Are you struggling with injuries or chronic joint pain? You're not alone! As women over 35, fitness becomes increasingly important; addressing these common issues is essential for maintaining our health and vitality. In this episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I share my personal journey through various injuries and how targeted strength exercises can be a game-changer for joint health, especially for women navigating midlife transitions.
Are you struggling with injuries or chronic joint pain? You're not alone! As women over 35, fitness becomes increasingly important; addressing these common issues is essential for maintaining our health and vitality. In this episode of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast, I share my personal journey through various injuries and how targeted strength exercises can be a game-changer for joint health, especially for women navigating midlife transitions.
“Being proactive about your joint health can transform your fitness journey,” I emphasize in this episode. I introduce five key strength exercises specifically designed to alleviate pain and prevent injuries, detailing their benefits and how you can seamlessly incorporate them into your fitness routine. Proper technique and gradual progression are vital, and I encourage you to prioritize corrective exercises that not only enhance joint health but also boost overall physical performance.
But that’s not all! We delve into the critical roles of sleep and nutrition in recovery and injury prevention. I provide insights on how healthy eating, including nutrition for women and clean eating tips, can support your fitness goals. Whether you're looking to increase your energy levels or manage stress, this episode is packed with valuable information tailored for women over 35 fitness enthusiasts.
Join me as we explore workout tips that cater to midlife women health, including menopause workouts that can help you stay fit and strong during this transformative stage. Together, we’ll unlock the secrets to building lean muscle for women and discover the best practices for toning workouts that fit into your busy life.
Don’t miss out on the additional resources available on my website, designed to empower you on your wellness journey. Tune in and take the first step towards a healthier, more vibrant you!
If you're interested in womens health, this is the podcast for you.
Get FREE lifetime access to my 4-week Strength Without Stress program today! This unique program helps you build lean muscle and reduce inflammation—without the fatigue from long or intense workouts. All you need to do is post a review of my podcast, grab a screenshot, and upload it at: hollyperkins.com/review
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Speaker #0 If you've ever dealt with an injury or chronic joint pain, you know that it can be a miserable existence. There is not much worse than nagging aches and pains, and they make it even harder to show up for the workouts that you need to overcome the issue. The good news is that aches, pains, and injuries can be fixed or even avoided, and these are my five key strength exercises to do just that. If you're currently dealing with aches, pains, or injuries, or if you want to avoid them in the future, keep listening. Hello, and thank you for being here. If you are new, welcome. I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women mostly over 40 to improve your body composition to at least 70% lean mass so that you can reduce your risk of disease and stay in the game of life and out of the rocking chair. And today's episode is perfectly in alignment with that. If you're struggling with, let's say, knee pain, maybe you've been diagnosed with patellofemoral pain syndrome, which is otherwise known as runner's knee, or maybe you've got some hip discomfort or sciatica, I want you to know that most of the time you can fix these things. Or let's say maybe you have been diagnosed with a herniated disc or you've got chronic back pain. And also one of the most common issues I see on the regular is shoulder pain and injuries, shoulder impingements, frozen shoulder. These things are so common. In fact, right now, literally this week, I am rehabbing my husband back from just a really strange shoulder issue that seemingly popped up out of nowhere one morning. And one little hint is that it might appear to kind of come out of nowhere, but these things have been growing for a long period of time. He's been in a lot of pain and I could talk about why and how it was caused, but it's been a real eye-opener for him because he's someone who never deals with aches and pains. And the thing that I say all the time is this is super common. And Aches, pains, and injuries really do come for all of us at some point. Or listen, maybe you're someone who isn't struggling with any injuries or pain right now, and I hope that's the case. And I still want you to listen up because it's important that you take action now so that you avoid them in the future. Because here's the thing, aches, pains, and injuries come for us all. I'm not fear-mongering, I swear. I'm just sharing what I've witnessed after being in practice for over 30 years now. Everyone gets injured at some point, hopefully to a lesser degree than something significant like a herniated disc. But these five exercises today are hands down the best way to avoid injuries in the future. And just simply improve all of the movement patterns that you make during