Fit Over 40 with Brad Williams

george grombacher 0:02
Well, hello, this is George G. And the time is right. welcome today’s guest strong and powerful Brad Williams. Brad, are you ready to do this? I am ready. Thanks so much for having me on the show. excited to have you on let’s go. Brad knew he wanted to start his own business and help people achieve their wellness goals. He got his personal training certification went on to own and operate three physical gym locations in Orange County, California, post COVID He started an online training program and started the over 40 Fitness tax over 40 Fitness hacks podcast, he’s working to help the over 40 Crowd fight the aging process while not sacrificing their social life. Brad, tell us a little about your personal life more about your work, why you do what you do. Absolutely. So born and raised here in California, Central California, if anyone knows where Visalia California is not many do, but it’s a little south of Fresno. But 20 years there, my dad was always a medical doctor Mom was a nurse always kind of had that fitness, health wellness background growing up, really into sports. And, you know, made my way down to Long Beach State here in Orange County, California. And just had to always followed my uncle, he was always an entrepreneur, that that kind of business and stuff excited me so I knew I always wanted to open up something, just didn’t know what, and through various jobs after graduating, finally, my brother and I decided to like, you know, I got my personal training certification, I was super into fitness, let’s go for it. And 13 years ago, opened up my first Gym, in Huntington Beach, California. And just for the next 10 years, just a rough ride of entrepreneurship, and the brick and mortar game of, of you know, high expenses and costs of gyms and got some investors to jump in with me and we got to other gyms and just a roller coaster of doing business here in California is pretty rough. But, you know, kind of ended up consolidating down to one gym, which I currently still have with some partners, and I do personal training, and then COVID happened, and kind of a lot of us personal trainers got pushed more into the online space. We had dabbled into it before. But you know, it’s just the whole the whole world, you know, coming to that with social media and everything is just so much more scalable than then, you know, doing the brick and mortar thing. So started that and started a podcast and you know, my whole 13 years, just kind of the the niche I had with private gyms was kind of the older crowd, the, you know, the 40 to 65. So that’s kind of, you know, what I was used to, and then lo and behold, 13 years later of personal training, I’m 42 now, and, you know, all the all the times of, you know, in my younger 20s and 30s of training my older clients and all the problems they were having, I’m like, come on, you just need to, you know, get get better on your diet and, you know, work a little harder to get that get off. And then lo and behold, I’m turning 42 And oh my God, they are right, it is so much harder. So I’ve had injuries I have, you know, live with a kid and work and family moving less, and you just got to get smarter. And you know, that’s why I started coming up with all these different fitness acts of stuff that worked for me that I can share, you know, with the world out there. So that’s kind of the last 13 years of my life in a nutshell there, George, it’s so funny, become a lot more empathetic when we go through and experience ourselves.

Brad Williams 3:26
Getting a little older, we always had heard, and now things get harder and it gets harder to lose weight. And it turns out everybody was right, Brett. Yeah. And you know, that’s just the natural, you know, our bodies are designed that way because as we age, it’s going to mourn to our survival instinct of holding on to fat, because fat is a good source of energy and longer lasting so but you know, we have we have to kind of trick our bodies in this saying it’s okay, we’re doing stuff we can hold a you know, better diet and keep moving. So you know, help help keep it off these bounds. So

george grombacher 4:00
yeah, I appreciate that. So, I mean, it’s so much and I think that it can be overwhelming to somebody like me who’s I don’t work in fitness. I’ve always been an athletic person, I want to be healthy.

But it is a lot what what what, what should I be eating? What should I not be eating? Should I be keto? Should I be carnivore? Should I be vegan? Should I lift weights? Should I go running? It’s just, it’s just a lot. Yep. And that’s kind of the thing I’ve discovered over you know, I’ve trained over 150 clients over the years. And my whole thing is, you know, there is no one right answer for diets and, and style trainings. It’s whatever works for that client. And so that’s what I’ve always discovered is, you know, let’s see what they’re excited about motivated, you know, in diets as far as diets you know, it’s whatever makes you feel good. You know, I personally do keto. But other clients, they feel better on

