Author: tom44

“…Tony the Tiger tells us that breakfast is the most important meal of the day! It’s grrrrrreat!”

This adage about breakfast has become commonplace that it’s readily and unquestionably accepted as fact.

Well then, what’s with the growing popularity of Intermittent Fasting and SKIPPING breakfast?

(Tony just audibly gasped.)

We have TONS of Online Coaching Clients who do intermittent fasting, and we love helping people reach their goals in whatever path suits their life.

Let us help you start fasting safely today! Learn more:

In this Ultimate Guide to Intermitting Fasting, I’ll teach you everything about the science of fasting and what results you can expect:

• What is Intermittent Fasting?
• How does Intermittent Fasting work?
• Should I eat 6 small meals a day?
• Should I try Intermittent Fasting? (6 Things to Consider)
• What are the negative effects of Intermittent Fasting?
• Can I build muscle and gain weight while Intermittent Fasting?
• Should I do Intermittent Fasting and the Keto Diet?
• Does Intermittent Fasting have different effects on men and women?
• Top 6 questions about Intermittent Fasting.
• 8 tips and tricks for fasting.
• Intermittent Fasting: next steps.
• Download our Intermittent Fasting Plan.

We have ALSO have a fun Intermittent Fasting Plan you can use to plan out your next few weeks of eating!

Join the Rebellion – our online community – and I’ll send you our fasting guide free:

What is Intermittent Fasting?

“Conventional wisdom” isn’t that smart.

We’re going to take two widely accepted healthy eating “rules” and turn them on their head:

RULE #1: You HAVE to eat first thing in the morning: Make sure you start off with a healthy breakfast, so you can get that metabolism firing first thing in the morning!

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper.”

There are even studies that show those that eat earlier in the day lose more weight than those who ate later in the day or skipped a meal.^[1]

RULE #2: Eat lots of small meals for weight loss. Make sure you eat six small meals throughout the day so your metabolism stays operating at maximum capacity all day long.”

In other words, “eat breakfast and lots of small meals to lose weight and obtain optimal health.”

But what if there’s science and research that shows SKIPPING BREAKFAST (the horror! blasphemy!) can help with optimum human performance, mental and physical health improvement, maximum muscle retention, and body fat loss?

That’s where an Intermittent Fasting Plan comes in.

Intermittent fasting is not a diet, but rather a dieting pattern. 

In simpler terms: it’s making a conscious decision to skip certain meals on purpose.

By fasting and then feasting deliberately, intermittent fasting generally means that you consume your calories during a specific window of the day, and choose not to eat food for a larger window of time.

There are a few different ways to take advantage of intermittent fasting, which I learned about from Martin over at LeanGains, a resource specifically built around fasted strength training:

INTERMITTENT FASTING 16/8 PLAN

What it is: Fasting for 16 hours and then only eating within a specific 8-hour window. For example, only eating from noon-8 PM, essentially skipping breakfast.

Some people only eat in a 6-hour window, or even a 4-hour window. This is “feasting” and “fasting” parts of your days and the most common form of Intermittent Fasting. It’s also my preferred method (4 years running).

Two examples: The top means you are skipping breakfast, the bottom means you are skipping dinner each day:

You can adjust this window to make it work for your life:

• If you start eating at: 7AM, stop eating and start fasting at 3pm.
• If you start eating at: 11AM, stop eating and start fasting at 7pm.
• If you start eating at: 2PM, stop eating and start fasting at 10pm.
• If you start eating at: 6PM, stop eating and start fasting at 2AM.

INTERMITTENT FASTING 24 HOUR PLAN

Skip two meals one day, where you take 24 hours off from eating. For example, eat on a normal schedule (finishing dinner at 8PM) and then you don’t eat again until 8PM the following day.

With this plan, you eat your normal 3 meals per day, and then occasionally pick a day to skip breakfast and lunch the next day.

If you can only do an 18 hour fast, or a 20 hour fast, or a 22 hour fast – that’s okay! Adjust with different time frames and see how your body responds.

Two examples: skipping breakfast and lunch one day of the week, and then another where you skip lunch and dinner one day, two days in a week.

Note: You can do this once a week, twice a week, or whatever works best for your life and situation.

By the way, both those weekly charts above come from our free Intermittent Fasting Plan (with printable worksheets).

Most people struggle with knowing exactly when to eat and when to stop eating, and actually sticking with it. We address all of that in the Nerd Fitness Intermittent Fasting Guide you get free when you sign up for our email list in the box below:

Those are the two most popular intermittent fasting plans, and the two we’ll be focusing on, though there are many variations of both that you can modify for yourself:

• Some people eat in a 4 hour window, others do 6 or 8.
• Some people do 20 hour fasts or 24 hour fasts.
• Another strategy is to eat only one meal a day (OMAD).

You’ll need to experiment, adjust to work for your lifestyle and goals, and see how your body responds.

Let’s first get into the science here behind Intermittent Fasting and why you should consider it!

How Does Intermittent Fasting Work?

Now, you might be thinking: “okay, so by skipping a meal, I will eat less than I normally eat on average (2 meals instead of 3), and thus I will lose weight, right?”

Yes.

By cutting out an entire meal each day, you are consuming fewer calories per week – even if your two meals per day are slightly bigger than before. Overall, you’re still consuming fewer calories per day.

In this example, you’re eating LARGER lunches and dinners than you normally do, but by skipping breakfast you’ll consume 500 less calories per day.

And thus, weight loss! 

This is highlighted in a recent JAMA study^[2] in which both calorie restricted dieters and intermittent fasters lost similar amounts of weight over a year period.

That doesn’t tell the FULL story, as the timing of meals can also influence how your body reacts.

Intermittent Fasting can help because your body operates differently when “feasting” compared to when “fasting”:

When you eat a meal, your body spends a few hours processing that food, burning what it can from what you just consumed.

Because it has all of this readily-available, easy to burn energy (thanks to the food you ate), your body will choose to use that as energy rather than the fat you have stored.

During the “fasted state” (the hours in which your body is not consuming or digesting any food) your body doesn’t have a recently consumed meal to use as energy.

Thus, it is more likely to pull from the fat stored in your body as it’s the only energy source readily available.

Burning fat = win.

The same goes for working out in a “fasted” state.

Without a ready supply of glucose and glycogen to pull from (which has been depleted over the course of your fasted state, and hasn’t yet been replenished with a pre-workout meal), your body is forced to adapt and pull from a source of energy that it does have available: the fat stored in your cells.

Why does this work? Our bodies react to energy consumption (eating food) with insulin production.

The more sensitive your body is to insulin, the more likely you’ll be to use the food you consume efficiently, and your body is most sensitive to insulin following a period of fasting ^[3].

These changes to insulin production and sensitivity can help lead to weight loss ^[4] and muscle creation ^[5].

Next: Your glycogen (a starch stored in your muscles and liver that your body can burn as fuel when necessary) is depleted during sleep (aka during fasting), and will be depleted even further during training, which can lead to increased insulin sensitivity.

This means that a meal following your workout will be used more efficiently: converted to glycogen and stored up in your muscles or burned as energy immediately to help with the recovery process, with minimal amounts stored as fat.

Compare this to a regular day (no intermittent fasting): With insulin sensitivity at normal levels, the carbs and foods consumed will see full glycogen stores and enough glucose in the bloodstream, and thus be more likely to get stored as fat.

Back to fasting: growth hormone is increased during fasted states (both during sleep ^[6]and after a period of fasting). Combine this increased growth hormone secretion:^[7], the decrease in insulin production (and thus increase in insulin sensitivity ^[8]), and you’re essentially priming your body for muscle growth and fat loss with intermittent fasting.

The less science-y version: Intermittent fasting can help teach your body to use the food it consumes more efficiently, and your body can learn to burn fat as fuel when you deprive it of new calories to constantly pull from (if you eat all day long).

TL/DR: For many different physiological reasons, fasting can help promote weight loss and muscle building when done properly.

I know Intermittent Fasting can be overwhelming for many, which is why we work with our 1-on-1 coaching clients to help them understand what’s going on, and how to make it work for THEIR life.

If that sounds like you, click the button below to learn more about how our program works:

Learn how our coaching program can help you lose weight safely through fasting and reach your goals

Should I Eat 6 Small Meals a Day?

There are a few main reasons why diet books recommend six small meals:

1) When you eat a meal, your body does have to burn extra calories ^[9] just to process that meal. So, the theory is that if you eat all day long with small meals, your body is constantly burning extra calories and your metabolism is firing at optimal capacity, right? Well, that’s not true.

Whether you eat 2000 calories spread out throughout the day, or 2000 calories in a small window, your body will burn the same number of calories processing the food ^[10].

So, the whole “keep your metabolism firing at optimum capacity by always eating” sounds good in principle, but reality tells a different story.

2) When you eat smaller meals, you might be less likely to overeat during your regular meals. I can definitely see some truth here, especially for people who struggle with portion control or don’t know how much food they should be eating.

