Transcript of Episode 172: Aging Gracefully With Resilience
With Dr. Daniel Pompa, Meredith Dykstra and Kathy Smith
Meredith:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Cellular Healing TV. I’m your host Meredith Dykstra, and this is Episode 172. We have our resident cellular healing specialist, Dr. Dan Pompa, on the line, and today we welcome very special guest, fitness expert, Kathy Smith. Super excited to have you on the show, Kathy. Before we dig in, let me tell you a little bit more about Kathy.
Kathy Smith, New York Times best-selling author, has stood at the forefront of the fitness and health industry for over 30 years. They call Kathy “A Fitness Revolutionary” for a reason. From her iconic library of exercise videos to her current breakthrough healthy living app and highly ranked podcast, On Health: The Art of Living, she’s always on the cutting edge of fitness trends. Kathy developed a 90-day weight loss app, Re-Shape. This wellness program offers downloadable workouts, food plans, shopping lists, hundreds of recipes, and is topped off with BrainTap, a brain-based approach to enhancing focus and relaxation. She sold more than 20 million exercise DVDs and has been featured on countless media outlets including The Today Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, The View, and Good Morning America.
As a sought out educational and motivational speaker, Smith has been a keynote speaker for organizations that include the American Heart Association, American Diabetes Association, Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Edward Jones’ annual Managing Partners Conference, and American College of Sports Medicine. “Ageless Energy,” Smith’s latest TV special, aired nationally on PBS. With her “Four Pillars of Fitness Success at Any Age,” she inspired viewers to shift their perspectives on fitness with a series of tools for boosting energy, stamina, strength, and vitality. She’s the mother of two daughters, Kate and Perrie, and when she’s not on the road, Kathy can be found usually hiking or skiing in the mountains of Park City, Utah. Welcome to Cellular Healing TV, Kathy. I’m so excited -inaudible-.
Kathy:
It’s so good to be here. Thanks for the intro.
Dr. Pompa:
Nice intro.
Kathy:
Thank you so much.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. This could be my most favorite guest ever because I love Kathy. We’ve been on many hikes together, done many dinners, right, with Jeff Hayes, all of us, right? We hang out.
Kathy:
I have to go hike after we drink that wine, so we have to burn off those drink calories.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s right. No. I absolutely love and I have so much respect for Kathy. I want to start by embarrassing myself, which I do on this show all the time. Meredith will tell you that. One time, Kathy and I were on stage together.
Kathy, can you hear me? You’re frozen right now. Did we lose her? Darn, lost her. Her connection was a little in and out, but Mark can edit this part away. Here she is. She came back.
Meredith:
All right, she’s back on.
Dr. Pompa:
Oh, you’re back. We lost you for a second.
Kathy:
Yeah.
Dr. Pompa:
I don’t know where. Anyways, I’m going to start by embarrassing myself. Okay? I said Meredith will tell you I do that on the show a lot. Anyways, I was on stage with—I don’t remember. I think it was at a chiropractic seminar, Kathy.
Anyways, Kathy does this leg kick. She stands up. When I’m telling you her legs go straight up to her face, they do. I mean, she can kick her legs better than any teenager, 20-year-old, anyone. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t get any better. Okay.
After she did that, everyone was like, “Wow!” Then the next words out of my mouth were, “Oh, and if you just knew how old she was, you would be even more amazed,” right? The crowd just gasps, but I meant it. I meant it. I’m like what do you mean? She should be proud. You should see this woman.
I just can’t believe. I’m telling you. When you said 30 years in the fitness industry, you said, actually, your first fitness product was 40 years ago, so I will make you tell them your age. I don’t care what those people said. You need to be proud. I’m telling you. This woman not only looks amazing for any age, by the way, but she is fit. More fit than any 20, 30-year-old that I know, so Kathy, there you go.
I want to ask you this because you’ve been in it so long. How did you get started in this? You have revolutionized this industry. You have. I mean, something at your core is driving it.
Kathy:
Yeah. I remember that evening, by the way, and I remember about four guys just kicking you. Patrick Gentempo or somebody else kicking you and going you never—those are two things you never ask a lady, right? How much do you weigh, and what is your age or something?
Dr. Pompa:
I’ll ask you both.
Kathy:
Especially when there’s hundreds of people out there and you’re—which I don’t mind, by the way. It was funny because everybody around you—and of course, you then go beat red, like oh. Anyway, we’ll get to the age. I don’t mind talking about it. I honestly think it’s quite remarkable, actually. I’ve had such a fun journey.
How did I get started? I was raised in the military, and we traveled around the world, moved every three years. At the age of 17, we were in Belleville, Illinois. I get a call. My dad, who’s had a massive heart attack, he was 42, and I was 17 at the time. I was daddy’s little girl, so I was the one that we did everything together. I was so bonded to my dad so, literally, raced to the hospital. He was dead on arrival, and it was one of these things that just rocked my world, as you can imagine.
I stayed home with my mom, graduated high school. Stayed home with my mom for a year before—and I went to college nearby before I went off to University of Hawaii. During that year, she then—my mom met somebody. Then a year later, she got remarried, and then my stepdad and my mother were killed in a plane crash. Within about the time I’m 19 years old, I had lost my dad. I’d lost my mom and my stepdad. There I was.
