Manifesting a Hot, Healthy, and Strong Body at Any Age with Holly Perkins

 All right. Welcome Holly Perkins. I’m so excited to have you here and to dive into a conversation that I know my audience is gonna absolutely love, where we’re gonna talk about strength and fitness and becoming our health healthiest selves ever, and how to bring. Some of the mindset and manifestation into what you are already genius at, which is the science behind it, and you understand women’s bodies and women’s hormones and all of that good stuff.

So I’m so excited to bring like the science with the mindset and the manifest. Station and the identity work, and to dive into how we can become our hottest, healthiest, fittest selves ever at any age. So welcome Holly. Thank you for being here.

you. I’m so excited to do this and I gotta be honest, it is. My most favorite conversation, to be honest with you, I think one of the reasons why I’m so passionate about, about what I do, and I’ve stayed in the health and fitness industry for so long, is that I discovered at an early age, actually a very early age, When I used my body the right way, my spirit was just so big. And I think that like through all the years, which has kept me so committed to this conversation, is seeing how like when my physical body is at its best, my life is at its best. And

Yeah.

that like what you and I teach is gonna be such a juicy blend.

And thank you for having me. I’m so

A hundred percent because it’s so true. That is like, we need the foundation first before we’re, you know, manifesting things like we need the foundation, we want the, the radiance and the health and the nervous system regulation. All of that is a foundation in which you can just. Thrive from there. So, so true.

And I’ve noticed that in my own life, 100% making that shift. And I know you’ve witnessed me making that shift of really moving into health and focusing on it. And so we’re gonna talk about why it matters. But one of the things that I wanna dive into is, you know, in manifestation we talk about what you focus on grows.

And I remember back in the day. I used to focus on weight loss, right? I used to actually be overweight and um, you know, in terms of my BMI, I was overweight. I had PCOS and doctors had always told me, you need to lose weight to manage your symptoms, to feel better, to balance your hormones, all the things.

So my focus was always losing weight and. I could never lose weight. Like it was so hard. And if I did lose weight, I would gain it back and it never felt good. It always felt like this endless cycle of something that I just couldn’t achieve. And when the focus shifted, it shifted a lot. And I know that’s a big part of the work that you do with women is you focus on body composition instead of weight loss.

Right. And so from a manifestation perspective, why do you think that shift is transformational? And how have you seen as people have made that shift that’s impacted their health?

My gosh, that’s such a loaded question. I love that. We’re starting with that. I think what really jumped out at me in your story. Is this notion that you kept focusing on weight loss, there was this cycle and what you focus on grows. You know, there is a truth that the human psyche doesn’t wanna lose anything. We don’t wanna lose anything. We don’t want loss, right? It’s threatening to our survival on some level.

Yeah.

even just saying the words weight loss, there is this immediate stop because why would you wanna lose anything? And if we, if we go even bigger and look at the human survival, I’m really into human evolution now. Anyone who knows it better than me, I’m not an expert, but I love human evolution. So upright homo sapiens, which is our current species, has been around for, I think it’s around 500,000 years, but what’s crazier is that biped right? Human on two legs goes back two to 3 million years. our body in this current form. Goes back millions and millions and millions of years, that speaks to our ability to survive. we do that through a process called homeostasis. Protect what you have, protect everything that you have, your temperature, your breathing rate, your metabolism, your hunger, your sleep, everything. There is this complex system set to keep you where you are.

And so when a person focuses on weight loss. On some deep level, whether it’s science or spirituality, we don’t wanna lose anything. And so what I have found in my practice and with myself for sure, is that when a woman shifts that focus to something good, something positive, something worthy of celebrating something

Yeah.

they’re moving towards that makes them feel better, an improvement in their body composition.

Yeah.

of muscle, the adding of muscle, the speeding up of your metabolism. It just automatically inspires a very different vibration, a very different experience, a different level of joy in the actions that that. Bring about the result that you want an improvement in your body. Composition can mean more muscle, less body fat. Sometimes it means a lower body weight as well, but the end result is better. And so simply focusing on that as a positive is such a game changer for people.

