Ep. 75: How to Create an Exercise Habit with Stephen Salzmann and Anna Topali

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Because of the pandemic, gyms have been closed for months—we’ve had no access to training equipment, go-to yoga studios or favourite spin classes. But now, with gyms and fitness facilities reopening across the country, we have an opportunity. We can get back into our fitness regimens—or start a completely new one. Ahead of the reopening, Stephen Salzmann, Medcan director of fitness, and fitness manager Anna Topali joined Eat Move Think executive producer Christopher Shulgan for a Medcan webinar about turning exercise into a habit that’s a seamless part of your daily lifestyle rather than a chore you force yourself to do. Salzmann and Topali’s expert tips were so great, we decided to turn that chat into this week’s episode.  

LINKS

Watch the full Medcan webinar on creating an exercise habit here. 

Read Salzmann’s recent article on dumbbell workouts here.

Find out more about Medcan’s fitness program, and book a session with a personal trainer here. 

You can also check out this Global News article about how Canadian gyms are preparing to reopen during the pandemic, and this New York Times feature on how to be as safe as possible when you do return.

INSIGHTS 

Don’t expect your body—or mind—to be ready to jump into a full-fledged fitness regimen right away. “Your body has a tremendous ability to adapt, but it wants to avoid change,” says Salzmann. “So to elicit a change—whether it’s a specific body composition or health outcome goals—you have to be constantly progressing.” Start easy, say, by hopping off the subway a couple of stops earlier, and then ramp up gradually. “Give yourself the opportunity to grow into incidental activity and challenge yourself along the way,” he says. [08:17]

If you want to make any kind of progress, you have to figure out if you’re process- or outcome-oriented—basically, what will actually get you to the gym and working out. If you’re outcome-motivated, you’re driven by specific results, like being able to bench press a certain weight. If you’re process-oriented, you’re focused on figuring out the journey. Regardless of which camp you fall under, the trick is making sure you develop goals that are process-driven, which are long-term and achievable. This way, you’ll eventually get results while creating a healthy habit. [10:20]

Creating a relationship with a personal trainer is one way to make yourself accountable to your goals as you form an exercise habit. A trainer can help create a fitness regimen that guides you appropriately from the very beginning, specifying the proper mix of cardio and resistance training, as well as the weight you’re lifting and which specific exercises you’re doing. Finally, the nature of the personal trainer relationship means you need to make a commitment to show up to appointments, which can help get you out on those days where you don’t feel so motivated. [14:38]

You should also avoid starting out with a bunch of goals. Identify one thing you want to do really well, then stick to it. This is a much more effective way to develop lasting habits, argues Topali. “I kind of compare it to multitasking,” she says. “I’m a terrible multitasker—it’s just an excuse to start 27 different things and finish zero.” At the same time, she adds, start with a small, relatively easy goal, like being able to do 25 pushups at once. This way, you get the ball rolling, building your confidence and keep expanding. [19:50] 

So how do we see results? By focusing on behavioural changes instead. “Naturally, we are outcome-focused, because we want new behaviours to deliver new results—you know, if I [meet this] goal, then I’ll be happy,” Topali explains. “The problem is that new goals don’t necessarily deliver new results. You may not get there—and that’s okay, it’s part of the process. You want to elicit new lifestyle changes with habits and rituals that you can incorporate in your day-to-day life and then maintain them.” [21:32]

EPISODE 75: HOW TO CREATE AN EXERCISE HABIT WITH STEPHEN SALZMANN AND ANNA TOPALI FINAL WEB TRANSCRIPT

Christopher Shulgan: Welcome to Eat Move Think episode 75, I'm executive producer Christopher Shulgan. One of the drawbacks of pandemic restrictions was the fact that gyms were closed, as were indoor boutique fitness facilities like yoga studios and spin classes. In Toronto, where we produce this podcast, that means a lot of people took up running or cycling, bought home fitness equipment or conducted virtual training sessions with bodyweight exercises like push ups and pull ups. Others did nothing at all.