Brad Williams 5:00
Atkins or low carb are lots of carbs. So I kind of work with that. And then it’s just the game of, you know, tracking calories with their macros are making sure they get enough protein in. And, you know, we start building blocks. And when I get a new client coming in everything, someone comes up to the New Year’s resolutions, they want to do everything. And that’s the worst way to go, No, we’re going to just don’t even worry about that, we’re just going to worry about building up to two to three workouts a week seeing how you feel, then we’ll start tweaking the diet, then we’ll start doing if you’re interested in keto, or intermittent fasting is another good one we do. And just seeing what the client vibes with and what works for them, and then doing that baby step method just longer lasting, better results.

george grombacher 5:51
Is it sort of true or not true at all, that anything will work as long as you do?

Brad Williams 5:57
Yeah, I mean, the main, the name of the game is, you know, just you’re burning more calories in a day than you’re putting in your mouth. That’s what it all comes down to. And then it’s just, you know, what type of training training exercises work for you and what your goals are you still trying to do sports are you trying to be more balanced, that’s a big thing we promote to in our training is balanced. A lot of people don’t do that. And for the not so much over 40 crowd, but more of the older over 65 crowd, you know, slips trips, and falls are just a huge part of, you know, getting injured and recovery, just taking so much longer. So, you know, instilling that while people are younger, you know, balanced training just will help you so much more in your life.

george grombacher 6:45
You start you said, you know, let’s let’s figure out what’s going to work for you. Because me doing CrossFit five days a week may not work at all, or it might work perfectly. Right. It’s got to fit into my life.

Unknown Speaker 6:58
Yeah. And most importantly, do you enjoy it? Are you staying injury free or doing it safely? For doing all that stuff, then yeah, keep doing it. It’s great. Building, my only thing is, you know, worrying about overtraining yourself, if you’re not giving yourself enough recovery, that’s a huge thing. So I kind of focus more on really pushing like mind body connection while you’re doing your workouts, and focusing on quality. So really, feeling every muscle working while you’re doing like a, you know, squatted press, or overhead squat, you know, some of the things to do in CrossFit. And just being very mindful of injuries, making sure you’re engaging your core, instead of just trying to pump out reps. You know, another thing that we promote a lot is time under tension. So doing like a more focused squat, have taken five to 10 seconds to squat down and five to 10 seconds coming up. And you know, once again, engaging that core feeling every muscle in that part of the process. But when you slow stuff down, one, it’s less risk of injury, because you’re using less weight. Because you know, you do that method with half the weight you’re used to using oh my god, you’re you’re going to be burning. And just, you know, focusing more on control and whatnot, and that’ll, that’ll overtime, give you better benefits, you know, less, less injuries, and you know, just better quality. So you can do that with any type of training program you’re doing. Yeah.

george grombacher 8:33
The, the importance of of recovery to people, is that something that people overlook? Let’s talk a little bit more about that.

Unknown Speaker 8:41
Yeah. I think for for like, kind of the 20s and 30s, we didn’t really need to focus on recovery, just because our bodies were designed to take that beating. But yeah, over 40 That’s, that’s a big thing that, you know, you’ve got to change that mindset, because, you know, destroying your body seven days a week and never recovering, you’re never going to get the benefits one injuries to your body had doesn’t have time to recover, simulate protein, build everything back. And then you know, you just you take someone like that and kind of slow him down. But focus more on recovery, protein, sleep is huge. And then you switch someone’s program like that, and all sudden, you know, they start dropping more weight, they start putting on more lean muscle mass and they don’t understand, you know, I’m working out less is because you’re getting better quality. You know, the recovery process is so much more important when you’re over 40. And that’s a hard too hard to do for someone who’s coming back from an athletic type background where, you know, they’re used to pumping out seven days a week. So

george grombacher 9:49
yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s a really tricky thing, right? If I have the motivation to be going and working out seven days a week and I’m so excited about doing Not all of it, but realizing that I’m actually hurting my, you know, my, my improvements, whatever those gains might be if our losses of weight. Yes, it’s almost a paradox.