It’s huge. Totally. And I noticed that myself. I think my focus was on, it was body composition. It was also feeling good, like I focused on wanting to feel good, and I knew that if I exercised, I did my strength training, I did. Some of my cardio throughout the week, I was going to feel good and there were certain foods that made me feel good.

And when I made that shift, it was everything. And it wasn’t that I stopped wanting to lose weight. There was still a part of me that was like, yeah, I would like to shed weight, but that wasn’t the focus anymore. And the effect of it was. Weight loss actually. Like I ended up losing 50 pounds by focusing on shifting my focus.

So yeah, it’s huge and I love that that’s the work that you do with people. It makes so much sense why that works. And you also talk about the difference between being thin and being strong and lean, right? So how does that identity shift change energy?

I would say it’s a, it’s a very similar concept, so when a person is working towards being thinner or smaller, there is this psychology about being less of what you are and. While it’s possible to achieve an outcome where you are smaller, tighter, and leaner, there by focusing on building muscle, building your strength and fortifying your metabolism is actually a faster process.

And so I always help my clients focus on improving their lean muscle. And that can either be an increase in strength, which is not synonymous with an increase in size. Those are actually two different things. A lot of people think that if they get stronger, their muscles will be bigger, and it’s actually not true.

There is usually a correlation, but I know for myself, for years, I got stronger. My muscles never got bigger,

Mm.

that can be a trade off. 

Totally.

Now I actually want my muscles to be bigger

Yeah.

of course. But when you go after that, being stronger and or building muscle over being smaller and thinner. It again, really changes the psychology towards

Yeah.

being better, performing better. And oh, by the way, when we look at the science and the research,

Yeah.

as you improve your muscle, whether that is. Its strength or its volume. There’s a, like a multitude, a complex cascade of biology that improves. And so simply by improving your muscle, you improve how you think. You improve positive mental attitude. You improve gut health, 

Yeah.

your ability to manage inflammation, you improve hormones, sleep, there’s so many things that uplevel. When you focus on really fortifying your body. from the musculoskeletal system and even more specifically the muscular system.

And so even, and when we do that, what happens? It’s so interesting, I see this with my clients all the time. When I can get them to do that for a number of months, they do end up smaller and thinner. 

Yeah.

like you said, they didn’t focus on detracting, subtracting from the beginning.

Yep.

on fortifying and amplifying and speeding up and improving, but the outcome was still the same, but the means to the end was joyful.

Right?

totally. Oh my gosh. It’s like a manifestation hack. It’s like I,

there are certain things that, I always say this, like whenever you do that foundational work where you are taking care of yourself, you don’t have to try so hard to think. Positive or you don’t have to try so hard to be in a good energy because it is a circumstance that you shift that automatically shifts your energy.

So I’m curious if you’ve seen that happening with people where they do the work on their, um, their body and their health and getting stronger and it’s impacted other areas of their life as an effect.

Absolutely. And. Again, I would say that is the biggest reason why I do what I do. overall mission is to help women live better lives. I really believe that if the women of the world were happier and healthier, this world would be a better place. I

Yep.

And wealthier. We’ll just add that into,

absolutely right? Like such a better place.

And

yep.

my conversation is to help her get there through

Yeah.

Yeah.

your life, be a better, bigger, better person in general. And

Yep.

and there’s a

Yeah.

to getting there. I think that’s the goal for

Yep. Totally.

um, so I often think of our. our spirit, our mental conversation, how we think our psychology as a separate and distinct aspect of our health

Yeah.

compared to our physical health.

And while they’re definitely, um, inter they interplay,

Yeah.

what I have found is for some women, not everybody. Simply focusing on improving their mindset, their psychology, their self-talk gets them so far for

Yeah.

And when we layer into that working on their physical body, which does the same thing, really brings about this natural improvement in how they think.

And so for the people who struggle to just uplevel their psychology, how they think about things, how

Yep.

to the world, I have found that when they add this physical practice in by improving their physical health, that stuff all comes so much more naturally.

Totally.

we know when you move, when you, when your physical activity is structured the right way.

Yep.

say that because. One mistake I see a lot of women making is they think more is better when it comes to exercise. And so if someone’s wanting to be more fit or to lose weight, they just start doing more without getting very specific about the protocol. And so, um, I talk about that in a very specific way.