[00:00:37.27]

Christopher Shulgan: Now, we have an opportunity. Eat Move Think is all about optimal wellness. We provide the tips, context and information for those looking to live their best, most active and longest life. Physical activity—the move part of our title—is enormously important to promoting optimal wellness. And the fact that indoor fitness facilities are now open in most places across North America makes it easier than it has been for a year to start an exercise habit. So how exactly does one go about doing that? What are the incremental steps that chart a path from inactivity to someone who calls themselves an exerciser?

[00:01:15.29]

Christopher Shulgan: That's what we’re going to explore in today's episode. The conversation that we're running happened in the form of a webinar that we did recently. It features the two people who run fitness for Medcan, which has Canada's largest private indoor personal training facility in downtown Toronto. Stephen Salzmann and Anna Topali and the 31 trainers they manage, have converted thousands of people over the years from inactive to habitual exercisers. In this episode, they share the wisdom they've accrued from all that experience, to provide actionable tips on what works and what doesn't, for those who want to start an exercise habit. Here's our conversation.

[00:01:54.25]

Christopher Shulgan: This is "How to Start An Exercise Routine" with Stephen Salzmann and Anna Topali. Let me introduce Stephen and Anna. So Stephen Salzmann is Medcan's director of fitness. Stephen has more than 10 years of personal training experience, and has served in his current position at Medcan since 2019. Anna Topali is fitness manager at Medcan. She graduated magna cum laude from York University with a degree majoring in kinesiology, and prior to becoming fitness manager, Anna served for 10 years as a fitness consultant and personal trainer at Medcan.

[00:02:28.24]

Christopher Shulgan: We can talk a little bit about this great moment that we're in, and what makes this webinar so timely and why we're so excited to do it and why we're so excited about the topic, I think, of how to start an exercise routine. So excited about it, in fact that we are also recording this as a podcast. So what is it, Stephen Salzmann? What is happening?

[00:02:49.02]

Stephen Salzmann: Well, after seemingly months and months and months, gyms are finally, finally reopening. And we could not be more excited. And if there ever was, as you mentioned, a good time to talk about starting an exercise routine, this is it.

[00:03:04.04]

Christopher Shulgan: That's exactly—and so it's been a while. Stephen and then Anna, why don't you come in and talk about what you have been doing since the facility has been closed?

[00:03:12.18]

Stephen Salzmann: For me, I actually used this as an opportunity to really focus on cardio, and I've really gotten back into running. It's helped me maintain not just my cardiovascular fitness, but also, to the best of my ability, my body composition. I'm just north of the city, so outside of the downtown core. I did have the opportunity to work out in a more traditional gym during off hours, so that kind of helped me make it through this tough time for everybody in the fitness industry. But more recently, it's been the stuff that I've been able to do at home with the limited amount of weights that I have. And like I mentioned, a lot of cardio and a lot of running.

[00:03:49.23]

Christopher Shulgan: Anna, what have you been doing since gyms have been closed?

[00:03:53.20]

Anna Topali: It's given me—honestly, I've always been really regimented with my food anyways, but it's given me a lot of time to experiment a bit more with food. So that's been a big highlight for me. And then also just try out different forms of exercise. So I've taken up running for a bit, I did biking, rollerblading. So it's just the variety has been kind of nice versus the more traditional strength training that I'm kind of used to.

[00:04:16.20]

Christopher Shulgan: One thing that has really been nice in this time is how many people have been out on the running trails or on the biking trails or just out pursuing ActiveTO. It does seem as though many people have switched things up. Rather than just stopping exercising, they've switched things up. However, what we have now is an opportunity to reboot, to reset. You know, if you are getting back into the gym, or if you ever thought about pursuing a resistance training program, this is a good time to do it.

[00:04:45.28]

Christopher Shulgan: So today, we're going to be talking about how to go from being somebody who doesn't exercise to someone who identifies as an exerciser. And the two of you with your experience, can you talk about how many people you've seen make that transition over the years? I mean, that's what you're doing, right? You're converting people from, you know, sedentary people to exercisers.

