On The Floor - Women's Health Lies, Marathon Training, and Injury Prevention with Danielle Pellicano

Parker Condit:
0:00

Hey everyone, welcome to Exploring Health macro to micro. I'm your host, parker Condit. In this show. I interview health and wellness experts around topics like sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress management, mental health and much more so by the end of each episode, you'll have concrete, tangible advice that you can start implementing today to start living a healthier life, either for yourself or for your loved ones. This is another installment of On the Floor. This is a monthly segment with my co-host, Danielle Pellicano. In case you don't know, danielle is a great trainer and endurance coach and is also one of my best friends, so if you want to learn more about Danielle, please check out episode three, where she was a guest in the typical conversational interview format For any new listeners.

Parker Condit:
0:41

On the Floor refers to being on the gym floor. Danielle gathers questions from people on the gym floor and we spend 10 to 15 minutes answering those questions. Today's three questions are what is the biggest lie you hear about health for women, where's a good place to start for marathon training and how to make progress towards injury prevention and resiliency? These are all great questions and fun ones for both of us to answer, so I hope you enjoy this month's installment of On the Floor with Danielle Pellicano. Danielle, welcome back.

Danielle Pellicano:
1:16

On the Floor episode three.

Parker Condit:
1:19

You know, before we kind of got on, we're just talking about. I feel like we're really going to start hitting our stride with this. Why don't you just give everyone a quick update on what's going on with you physically and then we'll get into this episode?

Danielle Pellicano:
1:32

But the physical effects of mental. If you've been coming to my classes the last two weeks, let me apologize in advance. Three weeks ago I decided that I would go to Palm Springs and dirt bike and I do laugh because a lot of people still think it's a mountain bike. This, dirt bikes have motors, so it's not motorcross, it's jumping off jumps. Dirt biking is like trails and still fun. I unfortunately took a little dump, fractured four ribs and here we are now and I will say no lesson was learned other than I would probably not have done that a week out from a very important business trip.

Parker Condit:
2:09

But in any case, here you are, you're on the mend, much better.

Danielle Pellicano:
2:12

I can laugh. I can't really sneeze. Let's hope that I don't sneeze.

Parker Condit:
2:17

It'll just keep any sort of black pepper away from you. So not your first experience with broken ribs. So I mean you've kind of you've done this before.

Danielle Pellicano:
2:25

So you know this is true. I mean, I feel you need to throw that nugget out there.

Parker Condit:
2:29

Yeah, you're experienced. On the next episode We'll get into what happened with broken ribs and a broken back the last time around, so anyway, Cliff Hanger.

Danielle Pellicano:
2:39

Cliff Hanger.

Parker Condit:
2:41

Let's get into the first question from. It's from Annika this week and again, just a quick recap of the format. We're going to be showing three videos, three questions that people will be asking. We'll spend some time answering each one. So first one is from Annika, and we'll get started. As women, we are told a lot, a lot, a lot about bodies, fitness and health, and I'm curious to know that. What is the biggest lie you were taught about fitness, wellness or health as well? Okay, very interesting question.

Danielle Pellicano:
3:12

Yes.

Parker Condit:
3:13

And, I think, a fun question. There are a lot of different places you can go with this. We haven't talked about this previously, but all you said was that you're probably not going to answer it directly. You're going to kind of pivot. So I'm curious where you want to pivot your answer to with this particular question.

Danielle Pellicano:
3:28

Okay, perfect. So Annika is probably. I actually do know I think she's like in 24, 20, 24 to 26. So I was stumped for a second when I was thinking about how I was going to answer this question. And I'm putting myself back in my 20s. It is a different lane when you have grown up as an athlete forever. And for me it's general pop wasn't my training environments. So immediately my mind went to I find it interesting that I was very much led to believe that I was going to be able to make a living as a professional soccer player. And this is my true answer.

Danielle Pellicano:
4:05

So here, on the heels of the women winning the 1999 World Cup, I was a freshman in college. So the women come back. Mia Hamm, julie Fowdy, all of them methodically started WUSA, the women's professional league. So here we are in college Now where I'm approaching my junior year, still playing, still studying, but I'm still under the impression that I'm going to make a living as a professional soccer player. So now we fast forward to 2002. I graduate and come back to Minnesota.

Danielle Pellicano:
4:34

It's the inaugural year of WUSA, the women's league. They created eight to 10 teams. I tried out for the women's Minnesota. Lightning made it. Now I'm like this is amazing.

Danielle Pellicano:
4:45

The first meeting was us being sat down saying our stipend for the year was $20,000 and that we had to create or generate excuse me dollars for our own marketing. So now we had to kind of campaign to pay our way to play. And why I'm prefacing it that way is it was so weird that, like there it wasn't like I had the like blinders on, like it was truly an opportunity. But it was soul crushing at the same time, because two years in here I am at like I'm in 20s, bartending, sleeping on couches, fully educated, being like I think I, I think I need to get on with my life now. Like that was it. So now I think about it, and now we fast forward 20 years and Kansas City is next, or it's going to be this year, in 2024. Kansas City the Kansas City current is the women's professional team and they are going to have the first women's only stadium it's going to.