Again, timing here, I graduated high school in ’69. It’s now ’70, ’71. It was the Vietnam War. It was Civil Rights. It was Women’s Rights. It was everything that you could imagine that was going on in the country in the ‘70s. It was sex, drugs, rock and roll. It was Woodstock, all this. I’m just giving you that whole landscape because here I am orphaned, and typically, your parents are around to help you, direct you through. Like, oh, what is all this stuff?
I found myself in a going—spirally down into a bit of what am going to do with my life? What is the meaning of life? Getting depressed, anxious, I’m taking college classes, but the same time, I can’t focus. I’m feeling really dejected, and what happens is life has a way of doing this. I had a boyfriend at the time, and he was a football player. He would go to the track with the team, and then after practice, he would go for a run.
I would go to the track with him. Not because I was thinking of training but just because I didn’t want to be alone. I would start to run, and I would do a lap. I would do the next lap, and then I would rest. Then I started linking these laps together. After a few weeks, I would be leaving the track, and I’m going, my god, I feel so much better. I mean, my mental attitude, I feel like I’m going to be able to make it through this, and I started running further.
There was a doctor at the time. I started running, and then in 1973, let’s say, there was a doctor. His name was Dr. Scaff. He was taking heart patients and training them to run marathons. Now, back in 1973, if you had heart disease, you were told don’t climb a flight of stairs. Don’t have sex. Don’t do anything that’s going to stimulate your heart.
There was a guy named Kenneth Cooper, Dr. Ken Cooper, and he was doing all the research on cardiovascular disease and exercise. They said, “No. Your heart’s a muscle. You need to work it. You need to get out there.” To prove it, they took these heart patients, and they trained them for a marathon. I actually trained with these guys, and I ran my first marathon in 1975. That was like a turning point, and I used that marathon as just almost like a metaphor for life. Everything you learn in training for a marathon, including how do you—when you hit the wall, when you can’t go any further, the 18th mile, when you don’t think you’re going to make it, how do you use that mind over matter? That was what got me into exercise.
I mean, I’m going to continue the story, but—I mean, which then what got me into the professional side of it, but that’s honestly how I got turned on to this idea of exercise. It wasn’t about body. It wasn’t about the body—how great your body can look. That was the side benefit. It’s how great your mind—at the mental side of this of how it just took me out of the depths of depression and lifted me and gave me the confidence to finish college, and go after my dreams.
Dr. Pompa:
Actually, I want to talk about that because we barely talk about that on this show. I mean, we bring fitness people on, and we’re talking about the physical benefits. I mean, not just how you look but the cellular, physical benefits, but we rarely bring it into the mind. That’s something you do. It really did take you out of depression. It really did ultimately change your mind.
Before we get there, before I let you go there, I should say, I mean, how did you—you were the first to my knowledge release DVDs on exercise. Like you said, you were actually—at one point, you had them on records, listening to records and doing the things on the wall. I mean, where did you come up with it? I mean, how did you fall into that?
Kathy:
Okay. Now, we ran the marathon. To give you some timing, that’s ’75. I moved to L.A., and I graduated college. I did a little bit of graduate work in Hawaii, and then I moved to L.A. In L.A., you have smog. You had cars. There was all these environmental things. Running wasn’t as much fun, but then I heard about—there’s this one class.
I really do have to put into perspective for your viewers. People say, well, did you always know you wanted to be a personal trainer? There weren’t personal trainers. There weren’t clubs that had that, but there was a woman who, in her garage, was teaching what was called—it wasn’t called—well, it was called Body Design by Gilda. It was just a class, and she was teaching. Then she had moved to Century City.
It was a class that you would go to, and you would do calisthenics, which means you would do leg lifts. You’d do a back—we would do these arm circles things forever and ever. In the class was Jane Fonda, Barbara Streisand, all of these. Everybody was taking this class. It was to music, but it had no aerobic component. It was just all of these doggie leg lifts and things. When I say doggie, you might not know what that is. You get on all fours, and you lift your leg up and down. It was like what women used to do 40 years ago.
I took that love, that love of music, that love of aerobics, and that love of this class format, and I created a class. I started teaching in L.A. I got a really big following, and there would be people coming in. It’d be guys and girls. In the class, I have combinations, including jumping jacks and twists, and those high kicks that you mentioned. There was all these things.
Now, we’re starting to get into late ‘70s, and what’s happening is that people are getting excited about something called health clubs. It became a very social scene. Your health club is where young people, guys and girls, would get together. They would come to these classes. They would come workout, and they would come and meet each other. It became explosively popular. It was the first time where we had these things that we worked out in called leotards, and we had headbands, and we had legwarmers.
Dr. Pompa:
Oh, I can see you now.
Kathy:
I know.
Dr. Pompa:
I can see you were just evolving into the ‘80s. I see it.
Kathy:
Yeah, all the way to the ‘80s, exactly. We had things like disco and Donna Summer, and all that music was playing in the background. It was energizing, and it was sexy. This was where people went to get their workouts. Guys would go over the weights. The girls would go into the exercise classes.
Oh, so then what happened was there was woman in my class who was an independent record promoter. She was promoting all the big acts, including the Michael Jackson’s and things like that. She came to me, and said, “We should do an exercise album.” We put our money together. We created the music. That’s what’s fun about my career, which people don’t really understand. I did the exercise, but the first thing you usually have to say, okay, you need music. How are you going to get your music? Why do you get music rights? You got to get your musicians. You have to create the music.
