This is making shift happen, and I'm your
host Jen Katz.
Over the years, I've coached hundreds of clients
find their ideal self through the way they
nourish their bodies and minds. And now I'm
here to help pass on these same strategies
to you.
So let's stop the madness and get your
results once and for all. Let's go.
Hello, Fam, It is that time of the
year when biking season is upon us for
most of us, especially here in the Northern
hemisphere. And sometimes our gym workouts just fall
to the wayside. Because, I mean, all a
minute, we wanna spend more time out outside.
I wanna spend more time outside. Totally get
it. I totally fill you. So a common
question that I get this time of year,
especially when folks are getting into a little
bit of bunk, which can happen seasonally
is
jen, what the hell do I do? When
I'm just not motivated to work out when
I'm not motivated to ride. You know, what
are some things that I can do? And
that's what I wanted to do for this
episode because I wanna help you out.
1 of the things that I often find.
Is that sometimes we might have,
set our
expectations a little bit too high. You know,
maybe we're getting out of winter, getting out
of the fog of spring and the spring
showers and all this other stuff kinda still
rubbing our eyes,
getting the sleeps out of our eyes.
And it dawn on us, You know, like,
hey, it's bike season. Holy Hell.
I wanna I wanna start biking more and
you go
you make the plan to go from 0
to hero is what I call it. And
you're going from 0 days a week of
riding to, like, you wanna do 6 days
a week of writing, maybe 7.
And sometimes that's just not realistic. You know,
you're not setting some realistic expectations for yourself.
Even if your friends are maybe riding that
much. And that's the thing Is sometimes we
get a little drunk by this concept by
this idea of seeing our friends and seeing
our fellow racers and people on our teams
and in our circles,
we see them putting in the miles day
in and day out throughout the week.
And we're like, oh, man, I wanna do
that. Right? I mean, hey, I get it.
I've I've been drunk that as well, and
I wanted to do that as well.
And
you know, sometimes we just have to set
better
expectations for ourselves. We're all different. We're all
individuals we each have
a unique schedule, a unique set of expectations
for our workload for our personal life, and,
you know, for anything else that you can
imagine. Whether we have sick parents, sick family
members that we're caring for or a sick
friend that we're helping or an injured friend
that we're helping,
this can change, you know in... Oh my
goodness. If you have children on top of
it, that's going to change. If you're a
single parent, that's going to change your schedule
in availability.
Alright. So your 24 hours is going to
little look a little bit different than my
24 hours
and vice versa. And we have to respect
that. So whether or not you're seeing someone
else that's in enjoying 6 days a week
on the trail or on the gravel roads,
hey,
it's fine, but I want you to continually
remind yourself. That you need to set realistic
expectations. You know, set some realistic
realistic goals for yourself, don't go from 0
to hero and expect yourself to ride 6
days a week when maybe you haven't necessarily
been doing that instead. What I recommend is
starting off with a couple of days a
week, You know, trying to get at least
1 day a week riding it, get a
couple of days a week beyond that, get
a, you know, add, keep adding on the
more consistent you are. So if you're consistent,
you met your goal that week. Great. Try
adding on another day.
But don't set yourself up for failure and
set yourself up for an unrealistic
expectation
by setting this high standard that you really
have to strive for. And then of course,
it leaves you frustrated and burn out and
angry at yourself when you don't necessarily meet
the number of days that you were hoping
to. And then that that perpetuate the problem
that perpetuate the circle. And then before you
know it, you're just going down the drain
of your sink. Alright? And and you feel
helpless and you feel even more frustrated, and
then you just end up not doing anything
at all. That's that's what we wanna avoid.
The same can be said for days in
the gym.
Now, as a primarily a strength training coach
that is my forte. That is my passion.
As someone who has done strength training for,
you know, I'm gonna be 45 this year,
which is really hard for me to say
because I feel like I'm, like, 30.
I've been training so I was about, like,
8,
and,
you know, you can do the math so
I've been training for well over 35 years,
and
time and time again, I will I will
say this with certainty.
Even with strength training, you don't wanna go
from 0 to hero either. You're just going
to be setting yourself up for excessive sore,
you're going to feel like your legs are
too heavy and they're not capable of doing
what you want them to do
when you're on the bike. And that's 1
of the biggest reasons why people stop strength
training is because then they overdo it. They
keep doing massively massively heavy weights
close to their P r, close to their
hundred percent Max and things like that. If
you if you pay attention to that, of
course, not everyone does. That's fine.
