Ep 107: The Secrets to Zero-Injury Running While Improving Body Composition with Louise Valentine
I'm excited to welcome back Louise Valentine, my first interview guest who I didn't already know personally, way back in Episode 26, to catch up on her incredible accomplishments and discuss new and exciting strategies and considerations for female endurance athletes, especially women 35 and beyond. She empowers them by dispelling industry stereotypes and reaching a zero-injury rate.
For background, Louise Valentine is a best-selling author, published researcher, and award-winning sports medicine, exercise science, holistic health, and performance expert. She is the 2023 American College of Sports Medicine Practitioner of the Year. Her website, BreakingThroughWellness.com, helps active women 35 and older manage hormone shifts and improve health, body composition, and running with less stress!
Louise's courses and coaching are for you if you can't stand hormones affecting your health, fitness, or endurance performance.
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Today you’ll learn all about:
[3:19] Earning the ACSM Practitioner of the Year Award
[5:10] Contributions to a new sports medicine textbook
[6:38] Strategies for active women with excess weight and hormonal changes
[8:34] Energy-first approach and aligning running goals with physique goals
[10:15] Strategic calorie reduction
[11:51] Client results
[12:47] Addressing myths in female-specific exercise strategy for women 35+
[17:49] Understanding hormonal changes and taking control of health
[22:29] Science-based training and injury prevention for 35+ female runners
[27:19] Dynamic functional lifting
[30:08] Strategic layout for body composition and performance
[31:25] Gut health struggles and the importance of nourishment
[36:37] The importance of lifting heavy for female endurance athletes
[41:05] The question Louise wished Philip had asked
[41:50] Where to learn more about Louise
[42:50] Outro
Episode resources:
Free blog articles, videos, mini-courses & a 4-month 1:1 learning experience at BreakingThroughWellness.com
Ep 26: Sustainable Fitness, Physiology, Fat Loss, and Running at Any Age with Louise Valentine
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Transcript
Louise Valentine 00:00
A lot of times, you know, we come in with both goals, I want to run my best and I want to lose weight. So we can work in strategic weight loss days, but strength training. I always say strength training is more important than you running. Why? Because running you're going to do it. The strength training is your testosterone, your ability to build muscle and your metabolism. The way you keep weight off is by having muscle your metabolic powerhouse.
Philip Pape 00:27
Welcome to the Wits & Weights podcast. I'm your host Philip pape, and this twice a week podcast is dedicated to helping you achieve physical self mastery by getting stronger, optimizing your nutrition and upgrading your body composition. We'll uncover science backed strategies for movement, metabolism, muscle and mindset with a skeptical eye on the fitness industry so you can look and feel your absolute best. Let's dive right in Wits & Weights community Welcome to another episode of the Wits & Weights Podcast. Today I am super excited to welcome back Louise Valentine, who was my very first interview guests who I didn't already know personally, way back on episode 26 Almost a year ago. So it's an honor to have her join me again to get caught up on her incredible accomplishments in the last year and some new and exciting strategies and considerations for female endurance athletes, in particular women 35 and beyond who love to run, and maybe juggling multiple goals to lose weight lean out while still enjoying their sport, from debunking myths in the industry to achieve any zero injury rate. Louise's here to dispel the misinformation and empower female endurance athletes. If you're ready to challenge everything you thought you knew about women's health and fitness in the context of endurance sports, you'll want to listen all the way through to learn exactly what to do to excel at all your goals without injury as you age. To catch you up on who she is. Louise Valentine is a best selling author, published researcher and award winning expert across the sports medicine, Exercise Science, holistic health and performance fields. She owns breaking through wellness.com, where she empowers active women aged 35 and beyond to mitigate hormone changes and maximize health, body composition and running with less stress. If you can't stand hormones wreaking havoc on your health, fitness or endurance performance, and are ready to understand simple ways to quickly restore energy, improve body composition, and or run your best. Louise's courses and coaching are for you. As the 2023, American College of Sports Medicine Practitioner of the year. Congratulations, Louise is leading the way in helping us simplify and apply the best female age 35 Plus specific strategies to unlock your best with less stress. Luis, it's great to have you back. How are you doing?
Louise Valentine 02:46
Thank you. Yeah, it's awesome. Congratulations on your success throughout the past year or two. It's amazing to see this community of grown amazing listeners interested in the nitty gritty science and feeling their best.
Philip Pape 02:58
For sure. For sure. We were joking before I recorded how when you were on, I was still recording out of a closet on a TV tray. But nonetheless, the passion was there. We had a great conversation. I you know, it kind of went by in a blur for me at the time, because I was so nervous back then. And now you know, we've grown into our respective areas. So it's been about a year since we spoke. And in that time, you've accomplished a lot You've earned this ACM s practitioner of the Year award. Tell us about that. And tell us what you did to earn that honor.
