Three Questions with Meghann Koppele Duffy

Episode 35 - Questioning Your Current Workouts?

• Meghann • Episode 35

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Ever wondered if your workouts are actually doing what you think they’re doing?

In this episode of Three Questions with Meghann Koppele Duffy, I dig into the difference between exercising with intention and just following routines out of habit. From fuzzy goals to shifting hormones to the sneaky ways proprioception lies to us, I share why so many people work hard but don’t get closer to what they want. And yes, I fully admit my own messy, evolving relationship with movement, weight, and motivation along the way.

In This Episode You’ll Hear:

• How vague goals sabotage progress and how smaller, clearer ones change everything

• Why your phase of life (and nervous system) should shape how you train

• How to rethink “should” workouts and build a routine that actually fits your brain and body

Whether you’re an athlete, movement teacher, a new mover, or a seasoned professional, this episode helps you question your routines in a way that leads to better movement, better results, and a better relationship with your body.

Links & Resources For This Episode:
Episode 3 - Your Eyes Do More Than See
Episode 26 - Vision Check: How Your Eyes Shape Movement, Strength, and Awareness
Episode 28 - Weight Loss: What the Billion-Dollar Industry Doesn’t Want You Questioning
Find a Neuro Studio Teacher Near You
Connect with me on Instagram
Connect with me on Threads

Meghann Koppele Duffy: Welcome to Three Questions where critical thinking is king, and my opinions and research are only here to support your learning and deeper understanding. Hey, I'm your host, Meghann, and I'm so honored you clicked on Three Questions today to talk about your workout routine. So let's get right into question one.

What is your workout routine or movement plan? What does it look like? And more importantly. Is it helping you reach your goals? Yeah. I just wanted to jump right into it because sometimes, you know, we get in a routine, we see something, we think we should be doing it or we want to do it, but do we ever ask ourselves, is this even pushing me closer to my goals?

Now, this is something I talk with my clients all the time. I just got off a call with a client who is relearning how to walk again. And she's getting frustrated because she's not reaching her goals. And I'm like, well, that's a pretty big goal. What if we set a smaller goal? And I also said to her, with all due respect, I'd wanna smack me in the face too when I said that.

But it's really critical when we're setting up goals, we set up realistic goals. So if you're thinking, well, my goal is to lose 40 pounds or to build a lot of strength. Eh, come on guys. Little vague, don't you think? What if we set up little smaller goals that can help us get to the bigger goal? So let's ask ourselves the questions.

What do we need to do before we lose 40 pounds? Well, we need to lose five pounds. We need to lose 10 pounds. What do we need to do to walk better? Well, we need to make sure we're moving our hip to its full capacity. Can it fully mobilize? Can it fully stabilize? Or is it being pulled in multiple directions?

These are questions only you can answer. So going back to question one, what is your goal? Can we make it less vague? Can we make it a little bit smaller so we can go step by step so we can actually answer the question? Is your current workout plan even helping you achieve the goal?

Now, this is something I do in all my courses in education. I use what's called a backwards design. So we start with a goal first. And you know what I always realize when I'm teaching shit, did I achieve the goal that I set out to with that lecture? Yes. And maybe my goal was too vague and that's always been my biggest critique with like college courses.

Any like the learning objectives or like our goal for today, these like big vague goals, but what does it actually mean? I call it all word salad. So you know, I just taught a course this past weekend and I was like, you know what? I want them to have a better understanding of the hip. And when I told them this is what I am thinking about with a better understanding of the hip, and we just kind of got into it.

So I made sure that at the end they had a better understanding of the hip. And you might be like, Meghann, where are you going with this? Get to the point. Well think about your goals here. Are you actually setting a goal that you can work backwards from? So if your goal is to lose weight, number one, I did a podcast episode about it.