But If you do that urine and year
out, your body doesn't necessarily have a time
to take a little bit of a collective
break.
So when bike season really ramps up and
your miles really ramp up,
there isn't necessarily a need for you to
lift excessively heavy weight
unless that is part of your sport. If
you're an Olympic weight lift, for example, and
you are still competing in competitions for Olympic
weight lifting or you're a cross athlete and
you're still lifting heavy, and you're still wanting
to get to semi finals and the crossfit
games and so on and so forth. Then
yes, you are going to be the exception
to the rule.
However, this is not going to be for
everyone. Alright? And I wanna make that especially
clear
that it's really nice to lift heavier in
the fall winter early spring.
When you can really, really focus on building
strength and hyper...
Hypertrophy,
but I don't know why that was a
really difficult word for me to say just
now. But, you know, during the off season
quote unquote for for strength training,
try to focus that on your biking, you
know, a little bit more. Getting some more
miles and but then make the
expectation 1 to 2 days of strength training
a week. I wouldn't necessarily even say more
than 3 days a week, not really necessary.
How However, if you're unable to get on
the bike or get out on the trail,
if you don't have an indoor trainer to
train upon, things like that, then, yeah, getting
in this into the gym 3 to 4
days a week is going to be beneficial
for you. So by all means do that
continue that,
especially if you're doing that in, you know,
the the fall winter, early spring range. Right?
But I will say with certainty that you
can really maintain your strength and still
maintain power increase power and all of that
with a nice minimum 1 to 2 days
of strength training per week. And I I
say this time and time again to my
dread strong athletes. I see this time and
time you get into myself. You know, here
I am. I'm training for lead events. There
are longer endurance events, which I'm not used
to.
And, you know, I'm still trying to maintain
1 to 2 days of of week of
of strength training sessions a week.
I will say personal experience. Of course, I'm
in n equals 1. So please know this
is my experience. This is what I have
gone through. Your experience might be different. But
I will say collectively, what I've seen over
the, you know, almost 20 years that I've
been coaching is time and time again, my
clients do feel better when they are maintaining
strength at least 1 to 2 days a
week.
Especially if they are an endurance athlete. You
know, my iron ironman athletes, things like that
that I worked with 3 years.
I will say my personal experience is the
same. Because I've actually tried. I I do
have a coach lover her to pieces. Shout
out to Kim, if you're listening, I love
you.
So, you know, Kim and I have been
working together
for, a,
little less than 2 months now.
And I will say, you know, she's great.
She's also a power lift. She... So she
understands my propensity. My love for strength treating.
But she's a 7 time led finish her.
And, you know, she again, also really finds
the benefit of you know, including string training
with cycling, you know, with my my intervals
and things like that. Now in the last
3 weeks,
my strength training has gone down to 0,
only because my focus is primarily on cycling.
However,
I tried it and
let me just tell you
it's kind of embarrassing to say. I'm such
a meat head.
Let me just tell you. I I missed
strength training. Like, it it it made me
sad
not to strength train. Like, I became kind
of a debbie downer.
And
And plus, I also started to just kinda
feel, like a couple things start to, like,
creep up a little bit that I... And
these are things that I managed to to
diminish
because of our strength training and and doing
a lot of single leg work and things
like that.
It I couldn't help, but just be like,
oh, can I can I, you know, add
my stuff? And, of course, she's she's awesome.
She's like, yeah. Dude. Add in whatever the
hell you need. You know what you need.
Do it. And I told I was like
hey, I'm not gonna be lifted heavy. Like,
I'm not gonna be, you know, going ham.
On my dead lives and doing over 200
pounds or anything like that. So I I
just went ahead and got back in, did
some upper body stuff. Because, I mean, let's
be honest, a little bit of vanity shirt
but honestly, it makes me feel so much
better. It makes my shoulders feel so much
better, and I just feel happy.
It's a type of feeling that I am
not able to replicate on the bike. The
bike brings me so much joy so much
happiness, but man, moving my joints through their
full range of motion.
Does something for me.
And that is because on a bike, you're
not moving your joints through their full range
of motion, and you know I am a
cyclist. I'm not downing.
