Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: RSS
Visit melissavogelfitness.com/course for the free email course.
Have you tried all of the fad diets and exercise programs? What is the best approach in order to create a sustainable fitness regimen? How can strength training aid in longevity?
In this podcast episode, Melissa Vogel talks to Clint Harwick about achieving a body of youth.
Meet Clint Harwick
Clint Harwick is in his last year of becoming a Doctor in Physical Therapy and an Elite Athlete – Ex Professional Baseball Player. Clint has work experience in Acute Neuro, outpatient Orthopedics, and hospital settings and he has done personal training for professional athletes as well. He has outside experience with Vo2 testing, nutrition, Stress testing, echocardiograms, EKGs, the list goes on!
Clint comes from a background of athletics and sports growing up with his grandfather being a strength and weightlifting coach for 35 years. He was raised in this environment so his ideology may be different than most, but it comes from a place of evidence-based practice. His biggest passion is making sure people are using research and literature that is proven to work.
Visit Clint’s website and connect with him on Instagram.
In This Podcast
Summary
- Clint’s approach
- Sustainability
- Clint’s three pillars
- Exercise is the best medicine
- Body of Youth
Clint’s approach
In our realm of things, the best thing we can do is give 100% empathy towards where that person is standing, where their mission is, where they want to go, and building trust. Because without trust there’s absolutely nothing, in a marriage, in your exercise program, in a relationship of any setting, business. That’s kind of the main pillar towards any success and longevity.
Outside of his normal, day to day of seeing patients in the acute setting, Clint does some online, one on one sessions with people. Essentially, he is giving a whole person approach and perspective on what it means to live a healthy and active lifestyle. We’re missing the little key aspects in between what it really means to live a healthy life. A lot of times we look around at all of these different models and approaches to health and unfortunately, not everyone can see what is right versus what is wrong.
The biggest thing that health industry professionals can do is to look at every single facet of where someone is coming from, not just their exercise, nutrition, sleep habits, etc. This leads to where their motivation is because, really, any exercise regimen or nutrition plan is non-existent unless someone has some sort of motivation to perform the task at hand. If we don’t have the motivation right from the start, how will we ever have motivation at the finish? At the end of the day, there is no finish line towards taking care of our health and a lot of people fear this. Fear is a big outlet for a lot of people because they don’t understand their “why”. If we don’t understand why we’re doing something then how can we continue that for a long period of time?
Sustainability
There are so many different diets out there, but no one tells you that if someone’s trying to lose weight it is as simple as consuming fewer calories than you’ve burned. You don’t have to go into a state of ketosis. If you go from a long term high carb diet to shutting it down to a low carb diet, your body doesn’t even know how to approach that. So many women who come into Melissa’s program need to have their mindset and focus around food drastically flipped and switched. They’re so scared because they have this diet mentality of having to starve themselves and have no loving relationship with food. Especially in our female population, that’s what becomes the big problem.
Clint’s three pillars
Continuous thoracic extension exercises, really working on the back, really working on all those postural muscles, it doesn’t hurt you to do it all the time in a strength and endurance format because you’re using them all the time. And that’s what creates good posture.
Clint’s ideology differs from the norm but he prides himself on looking at the research and evidence, checking if it correlates with what he’s trying to do. It does, every time, and you can’t argue with that. The three pillars that he always takes pride in is understanding that there’s no such thing as doing too much thoracic extension (involved with lifting and strengthening your back muscles) and also doing too much leg and core strengthening. If we look at all of the postural insufficiencies in the world, one of the leading factors towards muscle pains, discrepancies, and imbalances, has everything to do with postural abnormalities. These muscles that help protect us in a postural setting are meant to be strengthened but are also meant to have endurance. Why aren’t we training them?
Exercise Example: Closed kinetic chain (squats, Romanian deadlifts, etc.) You’re in contact with the ground and have to use a multi-contraction approach. In Romanian deadlifts, for example, you use a lot of the posterior chain, you have to use your core to stabilize the two dumbbells on both sides, you’re using your legs, your glutes, your hamstrings. You’re having to use your rhomboids to engage and hold. This one simple lift is hitting the entire posterior chain along with requiring core activations.
How do we not take that same approach into our entire fitness and wellness space where we create a full, well-rounded approach that highlights the three main pillars:
- Good posture
- Good health
- Good joint and bone density
Exercise is the best medicine
What’s one medication that will reduce pain, cholesterol, hypertension, and the severity of cardiovascular disease? Exercise! Why are people in such denial about that? It takes work but Clint thinks that it is also because they’re not being met where they are. 9 out of 10 people that Clint sees in a day are really low level and they’re working from the ground up. How does he take himself and meet them there? It comes with empathy, compassion, and understanding where that person is. This builds trust which then creates this plan when they start understanding their “why” which then drives longevity.
Body of Youth
We’re always trying to achieve being as youthful as possible. In the grand scheme of things, we are becoming our own body of youth. As individuals, we won’t find and sustain that through a one-stop-shop, it needs to be a whole person approach. It needs to be a whole side of wellness, mental, physical, and emotional. It needs to be well-rounded because the true youth comes from innocence, from a place where you don’t have to worry about things. Everyone wants that happiness and that comes with attaining your own body of youth.
Free assessment to listeners: Sign up on the website or send Clint an email (abodyofyouth@gmail.com) saying you listened to the podcast and he’ll send the assessment.
Useful Links:
- Go On And Love Your Badass Self with Kimmy Seltzer | BM 23
- BTBFM FREE EMAIL COURSE
- Connect with Melissa on Facebook and Instagram
- Email Melissa: info@melissavogelfitness.com
Meet Melissa Vogel

Melissa Vogel is an energetic keynote speaker, business owner, certified personal trainer, certified group fitness instructor, 1st degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do, a mother of three, and a podcaster.
Melissa has been voted as the Best Personal Trainer for 2020 by Inland Empire Magazine, and Built the Busy to Bomb Fit Mom exercise system.
She is quickly becoming recognized for her expertise and influence in her field!
Melissa has contributed to numerous publications and has been featured in the Trail Blazer Magazine, and published in the April 2020 edition of Health Magazine. Her approach incorporates personal experience, energy, humor, and charisma.
Thanks for listening!
Did you enjoy this podcast? Feel free to share this podcast on social media! You can also leave a review of the Bomb Mom Podcast on Apple Podcasts (previously iTunes) and subscribe!
Bomb Mom is part of the Practice of the Practice Podcast Network, a family of podcasts that change the world. To hear other podcasts like Empowered & Unapologetic, Imperfect Thriving, Faith in Practice, Grow a Group Practice or Beta Male Revolution, go to practiceofthepractice.com/network.