However, once you educate yourself and take control of your eating, some might find that eating six times a day is very prohibitive and requires a lot of effort. I know I do.

Also, because you’re eating six small meals, I’d argue that you probably never feel “full,” and you might be MORE likely to eat extra calories during each snack.

Although grounded in seemingly logical principles, the “six meals a day” doesn’t work for the reason you think it would (#1), and generally only works for people who struggle with portion control (#2).

If we think back to caveman days, we’d have been in serious trouble as a species if we had to eat every three hours. Do you think Joe Caveman pulled out his pocket sundial six times a day to consume his equally portioned meals?

Hell no! He ate when he could, endured and dealt with long periods of NOT eating (no refrigeration or food storage) and his body adapted to still function optimally enough to still go out and catch new food.

A recent study (written about in the NYT, highlighted by LeanGains) has done a great job of challenging the “six-meals-a-day” technique for weight loss ^[11]:

There were [no statistical] differences between the low- and high- [meal frequency] groups for adiposity indices, appetite measurements or gut peptides (peptide YY and ghrelin) either before or after the intervention. We conclude that increasing meal frequency does not promote greater body weight loss under the conditions described in the present study.

Factor in the potential physiological benefits listed in the previous section, and you got yourself some damn good science-backed evidence to consider trying Intermittent Fasting if you want to decrease body fat and build muscle.

Should I Try intermittent fasting? (6 Things to Consider)

Now that we’re through a lot of the science stuff, let’s get into the reality of the situation: why should you consider Intermittent Fasting?

#1) Because it can work for your goals. Although we know that not all calories are created equal, caloric restriction plays a central role in weight loss.

When you fast, you are also making it easier to restrict your total caloric intake over the course of the week, which can lead to consistent weight loss and maintenance.

#2) Because it simplifies your day. Rather than having to prepare, pack, eat, and time your meals every 2-3 hours, you simply skip a meal or two and only worry about eating food in your eating window.

It’s one less decision you have to make every day.

It could allow you to enjoy bigger portioned meals (thus making your tastebuds and stomach satiated) and STILL eat fewer calories on average.

#3) It requires less time (and potentially less money). Rather than having to prepare or purchase three to six meals a day, you only need to prepare two meals.

Instead of stopping what you’re doing six times a day to eat, you simply only have to stop to eat twice. Rather than having to do the dishes six times, you only have to do them twice.

Rather than having to purchase six meals a day, you only need to purchase two.

#4) It promotes stronger insulin sensitivity and increased growth hormone secretion, two keys for weight loss and muscle gain. Intermittent fasting helps you create a double whammy for weight loss and building a solid physique.

#5) It can level up your brain, including positively counteracting conditions like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, and dementia.

As explained here in this TEDx talk by Mark Mattson, Professor at Johns Hopkins University and Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, fasting is grounded in serious research and more studies are coming out showing the benefits:

#6) Plus, Wolverine does it:

#7) Boy George is a fasting fan (and apparently reads Nerd Fitness!):

Please look into 'Intermittent Fasting'. https://t.co/C2fCylOaWj https://t.co/060k5Ws0bh

— Boy George (the truth is in your breath) (@BoyGeorge) May 8, 2017

So if both musicians and adamantium-clawed superheroes do Intermittent Fasting, it can probably work for you too, if you can make it work for your particular lifestyle and situation!

If you’ve tried implementing something like this in the past and not had success, or you’re just looking for guidance from a coach to help you implement it into your lifestyle, I hear ya!

That was the specific problem we set out to solve with our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program: helping busy people make lifestyle changes (like Intermittent Fasting) and also build the habit of exercise. You can schedule a call with our team to learn more by clicking on the image below!

Discover how our Online Coaching Program can help you start fasting and make positive lifestyle changes:

What Are the Negative Effects of intermittent fasting?

 

In my own experimentation with Intermittent Fasting since 2014, I have found very few negative side effects with Intermittent Fasting. 

The biggest concern most people have is that Intermittent Fasting will lead to lower energy, focus, and the “holy crap I am hungry” feeling during the fasting period and ruin them.

People are concerned that they will spend all morning being miserable because they haven’t consumed any food, and thus will be miserable at work and ineffective at whatever task it is they are working on.

The following are my thoughts and experiences, and your results may vary:

Yes, the initial transition from EATING ALL THE TIME, to intermittent fasting MIGHT be a bit of a jolt to your system; it was for me.

However, once I got through the transition after a few days, my body quickly adapted and learned to function just as well only eating a few times a day.

Although I fast for 16 hours per day with no issues, the following might help assuage your fears that skipping breakfast will cause your body to eat itself and your brain to implode:

After 48-hours of fasting in a recent study ^[12], “cognitive performance, activity, sleep, and mood are not adversely affected in healthy humans by two days of calorie-deprivation.” You’ll be fasting for far less time than that.

“So why do I feel grouchy and lethargic when I skip breakfast?” 

In this nerd’s humble opinion, a good portion of the grumpiness is a result of past eating habits. If you eat every three hours normally, and normally eat as soon as you wake up, your body will start to get hungry every three hours as it is now used to consuming food every three hours.

If you eat breakfast every morning, your body expects to wake up and eat food.

Once you retrain your body to NOT expect food all day every day (or first thing in the morning), these side-effects become less of an issue. In addition, ghrelin (a hormone that makes you hungry ^[13]), is actually lowest in the mornings and decreases after a few hours of not eating too. The hunger pains will naturally pass!

Personally, I found this grumpiness subsided after a few days and now my mornings actually energize me.

It’s important to understand that Intermittent Fasting is NOT a cure-all panacea. Don’t delude yourself into thinking that if you skip breakfast and then eat 4,000 calories of candy bars for lunch and dinner that you will lose weight.

If you have an addictive relationship with food and you struggle with portion control, figure out your calorie goals and track your calorie intake in your meals to make sure you’re not overeating.

If you skip breakfast, you might be so hungry from this that you OVEREAT for lunch and this can lead to weight gain. Again, the important thing here is that with an intermittent fasting plan, you’re eating fewer calories than normal because you’re skipping a meal every day.

Think about it in caveman terms again. We certainly found ways to survive during periods of feast and famine, and that remains true today. Imagine if you needed to eat in order to be active and alert: what would hungry cavemen do?

They would go find food, and that probably required a ton of effort. It actually takes our bodies about 84 hours of fasting ^[14] before our glucose levels are adversely affected. As we’re talking about small fasts (16-24 hour periods), this doesn’t concern us.

AN IMPORTANT CAVEAT: Intermittent Fasting can be more complex for people who have issues with blood sugar regulation, suffer from hypoglycemia, have diabetes, etc. If you fit into this category, check with your doctor or dietitian before adjusting your eating schedule. It also affects women differently (there’s a whole section dedicated to that here).

Can I Build Muscle and Gain Weight While Intermittent Fasting?

You’re damn right you can!

(We have our big “how to build muscle” guide, in addition to a whole “Strength 101” series – and I’d recommend you read those if you’re looking for a place to start strength training.)

In fact, I have been intermittent fasting since 2015 while building muscle and decreasing my body fat percentage:

I still eat roughly the same number of calories I was consuming before, but instead of eating all damn day long, I condense all of my calorie consumption into an eight hour window.

• 11 AM Work out with heavy strength training in a fasted state.
• 12 PM Immediately consume 1/2 of my calories for the day (a regular whole-food meal, followed by a calorie-dense homemade protein shake).
• 7 PM Consume the second portion of my calories for the day in a big dinner.
• 8 PM – 12 PM the next day: Fast for 16 hours.

In a different method, my friend Nate Green packed on a crazy amount of muscle while fasting for a full 24 hours on Sundays – so it is possible. ^[15]

I’m not kidding when I say this has revolutionized how I look at muscle building and fat loss.

Ultimately, this method flies in the face of the typical “bulk and cut” techniques of overeating to build muscle (along with adding a lot of fat) before cutting calories to lose fat (along with some muscle) and settling down at a higher weight.

I prefer this method to the bulk-and-cut technique for a few reasons:

• There’s far less of a crazy swing to your weight. If you are putting on 30 pounds and then cutting 25 to gain 5 lbs of muscle, your body is going through drastic swings of body mass. Your clothes will fit differently, you’ll have different levels of definition, and your body will wonder what the hell is going on.
• You’re consuming less food and thus spending less money. Rather than overeating to put on 1 pound of muscle and 4 pounds of fat in a week or two, you’re aiming to eat exactly enough to put on 1 pound of muscle without adding much fat on top of it. Yeah, it’s a delicate balance, but there’s far less swing involved. You are just slowly, steadily, and consistently building muscle and strength over many months.
• There’s never a need to get “vacation-ready”: we all want to look good naked, right? When you are just adding muscle, you don’t need to worry about getting your body ready before by drastically altering your diet (avoiding a miserable crash diet like the Military Diet). ^[16]
• You can make small adjustments and stay on target. Keep your body fat percentage low, build strength and muscle, and if you happen to notice your body fat creeping up, cut back on the carbs. Within two weeks you should be back at your preferred body fat percentage and can continue the muscle building process.

