Episode 3: Faith, Fitness, and a Solid Foundation w/ Amy LLinas

In this powerful episode, host Matthew Headden welcomes Amy Linus, a three-time natural world figure champion, to share her insights on the vital connection between faith and fitness. Amy opens up about her journey, emphasizing the importance of building a strong foundation in faith, which has been her anchor through life’s most challenging moments.

Amy delves into the unrealistic expectations and intense pressures often imposed by the fitness industry, particularly on women. She candidly discusses how these pressures can lead to negative self-perception and unhealthy behaviors. Instead of conforming to these standards, Amy encourages listeners to focus on their own goals and well-being, reminding them that true success comes from aligning their actions with God’s will.

A key takeaway from the conversation is Amy’s advice to "meet yourself where you are." She emphasizes the importance of making small, intentional changes in one’s life, surrendering control to the Lord, and trusting in His plan. By doing so, individuals can build a more meaningful, faith-driven approach to fitness that prioritizes spiritual health and physical well-being.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone seeking to navigate the complexities of the fitness world while staying true to their faith. Amy’s wisdom and experience offer valuable guidance for creating a balanced, God-centered fitness journey.

Key Takeaways:

• Faith provides a solid foundation for navigating life's challenges and the fitness industry.
• The fitness industry often imposes unrealistic expectations and pressures, especially on women, leading to potential harm.
• Focusing on personal goals and well-being, rather than external standards, is crucial for maintaining a healthy mindset.
• Making small, intentional changes and surrendering control to the Lord can lead to a more meaningful and sustainable fitness journey.
• Amy Linus advises listeners to "meet yourself where you are," emphasizing the importance of starting from a place of acceptance and trust in God’s plan.

Transcript

Matthew Headden (00:00)
Welcome to the Inner Outer and Above podcast. Today I am super excited to introduce my friend, fellow coach, on fire for Christ, brother Dan McDade. Dan, welcome to the show and thank you for blessing me with your

Dan McDade (00:12)
Thanks for having me. I appreciate it. Looking forward to

Matthew Headden (00:19)
Now I'm going to do the best introduction I can here for you, but then I'm going to let you do it because I really can't do it justice. Dan is a coach of fitness and health coach that specializes in helping busy parents because if anybody knows about it, it's that guy. He is on fire for Christ. We actually met in person at the real coaches summit this year and have stayed connected, just bonding as brothers in Christ ever since. But actually before we go into that, let's go ahead and open ourselves up in prayer. Got a little ahead of myself there.

So we can make sure we're focused and keeping the first things first Father God in heaven you are so good Lord. We pray that We reflect your light today that we steward the gifts that you have given us and that we approach Everything with love and that the audience that listens to this is receptive That we serve your kingdom and edify you and everything we do in Jesus Christ. Holy name. We pray.

Dan McDade (01:13)
Amen. Yeah, so I think one of the important things to kind of start off with, and you kind of said this already, is that, you know, first off, you know, I am a follower of Jesus, that, know, is who I am, that that's kind of the most important thing. I'm also a husband, father to three wonderful kids, boy, girl, boy.

Matthew Headden (01:13)
Brother, tell me who you are and what you do.

Dan McDade (01:37)
And yeah, they certainly keep me busy. So that is my true identity. That is who I mostly am and then what I do for work, because that's kind of, you know, just a separate thing. I am a health and fitness coach. I have been doing that for 15 years now. I work primarily my full -time job in the healthcare industry. I'm an exercise physiologist and been working here in a healthcare system in North Carolina as my full -time job.

Then like a whole bunch of other people during COVID times, I started my own online coaching business when everything kind of shut down. And I've been doing that since 2020, just like a whole bunch of other people. So like I said, about 15 years of coaching experience and then since 2020 doing some online work with people as

Matthew Headden (02:24)
That's absolutely incredible. And for those who don't know, what is an exercise physiologist? What do you do

Dan McDade (02:29)
So basically that is just a fancier way of saying I am a personal trainer with just some extra letters behind my name, just with college degree in exercise physiology, exercise science. So yeah, it's really nothing more special than that other than like I said, just some extra book knowledge, which for the most

I find that sometimes some of those things aren't even totally that applicable to working with people on an everyday basis. It's the thing that I have found is that the more I do this and the more experience that I gain, I have learned over time that the basics work the best. And so as I've grown as a coach, my programs and the things that I put together for people have actually gotten simpler over time, not more complex. So yeah.

