Getting in shape – whether that means crushing it at the gym, losing weight, or just feeling healthier in general – is a long game.
No matter what goals you’re chasing, you can bet you will need to work at them for months and years.
It makes me sad to see how many people give up on themselves before they’ve been at it long enough to see the true results of their efforts.
Some people try to do way too much and once and end up flaming out.
Other people focus exclusively on the most obvious measures of progress and ignore all the other signs that they’re moving in the right direction.
Both of these approaches set you up to fail. We have to be patient and keep showing up for ourselves if we truly want to transform the way we look, feel, and perform. This is why it’s so important to take a sustainable approach to training and eating.
We also need to adjust some of our expectations (for example, in regards to how much weight you’ll add to the bar each week or how fast the scale will drop) and expand our definition of what it means to progress in the first place.
Here are a bunch of things you can look for to tell you that you’re moving in the right direction.
Signs of progress toward your strength training goals:
Lifting more weight
Doing more total volume (sets and reps)
More density (doing more volume in the same amount of time)
Using better form
Things just feel easier
You’re able to train without pain
Progressing to a more advanced variation of an exercise (eg. moving from kettlebell deadlifts to trap bar deadlifts)
Changing the lifting tempo (slowing down, adding pauses, speeding up)
Increasing your workout frequency (how often you train)
I’m willing to bet that no matter how hard you are on yourself, you can find a few things in each category that already apply to you.
Keep going, keep an open mind, and reach out for help if you’re not sure what needs to change.
Are you feeling frustrated with your progress toward your goals? Sometimes we all need some help and guidance to make sure we’re moving in the right direction. You can apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.
There are a lot of diets and fat loss coaches out there. Nearly all of them have good intentions and really want to help you be successful (although there are a few charlatans just out to make a quick buck.)
However, good intentions don’t always lead to good results. If your diet fails to follow scientific principles or if it’s too restrictive, you’ll struggle to lose weight.
Furthermore, if the diet doesn’t help you make lasting changes to your lifestyle and environment, you’ll have a hard time keeping off any weight you do lose.
Any successful diet will focus on energy balance (establishing a caloric deficit) and work with your psychology (preferences, routines, beliefs) to help you make long-term, sustainable changes. Leaving out any of these pieces will make it nearly impossible to get and stay lean.
Keep reading to learn the exact process I use with fat loss coaching clients to help them achieve their goals without falling prey to common dieting mistakes.
(If you want to apply for my fat loss coaching program, you can do so here.)
1. Gain awareness of current eating habits.
If you don’t understand what you’re doing now, it’s impossible to make well-informed decisions about how to move forward.
Oftentimes, people are already doing many things well. Yet their first instinct is to totally overhaul their nutrition and dive into a restrictive fad diet.
Identifying your baseline habits and routines can save you a lot of unnecessary headaches down the road.
Sometimes, one or two bad habits are behind the majority of extra calories in your diet. If possible, I try to help people reduce or eliminate these things first. This is a great way to get some fast wins at the start of your journey.
If you want to learn more about this concept and start identifying some of your leaks, check out this article I wrote on the subject.
3. Reduce calories in a sustainable way.
This where the bulk of the work occurs when dieting
During this step, I work with clients to iron out all the details of their individual diets. This usually involves some experimentation to figure out what does and doesn’t work.
Key questions we address in this stage:
How can I eat in the most satisfying way possible while still staying in a caloric deficit?
How can I make good food choices in challenging situations?
4. Change your environment.
This is the most underrated and under appreciated step in the entire process.
Most of us gain weight because we live in an environment that makes it insanely easy to overeat and difficult to make healthy choices. Your will power can only take you so far if everything (and everyone) around you is pushing you to fall back on your old habits.
To lose weight and keep it off, you need to reengineer your environment to support your new healthy lifestyle. This might mean making changes at home, at work, and even in your relationships.
5. Build related healthy habits.
The only thing you need to do to lose weight is sustain a caloric deficit, and the best way to do that is through dieting. However, this is much easier if you stay active, get enough sleep, and manage stress.
A few ways I can help you achieve your fat loss goals:
I coach my 1:1 clients through every step in this process. If you want custom help right now, you can apply for the program here and I’ll follow up.
I also run a 6 week group course – Sane and Simple Fat Loss – to help clients lose weight without losing their minds. In the course, I teach a six pillar system to help you navigate steps 1-4 above (we don’t really cover exercise). Topics include increasing awareness, managing portions, and which foods to eat and which to avoid.
Sane and Simple Fat Loss is coming back on Monday March 8! If you think you may be interested, you can join the waitlist to receive early, discounted access on February 26.
If you’re struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts, join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.
A lot of nutrition coaches will tell you that there are good foods and bad foods.
“Bad foods” typically include things like fast food, baked goods, fried foods, and candy. Depending on which diet camp the coach belongs to, more contentious things like grains, dairy, meat, or even fruit could all be on the do-not-eat list.
There is typically a lot of shame, guilt, morality, and fear-mongering tied up in this approach to eating.