We would do sound-alikes, which they would sound like a Michael Jackson song, and so we would be in the sound studio. Have musicians. Then my voice saying—and imagine. If you just close your eyes right now, you’re not hearing me. You’re not seeing me, but you’re hearing me say, “Okay. It’s time to warm up the body. Let’s reach to the ceiling. Now touch your toes, and round all the way back up.” Then you would have a poster that you would look at, and there’d be pictures of me doing that.
I did four albums. That was the beginning of what’s called the self-help. In the beginning of the ‘80s, late ‘70s, early ‘80s, it was called the Self-Help Movement. By the way, there’s a book called The Century, and I’m in that book. Peter Jennings, they came from ABC to do a big—in the millennium, which was in 2000, they did a big special about the different decades, and they came and interviewed me. What was interesting is that we went from the We Generation of what I talked about early, which was Vietnam, Civil Rights, Women’s Right. It was all about what are we going to do to change the world? It went to the Me Generation, which was—and that Me Generation was more about how do I look? How do I feel? How can I help myself? How do I mentally?
There’s a term called collective consciousness, and when the collective consciousness of the United States and the world starts to shift, then not one, not two, but everybody starts to think about it. People that had never thought, women who had never thought about this, now you don’t have onsies or twosies. You had millions of women that are walking into Target, that are walking into Walmart, that are walking—because you couldn’t get the stuff. There wasn’t this technology. You’re walking in, and you’re going through. You go I want my Fat Burning video.
They’d put it in, and you would sell. The numbers were staggering. By the way, you would sell millions of these videos. Then that got me into books. I mean, I have—we mentioned the one book. I’ve written somewhere between eight and ten books and have had a few New York Times bestsellers in there.
One more thing I’ll say before I end this tirade. It’s fun to talk about, but I think the main thing to think about, another thing to think about and it’s important to bear this in mind, men always had football. When you look at my high school yearbook—and I think this is the really important fact for me. I show it to my daughters, and you know that one of my daughters went to the Olympics this year.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, the 800 meter in the Olympics. Yeah.
Kathy:
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal did an article on the two of us. Just the position of, if you look at my school, my high school yearbook, there were no girl sports, so there was no track. There’s only boys. When you go to the sport section of your yearbook, there’s 25 pages boys football, baseball, track, golf, tennis, whatever. There was not one girl sport because girl—and this was in Illinois. This was not uncommon until we had something called Title IX. Title IX is what helped—Title IX helped equal opportunity for girls in sports. I was part of—one of the founding members with Billie Jean King of a woman’s sports foundation, which…
Dr. Pompa:
I told you she was old.
Kathy:
Which was one of—I don’t know. We got to watch his language in here. Hey, by the way, I am going to call you on this. I’m going to call you on this. You need to come up with other terms. For your audience, those are terms that are not—if I didn’t have a strong sense of self, that is where—and that’s my next big movement, by the way. I know you’re laughing about this, but I would like you to take it seriously.
I’m involved with a lot of movements that those terms—saying somebody’s fat or something, it’s really derogatory. If you told your child or you told someone you’re fat and you told them about ten times, you know the mental side of this. I only say this—this is what people do, and it’s really destructive. I hear every single day I’m too old for that.
Dr. Pompa:
No, -inaudible-.
Kathy:
Yeah, but just watch it. No. I’m just saying just bear it in mind. It is the languaging, and it is a type of reshaping that—I’m part of this movement right now, and a lot of people are doing it, I mean, are part of this movement of how do we show people how to age? This isn’t old. That’s a term that’s just relative. An 18-year-old thinks a 30-year-old is old, so it’s all relative.
Dr. Pompa:
On this show, we talk about cellular age versus actual age -inaudible-. You can actually claim your cellular age, and that’s what matters.
Kathy:
That’s what matters. I don’t know how you are. I’m really excited about all the work you’re doing. I think it’s so amazing. It’s just off the charts, so cutting edge and so—whenever I go to these seminars around the country, this is—what you talk about is state-of-the-art, the cutting-edge side of the whole field. What’s interesting along with that and I find it fascinating is what do—and I think that how we perceive ourself is—and I only say this because I’ve had to do this. Not at this age.
When you were a woman and you weren’t allowed—and this is where it’s not joking. It’s like Kathrine Switzer, who’s a friend of mine, wasn’t allowed to run in the Boston Marathon, and that was 50 years ago. She was dragged out because women weren’t allowed. I think younger people need to understand. It’s not that many years ago women weren’t allowed to do that. This is why we didn’t have—and even going to the Olympics this year with my daughter, if the women of our country—if the women of the United States were a separate country, we would of—the women would have been third in the world as far as winning the most medals. Finally, women have had this way to express themself.
I bring it back to the fitness side. That’s the thing that I found when I was teaching classes. Women would come in and to your point—and it’s not talked about. They would come and say—and they would be crying, and they’d say, “Kathy, it’s not because I feel toned or tight. It’s because I feel empowered. I didn’t think I could go to work. I didn’t think I could hold a job, and all this empowerment stuff that came from moving your body.”
