The Hashimoto’s Exercise Sweet Spot With Angela Brown

Inna (00:01.507)

Angela, hello. I am so excited to have you welcome to Thyroid Mystery Sal, Toshimoto’s and Hypothyroidism Revealed.

Angela Brown (00:05.827)

Bye!

Angela Brown (00:09.678)

Thank you for having me. I’m so excited to be here.

Inna (00:12.229)

my gosh, me too. So we are going to dig into exercising with thyroid issues and Hashimoto’s today. And we all know we need to move and for a lot of us maybe move some more, but there’s so much confusion about what’s really right and what’s really wrong for Hashimoto’s specifically. So why is that? Why is there so much confusion?

Angela Brown (00:33.134)

I think there’s a lot of confusion. Well, first of all, I mean, a lot of people that have Hashimoto’s hypothyroidism, anytime we have this like underactive thyroid stuff, especially with Hashimoto’s, you know, most of those, and a lot of times it’s women, but I will say men too, but they’re typically trying to lose weight. And so the, the like, I always say old school, the old school way of thinking is, oh my gosh, I need to lose weight. I need to just.

go kill myself with some cardio. I’m gonna go just do tons and tons of cardio. And a lot of them aren’t doing a lot of weight training. I know a lot of women that come to me, I’m like, you know, what weight training are you doing? None. Maybe once a week. And you know, people with Hashimoto’s especially, they always have, they lose muscle mass easier anyway. And so that…

Inna (01:17.437)

And why is that? Is it just because metabolism is slower? Is it because of inflammation?

Angela Brown (01:20.366)

Yeah, think it’s a combination of everything. think because, you we have this autoimmune response and so the body’s, you know, the body is a little confused. I always say when we have autoimmune stuff, it’s like, it’s confused. So we have inflammation, you know, it can be whole body inflammation, not just thyroid inflammation. And you know, the body, it’s just kind of a disarray. Think about any autoimmune response, your body’s like, what is going on here? What is happening? And so you lose, it’s really, really…

easy to lose muscle mass. And not even just like lean muscle, there’s not just muscle, you know, strength overall. Typically a lot of women are losing that. And so the first thing they do, like I said, a lot of them are trying to lose weight or feel better. So what they do, they do cardio and they cut calories. So they’re not getting enough food in and we’re just killing ourselves with cardio and not doing strength training. And so you just create this vicious cycle. But the old school way of thinking always was calories in, calories out.

let’s kill ourselves with some cardio, that’s gonna help me lose weight. And it can work for some people, but in my experience, you you know this too, with thyroid people, it doesn’t work like that. I wish it was so simple and so easy like that. And it just doesn’t work. It just backfires. And I can vouch for it. I did it because I was told by so many doctors, you know, do more exercise of cardio. You need to do more cardio and you need to cut your calories. And it just added more fuel to the fire. And like I said, it’s just the,

thinking always was you just need to exercise more and you need to eat less and that is going to help you lose weight and Like I said with thyroid people, it’s just it’s so much more complex. It’s so much more complicated it is not a situation of you calories in calories out situation or Let’s just do you know two hours of cardio that just doesn’t work for most people it just backfires and you end up actually getting worse than where you started from Yep

Inna (03:18.065)

Yeah. And for so many people that raises cortisol and their adrenals get impacted. Yeah. And I think that thankfully, because so many of us are speaking about it, I mean, you do so much of that on your social media, people are starting to understand that doing too much cardio is not good, especially with Hashimoto’s. But at the same time, you know, there’s other workouts that can be strenuous as well. So let’s talk about what some of the better workouts are and why.

Angela Brown (03:20.776)

yeah. Yep.

Angela Brown (03:29.176)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. Right.

Angela Brown (03:42.466)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Angela Brown (03:47.628)

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m glad you brought that up too because I have had women come to me that they’re like, well, I cut out cardio and I still like, I’m still really dragging. I’m still really tired. And I’m like, well, what are your workouts? Well, they’re going and doing boot camps and you know, two hour long boot camps where they’re just killing themselves. And I’m like, that’s just as bad. So there’s this fine, it’s this fine line. And I had to go through this. I went through this for many, years. I was trying to find that.

Inna (03:47.957)

And it is, of course, individual as well. So how do people know?

Angela Brown (04:16.151)

kind of fine line and fine balance of where I could get at least some results and feel good about my workouts, but not drain myself either and be able to recover well. What I have noticed, strength training is always gonna be my number one.

That’s honestly like for me personally, that’s my favorite But I’m always you know, especially the Hashimoto’s we talked about you you already start losing some muscle mass You always are always you know already start losing strength. So let’s get some strength training in some type of weight resistance It can be bodyweight, know, not everyone wants to go to the gym and lift weights and I’m like, okay Well, then let’s do some bodyweight things. Let’s do some movement where you’re doing some type of resistance I prefer strength training and weights if you can get it in there

But it’s so safe. That’s the other beauty of it. It’s very safe for people with Hashimoto’s super safe because you’re you’re doing some type of strengthening but There’s also that fine balance of you Don’t go and do a weight training exercise or workout where it’s you know, two and three hours long and you’re about to make yourself puke like that still isn’t what we want We want a response but not you know, you have to draw that line with how intense the workout is

Inna (05:22.717)

Yeah.