Early in my fitness journey, I fell prey to many of these questionable nutrition dogmas. I tried numerous fad diets looking for the perfect way to eat and lose weight.
My entire experience of food was heavily influenced by this good food, bad food dilemma. I remember the anxiety I would feel at a party or at a restaurant if I couldn’t find foods that fit within my narrow menu of acceptable options.
When I inevitably did eat an off-plan food, it sent me into a spiral of overeating because “I already blew it.”
As you might imagine, this approach did very little to help me lose weight. It certainly didn’t help me live a healthier life or improve my relationship with food.
These days, I consider myself a diet agnostic. I don’t believe there is one best diet for everyone and I never instruct my clients to follow a specific diet (although I will answer questions and provide information if someone asks me my thoughts).
Part of this shift has involved removing morality from food. I no longer think of foods in black and white terms like good or bad. Food is just food, and I think there are always instances when it’s appropriate to eat foods other coaches may consider off-limits.
Despite this attitude, however, I don’t think you should just eat whatever you want, whenever you want all the time. It’s still useful to consider which foods work for you and which do not.
This is especially true if you’re trying to lose weight, or if you have a history of disordered eating like I do.
I love the concept of red, yellow, and green light foods that I learned from Precision Nutrition.
Red light foods are foods you don’t want to eat very often, or ever.
This category includes foods you’re allergic to, or those which strongly clash with your values (eg. meat for a vegetarian).
Red light foods could also include foods you have a really hard time regulating yourself around. For example, I know there are particular foods that are heavily associated with binging for me, and I choose to avoid these foods.
Note that there isn’t necessarily anything inherently wrong with these foods, they just aren’t a good fit for your body, psychology, or goals.
Yellow light foods are foods that you can enjoy in moderation but don’t want to eat all the time.
Sometimes these foods are higher in calories, so we want to be mindful of portion sizes so we don’t accidentally overeat (think nuts, nut butters, pasta, etc.).
Other times we may feel uncomfortable if we eat too many of these foods. For example, many people are mildly lactose intolerant and can only eat so much dairy before they start to experience side effects.
In other situations still, yellow light foods may be treat foods that we can enjoy in small amounts but want to be careful not to overindulge. I usually have a couple of chocolate bars in the house, but I limit myself to one or two squares at a time.
Green light foods are foods that make your body and mind feel good and support your goals.
They should make up the bulk of your eating if you want to look, feel, and perform your best. Although the specific selections will vary for each person, green light foods include things like fruits, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, beans and legumes, and eggs.
How to use this system:
Most of your meals should consist of green light foods.
Occasionally, you can enjoy yellow light foods in appropriate portions.
Skip red light foods most of the time. I would not keep these foods in your house, and if you do decide to eat them I would be very intentional about the setting.
Keep in mind that these categories are fluid and will likely change as you get older or chase different goals. And remember to remove shame from the equation. Red light foods are not inherently bad, they just don’t work for you at this time.
Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts? Join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.
After months of closures, gyms around the country are slowly resuming operations.
There are plenty of people discussing all the ways to protect yourself from COVID-19 when you return to the gym. I’m not going to talk about that today, as those policies will come directly from your gym or local government.
Each person also has their own unique circumstances with work, family, and finances as well as their own personal risk tolerance, all of which could affect their decision about when to return to the gym.
Instead of digging into these issues, I want to discuss another crucial element of staying safe when you go back to the gym. It’s hard to overstate just how important this consideration is to protect yourself.
Be cautious to avoid injuries.
You are not the same trainee that you were back in early March.
If you don’t take your time easing back into full weight room workouts, you are setting yourself up for pain and injuries.
Even if you’ve been crushing your home training, your body is not in specific shape for the gym.
There is a big difference between squatting with a band or kettlebell and squatting with a barbell.
Same idea applies to other exercises. If the only pressing movements you’ve done for three months are various types of pushups, your body is no longer fully adapted for barbell – or even dumbbell – bench pressing.
Now, this doesn’t mean you’re totally out of shape if you’ve been training without access to real weights. I have clients that lost weight, built lean muscle, and are moving better than ever thanks to their quarantine workouts. You may even feel stronger and fitter than you did before the gym closed.
However, the specific stressors placed on your ligaments, tendons, and joints are different with different training tools.
Barbells in particular are not very joint-friendly and a lot less forgiving of form errors. Placing too much load and stress on delicate connective tissues before they’re ready is a great way to hurt yourself.
Getting hurt now only means more time away from the gym. Nobody wants that!
The absolute worst thing you can do when you go back to the gym is try and jump right back in to the exact workouts you were using before quarantine.
What to do instead
Start with shorter workouts. Your work capacity for lifting weights is likely reduced. I recommend 30 minute workouts for at least the first two weeks. You can always fill in extra time with cardio or non-lifting activities.
Prioritize recovery. Get plenty of sleep, eat primarily nutrient-rich foods, drink lots of water, and go for easy walks on your off days. You can also experiment with bodywork, contrast showers, and other recovery tools.