A note on BCAA consumption. Martin from LeanGains ^[17] recommends consuming Branched Chain Amino Acids (BCAA’s) as a supplement with regards to fasted training to aid your muscles through your workout.

Personally, I used BCAAs for about 6-8 months during my initial start with fasted training (consuming them before training), though haven’t used them in the past 2+ years. I didn’t notice any adverse effects to not taking them with regards to my performance. Your value may vary!

Now, it should go without saying that if you want to build muscle while fasting, you need to work out. Specifically, by lifting heavy.

If you want help building a workout routine designed to create muscle, I have 3 options:

#1) “Build Your Own Workout Routine” and get your hands dirty. Our guide will walk you through building a full body exercise program in 10 simple steps.

#2) Follow our Strength Building Guide and start training today. You’ll want to do lots of heavy compound lifts like the Barbell Squat, Deadlift, Bench-Press, Dip, Bodyweight Row, Pull-ups, and Push-ups. 

Get strong as hell, eat enough protein, and you’ll hit your goals.

#3) Have a Nerd Fitness Coach do all the heavy lifting for you (not really, you still have to lift stuff), by having them build you a tailor-made workout routine:

Click here to have a Nerd Fitness Coach build you a workout plan to match your goals!

Should You Do Intermittent Fasting and the Keto Diet?

We have a crazy extensive guide on the Keto Diet in case you’re not familiar with it, so here it is in a nutshell:

By only eating fat and protein, your body must adapt to run on fat for fuel instead of carbohydrates. In the absence of carbs/glucose, your body converts fats to ketones and uses them for fuel.

This process is called “ketosis,” and there are two ways for a body to enter ketosis:

• Eating in a way that induces ketosis (very low carb, high fat).
• Fasting…Hey, that’s what you’re reading about right now!

We actually have an amazing success story here on Nerd Fitness, Larry, who followed our strategies, went Keto and start intermittent fasting. He ended up losing weight, getting stronger, AND overcame the challenges of rheumatoid arthritis (click on the image for his story)!

Here’s how the fasting portion of it works:

As your body enters a fast period when there are no sources of glucose energy readily available, the liver begins the process of breaking down fat into ketones.

Fasting itself can trigger ketosis.

Fasting for a period of time before kicking off a Keto-friendly eating plan COULD speed your transition into the metabolic state of ketosis, and fasting intermittently while in ketosis could help you maintain that state.

I personally love fasting for the simplicity: I skip breakfast every day and train in a fasted state. It’s one less decision I have to make, it’s one less opportunity to make a bad food choice, and it helps me reach my goals.

WHY KETO + IF WORKS = eating Keto can be really challenging. And every time you eat, it’s an opportunity to do it wrong and accidentally eat foods that knock you out of ketosis.

You’re also tempted to overeat.

So, by skipping a meal, you’re eliminating one meal, one decision, one chance to screw up.

Note: if you’re thinking “Steve, am I losing weight because I’m skipping 1/3rd of my meals for the day, AND eliminating an entire macronutrient?”, then you’d be right.

Both Keto and IF have secondary effects that could also be factoring in – physiological benefits which I explain in both articles.

Your value may vary!

You need to decide what works for you.

You probably won’t become “keto-adapted” (your body running on ketones) just skipping breakfast every day – your body will still have enough glucose stored from your carb-focused meals for lunch and dinner the day before.

In order to use fasting to enter ketosis, the fast needs to be long enough to deplete your carb/glucose stores, or you need to severely restrict carbohydrates from your meals in addition to IF in order to enter ketosis.

MORAL OF THE STORY: Experiment and try different strategies that will work for you.

By skipping a meal or minimizing carbohydrate intake, you’re more likely than not to lose weight:

• You can do intermittent fasting without eating a Keto Diet and lose weight.
• You can do a Keto Diet without intermittent Fasting and lose weight.
• You can combine them and lose weight.

Sticking with Keto is BRUTALLY difficult, and probably not the right diet for 98% of the planet. Those people would be better off following our “Start Eating Healthy” guide with small changes.

Any of those options could work for you, but you need to make it work for your lifestyle! If you want to more about the Keto Diet, definitely read my big-ass post about Keto.

If you’re in a hurry and want to download it so you can read it at your leisure, you can grab our Quick Start Guide to the Keto Diet for free right here:

Does Intermittent Fasting Have Different Effects on Men and Women?

The quick answer is: “yes, Intermittent Fasting can affect men and women differently.” 

Anecdotally, we have many women in our online coaching program that swear by Intermittent Fasting, while others have had adverse effects.

Let’s dig into the science and studies.

A recent PubMed summary concluded that “fasting can be prescribed as a safe medical intervention as well as a lifestyle regimen which can improve women’s health in many folds ^[18].

Now, in that extract, many of the studies cited are focused on specifically calorie restriction (and not just fasting), and they also say that “future studies should address this gap by designing medically supervised fasting techniques to extract better evidence.”

Digging into the PubMed Archives brought me to the following conclusions ^[19]:

One small study (with 8 men and 8 women, all non-obese) resulted in the following: “Glucose response to a meal was slightly impaired in women after 3 weeks of treatment, but insulin response was unchanged. Men had no change in glucose response and a significant reduction in insulin response.”^[20]

Another small study (8 women) studied the effects on their menstrual cycles after a 72 hour fast – which is significantly longer than any fast recommended in this article: “in spite of profound metabolic changes, a 72-hour fast during the follicular phase does not affect the menstrual cycle of normal cycling women.” ^[21].

Yet another study tracked 11 women with 72 hour fasts (again, longer than we’d recommend) and it found that “Fasting in women elicited expected metabolic responses – included increased cortisol (a stress hormone) – and apparently advanced the central circadian clock (which can throw off sleeping patterns). ^[22]

Those studies above, in working with small sample sizes, and different types of fasting than recommended here, would lead me to believe that fasting affects men and women differently, and that many of the weight loss benefits associated with intermittent fasting (that affect insulin and glucose responses) work positively for men and negatively for women.

There are also a series of articles^[23] out there that dig into the potential reproductive health issues, stress challenges, induction of early-menopause ^[24] associated with fasting (and calorie restriction) for women.

Precision Nutrition – a great resource – recommends not attempting Intermittent Fasting as a woman if:

• you’re pregnant
• you have a history of disordered eating
• you are chronically stressed
• you don’t sleep well
• you’re new to diet and exercise

The challenge associated with all of this is that there aren’t enough long-term studies, with large enough sample sizes, specifically targeting female humans, with relation to the different types of Intermittent Fasting.

ALL OF THIS TO SAY: It does appear that men and women will have different experiences with intermittent fasting; we’re all unique snowflakes (yep, especially you), and your body will be affected by intermittent fasting differently than the person next to you.

There is enough evidence as cited in the articles and studies above that would give me pause to recommend Intermittent Fasting for women, especially if you are considering getting pregnant in the near term.

If you are looking to attempt fasting for weight loss reasons, my research has shown me that Intermittent Fasting could be less effective for women than men with regards to weight loss, and thus you would be wise to keep your efforts elsewhere:

• Focusing on the total calories and quality of your food (here’s how to eat better).
• Start exercising regularly!
• Make sure you are getting enough sleep.

Now, if you’ve read the above warnings, you are still curious about Intermittent Fasting, and you want to give it a try as a female, that is your choice!

You know your body best.

So, get blood work done, speak with your doctor and get a check-up.

Give intermittent fasting a shot, track your results, and see how your body/blood work changes as a result of Intermittent Fasting and decide if it’s right for you.

Your milage may vary, so speak with a doctor or find a doctor versed in intermittent fasting plans and treat it like an experiment on yourself!

If you’re not sure if an Intermittent Fasting Plan is right for you and you want to work with a coach to help you navigate your first month of fasting, we’re here to help!

Work with a trained coach to get started with Intermittent Fasting today! Learn more:

Top 6 Questions about Intermittent Fasting

1) “Won’t I get really hungry if I start skipping meals?”  

As explained above, this can be a result of the habits you have built for your body. If you are constantly eating or always eat the same time of day, your body can actually learn to prepare itself for food by beginning the process of insulin production and preparation for food.

After a brief adjustment period, your body can adapt to the fact that it’s only eating a few times a day. The more overweight you are, and the more often you eat, the more of an initial struggle this might be.

Remember, your body’s physical and cognitive abilities most likley won’t be diminished as a result of short term fasting.^[25]

2) “Where will I get my energy for my workouts? Won’t I be exhausted and not be able to complete my workouts if fasting?” 

This was a major concern of mine as well, but the research says otherwise: “Training with limited carbohydrate availability can stimulate adaptations in muscle cells to facilitate energy production via fat oxidation.”^[26]

In other words, when you train in a fasted state, your body can get better at burning fat for energy when there are no carbs to pull from!