Danielle Pellicano:
5:42

I just saw, like the it's incredible, the announcement, but it is actually so. I'm thinking and I know it's kind of pivots from her question, but like that's where my mind went immediately that I think that's how early we were. Still, do you know what I mean. Like 20 years. I'm not saying it's gone by in a blink, but we're just now creating that opportunity and maybe I'll take it back 10 years. I'll be generous.

Danielle Pellicano:
6:06

You could be playing professional soccer and making it in Europe or things like that. That way do you know what I mean? But it's come a long way and I just think like I was at 10 years old. There's a video of me somewhere on a VHS. I'm sure that's like my parents asking me like what do you want to be when you're older? Like a professional athlete? And I never. I never wavered from it. So that's how I would answer that question If it was more for like a true science standpoint or like what are all the fads that we're hearing? We were only taught about calories and calories out. If you counted your calories, you were going to be a fit woman, and that is pretty much the only messaging that was happening 20 years ago, in my opinion.

Parker Condit:
6:47

Okay, yep, that's not where I thought you were going to go Interesting though right. I had no idea where you were going to take it. Let's be real. But yeah, no. So I appreciate kind of the backstory on that and also, yeah, fun to. I also didn't know kind of the specifics of the early years of you playing professional soccer, so fun for me as well.

Danielle Pellicano:
7:04

If I could find some photos which are, thank goodness, not on cell phones. If I could find a hard copy for you, I will be sure to send it to you without we could just flash it to one, hold on, it will be outstanding.

Parker Condit:
7:17

I had a few potentials on this one, so I'm actually going to talk about the second one and then I'll kind of wrap up with the one that I think we could probably go back and forth on. So I'm not a woman, so just to get that out of the way for the question. But to answer, one of the biggest I would say one of the biggest disservices to women was the Women's Health Initiative and sort of the reporting that came out around that, around hormone replacement therapy in the early 2000s. So the report came out and it was a poor interpretation of the data and then an even worse communication of that interpretation of data. So basically, hormone replacement therapy was halted overnight for basically the entire country with the concern that estrogen was causing breast cancer at alarming rates and it was basically a let's see, it was a poor interpretation of the difference between absolute and relative risk.

Parker Condit:
8:15

And to give people an idea of what that is, let's say if, danielle, you today have a one in 1000 risk of developing breast cancer and then you go on HRT for a year and your risk goes up from one in 1000 to two in 1000, understanding the difference between relative and absolute risk. The relative increase in risk would be 100%. One to two. A 100% increase. The absolute risk is very small because it's only one in 1000 to two in 1000. So when you hear 100% increase in risk for developing breast cancer, that's a scary as shit headline and it wasn't that extreme the data that came out of this. But it was a very poor interpretation and communication of the difference between relative and absolute risk, where the absolute risk of breast cancer did not go up as dramatically as the relative risk would indicate. But relative risk always makes for good headlines and HRT was basically halted overnight.

Parker Condit:
9:17

So I'm not an expert on this, but I did want to give people some resources. So this episode is going to come out on March 25th, which is a Monday. On Wednesday, march 27th, a previous guest, kristen Malin. She was the co-founder of Femme Jeviti. She and two women from a company called Womanness are doing a women's wellness online seminar, so I'll link to that in the show notes. But things they're going to discuss on there are holistic wellness, the pros and cons of HRT, sexual wellness and the challenges of weight gain. So for anyone who's listening and based on my Spotify demographics most listeners, it's like 80% women and between the ages.

Danielle Pellicano:
9:58

Isn't that more percurate? That's fantastic, by the way.

Parker Condit:
10:01

Also between the ages. I'm serious. Well done.

Danielle Pellicano:
10:03

I'm so proud of you.

Parker Condit:
10:05

I think you're a huge driver of that.

Danielle Pellicano:
10:08

Not. After this answer, I think clearly the pendulum is swung back to you.

Parker Condit:
10:14

Anyway, I think that would be a great resource.

Danielle Pellicano:
10:16

I'll link to Kristen.

Parker Condit:
10:17

I'll link to that event and then also another good resource on Instagram is Dr Kelly Casperson have you heard of her.

Danielle Pellicano:
10:24

I have not.

Parker Condit:
10:25

Okay, she's really cool. So she's a neurologist, she talks a lot about HRT, midlife, sex, menopause. She has a great podcast and she also has a TED Talk so I'll link to all of those. So if hormone replacement therapy, menopause, midlife, if any of that stuff is sort of in anyone's concern, those are two really good resources to start. So I can definitely just point you towards those. But I would say hormone replacement therapy under the right supervision of a nurse practitioner or the right type of provider can be very beneficial for a lot of women, and I think a lot of women suffered from the early 2000s all the way up until like really recently, with sort of the stigma or like the poor interpretation of the WHI. So that was what I thought the biggest lie was, or the biggest disservice. The other one that I might want to talk about with you is the idea that lifting weights makes you bulky.