[00:05:10.21]

Stephen Salzmann: Sure, yeah. It's actually one of the most gratifying things that you can do in the fitness industry as a personal trainer. And it's seeing not just that transformation of body, but transformation of mindset that goes on with many of the clients that we have had the pleasure of interacting with over the years. In my experience as a personal trainer, there have been dozens if not hundreds of people that I've seen that transformation happen with. And then in my capacity on the management side of things, teaching trainers how to motivate, how to get the most out of your clients, out of your patients, and teaching everybody to live to their maximum potential is by extension potentially influencing the lives of thousands of people.

[00:05:57.03]

Christopher Shulgan: Anna, what about you? I mean, do you have any thoughts on the number of people you've seen go through? Don't talk about what these commonalities are, but are there common things in these people who have made the successful transition from sedentary person, by which I mean, you know, inactive person, a person who doesn't really do anything as far as physical activity, to someone who identifies as an exerciser?

[00:06:21.15]

Anna Topali: Absolutely, I mean, I'll say it's how much that exercise expands to the rest of their lives and their clients lives, and how easy, like, day-to-day activities become for them, and for us how we're working on that. So in the sense of, you know, I'll have, like, older clients for example, that weren't able to pick up their grandkids before or play on the floor with them because that would have put them out of commission, put their back out of commission for a week straight. And now through exercise and through familiarity of how to move your body safely. they're on the floor playing with the grandkids, and they're having fun doing it, and their back isn't injured afterwards. So it translates to so many different areas of their lives, our lives.

[00:07:02.02]

Christopher Shulgan: No, fantastic. Stephen, why don't you handle this one? Where do you begin? Somebody who isn't active, what is the first thing that you have to start doing or thinking about? What do you do? What's the first thing?

[00:07:17.24]

Stephen Salzmann: Right, I think that I'm actually going to answer it kind of backwards. I'm going to talk about one of the biggest pitfalls that I often see, and it's that people try to do too much right out of the get go. And it's such a massive change that it's unsustainable. It's such a wild departure from what you're used to in terms of your daily routine, that it's just not sustainable. And usually, you'll see people fall off the bandwagon after the first couple days to the first couple of weeks, or the first couple of months. And the idea is to make exercise part of a routine or ultimately part of your identity, is you want to do something that's progressive, and that is in little bits and chunks that add together to really create a behavioural change that's going to last.

[00:08:05.29]

Christopher Shulgan: To use a cliche, don't bite off more than you can chew. And you start in this incremental fashion. The idea is to take things, you know, to move gradually, basically.

[00:08:18.14]

Stephen Salzmann: Right, absolutely. It's gradual, but what you also want to do is you have to keep in mind that your body has a tremendous ability to adapt, and it wants to avoid change. So to elicit a change, whether it's if you have specific body composition or health outcome goals, to elicit a change, you have to constantly be progressing. So things like walking or biking part of the way to work, getting off one subway stop earlier, walking the dog further—your dog will love it, and it's good for you. Take the stairs instead of the elevator, bike or walk with your kids to school, plan your weekend around being outside, go out of your way to make those things that are unavoidable, that keep you active, and ramp up gradually.

[00:09:05.00]

Stephen Salzmann: And I want to treat those two independently, as two independent thoughts: ramp up and gradually. So that means that they don't have to be huge steps, but that you're regularly making steps that challenge what you're capable of. So something like a 10-minute walk. Is it starting to feel too easy? Make it a 10-minute jog. Or sprint for 100 metres and then walk for 100 metres. Once you're crushing it, you can sprint the entire last block, but give yourself the opportunity to grow into the incidental activity and challenge yourself along the way. And that's really where you're going to start seeing improvement. And one important thing to remember is that if you are completely sedentary, as soon as you start doing something to be active, guess what? Now you're active, and you're no longer sedentary. And then it's just a cascade from there. But that first step is usually the toughest.

[00:09:55.00]

Christopher Shulgan: Yeah, it's interesting, I feel like most people have made that first step. Like, nobody is completely sedentary. Most people are somewhat active, whether they're mowing the lawn, or playing a little bit with their kids or whatever. It's going from getting more serious about it and establishing goals. And so can you talk about this dichotomy that you've identified: the process or outcome motivation?

