Transcript: Is Your Workout Actually Working Against You? A Nurse Practitioner's Take on Strength, Recovery, and Training Smarter

Movement is medicine when it's done in balance.

What's up you guys, famous Ashley Grant here.

Welcome to More Movement Please, the podcast

where I hope to inspire you to move your body

more. Today I have another incredible voice note

to share with you and this one comes to us from

Stephanie Baubie. And y 'all, she said some things

I really needed to hear personally. Here's what

she had to say. Hi Ashley, my name is Stephanie

Baubie. I'm a nurse practitioner specializing

in integrative medicine. My work centers around

people trying to build long -term health through

simple foundational lifestyle practices. the

things that truly move the needle over time.

One of the most important of those foundations

is movement. When we talk about longevity, people

often jump to supplements or biohacking, but

one of the strongest predictors of how well we

age is actually muscle mass. Muscle is metabolically

active tissue. It supports blood sugar regulation,

hormone balance, bone density, and joint stability.

Higher muscle mass is associated with lower cardiovascular

risk, reduced frailty, and better long -term

health outcomes. And the way we build muscle

is through strength training. This doesn't mean...

living in the gym even 30 to 45 minutes of intentional

strength training three days per week is enough

to stimulate muscle growth support bone health

and improve insulin sensitivity it protects joints

improves posture and reduces fall risk as we

age strength training literally is medicine but

here's what doesn't get talked about enough more

is not always better. In our culture, especially

among high achieving people, we tend to equate

progress with intensity. We push harder, we add

more workouts, we chase exhaustion. But overtraining

can dysregulate cortisol, our primary stress

hormone. When cortisol stays elevated, it can

impair muscle recovery, disrupt sleep, increase

inflammation, and actually make it harder to

build strength. Your body doesn't get stronger

during the workout. It gets stronger during recovery.

That's why we have to balance strength with mobility

and rest. Mobility work improves flexibility,

joint integrity, and range of motion. Without

it, we can build strength on top of restriction,

which often leads to stiffness or injury. Mobility

doesn't have to be complicated. It can be 10

intentional minutes after your workout focusing

on hips, shoulders, and spine. And rest days

matter. Sleep matters. Light walking counts.

Strength overall builds resilience. Mobility

preserves fluidity. Recovery allows adaptation.

And I especially want to highlight this for people

in their 40s. This is a decade where we begin

to see hormonal shifts, especially for women

entering perimenopause. Estrogen fluctuations

can impact muscle mass, bone density, and recovery

capacity. We naturally lose muscle every decade

after our 30s unless we intentionally work to

maintain it. So strength training becomes even

more essential in your 40s, not for aesthetics,

but for metabolic health, bone protection, and

long -term vitality. But recovery capacity may

not be what it was in your 20s. In this season

of life, it's less about going hard every day.

more about intelligent balance. Stimulate the

muscle, then allow the body to recover. If cortisol

is chronically elevated from life stress, lack

of sleep, or excessive training, you may notice

slower recovery, more inflammation, or feeling

constantly depleted. The goal isn't burnout level

fitness. It's sustainable strength. If someone

listening feels overwhelmed, keep it simple.

Three days per week of strength training, a few

minutes of mobility after or before each session,

at least one true rest day, and protect your

sleep. You don't need extremes. You need consistency.

Movement is medicine when it's done in balance.

Okay, I need a moment. I genuinely need a moment.

First of all, can we just appreciate that a medical

professional, a nurse practitioner, just looked

us dead in the eye and said, Strength training

is literally medicine. Not kind of helpful, not

a nice bonus, medicine. And if you've been listening

to this podcast for any length of time, you know

that I came into this whole fitness journey as

someone who absolutely, positively did not want

to lift a weight. My instructor Rhonda will tell

you she did not think that she was ever going

to get me to pick up a dumbbell. And now here

I am working toward those 20 pound dumbbells

and genuinely excited about it. So hearing Stephanie

say something that we've heard from previous

voice notes before, say that with her whole chest

as a medical professional, it just continues

to reiterate that I finally am doing something

really right in my fitness journey. But here's

the part of this voice note that I have to be

honest with you guys about. That part about overtraining

and cortisol. I can't help it. I feel like she

was talking about me. In fact, it was almost

like she... heard my story and was talking about

me because I have openly admitted to you guys

that I am working out somewhere between 10 and

16 hours a week. I've said out loud that yes,

sometimes I know I'm overdoing it and I am. And

I've always kind of framed it like, well, at

least I'm taking active recovery days, so it's

fine. But Stephanie just kind of laid out exactly

what happens inside your body when you push it

too hard for too long. Elevated cortisol, impaired

recovery, disrupted sleep. Hell, more inflammation.