Louise Valentine 03:28
Yeah, it was, you know, I sort of felt like I was taking a leap when I submitted my application, you know, looking at last year's winner, it was the head of the obesity Institute, effective weight management in Greece, I believe. So I was looking at all of these top performers across the world and wondering, you know, do I fit into this, this award position, and, you know, just shared my story as a military spouse, this dynamic career that I've had, as well as my personal story, overcoming osteoporosis, hormone challenges, and really looking across the spectrum of health, fitness, athletic performance, holistic health, and blending these strategies. All throughout my career, whether I was helping pro athletes are now women, just like me feeling stuck with these small changes and wondering, wow, I worked out really hard. I still want to feel my best this vibrant, strong fit self. I don't want to lose this. In fact, I've walked kicking, screaming and running, trying to feel my very best, despite all these hormonal changes. So it's such such a thrill to win.
Philip Pape 04:35
Yeah, and it's it definitely is inspirational. We talked about your story last time, but even the thought of being able to pursue multiple goals and get multiple results at the same time because there is a concept or principle of periodization of, you know, exclusive gold is going after one at a time and how you can't have this at the same time as you have this and we've seen that mold broken in a few areas. For example, power lifters used to always be big You know, fat, guys, right? And now you see that they they're leaner, they can be healthier while still competing. And so in your area, you work with women with hormones with endurance. So another thing that you've been doing is working on a textbook or contributing toward a new textbook based on cutting edge science. It's with other weight loss experts for sports medicine for fitness professionals. Can you share with us any the secrets that you're including that the fitness industry hasn't heard yet? Speaking of breaking the mold?
Louise Valentine 05:29
So you know, this is, you know, again, looking at the act of woman, and we might assume someone who is struggling with excess weight is not active. But what about those women who are active, they're trying their hardest, they're dialing in their nutrition, and they're still not seeing results. So I share in particular a case study of a client that I worked with who was living with excess weight and trying to run ultra marathons and lose the weight at the same time. So what did that look like? If you're a fitness professional, and you're working with someone who's so dedicated to their running, yet, they still want to, you know, protect their metabolism, they want to see body composition changes? How do you do it, and then in particular, those hormonal changes, H 35. And beyond, we've got a heck of a hard time ahead of us. So I share insights into the journey and practical takeaways for professionals so that they can, you know, when when they have these ambitious, active women living with excess weight, let's be effective. And let's strategize so it's specific to their life and provides best results.
Philip Pape 06:36
So let's peel peel that back a little bit specific. What's one thing that everybody assumes is the case, and that you can't have this at this at the same time, with that type of woman, a woman who's very active, has the excess weight, but she's gotten to the point where there's some things conspiring against her whether it's hormones or something else. And she wants to have all the things right. What is one thing that you face on a regular basis you want to dispel here?
Louise Valentine 07:00
So I think it's the excessive calorie reduction that we see. And it's just, you know, diet culture tells us that we need to be low calorie, we log into My Fitness Pal, we see, oh, my gosh, if I'm eating over 1200 calories, I'm, I'm failing. And in this instance, we have to remember and use the lens that you are an active female, my goodness, you are a calorie burning machine. And when you go to low calorie, it is extremely counterproductive. Your body will fight that weight loss, like, like no other. So to your point about periodization. You know, if there's, you know, coming to the understanding, we can try things, but sometimes we might need to off cycle from something like an ultra marathon, can we do a half marathon instead? And maybe focus on some strength building, restoring some metabolic damage, in particular, when you're coming from a very low calorie past?
Philip Pape 07:51
Okay, that's great. I'm glad you said that. Because the listener needs to hear it over and over again, especially directly from women, because I'm not a woman. But I do tell women this all the time, you know, out of compassion that we generally want to eat more, you know, that's like the bane of many of our issues, and men too. But you and I were talking about how even over the last year, some of your, I guess, the audience you're addressing has become more and more clear. And I also on the podcast, if you you know, you were listening over time, you'd realize it's more toward an energy energy first approach of like, increasing that stack, increasing the metabolism, not trying to lose weight. And at the end of the day, when you want the physique or you want the weight loss, it's actually going to come pretty easily, without all the stress without all the negatives. So I love that you're saying that. Is there? What about on the running side specifically, is there are there things that are fighting against each other, when it comes to the energy needs? And the running in the context of say physique? Because you said that is an important goal? People want what? What would you say? Is there anything competing there? Is there a way to make them alive?
