297: Dr. Vonda Wright on Women, Strength & Mobility in your 30s, 40s, 50s

ELLA: 00:00:01

Hey, you're on air with Ella and today is an interview. In fact, it's an interview with Dr. Vonda Wright, a double board certified orthopedic sports surgeon. And she's absolutely amazing.

I cannot wait for you to hear from her. Do know that she is a doctor. Unlike me, she is actually a doctor. But she's not your doctor and neither am I.

Everything you hear today is for informational, even entertainment purposes only. But if it piques your interest, of course you should connect with Dr. Wright or your own doctor. Doctor.

Anyway, today we're talking about she has an expertise in musculoskeletal aging, injury prevention, treatment, et cetera. And we are talking today really about how tied to estrogen diminishing a lot of these injuries can be.

We touch on frozen shoulder, the thing that I've been dealing with for a while.

And then we get into very specific tips about what we would do if we were in our 30s or in our 40s or in our 50s based on her experience and her knowledge. As always, every single thing we talk about will be captured in the show notes for today. And that can always be found on the blog at onairella. Com.

There's no with. It's a long story. It's on airella. Com. Okay, let's jump in with Dr. Vonda Wright. Here we go.

Welcome, you're on air with Ella where we share simple strategies and tips from people who are doing something better than we are.

Whether it's wellness or relationships to just living better and with more energy or changing your mindset to accomplish more in your own life and succeeding however you define it, this is where we share the best of what we're learning from the experts and we're learning more every day. Live better start now. Let's go. Hey, you're on air with Ella. And it is my pleasure to introduce you to my new friend, Dr. Vonda Wright. Hey, Dr.

Wright, how are you?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:02:05

How are you?

ELLA: 00:02:06

I am thrilled to be talking with you and this is so great. It's such a small world because I had Celine Yeager on the show fairly recently. She came on to talk about perimenopause.

You know, she was the co author of Roar and Next Level. And when I was talking with her off air, we were chit chatting about other topics and she said, you have got to talk to Dr. Vonda. Right?

And here you are.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:02:27

You know, it's wonderful how galaxies collide and the right people just meet each other. I adore Celine and feisty menopause and I See you all over social media. So I'm so glad to be here.

ELLA: 00:02:38

Dr. Wright, will you tell everybody who you are and what you do?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:02:42

Absolutely. I'm Dr. Vonda Wright. I am a double board certified orthopedic surgeon. And you are mobility Doc.

Because I believe by harnessing the power of mobility that I am going to save you from the ravages of chronic disease. And that's what I've built my entire career on.

So whether I'm asking you to walk, which frankly, we've all known how to do since we were one year old, or I'm taking care of elite people, everything in between falls within my category of mobility. That will save your life.

ELLA: 00:03:14

Yeah. You shared a statistic with me that blew my mind.

You said 80% of all women will experience pain, increased arthritis, tendon failure, loss of lean muscle mass. That got my attention. And other musculoskeletal symptoms. We're going to call them MSK a lot, by the way.

Musculoskeletal symptoms that are a result of estrogen loss. And 25% of those folks will suffer debilitating symptoms. Now back up. I'm not, I'm not a big fear monger. I don't.

That's not how I choose to live my life.

But I am starting to read more and more about what aging has to do with estrogen loss, has to do with what happens to your body mass, what happens to do with your athletic performance. I could go on and on. And this is your life's work.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:04:01

It is. So in: 2008

Because I did not believe that aging was an inevitable decline from vitality to frailty and that there was nothing we can do about it. So I went on an academic journey. I'm an academic surgeon. And I was out to prove that what we believed to be true about aging was a myth.

And you know what?

Thankfully, we were able to prove that you can be healthy, vital, active, joyful across your lifespan if you invest every day in your health and mobility. I decided to do a really deep dive into my own perimenopause and menopause.

