March 31st, 2020

So here's the question, how to active people in the Atlanta area, stay pain-free and live the active fulfilled life that they deserve at any age. This is the question. And this podcast is the answer. I'm Danny Matta, and welcome to the Active Atlanta Podcast.

Active Atlanta podcast is sponsored by Athletes Potential and at Potential we help active adults stay that way. Pain-free and active during the sports and activities that they love, for life. We do this by working on four different areas. That's movement, nutrition, stress management, and sleep. When we optimize these four areas, you feel better, you move better, you live better for life. At athletespotential.com, learn how we can help you stay active for life today.

Hey, what's up guys, Doc Danny here with the Active Atlanta Podcast, we got bad-ass on me today: Abby Kloss, owner of Metabolic Atlanta, which is a strength conditioning gym. They use an interval based training program that was started by two, ex-professional hockey players, which I think is a pretty interesting perspective to have with a sport like that, and then applying it to the general population.

So Abby, thank you so much for your time and jumping on the podcast today. 

Oh, you're welcome.I'm very excited. 

Okay, Abby. Give me the backstory of how you moved from Chicago, down to Atlanta, and decided to open a metabolic-the first metabolic at that-gym in Atlanta. 

Yeah, so about three years ago, my husband got an amazing job offer down here in Atlanta.

We actually knew pretty much nothing about Atlanta at that time, but it was it was his dream job. So, he decided to go after it. We had spent a total about 24 hours here before deciding to move down here. I was very lucky at the time I had a sales job where I worked from home. So, as long as I was close to an airport, I could live wherever I wanted.

So, I was able to transfer pretty easily. I had a great, a great career in sales. I really enjoyed it until I became a mom. And once I became a mom, I realized I was not one of those people that can handle the traveling lifestyle, and basically the career path I was on. The higher you got, the more you travel.

So, it wasn't one of those things where I could put in my time now and then eventually travel last. I was going to be traveling for the rest of my career if I kept up with that, and I just eventually hit a breaking point. 

I said, "I can't do this anymore, I don't want to travel," and I came home and told my husband, and he said to his total credit, "Don't just hop to another job because you think it's going to be better, go after what it is that you really want to do. Take this opportunity to take a step back and think about what you've always wanted to do," and I literally came home three weeks later and was like, "We're going to open a gym." And he was like, "that is not what I meant. I did not mean that we were going to quit your career and go into small business ownership."

But the more we started looking into it and he was like, "I think this is a really good idea," and we started researching what was out there. And I actually had found out about metabolic from a friend who goes to metabolic at the DC location. And she's always raving about just how much it changed her life.

It changed the way she looks at herself, it changed the way she moves, it changed her knowledge about fitness and strength training, things like that. And I looked into it more and I thought, ,"wow, this is so different than what's on the market," because I, myself, was not a huge boutique fitness person before metabolic, because I had tried a lot of gyms, but most gyms out there are catered towards beginners.

And so I would find those classes to be not very engaging, not very interesting, that type of thing. You kind of plateau. And then there's CrossFit, and I didn't want to do that to do CrossFit. And then I found metabolic is this great in between, it's this wonderful program. It will train you like an athlete, and I really enjoyed that. 

You can continue to see improvements week over week, month over month, and also it just has a strong emphasis on moving safely and effectively, and that's one of my goals for my life is I want to be able to be healthy as long as possible. I want to be able to move till I'm very, very old.

And I think that metabolic is setting you up for success for the rest of my life. So that's really what drew me to metabolic and where I was in my life. And, we decided to take the leap. We said, "you know what? We were 30 when we signed our franchise agreement with metabolic." And we said, "you know, it's a great time to do it because we said, if we fail, we have a lot of time to recover in our lives."

You know, we're young, we're hungry, we're ready to go. And it's just been the best decision we ever made.

 Yeah, that's awesome. I can relate to, what you're talking about from the entrepreneurial side, myself, and there's a lot of unknown, there's excitement and also terror associated with doubling down on yourself and doing your own thing.

But it's pretty obvious that you're very passionate about this. I mean, health and wellness is something that I think it's becoming more and more and more of a emphasis in people's lives, right? Like they're deciding that going to the gym or making a better food decision really is not this thing that just few people do, but that lots of people are doing.