I think it’s the thing that’s really underestimated in some of the stuff where it’s like, oh, you want to look good in a bikini. No. You want to feel good about your life and about your sexuality and about your job and feeling empowered. I know I digressed a bit, but that was my whole—throughout my entire career, I think it’s one of the reasons why, when there’s—people say, well, how do you differ from other people out there? My thing was really about empowering women, and it still is. I mean, this whole thing is when you see the empowerment that certain women are showing that, if you’re 50, you can do it, certain things, if you’re 55.
What did we have last night? We had the Billboard Awards, music awards. You had Cher at the age of 71. When she got up on stage and got her acceptance award and the hip hop guys and everybody were just like this, she goes, “I really didn’t have that much talent, but I had mentors. I had people that believed in me, and I just kept hanging in there.” It’s not listening to people to say you can’t do it. My thing is shift your—a shift. I keep coming back because I’ve had to do this. You have to shift your inner dialogue about this process. Otherwise, you give up.
Dr. Pompa:
No doubt. You should be an inspiration to those watching. You know what I’m saying? I know, even me, I keep up with my teenagers, right? At my age, I keep up with them, and in some aspects, I exceed them, right? They’re always telling their friends, right?
It’s like you’re an inspiration. You have been through the years. I mean, you were an inspiration when you were in your 30’s looking back and the 40’s, 50’s. You’re still that inspiration. I don’t call just anyone old on this show. You’re the only one, except myself.
Kathy:
I take it as an honor.
Dr. Pompa:
I call myself that. You know what? I’m proud of it, though, what I can do, right? We are absolute in, no doubt, exceptions. However, we don’t need to be. I think that we inspire.
Kathy:
That’s the point. We don’t need to be, and I think that’s the really good point. That’s a really good point. The modeling of what is possible? The things that you say you talk about all the time on the show, which I know we have discussions about. It’s that fitness side and the different aspects of fitness. It’s the strength training. It’s the cardiovascular training. It’s the balance training. It’s the stretching.
Dr. Pompa:
That brings me to my question. I really have. You know what I mean? It’s like what’s changed when we look back? I mean, you’ve been in it from the beginning, right? I mean, you must see—I want to know what you’re doing today. I know my viewers and listeners want to know what you’re doing today.
I mean, you’ve been through it all. You’ve done it all. You’ve tried it all. What’s stuck? You do. You’re amazing. You look amazing. You have full function. What are you doing now? What’s changed?
Kathy:
I think in my very first—I think I was fortunate enough early on to understand that it’s strength. It’s cardiovascular. It’s cardio, and it…
Dr. Pompa:
Froze. Darn. I’m sure she’ll come back on here. She has a shaky internet. This is what happens when you live in Park City, by the way. You got bad internet connection. Yeah. Meredith, I mean, right? I mean, she is an absolute amazing—I can’t wait to actually hear what she’s doing now, right?
When I say what stuff, meaning that you go through this evolution, and she automatically gravitates to what works. What’s she’s saying too is she does a lot of different things. I mean, it’s like she’ll do the yoga. She’s out hiking. I mean, honestly, I see her mix it up. When we talk about diet variation, I’m telling you. I see Kathy. I’m like, oh, my gosh. You do so many different things, right?
I know that’s part of her plan. I know that over the years she’s tried so many things that I bet you—and you can even ask the question, but I bet you she found the beauty in the variation, honestly. Just like as we study diets and so many people over the years, no doubt; I see Kathy doing a massive amount of variation in her exercise. It’ll be interesting. She’s coming back up. I’ll let you ask that, Meredith.
Meredith:
All right, yeah. The variation, there is so much magic in it. That is such a powerful concept that I think—it’s easier, I think, when we think of that with exercise, but the diet piece of it is sometimes even more powerful. Then when you bring it all together, it’s even better.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. No doubt. I mean, it really—because why? We’re forcing more adaptation the more we change things, right? If you do endurance every day, every day, every day and then boom, I mean, it’s like now, all of a sudden, you’re doing this sport, that sport, this resistive. The body has to keep adapting, and through the adaptation, your body’s becoming more hormone sensitive. It pumps up growth hormone.
It does all of these hormonal changes, really, just in the attempt to adapt. No different with exercise. I mean, even when I go to a different gym and change what machines I use, it’s like—let alone a completely different exercise. It’s massive. I mean, the next day I’m sore, I mean, forcing adaptation. I thought she was jumping back on there, but I see she wasn’t able to get on again.
Meredith:
Yeah. I’m just curious how your routines for exercise have changed too? I know, back in your bodybuilding days, that’s been a major -inaudible-. Maybe more recently since learning more about the variation technique.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Again, I think I find even more beauty in doing things outside. Just being in the mountains and nature, I always have a totally different component, a different feel. I want Kathy to talk about the mental component of exercise. I think, when we talk about anti-aging, it’s often times the thing that’s really overlooked, as far as the benefits of exercising. I say that when you do stuff outside with groups of people, that effect even goes through the roof even more. I’d be anxious to take—get her view on that.
Yeah. I try to add in more components of just that type of thing. Skiing for me is huge, and you could ski just to ski around, or when I ski, it’s exercise. I mean, it is. I’m telling you. I’m huffy. I can’t breathe at the end. You know what I’m saying? You can make anything exercise. Of course, mountain biking, hiking, cross-country skiing, I mean, I literally mix it up, so many different movements.