I’ll share some of my experiences, now doing heavy strength training for 3 years in a fasted state:

For my first “fasted” workout or two after starting an IF protocol, it was very weird to not eat before training. However, after a few sessions, I learned that my body could certainly function (and even thrive) during my training sessions despite not eating a pre-workout meal.

Here I am pulling 420 lbs. at 172 BW after a 16 hour fast:

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Steve Kamb (@stevekamb) on Nov 21, 2018 at 10:43am PST

3) “I like the idea of fasted training, but I work a regular 9-5 or a night shift and can’t train at 11AM like you do. What am I supposed to do?”

Depending on your training schedule, lifestyle, and goals, go back to the portion above where I talk about the 16/8 protocol and simply adjust your hours of fasting and feasting.

LeanGains digs into various options here, but here is really what you need to know:

• Don’t overthink this. If you can’t train until 5pm, that’s okay. Consume a small meal for lunch, or shift your Intermittent Fasting window to eat all of your meals in the 8 hours post workout. Better to do that than abandon it as a lost cause and have 0% compliance.
• If you are an elite athlete, speak with a coach or nutritionist about your specific concerns and expectations. Otherwise, make intermittent fasting work for you Consider trying the 24-hour protocol below instead of the 16/8 protocol.
• If you train later in the day (say, 7pm) but break your fast before training (aka Lunch), make it a smaller meal focused around fats and protein – which should be a solid goal even if you aren’t Intermittent Fasting! Try to time your carb and big meal consumption to happen AFTER your workout.
• If you exercise BEFORE work, but then don’t eat until lunchtime: consider a protein supplement immediately after your workout, or simply wait until lunch to start eating. See how your body responds and adjust accordingly.

Do what you can, and don’t psyche yourself out! Get started and adjust along the way.

4) “Won’t fasting cause muscle loss?”  

We’ve been told by the supplement industry that we need to consume 30 g of protein every few hours, as that’s the most amount of protein our body can process at a time.

Along with that, we’ve been told that if we don’t eat protein every few hours, our body’s muscle will start to break down to be burned as energy.

Again, NOT TRUE! Our bodies are quite adept at preserving muscle even when fasting ^[27], and it turns out that protein absorption by our body can take place over many many many hours.

Not only that, but you can even burn fat AND build muscle at the same time if you have the right system in place!

Protein consumed in a shorter period of time has no difference on the body compared to protein spread throughout the day.    

5) “What about my body going into starvation mode from not eating?” 

Now, the thought process here is that when we don’t feed ourselves, our bodies assume calories aren’t available and thus choose to store more calories as opposed to burning them, therefore eliminating the benefits of weight loss with fasting.

Fortunately, this is NOT true.

Starvation mode is significantly overblown and sensationalized these days. It takes a dramatic amount of starvation, for a long, long, long time, before your body kicks into “starvation mode”. We’re talking about 24 hour or 16 hour fasts here, and starvation mode takes significantly longer than that.^[28]

In other words: starvation mode should not be factoring into your decision here.

5) How much should I eat while intermittent fasting? 

Simple: Eat for your goals! You do know how many calories you should eat every day, right? 

If your goal is weight loss, you still need to consume fewer calories than you burn every day to lose weight. If your goal is bulking up, you’ll need to consume more calories than you burn every day. Intermittent Fasting isn’t a cure-all, it’s a PART of the puzzle.

To start, begin intermittent fasting and eat your normal sized meals and track your weight and performance. If you are losing weight and happy with the progress, keep doing what you’re doing! If you are NOT losing weight, you could be eating too much. It’s a message I really strike home in our guide “Why Can’t I Weight?”

That’s why you should track your calories for a week, and then target a 10% reduction in calories and continue. Here’s a calculator for you to determine the amount of calories you need daily.

Lastly, if you want help designing a weight loss program custom made for your lifestyle, we can help! Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program has helped hundreds of clients get in shape (some of them have lost 50-100 pounds!). 

Achieve sustainable weight loss under the guidance of a Nerd Fitness Coach! Click here to learn more.

8 Tips and Tricks about Fasting 

#1) Don’t freak out! Stop wondering: “can I fast 15 hours instead of 16?” or “what if I eat an apple during my fasted period, will that ruin everything?” Relax. Your body is a complex piece of machinery and learns to adapt. Everything is not as cut and dry as you think.

If you want to eat breakfast one day but not another, that’s okay. If you are going for optimal aesthetic or athletic performance, I can see the need to be more rigid in your discipline, but otherwise…freaking chill out and don’t stress over minutiae!

Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good when it comes to your intermittent fasting plan.

#2) Consider fasted walks in the morning. I found these to be very helpful in reducing body fat, and also gave my day a great start to clear my mind and prepare for the day.

Simply wake up and go for a mile walk. Maybe you could even start walking to Mordor?

#3) Listen to your body during your strength training workouts. If you get light headed, make sure you are consuming enough water.

If you notice a significant drop in performance, make sure you are eating enough calories (especially fats and protein) during your feasting window.

And if you feel severely “off,” pause your workout. Give yourself permission to EASE into intermittent fasting and fasted workouts. This is especially true if you are an endurance athlete.

#4) Expect funny looks if you spend a lot of mornings with breakfast eaters.

A few weeks back I had a number of friends staying with me, and they were all completely dumbfounded when I told them I didn’t eat breakfast anymore.

I tried to explain it to them but received a bunch of blank stares. Breakfast has become so enGRAINed (zing!) in our culture that NOT eating it sounds crazy.

You will get weird looks from those around you…embrace it. I still go to brunch or sit with friends, I just drink black coffee and enjoy a conversation.

#5) Stay busy. If you are just sitting around thinking about how hungry you are, you’ll be more likely to struggle with this. For that reason, I time my fasting periods for maximum efficiency and minimal discomfort:

• My first few hours of fasting come after consuming a MONSTER dinner, where the last thing I want to think about is eating.
• When I’m sleeping: 8 of my 16 hours are occupied by sleeping. Tough to feel hungry when I’m dreaming about becoming a Jedi.
• When I’m busy: After waking up, 12 hours of my fasting is already done. I spend three hours doing my best work (while drinking a cup of black coffee), and then comes my final hour of fasting: training.

#6) Zero-calorie beverages are okay. I drink green tea in the morning for my caffeine kick while writing. If you want to drink water, black coffee, or tea during your fasted period, that’s okay. Remember, don’t overthink it – keep things simple! Dr. Rhonda Patrick over at FoundMyFitness believes that a fast should stop at the first consumption of anything other than water, so experiment yourself and see how your body responds.

If you want to put milk in your coffee, or drink diet soda occasionally while fasting, I’m not going to stop you. Remember, we’re going for consistency and habit-building here – if milk or cream in your coffee makes life worth living, don’t deprive yourself.

There are MUCH bigger fish to fry with regards to getting healthy than a few calories here and there during a fast.

80% adherence that you stick with for a year is better than 100% adherence that you abandon after a month because it was too restrictive.

If you’re trying to get to a minimum bodyfat percentage, you’ll need to be more strict – until then, however, do what allows you to stay compliant!

#7) Track your results, listen to your body:  

• Concerned about losing muscle mass? Keep track of your strength training routines and see if you are getting stronger.
• Buy a cheap set of body fat calipers and keep track of your body fat composition.
• Track your calories, and see how your body changes when eating the same amount of food, but condensed into a certain window.
• Sign up for the NF Email list and join the Rebellion and get your free Intermittent Fasting Starter Guide and Worksheets to track your progress.

Everybody will react to an Intermittent Fasting Plan differently; I can’t tell you how your body will react. It’s up to you to listen to your body and see how making these adjustments change your body.

#8) Don’t expect miracles. Yes, Intermittent Fasting can potentially help you lose weight, increase insulin sensitivity and growth hormone secretion (all good things), but it is only ONE factor in hundreds that will determine your body composition and overall health. Don’t expect to drop to 8% body fat and get ripped just by skipping breakfast.

We cover all of this throughout our online courses in Nerd Fitness Prime, but you need to focus on building healthy habits, eating better foods, and getting stronger.

This is just one tool that can contribute to your success.

Getting Started with Intermittent Fasting: Next Steps

Intermittent fasting can potentially have some very positive benefits for somebody trying to lose weight or gain lean body mass.

Men and women will tend to have different results, just like each individual person will have different results. The ONLY way to find out is through a conversation with your doctor and self-experimentation.

There are multiple ways to “do” an Intermittent Fasting Plan:

• Fast and feast regularly: Fast for a certain number of hours, then consume all calories within a certain number of hours.
• Eat normally, then fast 1-2x a week: Consume your normal meals every day, then pick one or two days a week where you fast for 24 hours. Eat your last meal Sunday night, and then don’t eat again until dinner the following day.
• Fast occasionally: probably the easiest method for the person who wants to do the least amount of work. Simply skip a meal whenever it’s convenient. On the road? Skip breakfast. Busy day at work? Skip lunch. Eat poorly all day Saturday? Make your first meal of the day dinner on Sunday.