the day and during your activities from pickleball to jogging to Pilates to yoga. And guess what? I have had every single injury or chronic issue that I'm talking about today. In my 20s, it was both of my knees. Absolute debilitating pain. In my 30s, it was my right hip so bad that I couldn't sit through a movie. In my 40s, it was my left shoulder that haunted me for months and months and months. Oh, and I even blew out my back trying to, quote unquote, keep my back straight during deadlifts. That was honestly one of the better lessons that I've learned. My friend, I have seen it all, both personally, but also as a coach. The more you use your body, the more likely you're going to have to confront some joint issues because it is part of the remodeling process. So even if you're healthy and pain-free now, you'll want to take notes today because these are the five exercises that keep you healthy. In this episode, you'll learn the two shoulder exercises that will eliminate discomfort and make you bulletproof, the number one hip exercise that I believe every single woman should be doing every single week. The one squat variation that will fix your knees, strengthen your glutes, and improve nearly every single move that you make, and the single leg exercise that appears in pretty much every single program I have written in the past 10 years, because it is the go-to for physical therapists to address foot, arch, ankle, knee, hip, and back. issues all in this one exercise. Talk about a multitasker of an exercise. When Karen came to me, she had been dealing with debilitating neck and back pain for years and years. If I'm remembering correctly, it was like eight or 10 years or longer. Her doctor had been giving her shots to resolve the pain and it didn't work. After enough years of struggling, she decided to do something different. and lean into corrective strength training. She heard my message loud and clear and felt that she had nothing to lose by taking the path less traveled. Because a lot of times doctors will tell you, avoid certain exercises or limit your movement or do less in order to reduce pain, right? You hear that all the time. So instead of more doctors and cortisone shots, and instead of doing less, she started strength training differently. She joined my live group coaching program, The Body Composition Project, and within five months, her pain was nearly gone. And then a few months later, she was out of pain completely. That is the power of using strength training exercises to correct joint misalignments. so that your shoulders and your knees and your hips and your back all move the way that they should. And I sit before you today proud to say that I have done it myself. After every injury, I learned the corrective exercises to rebuild my knees, my hips, my back, and my shoulders. And the only joint discomfort that I have these days is my big toes. And that's because I thought it was a good idea to wear high heels around New York City for 10 years when I was in my 20s and 30s so that I could look fashionable. I did look fabulous, by the way. But I now pay the price for all of those years because narrow shoes and high heels, for sure, and a lot of running caused my arches to weaken and my big toe to bend inward, causing joint pain. Now, some people call this a bunion. Personally, I think a bunion is BS and it's really just a misnomer. It's actually not a bone growth of the metatarsal. It's really a swollen joint because of misalignment of that toe because of improper shoes, narrow shoes, and also weakened arches. And I say that to say you can fix this too. For me, it's getting corrected as we speak because this year I committed. to foot and toe corrective exercises. And let me tell you, it's working like a charm. My feet, my arches, my ankles, my toes are what I call the final frontier. It's the last little bit of correction that my body needs. Soon, I will be 100% pain-free, and that is something for a woman who's over 50. And I could tell you about Carol and Janika and Carmen and Elizabeth, shout out to all of you. And many more who came to me with aches and pains and injuries and doctors' diagnoses that they would never be the same again. All of them to walk away pain-free and better than ever. I say this to say, you can do this too. And these are the five key strength exercises to reduce pain and injuries for good. So next, I'm going to tell you the five exercises, why they're so great, and how to incorporate them. It helps to actually see them in action, right? I'm going to do my best to explain them, but that can only go so far depending on how you're visualizing it. So I've decided to add the video tutorials for each exercise to the blog page for this episode over on my website. So if you want these exercises and you want to see them in action so that you understand them, come to hollyperkins.com forward slash five exercises. And that way you'll see all five of the video tutorials totally for free. One mistake I want to note is that some people think that all they have to do is do these exercises and they will be instantly fixed. And that is actually not true at all. So number one, you must be performing these exercises or even if you're just choosing one or two of them, you don't have to be doing all of them. But of the exercises that you choose, you must... have excellent, perfect technique in order to truly redesign and remodel how a joint is moving. Number two, you must start very light with your weight