Inna (05:28.753)

Yeah. Now what about the weight itself? Because this is where people get very confused. Body weight is something that is a little bit simpler for most people. They don’t need equipment. They don’t need to go to the gym. And then there’s the heavier weights, you know, and the medium weight. So where do people start if they haven’t lifted weight? they start with body weight? Like, can they start with some weights? And what’s considered heavy? Again, I know it depends on the person, but like an average woman with Hashimoto’s, maybe also a woman that’s

Angela Brown (05:31.191)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yup. Yup.

Angela Brown (05:41.45)

Yup.

Angela Brown (05:49.461)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Inna (05:56.667)

You know, going through perimenopause where that strengthening is even more important.

Angela Brown (05:57.952)

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah, that’s a great question too, because I always kind of eyeball it too with like where they’re starting at, you know, how they’re feeling, what their symptoms are, where they’re starting at with like, if they’ve never done weight training ever, like nothing, they’re starting from ground zero. I’m like, let’s do some body weight. We might throw in some pretty light weights. We’re going to start pretty low.

Inna (06:20.293)

and what’s considered pretty lightweights in your opinion.

Angela Brown (06:23.441)

it’s gonna be person dependent. like for me, because I’ve been working out before, lightweight for me would be like, for example, like a bicep curl, lightweight would be 10 pounds for me. That’s heavy for a lot of women. Yeah, yeah.

Inna (06:35.441)

That is heavy. I can’t do 10 pounds. You’re very buff. I see in your videos, you’re very buff.

Angela Brown (06:38.283)

Yeah, but, but I’ve been doing this for a very long time. And you know, you and I were talking, I’m also married to a bodybuilder. So, and I’ve been doing this for super, super long. But so again, it is individualized, but I honestly, if someone’s just starting out and we’re starting with some weights, I mean, we’re talking like three, five pounds to start off with. That’s where I’m typically going to start them with. I’m like, let’s get a response from the muscle of some type of resistance. Doesn’t have to be heavy.

And honestly, I mean, I have a lot of women that I work with where I don’t let them go heavy because it’s too strenuous on them. There, you know, a lot of people with Hashimoto’s, they also have like ligament laxity, you know, kind of inflammation. And so throwing them into super heavy also sometimes isn’t ideal either. And again, it’s very individualized, but a lot of them, I’m not going super heavy. Now there might be certain movements. You know, I have some women that I work with where their upper body is super weak, lower body is pretty strong.

So they can go a little heavier on their lower body, but their upper body, I’m like, nope, not doing it. We’re gonna keep it low. We’re gonna keep it at three to five pounds. So yeah, it is really individualized, you know, comes down to the person with, they done it before? You know, how are they feeling? You know, what does their testing look like? Where are we at with, you what does cortisol look like? And then I kind of determined from there, like, are we gonna go right into?

doing like a little bit of weight? Are we going to do just body weight? Do you have injuries? If they have injuries and past injuries, then we have to be careful with that. So there’s a lot of like nuances to it and things to kind of consider. But yeah, I mean, that’s a great question though. ideally, you know, if someone really is starting out and I’m like, let’s go some light, I’m going to do like three to five pounds, like upper body, for example. We’re going go a little bit lighter.

Inna (08:21.979)

What are your thoughts on doing lighter weights and more reps versus doing less reps, but something that is heavier, that’s really, really kind of targeted?

Angela Brown (08:25.792)

Mm.

Angela Brown (08:29.473)

that is heavier. Yeah. And again, that’s going to be, that was individualized. For example, I’ll give you an example. Like for me, I can go a little bit heavier on upper body and do pretty well with that. If I go too heavy on lower body, I just, I get so inflamed and I don’t recover. So there’s like, I have to kind of monitor that. Now, ideally I want some type of resistance, some type of

you know, strength, resistance, response, when I’m, you know, giving someone workouts and what to do. But I all have to play into factor, like how do they recover? If I give them a workout and they’re like, man, I was whooped and I was so sore, I could barely walk for five days. I’m like, then that was a little too much. We’re not going to do that again. That was too heavy for you. so we have to kind of, you know, figure out for each person, like what’s too heavy for them, you know, are we getting a response at all? You know, how they’re recovering, but also their goal.

because if someone has a specific goal, I want to be, you know, I want to be a certain lean mass, know, lean body mass. I want to be a certain weight. I play into like what their goals are as well with how heavy of resistance we go. So for example, like for me, I lean out on my upper body really easy, but I can bulk really easy. I have to be, I have to find that fine line. I can lean out pretty easy. I can go like if you want to get, you know,

pretty lean like lines and muscle and things like that, you probably want to go a little bit lighter and go heavier reps, go higher reps. If you’re like, I really want to bulk. I really want to put a big, a lot of my muscle on, like my glutes, for example, were really weak from a back injury from years ago. So I have to go a little heavier on my glutes to get a response so that I can actually build them. Cause I didn’t have glutes for the longest time. I just had flat. and so I go a little bit heavier because I want to put some muscle on there. So again, it depends on the goal.