And there's a reason why, because like you said, like you want to be active for as long as possible and, we know we're going to live longer. Well, I guess this recently the data shows that we're not, but I think it's going to change. But that being said, I think what you have to really look at is what do you want that last 20, 30 years your life to look like?

Is it dependent on other people and needing assistance, or is it physically active and independent? And a lot of that comes from the decisions we make in the first half of our life. So for you in particular, that's a big step to decide to open a open a gym. But, besides like the program, was there anything that you noticed with like, "Man, I really feel like this metabolic itself really targets this individual that I want to really be able to help, and if so, who is that ideal person that you think hits a home run there? 

Well, one thing I think is really, really amazing about metabolic is just how efficient the program is. So for example, when I was in my young twenties, I would actually work, I did triathlons. And so I would oftentimes work out two times a day, sometimes spending two hours in the morning or sometimes one hour in the morning, one hour at night, working out.

Well, the older you get, the harder it is to be able to work out that many hours a week. And that's one thing I love about metabolic is it's really efficient. We actually only recommend that people come four times a week because we want you to be able to work and then rest appropriately. And I think a lot of people are responding really well to that because they say, "you know what, I'm a busy person, but that doesn't mean that I don't have time to be healthy. I just don't have as much time as I did before."

So I think a lot of people that come to metabolic are people, who are very in a career driven point of their lives, but they still want to be healthy and active. And this fits in perfectly with that.

I think there's something to be said too, for this idea of, training four times a week, let's call it that. I mean, more often than not what I see, and this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but a lot of people tend to, almost borderline end up with a addiction to high intensity training or elements of that where it's like, "I've got to go seven days a week." Well, what is all this capacity that you're building used for outside of that? 

Are you expressing that on a hike? Are you playing a sport? Are you, doing anything outside of just training in a very similar environment and you can make a strong statement that people need to get the hell out of the gym a little bit more too.

 And I mean, we were both ironically in Chattanooga at the same time without knowing that, last weekend or whatever, whatever it was two weekends ago, and I thought I was like, "man," I was running around the city with my son while he's on his bike. And I'm thinking, "yeah, I didn't train for this, but I train for lots of things and being able to run however many miles that was with him outside and enjoy that was a use of my physical fitness as well."

So, do you have this conversation with people about, "Hey, this is going to help you with playing a sport, this is going to help you with going and hiking and being a part of their overall health strategy, aside from just the gym."

Exactly. And that's exactly what we encourage people to do. We say, "we're training you for life also." For myself, as a parent, I have a two year old and I have felt such a difference with metabolic since becoming a mom. I'm able to get down on the floor and tumble around with her and play with her without having the sore joints and things that I used to have for running.

So that's a perfect example, picking up kids, it's not a great movement for your back, but if you have a nice strong back, you're able to do that better. And, we encourage people all the time. We're actually located right on the BeltLine in Atlanta, which is, if you're not from Atlanta is a mixed use, walking, running path that's eventually gonna surround the whole city, and we're right on that. 

And we encourage people all the time, " come here on a bike or a run, go for a nice walk," to just kind of help, like you said, get yourself out of the gym, get that sunshine and, help you train for life and be happier all around.

So, for sure that's actually built into our program. Ideally, if you go four times a week, we'd love to see you on two of those days, doing something like: going for a light jog or run or yoga, or just doing another way to being active that also makes you happy. You don't have to be in the gym seven days a week to be in the best shape of your life.

Tell me about the post baby training with AXA, with you, you have a baby, things are different. Okay, we work with a lot of of women, postpartum, athletes had two kids. I've never had a baby, but I've watched two babies be born. And so it doesn't make me an expert by any means, but there's a lot of inherent challenges that come from that. 

They're stretching your anterior stabilizers. You can have complications associated with that, that can basically cause back issues and hip issues and, postpartum, did you notice it like that sort of methodologist sort of training was it effective and appropriate for you after having your daughter?

Absolutely. So I actually, when I first got back to working out after having a baby, I was given the okay to work out about four weeks later. I started out pretty slow, just mostly with a lot of walking and then running and that type of thing. But I truly didn't feel like myself until I got back to the strength training because that's when my body started to go back to where it was before, because your muscles are completely different.

So, your abs are not what they used to be right after you first have a baby, and I think that the strength training just helped me to feel so much more powerful and to get my body to a new normal after having a baby. And that's when that efficiency factor really, really kicked into high gear for me, because time just became so much more precious at that point. 

