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Introduction to Katie Bramlett and WeShape with Matt Feret [1:09]

Matt Feret:

Hello everyone. This is Matt Feret, author of Prepare for Medicare and Prepare for Social Security Insider's, guidebooks, and online course training series. Welcome to another episode of The Matt Feret Show, where I interview insiders and experts to help light a path to successful living in midlife retirement and beyond. Katie, welcome to the show.

Katie Bramlett:

Hi Matt. Thank you for having me.

Matt Feret:

I'm glad you're here. So tell everybody what you do, how long you've been doing it, and how you help people.

Katie Bramlett:

I am the co-founder of WeShape. We are an at-home, technology driven, real-time customizable workout program. I know that's a mouthful. We launched the company about almost two years ago, about 20, 22 months ago. And what was the third part? I already lost you there.

Matt Feret:

How do you help people?

Katie Bramlett:

Oh, so that's the most important part. So we focus on helping people move better in their body. So we're not like a fad exercise program where we're just trying to get people to lose weight or burn calories or sweat a lot. Our main focus is how to get people moving better in their body because we have found that when people move better, they feel better. So it's a completely different approach to the fitness industry.

Matt Feret:

It sounds like it. So go into a little bit about movement. Are we talking flexibility here? Are we talking stretching? Are we talking jacking huge weights over our heads multiple times? What is this?

Katie Bramlett:

So all of our workouts are body weight movement, so we don't require any equipment. I like to tell people that behind the scenes our product is very complicated, but for the user experience, they just push play after they take a survey. Essentially we have a number of exercises, maybe we have 25 different movement patterns, and each movement pattern has a micro movement progression. So a pushup, we might have 15 variations of a pushup. So we're really trying to capture everybody's ability and we're trying to deliver that in real time. If the workout of the day is pushups and squats, and you might do a completely different variation of every single one of those movements that I would do. So you get to interact with the product. So if I push play and then I'm like, oh, my shoulder's kind of bothering me today, I'm going to scale down that pushup, and then the system will pull the movement pattern that's just below that and give that a try.

Oops, that still isn't working well. Okay, scale down again. So we get to adjust up and down in real time as you're doing the exercises. And so all of these movements are just like we're trying to focus on what are the biomechanics of the body and how is the body supposed to move? So sometimes I like to use the analogy of a squat is a really functional movement. You have to squat down to pick up groceries. I mean, we can figure out many examples of how the squat really helps us sitting on an exercise bike, for instance. I don't ever want to discourage people from doing something they enjoy. So I don't want to say don't do that, but that's not a functional movement pattern. Sitting on an exercise bike every day for 30 years won't actually help me in the long run. But knowing how to push or press or squat or sit up, these are functional movement patterns that help us.

So for the long haul, and we talk a lot about in our company, this idea around when we're going for explosive movements or really just trying to get the most number of reps in or this whole idea, no pain, no gain, just push through mentally. That is an injury waiting to happen and that is not what we consider sustainable fitness. That's not going to serve you. In fact, one of my best friends owns a number of physical therapy clinics. He's one of the smartest people I've met around movement. And he's like, if you are participating in an exercise program that's like that, it's not a matter of when you're, it's not a matter of if you're going to get hurt, it's a matter of when you're going to get hurt. And so when we're talking at WeShape, we're talking about what is a movement that would serve you for the rest of your life and how do we create programming around that and how do we also connect with the client in the way of where is their body today and how can I adjust every single movement pattern so that their body feels good while they're doing the movement pattern and then it gives them room to progress and strengthen that particular movement pattern.