And the body part because that also plays a role too In what they’re doing, but there’s nothing wrong with ever. I also wanted to mention this There’s nothing wrong with ever with going a little bit lighter doing higher reps and going a little bit heavier and doing lower reps There’s nothing you can do them both because I do them both And I like to mix my workouts up because my body I get I get used to it And so I mix my workouts up sometimes I might be like, you know what for this next month? I’m gonna do Pretty higher reps and we’re gonna drop the weight down. We’re just gonna roll with that

Angela Brown (10:50.9)

Or could just be like, do my upper body this way, I do my lower body this way. So there’s nothing wrong. It’s not necessarily there’s the right or wrong way of doing it. It really depends on their goals. But if it’s a newbie, I’m more than likely gonna go lower weight. We’re gonna go higher ups because I wanna get, yeah, I wanna get that response without them feeling like they’re dying and it’s killing them. We wanna get that response. And I want them to able to keep doing it. Cause here’s the other thing too.

I’ve had people where they come to me and they’re like, hey, I’m doing these workouts. I’m so sore. I can barely do a workout two days later. And I’m like, well, I don’t want that either. You need to be able to have movement in. And so we just kind of tweak things from there then. Yep. Yep.

Inna (11:31.485)

Yeah, that’s great. One of the things that people tell me, and I remember this happening with me personally too, though, that was probably 10, 15 years ago when I was in my late twenties and thirties. But when I would lift weight, I, especially if I wanted to lose weight, if I wasn’t doing cardio and if I was lifting weights, what I noticed was there was muscle. was building muscle, but the muscle was underneath this little layer of fat. So I was always told.

Angela Brown (11:40.012)

Mm-hmm.

Angela Brown (11:47.734)

Mm-hmm.

Angela Brown (11:53.887)

Yep. Yep.

The lair lair. Yep. Yep.

Inna (12:01.445)

by very traditional people, not ones that specialize in Hashimoto’s. Well, you can’t lift weights without doing cardio, but for Hashimoto’s, it doesn’t really work that way. So how do we get around that if that still happens?

Angela Brown (12:03.116)

Yeah. Yeah.

Angela Brown (12:08.222)

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I that there that is such a tricky situation too. Because it like you said there’s there’s always this like why I want to lose fat. So I need to do cardio. And if it helps at all, I am pretty lean at this point. I don’t do any cardio. I haven’t done cardio in at least 12 years, maybe even longer could be closer to 15. Zero. I walk. That’s it. That’s my cardio.

Inna (12:32.925)

So any cardio walk, okay.

Angela Brown (12:37.036)

Because my workouts that I do I have them I set them up in such a way My heart rate goes up and down up and down like I’m doing cardio sometimes with some of the workouts that I do so I set it up that way because I I just I learned from my body that the minute I put cardio in I actually put weight on I would gain weight I would get fluffier when I would do cardio because my adrenals are like you can’t do that. They didn’t like it so

Inna (12:57.757)

And what type of cardio did that happen with? Running or like row it running?

Angela Brown (13:01.418)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Anything where it was like long duration cardio. So going for a long run or, you know, I would hop on the treadmill or the elliptical and just go for an hour because, you know, I was told by every doctor I needed to do that. And it just, it just added fuel to the fire. So what I have found too, for especially with Hashimoto’s, the more that we quell the inflammatory response, the easier the fat comes off. And so I’m always thinking of, you know, I kind of look outside the box.

Like you said, the traditional way is if you’re gonna lose that layer of fat, you gotta do tons of cardio. And it can work for some people, but people with Hashimoto’s, typically does not. Usually it backfires. So I’m always like, we need to find out why do you have this inflammation? What’s going on underlying that’s causing this? When you start addressing the inflammation, it could come down to foods. When we are cutting down inflammatory foods, I see people, all of a sudden, the fat’s coming off because they’re not filling their bodies with inflammatory foods because their body’s already…

inflamed so I’m always looking at Lifestyle piece nutrition things like that that will help lower the their body fat Without having to do the cardio and I honestly it’s I really don’t have even have very many clients that have done I’m like, yeah keep doing your cardio Because it just inflames them so much more and they typically don’t tolerate it. They don’t recover well. So yeah, you absolutely can Lose fat without doing the cardio

but it’s not just a take this pill and that’s gonna do it. It is doing some digger deeping. Like what’s going on with this inflammation? Let’s get this inflammation down. Yep. It is, it’s huge. It’s huge. And it’s really for people with Hashimoto’s especially, it is a big, big area that needs to really be looked at and addressed.

Inna (14:38.821)

Inflammation is such a key to so many things.

Inna (14:50.609)

Now, what about some of the more lighter workouts that are not cardio that maybe use body weight? So things like bar or even just certain types of yoga, maybe not like a restorative yoga, but more of a flow yoga or legris or some of the Pilates, especially where they’re using the reformer. What are your thoughts on that? And do you feel like the weights are heavy enough there?

Angela Brown (14:53.868)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yep. Yep.

Angela Brown (15:10.838)

Yep.