That's basically the thing.

Matthew Headden (03:19)
No, I love that. And one of my favorite questions is how would this look if it was simple? So what do you mean by making things simple? Let's go there because we do tend to make things very, very complicated. Let's be real. So what does simple look like in working with busy parents for

Dan McDade (03:37)
Yeah, so the biggest thing that I like to stress with my workout programs when I put them together for people, and this is me personally, other people have other opinions on things, I am not a big fan of doing quote unquote body part splits or like, you know, your quote unquote bro splits where, you know, one day we're having arm day and then we're having, you know, chest day, know, calf day, you know, that that sort of thing where we're breaking the body down into parts.

The way that I like to train things is based upon how our bodies move in real life. There's only so many basic movements that our bodies can do. We can squat, we can hinge, we can lunge, we can push, we can pull, and we can carry. And then within those things, you can also throw in some rotation. So you can rotate while doing some of those different things. And so when I am putting together a program for somebody,

I make sure that regardless of who they are, this is whether they are a 20 year old football player or if it's your 82 year old grandmother, every single person is doing those movement patterns. Now, which exercises specifically I have that person do is going to be really, really different, right? So like for example, anybody that follows me and sees some of the different things that I put in my training program as far as like what I share in my stories and everything.

I do a lot of more like conjugate based training and with that comes things like doing a lot of dynamic effort stuff where I'm doing setups with like a safety squat bar with chains and bands and all this different stuff. Does your 80 year old grandma necessarily need to be doing squats with chains hanging off the bar and all sorts of stuff? No, but does your 80 year old grandma need to be squatting? Well, if she sits in a chair and needs to get up, yes.

if she sits on the toilet. Yes, she needs to be squatting. So anytime somebody tells you like, don't squat, it's bad for your knees. know, squatting isn't bad for your knees. How that person maybe is doing a squat could be bad for their knees. But I like to base things around specific movement patterns. And I feel like that really simplifies things versus trying to cover every single little individual muscle group. And again, if you're, you know, a bodybuilder and

want to do that for like the purposes of like what your training program is, totally fine. But for the average person that I work with, and then especially like with my online training, working with busy moms and dads, busy moms and dads like myself, I don't have all day to work out, you know, so I'm looking for efficiency and you know, it being effective at the same time. So training these movement patterns, I get to cover a lot of muscle groups all at the same time. So it tends to be a really efficient way to train.

Matthew Headden (06:23)
I love that efficiency, right? And now you got a little, use some big words there on some people. know what you mean, but just to make sure they know what you mean by like conjugate training and using, you know, I know, you, love explosive training and things like that. Dynamic training using verbiage like that. What does the conjugate mean? What does the dynamic training mean? Because the average person may just not know what

Dan McDade (06:47)
Yeah, so conjugate training was a style of a whole workout system developed by Louis Simmons from Westside Barbell. And basically it's just a whole system based around getting you better at doing some of your big lifts like squat, benching, deadlifting without actually doing a whole lot of those things. So it's a way to prioritize really getting stronger without overtaxing the system.

And a big part of it is developing what's referred to as GPP. And that stands for General Physical Preparedness. And that is a big part of what I feel like parents can really benefit from. being able to look at, again, this is where movement pattern training comes into play, doing things like, for example, when I go with my kids and we go to the pool and my kids want me to be able to take them and pick them up and throw them into the water. Well, that's a power.

based movement, right? That's not a slow controlled sort of movement. So working on developing that power is important. And I know you and I have chatted before and everything too. like my wife and I, have a farm that we live on. And so there's times where doing, you know, dynamic based movements is important for some of the different chores that I have to do on the farm as well. you know, lifting heavy things, moving different things, you know, bags of feed, bales of hay, that kind of stuff. That that power development is important for doing activities like

but there's a lot of real world application that comes from doing that style of training, but I find it's a good way to get people stronger without doing overboard on like your big movements.