Defining Personal Movement and Custom Exercise with Katie Bramlett [5:55]

Matt Feret:

Thank you. I got a whole lot of questions. They're not necessarily going to be in order, so I get it. It's body weight functional movement, but it's scale. And that's really, really important because you're right, I've kind of read similar things that I obviously can't quote off the top of my head, but things like, and I'm only going to use brand names, not because I'm talking specifically about them, but because they're out there in the universe, so I don't mean any of these specifically, but Orange Theory is a big deal. That's that really high intensity stuff. There's a lot of rowing, there's a lot of weights, there's a lot of sweat. CrossFit's been around since what, the seventies? That's functional movement, but that's a lot of Olympic lifts, deadlifts, sumo deadlift, high poles. I've done it. I mean, I've done it. I did it. Let's say I did it until I got injured and I got injured at CrossFit. I injured my foot and I injured my shoulder and I wasn't even doing a whole lot of crazy amount of weight. So the functional movement piece makes sense, but tell me more about the injuries or the lack of injury using body weight as a function, the scaling function. It seems to make a lot of sense to me. Tell me more about how that scale happens and how it differs from throwing, like I said, Olympic weights over your shoulder.

Katie Bramlett:

Yeah, I do weight training in addition to our product, I do that one or two days a week. So I don't want to discredit the value of that. I do it because I enjoy it, but I'm doing it with my co-founder who is a movement specialist. And so his entire priority and intention is making sure that my movement pattern and the foundation and my movement pattern is solid before he will ever add a pound of weight. So we have chosen to do body weight exercises because one, accessibility, and two, if I'm offering someone an at-home workout and Tyler, our movement specialist can't be in your home with you, I need to make sure I'm offering you something that's safe. Three, the scalability is infinite with that really, and you can get an incredible workout. So what we're really focusing on is can we get core movement patterns moving in the way that you're supposed to?

So we're not trying to just say, oh, you can do a pushup, you should do a pushup. I'm saying, when you're doing that pushup, can you get your shoulder here? Can you get your elbow here? Can you go down here and we're cuing you? And if you can't do that, that is your cue to scale down. That means you don't have the foundational movement pattern working well for you. Does that make sense? So it's like we're actually trying to get people to get the basic movement pattern completely dialed in with their form before we add any micro movement progression. So we're focusing on fundamental things like it's okay if you could do the pushup, but what if your movement pattern with that pushup is actually going to cause an injury? We need to address the movement pattern before we go to that level of a pushup or increase the rep.

So we're not focusing on those things. And you speak of CrossFit and I actually have done CrossFit and I don't have anything necessarily negative to say other than while they do care about form, the energy of that program is, come on, let's go. There's more competitive nature. And if you're looking for a sustainable fitness program, I don't know that competitiveness is really a foundational intention because remember, as we age and as our body, I'll just say that everybody's body has some micro movement dysfunction. That's just what it is. So we're really focusing on correcting those dysfunctions or addressing those dysfunctions because if you don't feel good, you don't care about anything. I mean people who are in pain, I mean it just takes over your life. And so we're like, how do we create something that is sustainable for the long haul? This is not about just getting through a workout and getting a pr. This is the thing you're doing today going to help you in the future, or is it setting you up to get injury and pain?

Matt Feret:

Yeah, my son, my high school age son, he lifts, he plays sports, and I listen to some of the weights and some of the progressions he's doing like going from, well, I was squatting 225 and next time I did 250 and next time I did 265. I'm like, oh my gosh. You must have rubber band muscles and ligaments to be able to do that at that age. And obviously peak performance, what is it, 25, maybe 30, somewhere in that range for the human body. And then after that you get into this sense of things start wearing out or old high school injuries actually show back up from football or whatever it is. If you are in a position where, let's take it two ways, you really haven't worked out before or you've done some whatever, call it treadmill at the gym, walking light jogging, or you've jogged at one point in your life, but you're not exactly physically active and meeting it, get back into it. Group classes can be intimidating. Big, huge grunting. Weightlifters can be intimidating at a gym. Is your product and your program good for that segment as well?

