The Workout She Actually Shows Up For (EP 139)

[0:14] We are back with another episode of my Unhealthy Podcast, and this is the show where we talk about health, food, fitness, relationships, getting older, and all the things that affect how we feel and how we live.

[0:29] We're not talking miracle cures here, folks. We're not talking ridiculous ideas, just real conversations, interesting people, and practical information to help us make better choices and live a little healthier and a little happier. Thank you.

[0:46] Now, this is going to be hard to describe for those of you that are just listening to the audio podcast, but at some point this will be a video and will show up, probably out there on the YouTube. I'm joined in studio by a guest. She's a local here in Fort Lauderdale. I had her on another one of my shows. We got to talking about health stuff. I don't know how, but Teresa Schwarz is with me and we're going to talk about some interesting things that she does to stay healthy. Teresa, welcome to the show. Thank you for inviting me. I'm glad to be here. Well, thank you for coming in. And just to get people a little background, you live local here. You're a realtor in the area. And somehow we got to talking about age and health. And you told me about something called EMS workouts. And I said, what the heck is that? So let's start there. Tell us what it is and then we'll kind of backtrack.

[1:43] EMS is an electrical muscle stimulation workout.

[1:51] There's two different types of suits you can put on. I can describe those, but I purchased my own suit. It fits to my body. It's got electrodes in the suit, and it's a 20-minute workout with my individual trainer. I never know what the workout is going to be. It doesn't get fatigued or stale. and it's equivalent to 30,000 contractions of your muscle, during a 20-minute workout, which they say is equal to two and a half to three hours in the gym, which I don't have. So that's why I do EMS.

[2:26] Okay. So the first thing that caught my attention is you got to put on a suit. Yeah, it's pretty. My husband says to me, you're going outer space today, huh? You've got your, your outer space suit on. It's, um, it's a top and it's got electrodes in the arms, the chest, the back, um, all throughout. And then you, you have the shorts and it's, I, I use it a few times and then wash it just because I don't want to damage the electrodes. So, um, maybe that's. Oh, so they don't come out. They don't come out. They're a part of the suit. They're in the suit. Oh. And so maybe after four uses, I wash it and hang dry it. But, um, they stay in the suit and then they connect me with a battery pack. The suit has two connectors. They're kind of like you plugging in your iPhone. You're just plugging in this wireless pack to my belt. And then we start the workout. And then she says to me, she starts and she says, okay, I'm going to raise the intensity. Tell me when it's comfortable for you because it can be really shocking and strong.

[3:30] And it goes on I have my setting different than the standard just because I want to get an extra little work out there but I do eight seconds on ten no I'm sorry I do ten seconds on eight seconds off, so ten seconds I'm being zapped as I'm working out with weights or with you know maybe I'm doing push-ups or um and then it's off for a short period of time then it comes back on and then we do three to four reps of each exercise we're doing and we do full body in 20 minutes, wow okay my brain hurts.

[4:08] Just from thinking about putting on a suit and getting zapped let's go back let's talk about, how you even got there to begin with. So when has health always been a part of your life? I was not the kid to do any sports in school. No sports. No sports whatsoever. My husband is a huge sports fanatic and we try to live that South Florida lifestyle of, you know, going to the games and doing different things and you want to look good. You want to feel good. When our kids were smaller 10 years ago, we would go and work out at the gym and spend two or three hours. I just don't have that time in my busy life in my career now so, three years ago I started biking okay so my I stopped the gym didn't like what I saw happening to my body and started biking actually it was longer it was during COVID we started in COVID, and my husband and I would bike 15 20 miles, and I loved it I love the way I feel I love seeing the nature but there's two things there's crazy drivers I mean.

[5:16] I go through subdivisions I don't even go on the major streets and it's just they don't stop at stop signs and it's, you're scared you know sometimes but the other thing is at my age and biking so far I would feel back pain and I would try to adjust my seat and I got a better bike but nothing really alleviated that so then I had to go to physical therapy for that or my ankles hurt it was just, I love biking but I think that my age maybe not that far is probably what I should maybe be doing and that's what brought me to EMS okay.