Matthew Headden (08:23)
love that. And for the average person, you know, that's not tossing bales of, hey, how in the world could a lunge be helpful? Well, when we lunge down to pick up the kids toys off the ground, when we're deadlifting up the suitcases to go on a trip, when we're getting off the toilet, right, compared to just sitting down and doing a bicep curl, like we're hitting those enough when we're doing those big movements, like a pull up like a chin up. So for instance,

You know, you and I don't program the exact same way, but very similarly, but nobody's going to really see me program an arm day unless it is a very rarity. Like we have a very specific goal in mind. What we may change up is if somebody wants to specifically grow their arms, I may actually have them do some arms before I have them do pull -ups, which is counterintuitive the way that most people are taught. But that's pretty much the only thing that I would end up changing there. but not for the average person.

Right? Not for general population. Like we're going to do those big movements first. There is going to be rotation. and just for, know, anybody listening, that's standard, like chest eight, back day, arm day, leg day. We've actually found that not to be actually the most optimal way to maximize hypertrophy or muscle growth. We're not stimulating it enough. And by the time you get to the last agum exercise, you're so gassed. If you to just split it into two to three days, you're going to be able to get more total volume throughout the week. Now.

Dan McDade (09:23)
Thank you.

Matthew Headden (09:46)
We're going into the training stuff and I think it's pretty rad that you have your homesteading and you have a farm. We'll go into that a little bit later. But I want to ask you something that's a little bit different. Now, you mentioned how many kids you have, right? Now, how old are

Dan McDade (10:01)
8, 5, and

Matthew Headden (10:03)
Okay.

So they don't keep you from exercising? Like how do you manage to have your full -time job, a part -time job, be a husband, a soldier for Christ, and work out, and be a dad? Like how in the world do you manage

Dan McDade (10:17)
So that's one of the coolest things about this is, and this was a big investment on my wife and I's part, but when we built our home here, we moved out into the country. So we're not actually that close to any sort of gym or anything like that. So we decided to invest in having a home gym. So we have all the basics of different things that you can think that you need, know, squat rack, barbell, weight plates.

dumbbells, whole bunch of kettlebell, a piece of cardio equipment, different things like that. with that, what that gives me the ability to do is have my kids hang out with me while I'm working out. they get to, now that especially that they're getting a little bit older, they can kind of choose when they come and hang out with me. And a lot of times they want to come hang out with dad when I'm working out.

they get to come in and kind of play around with some of the different exercise equipment. I don't make them do anything. I don't tell them, hey, you got to do X number of repetitions and do this exercise or do that. What ends up happening is monkey see monkey do. They come in, they see me doing specific things, and then they try to imitate those things. And they pick up on the different language of different things.

Kind of funny enough story with that just this afternoon on this past Tuesday, my wife and I were doing a conditioning workout together and we were doing some like sled pushes and stuff and the kids absolutely love doing that because what they get to do is they get to be my resistance for the day. They come and they ride on the sled and instead of, know, dragging a bunch of weight plates out and stuff, whatever, I just pile a bunch of kids on the sled. Well, anyway, my daughter, you know, just from seeing and hearing different things, she's out there and she is

pretending to be coach for the day. And she's out there and she's got like her whistle and she's, know, faster mommy, faster, go faster daddy. And it's like, you know, she's yelling at us and telling us to go and everything. And she just is, you know, expressing just wanting to be a part of it. And to me, that's an important thing. They want to do it. My youngest, I always kind of joke around with Him that he is my biggest workout buddy because he gets so excited.

when it's time to work out. And all he does, he comes up there into like where our workout space is and he just hangs out with me. And he's got like a little stuff that he'll mess around with like some like, you little two and a half pound plates or some of the other things and he'll take them and just kind of mess around a little bit. But he gets like excited because I usually work out first thing in the morning. So like, you know, I'm already done with my workout for today. Finished that a couple hours ago. But the night before he's always asking, daddy, are we working out in the morning?

and he's just excited for it. So for me, that's one of the reasons why they're not an excuse for me to not work out. They make it easier for me to work out because they want to join in. They look forward to it. Like, what if I tell my son that, yeah, we're gonna work out tomorrow morning and he wakes up and he's like, when are we doing this? And I'm like, nevermind buddy, not today. Daddy doesn't feel like it. I'd be letting Him down,

So there's that aspect of it too, of where just I'm setting Him up for success because I'm teaching Him just that. Working out every day, sure. Yeah, that's just what we do around here, buddy. It's not a matter of, you know, that we're, are we going to work out? It's just we are going to work out the next day. And he's always disappointed on Sundays is just the day that I take off from working out. You know, I work out six days a week.