But when you get that right, when you

Yeah.

conditioning, your nutrition and your health right?

Yeah.

Your biology improves your actual neurotransmitters,

Yeah.

the way that you think. And like I said, the way that you see the world there is this really incredible, um, sort of symbiosis between when you feel physically strong, you tend to walk through the world differently.

You

Oh, it’s true.

from a, a place of groundedness and

Yeah, when I leave the gym, I just remember when I started going to the gym for the first time, I was doing your program, and I would go into the gym and I would do my strength. On certain days. I would do my cardio. I would leave and I would feel like euphoric, right? It was just like a completely shift and ener.

It’s not always easy to get there, but I would always remember. How am I gonna feel while I’m leaving? I wanna have that feeling right. And that was another part of my intention was my mental health. Like it helps mental health so much, just like you’re talking about. And I wanna dive a little bit further into some of the beliefs that keep.

People stuck around their health because so many women, I mean, I talk to them every day. I was one of them, right? Feel so stuck in this area. This is one of the areas that I know a lot of women feel like I have been at this since I was 14 years old. It has been 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years that I have been stuck around.

This and I cannot figure it out. And some of them feel like I’ve tried everything and there’s nothing that works. I am curious if you could speak to that person and maybe shed light on what some of the limiting beliefs might be. You already mentioned one, which is, I just need to do more, which of course, my people.

That shows up in business too. Oh, if I just do more, I’m not doing enough. And like you said, that’s actually not the key. So I’d love for you to. Speak to maybe some of the belief patterns that come up that keep people stuck and what the solution is.

Yeah, so

question for you, Holly.

a good question, really, and, and it really, what you just asked is

Yeah.

It’s everything. Often people know what to do.

Mm-hmm.

So why don’t you do

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

of the puzzle. Now, I do wanna say one thing, that is very important. So I have been in the fitness and nutrition industry for 30 years in practice coaching people, and about 15 years ago, um, I started doing a lot more work in the media and I found that my message was getting diluted when I was trying to talk to men and women. So I shift my. conversation to women only.

Yep.

something I wanna say before I get to the limiting beliefs is that, um. There is so much information out in the world right now

Yeah.

improving your health and or becoming more fit. are a lot of thought leaders. There’s a lot of legitimate, bonafide experts.

There are a lot of influencers who were. Expert with their own body, but they haven’t necessarily been in coaching. And so one thing I wanna say first to the person who has been at it since she was 14 and

Yeah.

get to where she wants to be,

Yep.

is very important that you’re on the right protocols.

Yeah.

that because another big mistake I see in the world, especially with women, especially women over 30. Is that they’re often just doing the wrong protocol. And so if your physical conditioning programming and or your nutrition programming and or your cardio programming don’t play nice together, some of it could just be your protocols aren’t right.

That’s been my experience in coaching. Women

Yeah.

to me doing so much, trying so hard, taking two classes a day, eating low carb. It was their protocol that

Yeah,

and as soon as I changed the protocol, boom, everything changes. So I just

yeah,

to say that because sometimes it’s not your fault,

yeah.

it’s honestly, a lot of times it’s not your fault.

Especially when every day there’s a new media message that’s like, don’t do this,

Yeah. As if it’s one size fits all. Right?

as if it’s

Yeah,

and it’s

totally.

Yeah.

Uh, then when we talk about limiting beliefs, the thing that I’ve really been seeing lately that has been so transformational for my most successful clients, when we. When a person is taking action towards improving their health, getting leaner, improving their body composition, when you’re actually taking action, there is a tendency to think success is only when you arrive. Success is when I get to my target.

Totally.

is when I. The scale goes down

Yep.

buy smaller pants or whatever, whatever that end result is, because I do believe there needs to be a goal, right?

Yep.

to be a specific goal, and so a big limiting belief and problem is thinking that you’re not successful till you get there.

Yeah,

truth is that is largely what’s stopping people from getting there. You

yeah,

going to start a new program today and get there tomorrow.

yeah.

not gonna get there in three days.

Yep.

not gonna get there in three weeks. It might get you there in six weeks and it might take you 18 months. It, it all depends. 

Totally.

define success based on the end. It has to be. The celebration of the effort.