Danielle Pellicano:
11:30

I should probably put myself more in like the general pop trainer category when I answer these questions, but that is so not typically my lane, which you know. That's why and I'm not saying that it's I mean, if our listeners don't kind of get who we are at this point, then they need to start back it up and listen. It's not out of my scope, it's just. I wasn't bombarded with these taglines and theories and thoughts because I was. I'm sorry, I'm just being totally honest. I was always in a very athletic setting, typically with boys, and it wasn't even a conversation like bulky. It wasn't even my genetic makeup to be bulky. I'm going to be honest. I got bulky because I thought you could drink Mickey forties and Iparitos in college, and so be you and you can you're welcome everybody.

Danielle Pellicano:
12:19

I mean I'm about as real as it gets. I'll still throw one down, but let me tell you this is a you come on. I mean I'm being serious, Like that conversation didn't even happen. If anything, it was always about performance based and injury prevention. So as much as I feel like I was in the dark, I also feel as so I was. I almost leapfrogged a lot of conversations because it was just treating me as an athlete and everything I did was performance based and I'm sorry. And even in my household I have only have four. I had four brothers. Like come on everybody.

Parker Condit:
12:50

Like you didn't get a lot of that typical female messaging.

Danielle Pellicano:
12:54

That was largely driven Now to bring it back to. Not all jokes aside, it actually probably it makes a lot of sense to how I was brought up and how I look at things. I I'm not saying I'm sitting here and I don't have, I'm not saying that I didn't care about. What are things that are very concerning for women. Of course, once you hit puberty, once you're in college, like yes, they're real conversations, but when you are, when I got to start my fitness journey and my relationship with, with wellness and health, it was so positive, not because we were avoiding conversation, because I was just looked at as an athlete to perform. So I didn't have body images and I'm just being honest, so it's hard for me to pretend to identify with that. I didn't feel that way. For me, it was like if I could produce on the field, I was super happy. I could eat what I want. I ate what my mom and dad made and we sat there as a family and it was like feast or famine, literally, like I mean good luck getting the last you know bread roll, like you know what I'm saying For me, you know I just I feel very fortunate is the best way of saying it, but I guess I didn't. I wasn't really affected by those things because it wasn't. It just wasn't in my lane. To be fair, like listening to you I love listening to you because you're always well researched. I'm serious, it's, it's like I love it.

Danielle Pellicano:
14:18

For me, I didn't want to manufacture some response. That was just BS, like it wasn't. If anything, I was more like what's the trajectory for women in in sport? And that was very important to me, like I was obsessed with it. So when I actually came to the realization don't make a joke, but like when you're treated like a boy and you're in youth sports and I was already playing co-ed, also Very before its time, but I grew up in a pretty affluent area in New York and it was accepted and everyone knew me and I was a very good athlete. My barometer is so not a good example for most people I was so fortunate I know you're laughing because it's true, right, it didn't hit me. It didn't hit me till I was almost 13. I got to play with boys in sport till I almost made it to high school. That is so abnormal. So for me, yeah, like it's just different.

Parker Condit:
15:07

So I'm not gonna belabor the point. I just do want to highlight a few things around that. I think that's still probably I at least still see it enough on social media around that idea where I think it's still a thing it's probably worth addressing. So I think when women get the idea like a lifting weights are gonna make you bulky, they've probably seen a woman I say that and they probably have an image in their mind of like a woman who does actually look very, very bulky, probably built kind of like me. But understand like that person has been strength training a minimum three times a week at a really high intensity level and hitting really high protein intake levels For probably five plus years. And I say three times a week is a minimum, it's probably closer to five times a week on average and they are Hammering the strength training like nobody act, like nobody accidentally ends up with like big delts and broad traps and you know, really wide-latch, anything like that. Like it doesn't accidentally happen and in fact, like I think once you start strength training, like somewhat seriously you as a woman you end up wishing it was actually easier To put to put on muscle mass because it does take so much time and effort and Protein and the recovery is such a huge aspect of it where it's a very challenging thing to put on muscle mass. But muscle is this metabolic sink for your body where it just makes some of the metabolic processes in your body Just run so much more efficiently.

Parker Condit:
16:39

I'll briefly get into one of the big ones, which is glucose disposal. So when you eat food, a lot of it's broken down into glucose. So a lot of people probably know of blood sugar and that's a common or it's a more popular topic right now because of CGMs are becoming Continuous, glucose monitors becoming more popular. And then you know pre diabetes diabetes is basically just a continuously elevated level of blood glucose. So you you probably needs to be able to dispose of that to some effect. You only have a few ways of doing it. One of them is using it as energy, but you can't use it as energy all the time.

Parker Condit:
17:11

At some point You're gonna need to store it somewhere and you can only do that in two places. One of them is the liver, but your liver is sort of a set Size. Essentially you only have one liver and it's not gonna grow, so you can only store so much in there. The other place you can store is in muscle tissues, stored as glycogen, and luckily you can do two things with strength training. That increases the ability to do that one. You increase the ability to get glucose in, so you get more efficient at sort of drawing glucose into the muscle cell. But then you can also add more muscle tissue which gives you a larger sink to dispose of that glucose.