[00:10:20.26]

Stephen Salzmann: Sure, absolutely. And this is a very core tenant of behavioural psychology and habit improvement or manipulation. And it's this idea of, am I process or outcome goal motivated? So the drive to exercise and get into the gym needs to be intrinsically motivated. So this is you can't be doing it for someone else, or because someone else asked you to or is making you. You want to do it for yourself, and you have your own enthusiasm and motivation to get up and be active. And then what you can do is ask yourself: are my goals process- or outcome-motivated?

[00:11:01.01]

Stephen Salzmann: And I'll break that down. An outcome goal is to be fit for summer weather, to increase the amount of weight that I can bench press by 25 pounds, lower my 5K time, but those are all an outcome that you'd like to see, whereas a process goal, which is something that is going to help you stay with this new habit, and ultimately get to that outcome goal is all about building the good habits and the act of doing the things that are going to get you to your outcome.

[00:11:35.01]

Stephen Salzmann: So on average, it takes about 21 days of repetition for something to become a habit. So make sure your process goals are designed to be achievable long term. So process goals, where the outcome goal may be I want to lose some weight, a process goal would be start your day every day with a protein shake, or prepare for a workout the night before. Sleeping well the night before a workout or making an effort to be physically active—even incidentally—seven days a week. So these are making the things you need to do to achieve your goals the goals themselves. And this is going to help you stick to them, and also help create a much more healthy way of getting to that outcome goal.

[00:12:13.28]

Christopher Shulgan: So the point is to know yourself and what will help you to get into this habit of being an exerciser. So designing process goals, giving yourself the tools to succeed in the long run. But lots of people have goals and don't carry them through. So there's got to be more that we can do. And so that's where this theme of creating accountability comes in. So can we talk about how to incorporate some level of accountability into this process of going from not exerciser to becoming somebody who identifies as someone who exercises?

[00:12:50.29]

Stephen Salzmann: Sure, absolutely. And a great way to do that is with something like a workout class. This is not just you know that you have other people who are there waiting for you to see if you're going to show up or not, but it also creates a sense of community around fitness. And humans are social beings, And we get a sense of pleasure from being able to interact with others. And if it's in an exercise setting, all the better. There's also the maybe more targeted approach of buddying up with someone at the gym. So this can be a friend who goes to the gym along with you. And bringing your friend along can make a workout less intimidating, and foster some friendly, competitive energy.

[00:13:29.11]

Stephen Salzmann: Maybe a little bit more elaborate would be to get into an organized sport. A sport like tennis requires another person to play. Even if you don't feel like playing, you'll at least be motivated not to let down your partner. And then maybe more simply is to find a walking, running, biking group. So friends that will remind you to stay active and encourage you to push your limits can really, really expedite your fitness journey. And it doesn't have to be even necessarily something as formal as a group, it could be even a friend to go running, walking or biking with.

[00:14:00.27]

Christopher Shulgan: You know, there's various stages in your life where you're socializing revolves around going to a pub and getting a pint, but what exercise can do is give you a really positive reason to socialize that doesn't revolve around drinking at a pub, or some of the kind of more destructive things. This is a positive thing that you can create a social group around, which is like the people in your running group or the people on your sports team. It doesn't have to be tennis. Maybe it's soccer, maybe it's rugby, maybe it's Ultimate Frisbee, whatever it is, these are people who you're doing something positive with, which is to exercise. So there is another way to create accountability, and that's through a personal trainer. So can we talk a little bit about that, and how a personal trainer can be a really integral part of the process?

[00:14:49.02]

Stephen Salzmann: Yeah, absolutely. And even prior to getting involved professionally in the fitness industry, this was always something that I appreciated, and why I was potentially drawn to this line of work. And the benefits of a personal trainer, I think now more than ever, prior to being in the industry, I can just articulate maybe a little bit better. And as we talked about, the first one is accountability. Nothing will get you to the gym more than knowing that there's someone there waiting for you, and who has a planned workout ready for you to go. Some people, it's as simple and sterile and rudimentary as they've made the financial commitment to hire a personal trainer, and that's what gets them out of bed to their session.