Katie Bramlett:

I like to believe we've really designed the product to be able to accommodate someone coming out physical therapy all the way to a professional athlete because we're focusing on the movement progression. So once you have mastered the movement, we're actually progressing you slowly to make that movement harder and harder and harder. So our co-founder, Tyler, he's an incredible mover, but he has spent a lot of his life recovering from injury. He was hit by a car, so he has a lot of knee problems. So he's spent a lot of time so he can do the harder movements, but it's not come overnight. I want to address the amount of work he put into that. And my point in sharing that is he had to film all of these video clips to be able to have this as the level. So I remember the week that he recorded all this content. Oh my gosh, he was so sore. He was like, I got to slow it down. So my point is, we can accommodate anyone from coming from physical therapy all the way to professional athlete. And again, it's just really focusing on is that movement pattern helping you or is that like, ooh, that's setting you up. Just because you can do the movement does not mean you should do the movement.

Matt Feret:

Makes sense. Let me ask the second part of that question then. Let's say I bike a lot. Let's say I'm a runner. Let's say I am in the gym lifting weights. Even if you're doing all that, I know that there are still imbalances in your body and people talk about core strength and people talk about imbalance between quads and hamstrings, and that can throw your back out, it's usually an issue down your back can lead to your leg, your leg can lead to your back. There's this whole interoperability, right? The leg bones connect to the knee bone. Yeah. So if I'm already active and athletic, how does this program fit in or to my habits, my workout regimen, whatever that may be, is it complimentary? Is it in addition to, does it replace anything?

Katie Bramlett:

I mean, it's a spectrum. So I do a lot of hiking and mountain biking and I do at least one or two days of weightlifting. And then I also do this product one or two days a week because it is addressing the movement patterns. And so I really just want to continuously practice. It's practicing how my body needs to be moving. And then you have people who are like, oh, I use this as my workout two or three days a week. So it really can be complimentary. It can be the basis of what you're doing. It can be your entire routine really. I mean, we always do encourage people if you like to walk or you like to do things outside for fun, we always think that's a nice additive. But yeah, it can absolutely be in addition to, or it can be just your foundational workout program

Toxic Diet Culture and Wellness Sustainability with Katie Bramlett [14:02]

Matt Feret:

In terms of calorie burn and people work out for a lot of reasons, feel good, tone their body, keep their weight off, justify eating a piece of cake, whatever it may be. We talked offline a little bit about toxic diet culture and calories. I think there's an overwhelming amount of people and nutritionists and workout folks out there that want to get your muscles bigger, they burn more calories or they want you to go cardio for half an hour to get down to a glucose state, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Can you talk a little bit about the functional movement piece and the body weight piece as it relates to the broader ecosystem out there of diet and exercise?

Katie Bramlett:

Oh man. Well, that's a layered response.

Matt Feret:

I just asked an 18-part question, which I'm sorry I did. So you just go, no worries. Take whatever you thought I said and go.

Katie Bramlett:

So most people, this has just been my experience. Most people don't actually really want to go to the depth of when should I have that smoothie so that I burn? It's like, no. So I want to take it back a little bit and just kind of address the basics, because if you're not really addressing the basics, I don't really feel like we could be addressing the in-depth nature of when I have my smoothie to burn the most calories. So do people sleep enough? Do people get enough rest and recovery? Do people hydrate enough? Are you drinking water? And then are people moving their body and enjoying the movement that they're doing and having fun? Maybe we're hiking with friends, maybe we're on a walk, maybe we're doing a reshape workout and are you in pain? Those to me, are the pillars of how are we caring for our body in a meaningful way that matters. And then we can dive down in the depth of other things, which I still believe there's a lot of misinformation, but I feel like most people aren't even really there yet. So I'm like, let's just address those things. Are you getting rest? Are you hydrated? Are you moving your body? Are you enjoying your life? These are really important things that I feel are more meaningful conversations. This whole idea of calorie burning and tracking the scale and this diet versus that diet, I feel like we're going down the wrong path.

