I've never really enjoyed strength training. For my entire life, cardio has simply been my
thing. So, maybe it's hiking, running, biking - it honestly doesn't matter,
I love doing it but my back health has been in steady decline and cardio has
become increasingly difficult and painful for me and it's forced me to essentially
pull back from doing cardio almost entirely and as a consequence, my body composition
is not where I'm used to having it and definitely not where I want it to be.
So, I actually decided to start strength training but since that's not my thing,
I also decided to enlist the help of a personal trainer and coach to help keep me on track and
achieve my goals, and in today's video, I'm going to take you along for that process. Let's do this!
[Intro]
Today's video is sponsored by CoPilot. Now, they reached out to us directly to
see if we'd be interested in trying out their program and admittedly,
I was hesitant to do so. I've tried strength training many times in the past and I've always
stopped because I just simply prefer to go on a brutal hike or a really long run or something like
that and that's even with me knowing just how beneficial strength training is for the body.
I'm just - I'm a creature of habit and I just fell into the trap of comfort
but the thing is my back just won't allow me to do my normal cardio routine anymore
and the lack of physical activity in my life. I mean, I have literally never been
this inactive in my entire life. It's just been super strange and depressing.
So, I figured it was worth a shot. You know, and plus with CoPilot, I'd have a coach that could
help keep me accountable as well as determine the accuracy of the workout. So, I said yes. The first
thing you do is have an onboarding call with your personal trainer and coach and for me that's Mike.
Now, this first call was pretty much you know, mainly my background in fitness as
well as discussing my goals with fitness moving forward and I was super upfront with
Mike from the beginning in that I just don't really enjoy strength training but what took
me by surprise was his honest response that he's never really enjoyed cardio.
So, there was kind of like this bonding in the sense that we both understood these things are
really good for us but we just simply don't have that enjoyment factor with them but his
approach was simple, you know? You can continue doing cardio, you just need to
add manageable yet challenging strength training workouts to help you reach your fitness goals.
So, Mike then crafted a weekly routine for me based on my current level of fitness as well
as the equipment I had around my house, you know, that's the cool thing about CoPilot is
that they're willing to work with whatever you have at your disposal. I bought a set
of dumbbells years ago but um, they've essentially just been collecting dust,
so it was nice that I could finally put them to you use but even if I didn't have these dumbbells,
Mike would still be able to find a way for me to get a great workout but the
thing that excited me most about that call was that I could still do cardio.
You know, I don't know exactly what I was anticipating but I didn't see cardio being
part of the equation. The thing is that the intensity of that cardio had to be reduced
dramatically due to my back injury. I have what's known as a Bilateral Pars Fracture.
Now, that is a bone break in an area of the vertebrae known as the Pars Interarticularis.
Now, to demonstrate where that's at, let's go ahead and look at the posterior aspect
of Geoffrey's low back. So you can see the spinous processes of L1 through L5,
you can see the upper portion of the sacrum as well as the adjacent iliums. Now,
the pars interarticularis is actually a chunk of bone that connects the articular facet.
So, if you'll notice there's a gap here. This gap or these gaps I should say, are facet joints. So,
this chunk of bone is the inferior articular facet of L4 while this chunk of bone is the
superior articular facet of L5 and they connect here. So, this goes all the way up the spine.
Now, in a pars fracture, it's suspected that occurs in individuals that have a pars defect,
which is a congenital condition where that aspect of the bone is abnormally thin. Again,
this is suspected because we still don't actually understand the actual mechanism but if that's thin
and let's say you then undergo impact training - maybe you're running, you're jumping say like
gymnastics, wrestling fill in the blank, that can break and that's exactly what happened with me.
Now, I don't know exactly when that happened because it's possible for this to break and
you to be relatively asymptomatic for an extended period of time. Now,
I assume it happened during my time in the Marine Corps because being in the military
is a huge indicator for pars fracture but this typically also happens in adolescence.
So, it's possible this happened when I was a teenager and just didn't notice or maybe
it did happen when I was in the Marine Corps or maybe it happened when I was an adult. All I know
is that I started feeling symptoms around 2015 - 2016. And the reason why this is actually so
dangerous - let me kind of show you this. If this breaks, so again, for me it's broken on both sides
and what that means is the entire upper portion of my vertebral column is not really properly
attached to L5 and that makes me susceptible to something known as Spondylolisthesis and that is
a forward translation of the vertebrae in relation to the ones underneath it.
So, you can picture like L4 and then the rest of my entire vertebral column could
slide anteriorly in relation to L5. Now, that's bad because of the spinal cord. Now,
I actually have a thoracic vertebra here and you can see this hole right here,
this is called the Vertebral Foramen and this is where the spinal cord will go through.
Well, if the vertebra translates forward, picture the spinal cord in there,
it moves - it can hit the spinal cord. This can be extraordinarily painful and debilitating and
I have good days and I have bad days, you know. Sometimes I feel normal, like today, right now,
I feel relatively normal. You know, I can't bend over all that well but I'm not in a lot of pain.
Other days I take five steps and I'm basically just wanting to collapse and scream out in pain.
So, you could probably understand why cardio is just not my thing anymore and
why I just - I mean, like if I continue doing cardio the way I had been doing,
it's only a matter of time before I have a much more serious problem on my hand.
So, the cardio that Mike is going to have me do is more like a glorified walk which while that's
definitely not what I want to be doing, trust me I was extremely excited to hear that. So,
I dusted off the old dumbbells and decided to start working out.
Now, I've been doing this for about two months now and I can honestly say that it's fantastic.
You see, the app connects directly to my Apple watch sending information such
as heart rate and movement. So for instance like let's say I was doing a dumbbell curl,
as I'm going through the curl, it'll actually analyze the motion and movement and the app can
then tell me like you need to go higher or you need to go lower and it can then
send that information to Mike so then he can provide suggestions based on what I'm doing.
Now, you don't need to have a smart watch but having one is definitely going to help. There
were times that I actually missed workouts but Mike would then just quickly check in
and even send me additional workout routines that I could do in order to
stay consistent because at the end of the day, consistency is what you're really striving for.
I live in Salt Lake City Utah and right now, we are having one of the snowiest Winters on record.
So, it's actually been almost impossible some days for me to get out and do my cardio. So instead I
stay inside and I just do another simple - maybe it's a stretching routine or something. Again,
it just really is primarily there to help keep me in the proper physical and mental headspace.
Over 75% of CoPilot clients continue to work out after 100 days which makes
CoPilot clients nine times more successful at sticking to their
goals which is extremely impressive and something I now understand firsthand. I
can genuinely say for the first time in my life that I am enjoying strength training.
I mean, I don't enjoy it every time I have to do it, I'm still human but my body is
really starting to understand the value, you know. I'm definitely starting to get stronger
and mentally I'm sharp as attack lately which honestly, that alone makes it worth it to me.
Look, I'll be honest with you - I was skeptical that this was going to work, and not because I
had doubts around the efficacy of strength training. There's mountains of data around
the benefits of strength training for both your physical and mental health. Instead,
I wasn't convinced the CoPilot could help me overcome my own stubbornness when it
comes to my desire to just do things my own way regardless of whatever information may
be out there and I am very comfortable in saying that I was wrong on this one.
CoPilot is the best way to reach your fitness goals. It keeps you accountable without being
judgmental and one of the biggest things for me is that it's not about transformations,
instead it's about taking control and maintaining control over your health. Go ahead and click the
link in the description below and get a free trial with your own expert fitness and health coach.
Now, if you'll excuse me I gotta go do my workout for the day. So, as always,
be sure to like comment subscribe if you feel so inclined and I'll see you in the next video.