Yep, yep. I like those especially for either a like newbies beginners And I always think of it like this like instead of it being a workout like it you’re working in So you’re you’re you’re doing some movement to where you’re getting some movement in you’re getting a response in the body of some type of movement Whether it’s Pilates yoga, whatever that looks like but you’re not killing yourself with it either So you’re kind of more like working in I love them. I think they’re fantastic

If I the time, I’d do them more. But I’ve gotten so stuck on my weight training that I just love it so much. But I have a lot of clients that that’s what I’ll do. I set up a program for them and I’m like, you’re gonna do, two days a week you’re gonna do Pilates, or one day you’re gonna do Pilates, one day you’re gonna do yoga, and then we’re gonna do some weight training the other days. Because they get the best of both worlds then. So I think that, and those things, I don’t think of those as weight training. I think of those as building muscle. I think of those as we’re getting movement in.

we’re working in, it’s gonna sort of keep the nervous system kind of calm down, but we’re still getting some movement and we’re getting some type of resistance. It’s great for people who can’t do weight training, maybe they have a lot of injuries, or it’s just when they do weight training, it’s too taxing on them, so they do better with that. It’s great for people who are beginning, and it’s great for people who wanna have, I wanna do something else besides weight training, because I get bored, I don’t just wanna do weight training. And so we do a combination of those. And I think it’s…

It’s so good for for people to do something like that still I don’t see anything wrong with those i’m just a little more I pay attention to the client too if they have Hashimoto’s and they’re like hey, you know I have a lot of injuries because of ligament laxity then i’m like be very careful with like Pilates and yoga with like how far We’re stretching and pulling and stuff like that because the ligaments get so lax on some people So i’m like let’s do a combination where you’re getting some resistance as well as doing some of that stuff still then you’re then you’re good to go Yep. Yep

Inna (17:05.393)

Yeah. Yeah. I’ve been a big fan of legris. I’ve been doing that for the last six months and it’s great. And I am someone who does get worn out from cardio, even if I do short cardio, because one of the things that I was doing for a while was interval training, but short, know, 20 minutes, right? So you’re going all out for a minute and then resting or going a little slower, right? For a minute. Or sometimes I did it one-to-one or two-to-one. Now, aside from the fact that I hated it, like, was that,

Angela Brown (17:08.607)

it’s great. Yeah.

Angela Brown (17:14.72)

Yep. Yep. Yeah.

Angela Brown (17:20.749)

huh. Yeah. Yeah.

taking a rest.

Angela Brown (17:32.136)

Yeah, it’s not fun. It really, it really isn’t. I don’t like it either.

Inna (17:35.133)

But I also, it’s hard to know like, cause the point of intervals, at least from what I learned was that you really have to go all out for that 30 seconds or that one minute. And when I did that, I would feel worn out even after 20 minutes. And it was for me, this thought that what’s wrong with me, even though I knew exactly what was quote unquote wrong, but it was hard for me to deal with. it just felt like, this is hard. So it must be good. And then when I started doing some of the other workouts, they seemed easy, but I love them.

Angela Brown (17:41.418)

Right, yep.

Angela Brown (17:49.494)

Yeah, even though you knew, right? Yeah.

Angela Brown (17:56.65)

Yeah, yeah.

Angela Brown (18:01.289)

Yeah.

Inna (18:02.171)

What’s interesting, what I find, especially with the grease, you know, it’s all how much you do because you have control over how slow you go in the machine or how, I mean, how many springs you put on, course, as well. do find though, for me, I’m not the strongest person. mean, I think I’m in good shape, but I’m just not someone who’s that strong though. Obviously as I lift more weights and do more, I’m sure I will get stronger, but I have a lot of issues with my neck and my traps. And so if my.

Angela Brown (18:06.847)

Right. You control it. huh. Yep.

Angela Brown (18:19.413)

Yeah.

Angela Brown (18:24.457)

You get better, yeah.

Angela Brown (18:28.862)

Uh-huh.

Inna (18:30.065)

positioning and my form is not a hundred percent, my traps kick in and my traps kick in from like little things. Like sometimes even just sitting and talking, I feel that my shoulders go up a little bit. And so sometimes I find that I can feel sore, good sore, not over sober, good sore by doing less weight. Sometimes even no weight because sometimes in the Greek class they do springs and overhead pulls and I can’t do those. So I’ll do them with no weight and I feel it because you’re

Angela Brown (18:39.091)

Yeah. Yeah, that’s how mine are. Yep. Yep.

Angela Brown (18:48.0)

Yeah.

Angela Brown (18:51.924)

Yeah.

Angela Brown (18:56.235)

Yep. And you’re sore. Yeah. Yep. So much. Yep. Yep. Yep. And that happens a lot to, know, for a lot of people too. mean, even with, um, like, for example, for me, like I do, um, like squats and deadlift petters and things like that a lot, um, with, with some decent weight, not super heavy. I can do body weight, like lunges, like walking lunges, body weight. And I am sore, more sore from that than I am from doing a weighted squat.

Inna (18:58.605)

engaging like you’re thinking about the muscle so much and like are still in tune with it.