Unknown Speaker 10:12
Now. And you know, for someone who does like the you know, they have to do it, they love it as part of their program, then that’s okay then we start doing different types of splits, you know, maybe focusing on legs one day, chest, another day, arms another day, and then kind of repeating, but that way certain muscle groups will get a longer break. So you just have to be careful, you know, kind of what you’re doing.

george grombacher 10:38
The role of of protein. Tell me a little bit more about that. Is that essential no matter what.

Unknown Speaker 10:46
Yeah, I mean, for for some people who really eat low calories and are not really focused on you know, the aesthetics of building too much muscle mass, then they can get away with a kind of a lower protein diet. But, uh, for most of us, yeah, high protein diet is beneficial, it helps raise our BMR basal metabolic rate. So that what that is, is how much your body’s burning, any given day, even at rest. So that’s the whole name of the personal training game, as you know, we get our clients to build lean muscle mass, and that holds off weight better than doing something like cardio, you got to do a whole ton of cardio throughout the week to get the same benefits of building that lean muscle mass and, you know, let let your muscle do the work. And then the other part of that is, you know, what, what type of protein are you eating, you know, in our 20s, we could get away with the cheaper stuff like the whey protein concentrate, and still build and you know, it’s a little harder to break that stuff down. But you know, eating more whole foods is probably the best. But then, you know, you can dabble into the protein world. And we recommend doing more of the isolate or Hydra hydrolysate where that you know, the processes, more fried, refined, the proteins more broken down so that it’s easier for the body to assimilate. So, you know, if you’re going to do all this work, and it’s harder to keep this muscle on over 40s by the better stuff.

george grombacher 12:10
Yeah, that makes sense. So I think that intellectually, a lot of people have heard that, that lean muscle burns more fat. So if one of my goals is burning fat, actually, is more beneficial to be weight training than doing a ton of cardio. Why is that? Or how does that work?

Unknown Speaker 12:29
Yeah, so when I, when I get a new client, and I kind of my whole spiel is like, I call it the foot or four pillars of fitness. And it’s an order of importance. So the first one is diet, that’s, you know, 80% of the game, right? They’re working on someone’s nutrition and protein, like we’re just talking about, and then two being, weight training. And then third being cardio. And then people ask why. And it’s just what we talked about is, you get more bang for the buck for building lean muscle mass when you’re burning calories while you’re doing the workouts. But the second part is you having to your body’s responding, you know, with a broken down muscles building back up, that process takes energy, and you’re burning more calories, than you’re, you know, you’re taking your protein throughout the day, and you’re building more muscle that that takes calories. And then now lo and behold, you have a higher lean muscle mass, you’re higher BMR and you’re burning more calories. So you get like three things out of the doing the weight training, with cardio goes good for your heart, and it does burn calories, but it takes 40 plus minutes, even get in that zone. And then after you’re done, that’s it, there’s no more benefit to it until you run again. And you know, the problem with the runners is, you know, my dad was a long distance runner, his whole life and college and everything and just, it’s just it takes a beating on the joints. And you know, lo and behold, he’s had two knee surgeries at 65. And so, you know, we’ll rough on the body too. And then the fourth pillar of fitness is supplementation. So you know, we always try to promote, you know, eating more whole foods and getting most of your stuff from that. But if you are neglecting some aspect of your, your nutrition, you’re not getting enough greens or enough protein, you know, that’s where we start dabbling in there. And then there’s some, you know, stuff that helps with fat burning if you want to amp it up. So

george grombacher 14:23
I love it. The mix ton of sense and makes sense that as my muscle is recovering and and and growing and building and getting larger, that that extra requires more calories so that you’re burning those throughout the course of the day. So that makes a ton of sense. You mentioned macros kind of at the beginning, tell me a little bit more about that.