loads so that you can keep that excellent technique. Remember, these are corrective exercises. And so you want to be strengthening them with perfect range of motion, technique, and skill. And then number three, You must repeat these exercises if you're doing them for corrective reasons two to three times every single week for a while. if you're specifically rehabbing, right? Because you'll hear in a moment, some of these exercises can be used as part of your general strengthening as well. These same five exercises can be used as corrective physical therapy moves or ongoing strength exercises that you do each week as part of your workouts. And that's why you'll see them in my programming when you work with me, when you enroll in one of my programs like the Body Composition Project. Because a lot of times I just build these into my programs. And then if someone comes to me and says, hey, my shoulder's kind of bothering me, then what I'll do is I'll make recommendations above and beyond, and we will add in other corrective exercises, or I'll have her do them more than once a week as part of their workouts. So the first exercise is, drum roll, external shoulder rotation. And it is quite possibly. The one shoulder exercise that I go to for nearly every shoulder issue. There are so many shoulder rehab exercises. There's probably hundreds of them. But this is the one that I have found fixes pretty much every issue. And so when my husband woke up with a shoulder issue, I was like, you got to get back to your external shoulder rotation. I have been preaching it to him for years now. and he had stopped doing it. And this is the one exercise that I was like, you gotta get back to that ASAP, every single day or every other day. Again, to see this move in action, go to hollyperkins.com forward slash five exercises so that you can see the full video tutorial. But I'm gonna do my best to try and explain the move here because there are some variations of this move that you'll see out there in the world if you were to just Google the name of this exercise. You're going to see it with people laying down, people standing up, people on a bench. There's a lot of ways, which we call variations of this move, but I like this one the best. Again, after 30 years of coaching people, I pick the exercises I pick for a reason. I am not the person to come to for creative, fun, innovative variations on moves. I am always going to give you the one that I think is the fastest way to resolve your issues. So. For external shoulder rotation, you're using a resistance band and you're anchoring it somewhere to something solid at the height of your midsection when you're standing. And you'll anchor it to your side. You'll keep a 90 degree bend at your elbow of the working arm. So for example, let's say you anchor your resistance band to something off to your right. You're going to be working your left arm. And you keep a 90 degree bend at that left elbow. And then you rotate the arm from inward to outward to stretch the band. That's where the resistance is. Again, I realize it's kind of hard to visualize this, but I'm going to try and give it a go because you might be like, oh yeah, I know that exercise. You might already be aware of it. And so I don't need to over explain it. I just want to at least give you the visual on it for the person who knows what I'm talking about. And again, just go to my blog page to see it. The benefit of this move is that it strengthens the rotator cuff muscles that control the stabilization of the scapula and the shoulder girdle in general. And the rotator cuff muscles, there's actually four of them, they're little itty bitty shoulder stabilizers on the back of your body around your scapula. They control where the scapula and the upper arm move and how they relate to each other. So this exercise trains your shoulder. to externally rotate during movement, but to also stabilize the upper arm to your body at the shoulder joint, and to maintain stability against more demanding moves like bench press, overhead pressing, and lateral raises. So again, it's a corrective exercise, but it also is really good delay the foundation for those other moves where people often get injured. And so this is why it's so valuable. Even if you're not in pain, you can incorporate it into your weekly programming to make sure you never are in pain. So you want to use this move as a prep before workouts. I will almost always come in, almost always, no matter what workout I'm doing, even if it's a lower body workout, I will come in and I will do two to three sets of this exercise before any workout like a warmup or like a prep. Absolutely without a doubt, whenever I'm doing any upper body movements, I do it. And you can also use it as a standalone set to target the shoulder in between workouts. Or you can use it as part of your general shoulder day. So you can use it as a prep. And then you can use it as physical therapy away from your other workouts. But then you can also just put it into your shoulder workout. And that is what I do with my clients. So generally, you'll see it as part of the shoulder day. And then when Carol came to me and said, my shoulder's bothering me, we then also add more exposure of this exercise in between other workouts. And in that sense, it becomes corrective, just like if you went to a physical therapist. In which case, you would be doing this move for, let's say, three sets of 10, two to three times per week in between your