Check it out. Trust me, it's not gonna be tell you how to lose weight, but it's really gonna help you fill some gaps. Sidebar. But in order to lose weight, it's not just about movement. There's a big lifestyle component. How you're eating, how you're digesting, how your interception and your sensory feedback is helping your brain and body feel safe.

So if you wanna lose weight and you're just doing it by killing yourself in the gym or the Pilates studio, wherever you move, that's not really gonna get you to your goal. So I am gonna really encourage you guys tighten those goals up. Okay. So movement wise, I'll share with you some of my movement goals.

Number one is I use movement in a very different way than I used to when I was younger. In my twenties, I think, I don't think I know. I used it as a punishment for eating bad food for drinking too much. So it was almost like, this is what you have to do because you are bad. I'm putting that in quotes. You know, in your twenties, you're invincible.

In my forties now. I wanna live pain free. I'm not gonna lie, my clients have helped me get there because man, we take movement for granted. And watching people lose it overnight like that and have to regain it back, it just gives me so much respect for what our brain and body does. So like when I see people bragging about their workout that killed them or worked so hard and then they tore a bicep tendon, you're destroying a healthy body.

I'm gonna be judgmental about that, but that's on me. That's not on you. I wanna remind my brain and show my brain what's available every day. So when I'm moving and doing laundry, I'm moving in unique patterns, challenging my brain, bodies, and muscles, right? And if I'm being honest, I also want to maintain this weight.

I don't feel good when I'm five pounds heavier, if I'm being honest. I don't feel good when I'm two pounds heavier. Also, I don't feel great when I'm five pounds lighter. I want to, I always think I'm gonna feel better, but man, sensory wise don't feel good. So my goal is why I do movement is I wanna make sure I have enough muscle to keep my cal caloric expenditure up, right?

To me, building muscle is the key to having an efficient machine. So some of you guys, whether your goal is weight loss or strength, or are doing a lot of cardio. And man, I ran a marathon once and like I remember in school learning like if you run efficiently, you're technically burning around a hundred calories per mile.

So you could tech, you could run a marathon 26.2 miles and not burn a pound of fat. Okay. So I was like, um, it's a lot easier not to eat 500 calories than to burn it. Now that looks like we're going in eating disorder territory, so I'm gonna wheel back from that. What I really mean is I don't like to run.

I don't wanna run. I'm only running if I'm being chased, and frankly, nobody's chasing me. So for me, in order to be able to expend enough calories, so I'm healthy and can eat what I want in moderation, is building muscle. So I lift weights and I do Pilates to make sure that I can mobilize and stabilize in the way that I can lift heavy.

I also lift lightweights because guess what? I have better form when I lift heavyweights. So my hands and body doesn't respond to lightweight, but that's a freaking problem because when I'm walking around all day, my shoulders are all disorganized. When I'm walking, that can lead to injury. So I challenge my brain to respond to lightweight just as well as it responds to heavyweight.

So I am trying to train my body to be resilient, to respond, no matter the situation. So when we have water bottles, I can carry all five in and not ask my husband that I can jump on the counter because I can't reach shit 'cause I'm so damn short. I also want to impress my friend's kids that I can still do the worm.

I want to show my niece and nephew that despite being an old lady, I'm still strong and can move. So yeah, maybe I'm working out to impress kids. Maybe I should revisit my goals. Oh God. But anyway, those are my goals. What are yours? And I want it to be okay. I feel like it's become shameful to like wanna lose weight or to be thin or be a certain weight.

Like your goals are your goals. Right. It's hard for me to admit that I don't feel good when I am at a lighter weight than this. I feel like shit. But it's so funny 'cause everybody will be like, oh my God, you look great. You lost weight. It's such a mind fuck. Right? So I want you to think about your appearance and how you feel and how you present yourself.

Maybe it's less about weight, more about the ability to move and adjust based off whatever, right? I'd love to say I don't care about what I look like, but that would be a freaking lie. Right. If you came near me with a match right now, I would probably just erupt in flames because I have a lot of dry shampoo in my hair.