Yep.

today simply acknowledging and celebrating and making success be I am taking the actions, I’m

Yeah.

I’m following the protocols, I’m putting in the effort.

Because the truth is, if you are putting in the effort today. You’ll get there. I don’t know when. It depends on

Yeah,

and it depends on your protocol, but you’ll get there if you’re

totally.

the actions. And so as soon as my clients get that, everything changes, and then ironically or not, they get there a whole lot faster,

Yeah,

totally.

along the way, and it by the way, it makes the means to the end a lot more fun.

Yes, that is huge. I remember whenever I was doing this work and I shifted my belief, ’cause it used to be focused on, I wanna get there, I wanna see progress. And you know how it is with health and fitness. It’s like you don’t see progress overnight. It does take time and that’s how it is. So I focused on two things, just like you’re talking about.

One, I shifted my belief, so I started believing. I truly, wholeheartedly do. Don’t care how long this takes. Even if it takes me the rest of my life, I’m gonna get there eventually. I don’t care how long it takes. So I would celebrate even the smallest ’cause it took me a long time to actually do it. But if there was a little bit of progress, I was counting it.

So. Huge. And then it was just focusing on who I was becoming. ’cause it was about being the person that was healthy versus being the person at X weight. And so it was like, it doesn’t matter how long it takes ’cause I’m being healthy today. So you know, you’re speaking our language. ’cause this is all the work that we do around money.

Right? It is like. So similar and around manifesting money or you know, growing a business. It’s really the same inner work, but you can bring all of that into your health and wellness and fitness journey. It’s so big. I love it. I love it. So good.

I often say to people, just like what you pointed out. There are going to be stages between here and there.

Yeah.

There has to be incremental progress, right? And so you don’t go from zero to 60, you go from zero to five to 10 to 15, to 20 to 25. And so therefore, really is about those little steps in between.

If you just keep. the progress in small increments,

Yep.

you will get there. And when we’re talking physically and it, I really believe it’s the same with money. Certainly

Yeah.

own money journey. I didn’t

Yep.

broke to being a millionaire like

Yeah.

Yeah.

in between, right?

Yep.

with the physical body, that is really obvious and

Yeah,

and that to lose 50 pounds. You had to lose five pounds at some point,

totally.

lose eight pounds at some

Yep.

had to, right. And

Yep.

those things have to happen in between.

Yeah.

you accept that and know that, then it’s like there’s not this obsession with that final end result.

A hundred percent. Yeah. And I find that most of the things that I want and the goals that I have, my ego just wants it really fast, but it tends to take longer than I expect or think. And that’s okay as long as you keep going. One of the things that I also have seen within myself in the past, and then I’ve seen other people doing this is.

Every time they get motivated to start something no new, they get go from zero to a hundred and wanna keep that right, like zero to a hundred overnight and. Their identity isn’t there yet. Right. It’s like you said, their thermostat probably isn’t set to a hundred, and so maybe that lasts a week, or maybe that lasts two weeks and then they go right back to zero.

Is there a way that you work with people or what you would recommend for people who are starting out and maybe have that patterning of getting excited and motivated about the goal and then they go all in, but then they burn themselves out? Any recommendations for that?

big one. Yeah. And so I wanna bring it back to with the physical human body that is on earth in the 3D.

Yeah.

Yep, 

believe that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. We are having a human experience, like there is a physical exterior here that does live by the laws of physics

Yep.

does live by the environment that we live in.

And so one thing, again, going back to a mistake I see a lot of women make, especially the circumstance we’re talking about someone who excited. Jumps in and goes a hundred miles an hour like this, which is

Yep.

a lovely feeling, by the way. I’ve done it a million

Totally. It, it, it’s a dopamine head. Yeah, totally.

feels so good to feel

Yep.

up about something. It’s

Totally.

it is, but it’s not gonna last sadly. Um, but when we’re talking about the human physical body, and again, going back to human evolution and survival, your body actually doesn’t like that. Going from zero to 60. Actually with the physical body slows your progress and causes too much of a shift in your homeostasis on a biological science level. That really what I have found is that it causes physical burnout,

Yeah.

physical burnout, and I see it all the time when people jump in and they go hard. It’s about 10 to 14 days later. That all of a sudden they lose their motivation

Yeah.

and then they judge themselves for losing the motivation.