I used to actually have a different fitness company that I shut down. It was a body transformation company. We did digital workout products that were really trying to get people six pack abs and whatever, and we did a lot of diet and nutrition advice, and we watched thousands of people transform their bodies. And many, if not all of those people were never as happy as they thought they would be or that happiness was not really sustainable. And so there is this misconception in our culture that if I get this weight or get this body, my life will feel good. And what I feel like we're trying to do at WeShape on top of really addressing the movement piece is kind of saying that's not true. We're actually hoping people can stop going down the path of diets, can stop with all of these crazy workout routines, can just actually get back to basics and focus on what makes them feel good rather than what makes them look good.

And we have found much better outcomes, much more, it's not just about the sustainable exercise movement plan, but it's also about the sustainable emotional psychological plan too, and constant dieting and constant inner criticism and of self because I ate the donut or I did this, it's just a rat race of psychological harm in my opinion and really is not serving us. So I like to try to see if people will be open to shifting the perspective and really figuring out, well, how can I connect with my food in a different way? How can I be less critical and less judgmental of self when I'm eating certain things? How can I check in with how my body feels rather than having the goal of making a calorie thing so that I can weigh this much? Like how can we shift the goals and intentions for our relationship with food? I think that's a more meaningful cause than diets and calorie burn and the number on the scale.

Matt Feret:

Well said. Thank you.

Katie Bramlett:

Yeah, I'm just so tired of it and I was obsessed with eating healthy, and then I started getting exposed to a different world of we don't need to live that way anymore. We can actually learn how to care for ourselves in a meaningful way that's not predicated on calories and scales and diets. And I literally gained so much of my life back from being able to retrain my brain and retrain my mind and unsubscribe from those belief systems. And I really can't tell you how much more peace and serenity and fulfillment I have not freaking out about those things anymore.

Matt Feret:

You said a phrase in there, self-criticism or something along those lines or food criticism. I don't remember what it was, but it was like the constant mental battle I think a lot of people go through, which is, I'm not working out enough. I'm not doing enough cardio. I'm not eating the right thing. I'm not eating at the right time. I'm fasting. I'm not fasting. I'm dieting. I'm watching my carbs, I'm doing the fitness stuff on the cell phone. I got my watch barking at me that I got to stand up, sit down.

Katie Bramlett:

It's chaos.

Matt Feret:

Yeah.

Katie Bramlett:

I mean, if you want to be in chaos, that's a choice. But I started going, I didn't even realize how much energy I was giving all of those thoughts. And it does take time and it does take awareness and it does take education. But the other side of WeShape, outside of just the workouts, is we have daily community calls where they can Zoom and have a call with our head coach Tyler and another head coach, Dr. Folden, who's a physical therapist that can address movement related questions. And then we have connect calls where we're just connecting with each other and talking about our journey of wellness. And then we have a podcast discussion group. So we also have a WeShape podcast where I bring guests on that are really talking about really specific topics around all these things that we're talking about with the toxic weight loss culture.

And so we really think the other side of WeShape is addressing the psychological and emotional and social kind of game that we're all a part of that is really not serving our mental health. And over time, I mean it takes time, but over time I've been able to say go from, oh my gosh, you ate that cookie and now you ruined your day because that wasn't a healthy thing and now you're probably going to gain weight and now you need to do this exercise. And now two, oh my God, what a great cookie. That was delicious. I mean, it didn't happen overnight, but if we think that self-judgment and self-criticism is going to inspire us to take care of ourself in a meaningful way, I don't know. That didn't work for me. I don't know if it works for other people, but we're in this trap of like, I'll just talk badly to myself and ridicule myself all day with my choices and then maybe that will inspire me to work out, or maybe that will inspire me to eat this other food choice. And I'm like, I guess all I can say is how has that worked for you? And if it hasn't worked, there is another way. And that other way in my opinion is learning how to connect with yourself in a deeper, more meaningful way where you get to decide what works for you regardless of what other people are saying on the outside. And that is a totally different path.