Parker Condit:
17:46

So even just for the diabetes, pre diabetes, metabolic health reasons, there's our tons of benefits to trying to add muscle mass and doing strength training, not to mention bone health, osteoporosis, like all of that. There there's so many benefits to strength training and I think it's it's really disheartening that this idea still exists and it's a deterrent to women, kind of moving beyond the five pound dumbbells, it's, it's, but you see it all the time where it's like you need to lift my class they go from like fives to tens yeah, why you're such a good coach, oh man.

Parker Condit:
18:29

Yeah, yeah, I'm sure you squash that shit.

Danielle Pellicano:
18:32

Oh, please, it's incredible, it's actually. Yes, it is Again, but you and I talk about this because this is our world. I feel like we are so inundated with the same messaging, the same. It's lift heavy, lots of protein. We're gonna probably say it three more times in this podcast. I guarantee you and I just either our listeners want the answer to change. You know what I mean, because I keep feeling like some of the questions in regards to stuff is still coming right back to that same answer, and and I I think if that was what I was even told younger, I would have been like that's a gift, wait, just eat more protein and lift heavier fantastic. You know what I mean. Like I'm not saying it's that simple, but I do think and I'm gonna speak to the trainers out there listening it's our job to focus on form first. So functional, let's just call it functional fitness. Functional fitness isn't just doing a bunch of weird things in the gym at three planes of motion with light Bells in your hand. It's like no, it's like teaching our clients, our athletes, to move in the best way they can, so then when they do go grab the heavier things, they don't get hurt.

Danielle Pellicano:
19:44

If you ask me, the reason women aren't lifting heavier is 1,000% fear of injury, and we could you and I should just spitball that on another episode one day. But I thought about it because I'm like, why is this still really the root of a lot of the answers? I can understand because I see it and I'm running classes with 40 people in them or zero, and I'm still confident enough to have them go grab something and they question it. They stand there like a stone and Then I'm like, well then, this isn't the class for you and that sounds awful.

Danielle Pellicano:
20:12

But I'm dead serious. I'm like I just, out of principle, can't watch you dead lift 10 pounds in your hand at 28 or 30 years old. It's not gonna happen. So I'm not saying go grab the 50s. However, I easily have women in my class Grabbing 50 pound dumbbells. But their technique has been taught, it's been reinforced and they've been encouraged, and I'm just gonna leave it there, so I will put it back on us as trainers. It's one thing to just say go grab, but their fear isn't cuz they can't do it, it's yeah. I don't even know if I have the foundation to press this or pull this. That's on us.

Parker Condit:
20:47

Yep, okay, that seems like a great place to move on. I agree.

Danielle Pellicano:
20:53

Okay, I'll do like a crazy coach D, then comes a very strict coach D. Oh, you know what I was gonna say. I hope you're like 10000% I love.

Danielle Pellicano:
21:04

I Specifically don't drink coffee before this episode. For you, parker, you're welcome. But I do encourage listeners to. I hope they sometimes watch the the visual. Do you know what I mean? Like our YouTube link. Like I love Spotify, so don't don't not listen to Spotify on the treadmill and do your thing, but you should take the point to like, look at us in a split screen, because I think our like, just our mannerisms are fantastic.

Parker Condit:
21:26

It's. It's a bit of a logistical thing, but I'll just talk through with you here. So I use a distribution platform it's called Buzzsprout where that kind of sends the podcast out to all the all the podcast players and then I upload to YouTube. Separately I can, but Spotify now has an ability to do video as well, so I might just do Spotify separately. Oh, interesting. Just so I can get the video on there as well. So if anyone would be interested in that.

Danielle Pellicano:
21:50

It's a little extra work on my end, but if I know, but you're so handsome, parker, people would be like. Thank you for that tip, danielle.

Parker Condit:
21:57

People are going to watch it. I already look like a crazy person.

Danielle Pellicano:
21:59

So there, you see me enough, but I was like no, I would really appreciate it. People would watch the split screen.

Parker Condit:
22:03

Yeah, okay, all right, so yeah watch on YouTube.

Danielle Pellicano:
22:06

I'm excited for the next question, too, by the way it will get on Spotify soon.

Parker Condit:
22:09

Okay, so number two. This is coming from Anthony ready, I'm ready. All right, I'm thinking about doing my first marathon this year. Where's a good place to start for?

Danielle Pellicano:
22:19

training Anthony Okay.

Parker Condit:
22:24

So this is clearly going to be in your wheelhouse, but I'll just give you the notes that I had on this. I had a three step process. Number one hire Danielle. Step two start running. Step three crush it.

Danielle Pellicano:
22:36

That's pretty much it right this is perfect, nailed the last question and now I'll nail this, and now we'll be back to you. So I thought about this too. Anthony is a perfect example. Anthony is probably early 30s and everyone. He's a big strength guy, he's an alpha coach, he's awesome, he comes to GTX, he's got the sprinter power, body power, mentality. He does high rocks competitively. He's serious about running a marathon. So this was a legit question from him.