other workouts. The second exercise is also a shoulder move, and it's the one that I use most often because it's just a good general strengthening exercise that also improves the health of the shoulder. Whereas the first exercise. shoulder external rotation is a bit more of a true physical therapy move. This one really should be in pretty much every general strength training program. And again, if it's not in one of my general programs, I will then recommend it as an additional exercise when someone's having issues. So number two exercise is shoulder bent over abduction. And again, There are several different variations of this exercise and the way that you can do it if you were to Google search it. But I really do love doing it unilaterally, which means one arm at a time when you're really trying to fix a shoulder issue or injury. If you don't have any pain or any major issues, you can do this move with both arms, which is known as a rear delt fly, and then you can do it in any orientation. But when you're trying to fix a shoulder issue, that's when it's helpful to do it individually one arm at a time. And the benefit of that is that you can really focus on your technique to make sure that each arm is moving symmetrically. Each arm is moving the same way. In fact, just last night, I reviewed a video from a client for this exact exercise. And on her left arm, she moved. perfectly. But on her right arm, it moved at a very different angle. And this reveals exactly why she's been having some shoulder issues. And it helps to adjust how you're moving so that you can strengthen the muscles in a balanced way. And so it's diagnostic in the sense that if your left arm is moving differently than your right, well, there's part of the issue. And when you do them then individually and you learn to proprioceptively adjust how you're moving, when you then get your arm into the right range of motion, it's going to strengthen the muscles that had become weak. And that's probably the root of the issue that you're having. My favorite variation of this move is done by bending over and resting your head on your hand, one hand, and your hand. is anchored and leveraged on top of a stable surface. So you're bent over to nearly, I would say, almost parallel to the ground and your head is resting on, let's say, your left hand. You hold a dumbbell in the opposite hand, your right hand, and you allow that arm and that dumbbell to hang straight directly under the right shoulder. So your head is relaxed. You pull that right shoulder back and down into position. And then you press outward. Some people might say swing, but I don't want you to use any momentum. You press outward like a lateral raise. So it is a lateral raise, except you're bent over until the arm is extended directly out from your body. And basically your hand is at the same height as your shoulder. And again, it's the same as a lateral raise, but when you're bent over, it's going to be emphasizing. the rear delt, the posterior delt, and those muscles around the posterior shoulder, which influence how your scapula moves. I love this exercise. Again, it's hard to verbalize in a way that you can visualize it. So just go to the blog so that you can see it if this one doesn't make sense. Just like the last shoulder exercise, you can use this move as a prep before any workout. You can use it as a standalone set. to target the shoulder in between workouts or as part of your general shoulder day. You could complete two to three sets of let's say 10 reps two to three times per week in between your workouts. Or you could do one to two light sets as a prep move before your full workout. I will do that sometimes. So one of my injuries was on my left shoulder doing push-ups, which is exactly one of the reasons why I stopped programming and recommending push-ups. You will never see push-ups in one of my programs because I think they are stupid. I think they're a very bad idea for a number of reasons. We'll save that for another episode because I know they're so in vogue. For women to be able to do a certain number of push-ups, but let me tell you, a quick search around the internet and around the social medias, 99.9% of women are doing push-ups all wrong. And 70% of those 99.9% of people are going to end up with a shoulder injury down the line. I see it all the time. Push-ups are a lot trickier than they appear to be. I digress. What I was saying is that. Sometimes my shoulder will flare up. If I'm not staying on top of my corrective exercises, that shoulder will start to inch back into poor alignment. And so every now and then I'm having to do more of this exercise than I normally do. And then when my shoulder is really functional, both of my shoulders are really functional and happy, I don't have to do this exercise at all. So I will often do it before my workout. If my shoulder is bothering me, especially if I'm going to be doing a bench press or any overhead pressing, it really is a great way to get the shoulder into healthy alignment. Either way, however you use it or don't, you definitely want to be starting light on this one in particular. Even if you think you are strong. My big, strong, athletic husband had to start with a three-pound dumbbell. on this exercise. And that was hard for his ego, but I showed him he wasn't able to do it with excellent technique with a five pound dumbbell. So you've got to start light here. If you're having shoulder issues, you'll want to start with a two or a