But I take Sundays off and he asks me almost every single night, are we working out the next day? And Saturday nights a lot of times he's like, are we working out tomorrow morning? I'm like, no, buddy, Sunday is, know, daddy's rest day. man. And he just gets disappointed.

Matthew Headden (14:05)
That's so cool, man. I think that really does go back to Proverbs 22 six, right? Raise your children up in the way of the Lord so that they will never depart. And we often don't think of exercising and eating well as in the ways of the Lord, but truly our body is His temple, not ours. And you're just doing a killer job. And what a way to flip today's standards of, know, Hey, where's my cell phone? Hey, where's the door dash? Are we eating pizza tonight?

to flip it on their head because it's all they've seen and known, to them, it would probably be weird to be in a household. Wouldn't you think where, like the parent didn't work out, like if they were staying with a friend and the dad wasn't working out and the mom wasn't working out and eating well, that would probably be weird to them, right? Instead of the other way around where the kid's working out with you is kind of the odd

Dan McDade (14:56)
For sure, for sure. And yeah, that's just something that we actually we've had to have some, know, because kids will just kind of say the first thing that kind of comes to their mind. We've actually had to have some conversations before with them about not just blurting out things that comes to a child's mind when we're out in public sometimes.

because they see things, for example, they see somebody that's really overweight and innocently enough, my kid will look at me sometimes and just be like, they eat too much, don't they? Just like, please don't let that person hear that. But they're just making that connection between different things.

of like just seeing other people and like just kind of realizing that you know what mom and dad do all the time just just isn't normal. I'm probably going to butcher this statistic because the person that I heard it from on another podcast was quoting from somebody else and they made the you know little disclaimer that they weren't 100 % sure on the numbers either but they gave the statistic that the average American gets around 21 to 23 minutes a

of physical activity. Not exercise, but physical activity, which is... Who knows, potentially, yeah. Is that what it is?

Matthew Headden (16:12)
So the number is 14.

No, I've read the studies. The average Americans get 14. The average woman gets more, but men bring it

Dan McDade (16:24)
Wow, wow, okay, so even worse than what I thought. And they said also that they eat around 3 ,500 calories a day. That's normal, that's normal. And so I want my kids to think that what we do is normal, but that's what they're being also bombarded with outside is, it's normal. So like, when we go to the pool,

And our friends literally that are there will sometimes joke around with us because you everybody brings snacks to the pool you know you bring some drinks you bring some snacks and you're kind of hanging out and you know they have like a lifeguard break you know every hour or so and everybody hops out of the pool and they go for their snacks. Well we're bringing things like you know watermelon, strawberries, blueberries, know things like that like fruit. And hey I love watermelon on a hot day. To me it tastes fantastic.

Matthew Headden (17:13)
Is there anything better than watermelon on hot day? Now I gotta ask you, salt or no salt on the

Dan McDade (17:18)
I just do straight watermelon. That's just me.

Matthew Headden (17:20)
I'm the weird one here. Nobody else seems to like this except for me. And in my head, I lied to myself. I'm like, well, the electrolytes from the watermelon need the salt to be absorbed into my system. And it's 111 heat index here. So let's just salt everything.

Dan McDade (17:34)
Well, there's actually my wife had a friend that moved here from Texas that she met and I guess down in Texas, hot sauce on your watermelon is a thing. I had never heard of that before, but yeah, like it's. Yeah, and I tried it and I thought it was decent. Not something I'm going to do all the time, but hey, you know, to each to each their own, you know, but like we get out and we're having this break time and you know we're having.

Matthew Headden (17:46)
So is tahini. Tahini on watermelon is fire.

Dan McDade (18:01)
the fruit or having not drinking just all this junk and everything. But we're standing there eating that and the other people break out bags of potato chips, donuts and all that kind of stuff. And they start sharing it amongst themselves and they go like, I would ask you guys if you want it, but we know that you won't. just that sort of thing. We know what the McDades are eating over

And it's just kind of almost somewhat become a joke between, you know, different friend groups and everything that like people see that we're different. And so I'm sure that that's the same, you know, with like our kids, they're probably noticing too, because now that they're kids and of course, they want the junk food, but they're somewhat also learning that when they do have that, because, you know, I'm not going to never let my kids have, you know, potato chips, like, you know, have potato chips.