[5:49] So I've always talked about getting a bike, but my biking would be more leisurely. You sounded like you were doing some intense stuff. It was intense. My husband's intense. It wasn't one of those speed bikes where you had the helmet or anything. I have a helmet. Yeah? Yeah. God forbid I fall. Yeah. I'm very clumsy. So yeah. But in COVID, there was really not much else to do. And that was a fun activity we looked forward to. Once COVID passed, we tried to keep up with it. And once I felt these little aches and pains, I started to like, he would keep on going and I would shrink mine to like eight to 10 mile rides. Okay. But it really depends on the weather too. I can't do that from May to October. I enjoy that November to April. I might start picking it up again, but maybe five to six miles. And it also, the weather, is it raining? Is there, is it too hot? Wind speed. Yeah, I checked the wind speed. We have a peloton at home but i hate using a stationary bike so the peloton is basically to hang clothes on it hang i have my ems suit there that's what i put on wow.

[6:58] But doesn't the peloton have all those videos that you can put up and kind of it does but i don't use those you know who uses those my husband but not on the bike he uses those he puts out mats and he does all the workout exercises, all the strength training. He has all of that at home and he sets it up in our bedroom. I hate that, but he sets it up and puts it away and he does his workout and he's so disciplined. That's not me. I need someone in a place to tell me at my age what to do, how not to injure myself and what I can do in the shortest period of time to get the best result. Wow. And that's EMS for me. Okay.

[7:34] Now I want to get into this little transition. If you were somebody that didn't do sports growing up, what got you to the point now where you wanted to do something like EMS and, to stay in shape i mean where is health on the scale of your life so.

[7:52] Um my cholesterol was going up um i don't want to be on medication um I m getting older things are sagging in places i didn't even know existed, i just want to feel good and look good and i go to that studio and do my 20 minutes and my phone is not in my hand and i mean the phone is with me all the time it's right here. And it's just me time and it's just decompression time. I also do hot yoga once a week, which that's pretty intense for me. Um, it's, uh, everything just comes out of me. Like every bad thing I've, you know, I, I have wine, a little bit of wine every night, or maybe I had French fries the night before. I just feel like hot yoga, everything is just coming out and I feel so good and not just mentally good, but physically good. And I'm seeing the results. So My waist is shrinking. My clothes is getting smaller. I'm getting lots of compliments. And so it feels nice. And I just want to continue doing that. And also, as we age, I want to get stronger. I want to have, you know, stronger ankles and, you know, be physically able to maintain the lifestyle I have and travel and my work and not be health compromised. Right. Now, with the work that you do as a realtor, I would imagine that you're out and active and walking a lot and stuff, but...

[9:14] Were you getting to the point where you felt like that wasn't enough because, don't you get your steps in? No, I don't. I probably only get like 3,000 steps a day with my normal. I do a lot of listings. So I'm not necessarily, you know, stepping around looking at 10 houses a day. Maybe I'm staging that home for the day. So I'm not getting that many steps in. And I feel like I'm sitting more in the car or behind my computer nowadays, prepping for activities for work. So I need the extra. Okay. Yeah, I need the extra movement. All right. I used to have a treadmill. Didn't, my husband was so nice. He bought me the treadmill, never used it. Bought me the Peloton, never use it. Like I just, he needs to stop listening to him, buy me those things and just 20 minute workout twice a week. We're good. You get him to listen to this show. I will share. Stop, stop.

[10:08] So I am going to play a video. So for people that are watching the video at a later date, we'll see exactly what this suit looks like and what you do there. But let me go back to when, how did you first get introduced to EMS? Because I had never heard of EMS. I want to say, I think it was my daughter. She was maybe 21 years old. This was two years ago. And she said, hey, there's a new place, a workout place opening up the street. You know, why don't you check it out? Here's a free trial. And I said, sure, I'll try it. And that was before I had my individual suit. So the first time you go in, you use one of their suits, which is different. Ooh, like bowling shoes. It's kind of yucky, yeah. It's a little cringe, the smell, you know, a little bit. They put it on and I call it the Frankenstein suit. It's not like custom fit like my suit, but it does have the electrodes. And so you get most of the benefits. But I feel like the new suit is like a dry suit. It's a body fitting suit and it's much more snug to me. And I feel like the results are much better for me. All right. And your first initial thoughts walking in?

