4. Why a fit body is vital for a fit voice
Fitness goddess ANNA MCMANAMEY opens up about her battle with anorexia, reveals the big lesson that saved her from injuring her voice and explains how group fitness instructors can still talk while you're a sweaty mess!
Transcript
Sally: I'm Sally Prosser, you're listening to That Voice Podcast. No matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters unless you've sworn lifetime vow of silence. This is the podcast for you.
In this episode I'm very excited to be joined by the fabulous, talented Anna McManamey. Anna is a fitness goddess. Seriously look her up on Instagram. She is unbelievable and as a nutrition and strength coach is all about empowering women to love their bodies. And honestly we cannot get enough of that message out there. Right? Her signature hashtag is #MakeitHappen. And even if you're like me and have never actually seen your abs, it's still a great mantra. So welcome Anna, wonderful to have you on That Voice Podcast.
Anna: Hi Sal. Thank you so much for having me on.
Sally: Great. Now I always start with the same question and that is, would you be able to do your job if you lost your voice?
Anna: Yeah, and I've been having to think about this and you know, had you asked me this question a couple of years ago, I'd have said it would be very difficult. I mean obviously with a lot of face-to-face sort of interactions, it would certainly make it very challenging but a lot has changed, particularly in the fitness industry in the last few years with the rise of online coaching, social media, et cetera which has given us a whole new platform to express our message and I guess showcase that voice. If we were to lose our voice then so long as you can still write and interact online, then yeah, it wouldn't have as big an impact as what it would have back when I first got started in the industry.
Sally: Yeah, absolutely. Now I know it's not what you do a lot of these days, but you have in your time done a fair bit of group instructing and I'm sure there's lots of people out there like me who have taken part in these classes, whether it be a spin class or a body combat or pump or whatever it is and you're such a sweaty, puffing mess and you're wondering how on earth the instructor is actually doing what you're doing and still talking.
Anna: Yeh a lot of practice. Along with practice comes fitness as well. So it's being able to I guess work at a capacity where you can still think and coach. So you do need to train as a group fitness instructor, you get fit from doing your classes, but there's a lot of work outside that you don't see as well. Gosh, I remember back in the day I would spend hours and hours in a gym just learning choreography, knowing it to the point where the body would just do it. I almost didn't even have to think about it. And then being able to instruct on top of that, then you're always having to think a couple of steps ahead because you need to be able to preview the movement in order for the class to then follow. So lots of practice. Keeping fit, I mean that's an obvious one. Taking care of your voice as well, which was something which never really thought about when I first got into group fitness. And it wasn't until I started teaching a lot of classes started getting quite run down and wasn't taking good care of my voice that I started to see the effects of that.
Sally: Yes. So what were the sorts of things that you did to take care of your voice?
Anna: Learning to breathe from your diaphragm. This is something I think we're all guilty of. We're very shallow breathers. I think stress and just day to day pressures has a lot to do with that. We tend to, we don't breathe deeply anymore and that was a big change for me. I used to, well it's shallow breathing and it was a lot of I don't want to say screeching, it wasn't screeching, but it was very hard on my throat and it wasn't until another group fitness instructor suggested to me, yeah, just look, just watch your voice because keep doing that and you're going to lose it one day. Try to focus on your breathing deeply. Try to avoid any kind of URGH like up in the throat, sort of instruction. But yeah, that being said, group fitness is a tough, tough gig and most of us who do it don't do it full time.
We're working other jobs as well outside of that. And I remember when I first got into group fitness, I was actually just starting my journalism career and I was working at Sky News and I was doing shift work. So my body clock was all over the place. Didn't know what time of day it was. Very, very stressed, very, very sleep deprived and tried to teach classes on top. And I remember there was, there was a time there for a good two months that I lost my voice. I couldn't voice any packages. I could barely teach a class. So it's taking care of yourself as well because if you're not healthy then you know your voice is often the first thing to go. You know, a lot of people describe coming down with tonsillitis or or just, you know, having that sort of scratchy feeling in their throats when they know that they're getting run down. And that's the first signs. So it was a combination of just being aware of how I was using my voice. And then just ensuring I'm getting enough sleep, you know, the basics. Taking care of myself, being healthy.
Sally: Yes, definitely some great advice. And anyone who's worked with me before or listens to my material knows that I'm really big on breathing. I always talk about breath is what powers your sound and it's really important that the power does come from the diaphragm, which can be challenging when you're doing group fitness or something and you're also told to keep your core tight. It's an interesting thing and especially when you were working as a journalist as well, it was really a double whammy. You had two roles that had, you know, very high pressure on the voice. And people might not know. Actually, Anna and I know each other - we worked together in Rockhampton many moons ago, both as TV reporters .
Anna: In another life.
Sally: In another life. Yeah, absolutely. And I guess you'd agree with me that that training where you're using your voice every day in a news capacity definitely helps with what we're doing now.