[00:15:33.04]

Christopher Shulgan: You don't want to waste the money.

[00:15:35.00]

Stephen Salzmann: Exactly. I was trying to be a little bit more eloquent, but you straight out said it. That's exactly it.

[00:15:39.27]

Christopher Shulgan: No, I mean, that's it. I mean, that can be a really powerful motivating factor.

[00:15:43.13]

Stephen Salzmann: Yes, swiping your credit card motivates you to do something, right? At the very least, you want to feel, like you said, you didn't waste your money. So there's many angles that accountability takes. And a good trainer is someone who can motivate you, and who acts kind of like a chameleon, because they understand that different people are going to be motivated in different ways. For some people, if they do too crazy or intense of a workout right off the bat, they know that they're not going to see that client again, and they may have to start with a more gradual approach and build that confidence. Some people don't even want to start this potential work relationship working with a personal trainer, because they feel like they're not fit enough to see a trainer, or they want to work out on their own for a few weeks to get in shape to work with a trainer. Sorry. Go ahead, Chris.

[00:16:30.23]

Christopher Shulgan: Because there is a level of intimidation there, I think to a certain extent, where people are—you talked about, "Oh, I want to get in shape enough to have a trainer." And I don't know, Anna, maybe you want to speak to this a little bit. You know, often Medcan trainers are seeing people right at the beginning. How do you get around this intimidation factor? Or have you seen people get around that intimidation factor? Like, what's worked for them to get around that?

[00:16:57.11]

Anna Topali: That's a good question. I'd say like, the kind of discussion I always have with some of my clients that have made the comment about intimidation is that everyone in there has started at this same point, so everyone can kind of relate with how you're feeling right now.

[00:17:12.07]

Christopher Shulgan: You know, I would kind of say it—like, the people who believe in exercise and who engage in exercise are an open and accommodating group who love to see people who are just starting out. You know, there's nothing more inspiring than seeing somebody on a hot day huffing through, you know, that first couple of kilometres of a run. God that's inspiring. And you know that person is doing something good for themselves. Like, it helps everybody, really.

[00:17:37.19]

Stephen Salzmann: And Chris, I would even go one further and say that maybe half the people who are on the gym floor at any given time are really inspired by other people taking that first step. And the other half of them are lone wolves. They wouldn't know if the Queen of England came on the gym floor and made a scene. They have their blinders on, they're focused on themselves, their session or whatever it is. And like I said, there could be a circus going on in the background and they wouldn't even notice. So the person who notices most is usually yourself.

[00:18:12.02]

Christopher Shulgan: Stephen, why don't you speak about the personalized variation and the right intensity? Can you kind of sum that up?

[00:18:17.26]

Stephen Salzmann: Yeah, absolutely. So planned personalized variation, that's just a fancy way of saying the program that the trainer creates for you. This is a customized exercise regimen that's based on what you can and can't do. And the idea is that a trainer learns what are your strengths and what are your weaknesses. And their job first and foremost is to create a program that's based around your strengths. You can almost think of it like a green light, yellow light, red light for exercise selection. And their job first and foremost is to find a program that'll kick your butt using your green lights and play to your strengths. Then in between sets and over time, they'll use corrective exercise strategies to turn some of those yellow lights and red lights into green lights and unlock more exercises on the gym floor. And then just as importantly, they'll always make sure that you're giving the right amount of intensity.

[00:19:07.27]

Stephen Salzmann: Remember, it's the intensity at which you're doing an exercise that's going to determine the results, specifically when it comes to things like strength, endurance, and in some ways body composition as well. And that's what they take care of. A trainer first and foremost is a programmer as opposed to a weight accountant. They're not just there to count the reps, they're always looking at the big picture, and making sure that every step you take is in the direction of your goal.

[00:19:34.25]

Christopher Shulgan: Practice makes permanent. So this is a principle that has been proven time and time again through the gym. So Anna, you've drawn general principles that have worked time and time again. Can you start to run through those? Let's talk about your first tip.

