if you can, if you can lift 10 pounds, try not to then go to lift 20 pounds, try to lift maybe 11 or 12 pounds. Reasonable expectations are absolutely key because it's the number one, not number one, but it's one of the top reasons why people hurt themselves, or why people quit, stopped. Because it was too frustrating. They wanted to try to be like the other person at the other end of the gym, or somebody in their office or somebody in their neighborhood, who said, hey, I'm running a marathon in June, I'm running Grandmas. Well, if you haven't run before, and it's April, more than likely, you're not gonna have success, should you get a bid for Grandmas. Same thing with weight loss, same thing with how your biceps look, same thing with the way you move. You have a long-term view of it, do this in small increments. And after a while, your body will adapt and say hey, I can move that elbow much better. I can squat deeper. All right, let's add some weight. Now, I want to squat faster. It'll come with time. It'll come better if you have somebody holding you accountable from a professional standpoint. But I'm not here to make a commercial for personal training. I'm just saying you can do it on your own. Just be careful.

Jim du Bois  26:45

Brent Goodermont is a certified personal trainer. His company is Health 171. Brent, thanks so much for joining us again on Dialogue Minnesota.

Brent Goodermont  26:55

Thanks again, Jim. Thanks for having me. Take care.