If I didn't care what I looked like, I would come on here with really greasy hair. So I don't know, maybe me admitting that I care will help you feel comfortable with admitting. I don't know, or maybe you'll judge me. I can't control that. But what I can control is understanding my goals and making sure my movement plan fits that.

Because there's gonna be times when you're like, oh my God, I should do this, I should do that. I should do, stop shoulding yourself. Right? I should be boxing more because I have boxing stuff downstairs and I love it. 'cause I should be burning more calories, but I don't want to. And frankly, when I was boxing, it was aggravating my back because I did not have the shoulder and hip mobility to punch.

The way I wanted, and I've been working on that. So maybe I should start boxing again, but I probably won't. There's that. So now that we know all my goals and have gotten a little bit into my head, get into yours. Simplify your goals, be honest about your goals, and guys, ask yourself if your current workout routine is going to get you to your goals and start with step one.

Moving on to question two, how old are you? What cycle of life are you in? So that's not the question. That's the pre-question. Are you in puberty? Are you prenatal? Are you postnatal? Are you not natal? Meaning didn't have kids? Are you peri- or in the beginning of menopause like I am? Are you in menopause?

Are you out of menopause? Are you like, no, Meghann, I am not gonna go through menopause because I identify as a man. I am a man. Okay, well, what stage are you in? Because I know some men who, they've got their own cycle. Are you a young man where your testosterone is booming? Is your testosterone going down?

Are you struggling? Did you just lose a parent? Are you stressed at your job? Are you in a bad marriage? Are you in a great marriage? All these things matter because my question to you guys is, are you adapting your workout plan based off the stage of your life you're in, because your brain and body are gonna need different things at different stages.

Yeah. I know you don't wanna hear that. I know You wanna kick your ass. I'm still 60 and I'm still gonna do the workouts I did in my twenties. Well, frankly, that's stupid because your proprioception is very different than it was in your twenties. Okay, now I'm going to speak from the female perspective right here, both men and women through puberty, and I'm talking hormonally shift significantly.

Sidebar, why are kids not going through an awkward stage? I'm looking at my niece, who's in middle school. She's like freaking gorgeous. What is that? If you saw my middle school picture, there was like a short haircut. It was kind of a bob. There was sun involved. There was also bangs, and if you look at me, I do not have a bang face.

I have a very small forehead. A forehead, not for bangs. It was not cute. Okay? Very round in the face. I don't know why these kids aren't going through awkward stages. I, I frankly don't think it's fair if I'm being honest, but that's a sidebar. But think about our bodies changing. We're having growth spurts.

Things are growing, hair is growing, things are shifting, breasts are growing, genitals are changing, A lot is going on. Then after you're at the age to have children, your body is changing again. If you are having children, your body is changing. Your body is releasing hormones, so certain things can relax and move.

You are gaining weight in places that you normally don't. I work with a lot of people who've never had to lose or gain weight in their life, and all of a sudden their body is so different and then they are postnatal after those ages, body changes again. And then let's talk about the stages later in life.

So your proprioception changes through life based off hormones, growth, and a lot of different factors. The difference is humans aren't adjusting to that. You think your brain and body are responding in a way that they're not. Okay. I cannot tell you I was working with a client yesterday. I had to videotape her 'cause she didn't believe me that she wasn't moving her foot.

We were trying to get a hip and knee interaction thing where they had to move at the same time. Okay. It was a kind of a knee hypertension drill. I do. And she was literally over moving her knee and then her foot. And I'm like, okay, let's try to move them together. And I touched them and she's like, aren't I doing it?

I was like, no. And I'm like, let me video you. I videoed her. She was shocked and she's like, that is not what I felt. And I was like, I know. Proprioceptions a bitch, isn't it? Because she really felt that she was doing it, but she wasn't. And once she saw that, she kind of had this shift in awareness and realize I've gotta rely on something else.