Because you would think, Ella, with all this education that I have and my mother saying, how many more degrees do you need? That I would have learned. But perimenopause hit me like a train. I did not know that my once in a lifetime, regular periods.

I mean, I was a skinny girl, I was a skinny athlete, irregular all the time. Finally My periods are regular in heaven. I'm like, oh my God, I'm finally a woman. That was perimenopause.

And then I started hot flashing and then I could not get out of bed in the morning because my entire body hurt.

I did not know at that time that that was because fluctuating estrogen and the inflammatory role, anti inflammatory role, it has, has a huge impact on every musculoskeletal tissue.

Because if you want to get a little sciency but not too sciency, every, every musculoskeletal tissue, whether it's tendon, muscle, bone, ligament, even adipose, which I count in my bucket, has these little baskets within the tissue called estrogen receptors. And if estrogen is not sitting in those baskets, none of the healthy things that go on in those tissues happen.

Women walk into my office maybe with an isol shoulder pain, sometimes they're just hurting all over and do not know why. And do you know what they say to me? They say, I don't know what happened but I am falling apart. And sometimes I think I'm crazy.

Because 80% of women as part of their perimenopause will have total body aches. It's called arthralgia. Some will have frozen shoulder, which we're going to talk about. Some have an advanced progression of arthritis.

I mean cartilage needs estrogen and nobody knows that. And two, your point? 25% of women are devastated by the pain. And then they show up in their orthopods office. Bless their hearts. I love these guys.

94% of all orthopods are men. They've never had a uterus, they've never had ovaries. They don't know what it's like. And they say, well the scan says nothing's wrong.

And you know what? Women walk away defeated thinking they are crazy. You are not crazy. You are not falling apart. You are perimenopausal.

ELLA: 00:07:02

I'm telling you, I am. I am here to learn about this. But I'm going to be so honest with you, I'm dreading this. I mean it sounds terrible. Doctor.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:07:12

No, no, no, no, no. You know what? There is a lot of fear mongering out there and people playing on the unknown, playing on the. Oh my God, it sounds so bad.

And you know I just told you my story. But you know what? I did and this is what I want all women to do. Women figure stuff out, right?

ELLA: 00:07:29

Amen.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:07:30

I didn't know how to raise children. I figured that out. You know what? And some of it was reading books, some of it was asking questions, some of it was trial and error.

Women figure out how to navigate in sometimes all male environments. I mean, women figure stuff out. What I want you to do is not be defeated by the unknown.

But I want you to become hungry for knowledge and I want you to go read and I want you to ask questions until you get an answer. And do not be put off. Here's what's good about menopause. Just gonna lay it out. No one's asked me this before. This is why I love menopause.

I am old enough to know what I know and I am old enough to be secure in my decisions and know that I can figure out anything. Right? That comes, at least for me. It came. Not when I was 20, not when I was 30. It came LA in the last 10 years or so. So there's that number two.

I don't. Thank God there's no periods anymore. Wondering if you actually have tampons in your bag and run. You know, borrowing from strangers.

I mean, please, there's none of that.

ELLA: 00:08:34

No borrowing to keep it forever.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:08:37

No. No more having sex and think. Wondering if you're going to get pregnant all the time.

And there's plenty of remedies for midlife, all the sex stuff that goes along with it. I mean, that's not. That's technically not my wheelhouse, but I'm happy to discuss with you how I.

ELLA: 00:08:50

Oh, don't worry, I got a whole show coming up on that.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:08:53

Yeah. So you know what, There are so many things about being in this phase of midlife.

You know, one thing I talk a lot about is we need to pivot our mindset. Aging is the most normal part of living. From the minute of our conception to the minute of our death, we are aging every minute. Aging is natural.

How we do it is what's important.

ELLA: 00:09:19

That is everything that we're about here, Dr. Wright. And it's one of the reasons I was really interested in talking with you because you have such vitality and vibrancy and energy.