The Importance of Community in a Fitness Environment with Katie Bramlett [22:02]

Matt Feret:

Yeah, no, it is. And you mentioned community a lot, and I guess one of the benefits of going to group fitness classes or even a gym with other people around is who wants to work out in their basement by themselves with the cat all the time? I mean, I don't, I'll do it a little bit, but you mentioned the sense of community and it sounds like you've got both. And you talk about the importance of people can do this from their homes, but there's a community behind it.

Katie Bramlett:

So when we started going down this path, first we started with the product and we were like, okay, we were doing this other business. We didn't want to do that business anymore. And I came together with Tyler and we said, what do we want to actually offer people? And we started with the physical product, like the exercises, and we said, we want to design a program that is best for the human body, not that's best for our profit margin. Not that's going to sound the sexiest when people are like, but what does the human body actually need in terms of a long-term fitness program? So we designed that. The program took a couple years to build because we were not engineers, and we realized we needed to have a team of engineers to actually build what we wanted. And through that process we said, oh my gosh, we're really uncovering a lot of things in this industry that are causing psychological and emotional harm to people.

And we knew because we used to be those people giving that advice. And then I would watch the people never really be satisfied, never really be fulfilled, never really have what they thought they were going to have. And so I started getting curious, what is this other side of it that's affecting us emotionally and psychologically? And I realized if we're going to go down this path, we can't just have our members push play on the workouts and not connect with one another. They have to know that they're a part of a greater community that's unsubscribing from toxic diet culture that is supportive of one another. And so we said, well, why don't we do daily Zoom calls where our members can join? And so our members come in, they connect. Like I said, we have a variety of different calls.

So we have one daily Monday through Friday, and two of them are with head coaches who can answer pain or movement related question. And then we have one that's just podcast discussion calls. So we'll release a podcast every week and then it'll be a topic on toxic weight loss culture. And then we'll have a discussion as a group. And then two other calls are just connecting, how are you doing? How's your week? Oh my gosh, I'm really struggling. My back's really hurting me and I need to connect with you guys to help me, inspire me to go on a walk. I don't know, whatever it might be. There's no agenda. It's just like, how you doing? And so we have found that that really helps people in their journey to connect in with the community. Since our product is so customizable, it's not really ideal for our product to be done in a group setting because we might do the same workout, like I said, every day, but we're doing vastly different movement patterns or different variations of that workout.

Matt Feret:

I mean, are these things timed? I mean a lot of these fitness things are do X amount in this amount of time, are they timed or is that scalable?

Katie Bramlett:

We take you through each movement pattern. So it's like follow along with Coach Tyler. All of our workouts are about 30 minutes or less. But yeah, we needed the community piece because we were tackling something much bigger than here's a good workout. We were tackling a lot of messaging and social issues around that we felt were toxic in the fitness industry. So that's why we have the Zoom calls.

Customizing and Navigating Fitness in Middle Adulthood with Katie Bramlett [25:38]

Matt Feret:

I love it. Can we go into some ages and some stages? If I think about middle age into older adults, and let's go with middle age first. This is a time where a lot of people going crazy at work, the 40 hours, travel, maybe kids, there's not a lot of time to work out and things fall by the wayside. So I know personally, I've injured myself making up for lost time. I was going to work out four days a week and I was traveling five of them, and now here it is Saturday morning I got to do back and legs and arms and hit all at once. For people on that kind of stage, is this perfect for them? They can take it where they go. Is the body weight enough to maintain fitness, build up fitness or just do the functional piece and kind of let's just say that middle age, if people are sitting in that area?

Katie Bramlett:

I think it's perfect. I mean really you can do this anywhere. You can do it at home, you can do it when you're traveling, you can. And I'll tell you one of the most common questions when people come in, they'll come to one of the first calls or whatever and they'll say, well, how many days a week am I supposed to work out? And I'm like, I don't know. You tell me. What does your body need? And people are stunned by that answer because they want a formula or that's what we're used to. And I know that because we used to be that company that was like, you should eat this way and you should do this. And all I can say is that if you haven't exercised in a long time, it's best to just start out once a week and then maybe do two times a week and see how that feels and really let your body guide you.