But there's been times where we let them have it and then afterwards they didn't feel good. It actually like made their stomach upset and in their brain there was actually that connection where my oldest he actually said something about it. it. Eight years old,

Matthew Headden (19:07)
At five years old, he made that connection. Okay, excuse me. So eight years old, he's making the connection that, hey, like I can have these things sometimes. But when I do eat them, I don't actually feel very good. Like that is mind blowing to me, dude. Like, seriously, it's most adults that I work with, and I'm sure yourself haven't made that mind body connection yet that like, wow.

when I eat like this, I feel like this because so often we hear, I feel fine, but God didn't create us to feel just fine. Nor did he create us to feel to be normal. He called us to be in the world, not of it. Right. So I, I truly believe and you know this and we've discussed this that stewarding the gift that he gave us by nourishing foods like what you're doing and teaching your children these things.

has long -term ramifications that we really just can't even know at this point. Like, does that ever register in your head? Like, does the fitness, the nutrition, and the faith ever cross over for you guys? Is that one of your drivers there is just to raise them up the way so that they aren't sick and so that they don't have these generational chains like so many families do here, unfortunately?

Dan McDade (20:25)
Yeah, I mean, I think that is super important. It's definitely a big part of it. mean, obviously, you know, God has entrusted, you know, these three kids to me and my wife to raise.

A big part of that, yes, obviously is physical health, but also spiritual health. If we're not doing the things with them that we should be doing with them in both spiritually and physically, I'm failing as a parent at that point, right? So it's my responsibility to feed them both physically and spiritually.

Matthew Headden (20:56)
I don't think I've ever heard that phrased any better. So maybe you should host this show, man. don't. But I think that is beautiful. Now you, I know you had mentioned this to me before, but you had told me, and I know we have to work on this, because as you know, like children are master imitators and horrible interpreters. They don't know that mom and dad had a 12 hour stressful day that Becky at

was going off, I'm giving Karen a break and picking on Becky for a second. Karen needs a breather. All they know is when mom and dad are tired or that when mom and dad get home from work, they do it DoorDash They don't understand the reasoning, right? And it's, I love that you're not vilifying anything. You're not saying you can't have ice cream. You're not developing disordered eating patterns in your children. You're allowing them to make and teaching them to make these connections.

And I think that's so powerful, but they do, man. They blurt out whatever pops in their minds. So I think you had mentioned to me before one time where like, wait, your dad doesn't work out? That's weird. Like, didn't you tell me your son dropped that on somebody?

Dan McDade (21:54)
Mm hmm. Yeah, just just having discussions, you know, like amongst friends and you kind of, you know, eavesdrop and you kind of hear that that sort of discussion.

but yeah, and, or they've even mentioned that to me. And again, these are one of these things where we kind of almost have to like, can't say that kind of thing. where like the same way, how like, when they see somebody that is like really overweight, you know, they'll, they'll make the comment like, they must not work out or like, they must eat too much. You know, that, that sort of thing, or like, do they only eat junk food? You know, and it's just like, okay, we can't say that like, you know, about people, you know, sort of thing.

But they are making those connections between lifestyle and then the consequences of those lifestyles. So can you have ice cream? Absolutely. I like going and getting ice cream with the kids every now and then. Do we do it after every single meal? No. That's where you can run into trouble with things.

So yeah, it's all about balance and teaching them that it's good to have things and enjoy your food. I think that can be really good. But one of the big things that I try to teach my kids about food is that food is fuel, right? It's there to help our bodies do the things that we need to do throughout the day. And this kind of comes back to being on a homestead. I've got all sorts of different equipment.

Well, for each of those different pieces of equipment, they take different types of fuel. If you put the wrong fuel in different pieces of equipment, it's not going to run right. You know, if I take my tractor, you know, which takes diesel, and if I put gasoline in it, is gasoline bad? No, it's great for certain things, but I put that in that machine, that machine's not going to run right. So you've got to put the correct types of fuel in things. Same things if you have a piece of equipment that needs, you know,

like an oil mixture mixed in with the gas, if you put just straight gasoline in it, it's not gonna work right. So putting the correct types of fuel in your body and like using that analogy, like I literally will tell like, but my oldest, cause he's more involved with me with things. I've used that analogy with Him before, you know, about putting the correct types of fuel in our body, cause that's what food is, you know?