Yeah,

judge themselves negatively for not having discipline,

yeah.

why was I so into it and now I’m not.

Yeah.

in my experience and in my conversation. is a protective mechanism to homeostasis. Your body does not actually want to build muscle

Yeah.

against your survival. Your body actually does not wanna burn off body fat. That goes against your survival. And so when you jump in, literally physically, not just with the emotional enthusiasm, but with the actual physical activity, if you jump in too hard, too much, too fast, too soon. body literally backfires, and then you get biological stop signs that cause you to lose your motivation,

So it’s not a willpower problem. Your body is literally like, stop it.

Your body is literally like, okay,

Yeah.

stop because of muscle soreness. You

Yep.

because you’re tired. You won’t stop because you’re starving. Alright, fine. I’m gonna change your emotions.

Yeah.

gonna change your attitude.

Wow.

you depressed today. I’m

Wow.

you just not, I just don’t feel like going to the gym anymore. And

Yeah.

the time with my clients where it’s

Yep,

I just, I lost my motivation and I’m

yep.

need a few days of recovery, believe it

Yeah, totally.

to scale back on the volume of effort on a physical level so that we meet the physical demand to where your homeostasis is currently, so that if here’s your homeostasis, you’re not going from here to here. We just need you to be like here to here this week and then here to here next week.

And then here to here. Right? More gradual and

Yeah.

That is really where I see the interplay between like psychology and biology,

Yeah.

much believe that if you can’t psychology yourself around those hurdles, take a look at your biology because there might be something that’s influencing it.

So good. That’s so powerful. And that was another shift that I made. ’cause I used to do that thing and then I shifted my intention to, uh, my intention is just to move. At least six days a week. So the, even if, if I didn’t feel like it or if I wasn’t motivated, I was like, okay, 10 minute walk. That’s it.

That’s literally it. That’s the baseline, like down the street with Millie. That’s all I have to do. And oftentimes of course, I would start the walk and then I would keep going and that shifted things big time whenever I didn’t try to just go all in so hard. And, um, you’re so great with that. So yeah, I appreciate that because I think it makes.

All the difference. So, you know, a lot of women also are very intimidated by the gym, and I know you know, your work is, you’re in the gym, you’re doing strength training, and it can feel intimidating to go in there. I remember whenever I used to go into LA Fitness and it was me and a bunch of dudes and I was like, oh God, I feel uncomfortable.

How do you help women overcome that?

That fear of just like, I don’t fit in here.

yeah, that’s huge. And that was huge for me in my younger years.

Yep.

will say that is a very big theme for women. It really is. So if you are listening to this and you’re like, yeah, me too. Welcome to the club that is a lot of women, first and foremost.

Yep.

in the latter years since, of course 2020 and during the COVID time, I have started creating more at home programming. Uh, we had to in 2020. Also, I have a really incredible client who has worked with me for a number of years, and she is a typical, a classic introvert. She’s a little shy,

Mm-hmm.

definitely introverted, and she really wanted to improve her, her fitness really. and so when she came to me, we started her with workouts at home.

Yep.

And I knew she’d get the bug, right. 

It happens.

working out at home for like a year or two I think. And

Yep.

improved, you know, I sat, you’re gonna have to get some more dumbbells, you’re gonna have to get some more equipment.

Yeah.

continued. And it got to the point where she was kind of, her fitness level, was maxing out

Yep.

at home.

And I was like, Hey. Have you ever thought about going into the gym? And for her, that was absolutely terrifying.

Yeah.

I held her hand, I motivated her, I inspired her, I helped her, and I just said, let’s just try it.

Yep.

so she tried it and it was terrifying. She went to the section of the gym that was like, you know, the women’s only section, some gyms still have these,

Oh, that’s so cool.

Women’s only. Yeah. A

Yep.

of gyms that are, how shall I say it, like mom and pop

Mm-hmm.

gyms

Yeah.

seventies and eighties tend to have these women only rooms.