Louise Valentine 08:54
Yeah, absolutely. You know, avoiding things like fasted training, we need to have that hormone and the hormone balance and metabolism on fire. So being very strategic, no fasted training, absolutely not no carb restriction. We are looking at protein timing, we're looking at pre intra and post workout fueling, we are not taking calories away from that, going into the sessions field. And in a very strategic way, looking at that person's life, other stress levels of other levels of toxins they're exposed to stress could be environmental, it can be dietary. So there's so many components into protecting the hormones and the metabolism first and foremost, to your point of energy first, because without hormones without energy without a metabolism. You're not building muscle, you're not leaning out, you're not running your best you're gonna be injured, bloated and gaining weight.
Philip Pape 09:51
Absolutely 100% So love it no carb restriction, void facet tree, all the things I'm constantly getting questions about, like, but fasted training works really well really does it? Let's take the whole context and experiment with a little bit more energy here. So because you work with athletes who want to perform well in ultra marathons, endurance, sports, triathlons, and again, the conflicting goal thing, what about where does say fat loss fit in? And again, we're not talking about calorie restriction, per se. But at some point, there's a dedicated, hopefully short duration, as easy as we can make it minimal hunger kind of situation where you still lose the excess body fat if you need to. What does that look like?
Louise Valentine 10:32
Absolutely, it seems very strategic strength training. So looking at working with those hormonal changes, making sure you're lifting heavy enough. Because if you're doing all the lightweights in the world, you're not going to be seeing those body composition changes, ensuring it's very specific to the individual's goals. So it's we're seeing those body physique changes, as well as injury prevention, because you still want to get the strong runner to, but then also just looking at ensuring that all pieces of the puzzle are together, so you have the nutrition day to day, and then the strategic calorie reduction in small doses, so that it doesn't impact hormones, recovery and performance, to say that you would never have a day where you don't feel your best is a lie. We look at all the different strategies though, like even the carbohydrates cycling, the super low calorie, all the different diet trends out there. They're working against us in this particular circumstance. It's actually exacerbating things like our progression towards perimenopause. That was my exact story. I hit early menopause in my 20s. And it was like, What? Are you kidding me? At Illumina runners, they're running their way to perimenopause when they're trying to have all of these competing goals.
Philip Pape 11:49
So when you apply this to a client, what what kind of results have you been most proud of that you've seen? And probably learned from as you put these pieces of the puzzle together?
Louise Valentine 11:59
It's been absolutely amazing, because my academy that I have for the women that it coaches call it that is Breakthrough Academy is literally been built from listening to clients, and what is getting the best results. So I went in with so many assumptions as a professional. And the best takeaways have come from real, real women. So looking at ensuring that they have the nutrition, lifestyle and training strategies, they're just so critical.
Philip Pape 12:31
Yeah, it makes sense. And listening to clients. That's kind of like where I know, you put out a lot of content on social media. And if I were to guess probably almost every single one of those is based on a question you've had to answer for a client, right? Yes. Yeah. That's where it comes from. So what are the what are the hot trending topics right now? Is female specific exercise strategy? Right? And even I get the daily question, you know, but how do I train if I'm a woman over 40? And it's always, you know, it's always a specific age cut off, and that I'm a woman, you know, and I don't mean to be cynical at all, because there are differences between men and women. There's differences with age. But there's a lot of misinformation and confusion out there, right to the point where almost people get a defeatist attitude, when they come in, come in asking this question, and you want to really lift them up and give them the hope that there's plenty that they can actually do to empower themselves. So what are the common myths and mistakes you see in this area? Right? And then how do you educate our listener and the clients and empower them to break through break through, break through the noise and find out what works best for them?
Louise Valentine 13:34
Yeah, I just think it's incredibly overcomplicated. And we've looked at things like the optimization of lab work as an example. So we might see individuals who just come in, they're like, Louise, what, what labs Should I ask my provider for? What should we look into as a testing kit and review all of my labs. And you know, you could spend all the money in the world on a salivary cortisol test? What's it going to tell you? You're stressed, particularly in the morning, we could have pulled you out. If you look at your lab work, it is a point in time it is simply blood work is but a day. So I mean, then you can get expensive and get into Spectracell you can look into the nutritional composition of your cells to see how actually absorbing a lot of money. And we just get in the weeds of this optimization without taking the step back to look at are you doing the simple day to day things that matter most. And when the women that I coach come into my program, they're like, it's so simple. Because you're simple with the things that matter most you're consistent. You drive incredible results. But getting caught up in all the weeds of the science. I'm a scientist telling you don't get in the weeds of the science I did for way too long. I've done all the things I started in the NFL, I was all into the hyperbaric chambers and biotherapy and give me the rep you know anything I'll take this supplement that and No it did nothing except put me in complete hormone damage. And of osteoporosis that hypothyroidism, gut health disturbances, pre cancer, you name it. So I have been the train wreck where a lot of your listeners might feel like they are. But I can stand here as hope and living proof that you don't have to live like that. And at any age, both myself and my clients all the way through each, I think 56, this oldest woman has gone through my academy, reversing bone health, reversing Hormonal Health, and it's simple whole food. It's nothing crazy.