Matthew Headden (24:14)
I love that and I've heard the analogy. I've heard it done very badly, but it's there's also I love how you put it that there is a specific fuel for each occasion. And for a birthday party that occasion that fuel may be ice cream and cake.

Dan McDade (24:29)
Mm -hmm.

Matthew Headden (24:29)
for day to day, it's probably not the best fuel. In this case, the engine may be your mind or your heart that explodes, unfortunately. As far as in regards to thinking clearly, we go back to be sober -minded, but most people think that refers to alcohol, but it's anything that takes our eyes off of the Lord. If we're eating mostly highly processed foods, or I would say even 30 % of highly processed foods,

We're ultra processed foods to be very specific. We're probably not going to be sober minded and able to hear Him. you know, we go back to food is fuel. That is one of the purposes. And I do teach my people that, but it was also for celebration. It is also for fun because as you know, Ecclesiastes says you are to find joy in your food and drink. But if there is guilt, shame, loathing, or you don't feel well, or it's breaking you, that's no longer joy, right?

Dan McDade (25:21)
Mm -hmm.

Matthew Headden (25:21)
Um, and just a weird take on this. know I'm taking this out of context. I'm well aware. Right. But as you know, and most people don't serotonin, I E your peaceful hormone and dopamine, the one you get from all the likes on social media, 90 % of serotonin is made and stored in the gut and 50 % of dopamine is made and stored in the gut. Now taking that verse out of context.

Wouldn't that actually be finding joy in your food and your drink if you're eating mostly foods that God put here in the first place? Because so many people are confused. What do I eat? Well, a good place to start would be single ingredient, whole foods, fruits, vegetables, right? A lot of fruits, a lot of vegetables, very hard to overeat those things, lean meats, i .e. foods that God put here.

Dan McDade (26:05)
Mm -hmm.

Matthew Headden (26:13)
And one question that I have for people and it hits pretty hard is if we are a Christian and we are eating primarily foods or even over 20 % in my opinion, foods that man made, why do we trust man more than what God provided for us?

Dan McDade (26:30)
Can't improve on it.

Matthew Headden (26:31)
No, we came up with the atomic bomb, dude. Like we're not doing better than baby Jesus here, man. So I love how you're teaching it and raising them up just to where it's normal, but also allowing them. Like there's no guilt or shame. But how cool is it that they hold you to account sometimes? Like, dad, why aren't we working out? Or, hey, dad, get up. Now, for those that may not have the space, that don't have the farm

Dan McDade (26:50)
Yeah.

Matthew Headden (26:58)
You know, if you don't follow Him, you got to see Him and His wife. They're both His wife's incredible too. But let's say you're in an apartment or a small home. We don't necessarily need all of that stuff. Do we? For the average

Dan McDade (27:09)
No, no, you definitely don't need all of the equipment. A few basic things can go a long ways. like, for example, because the space that I do have, I don't have a ton of space in there. So I am looking to somewhat maximize my space. So like a set of adjustable dumbbells. The ones that I have, they go in five pound increments from five pounds up to 80 pounds.

Anything over 80 pounds for me with dumbbells is, I'll just do barbell work at that point if I need more weight, right? But you can get a lot done and that is a very compact piece of equipment, right? I I bought the stand for them, so I do have that. But like if I didn't have the stand, it would be something you could literally slide under a bed. Takes up little to no space. Same thing, you can get adjustable

and they range in size, very, very small. those three things, you're probably looking at maybe four square feet that it might take up when you're storing in your house. So if you have an apartment, a set of adjustable dumbbells and maybe even a pair of adjustable kettlebells, and you can work out with ton of variation for the next year.

I you might have to get a little creative and you might have some repetition in some of the movements that you do, but with just those two pieces of equipment, you can get in really good shape. And there's one thing that I like to stress with people. There is a difference in getting in just good shape for life versus wanting performance benefits. Right. So like I mentioned earlier, I do a little bit more of like the conjugate based training. That is definitely more of

performance based style of working out. I'm looking for more than just health benefits, right? So like, for example, like improving my deadlift. If I add 10 more pounds to my deadlift over the next year, I'm gaining zero health benefits at this point by getting any stronger than I already am. Like I can deadlift a pretty good amount of weight from my body weight. There's zero.

health benefits to me actually getting stronger than I am right now. So that's purely just, you know, for performance benefit. But there's baseline numbers that most people should try to shoot for, right? So getting at your grandma to be able to pick up, you know, 40 or 50 pounds from the floor, probably still pretty important. So that way she can have a certain level of independence. Just kind of sharing. Maybe I'm kind of getting off track here, but kind of a little side note.