[11:15] Well, my first initial thoughts, it's cool. It's a nice looking place. I thought it looked very modern and very sleek. And I like the fact that I had a trainer with me the whole 20 minutes guiding me because whenever I worked out with my husband, he's always telling me, no, you're doing that wrong or, you know, don't use your back. So it was nice that I had a trainer, not my husband, telling me how to do the exercises properly. And then I said that this was pretty cool. If I really do get a three hour workout in 20 minutes, heck, I'll do it.

[11:48] It's not cheap. I'm you know it's pretty costly but, it's one of those investments that I'm making in myself for my health for the way I feel for the way that I look and so it's just a commitment that I have made all right now how different is an EMS workout versus going to a gym and doing a regular workout so at the gym, you're sharing equipment with everybody you don't have a private coach necessarily. You don't know. Maybe if I went to the gym, I would work out arms only or back only. This is a full body workout in 20 minutes. At the gym, I felt like I was doing a lot heavier weight. I don't know. I thought I needed to justify the weight somehow. I don't. At EMS, I'm maybe two kettle balls, 18 pounds each. That's probably my max. And I'm seeing great results.

[12:43] I've been I'm going to bring up a video. So you sent me a nice video. I took out just bits and pieces. So I want you to walk us through. Now, this is walking into the place there. So this looks like it's just a regular... Kind of retail shopping center type place yeah it's in Weston this one but they're all over the place um so this is my trainer Barbara you can select four trainers every 30 minute slot they have four stations and.

[13:12] But i prefer her she really knows i like to get to what i wear a wall i didn't wear today but I d like to get to level three and try to get me there through these exercises. And so it looks like just regular dumbbell exercises. Yeah, regular dumbbell. So the suit is zapping me. When you see me working out, the suit is zapping right now. You don't see me freaking out. It's good, right? And I'm holding the weight here. The suit is off right now. And now when I start moving my arms again, the suit turns back on. So it's contracting my muscles against me working out, and it's pulling the muscle to get you a deep look. Interesting. Now, is it motion activated? No, it's her. She's got the iPad in her hands, and it's going automatically to the settings we've set, like turn on for 10 seconds, turn off for 8 seconds. Okay, gotcha. So this was towards the end of the workout. I started with legs, then we went to arms, then we went to abs. This looks like a good ab core workout. Oh, God, yeah. I'm actually getting little cuts in my abs. I didn't know those existed in my body. Okay.

[14:22] Now it looked like you had to stop there and rest. She stopped. She stopped. So it's on now. And zapping my abs, my whole entire body is getting that zap right now. So I'm working out my arms without realizing it. I'm working out my abs. I'm kind of working out my legs a little bit. And the muscle is getting zapping throughout the EMS exercise every time you see me moving. Very interesting. Yeah. We do about three to four reps of each activity. And she switches them. This one's a killer for me. I was going to say, this looks like one of those basketball, you know, exercises. So she makes me do those extra squats in between, those little, you know. Right.

[15:07] So the suit is on now, and now I'm going to tell you when it, there, it turned off. And I hate doing this exercise. It kills me. But I know it's got great benefits. I mean, I've gone from a size 12, 10 to now I'm like a 6, 8 in my clothing. And that's all because of this. 20 minutes a week, twice a week. And now I do some hot yoga thrown in in between once a week. Wow. So looks like, so side lateral basketball moves plus squats and you're being zapped. And I'm being zapped. I think I'm holding, it looks like I'm holding maybe 10 pounds in my hands there. And she sets everything up for you, you know, you're moving to the kettlebell, you're moving to bands. They also have, which I didn't know, which I knew, but I never did it, relax. So in my package, it's eight workout a month, so two a week, and then one 20-minute relax session. So they actually put something on your eyes, which just kind of is heated, and you're sitting there relaxing in a mode where the suit is on for 20 minutes and kind of just like calming your body after your workout. It's pretty cool. Very interesting.