Any type of folks who do a hundred
percent cycling, you know, year round, But by
all means it's fantastic. If that works for
you great. I want you to keep moving.
But there's something to be said about moving
your joint through its full range of motion.
It just feels good. It also feels good
to the joint, especially if you are pre
t or all are already at art,
then, yeah, it, you know, it helps move
that s fluid in your joints, and it's
just going to help making you keep making
you feel greasy as 1 of my clients
likes to to call it.
He loves feeling greasy, and I get, like,
I I love it when my squats and
my dead feel just greasy. Like, they feel
good. You know? They feel right.
They're moving like butter.
And that's 1 of the reasons why I
do really emphasize trying to get those 2
weak. 1 or 2 days week of strength
training in. Every week, regardless what what are
whether you're training for a marathon half marathon
or you're doing marathon bike rides and a
hundred mile bike rides or just your local,
you know, 8 mile
fast as hell lap.
It doesn't matter. You know, some sort of
strength training is really what's going to be
beneficial for you because it is going to
be resistance training that does help build up
strong bones
makes you feel really good and gets those
joints moving through their proper ranges of motion.
It also helps increase your stability on and
off the bike, which helps further prevent any
type of bone breakage and things like that
from falls and and whatnot, especially as you
do age.
So even if you're in your twenties and
you're listening to this, you know, episode and
you're thinking oh, that's not gonna beat me.
Let me just say it's really good to
put in
your investment in your strength training now early
on.
That way, when you're in later life in
your later years, you don't have to worry
about it as much. That is 1 thing
that I'm I'm seeing because I'm kind of
at that age.
Fortunately, a majority of my friends and people
in my close circle do already do strength
training.
But
for those that are not doing active strength
training at this time.
I do notice a difference in their in
their movement. And they... And I'm only seeing
this because they have brought it up because
they notice it too.
And this is when they're starting to reach
out to personal trainers and things like that,
which I love, You know, I love that
they're making that effort because there is that
difference and you can kinda see it in
your in your friend group,
if you really look around you and look
closely, you know, just those folks that that
do keep moving their body.
However feels good for them, and then the
folks that maybe don't keep moving their and
just kind of, like, oh, my knee hurts.
Let me just stop moving together.
That's a whole other story because that's something
that I'm very passionate about.
Because I have family members who've have experienced
that as well
and, you know,
folks in my in my
close circle who have autoimmune
illnesses and are managing their movement with those
illnesses in mind.
And it's something that's very personal to me.
So
I am on a soap box for a
reason because I do want folks to try
to keep moving and try not to be
scared if they ever hear the words bone
on bone, you know, when
the doctor's talking about their knees or anything
like that. I mean, that is such an
archaic statement.
That should be eliminated for from
physical therapists and medical practitioners
all over, really. Because it it elicit too
much fear for people because then they hear
bone bone and oh,
I'm just gonna stop moving, and then they
give up and then we see
reversal
in their movement. And I've I've seen it
time and time again, and it's really hard
to get folks out of that hole.
It's possible. I've had a handful of clients
over the years where I have worked with
them and have worked with our physical therapist
and medical practitioners to to give them and
give get that bridge for them
between, you know, not moving at all, and
I'm being scared, unfortunately, and and being fearful
of movement to then moving, and then, oh,
then they feel good.
So or they at least feel better. You
know, they're still going to have some level
of pain.
Everyone's pain tolerance is different,
but they're at least moving and and
aspiring to to have a long
a long life
that is full of health which is good.
So first things first, Yeah, Set realistic
expectations friends. You gotta do that. Set realistic,
you know, things that are going to be
not 0 to hero.
And aren't vague, you know, like, hey. I'm
just gonna work out more. No. U. I
want you to be clear. I want you
to pull out your your calendar on your
phone or a paper calendar whatever the hell
you use, and I want you to write
in and schedule and block out those workouts.
Okay?
Now, the next thing is of course, try
to try to create some sort of routine
around those realistic expectations. Alright? So
Once you put those things on your calendar,
great.
Make it so, make them like a standing
meeting for yourself, don't cancel on yourself, But
then what is a routine around that? That
can get you ready to to get out
the door and do your thing. Do your
bike ride, do do your do your workout.
So maybe that's putting together your bike or
even just having your bike on your car
if you work from home and you're able
to.