Angela Brown (19:26.539)

Um, so it’s it’s the form Yeah How you’re engaging how you’re pulling the muscle all that stuff. Yeah, it absolutely makes a difference i’m glad you brought up intervals too Because that’s another one that a lot of people like oh, I just do intervals. I do great with intervals. That’s my cardio Um, and i’m like, well How do you feel after I feel terrible? I feel terrible. I don’t recover. I’m like that. It’s still not good. Um, yeah, because like you said ideally with intervals the whole point is like you I mean your heart rates should go up

Inna (19:27.181)

It’s the form. You’re just so much more like on top of it.

Angela Brown (19:55.818)

like significantly, you really like kill yourself. And then the off time, you know, obviously you’re resting. And that’s the whole point of the interval. And I, in the same way, I tried it for a little while and I’m like, I do not recover from this. This is not my thing. And I was doing it for like 10 minutes. And then like, I don’t feel good. This is not for me. So it can work for some. I have strategically put it in a couple people’s programs, but it’s, literally was like, you’re doing it for 10 minutes. And it was only for the ones who were like,

It was messing with their head that they weren’t doing cardio. And so they were so like stuck on it. And I’m like, okay, I’m gonna give you an interval. You’re only doing it for 10 minutes, but we’re not even bringing the heart rate up very high. it’s, know, someone who is pretty more advanced. I would maybe do it for, but other than that, yeah, I don’t typically recommend it. Not for Hashi’s people either. Cause it is, it’s taxing. You have to really like kill yourself to get your heart, that heart rate up. And like, just like you and I both experienced, I’m like not recovering from that. And I don’t like it. That’s the other.

Inna (20:54.621)

I don’t

Angela Brown (20:55.687)

I’m like, and I tried it so many ways. did like, I’m going to do an interval with like slam ball and this and that. And I’m like, don’t like that. And then I’m like, I’m going to do it on the machines. Don’t like that either. I’m like, this is not my thing. I don’t like this.

Inna (21:07.773)

And I love that you’re saying this because I think it gives so many other people permission to think, okay, like this is not the only way. Now again, we’re not giving permission for people to not move at all and stick around. But I think so many of us are just so wired to it. This is what we have to do that it’s like we feel like we’re failing if we don’t. And so it’s just so nice for people to say, wow, okay, like I’m not alone. And this is okay not to, I’m gonna be okay.

Angela Brown (21:12.201)

Yeah.

Angela Brown (21:16.586)

Right.

Right, right, right, right. Yeah.

Angela Brown (21:26.729)

Right.

Yeah, yeah.

Angela Brown (21:33.523)

Yeah, yeah, it’s okay. huh. Yeah, yeah.

Inna (21:37.617)

Now, when people don’t feel well, I’d love to pick that apart a little bit more because I think that some of us are more in tune with our bodies. Some of us may be less in tune. And this is a question I get all the time. Ina, how do I know that this exercise is too much for me? Because sometimes people don’t feel that fatigue or they always feel fatigued and they’re go, I’m still just as tired. So what are some things that people can look for so they know that what they’re doing may not be working?

Angela Brown (21:45.599)

Yeah, not so much.

Angela Brown (21:54.987)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Angela Brown (22:02.46)

Yeah.

Angela Brown (22:07.386)

Yeah, I always pay attention to like the next 48 hours even because a lot of people like the next day I’m great I feel fine and then day two day three They’re like, wow, I’m actually a little bit more tired than normal I’m like pay attention because typically it can be even a 48 hour thing where you’re like Yeah that I didn’t really feel very good after that So I’m having people watch for obviously the fatigue thing But even like I’ve had people where they’re like loss of appetite like nauseous

from having a workout that they kill themselves with. I’m like, pay attention to things like that. And muscle soreness is a big one. So I remember back in the day, I was always like, if I’m not getting sore, I’m not doing, I didn’t work hard enough. And I mean to tell you, I get just as much response with doing workouts when I’m not sore as I do when I am sore. I’m like, it’s just as good. You don’t need to feel sore to actually have had a good workout. And a lot of people, the old way of thinking,

Inna (22:47.569)

Yeah.

Angela Brown (23:03.54)

kind of like calories in calories out. The old way of thinking was I have to kill myself. I have to be so sore. I need to be really sore. didn’t do, my workout was not hard enough. I’m like, not the case, not the case at all. Particularly if you’re like three days later, two, three days later, you’re like, I am so sore. I could barely even bend my arm or walk up the stairs cause I’m so sore. I’m like, that’s not recovery. I’m like, that was too hard of a workout. I’m like, you should not be that, to that extent of being that sore, you know, two and three days later. We don’t want that. That’s not a good, that’s not the best response in other

Inna (23:34.001)

Now, does that matter if someone does the workout for a first time, you know, like a new workout, so they’re sore and then if they do it again, they’re less sore. So it’s more if they’re continuously sore.