And you said you're 56 and you're probably like me. I identify as a 34 year old woman, but I'm like, I'm how old?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:09:39

That's enough birthday candles to burn down my kitchen.

ELLA: 00:09:43

Exactly. And meaning, I'm super proud to be on this journey. And as the joke goes, it beats the alternative all day.

But also, like, we are here to be an example. Everyone in this conversation with us right now is here to be an example of what is possible.

Now what I do see though is I do see a dearth of examples of what is possible. And that is changing. That is changing right now.

We are right in the middle of something in the zeitgeist changing where we're having way more of these conversations and we're being really honest about it. And I am here to tell you I am intimidated by this journey. I'm scared of it.

I have apprehension, but I keep looking, I keep scanning the environment for examples of what's possible. And funny enough, the universe keeps giving me people like you, like Celine, like Dr.

Stacy Sims, et cetera, to learn how to do this with strength and power and vibrancy. And that is what I love about your work.

And one of the questions I have for you though, because one of the things when you, when we were kind of setting up this conversation, you said that so much of these symptoms that so many people go through like tendon failure and loss of lean muscle mass and frankly I sometimes think of it as like it feels like a loss of control over your body because if you've been somewhat athletic throughout your life, you know, you exercise, you get a result, right? You're latent for a while, you get a result from that too. But then you start exercising again and you get a result.

And one thing that I am hearing and observing and to some degree experiencing is that sometimes you're exercising and you're doing the things and you're doing the training and the results, they come in quite as quickly as they used to. Dr. Right. Yeah.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:11:25

You know what, I totally identify with that because when I was in my, certainly in my twenties, but thirties, even my forties, I had my almost sixteen year old daughter when I was forty. Even then if I would notice I would gain five pounds. And I want to caveat, you know what, I've, I'm careful but I'm not maniacal.

Like I know what's good for me and I usually because I don't diet, I lifestyle right, I don't diet, I just eat what I know is gonna, is going to make me feel amazing.

But if I would notice something was getting tight or you know, oh, the scale said this, all I ever had to do was refocus my attention on what I knew was great to eat, make better choices and actually go out and put my sneakers on and run, I was a, you know, I, I picked up running and then I was training to triathlon and it always worked.

But you know, the truth is we are not just older ver of our 20 year old selves, we are different women, our chemistry is different, our hormones are different and it just takes a minute to learn. But here's the deal.

You cannot apply what you did in your 20s, just gutting it out, eating what you want or eating okay and expecting the same results. Women in midlife. And I've made this transition. It is not rocket science. I have totally changed the way I exercise.

And I'll tell you, there's just three or four things that I changed that have made all the difference. But you can gain control of yourself physically. It is not hopeless. So here's a few examples. As the mobility doc.

You know what I like loved endurance running. And then I decided I don't really love that. I love high intensity interval training.

Getting my heart rate up to 186, I feel so powerful, I get the dopamine rush. Okay, well what happens to middle aged people when they high intensity interval train six days a week just to get the dopamine rush is they get hurt.

They have to take three weeks off. It crashes their brain and their body. It's frustrating. I know, I'm an orthopod. This is what happens. You're in my office.

The other thing to note is that when your heart rate is up that high the whole time, you're not burning fat efficiently. Right. So how have I changed the way I am mobile?

Well, I got my lactate threshold measured and you don't have to, but I happen to have an office in a place called the Lake Nona Performance Club where we have a metabolic lab. And I found out that my body, my cells, my little powerhouses, mitochondria, you've probably heard about it.

The powerhouses of our cells burn most efficiently in a place called zone two, which is not zone six, which is sprinting at your maximum heart rate, which is what high intensity interval training will do for you. It is very low. So for me, even though my maximum heart rate is 186 and I can get it up there and it feels okay, 125 is my zone 2 heart rate.