I also changed the sensory input. So the sensation she was feeling, I put an ankle weight on her. Her pressing on her heel so she could feel whether her heel was moving or not. And by that she was able to create a shift, but it was frustrating as hell. We had to remap her brain so her brain knew where her foot was in relation to her knee.

Let me get a little sciency for a sec. However we move habitually, so in our brain it's everything's next to each other in the brain map. Um, so you know, fingers are next to the hand, the wrist, the elbow, the shoulder. So the feet, the knees, the hips are all next to each other. So say as you start walking, every time you move your foot, you over mobilize your knee a little bit.

Your brain is gonna always map those things together, and we become really efficient at that pattern. So a lot of you guys, whether you're living in pain or wanna change something, if you wanna change a movement, pattern, pattern, you've gotta really hone in and get a change in the pro in your proprioception so that your brain buys in it's, I cannot count on.

All the hands in the world. How many times clients are like, that is so crazy. I would've bet my life I was doing what you were saying. I was like, I know. This is why I have a job. Okay, so don't get frustrated with this. But you really need to ask yourself, are you adapting to the changes in your body?

Maybe you have more scars now they're a disruptor. Maybe you've hurt your foot. That's why in all my intakes, I wanna know every injury you've had, even when you were like a kid. The first injury, I look at your belly button. Okay. I wanna see how it's moving, how it's adjusting. That's kind of the first injury to our body.

That's how we were fed. But it's a disruptor. Sometimes just putting your finger on your belly button when you're doing exercises, your whole movement shifts because your fingers fill the sensory gap that the belly button was disrupting. You know what's so funny is everybody's always pulling in their damn abs, and I use the example, pulling in your abs and doing an exercise is like trying to hold a fart in when you're gonna sneeze.

If you hold a fart in, when you're gonna sneeze, you are gonna have to change your pants. I'll leave it at that. We need our body to respond. So if I'm already pulling in my amps, how can my abs respond efficiently? Okay. But my Pilates teacher tells me to pull in their abs. So you do everything. People tell you since when, start questioning shit.

Why am I doing that? Right? Think you want your body to be responsive, not reactive. Right. It's something I wanted to work on in my personal life too. I do it in my body, but I realized I was very reactive to things. Someone cut me off. I was like, screw you and your whole family. And my husband would be like, yo, chill.

Maybe they're late for work. And I was like, whose side are you on? But he's right. I was like a crazy driver. He is like, was that worth it? I was like, yes, it was. I got in front of one car. I was really reactive for no reason. Right. So it's like. Being more responsive, taking a moment, letting our body respond to what's actually happening really is so great for the nervous system and your goals, because if your body is reacting big to everything, the muscles aren't working efficiently, your body's always gonna be in, in a heightened state.

Your nervous system respond, so sometimes the sympathetic drive is too high and then your parasympathetic has to work harder. So everybody thinks, oh, I've gotta increase my, uh, decrease my sympathetic, increase my parasympathetic. I mean, if you did that, you would be dead, right? We want things to be in balance.

So if you've got shitty digestion, your parasympathetic has to work harder, then your sympathetic's gonna have to work even harder. So you trying to calm your shit down is not gonna help you gotta first fix that digestive stuff. Okay? So. Moral of the story is I want you to ask yourself, what phase of life are you in?

How is your skin feeling? Do you feel it pressing against your clothes? Does it have bad sensation? Our skin is our largest organ. Where are you feeling a lot of pressure in your body when you're doing squats? Do your hands hurt after a workout? Are your eyes connecting? Now, if you're thinking, Meg, this sounds awesome, but how do I learn to do it?

Well reach out. I'll hook you up with one of our neuro studio teachers. We teach these techniques all over the world. You don't have to come to me. I'll hook you up with somebody who can help you reach your goals. Or at least just send me a note. Be like, Hey, these are my goals. I'm not reaching them. Any tips?