three pound dumbbell max to ensure great technique. And so as I'm sitting here recording this, I'm realizing that this is exactly one of the best features inside of my program, The Body Composition Project, which is a live group coaching cohort. Each week during the program, our participants submit what we call an exercise of the week video, where they capture themselves on camera doing a full set of one of the exercises that appears in the program, right? The designated exercise of the week. Then my coaches and I look at those videos and we send feedback to help you get perfect technique. The Body Composition Project is 24 weeks long. And so we cover 24 exercises. And it is the best way that I have found to ensure that you're actually doing your exercises correctly, whether it's shoulder corrective exercises or all of the other exercises that appear in a program. Because as I've always said, In order to truly transform your body, both from a health and injury perspective, but also from an aesthetics perspective, your technique trumps everything. This goes back to my first book, Live to Get Lean. Rule number one is that technique trumps everything. You've got to get your technique right. And after all these 30 years being in practice, what I've learned is most people don't really know what good technique is. And even for the people who think they know, about 50% of the time, they're still not actually performing the exercises correctly because you might think you're doing a move a certain way and it might feel that you're doing it correctly, but there are nuances to getting any exercise correct. So this is one of my most favorite aspects of the body composition project. And in that regard, I actually think that it's a really incredible substitute for having an in-person personal trainer, right? Because a lot of people are like, well, that's why I have a trainer so they can check my technique. So on that note, did you know that I was an in the gym personal trainer for over 20 years? Day in and day out for over 20 years. And one day I realized that I was mostly serving the purpose. of counting reps and helping my clients to actually show up to the gym. And I would have clients say to me outright, the reason why they pay me is to make sure they show up to that gym. And I realized that there were so many constraints as a trainer. And I actually suspected that I would be able to help my clients better if we weren't in the gym. And that is when I started developing virtual programs that really mirrored what I knew worked. for my clients in the gym. Would you believe it that my clients, my virtual clients, immediately started getting better results than clients that I would see six and seven days a week in the gym? It's true. Because with a coaching program that was virtual, I could influence what they were doing outside of that one hour in the gym a couple times a week, right? So instead of me counting reps and taking you through a workout, I guide you in all. aspects of programming, including nutrition and cardio, all those other aspects that are really super important for improving a person's body and their health. And that actually made all the difference in the world. So anyway, so this is one reason why I created the Body Composition Project and why I believe it's been so transformational for so many of my most successful clients. Okay, up next, I'm going to share the other three strength training exercises to reduce pain and injuries. But first... I want to point out something super important that I've noticed with myself and with my clients. Taking care of yourself doesn't mean you have to be perfect. It means that you are choosing habits that you can repeat and that you can come back to easily, especially the ones that make everything else easier. That's called habit stacking, right? And nothing affects how you feel, how you think, how you function. more than your sleep. Sleep is when your body recovers from your workouts and when all of your organs get restored. Sleep is literally everything. You don't need to hear that from me. I'm sure you've heard it elsewhere. And the truth is it gets harder to ensure quality sleep as you get older. And that is why Dream by Beam has become one of my non-negotiables. It is the habit that helps me wind down at night. It helps to shut off my mind and I actually wake up feeling good and feeling rested, not just technically awake, if you can relate. Because when you sleep better, everything gets easier. And I know you know that. And that is how real change sticks. Dream is made with clean science-backed ingredients like reishi, magnesium, L-theanine, apigenin, and melatonin formulated to help you fall asleep fast, stay asleep, and then wake up refreshed. No grogginess, no crash, just deep restorative rest. And it actually tastes amazing for real, real. Literally last night, I just tried the sea salt caramel flavor. That's the one that my husband always drinks. And I... Kind of preserved it for him, but that's the only bag we have left now. And I'm like, oh, I guess I'm drinking this tonight. And it is amazing. It is a bit on the sweeter side. So if you like sweet, it's perfect for you. When I want something less sweet, but like equally rich, I tend to default to the brownie batter. That's my second favorite. Or maybe it's my first favorite. I don't know. They're all great. I have been using Dream for months now, and I can honestly say I feel sharper and calmer. and more focused. I