Fridays with Celia
Week 2 of my 60 Day Body Composition Journey: Lifting heavy + a look at my killer full body program.
Welcome to Fridays with Celia!
In this weekly column which debuted last week, I share my personal health optimization experiments with nutrition, fitness, peptides, and other biohacks — all in real time.
For the next seven weeks, I'm focusing on my body composition journey: building muscle, burning fat, and getting metabolically fit after a DEXA scan revealed I was "skinny fat." Read story [here].
Many of you share my goal, so I'm diving in to figure it out. Hopefully it will be somewhat entertaining to watch me get my ass kicked.
Today’s insights are about strength training. Next week I’ll share my experience injecting the peptide Sermorelin.
xCelia
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Maybe my “60-Day Body Composition Journey,” is a lame title. It’s actually my Anti-Frailty and Look Better Naked program. Two important goals!
Everyone benefits from gaining more muscle — it prevents falls, a leading cause of death in the elderly, improves metabolic health and promotes longevity. And, it looks great.
But, building muscle gets harder as we age due to declining testosterone and growth hormone. Additionally for women, lower estrogen and progesterone negatively impacts muscle, bone and recovery.
It’s time for a new strategy.
Week 2 Learnings:
Mindset drives performance
I'm super motivated right now. It helps that I publicly committed to this journey, which keeps me accountable! I believe I can transform my body, so I push past my comfort zone — even with a minor foot injury (from dancing in heels!). Careful movement beats a mindset of being "injured."Fuel properly
No more fasted workouts. A bit of protein and carbs pre-workout (like half an apple with nut butter) boosts my energy and power. Exercise physiologist and performance expert, Dr. Stacy Sims says the anabolic window post-training is 30-45 minutes for women, so fueling promptly after lifting is essential. I’ve been leisurely hanging in the sauna and end up feeling starving when I get home.I'm stronger than I realized
After only five sessions with my trainer Kolton, I've progressed steadily to heavier weights to focus on building muscle mass. A 35 lb kettlebell deadlift felt so heavy at first but then I surprised myself by blowing through 15 reps with 40 lbs. It’s such a great exercise to shape and strengthen the glutes as well as hamstrings, lower back, quads, core muscles and grip strength.
Here’s a look at my full body Wednesday Program, which I’m learning to do on my own and loving! Kolton can build you a customized plan (and train you online if you live outside of LA).