You know, I've discovered that I'm able to
creep my bike. My car is far forward
in the gear... In the garage as I
can, and I can actually put my bike
rack down and load up my bike. So
it is ready to go.
Yeah. And I know it sounds silly, but
that saves me a good couple of minutes
right there. You know, I already have my
tires aired up. My my chain is greased
I do all of that the day before
or early in the morning when I do
plan on writing
that day. So
again, choose what's good for you and what
works for you, but do create some sort
of routine around putting your water bottles together,
getting your gym clothes or your bike clothes
or bike equipment helmet, shoes all that stuff.
Get that stuff together.
Whatever it takes, but get consistent around that
because the more you can kinda get a
routine in play, the less knows you're going
to have right And by nose, I don't
mean the nose on your face. I mean
the n o, you're gonna have less likelihood
of saying no to yourself and canceling on
yourself. Know, because you know... Hey, the only
thing you need to do is get changed.
Right. You just need to put the clothes
on and hell the door.
Next thing is
get a buddy
I'm real big on a, workout buddy, some
sort of accountability buddy, a riding buddy.
I've personally have been doing a lot of
my training solo. And it's making me really
sad to be honest with you.
I can't wait to be doing with Silver
rush here in a little bit just because
I'm hoping to get some more training in
with who wanna do a little bit more
longer rides with me because man, training by
yourself. I mean, I can do it, and
I do it. It's fine.
But
It's just not as fun. Like, you know,
I like shooting the shit with my friends.
I like, giving them a hard time. I
like getting hugs. I love getting pre ride
and post ride sweaty hugs Like, it's amazing,
and it makes me feel a lot more
connected to people, and it makes me feel
just connected to the people that I... That
I love and enjoy being around. So
get a workout, buddy because guess what? On
those days that you wanna cancel.
Alright. Even if you have the bike loaded
up in your car, you tired, mean your
period started, you didn't eat enough that day.
Whatever the excuses that you're giving yourself right.
And I'm only saying that because I've said
those exact things.
I you're gonna be less likely to cancel
on them, like a friend and accountability buddy,
than you will on yourself. Alright? So get
a damn work workout buddy, Get a damn
ride buddy. Whoever it is. Get them to
be in alignment with what you wanna do
and just show up because... You're not gonna
wanna cancel on them. At lisa, I hope
not, unless it's like, you know, a dire
situation.
Now, the other thing that, I wanna round
out this with there's number 4
is
Remember your why.
Alright?
Remember why you wanna do the damn workout
and the ride and all of this stuff
to begin with. Like what is it? Does
it make you feel good? Does it make
you feel like you're going 1 step closer
towards your goals or whatever it is?
I want you to remember why
you wanna do this thing. Because if you
can remember your why and really attach your
values to that and just remind yourself
of that.
Then you're gonna be less likely to cancel.
You're gonna find a little bit more motivation
to do it. Alright?
And
in in tandem with this concept.
Is to remind yourself how you feel after
you do the thing
because
I
you know, I can maybe count on 1
hand. How many times after bike ride where
I've felt like utter, rubbish,
and I just didn't wanna do anything, you
know, and I just... I didn't feel happier
for having ridden. You know, and this these
are the couple of times when I've, you
know, had to go to the to get
stitches, or I've had to,
go to the air because I thought I
was having a stroke. It was actually heats
stroke. This is eons ago. Was in my
twenties.
I was being stupid that day.
You know, like, I can literally count on
1 hand. Because even on the days that
I've bumped my living ass off. Alright? And
I've I've had a 1 way ticket to
Bon city.
Even on those days when I I've completely
ba and felt like shit on that ride.
I still was excited that I got my
ride in. You know, And I was still
like, hey, dude.
You know, impacts yourself on your back. Like,
high fives to to myself
for showing up on the ride and still
doing the thing anyways. And and and feeling
good because you know what? After a bike
ride, I don't know about you. But after
a bike ride, I feel like I can
breathe
I feel less stressed. I feel just
I feel joy. I don't even know how
to explain it and same thing with gym
workouts. Like I just feel good afterwards.
I feel yummy. Like I feel
like I've given myself the love that I
needed to give that day. Alright? And that
to me is what is incredible.
And I... So remember your why of why
you're doing the damn thing. Right? But then
also remember how you feel after you do
the thing.