I know this is completely counterintuitive to the way that we have been raised, most of us, but actually it is the most intuitive way if you really think about it, taking a cue from our body to then tell us what we need. And so yeah, I would say that it's actually the perfect time because we're now entering a phase of our life in middle age where the aches, pains and injuries are around the corner and you don't have to be participating in CrossFit to guarantee that that's going to happen. I think we can all understand that middle age and beyond we're guaranteed some sort of ache or pain. And unless you have a broken bone or a torn ligament, and if you're in pain, it's usually a dysfunctional movement pattern. So keeping your body moving and addressing those movement patterns is absolutely critical to making your body feel good.

Matt Feret:

And that type of middle age too is we're all sitting in the car, well, not as much maybe as we were for three or four years ago, but we're commuting in the car with our arms out like this, holding the steering wheel. Maybe you're listening to it, holding the steering wheel. Remember 10 and 2, it's not 9 and 3 anymore. And then we had a mouse. We go typey in front of us. Do you see people in this age range, their bodies have changed at times they're hunched. The exercises have to be probably really important given what you've done to your body for the last 10, 20 years in let's just say an office environment.

Katie Bramlett (28:54):

Mean. Absolutely. And that's why we felt like the scalability of the product and not letting people move up to the next level until they had the movement pattern dialed was critical. So it's a complete shift in focus. We're not trying to get you to max out how many pushups we can do. We're trying to get you the movement pattern of the pushup, the press to help you. And so for instance, one of our easiest variations of the pushup is you'll go on a wall and you'll just stand right here, and then the next variation is maybe your feet or back just a teeny bit. I mean it's micro movement progressions because we're just trying to get your body moving in the way that it needs to move. And I think people vastly underestimate the importance of that. And we think that, well, I haven't exercised. I'm getting older. I should just go do this thing. And I'm like, if you are in that camp of people, I strongly encourage you whatever exercise plan you are going to go into, make sure it's rooted in foundational movement patterns. So balance, flexibility, coordination, and strength. Those are the four things that we're focusing on in our program, and those are the four things that we believe will take people into a sustainable fitness plan that will help give them the most potential to feel good as they age.

Customizing and Navigating Fitness in Older Adulthood with Katie Bramlett [30:14]

Matt Feret:

Yeah, you said balance and stability falls the older you get, the worse they get. And balance is a huge issue. I mean, again, I can't quote this off the top of my head, but something like falls and balance issues for people over the age of 65, I mean the highest percentage of injury of anything. If you go look it up, go Google it. How bad falls are over the age of 65 and 70 really, really lead to bad health outcomes. I think we've all heard stories, right? Well grandma, so-and-so broke a hip and it kind of went downhill from there. That's a real thing. So let's move into maybe fifties and sixties. You've got a scalable program. It starts off, and these are my words, not yours, baby steps all the way up to advanced user. I would imagine this type of program is even more important for people struggling with balance issues, struggling with overall strength and coordination as they age. Whether or not you could have massive biceps or Popeye forearms probably is less than less. And this is even more important as you get older.

Katie Bramlett:

I mean, let me ask you this. Let's fast forward. Let's say you're 75 years old and you got to go back and choose path one or path two. I'm a runner and I do heavy weightlifting unassisted by myself. That's scenario one, I just watch a YouTube video. Scenario two is I do a program that's focused on balance, coordination, flexibility, and progressive strength. Which program do you think will better serve you as a 75-year-old?

Matt Feret:

Oh, two for sure.

Katie Bramlett:

We don't think about that. We're like, oh, you're a runner. Incredible. And I'm like, if you enjoy running, wonderful. Also, you need to focus on these things, balance, flexibility, strength and coordination. If you're not focusing those things, I promise you the 75-year-old version of yourself will wish you had.