Use less weight. No matter what exercise you perform, start with lighter weights than you think you can handle.
Be cautious about barbell training. I actually recommend avoiding barbells for the first 2-4 weeks. Focus on dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, and machines. Then, once you’re back in the swing of things, you can add barbell movements back into the mix.
Be nice to yourself. You will likely feel pretty weak and out of shape the first time you return to the weight room. Don’t let this get you down. If you stayed active during quarantine, your gym strength and endurance will return pretty rapidly. If you were totally sedentary for the last three months, this process will probably take a little longer.
One last note – expect to be very sore when you first get back into lifting weights. In my experience, people feel the most intense soreness when they return to lifting weights after a long period away or do exercises they haven’t done in a while.
This is another reason to take it easy with lighter loads and shorter workouts until you re-acclimate to the gym.
Do you have questions or concerns about how to safely resume your gym routine? Apply for my online training program and I can provide customized plans, support, and advice to help you navigate this transition.
No matter who you are or what goals you have, I guarantee you can benefit from moving your body on a regular basis.
One reason why exercise is so powerful is that it is a keystone habit. In his book The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg defines a keystone habit as a super habit that causes you to adopt additional positive habits.
Think of it as the first domino in a habit chain reaction. During the process of implementing the keystone habit, many people consciously or unconsciously build other helpful habits to support their efforts.
When we start working out, we tend to adopt other healthy behaviors.
We might go to bed earlier so we can perform better in the next day’s training session.
Maybe we start eating more protein so we can see faster progress from our workouts.
Before we know it, we’re looking, feeling, and performing better as a result of all the changes we’ve made to support our new exercise habit.
Working out on a regular basis can be an incredibly powerful catalyst for change in many areas of your life. And let’s be honest – most people feel it’s easier to start exercising than to clean up their nutrition.
For these reasons, I usually encourage people to start their fitness journey with exercise. Move often in ways that feel good and occasionally challenge your body in safe, productive ways.
Exercise is amazing, but it’s not always enough.
Unfortunately, despite its propensity to be a keystone habit, exercise by itself is not enough to get most people all the way to the finish line.
This is especially true if you have a body composition goal like losing weight. If your diet isn’t in line with your body size, goals, and activity levels, you will not see the progress you’re hoping for with exercise alone.
This misalignment is the reason why some people who hit the gym religiously can’t seem to get the scale or their measurements to budge.
In these cases, diet becomes more important than exercise.
Why is this the case?
Fat loss occurs when we consume fewer calories than our bodies use over a prolonged period of time.
Although our energy balance mechanisms are actually a lot more complicated, it’s helpful to think of this in terms of exercise (calories out) and diet (calories in).
There is only so much exercise you can do before you run out of time, burn out, or hurt yourself. We also tend to burn a lot fewer calories working out than we think (the number your wearable tells you is likely inaccurate).
Eating, on the other hand, happens multiple times every day. Most of us are bad at estimating how many calories we consume, and the world around us is filled with tempting, tasting, high calorie foods.
It’s criminally easy to wipe out any calorie burn from exercise with a big meal, a few drinks, or a post-workout treat.
Even “healthy” foods can contribute to this problem. If you burn 200 calories during a hard workout and then drink a 400 calorie smoothie on the way out of the gym, you’ve wiped out all your efforts and then some.
This is why paying attention to portion sizes through calorie counting or some other method is an essential element of successful fat loss.
Let me be the first to admit I’ve always struggled with hunger.
I rarely get a growling stomach like most people. Instead, I get very edgy, irritable, and short tempered. I like to think I’m a pretty laid back person, but watch out if I’m hungry. On more than one occasion, I’ve done or said something I regretted because I wasn’t thinking straight and didn’t realize it until after I’d eaten.
Over the years, I learned to attack my hunger as soon as it appeared to avoid these undesirable side effects.
I’d snack and overeat all day long because I was more comfortable with being overfull than feeling even the slightest hint of hunger.
I also spent a lot of time feeling sorry for myself. Why did I always get so hungry? Why did hunger seem to affect me more than other people? If only I didn’t feel so hungry or if it wasn’t so uncomfortable, then I’d be able to finally lose weight.
Although hunger was still uncomfortable for me, I began to see it in a different light. I begrudgingly made friends with my hunger because I realized it was indicating that I was heading in the right direction with my fat loss goals.
Hunger is not an emergency.
Here’s the thing: some hunger is not a bad thing. If you’re trying to lose weight, it’s an inevitable and necessary part of your journey.
When I stopped my personal pity party and accepted this, I was able to focus my energy in a more productive direction, namely learning to get more comfortable with discomfort in the name of my bigger goals.
I realized that my hunger was not an emergency (even through it felt like one) and that I could survive to my next meal without snacking.
Perhaps you’ve heard that you should never feel hungry. There are a lot of misconceptions about hunger and what it means.
Like anything, hunger exists on a continuum. It’s normal to experience some hunger in between meals. In fact, if you’re not hungry at all, you probably shouldn’t eat much (even if it’s supposed to be meal time). This is true for everyone except people who are actively trying to gain weight.