Okay. Yeah.

they tend to throw the light dumbbells and the equipment that doesn’t get used by the men, they tend to throw it in there, which is like completely ridiculous, but whatever. She started there. And built up her confidence. And then I said, Hey, it’d be really great if you use the leg press machine. And I knew she needed to go out onto the gym floor to do that. she ventured out into the scary gym floor with all of the men. Very slowly but

Yep.

she got more confident, she got more comfortable.

She started talking to people,

Yep.

in the end, a very long story, maybe longer now, is now using. An Olympic barbell at the squat rack, squatting, doing a barbell back squat like a pro. When I saw her squat on video, I was like.

Who is this?

have we been doing for three years? Because you have the most gorgeous barbell back squat. Thank goodness. She got braver and decided to venture into that scary, terrifying environment because

Yeah.

different, she bought a bikini. She’s starting to date again. She feels good about herself. It has been a massive personality shift

I love it.

have the chills as I say that because to me that is what this is about.

And by the way, that has nothing to do with going into the gym. So

Right?

your question very

Yep.

what I will say is you don’t have to go to the gym

Yeah.

there is so much to be gained from it.

Yeah.

gonna be some jerky people in any gym. There just are

In any place.

In any place, the mall, the ga, the grocery

Uh,

It’s true.

yep. Humans.

uh, humans, and I will say sadly, gyms do tend to be more populated by men,

Yep.

free weight section. And that’s still

Yep.

It is changing. and sadly, there is still a psychology where men feel it’s their territory

Yep.

gonna have some jerks. But here’s the thing. deserve to be there as much as anyone else.

Yep.

and on earth would you limit your potential for health? Why would you limit something you want for you? Why would you, uh, like, you know, just put yourself at a disadvantage of some other? Idea that you might have, that someone might be thinking about you by going to the gym,

Yeah.

Yeah, totally.

uncomfortable environment and I wish I could take that away, but I promise as you go and as you navigate some of those people that aren’t supportive, you’re gonna find the vast majority are Are supportive because here’s the thing, people who work out are nicer, happier, there’s

Yeah.

depression, they’re

Yep.

Ultimately, I believe that going into a public gym, it’s like the best people. Those are my people because most of them are so happy to be there. Most of them are so happy you’re there.

Yes.

them want it for you too.

Totally.

I honestly, like over the years, some of my most favorite people, some of my best friends were p random people that I met at the gym

Yeah.

That’s amazing.

continue, but I will

Yeah. No, it’s so true. It just takes, it is just like anything. It just takes get, having the courage, right? We talk about this in manifestation a lot, where it’s like, you’re not going to get where you wanna get without courage. You just have to have the courage to go do it. To feel uncomfortable the first couple times to realize you’re a total badass for doing it, and then take off the energy.

I’m a badass. I’m in the gym doing this. That’s what I started doing. And I will tell you just because. Most of my listeners are entrepreneurs. We are so low, right? For the most part, we’re at home. A lot of us are on Zoom. It is so nice to have a place to get out of the house and actually go and just have this big gym to be around people.

For me, who even as an introvert. It makes all the difference just being around humans too. So I used to be afraid of it, but that now I’m in a place nine years later after we started working together where I absolutely love getting out and I know that if I’m not feeling right, if I’m have low energy, like that’s a place that’s gonna shift things really quickly.

So, so good. I love that so much. And also, I wanna just share one more positive thing. Around manifestation that I have found in terms of doing this work around building strength. Because I think when we do that work, in turn, right, it’s a lot of self-talk. Building strength is about how do you talk to yourself as you are doing hard things and you know, lifting heavy heavyweights and getting up and going there.

You have to learn how to have a relationship with yourself that. Serves this right and you have to learn about self-talk. And I have found that, you know, we were talking about manifestation and health. I have found that doing this work around building my fitness has also translated in my life and business as well.

Because it’s the same process, right? It’s like how do you talk to yourself as you’re working through a funnel that’s really hard. It’s the same thing in the gym, and I actually really love to intentionally practice it there, like when I’m holding a plank. What am I saying internally? And I remember I’ll always have like trainers or if I’m in yoga people like, geez, you’re smiley.

You look so happy doing this. I’m like, well, internally, not so much, but I’m practicing it, right? Like I am practicing being happy in this. I am practicing, talking positively to myself through it. And that practice for an hour or 45 minutes in the gym will translate into your life in such a. Powerful way, so I love it.