Parker Condit:
23:06

That's cool.

Danielle Pellicano:
23:07

It's awesome. I am going to educate our listeners by doing the following Building a training foundation prior to starting any program is crucial. So someone like him, based on where your fitness level is and I mean it as a runner, not how you physically are built Granted the couch to 5K person versus someone who's coming to the gym five times a week and doing a boot camp class or hit. There is a variance there. I get it, but say both of these two examples are like I want to do a marathon. The base foundation does it change the concept? Maybe Anthony has a step ahead of this other person I'm referencing, but I wouldn't be different with either of them. You ideally want to build two components your cardiovascular system and your muscle endurance. A typical marathon training plan is going to be 20 weeks by at least. If you're talking to me whether you're a veteran runner or not, I say 20 weeks is the best about to build up for a marathon. You could probably start at 16 if you're coming off the heels of doing an event and you're an avid runner. I say the base would be like you want to build a house on sand? Okay, you can't just run out onto the sand and start putting up a roof and walls. You need a foundation. That foundation needs to be concrete, and that's a really good example to give, because the concrete in my opinion takes probably two to four weeks, depending on the person. If you're someone who just runs a little bit meaning I do three to four miles, two to three times a week I'm like, okay, you probably can start on a very structured program in two weeks, and that's me being a little generous. Still, if you're someone that's like I walk a lot this is something that's always been on my bucket list your base could be, at a minimum, probably four weeks going into it. And so what I say is a good when you know you're ready to start a program that's very fixed. And why I say that is if you were to hire me, for example, I'm not just like speed work, tempo long. Speed work, tempo long, but I still very much adhere to that type of concept.

Danielle Pellicano:
25:18

Most of us endurance coaches do. We might add in more volume, meaning overall duration of running, based on the person and their goal, but those speed works and tempos are very demanding on your body. So the problem is it's not even that you're. Maybe your cardiovascular system can't maintain it, you will get injured because your structure, your skeletal structure, hasn't been probed correctly to even start. If that makes sense, so typically we over terrain, our people, if that makes sense, so we start them.

Danielle Pellicano:
25:48

It doesn't matter if you take the intensity as low as you want. The overall volume is what ends up kind of being the killer for it. If that makes sense and I'm not trying to deter people If anything, I'm educating you on how to be successful going into it. So what I always say is if you are ready to do, when you are ready to start a marathon program, you have done half the distance in a long run. So, or roughly so if you are marathoning, I would say you're looking at truly almost a half marathon distance. If you're half marathon or you're looking at six to seven miles, you can run that distance and two days later still not feel any aches and pains. Then you know your body's like foundationally ready to now be on a very specific marathon program.

Parker Condit:
26:33

So to dive into specifics, yeah, on a 20 week program, mm-hmm, like. So you're probably going to have a long run on the weekends, just to give people an idea, who maybe haven't ever done a running program before. Because you're saying, oh, you need a foundation. I'd love to get concrete about that. How long is that first long run going to be?

Danielle Pellicano:
26:50

For the fact, oh for when you're in the program.

Parker Condit:
26:53

Yep 10 miles minimum. Right, exactly so. I think a lot of people think like, oh, the ramp can be somewhat gentle. It's like if you haven't really run, going out and banging out a 10-miler on your first long run on the weekend, that's long.

Danielle Pellicano:
27:06

Well, the problem is that's why I think, statistically, people training for marathons usually 40% get injured 40. It's high. 70% of that 40 is overuse. It's not because they can't do it, it's because the buildup was too much, it was too advanced. And here's the thing. I like to think my success rate's quite high and it really is amongst my coaching for the past 20 years. But everyone's different. It requires a lot of communication and honesty from your athlete to you. Do you know what I mean? It also say because this is a real case I sometimes get asked to prep someone for a marathon and I'm already under the 16-week window, don't know who they are and this has happened to me a lot because I have a reputation of like.

Danielle Pellicano:
27:51

But you're such a good coach, I am a good coach and I will say yes to those people. But now I have to really be careful on how I go about. It's not a cut and paste model, so I'm not like, oh, we'll just take out four weeks and insert this for Parker, I will insert it. And now here I am editing it and taking down mostly intensity. If anything, the intensity will drop more than it should. Right to prep someone, because most of my people that hire me also have a very specific time as well. So now we're getting off course, because Anthony would be a guy who's like I just want to finish, and I want to finish like with my arms up and fist pumping and happy, which is actually a very that is a really good sign of a good coach, in my opinion.

Parker Condit:
28:32

Not crawling over the line.

Danielle Pellicano:
28:34

And I say this to people I'm like, please don't be that person or do me a favor, like take my jersey off before you get there Kidding, but kind of seriously.