Philip Pape 15:29
It's true, it really comes down to like this really short checklist, you could just, you could just, of course, we know things are simple, not easy. Just give them the sheet and say do all these things. But we know. It's not just that right. I agree that we overcomplicate things to the point where like in the evidence based space, we have to start pulling out scientific papers and citations and all these other things. And you know, I love doing that personally. But the person I'm talking to just just wants to understand what to do. And the way you put it with it kind of being in alignment with your body. I guess you didn't say that explicitly. But that's what I'm getting from it. Where if there's anything that's off anything that's like forcing you in a direction, it doesn't feel right. Calorie restriction, does that right? Energy restriction does that where you just feel like, Can I really live this way? That Something's off? And I think what you're talking about is once you understand those simple things and put them in place, the work where do people get hung up, though? Like if, if everyone on this call or everyone on this podcast, if I said Louise, tell us a 10 things we have to do, and it's perfect. And they're not going to do what why is that? And what? What's the gap
Louise Valentine 16:34
and finding what's specific to their goals, their bodies needs and their lifestyle. So what is so ironic about what you just said is women in my program go through five initial weeks of learning. At the end, you get a checklist, it's called the 535 checklists. But what is so critical to your point is, I used to just do a couple of sessions I used to do, I know because we need to get you to practice this in every single day life. When it doesn't work. You come back to me 20 years in the field, I have got so many strategies we can pull from it is not one size fits all and anyone who tells you that it is that is a line of BS, they are too close minded, you need to find that outside of the box thinker that will help you fit it into your life. So working with froze all the way through and feeling completely burned out in broken chronic disease diagnoses, Olympians, I decided the spectrum we need the same exact thing customized to us or body.
Philip Pape 17:34
Yeah, for sure. What's the what's the classic phrase like their methods are many principles are few or something like the principles or the checklists, but how you get there for each individual is going to change drastically. And some may apply more than than to others. So speaking of women with the hormones, you mentioned that and now we can talk about maybe physiology, there's changes that definitely happen that affect your health, your fitness, your performance, I'm gonna say in the ways that healthcare fitness industries, maybe gaslight in some cases, or they put their hands up and they say, Oh, well, you're just getting older. That's how it is. I've seen that the women in my life and you mentioned the signs of perimenopause, I'm guessing some people put up their heads. I'm just gonna guess that some doctors did that. It kind of pisses me off, even though I'm a guy, right? Because I've seen firsthand how it affects people and it makes them think like, there's no hope. So how can women understand exactly what's happening in their bodies based on this age related process? And then take control over their health?
Louise Valentine 18:35
Absolutely. And that's again, where I think we're just so in the weeds with the science, let's simplify it. What is happening, age 35, for most women, is when hormones start to decrease estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. So let's make that the underlying theory of women, right? Even an I have seen women even with estrogen dominance, maybe breast cancer, or some other thing or PCOS, but it comes down to this idea that we need to support our hormones, we need to help the hormonal balance of our body. How do we do that? It's something that I refer to as a stress tipping point. There's many factors that go into that. In the past, we used to assume that a woman had, you know, something like low bone density, Hormonal Health disturbances, problems with their period that that was called the female athlete triad. Well, part of the reason why I am a leader in the field now is because we're rethinking that, you know, been compared to the founder of that is leading the way in the field, but it's really rethinking has gut health plan to that. How does your day to day stress management stress meaning exposure to things that you eat in terms of ingredients and influence Hormonal Health and gut health? Looking at day to day stress and how you manage it, and then this is the game changer stress of exercise. So many active women don't realize that To exercise strategies need to change, or your Hormonal Health, you will be essentially draining it and expediting your way to perimenopause. And that's where you go to the provider like I did. And they said, Well, you just hit menopause early. I don't accept that. This is not okay. And with the fact that people think that this is okay, genetically, we might be mildly predisposed. But we also have control over our genes and how they express themselves. So taking that action, finding the providers who are leading the way who do have the strategies from the nutrition, lifestyle and exercise management side, put it all together, your hormonal health can be just fine.
Philip Pape 20:40
Awesome. Yeah. And that's empowering. I like how you mentioned epigenetics in there that we can change our genetics, we can change our it's effectively a way of changing our DNA to simplify it, right. But I think of that in terms of strength training, right? Why is it possible to build a bunch of muscle that you've never had before? And just a few months? Isn't that kind of an adaptation? Well, you can do the same with your hormones right.
