Episode 438: Tara LaFerrara: Why Quitting Alcohol Is Your Secret Weapon for Better Fitness

Summary

Episode Summary: Episode 438 – Tara LaFerrara: Why Quitting Alcohol Is Your Secret Weapon for Better Fitness

In Episode 438 of the Habits and Hustle podcast, hosts Jennifer Cohen and their co-host delve deep into the transformative power of eliminating alcohol to enhance fitness and overall well-being. Featuring guest Tara LaFerrara, a prominent fitness expert and advocate for a California sober lifestyle, the episode offers insightful discussions on the detrimental effects of alcohol, the significance of mobility in fitness routines, and effective strategies to maintain motivation.

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1. The Detrimental Effects of Alcohol on Fitness

The conversation kicks off with a candid exploration of alcohol's impact on body composition and overall health. Tara LaFerrara passionately asserts, "Alcohol is poison. It's straight up, just shouldn't be drank." (01:03). She emphasizes that alcohol not only contributes empty calories but also negatively affects sleep quality, which is crucial for muscle recovery and overall health. Tara highlights, "One glass of wine will still interrupt your REM sleep. It will still hinder your next day." (03:10), underscoring the immediate and long-term repercussions of even moderate alcohol consumption.

Both hosts echo similar sentiments, agreeing that alcohol is a significant hindrance to achieving optimal fitness goals. They discuss how alcohol consumption leads to bloating, premature aging, and poor skin health. Tara advises listeners to consider reducing or entirely eliminating alcohol to experience substantial improvements in health and fitness.

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2. Mobility: The Cornerstone of Functional Fitness

Transitioning from the drawbacks of alcohol, the discussion shifts to the importance of mobility in fitness routines. Tara elucidates, "Mobility is the ability to move freely within your joints." (05:17), explaining that maintaining joint flexibility is essential for performing everyday tasks with ease and preventing injuries. She details various mobility exercises targeting major joints such as ankles, hips, shoulders, wrists, and the spine.

Highlighting practical exercises, Tara recommends the Passive Squat and Shin Box Switch to enhance hip and ankle mobility. She explains, "You can rock in and out of a passive squat while watching TV or on your phone." (05:56), making mobility routines accessible and easy to incorporate into daily life. Additionally, she introduces the World's Greatest Stretch, a dynamic movement that benefits both hip flexibility and spinal mobility.

The hosts discuss how integrating mobility exercises into regular workouts can significantly improve movement quality and overall physical performance. Tara advocates for dedicating just a few minutes each day to mobility work, stating, "You can do it every day for one to five minutes." (08:00), making it a sustainable habit for long-term benefits.

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3. Sustaining Motivation in Fitness Journeys

Maintaining motivation is a common challenge for many pursuing fitness goals. Tara differentiates between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, noting that while intrinsic motivation stems from internal desires, extrinsic motivation involves external factors. She advises, "Find that little piece of extrinsic motivation to help you get started, and over time, it will become more intrinsic." (09:05).

The hosts concur, reinforcing the idea that relying solely on fleeting motivation is ineffective. They suggest practical strategies such as joining fitness programs, working with a coach, or investing in new workout gear to bolster accountability and commitment. Tara emphasizes the importance of consistency, even on days when motivation wanes, to build enduring fitness habits.

Jennifer Cohen adds, "Don’t do it even when you don’t want to. Think about how you’re going to feel afterwards, not how you feel before." (10:18), encouraging listeners to focus on the positive outcomes of their efforts rather than temporary discomforts.

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4. Key Takeaways and Concluding Insights

The episode wraps up with a recap of the essential points discussed:

• Eliminating Alcohol Enhances Fitness: Reducing or quitting alcohol can lead to significant improvements in body composition, sleep quality, skin health, and overall physical performance.

• Prioritizing Mobility: Incorporating daily mobility exercises can enhance joint flexibility, prevent injuries, and improve functional movement, essential for a sustainable fitness regimen.

• Sustaining Motivation: Utilizing both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators can help maintain consistency and commitment to fitness goals, fostering long-term success.

Tara encourages listeners to take actionable steps towards better health by making informed lifestyle choices, starting with mitigating alcohol consumption and integrating mobility practices into their daily routines.

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Notable Quotes

• "Alcohol is poison. It's straight up, just shouldn't be drank." – Tara LaFerrara (01:03)

• "One glass of wine will still interrupt your REM sleep. It will still hinder your next day." – Tara LaFerrara (03:10)

• "Mobility is the ability to move freely within your joints." – Tara LaFerrara (05:17)

• "Find that little piece of extrinsic motivation to help you get started, and over time, it will become more intrinsic." – Tara LaFerrara (09:05)

• "Don’t do it even when you don’t want to. Think about how you’re going to feel afterwards, not how you feel before." – Jennifer Cohen (10:18)

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Additional Resources

For listeners seeking more fitness advice and resources, Tara LaFerrara can be found across multiple platforms:

• Instagram, YouTube, TikTok: Search for her name, Tara LaFerrara, to access a wealth of fitness tips and workout routines.

