Welcome to another installment of the LubDub show (formerly the Run Pub Podcast), brought to you by the Providence Heart to Start Program and the Oregon Brewery Running Series!
The LubDub is a weekly podcast and interactive video show where we talk to experts about running and walking and learn from program champions who provide motivation and inspiration as we embark on this 12-week journey as a community united in becoming our best, healthiest selves.
The Oregon Brewery Running Series hosts family-friendly, 5K fun running and walking events that start and end at some of Oregon’s best breweries. If you’re looking for an un-timed 5K in Portland or around the state, click the link below and join us!
In This Episode
This week, we are joined by Stacy Kostenbauer and Kendra McMillen, the Medford Heart to Start champions, who will be sharing some motivational words and a few thoughts on their own running and walking journey.
Our main speaker for this episode is Maicol Santos, a certified personal trainer here in Portland. Maicol works with the Providence FIT Project. This amazing program offers families a FREE training program focusing on “sustainable lifestyle approaches to nutrition, fitness, and wellness.” Maicol works within a team of certified personal trainers to help lead family-friendly workouts, activities tailored to kids, and also workouts that older kids and parents can do from home.
In this episode, Maicol will talk about the importance of strength training with specific exercises that YOU can do at home, without equipment, no matter your level of experience or excitement about strength training.
Enjoy!
Why you need to consider Strength Training
We’ve stressed the importance of strength training before. Not only can it help improve your performance, but perhaps more importantly, it can:
- help prevent injury
- increase bone density and ligament and joint strength
- give us functional strength for everyday activities, like playing with the kids/grandkids, lifting Christmas decoration boxes into storage, yard work, etc.
- increase physical and mental wellbeing
In this episode, we asked Maicol to dive into some important “why” questions as it relates to strength training. His answers will help you get over whatever mental blocks you may have about incorporating some sort of resistance work into your fitness plan.
- What is Strength Training?
- Why are people often intimidated by strength training?
- Why shouldn’t they be intimidated by strength training?
- Why is strength training important to help us reach our fitness goals?
Strength Activites
The best part of our chat was by far, the at-home exercises he shared with us. Below a brief explanation of what we did, along with the accompanying graphic, but be sure to listen and watch the video to get the most out of this episode.
The way you can get the most out of this workout is to use your name and then match the letters to the corresponding workouts. So for me:
N – Jumping Lunges
A – Jumping Jacks
T – Ski Jumps
H – Squat Jumps
A – Jumping Jacks
N – Jumping Lunges
Set a timer then start with the first letter (in my example, N), do 10 repetitions, then move on to the next (A), and keep going. When you’re done, start back at the beginning and keep going until time runs out.
Alternatively, you can simply go through the word as many times as you want or are able. Experiment with longer or shorter words, or use the names of other people to alternate the different exercises.
The key is to push your body just hard enough where it’s a challenge, but you’re not going beyond what’s safe for your ability.
Here is a demonstration from Maicol if you’d like some inspiration to get going. Remember, don’t compare what you can do with what he’s doing. Feel free to modify these in anyway you need!
Learn more about Maicol’s virtual training community here.
About Maicol Santos
Each week, we are joined by an expert who sheds some light on one aspect of the running and walking journey. Strength training is one of those areas I think we ALL need some help in – I know I sure do!
Maicol Santos is the founder of fitlifetrainers.com, an online community of people dedicated to reaching their fitness goals.
Maicol says he’s about,
“…helping individuals, families, and small or big business employees reach their full potential through fitness and healthy habits. Through my virtual fitness platform, you will receive 24 LIVE sessions with video replay after. Monthly workout plan with guided pictures. Meal guide. A private community of motivated individuals like yourself. Full support from me!”
He also emphasized the importance of remembering why you started doing this in the first place.
“…I think we forget that reason. We forget that feeling. You know, most of my clients, they’re not trying to get fit because of the body. There’s something else and if you can remember the feeling that you had when you started the program when you started to want to run, it’s an emotional state. It’s a very emotional thing. And if you can remember that every single time, the reason why you started it, that’s going to drive you through any kind of workout in anything that you want to accomplish”
About Stacy Kostenbauer and Kendra McMillan,
Kendra McMillen is an exercise physiologist in cardiac rehab for Providence and is the lead for the Medford Heart to Start program where she coordinates everything for the season’s workouts, activities, and the goal event. This would have been her third year with the program.
Kendra told us that her reason for getting involved with Heart to Start was to help encourage her patients to get active. She shared a quote with us from Brian Tracy that I think is especially meaningful as we reach the halfway mark of this program.
“There are no limits to what you can accomplish, except the limits you place on your own thinking.”
Stacy Kostenbauer has been with Providence for six years and works as the senior manager of operations for the specialty care clinics. She serves as the program champion for the Medford Heart to Start group; 2020 was the 4th year for this location and it was interrupted with the COVID shutdowns.
Stacy told us that she continues to be involved with Heart to Start because of the amazing community and camaraderie.
“…what I found so much from Heart to Start is the camaraderie. When [some] participants cross the finish line, they went back and they came back for us because I walked part of it and I ran part of it and I felt like with our Medford team that no one crossed the finish line alone.”
Stacy also encouraged us to find what makes us happy, and then find more ways to do those things.
About Providence Heart to Start
We’re excited to be partnering with our friends from the Providence Heart to Start program to offer you a FREE 12-week running/walking training program! Rather than focusing on pace or ability, Heart to Start encourages taking several small steps (i.e. weekly training) and working toward a remarkable finish (i.e. goal event) where we celebrate each other as a community.
Unlike our previous monthly challenges, this challenge starts Monday, November 16, and ends on Friday, February 5. Set a challenging 12-week mileage goal and work really hard to reach it by the end!