And I also love the fact that there's a 50 minute class. I went in, I did what I was told. First of all, I didn't have to plan the workout myself. There was no excuses. Just go in, no phones, no distractions. And then you're done. And if you can do that three to four times a week, you're going to really start feeling like yourself again.

Yeah, definitely. Will you take a second and explain the kind of three type workout approach they have with momentum, anaerobic and durability? Because I think that  these three sort of variances to the training are really interesting and an effective way of going about it.

So it kind of explained that whole, like idea of their mat approach and what that means from a day-to-day standpoint. 

Absolutely. So this was something that was actually entirely new to me when I was introduced to metabolic, because most of them that you go to, they want you to come in and they want you to work at your home.

You're all out max effort, the entire workout, until you can't do it anymore. And not all it sees it a little differently. So like you said, we do have three different types of intervals and one of them is anaerobic and that is your all out max effort. One thing I love about the way that metabolic does it though, is if we're asking you to work at your 100% rate, you'll have an equal amount of work and an equal amount of rest.

So, for example, if you're going at all out at 30 seconds, you're going to have 30 seconds to rest. And that's something that's really, really unique to metabolic and they see the benefits of that rest so that you truly can go at your own 100% effort the next time you go. A lot of gyms, don't give you that rest, they just ask you to keep going, but your body can not physically go 100% for an hour. So that's anaerobic. 

We also have durability. These are my favorite days. These are longer, interval at your 80% pace. A lot of people struggle with these in the beginning, because they say, "why are we going at an 80% pace?"

It's going to be heavier movements. It's going to be slower, more intentional. But Danny, you actually helped me to see the value of these days more than anything else, because you showed me how much we're working on building a stable base, which ultimately helps to prevent injury. So durability days will make you very strong, but also just make your joints really safe and protected so that you can continue to work out for as long as possible. 

And then we have momentum days and momentum days are really fun as well because you build up and pace throughout the workout. So you'll go from your 70% stage, which is essentially an extended warmup to your 80% to your 90%.

These are fun. A lot of the movements we do on these types of days are athletics. I think of things like ladder drills or jumping movements or things like that. And what's great about these days. It's a really unique challenge to force yourself to slow down and then build up throughout the workout and they'd have a really energizing, fun feel.

And a lot of our former athletes thrive on these days cause they love that they feel like they're back in high school or college sports. They love the ladder drills. They love the towns of it. And then between those three different types of intervals each week, it really trains you all around like an athlete.

And that's what makes metabolic so different is that our program is. Formulated 52 weeks in advance and intended to train you.

 You know, it's interesting. I go there maybe twice a week. I drop in as a sort of adjunct to the training that I do in my garage.

Which is great because misery loves company, and when you're doing something and it's like 30 minutes interval based kind of strength, conditioning work. If you do that by yourself, in your garage, and I'm talking about me in particular, three rounds turns into two and I'm thinking that's pretty good at 5:30 in the morning by myself.

So there definitely a place for that to surround yourself by people. But what I really liked in particular. Yeah. We had this conversation. I was kind of geeking out on the durability stuff with you and, that's just because it literally just reminds me of some of the things we would do in a physical therapy group based work when I was in the army where we'd have a return to sport program for people that had ACL tears, lower extremity, surgical injuries and things like that. And getting these soldiers back to physical training. 

And I mean, breaking out a slide board, I haven't seen a slide board outside of a rehab clinic ever.

And I think the first day I showed up there were slide boards that were out, which, what a slide board is, basically this long, white board that is super slick. Imagine a whiteboard you would write on and you wear these little booties and you slide side to side, like you're skiing or you're skating.

But they're exhausting and your hips are on fire, like the sides of your hips are just constantly active. Your, adductor, like you're groin has to be super active as you slide to stabilize yourself. It's just a really good way of training the sides of the body, which oftentimes we do not train.

There's a reason why I go back and I'm still going there a couple of days a week. And it's because I think it's very intelligently put together and I have no skin in the game with metabolic. I mean, I just like to follow things that I think are intelligent and I feel better when I do them.

So it's one of the few places I've seen incorporate anything like that, and I'll tell you, and for those of you that are, you know, they're anaerobic days. They remind me of when I was doing CrossFit a lot more it's similar, just minus a barbell, I think there is sort of like an interesting middle ground it's just a matter, I think what people are looking for, right?