21:01
Before my coaching session with Philip, I was really struggling with staying consistent with my nutrition, Phillip really showed me the importance of being consistent day to day, he also helped me see that it's not a bad thing to take a rest day, he really helps me get in that more positive headspace of a rest day being something really good for me. I've been doing this for a month now. And I'm finally starting to see some progress and my numbers. And I'm really excited about that. And I just appreciate so much the help that Philip has given me. He's always willing to answer questions to offer resources that are totally free, and very, very helpful. So I just want to say how much I appreciate that. Thanks, Phillip.
Philip Pape 21:47
The stress tipping point, really nice way to put it, because when you mentioned stress a lot of times and you just leave it at that. I don't know if you've seen this. It's kind of this nebulous thing, right? Well, stress, okay, life stress, my work my family. And you're saying it goes far beyond that. It's all the things that place a load of stress on our body, gut health, right, the things you eat, I think that's great. Even alcohol, like I've learned a lot myself lately about the effect of alcohol on hormones, even though we can talk about you know, enjoying in moderation and tracking and all that. What about the stress load it brings you and an exercise of course, with the again, especially you'd see it's in your realm with the endurance because you want to support that, but not let it be a stressor. So actually, I do have a question about that. How? So someone who is doing ultra marathons, which are we're talking 100 Miles generally, right?
22:37
Yeah, I have some of my also run Yeah.
Philip Pape 22:41
I have to put in a lot of miles in their training, I imagine. And then event itself, but not even just not even counting the event, just training wise. How does that How do you prevent that from being more stressor than it needs to be?
Louise Valentine 22:51
Yes, and this is where, you know, this training plan is essential, a science based training plan that works with female physiology. And this is again, where there's not a lot in the field where we're accommodating for Hormonal Health. So again, another reason why you know, winning awards in the industry right now. And leading the way is thinking through less is more. And how do you train for an ultra as a woman in perimenopause in your late 40s without draining your bone health. And the way to phrase it too, is that endurance exercise is hormone draining by nature. The reason why we have a taper week before a race is to restore hormones. So essentially, you are draining your hormones the entire time, you're training as a byproduct of what you want to happen in your physiology and getting those training adaptations. So we need to be really strategic not to do that too much. So we're really rethinking the training plan, we we really rethink it in terms of days per week, adding more rest and recovery. When you go strong, you go strong, you could still pee are women in their 50s are getting faster in my program. I like you were talking about those results. That is something that I'm incredibly proud of. And I'm talking sports medicine, physicians, occupational therapists, physical therapists, and they're like, I just don't want to end up like my patients. Can you help? Like that is powerful. That is powerful to hear you say that? And then look what you're doing now taking charge of your health, like, blows my mind. I'm just so proud of the women that I coach, you could tell,
Philip Pape 24:24
of course, yeah. And then I'm sure they they love being able to have that clarity, the clarity that you can control what happens your body, even if you intentionally put it through a little bit of stress, which you have to train for these endurance events. I like how you put it kind of draining your hormones, and it's a deliberate thing because you're trying to get some other result. But then you're allowing it to recover, which which is kind of like the acute stressor of fat loss phase, right? Or even just the daily acute stressors like when we train lifting weights or whatever we are, we're stressing our body but in the long run, you get a benefit out of it, and then recover. So that's pretty cool. So most of your clients are runners and injuries are concerned And as well for people, you said you had a 0%, injury injury rate for the women 35. And over that's, I think that's impressive. I want you to put it in context of like, what the normal statistics are. And then I think we're where people are getting it wrong. A lot of times where athletes become more injury prone with age, and not using the right strategies for it, like you said, Take control of your health and knowing your physiology. So what kind of injury prevention strategies do you use talk, talk talk about that.
Louise Valentine 25:29
It's both from a nutritional perspective, as well as the strength training. And I would say, actually, to the science based training plan, so again, that less is more training, very strategic, not overloading the body. And then we're looking at running specific strength and conditioning. So we need to think through why runners get injured in the first place, less quad dominant athlete, we are really looking at the posterior chain or the back of their body strengthening. If you have a trainer as a runner, who's telling you to do endless squats, run, you do not need and less squats as a runner, in fact, you're going to just, you know, contribute to that stretched hamstring That's weak. And the quads that are super tight, you're running, when you start, you're running in this hunched over posture, you know, shoulders turned, hips are already turned forward, you're already in a terrible stride and looking at something like patellar, tendonitis, IT band syndrome or back pain, upper back pain. And so the strength and conditioning is incredibly simple, but it is strategic. And I do combine both elements of body composition change, because every runner still wants to look good to say that they don't is we're doing a disservice to runners by saying that they can't change their body composition, personally, as a runner who wants to do that? Yeah, of course, I'm looking at the injury prevention to very strategic, I know you love the deadlift. I do too.
