Hi! I’m Lisa May, the owner and manager of The Strength Code Palm Desert. You might remember me from Southern California radio, where I spent 30 years as a traffic reporter and sidekick, most memorably as part of the Kevin and Bean Show on KROQ and the Frosty, Heidi, and Frank Show on KLOS.I loved my years on the radio, and I still get way too excited when I talk about freeways and traffic, although I must admit that talking about the latest celebrity break-ups was getting less and less attractive. Still, life was good. And then, around 2013, it changed. I began feeling fatigued and putting on weight. My hair started thinning, and I began experiencing what I now know as “brain fog.” My GP told me to go to Weight Watchers, but after a series of tests with a Naturopath, I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis, which is very common among women. Like most people, I’d always looked at exercise and diet in terms of weight loss, but this experience totally shifted my focus. Now, I look at nutrition and movement in terms of my overall health, and that’s how The Strength Code came into my life.
I knew I needed to get more deliberate about my health, and that included strength training, but I didn’t know how to fit that into my busy schedule. On top of that, I didn’t really know anything about weightlifting. Then, I discovered The Strength Code Toluca Lake. The workout is only 25 minutes, working one-on-one with a strength training specialist. I knew I could make that work.
The list of benefits from strength training is astonishing, from improving your blood sugar levels and cholesterol numbers, lowering your blood pressure, reducing your risk of injury thanks to increased muscle mass and bone density, and so much more!
Going to The Strength Code just once a week and working with a fantastic trainer, Joseph Altamirano, I found myself getting stronger and stronger. And as I got stronger, I started taking my dogs on longer walks and doing intervals on the treadmill. I began saying yes to hikes in Griffith Park, and all of that activity motivated me to become more thoughtful about the foods I was eating. I started dropping those extra pounds, and so on and so on. It is just a remarkable cascade of good things that all started with The Strength Code!
This workout is called Slow-Motion, High-Intensity Strength Training, and it’s incredibly safe. When I was being trained in the Toluca Lake studio, I met a client who was in her 80s and a rock climber in his 30s! The workout has been scientifically proven to be very effective at building strength—so effective you only need to go once or twice a week—which is also what makes it so sustainable. Almost anyone can carve out 30 minutes a couple of times a week.