Unknown Speaker 14:45
Yeah, sorry about that. Yeah, so macros if people don’t know what those are, that’s it’s you know, getting your nutrients in how many? First of all of all your calories, how much of it is coming from protein, carbohydrate rates, fats. And like I said, you know, whatever diet people want to go on their macros will change. But the most important part is, you know, you can do one of those calculators online, you know, how many calories should I be doing according to how much exercise and you know what your lifestyle is. And then as long as you’re under that total amount of calories, you’re doing fine. One thing that people you know, kind of start neglecting and you know, I didn’t really focus on it too much for you know, until maybe like, eight years ago was looking more at your micros. And what those are, as you know, your potassium, your calcium, your magnesium, you know, all your vitamins. And a cool thing I started doing with clients is, you know, you know, I got them on, you know, my fitness pal or whatever diet tracker they’re doing it to, to get all their macros just to see you know what to do, but also to start checking out your micros, you know, writing down a chart, you know, looking up googling all the different RDA of potassium, calcium, magnesium, all the things we just listed. And just going on a website, I tell people, it’s called the Eat this much.com. And what it does is it tells you every single food in existence, you know, that whole breakdown all the micros all the macros everything, whether it’s in raw form, or cooked form, because those numbers change as soon as it’s cooked for something, something like spinach or kale, as soon as you cook it. You know, one big thing that happens is the potassium just skyrockets. And it’s so important in our American diets that were so heavy focus on sodium, and not potassium, and it’s supposed to be switched the other way. So cool thing is, you know, make a chart check of all the RDA A’s and see where you find yourself neglecting. And almost nine times out of 10, it’s a people are doing pretty good on all of them, except that potassium is super low, and their sodium is super high. And what happens is you do you make that switch and reverse it, your body starts pulling more water into your cell instead of outside the cells. And thus you start shutting off bodyweight waterway. So Klein will chuck off like three, four pounds of water weight almost immediately in a couple of days. And then also with potassium and helps with your electrical current and your body and your muscles and muscles being fired. And so that process is getting it gets better and better, your workouts are getting better, your muscles look fuller, you know, the body weight is off from that waterway. So it’s kind of a cool thing and easy to switch, you know, it only takes like, less than a week to even see results on that. So that’s kind of a fun thing I do with clients to you know, just give them a little jumpstart in the in the weight loss.

george grombacher 17:43
Nice. I love it. So it certainly is a lot, but it’s not unmanageable. And can can anybody be healthy? Past 40?

Unknown Speaker 17:52
Oh, yeah. You know, the biggest thing you know, and people always say, where should I start, if I’ve never done anything before, is one you need to you need to find what motivates you and excites you, you know, it could be boxing or running. You know, we talked about overdoing it and running but you know, it’s okay to have a program where you go out a couple times a week could be weight training. And then the other thing too is, you know, kind of immersing yourself into health and wellness. So the more you’re dragged into this health and wellness field, the more you’ll start, you know, doing more, and you know, podcasting is a great thing, you know, finding different podcasts of different parts of health and wellness that you’re you’re interested in could be nutrition, it could be the science of it, it could just be you know, some weight training guru, but the more and more you immerse yourself into it, you get pulled into that world and thus you’ll probably stay on track more. And then the other thing is accountability is huge. You know, that’s that’s the name of the game and for personal training is why people hire us because having been held accountable is so much more powerful than you know trying to do it on your own and be by yourself. Know and accountability could be an online coach. It could be a partner just a workout with or just someone you watch on YouTube. You know, just just something to hold that accountability. You know, set goals and and get you on your on your fitness journey.

george grombacher 19:24
Love it so important in every aspect of life to have somebody who is giving you a hand up or a kick in the butt when when you need other ones. So I appreciate that. Yeah. Well Brett, thank you so much for coming on. Where can people learn more about you? How can they engage with you?

Unknown Speaker 19:41
Yeah, so I think my website over 40 Fitness hacks.com And that’s for zero instead of spelled out my Twitter’s at over 40 fit ax. Hold on a second, George. I am losing my voice here.

Unknown Speaker 20:02
And then just over 40 Fitness hacks on any podcast player that you’re listening to Spotify, iTunes or there’s many more out there so and that all my contact information is on all my show notes as well as on my website.

george grombacher 20:16
Excellent. Well if you enjoyed the switches I did should read your appreciation and share today’s show with a friend who also appreciates good ideas go to over 40 Fitness hacks.com with the number four and the number is zero so over 40 Fitness hacks.com and check out the over 40 Fitness hacks podcast wherever you listen to your podcasts and make the commitment and just well you know what, just just get started get to get interested because being healthy and having a great lifestyle is 100% available to you just gotta take that first step though. Thanks to Brett. Awesome. Thanks so much, George. And until next time, remember, do your part by doing your best