I love it so much. It’s awesome. Yeah,

on the other side of discomfort,

yeah,

always said that the more you can actually embrace the discomfort, whether it’s the emotional psychosocial discomfort of going into a gym or the physical discomfort of holding a plank for a long

yeah.

of time, the more you can embrace that. And literally breathe through it and just

Yep.

am okay in this uncomfortable moment. massively transformational

Yes.

I, I, I can think so many times. When I was really working on actually getting my weight loads up, I was working towards a body weight barbell deadlift,

Yep.

I remember thinking there’s a moment in order for strength training and building muscle to be successful, you actually have to. Push the muscle beyond its current ability to create the stimulus, because the stimulus is what causes the muscle to change.

Yep.

Yep.

the hardship, the discomfort, the hard effort has to come as the stimulus

Yeah.

to rise up to it and confront it and work through it to actually change.

And so in strength training, when you’re really tackling, higher. Higher weight loads according to your ability.

Yep.

a moment where you’ll actually physically slow down during your set rep by rep, by rep to the point where you actually hit a sticking point, and so on a deadlift it would be you get the weight off the floor and about halfway up. You can’t move. You’re stuck halfway up and you can’t push through that sticking point, but you mentally don’t wanna give up. And it’s at that moment that if you just hold it and you breathe and you have that self-talk, as you

Yep.

and just say, I’m just gonna keep trying and pulling and breathing and see what happens. You might be actually physically stuck for 10 seconds. 

Yep.

that long, five to 10 seconds. But then if you breathe through it, you’ll slowly inch out of it. And for the times that that would happen to me, I’m like, wow. Now that, that is a metaphor for life. Mind over matter and also. Breathing

Yeah.

during that discomfort to just sit in it, be in it, and just say,

Yeah.

would happen if I just tried to keep going?

And that

Yeah.

is so applicable to an entrepreneur’s life. So I’m an entrepreneur too. I’ve been in

Yep.

for myself my entire career. So I see, I see those parallels so much.

Yeah.

many aspects. Of being an entrepreneur and being successful in business, where that stimulus really does have to come at you.

You have to really confront something difficult and learn to work through it. And that’s how you uplevel as an entrepreneur as well?

Yes. Oh my gosh, so good. I love it. I love the parallels and that, that is why I love working out because I, it’s like I, I’m not someone who would consider myself athletic. I could shift my identity if I wanted to, but I love mindset work. I love Mind Over Matter. I love manifestation, all this stuff so much, and I bring it into it, and that’s what makes it fun for me.

And I, I. Feel like my listeners will be very similar. So it’s really amazing. So I wanna ask you a little bit of a more personal question. I’m curious, Holly, how you said this is my avenue. Like you said, there’s a lot of ways to manifest, there’s a lot of ways to create the body is my avenue. I’m so curious.

How did it become that? Is this something you’ve always been fascinated by into or was there something that you just got inspired by?

Wow, that’s such a good question. So, um, at a very young age, sixth grade.

Mm-hmm.

I, my best friend at the time, her mom was sending her to the local YMCA to take dance aerobics classes, and she didn’t wanna go alone. She asked if I wanted to go and I did,

Yeah.

it was the best I found my place. I loved

Love it.

I loved the movement.

Yep.

like I came alive.

Yeah.

so from a very young age, it was the only thing I knew. That I was passionate and excited about.

Yeah.

it came time to go to college, you know, I’m, I’m in my fifties, so when I went to college, it was. 1991 and the fitness industry really was more fringe. I mean, it was like meatheads at the gym.

Most

Yeah.

would walk or jog and that, or dance aerobics. That was about it. And so I remember my mom saying like, you know, what do you wanna do? What do you wanna study? And I’m like, I just wanna exercise. I remembering like I wanna exercise. That wasn’t really a profession back then, although there were a few universities.

Pennsylvania State University was one of the best accredited four year degrees in exercise physiology, and I was like so excited about it. And so I studied exercise physiology and nutrition, and here we are all these years later. But to answer your question more directly. I was always following my bliss. I just loved it and I just always found those parallels in life and it was the one thing that made life good.