It's like what's the right fit for the right person. But if you think it's easy, it's not, it's definitely not, especially that sort of slow grind, durability day I've liked a lot. So tell me a little bit about the bag stuff. Because I thought it was interesting that they put water bags out and it's not every time, I guess not, not every time do we hit them, but punching a bag again, something that I haven't done in a long time. So now why do you feel like that's an important element to what they do and how do people really seem to like that?

People love the boxing and there was a few reasons why they, why they excited to do this one thing.

It's just a very powerful movement and it also involves a lot of rotation, which is a great movement for you to do as well. But in terms of enjoyment in the class, a lot of people always tell me, they're like, "Abby, I had a really stressful day, I can't wait to get on that." It's also just a really, really great stress reliever.

It makes you feel very powerful. We do use water bags with you mentioned, which is different. When I had taken boxing classes in the past, we had used heavy bags and a water bag is actually a buoy that you would see like out in the ocean. Filled with water. And the benefits of the water bags was a lot more gentle on your joints.

So you don't have those impact injuries ricocheting down your arm and causing injuries. So that's why we feel like we can incorporate it in a really safe, fun, and effective way. And we do boxing. The classes that we do and I've, I've come to absolutely love the bag. So it's a few people complain about it in the beginning, cause it's a little bit of a learning curve, but actually I think that is a unique aspect is the longer you are at metabolic, the better you will get at boxing.

And the more talented you will be. As opposed to other things in life, you know, it's most challenging in the beginning, but I find it fun that this gets more challenging as you go on. 

Well, so tell me this, you're a mom, you're a business owner. Obviously, you gotta lead from the front. You can't just show up with a bag of McDonald's and 20 pounds overweight and own a gym. It's probably not the best approach long-term. So how do you structure your week to make sure that you're really prioritizing your own training and time to decompressing and I know there's a lot of stress for owning a business and having little kiddos. So how, how have you managed to organize all that? And is there anything you found that you feel like is a really good tip that you have for people that are in a similar position? 

So I like to say that I've become a time management expert since becoming a parent.

Okay. So, a lot of people will say, "Oh, you have so much less time is becoming after you become a parent." And it's so true. But I've actually learned that the phrase, " work smarter, not harder," I've really come to embrace that. And I actually plan my weeks down to the hour of what I will be doing when I'll be working out.

And it just became a lot more realistic with what I'm able to accomplish in a given week where I used to make these really, really long to-do lists and then be mad at myself that none of it got accomplished. So taking a lot of time to thoroughly plan my week's work through it. And then when it becomes to remaining active for example, you know, I don't get a ton of time with my daughter, but I'm very lucky that I live about three quarters of a mile from her daycare.

So I started out most of our days, walking her to school. So, this is just the most enjoyable part of my day because we get to chit chat on the way. So it's quality time with her, but it's also like a good relaxing start to the day for us. So not only is it fun, quality time, but that's active time. We get together.

I typically ride my bike to the gym. I'm very lucky to only live two miles from the gym. And then I work out at lunch, which is I, in my mind, the ultimate parent land, because that's time that you're already away from your kids. And so to be able to work out, you know, you don't feel like I'm missing dinner or breakfast with my kids.

So I am extremely lucky with the job that I'm in, that I'm able to squeeze in being active with my daughter and just where we live here in Atlanta, you know, being able to on the weekends, we can walk or bike to the farmer's market and things like that. So just being active is so much a main part of my life.

Like it's funny when people come and visit they're surprised. I'm like, "Oh, I'm going to go to the grocery store." And I hop on a bike. That's really not a very normal thing that most people are able to do, but I'm very lucky that I'm able to do that. And my husband and I actively challenge ourselves to use our cars as little as possible.

Yeah, that's a great point. You brought up so much good stuff here. First of all. Do you ever look back on when you didn't have kids and think to yourself, "God, I've wasted a lot of time." 

Totally. I'm like, "what would I, what did I use to do?"

 I think about it all the time? I think I'm like, "Wow, if I only knew how much more productive I could have been." And what's funny is I used to think that I was like very busy and had very little time. And then when you have kids and you start a business, you realize very quickly how much free time you did have, and then you wonder, "well, damn, what did I do with that?"

I look back and I have no idea. So, you know, it's interesting that, that you feel like it condenses it. I feel like it just makes you more efficient. 

Yes, absolutely. 