ELLA: 00:14:20

Interesting.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:14:21

I do three hours a week of zone 2 heart rate monitored exercise three or four hours and then twice a week at the end of a zone 2, not cold at the end, I sprint because I want to call upon my large muscle groups to work harder. That, my friend, has totally changed my Fitness. Use zone 2, it makes you better at zone 3, 4, 5, the higher performance levels.

And listen, I'm a sports doctor. I'm going to tell you that professional athletes Base train. This is called base training 80% of the time.

So everybody out at the gyms is killing themselves with high intensity interval training. And that's not even how the pros do it. So let's do it like the pros do it and be metabolically efficient.

ELLA: 00:15:07

But you're also doing something that we know that we're learning is critical at this juncture. And what is that?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:15:14

Yes, I have gone back to lifting, per Stacy Sims. Lifting heavy. Shit, right?

So in high school, in high school when girls didn't lift, I out of obstinance, I lifted with the football boys because I was not going to be told that I couldn't be in there because I was a girl. So I was powerlifting and I squatted 200 pounds and I got the shirt right, the 200 pound club. And then fast forward 30 years.

I mean I didn't start powerlifting again until six months ago, but I am now powerlifting, lifting heavy. So we do four power things. Back squat, deadlift, bench press, and then my pole is, is doing pull ups.

You put down the little pink mamby pamby weights. They are not for you, they are insulting. You are not going to build enough lean muscle mass to be ripped unless you want to.

But your body and metabolism demands lifting heavy. And you know what? It's faster. And many of us have to learn how to do it again. I did. I had to hire a strength coach to teach me again.

It'd been too many years. But I'm not kidding. My body composition has changed. I'm not trying to lose weight.

I lost 10 pounds because my body replaced all this garbage with lean muscle mass. I'm more efficient. Just two things I've just said to you. I didn't do 69 things. I base trained and I lift heavy. So anyway, it's not rocket science.

It doesn't have to be biohacking. It has to be consistent.

ELLA: 00:16:46

It's funny that you mentioned that I had to put myself on mute because I was giggling when you showed that little baby weight. But that's about all I can lift right now. So my right shoulder, I've had frozen shoulder since July of last year.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:16:58

Oh no.

ELLA: 00:16:59

And it's okay, I'm back to like, I'd say I'm, I'm at 90% now. So it's been a long journey. It's been super fun. We're going to talk, talk a little bit about that because this is salient to everyone listening.

I don't care if you've never had it or you never will. There are a couple of things that you have shared that I think are really, really important.

So one of those things is why does someone like me who's in their late 40s and who's there, I almost said hyperactive, like very active, slightly hyperactive. You think you're winning, right? And then my shoulder shut down. And there are two things that are huge that I want to tell people.

One is that this type of injury can be estrogen related. We have barely scratched the surface on that. But secondly, there's just one really important thing I want to get on the table too.

And then I'm just going to turn this over to you, Dr. Wright, and that is once you start having any shoulder stiffness or pain at all, the worst thing you can do is stop moving it. Is that true or false?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:18:00

Absolutely.

You keep moving that shoulder, even if you have to crawl your fingers up the wall or pick up your arm with the other arm and make it go, because a shoulder will become stiff and you will not be able to reach behind your back for your bra strap in one week. And then it can take you two years to melt that. Melt that frozen shoulder. So resist the urge to protect it, right?

ELLA: 00:18:22

I protected it.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:18:24

Well, everybody does. It's a natural instinct. It's what you think we should do, right?

ELLA: 00:18:29

And it froze solid. And that's a misnomer because there was nothing cold about it. Am I right?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:18:36

It's hot. And I call it hot and on fire. Right. The reason we get frozen shoulders are a couple.

One is in this age group, estrogen is, we have said this before, it's a huge anti inflammatory effect. It actually works in hand, in hand with our immune system.

And when we lose our estrogen or our estrogen starts to wildly fluctuate, our whole bodies become inflamed. Number one, we also become less insulin sensitive so we have more circulating air, quoting sugar.