[00:19:51.03]

Anna Topali: Absolutely. So tip number one I have is pick one thing and do it well, versus trying to change everything at once. So in terms of using a client example, you know, you'll have clients come in with, you know, I want to make my back pain go away, but I also have a wedding coming up, but I also want to lift this much and take up running and do all—so it's just like, I get it. We're excited for exercise, but it's a lot coming in. So you just need to break that down a little bit. So in order to start eliciting these behaviour changes, you should just focus on changing a very small number of habits at the same time. So you want to focus on building one new behaviour into your life at a time, and then once that habit becomes routine, then you move on to the next one. So I kind of compare that to multitasking. I don't know about anyone else, but I'm a terrible multitasker. It's just an excuse to start 27 different things and finish zero. So it's the same kind of idea.

[00:20:49.22]

Anna Topali: So tip number two I'll say is don't set a habit or goal that is too big. And they'll kind of play into one another. So there's a bit of a common theme here. So basically, make it so easy that you can't say no. Because as we all know, the most difficult part of a new habit is just starting it and getting the ball rolling. So one of the solutions for building a new behaviour is to start with a remarkably small habit. So it just has to be non threatening, so basically, if let's say your goal is to do 50 push-ups by whatever date, start with, like, literally two, three, five push ups a day, and then work your way up from that, versus trying to crank out 50 push-ups in one go and then being sore for the next 13 days.

[00:21:32.17]

Anna Topali: Then tip number three, I'd say focus on a new behaviour, so a system. Focus on the behaviour versus the outcome or the goal. So this is kind of like what Stephen was talking about in terms of outcome and process goals. So naturally, we are outcome focused, because we want our new behaviour to deliver new results. We associate, you know, that goal is then I'll be happy type of thing. So for example, we ask how much weight you want to lose, how much less do you want to drink and whatnot. The problem is that with new goals, new goals don't necessarily deliver new results. You may not get there, and that's okay, that's part of the process. You want to elicit new lifestyle changes, and these habits and rituals that you could incorporate in your day-to-day life, and then maintain it or be consistent with it.

[00:22:17.10]

Anna Topali: So to kind of sum that up, rituals are what are going to turn these behaviours into habits, and then you're more likely to stick with them. So a ritual, if you kind of break that down is a highly precise behaviour you do at a specific time, so it becomes more automatic that way, and you no longer really require that conscious effort or intention, you just kind of do it. The same way you incorporate, for example, workouts. It's just part of your schedule now, this is just what you do. You don't need to think about it all as much. So for example, the way I kind of like to sum that up is if you want a new habit, you have to fall in love with a new ritual.

[00:22:51.12]

Anna Topali: Tip number four, this one's a big one as well. So change your environment. You want to build an environment that promotes good habits, you know, in relation to eating. So if your cupboards are full of cookies, you're most likely going to eat cookies. The single biggest change that will make a new habit easier is performing it in an environment that is designed to make the habit succeed. So for example, if you feel—and I always discuss this with my clients, if they feel like they can't shut their world off at the end of the day, in terms of their phones, and just that connectedness to everything all the time, if you're using that phone as an alarm clock, and it's literally right by your bedside all the time, it's really hard to shut that off. So literally tuck the phone in a drawer, put that away, and then just get an old-school alarm clock. And where exercise comes into that is just their energy, because you're getting that restful sleep, and it's just that much easier to get your workout in the next day.

[00:23:44.08]

Anna Topali: And last tip would be to get one percent better each day. So nearly every habit you have today—good or bad—is the result of many small choices you make over time. So it's this repeated pattern of small behaviours that leads to a significant result. So if you just break it down into little things, it's a lot more manageable than staring at a giant goal over a long span of time. That's a bit more overwhelming and harder to stick with.

[00:24:08.03]

Christopher Shulgan: Well, I would love to hear a story, a story of someone who has changed their habits for the better, who has gone through kind of the Medcan fitness program over the last little bit. You know, is there a story that we can talk about that inspires maybe the two of you. or maybe the trainers overall that you've come across?