[16:15] You said you've been doing this for about a year and a half. Yep, and I've seen my labs get better. My lab work is improving. I can't say my cholesterol is going down significantly, but for that, I've been just trying to cut out pasta, bread, just things that I, I'm not a doctor, but that I think would contribute to improving my cholesterol possibly. Okay. Where I saw the best results with my cholesterol improving was actually biking. That gave me the best improvement in my bad cholesterol. Again, you're talking to someone who knows nothing other than the dumbed-down words that my doctor gives me. Well, I was going to ask, did they monitor what you were doing? Did they ask, hey, what are you doing? They said, your biking is improving significantly. Your bad cholesterol is going down. And then once I've kind of stopped now biking for the past four or five months, that's kind of creeping up a little bit again. My last labs in July because I'm not doing that kind of exercise. I was going to say, is it the type of cardio? Because biking is much more of a movement-based, constant partying as opposed to this. I believe that's what it is. Okay. Yeah. But I'll go back to biking again. And now that the weather's getting better, I'll do that for the next four to five months.

[17:36] Combined with the EMS and the yoga, I just try to do it 8 a.m., 9 a.m. and get it in before my workday starts. Okay. Now, you said you've been doing it for a year and a half. So now I want to go back. What is the time commitment? Because when we talked about a gym, you're talking, you know, at least a couple of hours if you're going to get a good full workout multiple times a week. What's the commitment for this? Get in my car, drive 20 minutes, 20-minute workout, maybe 22 minutes by the time they set up the equipment and drive back home. So for me, it's an hour commitment, but you'd still need to drive to your gym anyways. But it's so much shorter. The great results. I feel so strong. I feel like my ankles were very weak before I started. I feel so much strength in my ankles now. And I've never felt as good as I feel right now. So I think that's what matters. That's the most important part for me. Do you have goals that you have to set? Do you have, you know, markers that you meet? Yeah.

[18:39] With them, I'm already at their peak, the highest performance, meaning the strongest level because there's different levels when they turn on the intensity. I'm at the highest level. So at this point, I'm just challenging myself that when I go with my whoop on, that I go to level four, three. And sometimes I want to try to get to level four because my normal daily activity is like level zero. So at least that gets my heart pumping and I've got some movement in there and the whoop tracks it all for me. And so I'm just trying to push myself each time I go a little bit further in that level three and maybe I can get to level four. Okay.

[19:22] Have you done something where you've like maybe not gone for a while and then gone back? Do you? I'm scared. You don't rotate? I mean, because I'm thinking that's got to be a. No, I'm scared. The results are so good. I don't want to stop. I'm addicted.

[19:39] When I go on vacation, I will plan maybe two sessions back to back, which I don't love to do because I think your body needs to rest in between. I mean, I am achy after, like I went yesterday. I'm sore today. I'm going to go tomorrow. I need today to recover. So, but if I'm going on vacation and I know I'll be gone for the week, I just try to do two sessions back to back. I don't feel great about it, but at least I don't feel guilty. And this isn't something that you can go on vacation and find an EMS place everywhere, can you? I don't believe so. There are EMS places and this is the new fad. I've seen like the Kardashian people doing the EMS with their suit. That's not why I did it. But I've seen that recently. I'm like, oh, I do that too. But there's studios, but I belong to my studio. So it's not like I was going to an LA fitness and that's nationwide and I can just stop in. No. And I can't do this exercise with this suit at my house because I'm not, I don't have the software to connect. They've got that. I've looked into it and to purchase it for my home, but it was over $20,000. And I said, no, I'm not going to make that investment. If I'm not going to commit to a Peloton, I'm not committing to that. And I need the trainer to push me.

[20:55] I need that person to guide me and not let me quit when I'm complaining because I don't want to, you know, do something. And I complain a lot. And she just keep on going. Let's go. We're almost done. Two more minutes. Let's go. so, interesting my least favorite exercise she makes me do is um mountain climbers i hate doing that yeah it's that's exhausting it is she makes me even without a suit a minute straight and the suit's on off on off and I m just going I m like I m dying here you're killing me she gets me to level three so yeah interesting now the zap itself i didn't ask, does it feel like a shock Does it feel like all-sating stuff? I mean, what is the actual feeling? Have you ever gone to the physical therapist, and I think they call it, they put the electrode on you and they turn it on to help with any type of... No, I have not. So it's an electrode like that in your suit, but not directly on your skin like they wouldn't like for physical therapy. It's a zap, it's a zzzz, and then off. Wow. In the beginning, I got sick the first few times, like literally like, you know.