Anna: Oh, for sure. Absolutely. There are a lot of transferable skills that I've learned from my time in journalism. And certainly being able to communicate is one of them. And being able to do so across multiple mediums, which is so important these days. There's just people whinge about social media and I get it. It can be like a full time job, sometimes the demand, but it can't be ignored and it's certainly some very important skills that I learned from my time in journalism. Just being able to write, being able to communicate with other people. Very powerful.
Sally: Yeah, absolutely agree with you there. So you mentioned that you had somebody great along the way who mentioned that technique to you saying if you go along this path, you're going to not have a voice. Have you seen any other people who just haven't been able to cope? So they've been, you know, very good in the fitness industry, but because of the demands on the voice, haven't been able to pursue a career in teaching?
Anna: Well, I mean, I don't have any horror stories that I could tell, thankfully.
Sally: Oh come on. Not even one?
Anna: But I think for a lot of us who perhaps started as group fitness instructors and have moved away from that since then, I think a lot of us would share similar sentiments in that it's hard work. It's a lot of practice outside of what you're doing in the gym. Very high demands on the body and yeah it is hard on your voice. There's no way about that. But some people just, they love it so much and, and they've been doing it for years. Geez. I used to work with a group fitness instructor. She was in her sixties and still going strong and I'm pretty sure.
Sally: Wow what an inspiration.
Anna: Yeah, yeah. The group fitness instructor I first started working with in Sydney and I'm pretty sure she's still teaching, so, you know, talk about goals, right?
Sally: Yeh, power to her.
Anna: I'm as agile is what she is. But for a lot of us who do end up moving away from group fitness, a lot of us will say the same thing in that it's tough work. It's really hard on the body. You feel like you're injured constantly and it's no surprise it's, it's a lot of high intensity work. And it's your income so you're, you're not just doing two to three high intensity classes awake, like any normal person going to the gym would do. You're doing seven, eight, nine, 10 of these classes a week - sometimes back to back. So it's very tough on the body and if you don't look after your voice, then yeah, it can have very damaging effects long term as well. So it's just something you just, you need to take care of yourself.
It was a tough gig to hold on to long term. And eventually, particularly when I started moving more into the competing side of things with bodybuilding, et cetera, I just couldn't handle the extra training cause you know learning choreography is extra training. I'd spend hours in my living room doing Body Attack. You know, learning, learning moves and I'm exhausted. And then on top of that, I would then have to do my weights training and do extra cardio that my coach had prescribed me at the time as well. So yeah, my body just went, no, we can't, we can't keep doing this.
Sally: Yeh, no wonder.
Anna: Something had to give. And I was at that stage where I thought, look, I've been doing this group fitness thing now for a long time. I think it's time to move on. So I happily hung up my group fitness shoes and focused more on strength training and coaching in that area.
Sally: Yeah. And one of the things I love about what you teach is you're really into a healthy lifestyle and feeling strong and feeling fit. And you've mentioned how that's so closely aligned to the voice. You know, you really can't take care of your voice independently of taking care of the rest of your body. Right? It's all one and the same. And I know that, you know, you tell the story on your website about how you haven't always had this relationship with your body?
Anna: So growing up I was a dancer and a gymnast. Came from a very high performing family. My mum ran in the Commonwealth Games as an athlete. Dad still, I think he still plays field hockey and he's in his sixties now and he was always into squash and long distance running. And then both my sister and I were very heavily involved in dance, gymnastics and we just came from a high performing, high achieving sort of family. So I'm that classic type of personality - It's either you're first or your last kind of thing. So combine that with sports that placed a great deal of emphasis on aesthetics and how you look and were very subjective in their judging. It was almost a recipe for disaster for me, you know, particularly in sports too, that tended to award that you know, very lean, long limbed, willowy you know very thin sort of look as well.
Anna: Naturally I'm not I'm not built that way. So I gain muscle quite easily. I don't have super long legs. I'm fairly well proportioned, but I always felt like I was the big one in the group, which is silly, but when you're surrounded by others that are like little waifs and you're not you can imagine how that I guess distorts your image of yourself. And so I guess just this combined with, you know, that very achieving sort of personality - wanting to be the best and feeling like, you know what, I've got to look this way to be the best. That kind of spelled disaster for me. And so I did end up developing a very severe eating disorder when I was, Oh geez. It really would have started from when I was about 13.
I guess you just call it disordered eating habits. So that would be more you know, I'd start throwing my lunches away, you know, I'd try and not eat throughout the day, but then I'd go home and have a big meal at night or so. That was kind of when it first started, but then it didn't sort of develop into full blown anorexia until I was about 15, 16. And then that was the start of just a seven year long battle with anorexia and bulimia. And then funnily enough, it was actually joining the gym and becoming a group fitness instructor and started weights training and learning how to eat again. That was really the turning point for me. And then eventually that led to me getting into bodybuilding or fitness competitions really. And it gave me that control. It taught me how to eat, again, it taught me how to track my macros and control my nutrition. It taught me that I didn't have to run my body into the ground to get the results I wanted. It was all about training smarter, not necessarily harder. So, yeah, and then that ultimately led me to my career now as a young strengthen nutrition coach.