Now, as far as you, you know, you talking about working out at lunch, I think this is a great hack for a lot of people, because what I'm interested to know.

How do you feel in the afternoon on the days that you get a training session and during lunch?

 Well, and that's exactly it, I feel a lot better, cause it's great to have this wonderful break in the middle of your day, where you're not thinking about work, you can get on the bag, let out any stress, you have that type of thing, and then it just really energizes you for the rest of your day.

You know, you're able to move on and even some of the parents who work office jobs, they just will quickly work out at lunch and then throw in some dry shampoo in their hair, throw on some deodorant and go back to work. And yeah, they don't look quite as professional as they did in the morning, but overall, the ultimate win is they were able to get a workout.

And one of the time management techniques I learned it's, you know, cause some people will say, "I'm not able to work out at lunch. My employer won't allow it." But, you know, perhaps you can ask them, can I have longer lunch breaks Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and then maybe not take a lunch break or a shorter lunch break Tuesday, Thursday and no signs if you frame it that way, they would say, "Oh, absolutely."

And that's all you need is three lunches a week. And you know, it really just helps them make a lot better use of your time. And like you said, give you a lot more energy for the rest of your day.

I couldn't agree more. In fact, I had a client in the other day and he's got like most of us demanding job family and he's, you know, his wife recently went back to work.

So the mornings there, they split up when they bring their daughters to school. And you know, he's like, "man, I'm having a hard time finding time. And when I can get to get to the gym," you know, and, and we're doing programming for him, cause he likes to train certain things he's kind of getting back into and he wants to follow a, really specific program.

So he has a gym in his office and that's where we basically had a conversation about, I was like, "look, man, take an extra 30 minutes over lunch. For your work time, eat a super, like shove the food in your mouth whenever you get back to the office. Super, super short lunch break, and boom, there you go."

And he's been doing this for a week. He's been going three times a week and he sent me an email yesterday and he's like, dude, I am like on the limitless pill after days that I work out, he's like, I got to do this five days a week. And so I told him, I was like, "you need to talk to your employer about this and tell him about how much more efficient you are when you get an extra 30 minutes out of the day."

I don't know about you as an employee, as someone who employs people. But if my employee was like, "dude, I'd crush it if I get a workout during the day, can I get extra 30 minutes to go to the gym? And I'll be way more productive in the afternoon." I'd be like, "yeah, for sure. Let's do it." You know? And then, and then let's track it.

So, you know, I think that's a great, you know, little bit of advice. Is there, anything else that you found for people that are busy? This like, man, this is a sneaky little effective hack to help them get to the gym. 

Well, we do also have some people who will come to some of our later morning classes, you know, and then take a quick shower and head straight to work.

And so that that's a big win too, is just being able to tack it on to the beginning and the end of your day. But I agree, we do have some people too who will travel for work. So perhaps they're gone like three days a week. And they'll say to me, "it depends on what your travel is like." So some people say "I'm so busy when I'm on the road. I absolutely cannot work out." And that's fine. And we'll say, okay, they come the other four days when you're in town and then take those three days active recovery days. And the important thing when you're traveling is to not ruin your workouts by eating, you know, eating everything in sight when you're on the road, you know, try and keep your nutrition in balance with what you normally do.

And then also just if you can, you know, in your hotel, if you can at least go down to the gym and the lobby to go for a short run or a nice bike ride, that would be wonderful, you know, or get outside and go for a walk, ideally. But then some people are the opposite.

They actually have more time when they're on the road. And so what we'll say then is. "Well, first of all, ideally, maybe there's a Metabolic where you're going, you can drop in there and work out at another Metabolic, or you can get, you know, a nice workout in while you're on the road. And then maybe on the weekends when you're back home, if you'd rather be with your family and take those those rest days.

So, you know, really trying to plan ahead rather than all of a sudden, just being on a business trip and saying, "Oh, I don't have speakers. I can't work out," you know, really kind of making a plan for yourself. 

I think that's a great way to look at it. And also, you know, when I was traveling a ton, I would, I would travel two to three weekends a month to teach for about the first two years after I got out the army.

And what I noticed was, and I would travel to go work and teach. I was, somewhat like useless when it would come to actually getting like a really good training session. And it was a new environment for me. It's usually a time zone change, you know, there's a lot of time on a plane and kind of stiff.