Angela Brown (23:40.209)

Yeah. Yeah. Yes, exactly. Yep. That’s exactly what I was going to say too. If it’s, if it’s more of a every single time they do these workouts, whatever it is, upper body, lower body, and they’re like, I’m, I’m so sore. I’m extremely sore. Two and three days later, next workout still, if it’s still always like that, it’s too much. you eventually get to the point, any movement that you do, you eventually get to where you should not be that sore from it. Now, if you

Change the angle a little bit if you change the rep range or the weight that can you know, all of a sudden you’re like Wow Why am I sore on this workout? I did this for the last three months and I was never sore. So that’s okay. That’s a different ballgame But yeah, I’m always like kind of you know, attention that and not only that the other thing I have had so many people that I’m like, you know, how are you sleeping? How are you? How do feel when you get up in the morning? If you get out of the morning You’re like really dragging or if you go to bed and you’re like, I’m just I’m my sleep is totally disrupted

it could be from the workouts too. If your cortisol is just going crazy, crazy high because your workouts are just way too intense, you might have some disruptive sleep. So there’s a lot of things I have them kind of watch for to decide like, let’s dial it back a little bit. Let’s not go that, you know, quite that intense then. Yep.

Inna (24:56.071)

Now for people who have done strenuous workouts, have felt exhausted and have been working with someone like you, where they now understand that, know, they don’t want to do that. And, know, know for a lot of my people, we actually just stop everything except for walking for a little bit, just to help to recover. And then people want to get back to it. Sometimes they may be a little bit afraid to get back to it. And a question that I get a lot is, okay, when is it okay to get back? How do I know?

Angela Brown (24:59.006)

Mm-hmm.

Angela Brown (25:11.976)

Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Angela Brown (25:20.094)

Right?

Inna (25:25.785)

So what would your advice be? there any testing that could be helpful? Is there a way that they can like slowly start?

Angela Brown (25:32.779)

Yeah, typically testing is probably the biggest thing that I’m like looking at. I want to see like what their cortisol looks like. Even their minerals, if they’re minerals, if they’re severely depleted minerals, I’m like, let’s chill a little bit. Like we need to just do some work in it. We’re going to have you walk and that’s about it. Cause we need to replenish these minerals. We need to get your adrenals and your cortisol back in check. I’m going to look at testing like that just to, just to determine like where’s the state of the body so that we know like how much time we need here. If someone’s in total disarray, I’m going to give them months.

off from doing that. Like you’re going to walk for a little while. If it’s like, yeah, your cortisol looks a little dysregulated. Maybe your minerals aren’t too bad. I might have them, you know, start like maybe after a month. So we pay attention to symptoms. We pay attention to, you know, how they’re feeling overall. And then obviously the testing to know like when’s a good time for us to like start jumping back in. By the way, when they jump back in, it is not full force because a lot of people are like, well, I’m going to jump back in. I’m going to go ahead and just start my workouts again. And they want to do like three or four days a week of

just an hour long workout with weights. And I’m like, let’s not do that. Let’s like, we’re gonna ease into this because we wanna see how you’re responding to know like, is this still at okay time? Cause some do great and others like, body’s like, nah, not quite ready for this. And I’m like, all right, let’s take another couple of weeks off before we do that again.

Inna (26:48.785)

And what’s a typical ease in?

Angela Brown (26:52.01)

Depends on it depends on where they What they were doing before they had stopped So if they were really doing a pretty good amount of workout weren’t really a newbie like had been doing it for a while I might have them go right back in we’re gonna do two days and we’re gonna do like 30 minutes of kind of low to moderate weight If it’s someone who hadn’t really been doing a ton of working out I’m gonna go like we may do like one day a week with like super lightweight just to see how they how they respond to it

So it kind of depends on the person and what they were doing before as far as weight training and how long they were doing. you know, were they doing like split body parts or were they just doing full body every single time? You know, how many days apart were they doing it? I kind of factor all that in with where we’re going next with how they jump right back in, you know. And I also have to keep in mind like what their testing looks like. Cause if their testing was really big time at train wreck, then we’re going to go slow. Like it is probably going to be like maybe one.

maybe two days a week, like 20 minutes, 20, maybe 30 minutes. We’re gonna go really slow. Cause I just wanna make sure that we’re not flipping them back to where they were before. Yeah. Mm-hmm.

Inna (28:00.903)

And I think that’s so helpful for everyone listening because so often we feel like we should be doing more or it’s not enough, right? But it’s good for people to know that, especially if you’re recovering and your testing was off, which for so many of us, is, you know, one to two days of 20 minutes is actually a good way to start. Or if you just haven’t worked out in a long time, right?

Angela Brown (28:06.42)

doing more, right, right, right.

Angela Brown (28:12.414)

Yep. Yep. There it is. Yeah.

Angela Brown (28:21.852)

Right, right. And that’s the other factor is like, how long have you taken off from this? That will determine like what we’re jumping back into. Like for me, back in the day, before I got into functional medicine, every doctor I went to was like, you’re not exercising enough. I was already at that point when one doctor told me that I was exercising six days a week for an hour. And they’re like, that’s not enough. So I went to daily three to four hours a day. I was doing.

Inna (28:48.989)

Gosh.

Angela Brown (28:49.16)

Two hours of cardio and two hours, yeah, and they were like, that’s still not enough. And I’m like, I don’t know where I’m gonna put this in. I’m gonna have quit my job if I’m gonna keep doing this. This is insane. And nothing, obviously nothing was working. But I was so young, I was in my 20s and thinking like, well, I’m gonna do what they say. I had to totally dial back and I literally stopped everything. All cardio, all weight training, I everything and I just walked for almost two months. Talk about like…

Inna (29:13.757)

What did you walk for each day?