Those who are trying to losing weight will likely experience higher levels of hunger. This hunger may start sooner after meals or be more intense than if you’re eating at maintenance.
However, if you take it too far and chase hunger for its own sake or try to see how little you can eat, then you’re starting to enter the realm of disordered eating.
I am in no way telling you to starve yourself or that the hungrier you feel, the better your results will be. But I do encourage you to get honest with yourself about your relationship with hunger.
These days, I still struggle with the way hunger affects my mood and energy levels. The difference is that I no longer delude myself into thinking I’ll be free of hunger if I want to get and stay lean.
Some tips for reducing and managing hunger
Routine is a very powerful tool to help you manage hunger. If you can eat your meals at the same times, your body will adapt and you may start to experience less random hunger throughout the day.
On a related note, sometimes changing your meal timing can help with hunger. For example, if you aren’t hungry when you wake up but feel extremely hungry later, try fasting in the morning and pushing your regular meals later in the day.
A diet that consists of mostly whole foods will fill you up a lot more than a diet filled with processed foods. Protein, fiber, and healthy fats can be particularly satiating. Solid foods are also more filling than liquid foods like shakes and smoothies.
Drink plenty of water throughout the day. Aim for half your bodyweight in ounces every day. In a pinch, black coffee or tea can also help dull hunger pangs.
When you do eat, practice eating slowly and mindfully. Chew your food and pay attention to the experience of eating. Don’t wolf down your meals because that often leads to feelings of dissatisfaction and false hunger after meals.
Practice sitting with hunger when it arises. Set a timer for 20 minutes and do something else before deciding if you want to eat. Hunger comes in waves, and many times you may find you can wait longer to eat.
Start asking yourself if you’re really hungry or just craving something. One mental test I use on myself is to ask if I’m hungry enough to eat a plate of plain chicken and broccoli. If I say no, then I know I’m experiencing a craving.
Have some perspective. It may seem preachy, but it’s helpful to me to remember that choosing to go without food in the name of fat loss is a luxury. Many people in the world – including in my own city and country – are regularly forced to go without food for extended periods of time. This stops me from feeling so sorry for myself.
I know talking about hunger is not very sexy, but I strongly believe getting more comfortable with hunger is one of the most powerful tools you can use in your efforts to lose weight or maintain your weight.
Like many people, my fitness journey began because I wanted to lose weight.
By the time I got serious about this, there was more on the line than just looking a certain way. I was 19 and prediabetic, facing a future of chronic disease if I didn’t make some serious changes.
My second major goal – which lasted about four years – was to get as strong as possible. I was introduced to the sport of powerlifting and got hooked.
My training was all about putting up big numbers on the back squat, bench press, and barbell deadlift. I even competed in a powerlifting meet back in April 2014 where I set an all-time personal deadlift PR of 330lbs.
I’m now almost ten years into my personal fitness journey. Increasingly, my goals have shifted beyond just building a lean body and lifting heavy things.
I still want to look good and feel strong (who doesn’t?), but I’ve realized that the biggest benefit of lifting weights is how it helps you later on in life.
You have control than you think over how you age.
When most of us think about getting older, we assume that losing strength, mobility, stamina, and power is inevitable.
I know I constantly hear people saying things like “I’m just old” or “I guess this is just part of getting older.”
Here’s the thing: much of the physical decline we perceive as just part of getting older is not set in stone.
The appearance of your body may change, but you can hold on to much of its capacity if you’re stay active and prioritize resistance training.
One of the biggest drivers of age-related decline is loss of muscle mass. This causes your metabolism to slow down along with a host of other negative consequences.
But studies indicate that you can actually maintain much of your muscle mass as long as you keep using it. You don’t need to be a pro bodybuilder either; you just need to engage in some kind of regular resistance training.
Another challenge of getting older is being more susceptible to injury. Too many older people die as a result of slips and falls.
It doesn’t have to be this way – you can dramatically reduce the chances of falls by maintaining some level of balance, speed, and power.
Here are a few things you can do to train for health and longevity:
Train all the major movement patterns. Everyone should perform some variation of a squat, hinge, upper body push, and upper body pull on a regular basis. If you want to add a few more, I also recommend training gait (walking and carries), crawling, single leg training, and rotation (both resisting and creating it).
Pick exercises that work for your body and skill level. Not everyone is cut out to use barbells. And if you’re intimidated by the weight room, there are plenty of other resistance training options that can work. I strongly suggest experimenting to find exercise variations that feel good for you.
If you want help figuring out which squat and deadlift variations work for you, you can download my free Squat and Deadlift School ebook here.
Don’t do things that hurt. This is related to the point above. You would be surprised how many people push through pain during exercise because they thing it’s just part of the deal. There is always a way to to modify an exercise or train around pain. Your joints will thank you.
Power training is for everyone. Being fast and responsive is what helps you prevent falls and quickly react to other stimuli in the environment. Learning how to jump and land safely is hugely beneficial. If you can’t jump, try incorporating medicine ball throws or just going for power walks from time to time.
Do mobility work every day. The last thing you want is for your minor aches and pains to turn into more serious problems or permanent restrictions. I recommend doing drills to mobilize your hips, upper back, shoulders, and ankles as often as possible.
Work on getting up and down from the floor. Being able to get up and down from the floor by yourself is hugely important for health and safety as we age. If possible, try to get up and down from the floor at least once in every workout. Turkish getups and lunges are especially helpful here.
When in doubt, keep up your cardio fitness. The best thing you can do for your health is to move every day. If all you can do is go for a short walk, make that your goal. This keeps your heart, brain, muscles, and many other systems healthy and happy.
I still work out to build muscle and get lean. But I also want to stay strong and maintain my independence for as long as possible.
I want to be able to climb stairs, carry my groceries, and take active vacations. I do this work now so that I’m harder to kill if I’m lucky enough to still here in a few decades.
If you’re a millennial like me, now is the perfect time to build a sustainable strength training routine. Find activities you enjoy and set meaningful goals so you can challenge yourself and stay engaged.
If you’re a little older, now is still the perfect time to lift weights or move your body in a way that’s appropriate for you.
As long as you’re still living, it’s not too late to get in better shape and reap the benefits of resistance training. If you want some help figuring out what this looks like for you, you can apply for my online training program here.
People usually fall into one of three groups when they come to the gym:
They show up with no plan or only a vague idea of what they want to work on that day. They wander around the gym using whatever equipment is available, hitting their favorite exercises, and copying what they see others doing.
They complete a random workout from an influencer’s plan or app. Although they’re following a prescribed workout, each session doesn’t necessarily build on the others.
They do the same workout(s) they’ve been doing for years, with the exact same exercises, sets, reps, and weights they always use.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with doing what you want at the gym. Everyone trains for different reasons, and if you’re just trying to move your body and fit some activity into your day then it really doesn’t matter what you do.
However, if you have specific goals you’d like to achieve, such as getting stronger, losing weight, building muscle, or moving with less pain, I strongly recommend you take a different approach.
Changing your body in any meaningful way requires consistency, effort, and building specific skills over time. If you come to the gym with a random plan (or worse, no plan), you’re wasting valuable time and leaving potential progress on the table. And if you always do the same things, your body will eventually stop responding. We must strike a balance between too much new stuff and not enough new stuff to consistently move forward.
I’m a true believer in long-term workout programs built around core movements and progressive overload. If you’re tired of wasting time at the gym or aren’t sure why you’re not seeing results, maybe it’s time to change the way you work out.
The Novelty Trap
Everyone wants to have a good time when they come to the gym. Since it’s often hard to find the motivation to train, it makes sense that we’d like to have fun while we’re there. This becomes a problem, however, when we derive all our enjoyment from novelty or are afraid we’ll get bored if we don’t constantly try new things.
Social media exacerbates our exercise ADD. We scroll through our instagram feeds for inspiration and see all kinds of new and crazy exercises. Our favorite celebrity is doing one thing, a pro athlete we admire is doing another, an old classmate is promoting a new exercise system, and a fitness model we follow is doing something entirely different. It’s tempting to pick and choose a little bit of everything we see. This results in random workouts that may be fun but do very little to advance us toward our goals.
Too much novelty leaves us trapped in learning mode. Each time we go to the gym, we devote tons of time and energy to figuring out how to perform new exercises. If you’ve ever tried to learn a new movement, you know it’s tough to push yourself on your first few tries. This is because your brain is not initially efficient at telling your muscles when and how to move. If we don’t give our nervous system time to adapt, we’re never truly able to drive desired adaptations like fat loss, muscle gain, or increased strength. We need time and practice to be able to push our bodies to improve.
You know what I think is entertaining? Getting results. Repeating workouts (with smart progression over time) will always give you more bang-for-your-buck than reinventing the wheel each time you hit the gym.
But don’t I need to confuse my muscles and keep my body guessing?
The idea that you can trick your body into making progress by constantly switching up your workouts was popularized by workout programs like P90X. Muscle confusion is one of those appealing myths that seems like it could be true but isn’t actually rooted in science.
You need fewer changes than you might think to continue progressing over time. I often have my clients work on the same three or four basic strength exercises for several months. I add variety by changing the number of sets and reps performed each month. When the reps are lower, the client will be lifting heavier weights. If I then bump the reps up again and the client can still lift the heavier weight, we’ll know we are making good progress. Even a slight change in sets and reps can also totally change the demands and feel of an exercise. I’m happy because my client is improving through repeated practice, and my client is happy because they feel engaged in the training process.
Another benefit to keeping your workouts simple is that you’ll have exercises and training techniques in reserve for when progress slows or you want a total change of pace. If you’re constantly performing every exercise you know, you’ll be stuck when you hit an inevitable plateau. There’s nothing for you to change and no new direction you can go. You’re more likely to injure yourself and less likely to get really good at anything.
Finally, understand that underneath all the flashy instagram workouts or new products they’re promoting, every person with a great body is performing (or did perform for many years) primarily boring workouts filled with basic exercises that everybody knows. This is true for bodybuilders, pro athletes, crossfitters, and fitness models. I guarantee that 80-90% of their time at the gym is spent doing simple things you probably already know how to do. You just don’t see this stuff online because it’s not as sexy and it doesn’t sell new workout programs.
Want better results? Get back to basics and push yourself.
Only a few things truly matter at the gym if you want to build a lean, strong, and healthy body. You will always be leaving results on the table if you ignore these principles in favor of exotic exercises, flashy workout techniques, and too much novelty.
When in doubt, simplify. You can get a lot of mileage out of seemingly basic exercises like goblet squats, dumbbell Romanian deadlifts, pushups, rows, and farmer carries.
You need to train with intensity if you want to see results. Your workouts should push your physical and mental limits while still allowing you to recover. Challenge yourself with heavy loads, more sets, less rest, or intensity techniques.
Repeating workouts several times helps you find your groove and generate more intensity. In my experience, the sweet spot of most programs occurs in the third or fourth week. This is when people feel most comfortable with the exercises and can lift the most weight or perform the most sets.
Focus on progressive overload. Over time, you should see your gym performance improve. This could mean lifting more weight, doing more sets and/or reps, taking less rest, using better form, being more explosive, or progressing to more challenging exercise variations (eg progressing from a kettlebell deadlift to a trap bar deadlift). If you’re not getting better in measurable ways over the long term, you need to take an honest look at your workouts and/or your effort.
If you’re serious about your results, you need to commit to a long-term workout program. I write four-month training blocks for most of my clients. I’ve found this is an ideal amount of time to build essential skills and see noticeable progress toward a goal. Even if you don’t follow a three or four month program, I strongly recommend repeating one set of workouts for four to six weeks before switching things up.
Finally, trust the process and be consistent. Getting stronger, losing weight, building muscle, or rehabbing an injury all take time, focus, and hard work. If you keep showing up and appreciate all the little moments along the way, you’ll have a much better chance to achieve lasting success.
Have I convinced you that your workouts need an upgrade? Here are two ways to move forward:
Sign up for online coaching. I design 100% customized, structured, long-term workout plans based on your unique needs. I also offer nutrition and lifestyle coaching and accountability check-ins to support you with your goals.
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Last week, I celebrated my four year work anniversary at Fitness Formula Clubs. For those of you who don’t know, FFC is the gym in downtown Chicago where I train my in-person clients. I spent the week reflecting on all the lessons I’ve learned from my wonderful clients and coworkers.
When I first moved back to Chicago, I wasn’t sure if I would stay in the fitness industry. My life was in a state of enormous upheaval after leaving the classical music world, quitting grad school, and moving cross country for the third time in five years. I knew I loved fitness, but I didn’t know if I could build a lasting career in the field. However, I decided to continue training while I figured things out.
I interviewed at nearly every gym in the city, but the vibe was different at FFC. I could tell the management team was truly invested in the well-being and education of the training team. The facilities were great (and they’ve only gotten better over the last four years) and the atmosphere felt right. After considering a few other offers, I started work at FFC Union Station on June 18, 2015.
2015 me
Despite my good first impression, the first six months on the job were rough. Although I had coaching experience, I had very little business experience. I probably wouldn’t have stuck it out past the end of 2015 if it weren’t for the support and mentorship of some of my coworkers and managers.
Eventually, I began to find my stride. Constantly learning new things made me a more effective coach and helped my clients obtain better results. As time passed, I also built deep relationships with many of these clients. I ultimately chose to abandon plans to pursue another career and devote myself 100% to a life of coaching. Years later, I still feel this was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
In honor of my work-iversary, I want to share four lessons I’ve learned over the last four years. These are insights I’ve gained by observing my clients’ hard work as they travel the difficult path of lifestyle change. Success leaves clues, and after working with hundreds of people, I’ve observed some key similarities between those clients doing the best.
There’s more to getting in shape than eating right and exercising.
All my clients (and probably everyone reading this) know they need to eat healthy food and regularly hit the gym to achieve their goals. However, if you’re serious about getting and staying in shape, there are other factors which are arguably even more important.
One thing that sets my most successful clients apart from the rest is their understanding that true health is multifaceted. It involves looking after your body, mind, emotions, and sense of purpose and connection. To truly look, feel, and perform your best, you need all of these:
It’s relatively simple to follow a strict eating and exercise plan for a few months when you don’t have a lot going on. But what happens when life gets in the way? In my experience, clients who pay attention to the second half of the list are much more resilient and better able to take care of themselves even with limited resources or an influx of additional stress.
No one nails this entire list on a daily basis (I certainly don’t). However, if you’re serious about achieving your health and fitness goals, you will have to address all of these issues in time. I’ve seen clients make some truly amazing progress when they start looking beyond the obvious things and get to the root of what’s standing in their way.
Consistency wins.
My most successful clients are also my most consistent clients. Clients who attend all their scheduled sessions make significantly more progress than clients who frequently miss workouts. Clients who dutifully perform their physical therapy exercises and pay attention to mobility recover faster from injuries and are much more resilient in their daily lives. And clients who follow an eating plan six or seven days per week see much faster results than clients who indulge a little too much on the weekends.
Consistency is the closest thing to a magic bullet when it comes to achieving any health and fitness goal. Do yourself a favor and find a way to do the important things on a more regular basis.
Everyone needs support.
All my clients are smart, successful people. I’m in awe of what some of them do on a daily basis and I would never tell them how to do their jobs or take care of their families.
However, nobody can be an expert in everything. Hiring a trainer is one of the best ways to jump-start progress and bust through plateaus. It’s incredibly helpful to hand over your workouts to someone else you will ensure you make the most of limited time and push yourself in a safe and structured way. This is a lesson I really took to heart a few years ago when I began working with trainers of my own. I’ve seen such great progress that I hope to never write my own workouts or nutrition plans ever again.
Even if you never hire a trainer, you’ll enjoy more success if you have direct support for your fitness goals. Many of my long term clients have built strong friendships with other gym regulars. It’s been fun for me to watch these members interact and support each other in many different areas of their lives. It’s always easier to come to the gym if you know you get to hang out with your friends.
We also need support beyond the gym. It’s important to discuss your efforts with your family or partner to ensure everyone is on the same page. My most successful clients have honest conversations with the people in their lives about why they want to change and what they need to make it happen. Even if family members don’t need or want to make the same choices as my clients at first, they are often inspired to get in shape themselves once they see the results.
Most people join a gym or hire a trainer because they have specific goals. They want to lose 20 pounds, complete their first marathon, or learn how to train safely after an injury. It’s always fun for me to create the first training program for a new client and help them crush these goals.
However, my most successful clients are the ones who realize that getting and staying in shape is a lifelong process that doesn’t end once you achieve your initial goal. It’s vitally important – and often much more challenging – to sustain your results for weeks, months, and years after you hit your goal. You have to continually recommit to the process and find ways to incorporate your new healthy habits into a lifestyle that’s enjoyable, meaningful, and sustainable.
In some cases, clients I’ve had for years are still chipping away at their first goal. What helps these clients stave off frustration and keep them coming back? First, 100 percent of the time they experience benefits they weren’t necessarily expecting such as increased energy, more strength, fewer aches and pains, and more confidence in their daily lives.
Second, they find fulfillment in the act of showing up and doing their best. They like working out, being active outside the gym, and learning to cook healthy meals at home. Rather than obsessing over their destination, they learn to enjoy the journey.
It takes much longer than we’d like to achieve many fitness goals. While we can control our actions and behaviors, we can’t control our outcomes. It’s vital to learn to love the process if you want long-term success.
What will you be able to do when you are consistent, patient, and dedicated to your health and fitness goals?
I’m taking time this week to reflect and be grateful. My job has difficult aspects like everyone’s, but I’m so lucky to be able to come to work at a great gym every day. Thank you to all the clients who’ve trusted me with your health over the years. I’ve learned as much from training and getting to know you as you’ve hopefully learned from me. I couldn’t ask for a cooler group of people with which to spend my days.
Interested in working with me in Chicago? Send me a message here and I’ll help you set up a complimentary consultation at FFC. If you don’t live in Chicago, you can apply for my online training program here.
Let’s say you want to lose some weight. You started watching what you eat and hitting the gym on a regular basis. You feel good about the changes you made and decide to buy a scale to monitor your progress. However, after a couple of weeks the number of the scale barely budged. What gives? Are you really not making any progress? Or are you simply looking at the wrong things?
Changing your body is a long process. Often, the mental game trips us up more than anything else. It’s crucial to be patient and kind to yourself while building new habits. If you rely too much on the scale, it’s easy to get frustrated and miss all the other evidence that you’re moving in the right direction.
Below, I discuss several ways to measure changes to your body. If you’re feeling frustrated with your apparent lack of progress, or simply want a more effective and honest way to measure progress, you may benefit from looking beyond just the scale.
All about the scale
Bodyweight is the most obvious metric to track if you want to lose weight. I’m not going to tell you bodyweight doesn’t matter or that you shouldn’t pay attention to it. However, it’s important to understand what your scale is telling you and put this number in a broader context. Bodyweight by itself can be very misleading.
Unfortunately, bodyweight is often the only progress metric people track. Sometimes this causes people to abandon plans that could lead to great results if only they were more patient. Others step on the scale and let whatever number they see dictate their mood – or worse, their sense of self worth – for the rest of the day. This can fuel body image issues, trigger obsessive behavior, and even contribute to disordered eating.
If you have a poor relationship with the scale, I strongly encourage you to throw yours away and measure progress with some of the alternative metrics discussed below. You are worth so much more than the number on the scale!
How to use the scale and keep your sanity
Scale weight fluctuates based on many factors: what and when you last ate, hydration, salt intake, when you last exercised, stress levels, menstrual cycle, etc.
I’ve seen my own weight fluctuate more than five pounds in a day. Does this mean I gained five pounds of body fat? Absolutely not. The changes in weight were due to water and glycogen manipulations. True weight gain and loss happens much more gradually.
For this reason, I never want my clients to weigh themselves just once per week. It’s too difficult to get an accurate of picture of what’s going on. Instead, I recommend weighing yourself 3-7 times per week. It’s best to weigh yourself first thing in the morning just after using the bathroom. Record your weight in a journal or on your phone. At the end of each week, take an average of your daily weights.
Your weekly average is what matters as you monitor your progress. Are your averages trending down? You’re probably losing body fat. Trending up? You’re most likely gaining weight.
I love the Happy Scale app for tracking weight. This app smooths out the daily ups and downs to give you an accurate average weight. It also shows you whether your weigh ins are trending up or down. This takes some of the anxiety out of daily weigh ins because you’ll know you’re heading in the right direction, even if your daily weight fluctuates.
Keep in mind fat loss takes a long time. For most people, losing one pound per week is an excellent rate of progress. You may also drop more weight initially and then experience slower progress, which is totally normal.
The scale does not give you a complete picture of your fat loss progress.
Beyond the scale: other ways to measure progress
One of the easiest ways to tell you’re making progress is to pay attention to how your clothes fit. If you’re trying to lose weight, baggy pants, looser waists, and moving in a notch on your belt are all signs you’re heading in the right direction. Lots of progress here may necessitate a wardrobe update, which can be a fun way to treat yourself and celebrate your success.
If you hear someone talking about how many inches they’ve lost, they’re referring to the total of body measurements they’re tracking. I often have clients take body measurements as a way to quantify the changes happening to different parts of their bodies. Body measurements should be taken using a cloth measuring tape once or twice per month. Waist measurements (just above the belly button) are particularly valuable to measure fat loss. If the scale isn’t budging but you’ve lost inches around your waist, you’re still making progress. You may also choose to measure your neck, shoulders, chest, bicep, hips, thigh, and calf. Be sure to take the measurements from the same place every time.
Changes in body fat percentage provide another way to measure fat loss. If your primary goal is fat loss, you want to see this number decrease. If the scale stays the same but your body fat percentage goes down, you’re still losing fat and likely building some muscle.
Unfortunately, body fat percentage is difficult to track. Accurate methods like a DEXA scan are costly and usually require you to visit a specialized facility. Tracking with calipers is somewhat accurate, but you’ll need another person (like a trainer) to take these measurements for you. You may still see big discrepancies depending on the person taking the measurements and the calipers used. The easiest methods, handheld body fat scanners or scales that measure body fat, are also the least accurate. If you decide to track your body fat percentage despite these challenges, use the same tracking method every time.
Progress photosare perhaps the best way to measure body change. Many of us chase an “ideal weight,” but what we are truly after is changing the way we look and feel. Sometimes the numbers we want to hit date all the way back to high school and simply aren’t realistic or appropriate for our adult bodies. It won’t matter if you never hit your goal weight if you love the way your body looks and feels.
I recommend taking progress photos once a month. Wear the same form-fitting clothes or bathing suit each time. Take one photo each of your front, side (profile), and back. Take the photos in the same place with the same lighting if possible. You can take mirror selfies or set your phone to countdown if you’re not comfortable asking someone else to help you.
Comparing these photos side by side over the course of many months can be a very eye-opening and inspiring experience. Often we don’t notice the amazing progress we’ve made because we spend every day living in our bodies.
Progress photos from a diet I did a couple of years ago. Taking photos kept me motivated even when I didn’t necessary see changes in bodyweight.
Beyond your body: even more progress measures
Sometimes it’s helpful to forget about the way your body looks and instead focus on all the amazing things it can do. There are many ways to track this kind of progress in and out of the gym. Here are some of my favorites:
Increased energy levels. This was the very first benefit I enjoyed when I started working out. Before I started working out, I needed multiple cups of coffee at lunch just to stay awake during my afternoon classes. After, I had tons of energy throughout the day and was able to focus for extended periods of time. Are you experiencing similar benefits from your workouts? This is an early sign your body is changing and making positive adaptations.
Increased performance at the gym. Are you adding weight to your exercises on a consistent basis? Has your endurance improved during your cardio sessions? Are you completing more workouts during the week? These are all indications that you’re getting stronger and fitter. Although exercise is only one piece of the puzzle (especially if your primary goal is fat loss), it can dramatically improve your quality of life.
Fewer aches and pains. One of the unfortunate realities of being overweight or out of shape is that you’re at an increased risk of pain in your muscles and joints. Getting active, improving your movement quality, and strengthening your body can all help reduce this discomfort.
Getting through the day with greater ease. Are you walking up the stairs without getting winded? Can you sprint to catch a bus or train? Are you able to carry all your grocery bags in one trip? Can you comfortably bend over to tie your shoes? Sometimes progress is most noticeable in the mundane things we do everyday.
It takes time, patience, and perspective to change your body. Looking at more than one measure of progress is a powerful tool to keep you motivated and on track during the journey.
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