I like that type of thing. However, I still go in the gym and move weights. I still love resistive training. I think we’ve had enough guests on our shows that talk about you don’t even need weights. Your own body when done correctly, these functional type movements, I mean, Kevin Rail talked about that. We had one of our last guests talk about it, I mean, just so many benefits from it.
Kathy, we brought you back in. Your internet, that’s the benefit of living in Park city. Our internet sucks!
Kathy:
That was a complete crash, though. It’s like what is going on?
Dr. Pompa:
We kept the conversation going very easily.
Kathy:
I thought you were punishing me.
Dr. Pompa:
We’re talking about just what’s changed and what you’re doing now. What stuck? Meaning what are you doing now? I mean, the experience you’ve gained of doing it all for so many years. We want to know. What are you doing now? Meredith asked me the question.
Kathy:
It’s interesting. The three components of fitness that I talked about in my very first video, the cardio, the strengthening, and the stretching, I think my saving grace or whatever is I got into all three of them when I was in my early 20’s. I was running. I mentioned I had a boyfriend that was a football player, and I would go the gym with him. We’d work on a Nautilus equipment, and then I would go to a yoga class. Believe it or not, I got exposed to all three of those disciplines very early on. I would rotate them, and maybe emphasize one more than the other during different times.
In general, all of them have been a part of my life for this entire time. All my videos, whenever I would do a video, I always had a great warmup, a really good cool down and stretch. I always had strength, and I always had cardio. Those things have changed through the years. I’ve been involved with so many different approaches to strength training, kettle bells. There’s heavy weights, high-rep overload. I think the main thing is— especially for women but for both men and women is that over the age of 30—and you should start before that, but over the age of 30, you really got to strength train. You really have to add that to—have that component as part of your ritual.
The bias towards strength training, the bias to needing strength training goes up every decade. Because you’re losing muscle mass and you lose it, it starts to—it accelerates. It accelerates when you get into your 60’s. You really got to make sure that you’re maintaining that strength training. For women that would ask me, in the early days, they would go, well, I got my three pound dumbbells. I would tell them your baby, when it comes out of you, weighs somewhere between six and ten pounds. I mean, it gains weight pretty quickly. You’re carrying around a 22 pound toddler, and yet, you go to the gym, and you’re lifting 3, and 4, and 5 pound weights.
It’s that idea not to be afraid of the weights. I went this morning, and I might be doing my deadlifts with 90 and 100 pounds, and I’m doing bicep curls with 20 pound dumbbells. It’s making sure that you’re giving enough overload. Now, everybody’s different. I’m not suggesting people do that, but everybody’s different but to be progressive and to not be afraid of weight training. That’s really, I believe, the fountain of youth is maintain your muscle.
As a matter of fact, I wrote a book on it I called Feed Muscle, Shrink Fat, and it’s all about how do you maintain—everything in your body has to do with muscle and maintaining that muscle is just so important so, number one, muscle. Then, of course, heart and not just heart but brain function, all the stuff that we’re thinking about for cardiovascular. Any organ in your body and you know this and talk about it better than anybody needs blood flow. If you don’t have the blood flow going to your brain and to your liver—I was just at a convention in Denver for DaVita, which is kidney dialysis. One of the things, the reason why people have kidney problems is because of lack of circulation in your kidneys. Then the build-up on how you cannot then eliminate toxins in your body.
It’s cardiovascular. How do you change that up? Through the years, I’ve gotten much more involved with hip training and, really, this high-intensity for short bursts of time, but I still alternate that. As much as we talk about that science-based stuff, I’m really into what nurtures your heart and soul, and what do you enjoy doing? I enjoy getting outside. I enjoy what I call green workouts.
You’re in the mountains. You’re on the lakes. You’re in the parks. You’re outdoors. Those green workouts can be long. They can be slow. They can be whatever, but it’s the idea of get out and all the wonderful things that happen when you’re outdoors.
Then the last component of this, which I think is, honestly—if I had to rank them, I don’t even know which is most important but the yoga, the stretching—slash, stretching, slash, mindfulness and on a daily basis being able to practice some kind of breathing technique. It can come when it’s attached to movement. It could be a yoga inhale and exhale, inhale and—or it can just be breath in a prayer, in a meditation, in a mindfulness. It’s the idea of how do you calm yourself down? Not once in a while, but how do you train that part of your body so that you calm your mind down and so that you can focus? That’s what happens as another part of aging that we don’t really talk about that much is that—and except all the people that are over 50 and then especially over 60, it’s like, oh, I can’t remember things. Oh, I can’t go do that. I can’t do that job anymore. I can’t sit down and read a book anymore because I can’t keep my mind focused.
Those are the signs of aging that are really huge. You sit down to read a book. It’s like your mind’s—or the other thing, there’s comics about—comic little strips about this. You go to make your cup of bulletproof coffee in the morning or, for me, green tea. On the way to do that, you see something over here, and you get distracted. By the time you go to check the mail, you’ve forgotten what you even got up to do. That’s a type of stuff that really shows aging. By the way, the yoga, the mindfulness, those type of things, that’s where I think, when you talk about sharpness, to stay sharp, it’s that how do we deal with stress?