After that, get started! Take photos, step on the scale, and track your progress for the next month.

See how your body responds.

See how your physique changes. See how your workouts change.

And then decide if it’s something you want to keep doing!

4 years later, I have no plans on going back to eating breakfast. Sorry General Mills and Dr. Kellogg!

If you’re worried about all of this stuff, or aren’t sure when to eat and stop eating, it might be worth working with a professional that can help you make sense of all of these questions and help you incorporate Intermittent Fasting into your life. 

We have a few options to help people out:

#1) Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. I’ve found a lot of people struggle with knowing exactly when to eat and not eat, keeping track of their fast and feast windows, which is where we can help.

Have your Nerd Fitness Coach design guide you on working out, nutrition, and Intermittent Fasting!

#2) Check out Nerd Fitness Prime!

Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, a supportive online community, group challenges, and much more! 

If you want to ask Nerd Fitness Coaches (and even me!) your questions about intermittent fasting, NF Prime would be the perfect place to do it.

Learn more about Nerd Fitness Prime!

#3) Join the Rebellion! Our free bi-weekly newsletter full of tips and tricks to help you lose weight, get stronger, and level up your life.

Join hundreds of thousands of members, and I’ll send you our free Intermittent Fasting guide too:

But enough about me, let’s talk about you.

I’d love to hear what questions you have! 

• What are your questions with intermittent fasting?  
• What are your concerns?
• Have you tried intermittent fasting?
• Have you had success with it, either with muscle gain or weight loss?

Thanks for leaving your comment, I’m excited to get the conversation started.

-Steve

PS: I made an Intermittent Fasting Plan to help you condense this article into an actionable worksheet you can follow. You can get yours free when you sign up in the box below:

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Photo Source:^[29]

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So you want to lose weight and get in shape, but you don’t want to leave your house?

Well, as your fitness Yoda, I will teach you a great bodyweight workout routine you can do anywhere: 

In your living room, at a park, or in a galaxy far, far away….

These are the types of workouts we build for our busy Online Coaching Clients, and I’m pumped to share it with you today! 

Let us build a bodyweight training program for you!

Here’s how we’ll dig into the different parts of this workout and get to the action:

• What are the benefits of bodyweight workouts?
• Beginner Bodyweight Workout Video (And Sheet).
• 12 Best Bodyweight Exercises For Beginners
• An Important Note About Nutrition.
• What’s next after the Beginner Bodyweight Workout?

Make sure you also download the Beginner Bodyweight Workout PDF so you can track your progress and level up at home.

I’ll send it on over when you join the Nerd Fitness Rebellion in the box below:

Note: If you’re here because your gym is shut down due to the outbreak of Covid-19, check out our guide “How to Stay In Shape (While Staying Inside).”

The Benefits of BodyWeight Workout Circuits

What makes bodyweight circuits work so well?

Every bodyweight exercise involved utilizes multiple muscle groups, gets your heart rate pumping, and burns tons of calories.

Essentially, circuit weight training, or circuit bodyweight training, burns more calories than interval training, and that in turn burns WAY more calories than steady cardio.

When you strength train, you burn calories.

Then, your body needs to spend hours and hours afterward rebuilding your muscles, which in turn burns even more calories (they call this the “afterburn” effect).

As we cover in our Coaching Program and the throughout Nerd Fitness Prime, nutrition will account for 80-90% of our success or failure when it comes to getting in shape, might as well spend our time exercising being efficient and strong, right?

Want to make better food decisions? Read our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating.

If you’re trying to lose weight, spending hours doing cardio on a treadmill can be a really crappy, boring, inefficient use of your time.

If you’re a busy person (and I know you are), why spend hours doing something when you can be MORE efficient and build a better physique with less time?

Enter the Beginner Bodyweight Workout.

I’m going to take you through a basic home workout today that can be completed anywhere – in your house, apartment, out at a park, in your basement, on the moon, wherever.

Beginner Body Weight Workout Video & exercises

This is the Beginner Bodyweight Workout (3 Circuits): 

• 20 Bodyweight squats.
• 10 Push-ups.
• 10 Walking lunges (each leg).
• 10 Dumbbell rows (use a milk jug or other weight).
• 15 Second Plank.
• 30 Jumping jacks.

See our section below on best bodyweight exercises to see how to do each of these exercises!

In a circuit routine, you’ll do each exercise in succession without a break in between (if you’re able).

• Once you’ve finished all exercises in the circuit, do it again.
• If you’re still able after the 2nd run through, go for a third.

Because all of these exercises come one after another, you’re bound to get tired – and that’s okay!

It’s better to stop and take a break than to do an exercise incorrectly.

Before you start, don’t forget to do a Dynamic Warm-Up – Make sure to get your heart rate pumping and get your muscles warmed or you’re just asking for injury.

You can run in place, jump rope, do a few push-ups, pedal on a stationary bike, do some punches and kicks, jog up and down your stairs, and/or twist and swing your arms and legs to get them moving!

After you’ve completed your workout at home, feel free to cool down and stretch after. 

“HOW OFTEN SHOULD I DO THE BEGINNER BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT?”

Do this routine 2-3 times a week, but never on consecutive days.

You don’t build muscle when you’re exercising, you build muscle when you’re resting, so try not to do a strength training routine (of the same muscle groups) two days in a row.

I like to follow a training pattern of:

• Strength training on one day (like this workout).
• 20 minutes of interval training the next.
• Back to strength training.
• Back to interval training or rest!

Alternatively, pick one of these fun exercises to do on your off days instead!

In addition to checking out our Online Coaching Program, make sure you download the worksheet for this workout by joining the Rebellion (our free online community)!

I’ll send it to you right away when you sign up in the box below:

The 12 Best Bodyweight Exercises For Beginners

As laid out above in our Beginner Bodyweight Workout video, there are some key movements you can work on to help you get started strength training! 

Here’s how to do every movement in the Beginner bodyweight routine:

1) KNEE PUSH-UP

2) ELEVATED PUSH-UP

3) REGULAR PUSH-UP

We have a whole article on how to do a proper push-up, but we also cover it extensively in this 5 minute video:

4) ASSISTED BODYWEIGHT SQUAT (if you can’t do regular bodyweight squats):

 

5) PROPER BODYWEIGHT SQUAT:

If you want even more instruction, here’s how to do a proper bodyweight squat:

6) SUPPORTED LUNGES:

7) REGULAR LUNGES:

8) ONE ARM ROW (Use a milk jug, suitcase, or actual dumbbell):

9) PLANK

10) SIDE

11) WALKING JACKS (if you can’t do jumping jacks)

12) JUMPING JACKS

If you are looking for even MORE bodyweight exercises you can use in your workouts, make sure to check out our mega-resource:

 “The 42 Best Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere.“

Note: We have helped hundreds of 1-on-1 Coaching clients get started with strength training and other awesomeness – but EVERYBODY starts with bodyweight training like these movements and this workout!

Our coaching program changes lives. Learn more here!

An Important Note About Nutrition!

Along with this bodyweight routine, you need to make sure you’re eating properly!

A good workout and crappy diet won’t help you lose weight.

After all, one of the Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion is “you can’t outrun your fork” and you can’t out-train a bad diet!

This means if you don’t ALSO fix your relationship with food, then all the exercise you do won’t be helping you lose weight and building muscle.

If you are trying to lose weight, then you need to fix your nutrition first and foremost. Eating healthy is key!

You can either learn to track your food through counting calories (calculate your daily caloric needs here), or you can look into our healthy plate strategy:

We’ve actually developed our own 10-level nutrition system and mindset blueprint in Nerd Fitness Prime, but let me break this down into some basics:

• Eat natural, whole foods whenever possible.
• Leave the soda, candy, and junk food out of your system.
• Cut back on sugar and liquid calories wherever you can. The stuff is in everything!
• Swap out the grains on your plate for vegetables when you can.
• Make sure you get enough protein each day (meat, chicken, fish) – this helps with rebuilding muscles and things like that.

You can download a Free 10 Level Diet Guide too when you join the Rebellion and sign up in the box below:

The raw honest truth: how you eat will be responsible for at least 80% of your success or failure.

I’m not kidding when I say that. If you don’t develop a healthier relationship with food, no amount of exercise will get you there.

So if you’re doing this workout program because you’re interested in losing weight, know that training is only 10-20% of the puzzle!

The WORST is dutifully doing this workout routine for months or going to the gym for years and not getting results because you didn’t eat the right way!

That was me – I spent 6 years without results because I didn’t know how to eat correctly to go along with my training!

If you don’t have months or years to make mistakes, and just want your own Yoda to tell you what to do, you’re in the right place!

We’ve been helping busy people like you train at home and make better food decisions without hating life! It’s our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program, and it might be a great fit for you.

Schedule a call with us to learn more by clicking on the image below:

Learn how to lose weight and get strong with our Coaching Program!

After the Beginner Bodyweight Workout: Next Steps!

Do this Beginner Bodyweight Workout for the next 4-6 weeks and focus on getting better.