Yeah, try this. Okay. What I want you to think about with question two is don't make big changes. Make small changes. Okay. Your brain and body can't integrate big changes fast, right? So maybe just noticing where you're looking when you're lifting. Something that pisses me off is my background's in sport specific training, and we were always taught with squats like, keep your head up, look up.

Um, nobody's got the visual field to do that, so everybody's overextending their cervical spine to keep their head and eyes up. Um, that's not what we're trying to do in a squat. Okay? So in a squat, I cue people first thing to do. Don't drop your head, but just gaze down and move towards it. Everybody's squat immediately gets better.

Why? Because I integrated their visual system with their movement rather than forcing them to look in a place. So if you're looking up and your whole body's going down, unless you have crazy ass eye tracking where your eyes can track up that high as your head goes down. Your eyes are pulling in the opposite direction, and your body is gonna go into a unique pattern that you are not trying to train.

You're not trying to do spinal extension in a squat. You're trying to get deep hip flexion, knee flexion, anal dorsiflexion, and hopefully a stable spine. So if you're moving your cervical spine, it's not gonna be stable. Well, I could argue there's gonna be some lumbar flexion at the end range of a squat, but I don't really feel like having that debate right now.

So to keep shit simple. Start with question one. What are your actual goals? Simplify them. Make them smaller and realize changing the way you look is not gonna change the way you feel, but changing the way you look can help change the way you feel. I am a big proponent of taking it from the way of helping your body move most efficiently.

When it moves efficiently and you can move at joints, you're going to use the muscles better. That's gonna help build muscles, use muscles, burn more calories throughout the day, which will help you get towards your movement or weight loss goal. Okay? As I say to my teachers, even, I don't care how disabled my clients are, nobody wants to look worse naked, right?

Nobody comes to me and they're like, Hey, I'd love to walk better and please make sure I look like shit naked. Okay? I've got clients that have MS but don't wanna talk about it. And they're like, I don't wanna do foot drop exercises. And I'm like, well, how about we do exercises that are gonna make your booty pop, make your glutes look better?

And they're like, yeah, okay. Same thing as foot drop exercises. I'm improving your foot tip connection. Okay. If your booty is not active, that's tell me it's not responding to your feet. And if your booty's too active, like mine, a little too big, that's because my hips are doing more than my feet. Right. So it's all the same thing, just changing the goals, but we've gotta be honest about what those goals are, and we've gotta be honest that maybe what you're doing is actually the opposite of what you need to reach your goals.

I'm not gonna name any names, but she's someone very special in my life. She wanted to lose weight, and she's like, I'm gonna go to the gym, but I am not stopping drinking wine and I'm not changing my diet. And I was like, well, good luck with losing weight because you cannot out train a bad diet. Trust me, I tried in my twenties.

It did not end well. Which brings me to question three. I don't love this question because I feel like it's me, so you hear me out. First is if goals, no, goals do matter. Okay. What do you wish you could change about your routine or mindset? I like that better. What do you wish you could change about your routine or mindset?

So let's do routine first. What do you wish you could change about your routine? Maybe you're like, Meg, the only time I have to work out is in the morning and I freaking hate working out in the morning. That kind of sucks. I get that. But let's figure out how we can incorporate more movement throughout your day.

Okay. Maybe in the morning you just do a few exercises to prime your hips. So when you're walking around, maybe you work in New York City or a place you gotta walk a lot. Every step you take, you're gonna get a gluteal exercise because you know what? 10,000 steps a day, you could be getting 10,000 gluteal presses, which is better than the fricking 30 squats you did at the gym.

Crappy with alpha tip connection. All right, so sometimes our routines are not changeable, especially you guys with kids. I haven't seen my sister sit down in 16 years. Okay. She's always on the move with her kids. Now that can be an excuse or, well, you don't watch TV at night. You don't do this. You don't have any free time.