I told my story earlier about losing my parents. In my life, I’ve gone through so many highs. I mean, I’ve had so much positive, and I’m so grateful for everything. Like everybody on this podcast, we all have things that we’ve had to deal with, whether it’s divorce, or illnesses, or problems in business, and whatever. Part of the knack of aging is how do you stay resilient? That’s the word I love to use. I mean, resiliency is what keeps you in the game.
Staying resilient with whatever happens on a daily basis has to do with what is your morning ritual, which I’d love to talk about? It’s how do you get up in the morning? What do you do when you first get up? What keeps those brain synapses going like this? What keeps the body and the posture and the balance? I mean, when I used to take martial arts, I mean, the whole thing is when something comes and pushes you, I mean, if you’re stiff like this, then you’re going to get knocked over. What happens is that the whole idea of fluidity is about resilience. Something comes your way, and you go, oh, okay. I’m back to normal. When you start practicing it on a daily basis with the type of techniques we just talked about, it’s amazing how you build this muscle.
Now, last thing I’m going to say. You have this bank account. For whatever age you’re at, you start to put in this bank account, and it pays off. It’s one of the things—and that’s why I say 30 years of yoga, 40 years of cardiovascular, strength training forever, yes, and does it change? Are we going in some days and somebody’s come up with a new way of doing cardio? Yes. Don’t forget that it still falls in a basic category.
Then the last thing I would—even though I said the last thing a few times now, don’t get injured. Don’t injure yourself along the way. The best way to do that is don’t do stupid things. Don’t jump into classes or fitness techniques just because they’re popular if they’re not right for your body. Because once you blow out that shoulder in a class because you’re lifting too heavy a weight, or you’re going too rapidly or something, you’ll be dealing with that one—or you blow out the back. You’ll be dealing with that one as you -inaudible-.
Dr. Pompa:
I ask you that. The question is what do you think of CrossFit? I’ve had so many friends injured from it, and it’s a lot of what you’re saying.
Kathy:
Yeah. I have a rule of thumb with talking about different brands. I can say, generally, I’m stating the obvious that when you go into class formats—I’m a class format teacher. I love the class, but we both know that you don’t—it’s not like having a one-on-one instructor. It’s not like having a one-on-one trainer. You’re one of 10, 20, 30. Nobody’s got their eye on you at every moment.
Even though you might be learning proper technique, any time—not a whole lot can go wrong if I’m teaching you a Salsa step, and we’re doing a Zumba class. If you do the step wrong, you might look a little awkward, but that’s the worst thing that’s going to happen. You go into classes that deal with heavy weights, and you’re throwing heaving weights around. There’s risks involved. If you let your ego get involved—and people say, well, check your ego at the door. As we all know, easier said than done. If you’re a guy and there’s a woman next to you lifting or another guy lifting something, you probably go up a little further.
What I’ve noticed, just for those—but I don’t even want to even say CrossFit. Listen. When Tae Bo started, tons of injuries. When yoga, tons of injuries for yoga. You go how can yoga give you injuries; it’s so slow? It’s like no. When you’re pushing people into these extreme back arches and you’re saying things like you can go a little further, and you have a picture of somebody doing a backbend like this and that’s your ideal, somebody tries to do that, and their back’s not meant for it. I’m sure you’ve seen this, but I have seen through the years—I mean, chiropractors have said to me, oh, my god. Business has just gone up with Tae Bo. Tae Bo, you’re doing all these really quick movements.
Here’s the other thing. Anytime you do repetitive movements and you start to get excited, and you’re doing them three to four days a week, and you haven’t don’t them before, what do you think’s going to happen? I think that’s why I encourage people to start slowly. Even with my videos, one of the first things I would always say—if it was a weight video, I would say, before you do this with weights, go through an entire video without weights. Make sure you know the moves. Make sure you know how you do a lunge before you do a lunge with weight. Make sure you know how to do a proper squat before you do a squat with weights.
Dr. Pompa:
Do you have videos now that people can purchase? Do you have beginner videos? Where can they purchase some of your stuff? We have a lot of beginners and a lot of advanced, I’m sure, watching.
Kathy:
Yeah. Yeah. If they go to kathysmith.com and it’s Kathy with a K, I have all the DVDs and everything there. I have them categorized, and I have them depending if they want just everything we talked about: strength, mindfulness, stretching, cardio. Then they’re different categories. I mean, some people like to get their cardio with boxing. Some people like to get it with jump roping, and some people like to get it with dancing. That’s what’s fun about it. I encourage people also to mix it up.
The other thing I want to say; that through the years, one of the reasons for my agility and everything is I think different disciplines bring something new to the equation. When you have to learn something new, it’s great for the body, but it’s also great for the brain.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. No doubt. Meredith, I’ve hogged Kathy. I’m sure Meredith has some great questions.
Meredith:
I think one thing that came to mind, Kathy, when you were speaking before about the importance of mindset, I think a lot of us know that. How do we breakthrough? What are some tools you use to get over—maybe for some of our viewers who are older, that they’re too old for something, or even it’s someone’s too young for something, or that they’ve had other issues where they can’t do something. What are some of your mindset tools you use?
Kathy:
I think a couple different things. One of them is just—as far as getting into a positive mindset, it’s just—it’s practicing gratitude. I mean, I have a gratitude exercise I do in the morning, which is basically just picking three things I’m thankful for. It’s so funny. Am I’m looking down here or over here? It doesn’t matter where I’m looking. I’m looking at Dan.