finally felt like I could tackle life head-on instead of just like trying to get through it or drink more caffeine. And I'm not the only one. Beam has already improved over 28 million nights of sleep, helping people across the country wake up and feel their best. Go to shopbeam.com forward slash holly p.and use code HOLLYPEE to take advantage of my exclusive offer for up to 40% off Beam's Dream Powder. So seriously, think about it. How much would you pay for a truly great night of sleep? With my discount HOLLYPEE, it's just $1.25 per night. So go to shopbeam.com forward slash HOLLYPEE right now. Okay, so up next is the third exercise and we're moving down the body onto the hips. Exercise number three of the five key strength training exercises to reduce pain and injuries is hip abduction. And to me, every single woman must be doing a version of this move every single week. Abduction has become very popular and recognizable these days because so many women use it to improve the appearance of their booty, to get a big, round, great shaped butt, right? And that is totally valid. But the real magic of the move you is what it does for pelvic stabilization and creating more symmetry between the hips and legs from a functional perspective. I'm not suggesting this move for vanity reasons, although that is true too. It's going to make your butt look better. I prescribe it because it's going to make you strong, functional, pain-free to help you move better in everything that you do. For example, if you're a runner, Or if you're the type of person who gets your 10,000 steps in every day, this is the move that's going to make it better and keep your hips and knees healthy. Also, if you do have hip and knee issues, this one is an absolute must. And actually, I think if I just had to pick one of the five exercises today that's like a must must, this is the one because it influences your mechanics up and down the kinetic chain, which is all of your muscles and joints and ligaments and bones that all work in a symphony above and below your pelvis. Again, just go to hollyperkins.com forward slash five exercises to see the variation I like best. But here's how I want you to visualize it. You place a two or three pound ankle weight on your right ankle and you lay down on your left side on the floor and then you lift your ankle weight leg, your right leg up into the air. That is side lying abduction. And yes, this can be done on a machine at the gym. It can be on an angled exercise bench. You can do hip abduction seated with a band around your knees or as a banded lateral walk. You can even do it as a side plank clamshell lift. These are all awesome hip abduction moves, but this one with the ankle weight is my go-to. because most women are super weak and this is a great way to strengthen before you progress on to more complicated variations. This move largely targets the glute medius, which is otherwise known as the GM. I refer to it as the general manager, right? Get it, GM? Because it literally manages how your legs and hips move and it influences everything about your mechanics. Glute medius is a very important stabilizer for the pelvis, and in my experience, it is super weak on 90% of the clients who come to me. The benefit of this exercise is that it balances the right and left side of your pelvis so that each leg moves more symmetrically. Many people have past injuries of the ankles or the knees, and that tends to cause compensatory patterns up the chain. all the way up to the glutes. So this move helps to bring back balance to your hips. Keep in mind, you know, your pelvis, the two sides of your pelvis actually move opposite to each other. And this move brings balance there and therefore to your legs and therefore to your knees. So even though it's technically a glute hip exercise, it is a must for improving knee function and rehabbing. knee injuries. It's also a go-to in physical therapy offices for healing lower back injuries. There's so many applications of this exercise. So you want to use this exercise the same as the other two moves. You can use it as a prep before workouts, as standalone sets to strengthen the hips between workouts, or as part of your general glute or lower body focused day. I use and recommend it in all of these cases, but when you're using it to rehab a joint issue like hip. back or knee, then most common would be to do it two to three times per week in between your general workouts. That way you're treating it more as a corrective exercise. The fourth exercise is one of my beloveds that I used to absolutely hate, and that is Bulgarian split squat. I am such a huge fan of this move. I feel like if you can be brave enough to practice it and get good at it and stay committed to it over time, I believe this one can heal just about everything. Now, it's essentially a single leg squat. And I'm a huge fan of learning the mechanics to get your squats right, because it improves nearly every single joint in your body. What makes a Bulgarian split squat even better is that it's unilateral. And so it's one leg at a time. So just like I mentioned on the other exercise, when you do something unilaterally, it allows you to dedicate all of your mental focus and all of your biological energy to one leg at a time. And so you're going to be able to put more focus, intention, attention, and good technique into getting that one leg right. So if you don't know what a Bulgarian split squat is, and you can visualize it with me, imagine