Angela Brown (29:15.9)

usually it was like an hour. I would go for like an hour just, mean, and no, and it was like, mean snail pace. Like we were going snail pace slow. Like I, it was not a brisk walk at all. It was just like, I am just out here like enjoying nature. Like it was literally that. it was, it, it, I think I started with like a half hour and then it built up to like an hour. and talk like mindset wise was the hardest part for me. Cause going from doing the stupid amount of exercise that I was doing.

Inna (29:18.695)

And that didn’t exhaust you, you felt good with that.

Angela Brown (29:45.47)

to none of that and then just doing walking, I was like, my gosh, and I started losing weight. The inflammation came down. I started losing weight. started feeling, my sleep was incredible. And I’m like, okay, so there is something about this. So yeah, it’s, you know, there is obviously the mindset piece of it too, but I’m so glad that I did it that way, that I did not like keep trying to do these intense, stupid workouts. Like I would not, I can’t even believe I was doing that.

When I think back, but you know you obviously learn the hard way and I did but yeah I mean anyone who’s like going through that where you’re like, I’m you know, I need to do more I need to do more exercise Typically, that’s not the answer more more than likely. It’s like you actually need to dial it back a little bit and tweak the exercise that you’re Yep

Inna (30:17.39)

Yeah.

Inna (30:33.083)

Yeah. Angela, how did you get into this?

Angela Brown (30:38.429)

Yeah, so I got diagnosed, was 22 when I got diagnosed with hypothyroidism. That is actually when I think I’m pretty positive I had it all throughout high school because it, I mean all the symptoms I had all throughout high school and they just kept blowing me off. Got diagnosed, I literally graduated. Yeah, at that time they did not diagnose me. At that time I didn’t know anything about antibodies. Like I didn’t know anything about that stuff. And I had just graduated physical therapy school.

Inna (30:54.033)

And you had hypothyroidism but not Hashimoto’s at the time?

Angela Brown (31:06.899)

literally was like, I can’t even function. How am I gonna function? How am I gonna like run a clinic? And I was exhausted. that’s when I finally got diagnosed. And then it was probably like four or five years later, I started learning more about this because nothing was working and I felt terrible. And I’m like,

Inna (31:22.427)

And when you were diagnosed, you were given levithoraxine, you didn’t feel better?

Angela Brown (31:25.481)

Yep. Yeah. Levo felt terrible, switched my meds, synthroid still felt terrible. Nothing really was working. And then I started researching more and I’m like, what’s with these antibody things? How come we’re not checking this? So I checked it and sure enough, I had antibodies. And at that point, you know, they were still doing, you know, meds, still not working, still feeling lousy. Did that for maybe a couple more years. And I’m like, I have had it. I’m done with this. And so I was like, I’m going to start studying.

you know, integrative like functional medicine and see if I can kind of fix this myself. That’s essentially what got me into it. I started studying it and I was like, holy smokes, there’s a lot of women out here that have this disease that go through this. This is insane how many women have this and really are not getting help. So that’s essentially what got me into it. I still have my PT license, but I don’t practice anymore. I started doing this full time. I love it. It’s incredible. I like being able to just at least give women like,

peace of mind, like it’s not in your head. You actually do have these symptoms and you actually are really being blown off. So this is what we’re gonna do. And like I said, it’s becoming more more common. I see more and more women with this. I think the statistics of it are just gonna get worse over the years if conventional medicine stays the way that it is with it. And that’s why I’m so glad there’s coaches like us that can help women with this because it’s so prevalent.

Inna (32:53.437)

And now, were you able to get your antibodies down? Wow, that’s amazing.

Angela Brown (32:56.945)

Yeah, they’re zero now. actually, I, yeah. They didn’t get stupid, stupid high. Like I’ve had some that are, I’m like, wow, that’s pretty high. They didn’t get crazy. Like as soon as I saw it, I was like, nope, not doing this. We’re working on this. And so it was like immediate take action. And they were a slow dwindle. It took me a couple of years to dwindle them down. And then they’ve been zero for a couple of years now. I’ve been able to keep them kind of zero. Not everyone does that.

I do remind people of that. Like I have a lot of people I work with where we cannot get them to zero. It just is not going to happen, but they’re in remission. They don’t have symptoms anymore. So I’m like, pay attention to that too. but yeah, I was able to get them down. Thank goodness. but yeah, I do. I do still, I mean, I was, it was like a 14, 15 years of kind of being mismanaged, with my thyroid care. So I, I, I don’t know that I’ll ever get off of it, but the dose is like significantly low.

Inna (33:37.245)

Do you still take thyroid medicine or is

Angela Brown (33:54.622)

compared to what I was doing, not even close. mean, in fact, I just lowered it again. I get re-checked every year. And this past year actually, I got checked twice. Cause I was like, I’m kind of having like hyper symptoms. Sure enough, my TSH was plummeted. My T3 had gone crazy high. So she’s like, let’s lower your dose. I lowered it three times last year, which was really nice. And I’ll probably just keep lowering it a little bit here and there.