Shifting mindset has to do with writing things down and changing—for instance, let’s just say you’re going through a negative speak in your brain. For me, I have something called a stop sign method. It’s, really, I just visualize—so if hear myself going, oh, I can’t do that. Oh, I’m not going to be good at that. I’m not going to—I’ll get up on stage, and I’m going to flub up. I’m not going to be good and dah, dah. I just visualize a stop sign.
I go, stop. If nobody’s around, I will say it out loud. I’ll just go, stop, and then I’ll go into three breaths. I do something called the breathing-listening technique. The technique is just like this. You inhale for a count of three to six. If I was going to do it now, I’d inhale. I’d get to the top of the inhale, and I’d listen for a sound. I just heard a bird and exhale.
Then I would do that four more times, so I would inhale. Listen for a sound. I just heard an outdoors worker and exhale. Then you name the sound. That thing, by doing it four times, what happens, it brings you into the present. Most of us get in trouble because we’re thinking about the past, what happened that didn’t go right, or we’re thinking about the future, what’s not going to right. If we can just get very present, very here and now, it allows our brains enough time. It slows them down so that you can start to make more positive decisions.
It’s the BLT, breathing-listening technique, along with the stop technique, if I have negative thought process going on. Along with something just that is a power move. I learned this one—Tony Robbins from one—Anthony Robbins from one of his workshop but having that power movement. Tony’s was always like just have something—I would go on—when I was going on stage, I’d have a power move. You practice your power move throughout the day so that you know—and it can be very subtle. It can be rubbing two fingers together like this. I can be sitting here, and if I practiced that little—and set an intention with that move, then I know that throughout the day, if I’m feeling a bit insecure or something like that, I—this repetition, as silly as it sounds, after a week, two weeks, after three years, you go and do this, and all of a sudden, you feel the power come up.
I also have to tell you fitness and exercise brings you confidence. One of the things I’ve learned through the years is that, if you want to feel strong when you go to the gym—I was so insecure when I started my first TV show. I had a TV show on USA Network for three years. It was a morning show every morning. I would have to start hair and makeup at about, ooh, 6:30 a.m. I had an hour drive to get there. It means I had to get up at 4:30 a.m. I would actually get up earlier than that because I knew that I would have to go for a run because I had to get at least a 30 to 45 minute run in before I got there because that gave me my confidence.
Without that, without those endorphins, without those chemicals, I thought I can’t do it, and I would be driving. The days I didn’t do it, I would be driving. I don’t know how to do this. Nobody’s taught me how to do this. I would have all that negative speak so that training myself to get up. Put one foot in front of the other.
Again, a game changer for me was when I was running that marathon. I hit the Diamond Head in Hawaii on the 18th mile. In my book, when I wrote about this, I was 24-something at the time. I had what I call an old codger who was like a 40-year-old at the time run by me, and say, “Don’t think about the finish line. Just put one foot in front of the other.” For the next six miles, that’s all I thought about it. It’s just one foot and one foot. If I thought about six miles, I would’ve given up. That one foot in front of the other was what I needed to just say stay present. Stay in the moment.
I use that for all of—everything. When I writing a book, I mean, how do you write a book? It seems overwhelming. Not when you break it down into chapters and pages, and you don’t think about the finished book. It’s just like I need to get this four pages down and that next four pages, and pretty soon, you have the book. If you think about the book, that’s what stops us all. I can’t write a book. I can’t run a marathon. How could I run a marathon? You can if you just start breaking it down into doable parts.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely.
Kathy:
I don’t know. Did that give you some thoughts? I don’t know if that’s exactly what you were asking.
Dr. Pompa:
That’s the answer. That’s absolutely the answer. I mean, people think that they just have to do this or be this. You start with little movements every day, and then it becomes more and more and more. I think that it transforms this. I mean, it does. No doubt. Exercise transforms the brain, the chemicals, your hormones. We talk a lot about that on the show. However, that’s how your brain works. No doubt that’s how your cells work, but these are cells too.
I’ll tell you. You said something. Meredith asked me the question while you were off. I said, Meredith, I just find so much value now just getting outside and doing my exercise in any aspect, and I try to do so many different things. Being outside, it is such a mental component to it. Being out in the sun, there’s another physical component. Doing the exercise and then doing it with people. It’s remarkable. When you put that all together, you add the physiological effects. You add the unseen.
The effects you’re getting from the sun, negative ions from the trees, the mountains, the fresh air, you put all that together. I’m telling you. It’s transformative for your cells, your brain, your emotions. Yeah. We all struggle with negative emotions. We talk about trapped emotions. Exercise, I’m telling you it’s a huge, huge component to lifting depression and just how you think, how you perform.
When I’m not exercising, it affects every aspect of my life from relationships to my business, podcast, whatever I’m doing. It affects. You’re right. You show up with the best you you can be so if that’s not a reason to start exercising, even if it’s ten minutes a day. Go get Kathy’s stuff. I know you do a great job of bringing people to that, just walking them through and getting them moving. You do it correctly. Something transformed after 40 years. You want the right instruction? This gal has it. Give them your website, Kathy.
Kathy:
Okay. Do we want to—okay. Getting back to your beginning of the podcast, I am 65 years old. Do you want the high kick? I don’t know if…
Dr. Pompa:
Pull it back. Come on. Get it going. That’s it.