[00:24:28.28]

Anna Topali: I've had quite a few clients say how much easier virtual is for them to do. So for example, stepping away from their day to do a workout, it's much quicker. It's in and out, there isn't that transition process in terms of walking to the gym, the changing afterwards or showering afterwards. So they're finding they're a lot more consistent with their workouts. And they're seeing actually more results now than they were before just with virtual. So that's been a really good success story.

[00:24:57.20]

Christopher Shulgan: But I mean, that said, it is going to be good to get back into the gym. So can you talk about why the gym, or why what we have, you know? We've talked about why being around other people as they workout rather than in your living room working in front of a screen is so much better. Like, there's an energy to being around other people.

[00:25:18.26]

Stephen Salzmann: Yeah, there's definitely an energy. Unless you are incredibly lucky enough to have a fully-equipped gym in your basement or wherever you were to do your virtual workouts, there's only so much equipment that the average person has in their homes. And I think that trainers and clients alike have found that they're much more creative with a limited set of equipment than they ever thought possible. Some of the exercises and variations that I've done personally with many of my clients are things that I never would have thought of in the past, but necessity is the mother of invention, and we have all kinds of new things that we're trying now. But there's still no substitute for a squat rack, or a cable pulldown machine. There's just certain things that lend themselves to bigger and more elaborate pieces of equipment that usually only a gym can provide.

[00:26:10.24]

Christopher Shulgan: Is there something that the two of you are going to be doing now that gyms are open?

[00:26:15.17]

Stephen Salzmann: Two things. One, I'm going to absolutely still keep up with all of the cardio the late night runs that I've been doing. And then two, it's one of the cases of you don't know what you got 'til it's gone. And I think that being a gym goer and having it be part of my routine and my habit for so long, I guess I took it for granted when it was taken away from me. And so, you know, those first days when we can workout again, in the traditional gym, I'm going to kiss the ground that I walk in on and never take it for granted again and go extra hard.

[00:26:50.00]

Christopher Shulgan: Anna, what about you?

[00:26:53.02]

Stephen Salzmann: Yeah, I would probably agree with Stephen, I love the gym. But I think maybe I'll just take it a little easier on myself in a sense. Like, I used to walk into the gym just, you know, I'm in my zone, and all this time during COVID where my routine was a little out of sorts and, you know, a workout wasn't as structured all the time, nothing happened. I'm fine. So just a little less pressure on myself, and just kind of workout and be more easygoing with it.

[00:27:20.12]

Stephen Salzmann: So we agree, but she has the exact opposite perspective.

[00:27:24.14]

Anna Topali: Do we? Oh, I guess. Yeah.

[00:27:28.11]

Christopher Shulgan: Okay. Anna, thank you. Stephen, thank you so much.

[00:27:31.13]

Stephen Salzmann: My pleasure.

[00:27:31.28]

Christopher Shulgan: See you in the gym.

[00:27:33.11]

Anna Topali: Thanks, everyone.

[00:27:34.02]

Stephen Salzmann: Take care.

[00:27:35.04]

Christopher Shulgan: Bye

[00:27:42.17]

Christopher Shulgan: That was Stephen Salzmann, Medcan director of fitness, and fitness manager Anna Topali in conversation with me, Christopher Shulgan, executive producer of Eat Move Think. We'll post a link to the original webinar at Eatmovethinkpodcast.com, as well as links and a full episode transcript.

[00:27:58.14]

Christopher Shulgan: Eat Move Think is produced by Ghost Bureau. Senior producer is Russell Gragg. Patricia Karounos is associate producer. Social media and strategy support is from Chantel Guertin, Andrew Imecs and Campbell MacKinnon.

[00:28:11.01]

Christopher Shulgan: Remember to rate and subscribe to Eat Move Think on your favourite podcast platform. Follow our host Shaun Francis on Twitter and Instagram @ShaunCFrancis—that's Shaun with a U—and Medcan @Medcanlivewell. We'll be back soon with a new episode examining the latest in health and wellness.

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