Philip Pape 26:56
Yeah, right, posterior work, I love it. So I want to dig in a little bit on the simple but strategic strength and conditioning, squats, and then backward. So it makes sense to me having a strong core and back for anything, anything in life, honestly, including, like we sit all day, and that's not good for that. And it kind of like in my mind, you know, complements the front side of the body as well and kind of gives you that stable base. But well, what is it about squat? So I've heard people who are kind of late lay people who don't really understand running, say, well, it's you know, it's all about the strength to weight ratio, and you need as much power as possible. So of course, you want to have nice big strong legs, maybe for sprinters, but we're talking about endurance sports, right? Is there a difference there that I just assumed? And then what do you do for that power? That ratio if it is even relevant?
Louise Valentine 27:44
Yeah, I think we're we're getting power is just in functional lifting exercises. So looking at things like kettlebell swings, getting the glutes but here's the thing, when we're looking at recreational runners in particular, a lot of them have never been, first of all rehab, the when we're women, the core. So we've looked at pelvic floor and core health, ensure we're not doing anything to exacerbate you know, the diastasis recti die or the, you know, the separation of the abs that happens in pregnancy, most of the time, that's not really healed in the first place. So that core being strong, starting with basic deadlifts, I'm not talking about anything complicated, no single leg, because again, if your core is unstable, you had a baby, you're kicking your SI joint out of alignment every time you do a single leg deadlift. In this the first thing, I went to physical therapy, and that's the first thing they put me through a single dead
Philip Pape 28:35
like deadly collateral stuff, don't they? Yeah,
Louise Valentine 28:38
and I was just well, okay, so my history would not allow for this to be a great exercise. So, you know, it's like great education and a good relationship with a provider that you can benefit from there. But again, it's we're looking at Dynamic functional lifting to be a strong human, you know, things like bicep curl, and overhead press, let's not separate those, let's just keep them together. Be time efficient against fits into real life too, and not overwhelming. So meeting the person where they're at first and foremost, running specific, and then looking at their injury history to
Philip Pape 29:13
okay, and you mentioned the quad dominant nature of this what so what kind of leg work do you do just just as an example.
Louise Valentine 29:19
So I would look at deadlifting I would look at doing some clam exercises hip ridges, and doing hip or just lift some weights they have a counter pressure so glutes actually fire. What else do we do? We would do? Single leg exercises for core in particular, maybe even some getting the that neuromuscular pattern. So getting the just switch, single leg stance again, but that's not super weighted when we have these core concerns
Philip Pape 29:52
potential. Sure understood. And again, you're touching on the idea that you have to make some trade offs, right. We have to make trade offs depending on our goal. If you want to fit into In sports in there, and body composition and injury prevention, they all have to work and nothing's going to be like extremely dominant. So let's, let's look at that a little bit. So you mentioned body composition. How do you fit that in? Does it kind of is a more of a natural thing where you say, Look, if we get the nutrition dialed in, and we are working out anyway, for our training, you're probably gonna get pretty pretty much the physique you want or is there specific periods where you focus on that?
Louise Valentine 30:25
Yes. So with endurance athlete, or I mean, even a recreational runner, sometimes we say endurance athlete and recreational runners don't thinking that applies to them. But I'm talking about recreational runners. We're looking at a strategic layout of their next couple months. So okay, do we have a race coming up? Let's focus on performance there. Okay, do you have an injury currently, let's focus on rehabilitation. First and foremost, let's go into body composition. A lot of times, you know, we come in with both goals, I want to run my best and I want to lose weight. So we can work in strategic weight loss days, but strength training, I always say strength training is more important than your running. Why? Because running, you're gonna do it. The strength training is your testosterone, your ability to build muscle, your metabolism, the way you keep weight off, is by having muscle, your metabolic powerhouse. So I
Philip Pape 31:21
couldn't agree with you more. So what was I going to say about that? It lost me because I have questions. But I really like to go on off on these tangents. But now I can't remember what I was gonna ask. I'll just continue. You know, you talked you mentioned yet osteoporosis at 33. And I, as you know that your story is kind of why you do this, like your mission. Right? How did you start down this path? When we talk about the things you used to do while you're training fasted? I think you've mentioned like too much caffeine and under fueling gut, health, all that. Tell us more about that.