If doing just one circuit of the workout was really challenging, no big deal!

Write down how you did, and try to do just 1 more rep or exercise next time through.

The whole point is “do a bit more than last time.”

I also have MULTIPLE options for you to take for your next step too. Pick the option below that best aligns with your goals and timeline:

1) If you want step-by-step guidance on how to lose weight, eat better, and get stronger, check out our killer 1-on-1 coaching program:

Our coaching program changes lives. Learn how!

2) Exercising at home and need a plan to follow? Have questions you need answered? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!

Nerd Fitness Prime contains at-home exercise routines, live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, a supportive online community, group challenges, and much more! 

Learn more about Nerd Fitness Prime!

3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

Sign up in the box below to enlist and get the Beginner Bodyweight Workout sheet so you can print out the sheet and train at home!

I’d love to hear how this workout went for you, and how else we can help!

This is what we’ve dedicated our lives to, and you’re now part of a killer community.

Welcome to the Nerd Fitness Rebellion!

You can do this, we got your back!

-Steve

PS: If you’re looking for more workout routines to follow, I got you covered:

• Beginner Strength Training Workouts: start with bodyweight training and work up to barbell training!
• Advanced Bodyweight Workout Circuit: warning – this will kick your ass 🙂
• 6 Levels of Gym Workouts: Never wonder what to do in the gym again! Follow these 6 levels of workouts to go from Newbie to Gym Hero!
• 42 Bodyweight Exercises You Can Do Anywhere: Who needs a gym? Simply pick the exercises from each category and build your own workout!

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PHOTO SOURCES: fourbrickstall: “Follow or follow not. There is no follow for follow.”, Army Push-ups, Caveman cooking over fire, parilovv © 123RF.com.

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It’s time to learn some yoga poses!

Whether you’re comfortable on a yoga mat or you think a downward dog is just something your puppy does, you’re in the right place.

We teach yoga as part of Nerd Fitness Prime (we have a whole course on it!) and today we’ll share with you the top 21 poses for beginners

Want a yoga practice for people who don’t do yoga? Learn more here!

Our yoga poses are broken out into three levels, for you to progress in difficulty. What can I say, we love leveling up here at Nerd Fitness. Most of our poses are basic, Level One, in case you are completely new to yoga. However, we’ll include a few more advanced poses for further advancement.

We’ll start by discussing a little Yoga 101, in case you are totally lost right now and don’t know yoga from yogurt. If you wanna skip to your desired video or pose, just click on it.

Super Sweet Sequence Covering Basic Yoga Poses

• Complete video routine from Nerd Fitness Yoga

Basic Yoga Poses (Level 1)

• Seated Cross Legged
• Table Top Cat-Cow
• Child’s Pose
• Forward Fold
• Standing
• Standing Mountain
• Cobra
• Low Lunge
• Knee Hug
• Corpse Pose

Beginner Yoga Poses (Level 2)

• Downward Dog
• Crescent Moon
• Bridge
• Half Splits
• Lunge
• Ninja
• Seated Side Fold

Intermediate Yoga Poses (Level 3)

• Chair Pose
• Warrior 2
• Extended Side Angle
• Rebel Warrior

Yoga Stretches for Desk Workers

• Wrist Mobility Video
• Proper Posture Video

Roll out the matt! Let’s do some yoga.

WHAT IS YOGA EXACTLY?

Yoga means lots of different things to different people… like Windfarm Yoga apparently, to the woman in the photo above. As one commenter from Cracked pointed out:

“The only thing I know for sure about yoga is that whatever you’re doing when you practice it, you’ll be assured by someone that it isn’t “real yoga.”^[1]

I’m not interested in that particular aspect of the yoga debate: people need things to argue about and get offended over because Internet. What’s important to me is getting more people interested in trying yoga out because it’s damn fun and can really improve your life.

After all, as Vox explains:

“Yoga seems to help alleviate lower back pain, improve strength and flexibility, and reduce inflammation in the body — which, in turn, can help stave off chronic disease and death.

Emerging research suggests yoga can increase body awareness, or attention to the sensations and things going on inside you. That’s no small matter: Researchers think heightened body awareness can improve how well people take care of themselves.”^[2]

Science is essentially telling us: Yoga can help you become more flexible like Black Widow, improve your strength like the Hulk, extend your life like the elves of Rivendell, and give you mental awareness like Yoda.

The jury is still out as to whether or not it grants us telekinetic powers.

When I approached yoga years ago as an attempt to improve my flexibility and to combat poor posture, I was initially worried about looking foolish or finding some aspect of the exercise that didn’t sit right with me.

Instead, I found a complimentary, enjoyable activity that helped improve my flexibility and mobility, alleviated my lower back pain, opened up my hips to combat a lifetime of sitting, and even helped me quiet my overactive mind! Plus, it was like a power-up for my strength workouts.

It’s now an activity I do with regularity throughout my week, incorporating yoga stretches during the day in between desk sessions, after working out, and attending the occasional class to level up.

WHY SHOULD I CARE ABOUT YOGA?

If you read Nerd Fitness, you’re probably a skeptic. After all, one of the Rules of the Rebellion is to question everything!

So you might be thinking: “Steve, you’re not going to ask me to start speaking in mantras, chanting OMMMMMM, and work on improving my spiritual chi.”

As somebody who started yoga with the exact same reservations, I sit before you a changed man. For starters, if you decide the spiritual aspects of the practice aren’t for you, you’re not alone: research into yoga’s history can lead down an internet rabbit hole of controversy that is bottomless.^[3]

So we’re not going to jump in that fight. Instead, what you will find when it comes to yoga is study after study showing that this form of exercise is incredibly beneficial:

1) A body prepared to handle anything: at Nerd Fitness, we are huge fans of strength training, and yoga is its perfect compliment. it elongates your muscles, improves your flexibility, can release tension in your neck and shoulders, and helps you do things like touch your toes!^[4] It can help you build stronger muscles, improve balance and stability (especially for our older rebels^[5]), and make you more “antifragile” (one of my favorite terms).

As one study points out, “yoga subjects exhibited increased deadlift strength, substantially increased lower back/hamstring flexibility, increased shoulder flexibility, and modestly decreased body fat compared with control group.”^[6]

2) Yoga is great for lower back pain: If you’re one of the 31+ million people like myself who struggle with lower back pain, yoga can help.^[7] Yoga really helps those of us stuck at a computer all day long as well.^[8]

3) Yoga can help meet weight loss goals when combined with a healthy diet. Look, we all know our diet is responsible for 80-90% of our success when it comes to weight loss. The other 10-20% of the equation is participating in physical activities that push your body outside of their comfort zone.

Yoga is a great way to burn a few extra calories and keep your brain focused on “I am doing healthy things and thus I should be eating healthy foods!” It can help improve our fight against cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and obesity.^[9] It’s also a great rest day activity to keep you on track when you’re not doing your other workouts.

4) Speaking of which…yoga can be done every single day, and can be done anywhere. No gym required, no equipment required – no excuses! On top of that, because it’s a low-impact activity and doesn’t overly tax your muscles like a powerlifting session, you can do yoga every single day, anywhere you can find a soft place to sit down: your living room, a park, a beach, your bedroom, on the moon, etc.

5) Yoga can quiet an overactive mind: We live in a world with a distraction around every corner; we read Facebook or our favorite blog while checking email and texts… while trying to work a day job. If you’re anything like me, your mind races a million miles an hour, and trying to develop a sense of control and calm over your mind is like herding cats. We’ve already explained the benefits of Meditation for Nerds; yoga can be tremendously helpful with becoming more aware of our bodies and help with reducing stress and anxiety.^[10]

Lastly, if yoga is good enough for badass Dhalsim from Street Fighter II, it’s good enough for me:

Alright, I’m going to assume at this point you are on board with yoga. If being able to completely demolish a car with your bare hands doesn’t convince you, nothing will.^[11]

So let’s go over some yoga poses and routines.

A YOGA ROUTINE FOR BEGINNERS YOU CAN DO AT HOME

We’ll start out our explanation of different yoga poses by showing you what the end result can look like.

Here’s a complete routine covering some basic yoga poses:

The above video (Water Series – A)  is taken from our course, Nerd Fitness Yoga (a part of Nerd Fitness Prime). If you like it, I’d encourage you to go browse the page and check it out.

Nerd Fitness Yoga is a course you can follow along within the comfort of your own home, and it’s built specifically for members of the Rebellion: easy to follow instructions, an inviting attitude, and as you can tell… some corny jokes from yours truly.

This course will work for men and women of all shapes, ages, and sizes, giving anybody the confidence to get started IMMEDIATELY. Follow it regularly and you can expect the benefits of the dozens of studies I linked above when it comes to yoga practice.

In addition to a HUGE pose library and step-by-step instructions, it also contains all of the following full-length yoga sessions filmed in HD:

• Water sessions: Two beginner yoga videos (25 minutes each, first one was above)
• Fire sessions: Two intermediate yoga videos (30 minutes each)
• Star sessions: Two advanced yoga videos (40 minutes each)
• Deep stretching routine (40 minutes)
• 6 supplemental mobility videos (that will help with lower back mobility, how to finally touch your toes, and so on. Two of which are below.)