And diabetic people have more frozen shoulder because of the higher glucose content in their blood and the inflammation that causes, right? So there's a lot of reasons that in this age group we get out of nowhere, minding our own business. Frozen shoulder.

And so what you do is, right, you just keep moving it. If it's so frozen, it's just impossible. I don't like to do this, but sometimes I do.

We put a little steroid in there so you can tolerate it and then go to therapy. But it's, you know what, Honestly, it's three degrees a day, but it will come back.

ELLA: 00:19:45

What do you mean? Three degrees a day in, in terms of recovery.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:19:48

Yeah. People get discouraged that they just don't go to one therapy and all of a sudden their arms back.

If we get three degrees a day back or they're, you know, if you're lifting your own arm up and it seems like it's right in front of you, it's not. And higher. 3 degrees a day, in 10 days you've gotten 30 degrees. Just push it a tiny bit. That's better.

ELLA: 00:20:08

Oh, I would kill for three degrees a day. Thank you for sharing that. I will actually get in on another episode.

We will get into dry needling and the impact that that has had and some other therapies that are possible.

But one of the reasons I bring this up, besides the fact that if you are having shoulder pain, please do not ignore it, please do not self diagnose and then try to protect it like I did, that's just, just a PSA that I have got to make in good conscience. But one of the reasons I bring that up is because it's just an example of this type of MSK symptom. Again, we're talking musculoskeletal.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:20:43

Musculoskeletal.

ELLA: 00:20:44

That's why we're saying msk. Can you draw a tighter correlation between MSK symptoms of perimenopause and menopause?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:20:52

Yes, perimenopause on average in women. If you're taking populations of women, it can start as early as 35. Things are going a little weird.

45, most of us are beginning, beginning to be perimenopausal. Average age of menopause is 51. And then, you know, it continues for the rest of our life. Between 45 and 55, you can lose 20% of your bone density.

ELLA: 00:21:14

Ish.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:21:15

20% of your bone density, you can lose in that 10 year period.

ELLA: 00:21:20

20%.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:21:21

20%. And we have ladies only until we're 30 to lay down bone.

So if you are less than 30 and you are not out there bashing your bones, getting great nutrition, lots of minerals impacting your bones, you're doing yourself a disservice. And, and most importantly, if your mother is shrinking, that means you have a history of osteoporosis.

Bones, ladies just don't get short for no reason. Our bone, our spinal columns compress. My mother used to be 54 like me. She's now down to my chin. That's osteoporosis.

ELLA: 00:21:56

Hey you guys, I appreciate these 5 star reviews so much because honestly, it helps me get better guests. Because when the show does better and it ranks better and people are taking notice.

It just helps me get a better quality of guests and people who have a great deal of experience, etc. So thank you, thank you, thank you for being willing to invest a few minutes of your time into rating and reviewing the show.

I appreciate your comments so much. Now, fun fact, if you add comments to your review, I will read them on the air.

So if you want to tell somebody happy birthday or if you want to give somebody a shout out or give your own business a shout out, put it in the review. I'll read it on the air. By the way, if you left one six years ago, you can open it up and Update it. Thanks.

Speaker C: 00:22:38

5 stars from Smesh who says I love how this podcast has evolved. Ella has fantastic guests who offer insight into whole body and well being, mind, body, spirit and personal growth.

I love how she will offer her own insight as well to balance the discussion. She asks the right questions and isn't afraid to respectfully challenge her guests.

ELLA: 00:22:59

Okay, let's get back to Dr. Wright.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:23:02

If your mother is shrinking, ladies, get out there and bash your bones now. What happens if you're already perimenopausal?

Well, insurance will only pay for your DEXA scan when you're 65 and I say that is ludicrous and too late. Go get yourself a DEXA scan so that you know where you are, what your bones can tolerate.

Because the next thing I'm going to tell you requires lifting heavy. But I only want you to lift as heavy power lift if you know your bones are okay because you can break.