Louise Valentine 31:56
Yeah, you know, it really clicked for me when I believe it was one of the press releases that came out for American college sports medicine that said the least Valentine can see for the peri menopausal endurance athlete, what's coming for them that they don't even know is coming for them. I've lived through it all. I've reversed it. And some women look at me and they're like, Oh, you're young. And I'm like, but I've lived through the perimenopause, a woman's nightmare. You don't want cancer, you don't want osteoporosis. You don't want to gain weight. You want to look, feel and perform your best. You don't want to injuries. Been there done that all the wrong things, though. Now here on the other side, it's it's nice to have this mission to ensure that women don't end up like me, and then teaching them the simple strategies to prevent it because it's so incredibly simplistic. But we do need to, to your point that gut health, that is honestly one of the root causes of why I ended up with osteoporosis as immunocompromised youth where I had way too many probiotics. I was eating well, I was doing all the things. But if your gut health is not there, it doesn't matter how well you eat, your body will not absorb it. So
Philip Pape 33:07
yeah, you said too many probiotics. So how did you how did you discover that?
Louise Valentine 33:11
Too many? Not probiotics. Antibiotics?
Philip Pape 33:17
No, it makes sense. Okay, I was gonna say it's good right to have. Yeah, yeah. To me antibiotics. Okay. Yeah, I mean, go a little bit more into gut health, like, how much? How much of that do you get into, again, the science of it, even though we know at the end of the day that we're not trying to overwhelm people with science so much is like, what do we do about it? Yes.
Louise Valentine 33:35
And this was one where my diagnosis was one that we don't really study much in the US. So I had to go into like the Chinese Science, and pretty much figure out my own gut health and what was wrong with me and how to restore it. I was told I would have cancer in four years. And instead, I reversed the condition with a nutrition and lifestyle approach. So if your doctor ever tells you something's impossible, just know, do your research first and foremost, but I did. I did not have good gut health my entire life, and it manifested in the oddest of ways. And I do see a lot of women and even some of the men that I coach, having a lot of these gut health struggles, it's these weird symptoms. It's like I tested allergic to the world. I'm allergic to everything. Or I psoriasis, where the seasonal allergies, I had weird nerve pain, I can't lose weight no matter how hard I try. So I do have gut health education and my program, because I'd be remiss if I didn't teach women how to protect their gut health to its health and performance starts in the gut.
Philip Pape 34:39
Yeah, and I think a lot of there's confusion on that topic because it is so new, like you said, there wasn't really even a western medicine reference recently, and it's just starting to make waves. Okay, what about you meant Okay, so you've talked about weight loss a few times and I'm, I'm bringing this up more with guests and the what do you think of the phrase weight loss so I use the phrase Fat Loss more often now, and maybe it's semantics. But what do you think of that given, given the general perception people have of weight loss as an energy restriction and all the other things we talked about?
Louise Valentine 35:11
Yeah. So in terms of weight loss itself, I think that, you know, it's hard because I automatically I think we think of dieting and restriction. And that is where it's nourishing our body, I just wish it was nourishing your body. And I've also seen the language in over, over nourished individual as gaining weight. And I would say, No, that's an undernourished individual because their body does not have the nutrition, if they're eating much of, you know, processed foods as well. So sometimes, though, the language is very interesting, and, you know, even looking at hormonal changes, they can be mitigated, and I don't even think people realize that, it's just like hormonal changes that just happen in our body, they just happen, we can take control of them, and they don't have to happen as fast as they say they,
Philip Pape 36:05
they have to. That's a very good principle you just alluded to, because you can extend that to everything else in our body assume that nothing is fixed. Assume that nothing at all, nothing is fixed, you know, your strength and muscle, your capability to run races and power. Your hormones just assume nothing is epigenetics. You mentioned it before, till the day you die, right? Like just if you're 75, and just getting started, you know, I'm not saying everything applies, if certain things right when you go through menopause or whatnot. But I think that's a good principle. What is the industry missing out on when it comes to female endurance athletes? Like what are other coaches and nutrition experts? not acknowledging or talking about? Or maybe they're perpetuating the commonly held myths, which is a very common thing. What do you say to that?