I, you know, I had like little minor back injury doing that before where I'd get off a plane and then go like, Oh, this was a deadlift heavy today. And I'll just blindly follow what I was supposed to do. And then tweak, tweak something. And w I would say, like, even the opposite, if you know that you're not really worth the shit on the road, My advice is sleep like you're dead and recover.

Like, so I I've never, this is, I'm gonna have to say this now on the podcast, but I've never been told Ashley this when we, when we had two little kids and I first got out of the military, start our business. We're both like sleep deprived. Obviously when I would fly in to go teach, you know, on a Friday night I would be asleep at like eight o'clock like, no kidding.

Eight o'clock. I wouldn't wake up until six, seven o'clock the next day I would have solid 10, 11 hours of sleep. And I think, at the time she would've been more angry at me. If I'd told her I'd been up all night at a strip club, then I got 11 hours of sleep as you. So to be jealous of that, it's true.

So if you know, you're not very good on the road, man, recover like a, like a maniac. And then when you get back to your consistent environment, bust your ass, you're going to be ready to go. Absolutely. All right. Let's talk about some specific healthy Atlanta spots and things you like to do. So, number one, you got a lot of choices around where you're at, but what's your favorite healthy spot to eat in Atlanta?

Oh, I have two very favorites. One very close to the gym is called recess. It's in Krog street market. I think recess has flavors that I've only ever seen a really high end restaurant. You know, they just are really smart about the way they pair the flavors together and that type of thing, really healthy, great food.

And it's right there in Krog street market. Amazing. I eat there probably three times a week. I absolutely love it there, and they all know me. They're like, "Oh, hey, Abby is here." So it's great. And then my other favorite is one I'm not able to get to as much as I would like, but it's upbeat and it's on the West end of town.

And that is another, it's a really great place and they have tons of options. And it's just really filling and really awesome. So I keep begging the upbeat, we'll open one. That's not in West Midtown. That's a little easier for me to get to, but, I do love it there as well.

You're the second person I've talked to Kristen Osha, who owns a stat wellness over on the West side, she said upbeat as well. So it's a favorite, what's your favorite outdoor activity to do in Atlanta? Beyond the BeltLine?

It is my absolute favorite thing and I mean, I'm very lucky. I'm on the BeltLine every single day, either walking my daughter to school, biking to the gym, and then on the weekends, we also go now there's the new Kroger that opened on the BeltLine, so we can go bike on the BeltLine to the grocery store or on Sundays, we like to bike down to Machato down on Memorial and get breakfast tacos. 

So that's really, that's like a fun little weekend thing. So just being on the BeltLine and just makes me just, I love getting the sunshine and being outside. So that is my absolute favorite thing about Atlanta is the BeltLine.

I feel like I spend too much time eating out because every place that you've mentioned I'm just like, "Hmm, love it." Muchacho has got some good ass breakfast Dockers though. Seriously? That place is good. 

Yeah. It's really fun to be outside and just to be able to bike right up to it. So yeah. It's, it's a dream.

Yeah. Okay. What's one healthy habit you've personally developed. Do you feel like has dramatically affected your personal health? 

Oh, I would definitely say meditation. Just being able to just take, take a few minutes a day. I do eight minutes a day and just be able to kind of rest and relax and just be able to recognize also times where I'm, I'm stressed and I'm overwhelmed and take a few minutes to stop rest, relax.

But it's also helped me just when I encounter a stressful situation throughout the day, to be able to like, go back to that mindset. So that's probably the healthy habit that has changed my life. The most is just meditating and relaxing. And that type of thing.

Do you use an app to help you with that or any specific form, like what kind of meditation you're getting to 

I actually just learned about a new form that I'm really enjoying.

It's called tapping. And like you tap on certain parts of your face or your collarbones and you say things out loud and that has actually been really helpful for me because sometimes when I just tell myself, okay, you're just going to, you know, meditate for eight minutes. Sometimes you find yourself your brain starts to wander towards your to-do list or what you'll be doing.

Yeah. But by actually saying these words, someone will say them and you repeat them. And so by doing that, that's really helped me to get in the zone and, and think about it. And one of my favorite ones, like one of the things they'll say is like, don't think about you know, what you want to do today.

Think about who you want to be today. And I, and I just kind of love that way of thinking in the way of starting my day. So rather than thinking today, I'm going to do X X next. It's like, no, this is who I am. This is who I want to be as a mom. And I want to be as a business owner and a wife and all those things.