I had a client, she is in her late 60s, early 70s, and she lives by herself. She has a couple cats. And looking for some independence, she wanted just to be able to get stronger because with those cats, she was going to like a Costco, Sam's Club or whatever, and buying the 40 pound containers of cat litter. And when she would come home every time, she would always have to call her neighbor and say, hey, can you come over and can you bring them in the house for me?

Well, after we'd been working together for a little while, I remember her coming into the gym, this is one of my in -person people, coming into the gym and just so excited to tell me that the other day she had gone to the wholesale club, bought the cat litter, brought it out to the car, put it in the car, got home, grabbed those containers of cat litter, carried them in the house, one in each hand, so that's 80 pounds, right, because they're 40 pounds a piece.

carried them in the house, put them away, and then after like 10 seconds stopped and was just like, what did I just do? Didn't even think about it because of all of the working out that she had been doing. It just almost came second nature to her. So that's where like with working out, I want to get people to a point where their strength impacts their ability to just live life.

get your strength up to a point where you can do all of the things that you want to be able to do in life and not have to worry about whether or not you're physically able to do it. Like that is my goal as a health and fitness professional for most people. If you have performance goals, sure, I can definitely help you with that. But I really like helping people get to the point where like, hey, I couldn't do X before and now I do it without even thinking about it. So that's

what I really like to do with people.

Matthew Headden (31:33)
So if you want your mom to have the kitty litter training program, go see Dan McDade.

Dan McDade (31:37)
Hahaha!

Matthew Headden (31:38)
Now in my head, I'm hearing the meow meow meow meow meow meow song, which you're welcome now. You're going to be singing it all day. And so is everybody else listening. But think about how powerful that is before we wrap up. So often people come to us. I know, especially me, from working primarily like towards fat loss goals and health goals overall. You know, I do measure that via blood markers and review that with all of my clients as well. It's priceless.

because people say, I want to get healthy. Well, how do we measure that? It's not just fat loss. I know plenty of people with abs with horrendous blood work, but it's not saying, okay, well, I want to lose this and like, need to starve myself and do these things. How do I make my life better? How can I serve the kingdom of God better? How can I be a better parent? How can I be a better spouse? How can I finish my work day and not be in pain?

That's what I should be training for as a result of these changes and these habits and these in this vision of how I'm eating and working out. look, I got the body I've always wanted because when we're making these changes, so often people think what they have to eliminate. What if we're focusing on what we can add in the positive instead of focusing on the negative because I have never, ever.

seen a long -term positive outcome with negative reinforcement. So you're looking at going, hey, now I don't have to call them. Who doesn't want their mom to not have to call the neighbor to help them? Because they go, don't worry. I got it. For instance, I have an 81 year old client who couldn't get up on and off the floor on His own. A lot of 80 year olds can't. My man is now doing Turkish get ups.

Now, why is that Turkish get up a helpful movement? My man, if he falls on the ground, can get up. He's not going to break His hip because he's doing side lunges, because he's doing squats, because he's doing Cossack squats, moving laterally, moving in every plane where most people just sit down. just, you saw I got fired up, man. I just get so fired up because what a beautiful shift in perspective, right? For those of you listening, I'm doing this to glorify God

Dan McDade (33:21)
So, thank

Matthew Headden (33:49)
all of my ways to serve the kingdom of Christ, to be the best husband, be the best wife, to be the best parent, to be the best mother that I can, instead of just loathing and desperation of I'm fat, I'm out of

How much more powerful, how much better do you feel just hearing that? Like I'm on fire, bro, and I'm already in

Dan McDade (34:07)
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, and I think one of the things that you just said, that was really powerful there is what being in shape, like what does that allow you to then do for others? like, if you are in good shape, what would it allow you to do for others as far as like, you know, serving the kingdom of God? So like, maybe taking somebody like, okay, if you were in better