that you are standing with a stable surface behind you. Ideally, it would be an immovable block or an exercise bench that's anywhere from like 12 to 15 inches high. It's behind you, maybe two feet. Start with your feet together and you would reach one leg back and you would rest it on that surface. So it's an elevated back leg. The working leg is your front leg. So when you perform a Bulgarian split squat, it's all about the front leg. From that starting position, you would then lower down into a squat, letting your ankles, knees, ankle, knee, and hip, because you're only doing it one side, to bend. And you would lower down to the ground, and then you would press back up. It's a one-legged squat. And it is fabulous for strengthening the hamstrings, the glutes, the quads. hips in general, and even your core. Beyond what it strengthens, it also helps to improve functional health because you're on one leg. So you're going to have to do it. Learn to get yourself balanced and do it on one leg. And that alone can take some time if you're a bit unsteady or imbalanced. But then also beyond those two things, it also helps to improve ankle dorsiflexion, which means ankle flexion. Like if you were to pull your toes towards your knee, that's dorsiflexion. And that is a very important mechanism at the ankle that a lot of people are losing today. And if you lose that great ankle mobility and strength and stability in dorsiflexion, you end up with knee issues. And so a lot of times in my experience, when people have knee issues, It's actually because... They don't have the strength to hold a deep angle at the bottom of a squat when their foot is in extreme dorsiflexion. And so this is a great way to improve knee health, foot health. If you have collapsed arches, this is an incredible exercise. And so I would argue Bulgarian split squat is like extra good because of the mobility and range of motion that you'll develop. when you're getting your technique right. Again, go to my website so that you can see it and see the video tutorial so that you can learn to do it right for yourself because it's an incredible exercise. Again, if you are rehabbing a knee, hip, back, or even foot injury, you can use this exercise in a rehabilitative way in between your other exercises. In fact, I'll be honest, so this Bulgarian split squat. All squats are my nemesis. Squats highlight my biological weaknesses. And so it just makes it, it's just a harder exercise for me. So it took me a really long time, I'm talking like years, to get my Bulgarian split squat right. And I still workshop it every single week. And so for a period of time, and even still to this day, sometimes I'll jump up from my desk and I'll run back and I'll do a set of Bulgarian split squats. just one set randomly in the middle of the day to keep that mobility open, to keep all of that action in my foot, my lower leg, my knee, my hip, my hamstring, my glute, all of it, hip flexors even. It's just such an incredible exercise. And so I'll throw it in arbitrarily throughout the day just to keep that movement pattern firing and healthy. And then I also do it once a week. as part of my leg strengthening day, where I then load it and I add a dumbbell or add a kettlebell to strengthen the movement pattern. But in between those workouts, I'm doing it body weight only, sometimes for five or six or eight reps, just to keep that mobility open. And last but definitely not least is another love affair of mine. Exercise number five of the five key strength training exercises to reduce pain and injuries is single leg deadlift. If you know me, you know. Single leg deadlift really does appear in every single program I write. And it is one of those exercises that I believe every person, man and woman, Sh... should be practicing, should be perfecting. There are a couple of variations, but the truth is there's really one way to do it. Now, I call it single leg deadlift. Some people call it a kickstand RDL. Some people call it a single leg RDL. A lot, you know, different experts call it different things. I call it a single leg deadlift because that's exactly what it is. It's a deadlift on one leg. And this is also one of those exercises that if you have a hip, or knee injury, maybe even plantar fasciitis, maybe even a foot injury, you go into a physical therapy office, there's a good chance they're going to have you do this exercise because it is so powerful. I would even argue if you are rehabbing, if you're in what we call phase four of rehabbing your shoulders, a single leg deadlift is a brilliant way to get full functionality and stability at your shoulders, but technically. It's a leg exercise. And so the way that you perform a single leg deadlift is you start with your feet together, collect yourself so that you've got your balance. If you need to use something to support yourself, to stabilize your balance, that is fine. Because I believe going through the range of motion is helpful, even if you have to stabilize yourself with a support nearby, a chair or a wall. But you put your weight onto one foot, let's say it's your right foot. And you would stabilize yourself with your right hand. And then what you're doing is you're rotating on that leg that you're standing on. You're standing on your right leg. So it's the working leg. And you let your left leg swing back behind you because you're rotating on your right hip with a soft knee. And then you activate the posterior chain, which is the backside of