You do. So she told me once that when Anthony was her son, my nephew Anthony was playing baseball. She walked around the track and I was like, that is so great, Kim. And she's like, I listened to like four of your podcasts. I was like, that is a lot of Meghann in one sitting. She's like, I know, but I wanted to listen to him.

So she utilized her time. She's always on the move and she's like, all right, while I'm here at a baseball game, let me at least walk while I'm there. Okay, so anybody can make an excuse. Listen, I run two business and I'm getting my doctorate. I have a husband and a dog. And parents, you need me. Nieces and nephews, I wanna see.

I can make a million excuses. I don't, some days I don't exercise. But on those days when I'm doing laundry, I do some eye exercises, I do some hip exercises. So when I'm folding laundry, I get more activity. So sometimes we can't change our routine, but if you could change your routine, what would you do?

And let me tell you guys, 10 minutes of good movement is better than nothing. Don't think you need an hour of movement to be efficient if you get nothing from this podcast. Think 10 minutes of good movement is so beneficial to your brain and body and going for a walk. But don't use the walk as a warmup.

Think when you're walking, you're pretty much using every joint in your body. So prior to the walk, give me like three reps of something powerful to get your hips, your feet, your eyes, something active. So that your brain is trying to create new patterns when you're walking. Cool. And then let's talk about mindset.

What do you wish you could change about your mindset? I'll be totally honest. I wish I didn't care about my appearance and weight, but I do. It's not a huge driver to me. It used to be. It's not anymore, but it's still in the back of my mind. Okay. I wish that wasn't the case, but it still is. So what I do. To manage that is move in a way that I feel good and when I'm not feeling great, I get down on the ground and do movement so my brain can feel joint and it's so funny. I always feel better. Okay. What's the mindset shift you'd like to change? Maybe you would like to work out more. You can't get you, you can't get your mind there. I just don't wanna do it.

Well, maybe this will help. I don't love to do cardio, but all my clients would kill to be able to go for a run or for a walk. So me not doing that, I'm disrespecting them. Right. And maybe you're thinking, well, that's kind of a weird reach, but think about it. Yeah. This is hard for me, but it's a lot harder when I lose that ability.

I don't want you guys being 80 and being like, oh my God, I can't move. Start now. Start thinking about these things when you're young and your whole life will be different. So to rehash today's podcast number one. What are your movement goals? Be more specific and ask yourself if your current workout routine is helping you reach those goals.

Or is your current workout routine stressing you out? Injuring you, or making you a crazy person? Because listen, I see a lot of crazy people at the gym. Y'all need to chill. It ain't that deep. Okay, number two. Are you adapting your workouts and your routine based off the phase you're in in your life? That doesn't mean you have to go easy.

I still wanna go hard in the paint. Like if I'm gonna work out, I wanna really challenge myself, right? So I do that, but I do it differently. I, and I focus on how my body is feeling. Not just working on alignment, but okay, what is my body really taking in? Are my eyes inhibiting me? And if I that resonated with you, I did a whole episode on visual stuff.

So listen to that so you can get more ideas and reach out if you need help. Keep in mind, you've gotta be honest about where you are in life. So you can adjust your sensory input, adjust your proprioception, adjust your visual system. Maybe you're wearing glasses now that needs to be incorporated into your workout.

Stop using somebody else's blueprint. Create your own. And question three, which I really think is the most important, but I think it's the hardest to get there, is what do you wish you could change about your routine and your mindset? It and take that wish and make that a goal and figure out a way that you can make it a reality, because we only get one chance at this.

And I would love for everybody to stop destroying their healthy bodies and really embrace what we can do with our body, but still be okay to admit that you've got some aesthetic goals and it's okay. So use that dry shampoo, do a workout that makes you feel like you'll look better naked. But just promise me you'll think about these questions and reach out so I can help you any point along that journey.

Thanks guys. Willie's barking, which means it's time to go and I'll see you next time. 

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