Because man, even if you are just chasing
that feeling afterwards,
especially if you've had a rough day or
you had a rough day the day before,
you know, if you're a morning workout person,
you work out at like, 5AM.
It doesn't matter what time of day you're
working out,
but
just remember
how you feel afterwards. You know, remind yourself
how you feel afterwards.
And there's a feeling of accomplishment. You're just
going to feel better. You're going to have
those nice little happy hormones raging through your
system.
And
I will go ahead and say if you're
men treating individual and maybe you're cramp a
little bit or you have a little tummy
ache or something
sometimes
getting some sort of movement, you know, in
your hips and that side to side pedal
or side to side movement of a run
a running
stride or, you know, pedal stroke or
at the gym, doing, you know, hip thrust
us or squats or dead lift or something
like that. That is what's going to help
you know, alleviate or reduce some of your
cramp and things like that if you do
experience that if you are men treating individuals.
So maybe that's a little bit of a
more motivation there.
And then last but not least, man, motivation.
Let me tell you. It is it is
a fleeting white rabbit. Alright? I think we
rely a little too much on motivation to
get going when it's actually the other way
around. We have to take action and then
we start to feel motivated. It isn't always
that we've don't... That we have to feel
motivated before we take action. It's the actually
taking the action is what is going to
make that motivation really kind of kind of
fly, you know, and and really elevate the
experience and make you feel motivated from that
point forward that day.
So
take some sort of action.
Alright? Even on the days that you're just
saying no. No. No. I don't have time.
I'm too tired I'm cramp. I didn't eat
enough.
Whatever it is. I want you to put
on your gym clothes or your bike clothes
or whatever and get your ass on that
bike or at that gym,
and I want you to just start moving
for at least 5 minutes.
Tell yourself, hey, self, I'm just going to
move for 5 minutes and then go forward
from that and see how that feels once
you get those few minutes under your belt.
Because even yesterday,
you know, yeah, personal situation. I started my
period. Yay.
It's... I have 1 or 2 days a
month where I am just useless human being.
Like, I just... I'll still work and everything,
but I'm am not feeling good. Like, if
I could just take Pto day I would.
And I I guess I could, because I
do have... I do have my own business,
But, you know, I don't wanna let win
down. Right?
And I... I have athletes
dependent on me. And
so I I still work. That's sometimes Just
work from the sofa or a work from
the couch outside or just something, you know,
just because I'm like, 0III
melt. I melt into the sofa.
And
you know what? I didn't really wanna ride
my bike. But I I just told myself
I was like, damn, Just get on the
bike. It's it's a freaking endurance ride. Just
do the thing.
You know what? I felt a million times
better after... After I did. In fact, I
felt a million times better after I was
on the bike for I'm, I'm not even
kidding you for probably like 1 to 2
minutes.
And I was like oh, my god. It's
already starting to make my cramp feel better.
Like, this is great.
And that friends was a reminder of everything
that I share with you all. Alright? So
even for me as a coach, I'm doing
this close to 20 years, we need those
reminders because he is hard motivation. Again, it's
this fleeting feeling. And all often, I think
we depend on it and we lean on
it, and we just have to keep reminding
ourselves that we have to set realistic goals
expectations. We we should try to create a
routine to make that... Make it happen, You
know, get the gym bag packed, get the
bike packed up. You fill your water bottles,
whatever.
Try to reduce the friction doing the thing.
Get a workout buddy. Get a ride buddy.
Whatever. You're not gonna cancel on them. Alright?
Put the stuff on your calendar.
And then, of course, you know, try to
figure out
your why and remind yourself of why you're
doing it and how you feel afterwards
and then just remember you've got to take
action before you can expect motivations to just
miraculously
appear.
So that's all I've got for you today,
friends. I hope you found this episode useful.
And I would love to hear from you.
So reach out to me on Instagram at
shift human and performance and give me a
little shout on this post for any of
my post. You can Dm me too. I
don't mind slide in my dance. It might
end up in spam if I don't follow
you, so I apologize. But I do check
my spam folder pretty regularly.
But, yeah, I would love to hear if
you have any topic suggestions or if you
have anything that you would love to hear
me talk about or any people you would
love for me to interview. Please do make
the connection with me because I am lining
up some interviews here for the summer. On
that note, I hope you enjoyed today's episode,
please like subscribe and share, and I will
catch you next week. Bye friends.