On today's episode of Vital Metabolic, hosts James Wheeler and John Parker talk to Coach Karen Smith about body weight training, how the pandemic has changed her working style, the most important components for strength training, and more.
Episode Highlights:
- John and James begin by talking about how their exercise habits have changed over the last year, and how they appreciated being able to get outside and exercise.
- They talk about how to get the correct amount of protein in your diet, and what a big difference it can make for people.
- 9:10 - John talks about the adjustment he's making to his workouts as the seasons change.
- 10:50 - They talk about the importance of everyone having a balanced diet.
- 11:15 - They introduce their guest, Karen Smith, who is an iron maiden like Rebecca Rouse.
- 11:50 - Karen lives in Texas, and while she was lucky enough to not lose power during the snowstorm, she knows many people whose homes have sustained damage.
- 14:40 - Karen is used to intermittent fasting, so she wasn't worried about running out of food during the snowstorm.
- 16:45 - Karen has been doing online training for many years, so it wasn't a difficult transition for her when the pandemic started.
- 18:00 - Karen has been in fitness her whole life, and she was a cheerleader, a gymnast, and a runner as a kid.
- 19:45 - Karen talks about how she helped to rehab a friend of her daughter's who also cheers and who had pulled a hamstring muscle right before try outs.
- 24:00 - Karen, John, and James discuss how it feels to train other trainers to improve what they do.
- 25:45 - James asks Karen about the start of Strength First Body Weight training, and what she did to assist with writing the manual.
- 28:19 - James talks about the need to be well-rounded in order to pass SFB training and get the certification.
- 29:42 - There is a strict progression in body weight training because you have to build a solid core of strength before you can up the difficulty.
- 31:30 - Karen talks about tactical pull ups and the strictness of the form, including the fact that you can't use your thumbs because you can't put your thumb through a solid wall.
- 35:00 - Karen travels so much that she often lives out of a suitcase everywhere, including in her own home. When the pandemic started in the US, she flew home in mid March and didn't leave again until July, and it was the longest she'd been at home for 7 or 8 years.
- 37:32 - Karen gave herself tendonitis years ago from doing pull ups incorrectly, and she's been working since then to get her body back to that point.
- 39:00 - They discuss how body fat percentage is vital in doing pull ups, especially in terms of the number of reps you can do.
- 42:15 - Karen loads people with external weight before they can do a single pull up because it makes getting to being able to do a pull up faster.
- 45:45 - Karen has done certification trainings where people come in after a day or two and think they're getting sick because of the strain they put on their bodies.
- 47:00 - Karen talks about the power of visualization, especially when she was training for the Iron Maiden.
- 50:22 - Now that Karen has been training for over 20 years, she has started thinking about her retirement.
3 Key Points:
- There is a strict progression in body weight training because you have to build a solid core of strength before you can up the difficulty.
- Karen has been doing online training for many years, so it wasn't a difficult transition for her when the pandemic started.
- Karen loads people with external weight before they can do a single pull up because it makes getting to being able to do a pull up faster.
Tweetable Quotes:
- "The physical aspect is one thing, but the mental aspect is the greatest gift." - John Parker
- "As soon as I was able to travel again, I was hustling." - Karen Smith
- "I really got into visualization when I was training for the Iron Maiden...I would lay in bed and visualize the challenge. I didn't want to just get up and try it, I knew I was going to wake up that day and do this." - Karen Smith
Resources Mentioned:
