No one cares about your excuses: learning from Kara Lazauskas, who has one lung and is stronger than you — Muscle Maven Radio Episode #19

Barbell Shrugged

Doug Larson

Fitness, Health & Fitness, Nutrition

4.7 • 2.8K Ratings

🗓️ 13 June 2019

⏱️ 105 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Today's episode is a deep dive into the life of Kara Lazauskas, a health and conditioning coach with a unique background rich in both athletics and adversity. Beginning at age three when she had her lung removed, continuing through NCAA level basketball and a number of serious ACL injuries, to a low point where Kara suffered from depression and a severe eating disorder. We talk about the struggle, growth and learning that came from finding health, balance, and purpose after hitting rock bottom, and how she is now able to help others through her coaching and research. We also chat about her time as a competitor on NBC's Titan Games series, her work at Cal State Fullerton studying muscle fiber typing and protein signaling under Dr. Andy Galpin, her competitive MMA fighting experience, and more.

Born and raised in New Jersey, Kara Kilian Lazauskas grew up in a household where athletics and academics were the top priority. At the age of 3 she had her lung removed due to a tumor covering 75% of the left lung. She contests her love for human anatomy and physiology was born from that moment. With her body's adaption and continuous push both mentally and physically, she was able to gain a scholarship to play at the NCAA level in basketball. However, 4 ACL reconstructions later in her right knee and no real basketball career left in sight, she was left wondering why me? That's where her purpose began. The search for answers carried her into graduate school under Dr. Andy Galpin and Dr. Irene Tobias studying Muscle Fiber Typing and Protein Signaling at California State University-Fullerton. Now, as a coach, mentor, and masters of muscle physiology her years of criticism and experiences comes to serve her purpose, serving others. Kara was a competitor on NBC's Titan Games, has competed in MMA, and now dedicates her time to researching and coaching.

Minute Breakdown:

3 - 31 Intro to Kara, including having a lung removed when she was three years old, pursuing sports and fitness at a young age and finding success in weightlifting and basketball. We delve into her knee injuries and the subsequent issues (including severely disordered eating) that resulted from her attempt to cope with losing the ability to play the sport she loved

31 – 36 How the trauma gave her the emotional intelligence to succeed and help others; how hitting rock bottom helped her address the issue rather than ignore it

36 - 45 Advice for how people can address, support, or help someone in their life who is exhibiting symptoms of an eating disorder

45 - 56 A discussion of her mental and physical recovery

56 – 1:13 How Kara got into coaching and her lab work with Dr. Andy Galpin, earning a master's degree in muscle physiology, studying muscle fiber typing and protein signaling in athletes; why more of this type of research has to include women (turns out there are interesting differences between men and women in areas like nutrient timing windows and performance)

1:13 – 1:15 Kara talks about her remote and online coaching as well as one-on-one training, working with a range of athletes

1:15 – 1:28 I ask Kara how she got into competitive MMA fighting, and what that experience was like; why she continues to put herself in uncomfortable situations in order to learn and grow

1:28 – We talk about Kara's experience with the NBC reality series The Titan Games

Follow Kara on Instagram at @kilerk0, and find out about her coaching and research at karakilian.com

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Show notes: http://www.shruggedcollective.com/mmr-lazauskas

----------------------------------------------------------------------

► Subscribe to Shrugged Collective's Channel Here

http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedSubscribe

📲 🎧 Listen to the audio version on the Apple Podcast App or Stitcher for Android Here-

http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedApple

http://bit.ly/BarbellShruggedStitcher

Shrugged Collective is a network of fitness, health and performance shows that help people achieve their physical and mental health goals. Usually in the gym, but outside as well. In 2012 they posted their first Barbell Shrugged podcast and have been putting out weekly free videos and podcasts ever since.

Along the way we've created successful online coaching programs including The Shrugged Strength Challenge, The Muscle Gain Challenge, FLIGHT, Barbell Shredded, and Barbell Bikini.

We're also dedicated to helping affiliate gym owners grow their businesses and better serve their members by providing owners tools and resources like the Barbell Business Podcast.

Find Shrugged Collective and their flagship show Barbell Shrugged here:

SUBSCRIBE ON ITUNES ► http://bit.ly/ShruggedCollectiveiTunes

WEBSITE ► https://www.ShruggedCollective.com

INSTAGRAM ► https://instagram.com/shruggedcollective

FACEBOOK ► https://facebook.com/barbellshruggedpodcast

TWITTER ► http://twitter.com/barbellshrugged

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey everybody, welcome to Muscle Maven Radio. I'm your host, Ashley, aka the Muscle Maven.
0:06.0	And today's interview is with Carol Azowskis. And her story, I think, is really one about
0:13.0	grueling self-discovery and hard work and not making excuses.
0:19.0	Because ultimately, I think something we learn as we all grow up is that no one really gives a
0:25.0	bit about your excuses, right? Because all of us, some of us have more challenges than others,
0:30.0	but all of us have reasons to give up. We all have obstacles and disadvantages and things
0:36.0	that happen outside of our control that make things harder, and that seem unfair.
0:41.0	But it's how you react to all of that that makes the difference.
0:45.0	Do you let your disadvantages stop you? Do you let them make you bitter?
0:49.0	Or do you use them to learn and become stronger and work harder?
0:54.0	You know, it's a long life to spend it being angry and bitter and upset about things that really
1:01.0	you had nothing to do with. So I think that some of us, even who are lucky enough to not have much
1:06.0	adversity in our lives, you know, we were born into a safe place and had money and had our needs met.
1:13.0	Some of us even go out of our way to put adversity into our lives on purpose, because it seems like it's human nature
1:19.0	that we just need that friction to work a little harder and to accomplish our goals.
1:24.0	So that's what I'm talking about today with Carol Azazquez. She is a speaker.
1:29.0	She's a health and conditioning coach. She just completed a master's degree in muscle physiology, working with Dr. Andy Galpin.
1:35.0	She's a competitive athlete in a number of areas. And her story starts when she was three.
1:40.0	She had one of her lungs removed. And despite that, grew up and was really into sports and was very active and very talented.
1:48.0	She played NCAA basketball in college and had a number of ACL injuries and subsequent surgeries.
1:56.0	And that specific incidence of having to stop playing basketball when she was in college
2:03.0	led to kind of a downward spiral where she was depressed and developed a severe eating disorder that almost killed her
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Doug Larson, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Doug Larson and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.