Today’s episode is a spitfire edition of audience Q&A. We go all over the place here – losing your butt postpartum, how to maintain muscle and not grow it, choosing online platforms and payment, launching and more.

Let’s begin the Q&A:

How to maintain muscle without growth?

• this is a great question. Because I have discussed on other episodes that muscle mass is the prerequisite for building strength. Muscle is how we express strength, or force. We need muscle in order to do that. So the question remains, can we continue building strength without building significant muscle mass. And more often than not, especially for general population the answer is yes. Strength is a skill. And that’s some thing that’s extremely important to remember. Strength is not just how much muscle mass you have. But your neurological system. Your motor patterns. How well you can perform the actual scale and how much time you’ve spent under a heavy load with that skill. So regardless of building strength or just maintaining strength and maintaining muscle size without growth, pretty simply comes down to not stimulating the muscle so much that it requires an adaptation of hypertrophy. Hypertrophy is Muscle cell, or myocyte growth. We need mechanical tension for sure in order to do that. Other factors like metabolic stress and muscle damage play a role as well. So our goal would be to not have those things happening to an extent that the body grows muscle size. How we manage mechanical tension is keeping the load and overall effort I would say below in RPE of seven or 7 1/2. It’s going to be the marrying and management of load, volume, and effort in order to simply maintain and not put on more size. But also I think that we are acting as though it’s super easy to continue to put on muscle size. Like it’s going to happen without intentional effort. But I don’t think it’s true for most people. Especially if you are not in a caloric surplus and really pushing the protein intake. So from a training standpoint essentially work hard, but not so hard that you were causing growth as an adaptation. Only time will tail, and you can always atrophy muscle by doing less. So no worries there.

What is “launching”?

• this is a very fair question. When I took Marie Forleo’s B school back in 2016, I literally skipped the launching and marketing section because it was so overwhelming to me. I mean I watched all of the trainings but I just didn’t understand how it applied to my business at the time. Launching can be a continuous thing, or a one time thing depending on the business model that you have. But essentially it’s bringing a new product to your audience. That would be a one time situation no matter what. But you can also then do hard open and hard closes, and that is also a launch. So you have a launch period. Which is like an enrollment period. People can only join your program during a set date range. A launch, whether one time or multiple times is when you draw far more attention than usual to the specific program you are launching. It’s gonna apply to one on one services, and membership, a one off program. All of these could be launched to the public, or to a wait list. If you’ve already opened a product to your audience, and it’s ongoing in romance, or a one time purchase, then you likely wouldn’t launch it again. Because it’s forever available to your audience.

Fav self tanner(s)

• for those of you that don’t know, I actually got a tiny area of skin cancer removed back in 2014 or something. Maybe 2016. It was just a very surface level carcinoma. And maybe had some thing to do with my vitiligo because it was not even in a spot that gets sun exposure. But I’m also not a skin cancer expert. Needless to say, I still love my sunbathing, but I use more sun protection and also self tanning in the winter. My two favorite brands are Saint Tropez. And Loving Tan. I get the darkest options in both of those and I much prefer both of their express 2 to 3 hour options. Are use their foaming mousse. And I will give you some tips here but also I suggest watching Whitney Simmons YouTube video. It’s the best one I’ve seen. Dry brush your entire body if you have a dry brush. Shave everything that you want to shave in the shower and be sure to scrub your body really well with some thing that doesn’t leave a residue on your skin. I just use charcoal soap and a loofah. That’s between your toes and fingers, around your ankles, all of the places. And then don’t apply the tanner right out of the shower. Do you want your body temperature to be regulated when you put on the tanner otherwise it will settle into your pores. I put Fre skin cares glow body oil on my hands elbows knees armpits and any dry areas so that the Tanner does not overly absorb into places that I don’t want it to. We don’t want super pigmented hands feet or joints. I normally apply the tanner 45 minutes to an hour after my shower process. But do whatever works for you.

Tool for accepting online payment?

• From a business standpoint, you will probably want a Stripe account. Many platforms use and integrate with Stripe. For instance if you are hosting a Course on Thinkific, you’ll actually set up a Stripe account and get paid through Stripe. So you might as will have the Stripe account. I use a Moonclerk for all third-party payment platforms. Which also integrates with Stripe. Of course you can set up a PayPal as well. Most platforms have pretty similar market standard fees for processing. When I started back in 2014 the fees were like 2%. And they’re up near or past 4% now. Which is ridiculous, but it’s a business write off. Basically make sure that you are not accepting business payments through Venmo. Set up a business PayPal, or get a Stripe account. Or use MoonClerk. All are great options and all of them integrate with other platforms that you might be using.

How to choose online platforms?

• I teach this in module five of FitsPRO foundations when you build out your text stack, but the most important thing in choosing any online platform is to know what you need ahead of time. So before even looking at platforms, make a list of everything you need from a functionality standpoint, and then go to the comparable platforms and choose based on the list of needs, as well as which one functions most intuitively for you. For instants teachable, Thinkific , and kajabi all offer pretty much the same things, but I think if it was most intuitive for me so that’s what I used.

Why did my butt shrink postpartum?

• if I can I am going to find and put in the show notes my friend Joelle‘s post on this. If you’re breastfeeding, I guess the body prioritizes glutealfemoral fat. So it’s pulling from your butt and thighs essentially. Super fascinating. The body may also prioritize putting on weight here during pregnancy for that purpose. Other than the body of prioritizing fat stores from those areas, you likely also have atrophy all over your body from a muscle standpoint. This is very common. You may notice it in some areas versus other areas if you are used to having large amounts of muscle in that area. For me that will definitely be my glutes and my quads. Which I’ve already decreased during pregnancy, and I’m sure will be atrophied after labor.

When to use a lifting belt?

• A weightlifting belt is used to enhance intra-abdominal pressure when bracing. So there is no need to use a weight belt for  moderate load or light load exercises. I cringe every time I see someone wearing a weight belt while doing lat pull downs, or box jumps, or high rep work. I just literally makes no sense. The idea is that the belt is giving your core and breath something to push out against. And then it is providing equal pressure back toward the body. Like I said increasing intra-abdominal pressure. Which we need for moving near or maximal loads. If you are going to use one, that’s when you would use it. When you need to increase intra-abdominal pressure for bracing during a near maximum or maximal lift. From overhead press to squats and deadlifts. Or of course any strongman type movements. One of my favorite things is to see athletes like tia Toomey or this young guy from Brazil lift most amount of weight in Olympic lifts or large compound lifts at the CrossFit games without a belt. It just goes to show the strength and functionality of their core in those movements.

Did you get cold feet in early stages of business?

• YES and no. I say yes because it was very hard and I had thoughts about how appealing a 9-to-5 sounded. But also I didn’t give myself any other option, and far more parts of working at a global jam or for someone else or more unappealing then just figuring out how to make this shit work on my own.

Keep trying shit – entrepreneurship requires you to be resilient, a problem solver and friend to failure. Was this Q&A helpful? Let me know.

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