Danielle Pellicano:
28:43

But you know, yeah, you know, because then it's the brand, yes, it is the brand exactly. Crawl to the finish. No, but the overuse thing, all of us coaches, that is where we are under a, a heated lamp the whole time. I'm dead serious, like I feel it. I'm always like, yeah, it's a. It's one of those where it requires a lot of communication and it requires a lot of due diligence on the runner to do the work. So I could go forever on this. I just say it's the rule of thirds. Once you can run approximately I'm sorry, not even half a third of the distance you're trying to do, you're ready, meaning your foundation is built. That made more sense. So I reframe that, sorry. So eight to nine miles, because that made sense. Eight to nine miles, body doesn't hurt. You're pretty much ready to start a 20 week program for Marathon. Four to five you're good for a half.

Parker Condit:
29:35

Okay, do you ever use a Q2 chronic workload or do you kind of use trainer eyes and I am all training Software? I love it.

Danielle Pellicano:
29:44

Yeah, that's true, that's right and I will not train people unless they have a garment, like unless you're all in on that level, because then you're all the metrics are there. You're not trying to go based off of perceived exertion and, again, I'm not deterring people but if you're going to the level that I am, I get hired at this point for like Boston qualifiers and 50ks and big things now. So it requires me seeing, like what is really the training stress on this person.

Parker Condit:
30:09

Yep, do you want me to talk about a huge chronic workload? Okay, so just to give people because you were talking about overuse and there's it's like how do you know how much you can progress Safely? So this is studied a lot in Sport science, mostly for professional athletes, because you need to keep them sort of progressing from a performance standpoint, but not to a point where they're going to end up with those overuse injuries. There's very advanced ways to calculate this, but I'll use like a very rudimentary example where you're looking at Chronic workload is going to be the average workload over the past four weeks and I'll give examples of this. And then your acute workload is basically what you've done for this past week.

Parker Condit:
30:51

And again, this is just one of the ways to calculate this. So let's say you've been running 10 miles a week for the past, for the past four weeks. So 10 miles week one, 10 miles week two, 10 miles week three, 10 miles week four. You divide that, but you added all up 40 miles. Divided by four, your chronic workload average is 10 miles per week. If you then start a training program which is as you're describing, week one is probably going to be 20 25 miles total volume.

Danielle Pellicano:
31:26

Okay, yeah, I mean.

Parker Condit:
31:28

Yeah, that's accurate.

Danielle Pellicano:
31:29

I would say 20, let's go 25. I do think that's accurate 25.

Parker Condit:
31:32

Okay, so then you're for week one. Your acute workload is gonna be 25 miles. So take, take your chronic workload average, which is 10 miles per week, and what you're putting on into your acute workload is 250 percent of your chronic. So that's way over what you want it to be. There's huge injury risk there. The sweet spot is between 130 and 140 percent. Even 140 percent is really pushing it. So if you are averaging 10 miles a week to stay within this acute or chronic workload sort of performance, but still safe zone, you'd be going to 13 to 14 miles per week. So if you're thinking about starting a program that's going to be ramping up to in week one, 20 to 25 miles, you want to be pretty close to that, you know, leading up to it. So just so people have context around why some of these overuse injuries occur, if you're like, oh, but I've been running a few days a week, you know, you know you do a five mile run of the week.

Danielle Pellicano:
32:32

I Love running. I feel bad because I feel like it into this conversation will intimidate the novice who's like I want to get into marathoning. If anything, the takeaway is you need to take it seriously so you have a successful finish. That is always my thing and I do train novice and then I birthed them into becoming like just Addicted to the sport, which is fabulous. And then the next conversation is not to get them to dose be a singular athlete, right, but it's you have to do the work leading up to it and it's a month is nothing, but it can't just be I go to hit classes and whatnot.

Danielle Pellicano:
33:03

No, there's a methodical way about that. But the muscular part I actually think needs to be a big focus. Like you need to be strength training at least two to three days a month, a week. And this isn't like our earlier question and conversation. That can be more endurance space where you're just doing weighted lunges, you're working in three planes of motion, you're doing push-ups, you're doing chest press, like you're just building a Stronger foundation, because running just to pleats you, it just does. It eats at your muscle. It's one of those things where I hammer it so early in people's programming because it becomes something that you have to start taking away, because the volume of running becomes so high that now you're just doing like risk management with them come week, I would say even like week 12 and on. So those things are important, but I actually look forward to that like why wouldn't you want to start something like that, going in as fresh and ready as you can be?

Parker Condit:
33:52

Yep, okay, so we had you had a much more specific answer, but the point is you really need to train before you start training. Yes okay, anthony, great question.

Danielle Pellicano:
34:02

I love that question.

Parker Condit:
34:03

All right, and then?

Danielle Pellicano:
34:04

I think I'm pivoting while you talk about the next question.

Parker Condit:
34:10

So this is gonna be coming from Alex, and I think a lot of what you were just talking about is actually gonna lead right into this answer as well, or this question oh, I love it. And a question from Alex.

Danielle Pellicano:
34:21

Do I make progress towards Injury prevention and resilience?

Parker Condit:
34:27

So I mean you were kind of already just talking about that. We've been kind of dancing around this the whole time, where I think resiliency is a more robust term and one that I prefer just for the general public as well. But can you just give background as to who Alex is, just so we can answer his question specifically?