And how do I go about being that person. 

Man, that's awesome. I've never, I've never heard of that. I do, I struggle with that too, where I'm like, "okay. Let's think about nothing, Danny," you know, and then that lasts like 20 seconds, you know? And then you're off to the thing that you're trying not to think about.

And then it's like, you're stressing out over not thinking about the thing you're trying to think about, but one thing that I've found, I would say as well, and that seems like it's an intentional thing to focus on. I think that helps a lot. I use something called the State App, which is basically a it's a breathing it's a breathing protocol app and it's just like, it's really well done.

I'm sort of biased cause my friend is one of the development, but it's great because it gives you you know, something to focus on and really the respiration protocols that change with like, big breath, slow, exhales, fast breaths pauses, where you're holding it for extended periods of time.

And when I do that, I feel like I get way more out of the meditative side of breath work, which is heavily involved in most forms of meditation and not necessarily having to like, try not to think about anything. So maybe, you know, like what you're talking about is more intentional. Something to focus on. I think for a lot of people is probably very helpful.

I got started with a book called The Eight Minute Meditation. And that really introduced me to it. And they gave you a lot of different methods of meditation. And that was helpful for me to say, you know.

 Certain people have to visualize certain things like certain people have to visualize being underwater and like swimming around and that type of thing, that didn't work for me at all to envision being underwater. But for someone else, they read that chapter and probably thought, "Oh, now I get it." You know? And so by trying these different ways of doing things, it really helped me to figure out what worked best for me.

Yeah. No, that makes total sense. In fact, my last question for you is going to be: what's one book that you would recommend that to help your physical or mental health would it be that book or do you have another one that you like a lot? 

Oh, I read a lot of books. So I mean, that's probably the one that's top of mine, cause I just talked about it, but I could definitely think of a lot more books that have affected me.

There's one about time management called 168 Hours. And that really helps you to break down your day and check your time to recognize, you know, opportunities where you could be doing more or ways that you overextended yourself and things like that. So that really helped me with my time management as well.

Yeah. Which is, which is huge. I don't know many people that feel like they couldn't be better in that aspect, you know, of efficiency. I guess I look at it like that. Right. You know, how efficient are you? Because we all get the same amount of time. And yet some people just seem to be able to get a lot of stuff done and manage it well, you know, and then be present around their kids and not just check off a to-do list, but really focus on actionable things that drive their goals forward. 

And I think for a lot of people that comes down to intentional planning knowing what those most important things to focus on are.

And too often, what I see is just. People are just dealing with putting out fires all day long, which is really stealing a lot of their productivity because they don't really know what they should focus on. So anyway, I haven't read that book, but it sounds like a great one. 

All right, Abby, that's it.

First of all. Thank you so much for your time. You answered all of my questions really well. I want to congratulate you on, on the lightning round there. You killed it. If people are interested in Metabolic and learning more about how they can, you know, get in, test out some training with you guys, see what this is all about.

Where can they go to, to find out more. 

Definitely. If you want to learn about Metabolic, you can just head to our website, metabolic.com. 

And if you wanted to learn about Metabolic Atlanta specifically, definitely check us out on Instagram at, @mad_atlanta. That way you can see pictures of the workouts, you can see what we're doing and get a really good feel of it.

And at this time it's the only one in Atlanta. Correct? 

Yes. 

Okay. So you're the only game in town. You got a monopoly you're hoping eventually to have more. Oh, cool. Yeah, no, I think it's a great training methodology. You know, like I said, I got nothing, I get nothing out of this. I personally go and and get a couple of training sessions a week and I just like to mix it up.

And I think it's a really well put together program. Definitely makes me feel like I'm training for sports still, you know, which is my background. And, I liked that. So I think if anybody is. You know, in played a sport high school, college, whatever, something like that. Or even, you know, before that, and they like you're training like an athlete, it's, it's a really good fit.

So guys, as always, thank you so much for listening to the podcast and we'll catch you next time. 

Hey, thanks so much for listening to the podcast today. If you want to find out more about our guests or about Athletes' Potential and how we can help you continue to be active and pain-free and light head over to athletespotential.com to learn more.
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Reach out to Abby:

Via website: https://www.intrepidperformance.com/
Via Instagram: @abbyrkeenan & @intrepidperf

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