Matt Feret:

75 year old’s, 65 year old’s, 55 year old’s. There's a lot of talk out there and a lot of programs, and I think they're great. Pilates and yoga, those are kind of core foundational flexibility things as well. Are those, obviously I think you would agree, maybe you don't, those are good things. In addition to that, what are those things miss that your program does?

Katie Bramlett:

Yeah, I don't, again, I don't really have any problem with any programs. I'm saying if you like doing something that's physical, maybe you should keep doing it unless it causes pain. I'm saying also make sure you're incorporating a program or some type of movement plan that's focusing on the other things as well. I would say that the thing that those programs are missing is there's not really an industry standard for the quality of how we deliver that class. So you could go take a yoga class and I can go take a yoga class and your teacher could push you through pain and my teacher could be a movement expert and make sure I'm not pushing it. Those are vastly different experiences. So one of the things we really wanted to do is we recognize that there's a deficit in the fitness industry around standardization. So I can go work out with a personal trainer who got a weekend certification.

You could go work out with a personal trainer who has a PhD in exercise science and we're going to have vastly different outcomes. So we came in and said, how do we standardize the fitness industry and what we believe to be good programming? So it kind of speaks to this idea like Pilates and yoga, I don't have any problem with those. If you do them and you're in pain, don't do that. But we can. The problem is we just don't have a standard for what is considered a good yoga class. It depends on the instructor.

Navigating Fitness as a Caregiver with Katie Bramlett [34:38]

Matt Feret:

That makes a lot of sense. If I'm a caregiver, even if I'm not a caregiver, now let's do caregiver first and then I'll go. If I'm just looking after mom and dad, but so caregiver first and I've got someone I'm taking care of, mom, dad, aunt, uncle, spouse, and they've got limited mobility or they've got limited function due to injury or due to something else, how do I encourage this? How do I find this? How do I figure out whether or not they can do this? I mean, it sounds that cold wall pushup thing sounds pretty very, very early and very, very light. If someone is in a caregiving situation for whatever reason. How does this program help?

Katie Bramlett:

The caregiver or the person they're caring for?

Matt Feret:

That's a great question. Why don't you answer that question?

Katie Bramlett:

Well, I would say the person they're caring for, it really depends on what type of physical capabilities they have. So I don't know that I should necessarily speak too much to that. I think that really the goal of our product would be for people who are even in bed, there could be something that they could do. And a lot of our social content has even different bed exercises and different things that people could do. But for the caregiver, I would say that the number one thing that they could do for themselves is figure out a way to offer care for themselves in any way, shape, or form. And I know that that's easier said than done because people who are in caregiving positions do not really have time. But I know that, and I have had the privilege of not having to be in that position thus far in my life.

I don't know what the future holds, but I will say that part of my makeup as a person and some of the kind of internal demons that I fight has always been I'm the caregiver. I am the person who takes care of everything and everyone. And about three years ago I said, that's not working for me anymore because I don't feel good in me. And so I started to figure out a way. I really had always heard, take care of yourself first and then everyone will be better. I'm like, I just don't believe that. That doesn't make sense. I don't have enough time for that. Then when I started doing 10 minutes a day that was just for myself or 20 minutes a day, that was just for myself, I started going, oh wow, that does really actually makes sense because I'm actually just pulling into the gas station and filling my car with gas and then I'm hitting the road versus hitting the road with no gas.

And so I would just want to encourage people in that position. Our product is actually an incredible opportunity because just at home and everything is under 30 minutes and I can't tell you how many people come to us and say, I just did half the workout today. I'm like, wonderful. I'm happy if you did five minutes. Right? We're not really trying to place these crazy standards or judgments on people. We don't even, I think we might even track your workouts, but I don't even know if we really do in the product. I think it's almost hidden. That's not the point. The point is, can you do something for yourself today, even if it's only five minutes and then next week could you do 10? And it's like, I think once you get those reps and then you start to embody what it feels like and then you see the fruit of like, oh, I actually had more energy to care for that person today or actually felt, then that starts to create more intrinsic or motivation to continue on that path. So start small and don't beat yourself up for just even five minutes a day. That's incredible.