All of these videos can be streamed or downloaded to any device as many times as you’d like so you can practice yoga wherever, whenever.

10 BEGINNER YOGA POSES (LEVEL 1)

Seated Cross Legged

One of the most popular yoga poses is simply Seated Cross Legged.

A seated position helps relax, reset, and open your hips up a bit.

Bring yourself down to a seat on the floor, whatever is most comfortable. Cross one ankle of the other in front of you and sit cross-legged.

Take a big breath in and straighten your spine as if there was a string pulling your head and neck up to the ceiling. Breathe out, but keep that upright posture.

Hands can rest on your knees, but shouldn’t push out or pressure your legs.

Table Top Cat-Cow

This is actually a series of a few poses (Table Top, Cat, & Cow) that is used in almost every yoga session to help reset your spines and warm up your back.

Start in Table Top, with your hands under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Your spine should be parallel with the floor to start.

Exhale and slowly press into your hands as you abs up towards your spine. Round your spine to the ceiling as you bring your chin towards your chest. Gently push out your shoulders.

Inhale and relax your abs while you bring your hips back down. Lengthen your torso as your head comes up and looks towards the ceiling. Your chest should come forward slightly and your lower back should push into your pelvis.

Relax and return back to a neutral Table Top position.

Child’s Pose

Child’s Pose is considered a resting position. This means that any time you feel overwhelmed, overheated, or stressed about a particular pose or variation while doing yoga, STOP what you are doing and come slowly into a Child’s Pose to rest.

This pose helps lower stress, refocus your mind, and lightly stretch primarily your lower back, hips, and thighs.

Start by kneeling on the floor with your toes touching behind you. Widen your knees so they are just a little wider than your hips. Gently lower your body between your knees and hips.

Your arms will stretch out lightly in front of you and you can drop your shoulders to the sides and down.

A variation you can use (which may be easier or harder for you) is to tuck your toes under your feet, instead of having the tops or side of your feet against the ground. Do whichever variation is most comfortable and natural for your body.

Forward Fold

Forward Fold is another one of our most popular yoga poses. It’s primarily focused on stretching the lower back, hips, hamstrings, and calves.

Start standing and gently bend forward as you lengthen your torso and spine. As you fold towards the ground, keep your knees straight (but not locked out). If you can, grab the back of your calves and gently pull yourself deeper into the fold.

As you breathe in, you can lift slightly and extend your torso and spine forwards. As you exhale, you can fold forward again into the stretch.

To scale this down, you may use blocks to help raise the floor. Keep your knees straight and your spine long, and fold as far as you can comfortably go.

Standing

Standing pose is a resting and centering pose in yoga, but don’t take it for granted.

Even when we are standing in between poses, be sure to stay strong, active, and rooted through your feet. Your feet should also be flat and not rolled in or bowed out.

Activate your hips to prevent locking out your knees and keep your posture and spine tall and elevated.

Finally, your shoulder should be open and your chest broad. Neck in line with your spine (not hunched forward). Stretch tall from your hips through your head.

Standing Mountain

Standing Mountain is a great pose to warm up our shoulder and spine.

Start by staying strong and rooted through your feet (which are flat on the ground). Legs active, but not locked out. Shoulders open and neck in line with spine.

As you take a deep breath, bring both arms straight out in front of you and up overhead towards the ceiling. Make sure your shoulders aren’t hunched and close to your ears, but rather relaxed and released down.

Rooting through your shoulder blades, pull your spine and arms towards the ceiling.

Cobra

Cobra is a popular pose that almost always follows Plank as a transitional sequence in many yoga sessions.

This pose primarily stretches the shoulders, chest, spine, and stomach.

Start by laying flat on the ground on your belly, with the tops of your feet on the floor. Your hands should be positioned under your shoulders (much like you would imagine starting a pushup).

Slowly push down through your hands and straighten your arms to lift your chest up off the floor, but unlike a push-up, keep your hips, thighs, and tops of feet rooted and pushing down towards the ground.

Move your shoulder blades back, lift your chest, and look forward and slightly up. Hold for several seconds and then slowly release down.

To scale this pose down, only raise your chest and head to where you are comfortable. Be sure to keep your hips and thighs pushing down to the floor, even if that means you can only raise your chest a little.

Low Lunge

Low Lunge is a variation of Lunge that is a building block for several more advanced poses. It’s most commonly thought of a Lunge with your knee on the ground.

This pose will primarily stretch and strengthen the groin, hamstrings, and hips.

Often, you’ll get into a lunge by starting in a Forward Fold and slowly stepping one of your legs back behind you. If you need to, you can scoot your foot back several times until you are able to have your front knee directly over your front ankle.

As you bring your leg back, drop your back knee to rest on the ground. This will help support some of your weight, but the majority of your weight should stay pushing forward through your front knee and hips.

Bend your torso over your front knee and lengthen your spine forward. Your weight should be pressing down through your heels.

To scale down, you can use blocks on each side to balance yourself more without having to reach all the way down to the floor.

Knee Hug

This pose is used to compress and tighten your body. It’s often used right before Corpse Pose at the end of sessions to reset.

Start this pose by lying on your back with your arms and legs straight out. Take a deep breath and slowly bring your legs together and your knees lifted toward your chest.

As your knee comes up, wrap your arms around them and clasp your hands together. If you can’t quite wrap your arms you can reach down each hand and gently pull in your kneecaps.

Gently squeeze your knees into your chest, keeping your back flat on the ground and dropping your shoulders down. You can focus your eyes down the center of your body.

If for any reason you have trouble doing this, simply raise your knees towards your chest as far as they will go. Hold for a few seconds and release back down.

Corpse Pose

Everyone’s favorite yoga pose, and often a way to end a complete session! And while at first, it can seem like just lying on the ground, there’s more to it than that.

This poses is fantastic for calming the mind, relieving stress, and relaxing the body back into a neutral position.

You’ll have a desire towards the end of a session to skip over Corpse Pose and move on.

Don’t! Spend a few minutes coming back down and resetting your body in each session.

Start by laying on your back. Your arms should stretch down comfortably to each side, slightly away from your body. Both your legs stretched out and with a little space, as well.

Do your best to “release” your shoulders and neck and let them fall neutral as well (even when on our backs we tend to engage our necks).

Focus on your breathing and on relaxing any tight or sore areas of your body.

If you need to, turn onto your side and bend your knees (laying on your side completely). Wiggle your toes, ankles, hands, or wrists as needed.

8 BASIC YOGA POSES (LEVEL 2)

Downward Dog

This pose primarily focuses on stretching the shoulders, hamstrings, and calves.

The first few times you get into Downward Dog, you’ll want to start on your hands and knees (what we call Table Top), but with your arms a little bit forward of your head. Pushing into your hands and toes, slowly lift your knees off the ground.

If you can, slowly straighten your knees (don’t lock them) as you gently stretch your heels down to the ground. Once comfortable, you can work your shoulders back toward your tailbone.

To scale this down, you can lift your heels further off the ground and/or bend your knees for easy modification. You can also use blocks to elevate your arms as another alternative.

Crescent Moon

Crescent Moon is a variation of Low Lunge where we stretch upright towards the ceiling.

This pose primarily stretches and strengthens the groin, hips, chest, spine, and shoulders.

To start this pose, you’ll want to get into a comfortable Low Lunge. Usually, this means stepping on leg forward from Downward Dog or stepping one leg back from Forward Fold, and then dropping your back knee down rooted on the ground.

As you take a deep breath, bring your torso up from lunge to upright and stretch both hands straight up toward the ceiling.

Instead of arching your back, draw your hips down and forward and lean your shoulder back (keeping it straight and engaged).

To scale this pose down, you can just stay in Low Lunge and work on stretching without extending upward.

Bridge

Bridge is a backbend pose that primarily stretches and strengthens the back and spine, but also the chest, shoulders, and neck.

Start by laying flat on your back. Bring your feet flat on the ground as close to your butt as they comfortable sit. Arms should be flat and down to your sides.

Pushing down through your feet and arms, slowly lift your butt off the floor and into Low Bridge (around when your spine is straight with your legs).

If you are comfortable, you can bring your hands together under yourself. Continue to slowly push your hips and butt towards the ceiling, making sure to keep your knees over top of your ankles. Work towards parallel with the ground for full Bridge pose.

To scale this down, stop in Low Bridge if going further is uncomfortable. If Low Bridge is difficult, just practice moving your hips slightly off the ground from the starting position. As you gain more flexibility, you’ll work to hold in Low Bridge.

Half Splits

This pose primarily stretches your hamstrings, hips, and lower back.

To start this pose, get into a Low Lunge. Your back knee should be firmly rooted on the ground.

Slowly shift your weight as you move your hips and torso over your back knee. As you do this your front leg will go from bent at the knee to fully extended straight in a line.