I felt every single word of that. And the thing

that really stopped me was when she said, your

body does not get stronger during the workout.

It gets stronger during recovery. And I think

somewhere in the back of my mind, I kind of knew

this, but hearing it stated that plainly by a

medical professional, I don't know, I guess it

just kind of hits different. Like all that work

I'm putting in. could actually be working against

me if I'm not protecting my recovery just as

fiercely as I'm protecting my workout schedule.

Y 'all, if this is a wake -up call for you, I

really want you to listen to it because I'm actually

in a position right now where I'm starting to

feel these feels, wondering if maybe I should

do more active recovery days because though I

am absolutely loving how much I'm moving my body

right now, I know... I really do. I know that

it's not sustainable. I know it's going to come

to a point where I am going to have to take more

time to really take care of my own body. And

so I guess I just am trying to say, I told you

guys from the beginning, I plan to be as transparent

as possible. I don't ever intend to stop working

out my body. I intend to move out every single

day, but I might not go as hard. That's kind

of hard to say out loud because I have enjoyed

this journey so much. I have enjoyed seeing just

how far I can go. But I also want to make sure

that I don't do it to the point that I hurt myself.

I don't want to do it to the point where it's

to my own detriment. I do believe that you can

keep doing more exercise and that you can keep

doing more cardio and doing more of all the things.

But maybe the weightlifting part, maybe that

is the part where I need to. restrict a little.

I'm not sure. I'm still thinking on it. But what

she said, it's got me thinking. And that's the

whole point of this, right? The whole reason

I wanted fitness experts and nutritionists and

registered dietitians and medical professionals

and all the things. The reason I wanted all of

them to start leaving voice notes is so that

we can keep opening this conversation. Because

whether Stephanie's right or wrong, I don't know

that yet. Because I still have more to learn.

I still have so much more to learn. I'll be the

very first to tell you that when it comes to

fitness, I'm one of the most ignorant people

you will ever meet. But I have a curious mind

and I'm open and I want to know more. Another

thing that Stephanie talked about is she specifically

talked about women in their 40s and perimenopause.

And I just want to make sure that every woman

who's listening to this really heard that part.

Because I feel like we are so often told to just

push harder and do more and be more disciplined.

But Stephanie's saying, actually, in this season

of life, your recovery capacity, it's different.

Your hormones, they're shifting. And maybe what

your body needs is intelligent balance, not just

more intensity. And this is such an important

message, and I don't think we hear it nearly

enough. Another thing that was really a good

reminder for me was her mobility piece, because

I will be real with y 'all. Mobility work is

probably the thing I'm most likely to skip when

I'm short on time. I have made a really big commitment

to trying to do more stretch classes. In fact,

I'm taking a stretch class almost every day at

this point, like over the past, like I'd say

a good three, four weeks. I've been trying to

do stretching every single day. I'm not good

at it yet, but I'm trying to make it a habit

because she made a really good point that if

you're building strength on top of restriction,

you're actually setting yourself up for stiffness

and injury down the road. Just 10 intentional

minutes after a workout, focusing on your hips

and your shoulders and your spine. That's it.

That's the ask. And I think I could do that.

I need to do that. And so do you. And I also

love that she ended with a simple framework for

anyone who feels overwhelmed. Three days a week

of strength training. A little mobility before

or after. At least one true rest day and protect

your sleep. No extremes. Just consistency. And

you know I love that word at this point. Consistency

makes me so happy. Because the whole point of

this podcast is just more movement. It's not

about perfect movement. It's not about extreme

movement. Just more movement, please. But done

in a way you can actually sustain. So that's

what I've got for you today, you guys. I hope

you enjoyed Stephanie's message. I hope it hit

you as hard as it hit me. And honestly... I think