WeShape Testimony and Conclusion with Matt Feret and Katie Bramlett [38:16]

Matt Feret:

Alright, Katie, tell me a story. Tell me a success story or a success story that's putting too much pressure on anybody. Tell me a cool story about somebody who started at point A and ended at point B.

Katie Bramlett:

So once in a while we run these 30 day feelgood challenges. Couple times three or four times a year, we run these feel good challenges. They're focused on building self-confidence, getting out of pain recovery, feeling good, right? They're not focused on the traditional challenges of how many times did you work out or how many calories did you burn? We're just trying to get people to feel good in their body and we do challenge, we host these challenge calls once a week where all the people who are in the challenge get together and we celebrate each other. And I'll never forget at the end of our last challenge, we had this woman come on the last call of the month and she said, I didn't really know what to expect at the 30 day challenge. And at the end, I really can tell you that when I look in, when I used to look in the mirror, I used to hear a voice in my head that said, you're ugly. You need to lose weight. That outfit doesn't look good on you. You are this, you're this, you're this, you're this. After this challenge, when I look in the mirror, I see a completely different person and the voice is starting to shift and I realized that wasn't really my voice anyway. That was the voice of my mom and my sister, and that was never my voice. And this program has given me an opportunity to find that voice and have a completely different experience with that person in the mirror.

Matt Feret:

That is a great story. Thanks for sharing that.

Katie Bramlett:

And I think she was in her mid-seventies, this woman. Fantastic. It was incredible to be like, it's never too late to change how you connect with yourself to change how you think about yourself, to change how you feel in your body. It's never too late.

Matt Feret:

That's a great message, Katie. This has been, well, it's been fun, but it's also been really a cool perspective and light because I mean, even as you're sitting here talking, I identify with a lot of stuff that you've said over my many years of doing this. Should I eat that? How do I eat that? What do I look like? How is this? And then should I do X amount of time and making up? There is a lot of garbage out there and junk and a lot of mental anguish around working out and fitness and balance and what you should be doing and just, gosh, there's a whole culture out there that is just blasting you 24/7. And a lot of people just think it's women and it's not. It's men too.

Katie Bramlett:

They just don't talk about it as much.

Matt Feret:

Yeah, I bet. So what questions should I have asked you that I didn't?

Katie Bramlett:

I mean, to be honest with you, Matt, I feel like we covered quite a bit. I didn't know we were going to get the chance to go down to the psychological, social, emotional part. And so I feel complete. I hope I've given people an understanding into why WeShape exists and what we're really trying to do because it's time we, we've suffered enough from the construct of our current fitness industry and we have misidentified what health really means and what wellness really looks like. And so we're just trying to pave a new path and I'm really excited to just have had the opportunity to share with your listeners and connect with you today.

Matt Feret:

Thank you. It's been really great having you on. And yeah, thank you for sharing not only with me but with everybody. Listen, really appreciate it. It was great.

Katie Bramlett:

I actually have a special link for your listeners. Maybe I can give them that link. It's a two-week free trial with reshape, so they can just go to reshape.com/mattferet , F-E-R-E-T.

Matt Feret:

There you go. That'll be up on the website as well. And yeah, we will definitely hit that. And thanks for that. I didn't know where you were going to do that. Appreciate it.

Katie Bramlett:

Yeah, no, we would love to. And I host one of the calls, so if you join the two week free trial, look for me. I'll see you in the podcast discussion call.

Matt Feret:

I was going to say you might see a username in there someday with the name of Matt Feret. I might be in there.

Katie Bramlett:

Katie, thanks so much. You and your listeners can come see you. That'd be great.

Matt Feret:

Well, I don't know if they want to do that. I think that's why podcast is such a great thing. Either they don't have to see me.

Katie Bramlett:

Thanks.

Matt Feret:

Hey, thanks so much. Thank you very much.

Matt Feret:

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