your body, your hamstrings, your glutes, your back, your core, even your calves. And you stand back up to a straight up position. So it is a hip hinge. You are bending over, but you're bending over because of the hinge at the hips. And you keep a soft knee. It's not a good morning. You are actually moving forward because your hips are moving backward. And it is a powerful exercise for so many things. And this was a big one in my own journey to rehab both my knee, both my knees, and you my right hip. I do recommend getting the hang of it to get your balance first. Once you're able to perform the move with relatively decent balance, that's when you're going to want to load it with that floating arm. When your right leg is the working leg, you would load it with a dumbbell in the left hand. Now, I have noticed with some of my clients that those who struggle with balance a lot sometimes need the counterbalance. of a dumbbell to actually get the balance of it. So if you have been workshopping this exercise and you feel like you always have to hold on to something, otherwise you'll fall over, try grabbing a five pound dumbbell and doing it free handed because that counterbalance weight might improve your balance. You also have to remember that balance is one of those mechanisms that we kind of have to force. You're not gonna wake up one day and just have perfect single leg balance. You have to tell. all of the muscles as well as your inner ear and the synergistic accessory muscles that control balance, you've got to make them work before you'll actually have balance. So if you're like, there's just nothing that I can do. My balance is always terrible. To some degree, it might just be because you're not forcing your body to learn good balance, but it's so important. And again, this exercise can be used, just like I said, it can be used in between workouts. I do this exercise almost every single day when I'm making coffee, when I am in the kitchen, when I'm prepping for another workout. If I've been sitting too long, I'll stand up and I'll do a set of them because it's so good to fire up the glutes, improve range of motion in the hamstrings, balance out the hips. And by the way, This is one of my secret weapon exercises to correct and improve my toes, believe it or not. Because on this exercise, your arches have to strengthen to control where your toes are on any single leg exercise. And so it's incredibly helpful for people who have arch issues or toe issues. It can be used as a corrective exercise in between your other workouts. It can be used to prepare you for a leg workout. And it is also a strengthening exercise that can be loaded. And so in my community, my target for my clients is to be able to do a full set of 10 single leg deadlifts holding a 20-pound dumbbell at least. Once you get strong there, then you... split the weight into two dumbbells or a barbell, and you continue. And I just saw a woman on social media do a single leg deadlift with like 115 pound barbell, which is just unbelievable. It's so impressive. My point is to say it's both a physical therapy exercise, but it's also a strength building move. Oh my gosh, I know that's a lot, but there are the five key strength training exercises you need. To reduce pain and injuries and avoid them, even if you are perfectly healthy right now, you don't have to do all of them all the time. Pick the one that speaks to you or pick the one that targets the joint where you're having the biggest issue. Sprinkle them throughout the week or incorporate them into your strength training sessions. So if this episode has resonated with you, and I would think that it would if you're still here listening to me now. You probably feel like you've got some ideas and a solution for avoiding injuries and or addressing your aches and pains and injuries that you have. But you might be like, okay, how do I put it together in the larger picture to really become bulletproof or unstoppable or completely pain-free along that continuum of becoming more muscle and less fat? And to that, I say, run, don't walk over to hollyperkins.com forward slash free workshop. Because very soon, I'm going to be offering a brand new, totally free, three-day training series called Muscle for Life. This is the best thing I do all year long. It is highly educational. You will learn so much about how to strength train right to actually improve your body composition, improve your bone density, use lean muscle mass to burn body fat so that you can achieve the body composition. that you want to be. And it is my deep dive on everything you need to know, tips, tools, and resources for doing it yourself. And you can sign up for free by going to hollyperkins.com forward slash free workshop. We start March 5th. It is a three-day workshop, a Thursday, Tuesday, Thursday. If you can't make it live, sign up anyway. You'll get access to the recordings for a period of time. It's the best thing I do all year. I do it once or twice a year. It's always new and different. And you'll walk away feeling like you better understand what your strength training workouts should look like, what your cardio should look like, how to eat, how not to eat to really improve performance and also fat burning. Just go to hollyperkins.com forward slash free workshop. And I can't wait to see you there. I hope you enjoyed this episode. and please. Stay tuned for another brand new one on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong, my friend.