Number one, your bones will lose bone density and we have to prevent that. A simple thing I said. I think I probably said it to saline and now it's all over the Internet. Everybody's talking about jumping 20 jumps a day.

In the back of me I have these little orange jump ropes. I give all my private client ladies 20 jumps a day.

We just need to get the electricity going through our bones so that they lay down mineral minerals. So bashing your bones number that's so interesting.

ELLA: 00:23:55

I was going to ask you what you mean when you say bashing your bones because it sounds bad.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:23:59

No, any impact sport, running, jumping, climbing, jump roping. But only 20 jumps a day. You don't have to do hours of jump roping. I'm not really kidding. That is enough a day.

But get a DEXA scan if there's any doubt because the next thing I'm going to tell you to do is is building muscle mass. Now we Know why you've mentioned Stacy Sims and Next level. She puts the research together pretty well.

But basically, we want to call upon our muscle groups which function in little pods. We want to recruit a lot of them at one time and stress out our muscles a little bit so that they grow instead of atrophy.

But we need to know if our bones will allow us to do that. Because here's the deal. This is from my own research that I did for many years at the University of Pittsburgh.

I wanted to know if we were capable of maintaining lean muscle mass with activity. So I did this study where I looked at athletes 40 to 85 and I took MRIs of the, of their thighs.

And when you, if you've ever had an mri, you know that you're just laying there in that noisy tunnel. The noise you hear is a magnet clicking on and off. Well, what the magnet is doing is taking pictures of slices of your body.

So I did this study of MRIs and of triathletes. You're a triathlete. And what I found was that in the legs of triathletes, because of their daily investment in mobility.

Now these weren't pro triathletes. They were like mere mortal athletes. Like you and me. We're just out there doing our thing. They're normal, just active people.

Their quad muscles were gorgeous. Great architecture. Their hamstrings were gorgeous. Very thin, peripheral fat. When I looked into the muscle with a microscope, there was no marbling.

So if you're going to visualize this from a non scientific way, it's a flank steak. No fat, lean muscle everywhere. Right, but what happens if we sit around for 35 years behind a desk and don't pay attention?

Well, what happens is we go from flank steak to rump roast. We are highly marbled, grossly fatty, infiltrated. Our, our muscles are surrounded by fat. And, and listen, this is another topic.

Fat is not just hanging around in inconvenient locations. It is a noxious metabolic organ that is secreting adipokines. So when you sit around for 35 years, your flank steak turns to rump roast.

But what happens in people who invest every day in their mobility? Well, flank steak, if you exercise every day, rump roast, if you sit around for 35 years.

But what if you exercise and you're a 70 year old triathlete? Flank steak, you look like you're 40, your muscles are gorgeous, they're strong and there's no marbling. So what you do every day makes a difference.

So ladies, I'm telling You figure out your bone density and then go lift heavy. But the thing that people don't see that often is what happens on a cellular level. Satellite cells are muscle stem cells.

And when we lift heavy, we cause those cells to be healthy and to multiply and to make growth literally the fountain of youth cells. So from a muscle level and at a cellular level, every minute we invest in our mobility can save our lives.

ELLA: 00:27:16

I want you to tell us what that looks like in really practical terms, depending on say, which decade of life that we're in. Because I think that that's how we make this accessible for people. Because there's someone listening right now, Dr.

Wright, who's like, I haven't lifted heavy ever in my entire life. If I lift something up, I'm going to fall over and be, you know, one with the ground. So I want to bring this to where people are.

So if I'm in my 30s and I'm fine, you're fine, you're feeling fine, I'm fine, I'm fine. What should I do? I'm in my 30s. What should I be doing pretty consistently right now to set myself up for success?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:27:54

At a very minimum, you use the skill you've had to your since you were one year old and you walk, you get up from the table, your dishes are going to be there when you get back from your 45 minute walk and you just get mobile.

Because that is always, no matter which decade, we get to a great way to start, we know how to do has a profound effect on our bodies and we feel good. We're not defeated by the complexity of some exercise routine and we're falling off the stepper or whatever, right? Start with walking, number one.

Number two, if you're 30 and never have done anything, start reading the labels on what you're eating.

You just need to know so you're so familiar that you know that the yogurt you think is so good for you actually has 30 grams of added sugar for some, right? We can't know where we're going unless we know where we are. So walk, know what you're eating. And you know what, you don't even have to go to the gym.

You can figure out on your living room floor how to plank. Just start working on simple things. Push ups, planking, that's enough until you gain the confidence, right?

And then you can go do what you see out there, okay?

ELLA: 00:29:07

And I know something about you, you that we have in common and that is we're going to talk about our 40s now, when I turned 40, I was in the best shape of my life ever. Ever.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:29:18

Yeah, me too.

ELLA: 00:29:19

Same. Yeah, yeah, I've heard you say that. And Dr. Wright, if I knew then what I know now, I would have started lifting. I wasn't lift.

I was doing body weight resistance and triathlon training and that was it. And if I had started lifting then, I would have set myself up better for success. I'm not exactly in the crapper now.

There's still hope, but that's what I wish I had known. What would you tell us? If we are in our early 40s.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:29:45

I'm going to tell you that your 40s are your critical decade to get your shit together. Because everything's going to change if you're like me and all the other women once you truly get into perimenopause.

Had I known Ella, they were so gotten back in shape around 45. I mean, and I was okay, right? I. I mean, I don't want you to think that I was huffing and puffing. I was fine.

But oh my gosh, Ladies, if you're entering your 40s, now's the time to really decide that you are worth the daily investment in your health.

So in your 40s, if you are not already doing some kind of mobility, whether it's spinning or walking or rowing, people want me to tell them how you get it all in at one time. Row, row. Just row. Get some mobility in number one. Number two, learn to lift. You know, why are we intimidated by meathead gyms?

I've done enough surgery to tell you you have the same muscles in your body as those meathead people in the gym. Yours are just smaller. It's not like they have something special. So get there, you're going to use the same muscles.

And I'm going to say to you that it's been my experience people really encourage you when you're trying, and they're so encouraging. So in your 40s, now's the time to pay attention because you don't want to wait till your 50s. I don't want you to wait. Start mobility.

Anything will do. And then get fancy. Start lifting. Go learn from somebody.

If you haven't been reading labels, you must start eating 1 gram of protein per ideal body weight a day. And that's a conversation about how to fit all that in.

But when you decide you are worth the daily investment in your health, then nothing else matters. And you will prioritize it until you believe that every excuse will get in the way. But 40 is critical. We gotta get there, Ella.

ELLA: 00:31:41

Well, and I find that decade also is a period of such fluctuation. So just buckle up because like I said, At 40, I was in peak, peak, peak fitness. At 44, I was like in terrible shape.

Everything was broken, you know, total gut issues.

And now as I'm wrapping up the 40s, I feel fantastic and great shape, good fitness, still like, you know, not perfect, not ideal, but very happy, very comfortable. And I'm a little bit nervous, you know, in anticipation of what's around the corner. Dr. Wright, I've been honest about that.

But one thing I do hear from literally everybody, sample pool infinity, is that it's like when you're in your 40s, you run into this point where, you know, you can no longer quote, get away with things and you have to start dialing it in now. This is not science, it's just a sample pool of infinity. And it's been a hundred percent consistent with every single friend that I have.

It's like you reach that point and you're like, I used to be able to kind of eat what I wanted, sort of like within range, right? Drink what I wanted, sort of within reason. And now I'm at this point where I know I need to dial it in again, again.

I can't just go about willy nilly and do whatever I want. I need to kind of pay attention a little bit.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:32:57

I think what you're expressing is this thought that comes with my mentality and mindset of being in this agency. Agency is the thought that we have the ability to choose. We are nobody's victim.