• Fitness App - Broads: Tara offers strength and mobility workouts through her app, featuring programs with progressive overload and Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) methodologies.

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This episode of Habits and Hustle provides a comprehensive look into how lifestyle choices, particularly alcohol consumption and mobility practices, play pivotal roles in achieving and maintaining fitness. Tara LaFerrara’s expert insights offer listeners actionable strategies to enhance their health and lead more fulfilling lives.

Transcript

[A]

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it.

[B]

Hey, friends. You're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast, where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. What's your take on intermittent fasting? For.

[A]

I don't have enough information to give my opinion on that. However, I personally am not someone that would do that.

[B]

How about alcohol and body composition?

[A]

I, and this is a hard, unpopular opinion for a lot of people, I'm sure. Alcohol is poison. It's straight up, just shouldn't be drank. I don't drink it at all anymore. It's anti calories. It makes you feel like shit. Speaking of sleep, like it's gonna make you sleep like shit. I work with a lot of women in perimenopause and menopause. It will make your symptoms 100 times worse. Like, that is a proven scientific fact. If you want to feel better and healthier, I would say one of the first things you should do is maybe not even give up, but just lighten how much you are currently drinking.

[B]

Now listen, you're, you're preaching to the converted. I, I, I don't drink at all. To me, it's the most, the biggest waste of calories ever. I'd rather eat than drink any day of the week.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And the, what it does to your skin and to your body is horrendous. It also ages you 20 years.

[A]

I mean. Yeah.

[B]

You know, people I look at who are like 45, who are drinkers versus not. Massive difference. Massive difference. You know, the bloating, the, just in terms of this overall, what, it's just, it's the worst thing you can do. Like, I agree, like smoke a joint instead of, Honestly, then other than, than take it like drinking a glass of wine. I mean, I'm not, I'm not saying do either one, but if you're gonna, if you're gonna pick your poison, I'd rather you pick that. My opinion.

[A]

Yeah. Although I will say as someone that is California sober marijuana is not poison. Alcohol is.

[B]

I was gonna say. Well, I was gonna say that too. I don't think it's poison at all. But it's like how you consume it though, right? Like, if you're, if you're smoking is not so great for you. If you're vaping it, it's not so great for you. If you eat it, I guess it's much better for you. Or take a gummy. That's way better for you.

[A]

Yeah, but then you have to look at, like, sometimes they put flavorings or something in those too. I mean, if you look at the grand scheme of, of what you consume, how can you take out just, like, small things that can make you feel better in general? So for me, my first thing was alcohol. I'm never going to give up a chocolate chip cookie, but I will give up alcohol.

[B]

Oh, my God. I could not agree. By the way, if there's more calories and empty shit in a glass of wine, it's all sugar. You're basically drinking sugar. Yeah. Versus having a chocolate. It's like, so much more satiating. But I guess there are people out there who don't care about food and they like alcohol. Not me. That's not me.

[A]

But, you know, but also it's like, very important to note that, like, there's a lot of people that say, oh, well, I just drink one glass or I just have, like this. What is that? You know, that's not. That's not big of a deal. And it's like, no, you're right. It's not that big of a deal. But that one glass of wine will still interrupt your REM sleep. It will still hinder you the next day. Even if you think it does nothing for you or it actually, like, makes you relax, it actually does the opposite in your brain. So important to know.

[B]

Oh, yeah, I. I think the number one thing people should stop doing if they want to look fit and be fit and be healthy is eliminate alcohol. 100%. Worst thing they can possibly do for them, for their bodies, for their overall, for their skin, for their looks, for everything and their sleep. And also that people don't even realize that, like, you may think that, oh, you know, I'm not sleeping well, but that's what. That you end up eating more because of it. You end up making bad choices because of it. You're not, like, the ripple effect is so terrible. Okay, one more question and then we're going to, like, wrap. Mobility. Let's talk about mobility. How important is mobility in comparison to, let's say, the weight training, the cardio, all these things? Because I think that, like, as we get older, our mobility, our flexibility definitely gets worse.

[A]

100% mobility is in all of my training, and I really just add it within the warmup and actually, like, in the strength programs. So it doesn't necessarily have to be this, like, extra thing, although it can be. Mobility is just the ability to move Freely within your joints. So if we think about strength training is for our muscles, mobility is for our joints. So for example, sitting down on the floor and standing up, putting your arms overhead and not having to arch your back to get your arms there, being able to twist to the side without your lower back hurting. It's just to be able to like move a little bit more freely within your body. This is obviously very important as we age because we want to be able to, if we do fall, get back up on our, on our own, be with our kids on the ground as they, you know, are growing up. Also be able to like take care of our own selves. Like wipe your own ass at the end of the day.

[B]

Right.

[A]

And so as long as you are making sure that you add that within your training in your training session. Sorry.

[B]

What are some good mobility exercises?

[A]

Yeah, so I like to, to look at mobility from a joint by joint perspective. So we think about our major joints that we use on a day to day basis on in a lot of exercises are ankles. Our hips, our shoulders, wrists and spine really I would say are like the biggest ones. So for ankles, that's something that you can do. A passive squat. I'm sure you've heard of it as like a yogi squat. A lot of people in Asia sit in these squats all day long. You'll see babies sit, sit in a squat. So it's just heels and toes out and just sitting down.