Louise Valentine 36:54
I would say there's two and one is the strength and conditioning side, to say that runners can do bodyweight exercises and protect themselves from injury 35 and beyond. It's not how our physiology works, we need in particular, to overload the muscles with heavier weights, for lack of estrogen, it's decreasing. It impacts our body's ability to use carbs and protein to build the muscle. So we have to get the nutrition side, right, that we need to lift heavy. And it's amazing when I have women who are these Yogi's, and they're trying so hard to do bar and all of these physical therapy exercises, and they never get anywhere, seeing body composition changes, or preventing injury, because they're not lifting heavy enough, they start simplistically and having enough and their body changes, they're running up hills with ease, their injury free, shoulder pain goes away, hip pain goes play. You know, that's just one of my clients stories. You know, it's like,
Philip Pape 37:52
it's true, it is so true to all those that many people find it counterintuitive, like, oh, I have knee issues. So I don't squat. Well, maybe if you squat, you'll help your knee. You know, we kind of know this. I mean, I've had sort of a hip labrum tear for a couple of years. But when I squat, it feels great. So it's one of the weird things. How when you talk about lifting heavy, because that's always music to my ears. What does that mean? And let's be very specific, if someone's listening, and they're not doing that yet. And they just want to start working out tomorrow. And they want to just randomly go into the gym and try something to kind of get a feel for that. What would you suggest? Yeah, I
Louise Valentine 38:29
would say start with an exercise that you're comfortable with, you have good form. So if you're not with a certified into professional who can help you ensure that your form is correct, start with an exercise you're comfortable with and have good form, lifting heavy enough, in particular female 35. And over is looking at 10 reps or less, in my personal experience, and her science, and some of the women female specific science out there, that's a great place to aim for. What does that mean? It means that by the time you get to that 10th rep, you cannot lift another you maybe you can get one more, but if you can get 1314 15 I call that essentially physical therapy, exercise, you are getting a beautiful range of motion, which is great, but you're not going to build lean muscle or prevent injuries very effectively. Also, I would rather have you pick up a weight and get five great reps than get 15. So let that sink in. And not only that, how much shorter does your workout become? Yes. workout for 15 to 20 minutes, and actually this great changes in my body. It's people It's explosive people's mind, like your life is gonna change for forever. You're you're lifting more efficiently.
Philip Pape 39:42
Oh my gosh, you save time longer rest periods. It's I always call it the lazy persons way to get fit is lifting. Well, it's so funny because I'm doing physical therapy for my shoulder and it's all 15 reps, five second holds and it's like, not that it's torture. I'm glad I'm doing it because I It's a lot isometrics. But I'm like, if I had to do this with weights regularly, I can see why people would give up, you know, like people give up on their gym routines, because they're doing a lot of reps. So what you just said is a good point, if you're only doing six reps, eight reps, 10, whatever, they're really hard, you're gonna get that great feel not necessarily a pump, you don't always chase that you don't always choose soreness, but just like, feel like you put some strong weights around. It's empowering. And it takes us time. So why not?
Louise Valentine 40:25
That feeling that you're strong. Like, you know, that's what we need to feel 35. And over, we need to remember how incredibly strong we are, how incredibly athletic we are, we can do that at any age. And the fact that people tell us that we can't that is the story of burned out bloated and broken. We're, we need to rewrite it.
Philip Pape 40:45
For sure you can be strong in it. I don't care if you're you know, 65 and never lifted weight. Go do it. Louise is talking about with a move that you're comfortable with that you can have good form. And if you're not comfortable, and that's okay, find somebody that can help you get comfortable. A lot of options out there, including Louise. And I do want to ask this question. I don't know if I had this in the list back when we first met, but it's the one I always ask. And that is, is there a question you wish I had asked? And what is your answer?
Louise Valentine 41:12
I think the best question that no one's asking, as Ken and are women endurance athletes, putting the pedal to the metal and exacerbating pre menopausal symptoms, having hit them earlier than it should. And I think if we continue to train, as we have in the past, if we continue to have these hard, high volume training cycles for runners, you will, and I know because that's my story. So now I'm rewriting it. I'm helping other women rewrite it and it doesn't have to be complicated. So if you're looking for that simplistic side ScienceBase cutting edge, that is where my zone of genius is in this world.
Philip Pape 41:54
I love it. So yeah, if you the what worked in the past what people think worked in the past isn't what's going to work. The cutting edge simple strategies that Louise teaches will definitely work in. I totally believe it because it's proof is in the pudding in her actions and accolades. Where can people learn more about you, Louise,
Louise Valentine 42:12
you can find me breaking through wellness.com I've got a blog videos, newsletter tips, free resources, and a great community of women that I do coach as well as other, you know, mini horses and offers so I just encourage women to start getting informed and find the practitioner that resonates with you. Maybe it's not me, maybe it's Dr. Stacey Sims, other leaders in the field. Go get yourself educated, find what works best for you, and then own it. You know, don't let anybody else tell you that. There's only one way there's many ways,
Philip Pape 42:43
many ways own it. And if they're listening to this podcast, they definitely want to get educated. So I put those links in the show notes so the listeners can find you Louise, it's great to have you back on again. I learned a lot as always, and I'm sure the listener did as well and they have some great information to run with. So to run with. Yes. So thank you so much. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Wits & Weights. If you found value in today's episode, and know someone else who's looking to level up their Wits & Weights, please take a moment to share this episode with them. And make sure to hit the Follow button in your podcast platform right now to catch the next episode. Until then, stay strong.