[22:08] Sick to my stomach because it was so strong and I had to have them reduce it and slowly have built up because it was physically getting me sick. I can't, when I go in the morning, I just have a quick, like a small little bit of a protein shake and I go in, I can't eat anything. I'll get sick. It's just, it's too intense for me. Wow.

[22:30] Uh, any friends that you've talked about this and they're like, oh yeah, we want to try that. And then maybe they did and didn't like it or have you turned on somebody to it? Tons of people. Everybody's curious. Um, my best friend, Monica, um, she travels a lot. She's got a very demanding job and she did it for about a year and she loved it. She loved the results. She loved how strong she was getting. They have, I didn't mention, they have strength training or cardio. I do the strength training. The cardio is just, I watch, it seems a little too intense for my desire. But she did so good. And unfortunately, with her job, she had to stop a few months ago. But I'm trying to get her back in. And everybody that sees me, I haven't seen, oh my God, you've lost so much weight. You look so strong. Here you go. Here's where I go. Give them a try. They give you a free trial class. give it a try. 20 minutes can't hurt. I mean, maybe I don't.

[23:30] Maybe, maybe it doesn't hurt. But the suit itself has got to be an investment as well. I'm assuming you had to get, tailor fitted for that no they come in small medium large or extra-large um, i am a medium and it fits pretty snug i you zipper the arms and um the sides of your of your legs um the suit was about i got it on a special is about 600 but i think online i see it for like 695.

[24:00] Um the classes i mean they might have different specials they're somewhere between 300 to 350 a month that's eight sessions plus your two relax per month. So it's 10 sessions. So if you divide that by 10, it's like 30 something dollars a month per session. I'm sorry. And that to me is equivalent to what I see like a Pilates class nowadays. I had been doing Pilates, but I kind of after a few years plateaued on that. So I haven't plateaued on EMS. I continue to see results. Well, that's why I asked the question earlier, if you ever would have to take a break, because at some point the law of diminishing returns to some degree, or I imagine it looks like you can vary. You vary. Everything's variable. I never know what she's giving me that day. And the best part that for me is that she sees me walk in and I'm a regular person at my set time and she turns on the music that I like and, you know, and they just try to make you feel really special about you working out in your time, you know, there at that moment. So it's fun. Everybody seems really happy all the clients coming in seem really excited really happy i see older people you know retired age coming in i was just going to ask how, long do you think you'll be able to do it oh i don't know but i see this beautiful couple come in right after me they um they come in for their sessions, he can do it together they do it together he's got his own trainer she's got her own he's.

[25:26] He's been there for a while he's just now like developing his skills for push-ups. It's really cute to see, but I mean, that's great that they're doing this. And I see younger couples and it's just really inspiring. Nice. Very nice.

[25:41] Um, sounds interesting. Yeah, try it out. Well, my studio, it's called Body 20. Okay. They're all over the United States, but you can just check out. So it's a franchise. The franchise, yeah. Body 20 is where I go. I had started in Pembroke Pines, but now I've moved to Weston. Not moved, but that's where I enjoy that studio a lot.

[26:03] And I would love to keep doing this for as long as I can. It's a lot of fun. All right. I'm going to have the links in the show notes, folks, for Body 20. I'm also going to have a link for Teresa's main business, lifereality.com. And life is spelled with a Y, not an I. And you can read all about her. And I'll put a link also into the other podcast that I had her on where we talked all about housing in South Florida. Yep. So, Teresa, thank you very much for doing this, especially for coming in studio and teaching us about EMS. Yes, my pleasure. Sure. I'll have to see if any of my listeners have done it and maybe it'd be interesting if they write in and say, oh yeah, I didn't know anybody else did that. Yeah, something pretty cool. Thank you so much for having me here. I appreciate it. All right, folks, that is going to do it. Hopefully on this show, we give you things to think about. Like I said, practical and things that you can do and you don't have to be a super smarty person to study it and learn about it.

[27:07] Just a little pricey, I guess. But if you're going to the gym, if you're spending money out on the weekends, you can spend money on this. So that's going to do it, folks. Thank you for tuning in. We'll be back with more from the Unhealthy Podcast. Follow us in your favorite pod catcher. And until next time, live healthy and be happy.