Would you be willing to then go on that missions trip with your church because they're going to be going and running a medical camp or they're going to be going somewhere and maybe like helping to do a building project or something like that. But you're afraid that, oh, they told us we're going to be out in the heat and we're going to be working 10, 12 hours a day. I can't physically do that. Well, you're not an asset then. You're more of a liability if we'd have to be worried about you. Right. So being in shape is important.

because not only is it beneficial for you and your health personally, but then it allows you to then be an asset to other people. It allows you to be more of a servant. You can go help, you can go do those things. So I think that that's really important and kind of how you brought that back around that it's not just about you and improving yourself, but it helps you then be in a position where you can help others.

and you become the asset and not the liability.

Matthew Headden (35:31)
And doesn't that kind of punch the it's selfish for me to take time for myself and work out cliche and throw it in the garbage.

Dan McDade (35:42)
It's actually the opposite. It's selfish for you not to take care of yourself.

Matthew Headden (35:46)
because it's not just about you. But in our serving, we were never called to neglect ourselves, ever. We get so many parents get so busy serving. Let's look at the story of Mary and Martha. Jesus, tell her that she needs to be doing this and this and this. No, she's got the point right. She's focused on where she is. She's not so busy trying to serve that she missed the point. I think that story is so powerful for

Dan McDade (35:48)
Absolutely.

Matthew Headden (36:16)
She did what she needed to do where she did it. And then she focused on the important thing at home because we know we cannot pour from an empty cup, but so many moms, especially so many moms find it to be selfish. And I'm telling you ladies, it's not. We were called to be servants, but not to kill ourselves and not to serve just for the purpose of serving.

And sometimes when we do that so much, it's no longer even about helping that person. It's from a feeling of lack for yourself that they won't like me. They won't accept me. And it's one of the questions before we end that I ask a lot of the moms that I work with or the dads. Well, I need to do this for them and this for them. Yes, I understand. But you're doing everything and you're not teaching them these things. Do you want your children to go up, grow up to be strong, happy and healthy Christians? Yes, I do. Then you first. Do you want your

daughter to be a servant for every man for her husband in the future. No, I don't. Then you don't get to teach her that. Do you want your son to expect and demand every woman in His life from now on to be His servant? No, I don't. Then stop teaching Him that and teach them to be independent, which is what we are called to

Dan McDade (37:29)
Lead by example.

Matthew Headden (37:31)
There it is brother, that is the perfect way to drop it. Now I got a question for you. What is one piece of advice in 30 seconds or under that you can give to a brother or sister in Christ that has or doesn't have children to prioritize their health so that they can serve and glorify God through their body?

Dan McDade (37:53)
The thing I would say is don't over complicate it. Take action. That's the biggest thing. Just start doing something. Something is better than nothing. You don't need to have the absolute perfect exercise program. You just need to take action and start doing something. One day a week is better than nothing. Is two days better? Sure. Start somewhere.

and just start, just gotta start. What I tell my clients all the time is just show up. Showing up is more than half the battle sometimes and that's just what you gotta do. Just show up and just don't try to be perfect, do what you can.

Matthew Headden (38:31)
love that piece of advice in the same way like a devotion is better than nothing. Is it as good as the Bible? Maybe not. But is it better than nothing? Is listening to a sermon online quite as good as going to church in person? Probably not, but it's still better than nothing. Dan, I appreciate you so much. Now, how can people find you,

Dan McDade (38:52)
Yeah, so I'm on Instagram, Dan McDade Fitness, and that's where I post all my different fitness things. Like I mentioned, also have our Homestead stuff that we have. So McDade Homestead is another way that you can kind of follow that other aspect and vein of our life. But yeah, we're mostly on Instagram. So those are the two places that you can find

Matthew Headden (39:09)
I love it, man. Make sure to tell your beautiful wife I said hello. I look forward to getting up there at some point soon. Everybody listening, please like, comment, share, follow. This is going to be on Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube. please help us get the message. If any of this resonated, please do share it. Please do comment. And let's help get the word out to our brothers and sisters in Christ that we are called to steward this gift well.

and that it is a biblical principle and commandment to care for the temple that he gave us. I appreciate everyone listening. I love you, brother. I love every one of you listening. May God bless you all. I'll talk to you soon.