Danielle Pellicano:
34:45

Alex, mid 30s, I'm guessing their ages. This is why I hope they listen and be like coach D, 24, now Definitely in his 30s, because he's so mature and awesome. How about that? He also is coming and doing Leadville half with Parker and I. By the way, alex is a you could already tell he's been an athlete his whole life, so his question is obviously very probably pertinent to himself, where he's been sidelined with a hip flexor issue.

Danielle Pellicano:
35:15

You know he works hard, he runs a ton, he's very fast, he's very fit, but, as I took him as my example, it's not as though the stages change, like I think there are nine habits to implement to keep Injury prevention at bay and to build, as we say, resiliency. And Resiliency is like your the ability to recover quickly, right, to be able to almost buffer it right. That makes you resilient, but that's not to make you also feel like you know no pain, no gain. Push through things like that. What is what? What seems to be such a simple thing, I realize is still the Achilles heel of most of the people I watch and train, because it's another thing to do in addition to the sport. So say like, in addition to the workout, mm-hmm, the warm-up. No, I'm not even joking like it's, it's so important and I I would be curious just to like Do a survey on how many people really do the warm-up I give them. I'm just being dead serious because you could still just go and check your clients.

Danielle Pellicano:
36:20

Yes, yeah, and now I've even simplified it to five minutes because I'm like something is better than nothing. Right, like Like I was training a woman yesterday virtually, who's a ridiculously gifted runner, 30 maybe 25 plus, marathoner, but but I remember because I was making her do stuff and she's like you really do this every time before you run, and with I'd even hesitate. I'm like yes, and I'm like because it's a signal back to you on what is tight, what seems to need a more attention. Do you know what I mean? Like I'm not saying you just go and you skip down and back and you do your same same. But there's like probably five things that I do Prior to any where I'm just gonna bring it to running. But even if I was just to go do a strength workout, there are like five movements that I do for myself that I know.

Danielle Pellicano:
37:15

How do my hip flexors feel? Do I have extension? Am I gonna have good flexion here? It's how, how are my calves? How is my ankle mobility? If those things are even remotely shortened or very tight, you are playing with fire as far as running goes, especially if you're in your 40s. I'm just being honest, like you're playing with fire and then what happens is you become accustomed to feeling like, well, this is just my age and I'm supposed to feel tight and this is a little uncomfortable. Well, all it's gonna do is reinforce poor mechanics. So it goes back to Patterns and muscle memory. So when you start just kind of ignoring what's not yet a chronic injury, it's like your body's always gonna talk to you. You. You cut me off any time because I have many more points, by the way.

Parker Condit:
38:00

Uh, I'll just hop in and give you an anecdote. So I, you know, I got really into breathing and respiration as like a, as like a training model of understanding like where shoulder limitations are going to come from. It's like, which part of your rib cage can you not properly expand? Things like that?

Danielle Pellicano:
38:15

I adore you and I I love. This is how you're starting. Go, continue.

Parker Condit:
38:18

I did Uh a lot, a lot of table tests.

Parker Condit:
38:21

You know somebody would come in I'd, I'd test their, you know, internal shoulder rotation, they're they're hip rotation and you know I'd base a warmup um around that.

Parker Condit:
38:30

So I'd have a very accurate understanding of like where, where their limitations are very specific, right. But it was just like going down the nerd rabbit hole and, you know, after maybe like two years of that, I found that the most effective thing was to not even measure them, was just to put them on an air bike for five minutes and it kind of cleared up all of their limitations anyway. So the point is like, if you just get people properly warmed up and for something like running or even just a general strength training um session, just doing something that's reciprocal, so opposite arm and like moving at the same time running air bike um, things like that, it just it fixes a lot of problems. So yeah, you can have the most nuanced understanding of sort of uh range of motion issues and things like that and, without having to know the solutions, you can kind of just just get your heart rate up, sweat a little bit and do something reciprocal.

Danielle Pellicano:
39:25

Yes.

Parker Condit:
39:26

Um and it. It resolves so many of those limitations. So just kind of to your point, it's like, yeah, the warm-ups are really important. It just fixes a lot of stuff.

Danielle Pellicano:
39:36

But your warm-up can't be just. It still needs to be a little specific, like your answer. That was very specific. Mine people have worked with me enough to know like I I have a style. Let's call it that right. I just do and it's worked in it.

Danielle Pellicano:
39:50

I get people moving in different things and I hope, like I do things repeatedly, so that maybe there's always a nugget you take with you, cause I'm always like a lot of things I just reintroduced because why would I change something that I know works right? Um, but I also look at it and I'm like I have to always take my answers more or not to general pop, but more to just the athlete and I call athletes people that are coming to my classes. Like those workouts are hard. You're doing half the like today's workout. Half of that hour is on the treadmill doing zone four that's borderline sprinting for them, then taking them down to pretty much a walk, having them do that repeatedly, then taking them to the floor and having them lift heavy. Like you have to be a pretty confident coach to even want your people to do that. But the queuing matters, the warmup matters. So when I look and I and I see people just going through the motions without connecting why they're doing something, it, it, I. I will stop it and I will address it, cause that kills me and I don't mean to shame someone by doing it. If anything, I hope you almost like check yourself a little. I'm like no, no, this is to save your butt and mine, because you're going to get on that treadmill in four minutes from now and I'm going to ask, like the highest effort from you and if you're soats wound up in tight, I wouldn't even like an Achilles. Anything is going to curb you for a year. And again, I'm not making this podcast to be all fear based. That's not it at all. If anything, our messaging is trying to be very direct so that you take it seriously, because the questions again aren't changing. But you need to change.