[B]

Also guys, you could google it. You can go, you can google what a passive squat is. Yeah. And that's really good for your mobility.

[A]

Yes. So that is hips and ankles, you can kind of do both of those at the same time. You can kind of rock in and out of that. I do it while I'm watching TV or I'm on my phone or something easily while I'm doing something else. Really great one for hips is called a shin box switch. You can look that up, but it's basically 90 degrees on either side and you're just rotating your knees back and forth. So you sit on your butt, your legs are at 90, 90 and you just sh. Shift your knees, but keep your heels and butt on the ground. This is great for internal and external rotation of the hips. So a lot of times we are moving forward. But it's nice to be able to move the hip joint side to side and around. So this is a, a great one for the hips. You can also do what's called the world's greatest stretch or runner's lunge with a little rotation. So you're in a high plank position, your foot's outside of your hand. Bring one foot outside of your hand, and then just kind of rotate your arm up towards the sky. So again, Google world's greatest stretch or runner's lunge reach. So great for hips. Also with that rotation, we're getting into our T spine. A lot of us sit on our phones or sit in a chair all day, and we're rounded forward. We don't have a lot of lateral, like, any spinal flexion, extension and rotation. So anything that has to do with your spine would be really great. I could do it right here while I'm sitting with you, just kind of rotating in my chair. Moving side to side. Shoulders is another really great one. Again with that roundedness of the shoulders. So instead of just pulling the shoulder blades back down and back, we can actually get into the joints by using a broom or a PVC pipe, moving it back behind us and back in front of us. Maybe a band or something like that. So lots of different ways to move around your body, but I think mobility is really. It's about moving freely, but it's also about enjoying the process of finding the way your bodies can and maybe cannot move just yet.

[B]

How often should we be working on mobility?

[A]

You can do it every day for one to five minutes a day. Like I said, you can do it while you're listening to this podcast. You can do it while you're watching tv, waiting for water to boil. I don't know. I can do some wrist rolls right now, like, while I'm just with you right now. Uh, so I would say absolutely every day, if you can. If you remember to do a minute or two, that's awesome. And then also adding it before your workouts will be helpful to make sure that your movements actually feel a lot better too.

[B]

Do you think it makes a difference when we work out? Morning, night, afternoon?

[A]

Depends on the person, as always. For example, if someone is having trouble sleeping, I would not recommend that they work out past, like, 4pm so that is someone that I would be like, all right, let's try and work out in the morning or at lunchtime. For someone like me, I need to work out before 8am because that is the time that I have allotted, and that's where I feel the best. So it really just depends on the person and what works best for them.

[B]

How about motivation? When people aren't motivated? How do you motivate people to actually stick to a plan and kind of be consistent with it?

[A]

Yeah. So when we Think about motivation. We think about intrinsic versus extrinsic. Someone like maybe me or you have a lot of intrinsic motivation because we know how great movement makes us feel. We know we get the endorphins. We know that we can lift heavy and feel really good afterwards. But a lot of people, you know, always are searching for that motivation, but they don't actually have it within them just yet. So they might need some sort of external or extrinsic motivation to get there. So for example, it could be something like you join a program, you work with a coach to get some accountability, you go to classes, you get a new workout outfit. People always are searching for something, but no one's ever motivated all the time. Even though we might both be intrinsically motivated. I sometimes do not want to go to the gym, but I still go because I know that it's going to make the rest of my day feel better. And I know that it, it, it's just like doing a hard thing when you don't want to do it, you're gonna do it anyway. Cause it sucks. But you know, on the other side it's gonna make you feel better. Like finding that little piece of like that extrinsic motivation is, is super helpful for people that are always searching for it. And then once they get to that other side like that three, six month mark, they'll feel it so much more internally as well.

[B]

I agree. I mean, I always say don't do it even when you don't want to. And never rely on motivation as your reason for doing anything. Think about how you're going to feel afterwards, not how you feel before.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And on that note, I might go for my walk because I still, I have to, even though I don't want to. And I'm super not motivated. I know I'll feel really good afterwards.

[A]

100%.

[B]

I love. So thank you so much, Tara for coming on the show. I appreciate it. You've been great and thank you guys. Tara, tell us where people can find more information if they want more fitness advice.

[A]

Yeah, so I'm on Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, all the things as my first and last name. Lots of A's, lots of R's. Tara La Ferreira. I also have a fitness app called Broads where we do strength and mobility workouts. And it's a program you can follow along with progressive overload and rpe.

[B]

Thank you so much. And by the way, I'm wearing this hat not because I don't want to look at you, but I have a terrible rash I got under my eyes, and I don't look at it. Yeah. So I'm not trying to be rude, guys. That's why I'm covering my eyes. Not because I'm hungover, obviously. No, she's not hungover because she does not drink. I do not drink. Exactly. Thank you so much again. I appreciate it.

[A]

Yeah, of course. Thank you.