I mean, the whole first section of this book strong I'm writing is that I am nobody's victim. I get to choose how I feel. And if I want to feel amazing consistently, then I need to choose those things that will help me do that.

Otherwise I'm leaving my destiny, how I feel, how I interact with people based on how I feel, up to three Girl Scout cookies, which is wtf, right?

ELLA: 00:33:40

Okay, we cannot leave off another decade that I want to talk to you about. And this will be our last one for now. And that is is we've advised the 30 year old, we've advised the 40 something year old.

What do you advise now to the 50 something year old or plus, they move, right? They move and they're trying to dial it in a little bit, but they would not describe themselves as athletic.

But you know, they care and they want to take care of themselves. What would you tell them? They, what dials should they be playing with right now lift heavy.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:34:10

Learn how to lift heavy because it, it's about maintaining your lean muscle mass. So what does that look like? I want to carry all 10 bags of my groceries on on in one trip which is what I do. I pile them on my arms.

I want to be able to stay in the house that I'm in that has stairs. I want to be that fashionably dressed. I better get on the fashion part of it.

But that fashionably dressed purple haired 97 year old with the big glasses, well I'm not just going to arrive there your 50s. Now's the time to start lifting heavy so that you can walk.

It is the time to if you're not based training, get on that sister because walking is easy. It is the time to know what you're putting in your body because time is. There's no more time to fool around. 50, you get to be you.

Nobody's mother is telling you how to be anymore. And if they are, listen, I mean come on, she's been telling you what to do for 50 years. Just hop off. You know what I'm saying?

ELLA: 00:35:09

I think that it's so critical that no matter where you are on the timeline that it is is never too late to start taking care of yourself. There are plenty examples of people who didn't pick up anything heavy until they were 65 years old.

And I mean you're the doctor, you tell me worth it or not worth Completely worth it.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:35:28

And if you need inspiration, there's this whole group of women, you've probably heard of them called the Wonder women. I mean Train with Joan started at 65. Susan Guidi, who go who's under the moniker Kiki Mouse gets fit because that's her grandchildren call her her.

She started at 63 and she is so ripped. She, I mean I talk about her all the time. She started 181lbs of fat and she is so muscle right now and she's just got a new lease on life.

People, there is never an age or skill level when your body will not respond in a positive way to what you ask it to do. You just need to ask it and believe that your future can be hopeful.

ELLA: 00:36:09

Okay, last question.

What have I not allowed you to say about the power of mobility and injury prevention and some of those ailments that we opened with at the top of the show, like what have we not put on the table yet that you would like to say about that?

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:36:24

You know, there's a direct correlation between our ability to move our joints and injuries. It is the natural history of our muscles and tendons to become tighter and tighter with age.

That is one of the reasons you see older people shuffling along. They lose their joint motion. More prone to falls. You know, it's so silly to say that, but. But people in orthopedics say motion lotion.

So we gotta lube up our joints by continuing to be mobile every single day. And listen, we learn to do it when we're one years old. It is not a new skill, people.

You know, the thing you have to remember even when it hurts to move is that by moving all your joints are going to stay so nimble. Mobility is the key to feeling young. You want to be able to go anywhere and walk anywhere and get on a plane if you want to.

And you do that only if you're mobile.

ELLA: 00:37:14

Dr. Wright, thank you so much for coming.

Dr. Vonda Wright: 00:37:17

It's been my pleasure. Thanks, Ella.

ELLA: 00:37:21

Okay, that's a wrap. I hope you enjoyed today's show and got something out of it that you can use.

If you did and you want to learn more, find me on instagram @onairwithella or get the show notes and links@onairella.com there's no with. It's just on airella.com. thanks for listening. Listening. Thank you for sharing the show and thanks for inspiring me. You are, quite simply awesome.