Danielle Pellicano:
41:15

Habit is habit and I think that answers that question for me with injury prevention. I'm like what is your habit? And they'll be like what do you mean? I'm like walk me through, like what's your habits when you come here? They should be pretty routine the exercise, the workout of the day. That's going to be a variable that changes.

Danielle Pellicano:
41:33

But how you approach that, that needs to be. You have to be so disciplined, so like when I go through my list, I'm like proper warm up, cool down, check, listening to your body, meaning like the couch stretch. If I go into a couch stretch, I could barely get into that. Lunch I'm going to spend pretty much my warm up only on strength or lengthening my quads and working on my hip mobility done. I'll kind of skip over some of the other stuff because I also don't want you spending more than 10 or 15 minutes doing something Right. But if you could barely get into that and your workout's going to go be running again like you've already limited your stride, right, so your turnover is going to be not very good. You're going to overcompensate somehow, and so all you're doing is reinforcing bad habits, which is then my next thing proper technique. I know you're laughing, but like people are going to be like she's crazy. I'm never hiring this woman. She's very intense.

Danielle Pellicano:
42:18

She is, but I'm 44 and I move extremely well yeah.

Parker Condit:
42:24

That doesn't just happen, yeah.

Danielle Pellicano:
42:26

It doesn't just happen. I feel grateful, but it's because I've done the work. I still do the work. Rest of recovery.

Parker Condit:
42:32

Boom.

Danielle Pellicano:
42:33

Your biggest injury. Prevention is getting enough sleep and actually listening and not overdoing it, meaning you legitimately have rest days. You don't necessarily take them because you feel you need it. You need it. It's kind of strategically worked in and that I'm sure a lot of people will raise the brown. That's a completely argumentative. I get it. But for me again, being an insurance coach, I plug my people's recovery. I give them the autonomy to insert rest when they feel they need it and I'm like I can only do what I could do. I don't see you every day, but if what I'm giving you like.

Danielle Pellicano:
43:03

You're just having a bad week. You didn't sleep well, your kids were up all night, you slept four hours and yet your next workout is 15 mile run. These are very realistic things. And oh and you work 10 hours. I'll probably be like maybe we cut that in half. Sorry, you still there. Yep, you know what I mean. Maybe you cut that workout in half or you actually take a full rest day. But that's where you just become very smart in sport and in training.

Parker Condit:
43:27

The last thing I'll say on warm ups, just to give people a framework generally the more intense the workout, the longer the warm needs to be. The less intense the workout, the shorter the warm can be. So, like you said, if you're starting off on the treadmill, as maybe you do in these classes, and you're almost going into a sprint, if you're like zone four, that's pretty intense. So, yeah, take the warm up seriously. And if you're in a class where the warm up isn't built in seriously enough, you should get there early and, like, make sure you're getting yourself ready for the warm up. If the warm up isn't going to be adequately built into that workout, you're going to love this and this is because why wouldn't I say it?

Danielle Pellicano:
44:01

because a lot of people are going to be listeners from that class. This is why I break protocol and I the protocol a lot of the way the lifetime writes up the GTX and this is not a negative thing. It's a great class. But if it's a 50-50 workout, if you get to the tread, you're supposed to stay on the tread and finish the tread series before you come to the floor. I flip the block always. Do you know what I mean? So say you race to the tread because I love to start great, I'm still going to cut you at five or six minutes and still make you do the floor warm up and then we might switch again and then you can finish the last two blocks on the tread.

Danielle Pellicano:
44:33

But that's me as being a very good coach, because I that just answered that question. Do you know what I mean? It's not me just trying to change it up. To change it up, it's me being like I, in good faith, I could not watch you roll in. You just threw your kids in daycare. You have five bags on your shoulder. You've done nothing. This is over. This is 80% of my clients, oh for sure. Treadmill Okay.

Parker Condit:
44:51

Six minutes, don't two. Okay, we ready.

Danielle Pellicano:
44:53

Okay, Take it to 16%. I mean no.

Parker Condit:
45:00

No.

Danielle Pellicano:
45:00

All right, alex, hopefully that answered your question.

Parker Condit:
45:04

Do you have anything else out on that? No, I think that was great.

Danielle Pellicano:
45:10

I could say gradual progressions and programming all of this, but again my other clients will be like, gradual, you throw this kitchen sink at me. I'm like, yeah, you can handle it. That's probably true, 100% Okay On the floor, episode three.

Parker Condit:
45:23

Yeah it's wrapped up, danielle. Thanks so much, cargory, the best, all right. Thanks everyone for listening. Yeah, and we'll get you the next time around.