But yeah, there’s no shaman and that’s why I always tell people too, if you have to take thyroid medication, there’s nothing wrong with it. Some people just have to have it, we need it. But I know had I not done the digging and figured out like, well, why do I have antibodies? Why do I have all these crazy symptoms? I know my dose of medication would be significantly higher and I probably wouldn’t even feel good still. I mean, I wouldn’t be utilizing the medication in my body the way I should had I not fixed the things. Yeah.

Inna (34:48.007)

Yeah. When there’s so much inflammation, you can’t even absorb it. And so many people, unfortunately, also get put on medication when they don’t always need it. Or sometimes they’ll say, you have Hashimoto’s here, thyroid medication, not realizing, right? Thyroid medication is not for Hashimoto’s.

Angela Brown (34:50.523)

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yep.

Angela Brown (34:59.432)

Right.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And so many are told that they need to take thyroid medication to help their Hashimoto’s. And I’m like, my gosh. there are so many other factors you need to like start addressing and testing and fixing, to help with that. I’m like, you’re, you’re taking thyroid medication. It’s supplying you with the thyroid hormone. It’s not reducing your inflammation that you have right now. So you have to start looking outside the box and start thinking about those things. Yeah. Yep.

Inna (35:28.103)

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And to your point too, this is something I talk about a lot as well, is that once we have some thyroid damage from Hashimoto’s, we’re gonna, a lot of us will need some medication and this is where people feel less than or feel that they’re doing something wrong. But I don’t even look at thyroid medication as medication, it’s really just replacing an essential hormone, right? And I want everyone to know.

Angela Brown (35:34.193)

Mm-hmm. Yep.

Angela Brown (35:41.015)

Some type of. Yeah.

Right. Yep.

Uh-uh. Yeah, because I’m not gonna make enough. Yep.

Inna (35:55.417)

That like it’s okay. And yes, like there are times where we can lower it, like in your case, and you know, there’s many people as you get the inflammation down, but the goal really isn’t necessarily even to lower it. mean, if we can, great. But the goal is to not have to increase it year after year, because that is how you know that you’re not in remission because there’s more of an attack on the thyroid.

Angela Brown (36:07.568)

Great right.

Angela Brown (36:12.304)

Right, right.

Angela Brown (36:17.084)

There’s more of an attack, right? Right. I’m glad you brought that up too, because there’s a lot of people that are like, I really don’t want to take this medication anymore. How do I get off of it? And I’m like, some people still need it and it’s okay if you need it. And like for me, I’m the same way. just like, I’m supplying myself with thyroid hormone because I’m not making enough because I had destruction to my thyroid.

and it’s just the way that it is. It’s just the cards I’ve been dealt, but I’m dealing with it. I feel great. I don’t have symptoms. So let’s just, you know, move along. And it’s totally okay. And some people can lower their thyroid meds and some don’t. Like you said, I’m always like, watch, watch so that you not having to increase your dose year after year after year. That’s what you don’t want. I’m like, maybe your dose stays the same for years and years and years. Great. That’s totally okay. You don’t want it to have to increase over and over and over. That’s where that becomes a problem then.

Inna (37:06.998)

Angela, for those who want to find out more about you, what you do and your workouts and everything that you help with, where do they find you and how can they contact you?

Angela Brown (37:10.568)

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Angela Brown (37:16.1)

Yeah, they can find me. So I’m on Instagram and Facebook, but I’m on Instagram a lot. That’s where I’m at mostly. It’s Angela Brown coach. and then, my website is Angela Brown.org. but I’m on Instagram a lot. I mean, I always chatting in there. You and I chat in there a lot too. that’s how we met. Great. Good old Instagram. Yeah. Yeah.

Inna (37:30.513)

That’s how we met over Instagram. mean, all of our cyborg people, have our community there on Instagram. And for everyone that’s listening, definitely check her out on Instagram. She has, she’s very buff. she has some great videos of her working out. And I just love hearing that you were gaining all this way doing other stuff. And then you were able to lean out so much with.

Angela Brown (37:41.0)

Thank you.

Inna (37:53.241)

Weights because people don’t think of it that way. And I love also what you shared that if you want to bulk up more, you do a little bit more, but there’s that balance so that people don’t have to be afraid because there is still that mentality. if I lift weights, I’m going to get bigger. And yes, you can with, you know, too much. Yes. But if you don’t want to get bulky and there’s ways to lay out and then for that, it’s really slightly lighter weights and more reps, right?

Angela Brown (37:53.352)

Right. Yeah.

Angela Brown (37:59.463)

Right.

Bright. Yep. Bulky. Bright. Bright. Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

If you’re doing it a certain way. Exactly. Yep. So true. Yep.

Angela Brown (38:20.634)

More reps. Yep. Yep. Exactly. Yep. Yep. Yeah. Thank you for having me. This was so fun. I love chatting about this stuff. Yeah.

Inna (38:23.557)

Yeah. Well, that’s great. Well, Angela, thank you so much for being here. It was so great to connect with you and everyone follow her, check her out. And, I look forward to staying connecting.

Angela Brown (38:35.58)

Thanks.

Inna (38:40.024)

Okay. Oh, I’m like, where is this stop? There we go.