Yeah,

so I think that for a lot of years, really until, probably up until I was about 40, so call it the first 20 years of my career,

yeah.

um, I was doing it because I loved it. Because it was what I wanted to do, right?

And then around 40 things really changed, and I realized that. It had done so much for my life at that point. I had a book published. I had

Yeah.

in business. I was working with all the major magazines. I was working with major celebrities. My career really became something big and real

Yeah.

and that’s when I realized like.

It had just done so much for my life, and I really then started to teach what I teach more from the perspective of helping you be happy and have a big life and be a better person. It’s really not about getting into a bikini. It’s not

Yep.

skinny jeans. I think that is absolutely valid. I think wanting to look better or be sexy in a bathing suit is 100% legitimate and valid. And to me, that’s a byproduct of all the other stuff. And so when we focus on you just being the biggest, best, most energized version of you. You may or may not want the bikini still.

Yeah.

And even if you do, that’s awesome. But it really, to me is something so much bigger. It really did become a mission and it became less about me and more about like helping women

Yeah.

get the bug like I did at a younger 

Yes. And I have to thank you because you helped me get the bug. It was nine years ago that I started your program and I. Have not stopped training since you, like, I got the bug. I love it. And so I, I mean, and here’s the thing. You guys, I’ve known Holly for a long time. We haven’t even scratched the surface on what she knows the amount of, I mean, you, you just, you’re a wealth.

Of knowledge on women’s health and like you said, women over their thirties and it’s just wonderful to work with someone who has true expertise and you do. And so I know that a lot of people are gonna wanna follow you and read your book. And I know you also have a three day event coming up. It’s a free event, right?

Um, so if you wanna tell people about that, I. Think there’s probably gonna be a lot of people who are gonna be interested in coming and learning more. So do you wanna share a little bit about that?

I love that the more the merrier. So coming up very soon, I’m offering, as you said, a totally free three day live training, and it is specifically about Muscle Mastery. I’m gonna be teaching you. All the ins and outs of how to become more muscle, less fat, improve your body composition. What is body composition?

How do we measure it? How do we actually improve body composition so that you can really master your muscle? The way you want. Some women want more muscle. Some women just wanna be stronger so they feel better in alignment with the conversation that we’ve had today. Some people do wanna lose weight, so it really is, it’s a totally free three day training where I’m gonna walk you through my methodology, which is one part strength training. One part nutrition, absolutely some parts mindset as well, but it’s pulling the curtain back on my methodologies. I love to share as much information as I can for free. Um, and this is one of the ways that I do it. And so I would love to have you join us. You can come to my website, holly perkins.com. You can just Google that to find my website. Slash Jamie and that’s gonna take you to the opt-in page where you can sign up, like I said, totally free three day training. And, uh, yeah, it’s, it’s incredible. This is the fourth time I’ve done a workshop like this, and they just keep getting better and better and better. The women that come to these walkaway really having a understanding of. Why they haven’t been successful yet and what needs to change in their current practices so they can get to where they wanna be.

I love it. Yes. We’ll definitely put this in the show notes too. I am gonna have to come and just, you know, upgrade what I already am doing and just learn anything new from you. I just, yeah. I so appreciate you help.

Thank you.

It’s been so fun to watch your journey going back all these years and a moment ago, you said, I wouldn’t consider myself athletic, and that surprised me

Really.

I would consider you athletic for

Thank you.

I see. You know, I follow your stories. I

Yep.

on Instagram and I know, and of course we have.

Personal friends and a

Yep.

So like I know how fit and active you are and I would say you are athletic and it’s really been so fun to see you work through these different stages

Yeah.

place where you are. Such an incredible example.

Thank you so much, Holly. I’m gonna take on that new identity. It’s just old to think that I’m not an athlete. ’cause I wasn’t quote unquote good at certain sports growing up, you know? But it’s like, yeah,

I’m gonna own it.

in dance aerobics. Right. But like I do consider myself an athlete, even though, you know,

Yeah.

year I didn’t know the difference between football and basketball for the

Yes.

Yep.

you can still be athletic in whatever definition that is for you.

I love that. I love that. All right. And I hope you all join us for that. Um, so excited that you have that coming up, and thank you so much for being here, Holly. I appreciate it.

Thank you for having me.

Yeah.