Kathy:
Hold on. Can you see me?
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Look at her. She’s like a little teenager.
Kathy:
One of the things that I’ve learned is that—let’s just see. I didn’t know I was going to be standing up. I glad that I have my little thing. Okay. Anyway, I don’t know which way to go here, which way you can see so you don’t get a complete crouch shot.
Dr. Pompa:
It’s fine. You’re dressed appropriately. You’re fine. You’re fine.
Kathy:
Come on. Hold on, so it’s—I don’t -inaudible-. Think of it as…
Dr. Pompa:
You’re so fit. Of course, now our viewers are going, okay, she looks amazing. I mean, it is. It’s like that’s it.
Kathy:
I think the main thing is have fun with it. Get up. Dance. Do your squats. Then do your planks. Do your five-minute plank. I mean, just mix it up. Have fun.
Dr. Pompa:
Hey, look, you sold 20 million copies of things for a reason, girl. I mean, just look at her. I’m telling you. You inspire me. I mean, you do. It’s like I know that I know that I know that I’m going to be able to do what I do, and I’m going to keep doing it at 80 years old. I am because I’ve chosen it. No doubt, like you, just a little bit every day.
Kathy:
Before we went on, before we were on to air—that I just got back from Los Angeles. I was at the USC School of Gerontology for advisory board meeting. A good friend of mine, Art Ulene, was there. Art was the doctor on the Today Show. He’s 81. He’s climbing Kilimanjaro in two weeks and invited me to go. I’ve climbed Kili. I mean, that’s the type of thing. There’s so many fun people doing so many fun things.
This is why I got a little stuck on this thing, and I just want to encourage everybody out there rethink—I did an article for The Washington Post. They titled it “Age is Just a Number.” It really is time for anybody in their 40’s—30’s, you could still do whatever you want, but anybody in their 40’s to really start thinking about it. Once your hormones start shifting, once you get into this age mindset, it’s really important to start—I’m a big one—Tony Robbins is big on this. Languaging is really important of what we tell our brains. We tell our brains—if there’s terms used that—I’m just around a lot of people that are using really great terms about aging. As we start to see in the United States that happen, it’s just remarkable. I mean, honestly, what I have people doing and what I’m seeing in New York, in L.A., across the country, and people in their mid-60’s and their 70’s and in their 80’s, it is phenomenal. It’s a bright future.
By the way, you hear this, but I’m telling you. I wrote a book. It was a book. I was on The Oprah Show with it. It was called Moving Through Menopause. Aging, there’s some great things about aging.
Dr. Pompa:
Oh, absolutely.
Kathy:
What’s fun about it—what’s so much fun about is—I don’t want to use a bad word or anything, but it’s like you don’t give a—you can be more yourself. You can be more authentic than you’ve ever been because you really don’t care what people think about you as much anymore. Your life isn’t based on what everybody is thinking about you. You’re based on what you want to do in your life. At the same time, you have the knowledge, the intelligence, and if you make sure that you keep your body—and this is what I’m telling people in their 40’s. Think of it now. If you get to 65 and you have diabetes, if you’re overweight, if you have aches and pains, then life gets pretty miserable. If you have the opposite, life is…
Dr. Pompa:
Amazing.
Kathy:
Unbelievable.
Dr. Pompa:
You know what, Kathy? It’s so funny you said that. I’m proud of my age. It’s like the wisdom that I have now, right? It’s like, man, if I had that wisdom with my physical health and my mind, come on. I mean, these are the world changers. We look at these kids with the computers. I look at my children. I go, oh, my god. They have no wisdom yet. The fact is, like you said, wisdom, I mean, there’s so many benefits, right?
Look, we can’t do anything about our actual age, right? That goes on, but we can change our cellular age. Just because 65, 52, that doesn’t mean anything because our cellular age is so much less, so choose a different cellular age. We can’t change our actual age. Who cares about that? Hey, the actual age says we have more wisdom.
Kathy:
Exactly. Yes.
Dr. Pompa:
Imagine when you get your cellular age, right? Yeah. I mean, imagine when you get your cellular. The goal should be let’s have a nice number. Let’s live to a big actual age, but let’s keep our cellular age down here. That way we have wisdom, and we then can change the world and make a difference. That’s an awesome takeaway. I love that.
All right, Meredith, I’ll turn it over to you. I have to get on another show. Man, Kathy, thank you so much. I just love you so much. Hey, it’s our time of year, right? We’re going to be up in the mountains.
Kathy:
I know. I’ll be seeing you on the bike or on the hike, on the bike or on the hike.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I’m going to get you on the bike more. I’m going to get you on that darn bike. All right, Meredith, I’m going to turn it over to you, or otherwise, Kathy and I will just keep on talking.
Kathy:
Thank you very much. Bye. It was so great.
Dr. Pompa:
Go to her website. Give them her website again, Meredith, her website again.
Meredith:
Yes. Thanks again, Dr. Pompa. Kathysmith.com if you want to check out all of Kathy’s awesome materials. Thank you both so much for sharing your wisdom today. I know I’m inspired, and I know you’ve inspired all of our listeners and viewers out there to move more and to really focus on our mindset too. Thanks, everybody, for watching. Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.
Dr. Pompa:
Bye.