If you need them, you can use blocks or a supporting prop on each side now to support your weight (if you can’t reach the ground here).

Slowly fold forward over the top of your extended front leg, with your hips staying rooted back and over top of your knee that’s on the floor.

To scale this down, use blocks on each side as suggested above. You can also stay upright (instead of folding towards the end). Stop in the progression whenever you lose comfort.

Lunge

The Lunge is a major building block for all sorts of yoga poses. Many poses are variations of or come in and out of the Lunge.

This pose will primarily stretch and strengthen the groin, hamstrings, hips, and knees.

Often you will get into lunges starting in a Forward Fold and slowly stepping one of your legs back behind you. If you need to, you can scoot your foot back several times until you are able to have your from knee directly over your front ankle.

Bend your torso over your front knee and lengthen your spine forward. Your weight should be pressing down through your heels and your back knee should be active with your knee straight throughout.

To scale down, you can use blocks on each side to balance yourself more without having to reach all the way down to the floor. At any time, you can also drop the back knee down to the ground coming into Low Lunge instead.

Ninja

One of the most fun poses to make sound effects while doing, Ninja is actually a series of movements rather than a single pose. You might also have heard it called a Side Lunge, but this is Nerd Fitness, so we’re going with Ninja.

This pose helps strengthen the entire lower body and stretch out the hamstrings.

Start by lowering yourself into a half squat (Frog Prep).

Choose a foot and turn your toes out a little wider. Walk your hands over to your foot. Bend deep into that side’s knee as you lift up onto the heel of your opposite foot. Point or flex that foot up towards the ceiling.

Bring your hands to prayer in front of your chest. Extend both arms out in an upward-facing arc and look towards your extended leg. Hold the pose and keep your leg muscles engaged.

Slowly come back up to Frog Prep (body in the middle) and slide over to the other side repeating the steps above.

Seated Side Fold

Seated Side Fold is a good, simple combination of a fold and a side stretch in one pose. Sometimes referred to this as “Half Dragonfly” as a nickname.

This pose primarily stretches your spine, lower back, hamstrings, and groin.

Start in a seated position, with your legs outspread wide in a V shape in front of you. About a 90-degree angle between your legs.

Bring one of your feet over to your other thigh, so that the bottom of your foot rests tucked in and touching your thing just above the knee.

Keeping your hips rooted down and your spine extended tall and towards the ceiling, you can gently fold over and use your arms to walk down your chest towards the ground next to the thigh and knee of your fully extended leg.

You should be slightly off-center, in line with your straightened leg (rather than a traditional fold which would come straight to the center).

To scale down this pose, you can stay in the original seated position with both legs out in front of you in a V. Gently fold forward a little to each side and you warm up.

3 INTERMEDIATE YOGA POSES (LEVEL 3)

Chair Pose

Chair pose is the basis for many of the more advanced moves found in yoga. It primarily stretches the chest and shoulders, while helping to strengthen your core and legs.

Start in Standing with your arms out in front of you. Slowly bend your knees, moving them gradually more forward away from your toes. At the same time, drop your hips and butt back as you try to achieve a 90-degree angle with your thighs and calves.

As you sit down, your arms will come straight above your head (next to your ears), pointing up with palms facing in.

To scale this down, you’ll find it a little easier to keep your arms out in front of you – or coming towards your chest forming a “ball of energy.” Like in Dragonball. Drop your hips only as low as you can comfortably maintain for a stable hold.

Warrior 2

This pose primarily strengthens your shoulders, arm, thighs and opens up your chest and shoulders.

Starting in Standing, exhale as you step one foot back. Align your back heel behind the other heel and then turn your back foot out 90 degrees.

Turn your hips out and align your forward thigh with your forward knee. Slowly raise your arm, one forward and one back, both parallel to the ground.

As you exhale, bend the right knee forward until it lines up straight over your right heel. Press your heels into the floor.

To scale this pose down, you can bring your legs slightly in closer together. You also have the option to bend forward a little less or bring your hands back down onto your hips.

Extended Side Angle

Extended Side Angle is one of our broader Warrior-sequence poses, often done together in pairs or sets with other poses from the same group.

This primarily stretches your groin, back, and torso. It also strengthens your thighs, hips, and legs.

Starting in Standing, spread your legs slightly apart with hips facing forward. Choose one side and rotate that foot outward about 45 degrees.

Bend the knee over the rotated foot and shift your weight to that side. Keep your stretched out back leg in place and keep pushing down through that foot.

Bring your elbow (same chosen side as the bent knee), down to rest on your bent knee. Your hand and arm coming out in front of you. Your opposite arm now extends high into the air straight overhead.

To scale this pose down, you can narrow your stance a little bit more and bring your hips a little higher in the air. Move deeper down as you get more comfortable.

If you are comfortable enough here to scale up, you can switch your eyes to look at your arm overhead and gently stretch that arm to the side (so it falls in line with your torso and spine).

This will deepen the stretch even further.

Rebel Warrior

Rebel Warrior is another pose in our Warrior-sequences that are often used in pairs or sets as transitions to one another. You’ll sometimes hear it referred to as “Peaceful Warrior,” but, you know…

This pose primarily stretches the groin, hips, check, and shoulders.

Start in Warrior 2. Bring the rear hand down to the back leg, palm facing down. Turn the front palm facing upwards towards the sky.

On an inhale, extend the front arm up towards the sky, palm facing towards the back of the room. Keep your hips open, but reach your heart up towards the sky. Keep the back of your neck long and your eye gaze pointing in the same direction as your heart.

Keep bending deeply into your front knee; try to keep the weight evenly distributed on your front foot.

To scale this pose, bring your legs in a little closer together to shorten the depth of the stretch. As you get comfortable you can ease back down into the full pose.

YOGA STRETCHES FOR DESK WORKERS

Work a desk job? Consider these two additional videos:

Wrist Mobility

Wrists are an often overlooked area of stiffness and soreness for many people. Whether you type on a keyboard daily or are looking to improve front squats and handstands you’ll benefit from this 6-minute yoga session:

Proper Posture

Hours hunched over a computer, stuffed into a car, or playing various games can cause some pretty awkward posture habits. This 6-minute yoga session will help you reset and improve your posture as you go through your day:

When you’re able to escape from your desk for a few, these short sequences are perfect to help stretch out your body and help prevent injury.

If you do find yourself stuck at a computer for most of the day, with seemingly no time to work out, we can help! We offer a 1-on-1 private coaching program to help busy people just like you level up their lives.

We will get to know you, your goals, and your lifestyle, and develop a workout plan that’s specific to not only your body, but also to your schedule and life. We can design workouts for at your desk, or a quick session before dinnertime. If you want to learn more about the program, click on the big image below:

TRY A YOGA POSE TODAY

If this kid can do Yoga, so can you!

I don’t care if you’re at home, in a cubicle, or an office, I want you to use 3 minutes of courage to hold a few of the poses above!

Which ones? Find a quiet place and go through:

• Child’s Pose
• Forward Fold
• Lunge
• Downward Dog

Even if you’re not interested in checking out NF Yoga and never attend a yoga class, try these four movements right now. Like, this very moment.

A big reason Nerd Fitness and the Rebellion are successful in getting people healthy is that we encourage people to take action immediately. Not tomorrow, not after breakfast, RIGHT NOW!

Try to hold each of the following positions for 30 seconds. Yes, even if you’ve never done yoga before and have no intention of doing it again… I’m challenging you to give this a shot right now!

I personally get up every 15-20 minutes and go through a few movements (Downward Dog is my favorite) to stay limber.

Crushed those four poses? Take it to the next level and run through our full sequence from the Water Series. It’ll take you a little over 20 minutes.

Want a little more help getting going?

You got it!

I have three great options on how you can continue your journey with us:

Option #1) Liked the yoga videos contained in today’s guide? Want a full course that you can follow along with? Join Nerd Fitness Prime!

Nerd Fitness Prime is our premium membership program that contains at-home exercise routines, live-streamed workouts with NF Coaches, group challenges, a supportive online community, and much more! 

Option #2) If you want a professional coach in your pocket, who can do video form checks, provide feedback, and adjust your workouts based on your experience level, check out our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program! 

For example, let’s say you have an old injury and couldn’t perform one of our flexibility exercises. A Nerd Fitness Coach can work with you to create a customized routine for your exact situation. 

Personally, I’ve been working with the same online coach since 2015 and it’s changed my life. You can learn more by clicking on the box below: 

Our coaching program changes lives. Learn how!

Option #3) Become part of the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.

Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out from home” guides.

 

Alright, your turn:

I’d love to hear from you: did you REALLY complete the 4-movement yoga routine above? And where did you do it? An office? In your cubicle?

Remember, who cares if your coworkers think you’re weird – getting judged for doing something healthy is a badge of honor you should be proud of!

…and Downward Dog!

-Steve

PS: If you want some tips on how to increase your mobility, check out The Ultimate Guide for Improving Flexibility.

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