Sally: Even though it was a long while ago when you were going through your anorexia and bulimia battle, I guess you could call it, did you notice anything different with your voice?
Anna: I used to get sick a lot. And for me the first thing to go when I start getting sick is my voice. I was actually born with nodes on my vocal cords and I was told at a very young age by an Ear Nose and Throat specialist that if I ever wanted it to be a singer, then I would have to get them surgically removed. So already, I've got a weakness there. So if I'm not taking care of myself, if I am getting run down then it's usually the first thing to go.
Sally: If you want to have a healthy, strong voice, you need to also have a healthy, strong body and also a healthy, strong relationship with your body.
Anna: Absolutely. Yeah, your body is, is very clever. It gives you cues all the time of what's going on. All you need to do is look at the colors of your eyes, look at your, your skin, your hair, your nails. All of these little things are all health markers. And if something's not right well your body's going to tell you, it's just about being in tune with your body and knowing the signs and what look for, and then when you notice something is up, then it's doing something about it.
Sally: Yeah. And do you notice any issues with your nodes these days?
Anna: Not so much. You know, I've given up group fitness. It's been geez, when did I finish now? In 2013 was when I taught my last class. So going on six years now since I've been out of group fitness, but I did struggle a bit there. I would often lose my voice if I had a week of a lot of classes, man. You know, I'd be feeling it by the end of the week, that's for sure. And I did lose my voice a lot more easily back in those days. Less so these days, like we still find though, if I'm like at expos or if I've got a day where I'm just talking nonstop all day then that, yeah, I'll, I will feel it by the end of the day. But you know, again, it all comes down to, well, where is your breathing coming from, Anna?
Sally: Voice is like fitness as well in the way that if you're using bad technique, then you're going to wear your voice out a lot quicker than you need to or you're going to injure yourself. But sometimes even when you are using exactly the right technique, if you've been using your voice for a long time, just like your body, you get tired. So it's about recognizing, you know, when are you using the wrong technique and when do you just need to take a break?
Anna: Absolutely. But, but you know what's really interesting is, so when you talk about breathing in voice fitness or we talk about breathing in strength as well and performing some of your major lifts, right? When you do a squat for instance, you want to imagine you're breathing, like you've got an imaginary waist belt and you're breathing into the belt. So we actually do a lot of breathing drills in teaching our clients how to breathe properly, which is then going to allow them to be able to move heavier weights and do so safely.
Sally: Yeah. In the same way that oxygen powers your voice, oxygen's powering all your muscle movements as well.
Anna: 100%. Yeah. And even just the rhythm in which you're breathing, that's going to affect how you move a weight as well. So you're generally like, if you're doing a squat, for instance, you want to imagine you're breathing in on the way down and then as you explode up from the floor, you exhale. So it's all you know breathing and rhythms and it can be applied to, you know, not just in the way that you speak, but in the way that you perform as well.
Sally: Yeah, absolutely. Well, you've inspired me to get to the gym today.
Anna thanks so much for chatting with me. How can people get in touch with you if they'd like to work with you?
Anna: Yeah, absolutely. So I do face-to-face training at Enterprise Fitness in Melbourne. But then I also run my own online coaching business. So if you're not Melbourne based so I run, I've been running that now for about six years. My online business and that's all training nutrition, a weekly check ins as well. So it's almost like you're working face-to-face with a coach, but all in the convenience of your laptop. So head to my website , it's www.iamanna.com.au and it's got all the information there. And of course I'm on social media as well, Instagram which is just @Anna_McManamey.
Sally: Fantastic. Thank you so much for joining That Voice Podcast.
Anna: Thanks Sal it's been a pleasure chatting with you this morning.
Sally: I hope you enjoyed my chat with Anna McManamey. Seriously, jump onto Instagram now and check out this woman's body. It is absolutely out of control, incredible and such a testament to her discipline and commitment and hard work. Anna's got a lot more willpower than I do to get to the gym. And I love that it's all delivered with a message of body positivity. And you would have heard there was a real connection made between the health of the body and the health of the voice. So I want you to think about how fit is your voice? Because people can hear the fitness of your voice when you're speaking. And a great way to get started is to jump onto my website and check out my one minute voice warm -p. It's a free course and I do actually demonstrate it in under a minute. I mean, it's just worth checking out for that. So head to www.sallyprosser.com.au/Courses and then click on my one minute voice warm-up. Another theme that came out of our chat was breathing and how breathing doesn't just power the voice, but also powers the body. So I thought in the next episode I'd give you a lesson in how to breathe. Now I'm not saying you're doing it wrong, but a good breathing technique can definitely transform your voice and a lot of people report good breathing as transforming their life. So you won't want to miss that.
Thanks for listening to That Voice Podcast. To find out more head to the podcast page, it's www.thatvoicepodcast.com