No matter which at-home workout you pick, I want you to start with one important thing:
Warm-up!
I cover why you should always warm up in an article found right here. It doesn’t have to be much though, give it about five minutes to get your muscles active and your heart rate up.
This will help you do exercises properly and help prevent injury. You can run in place, do air punches and kicks, or some jumping jacks.
Here is NF Senior Coach Staci (you might know her incredible story) showing you many beginner options you can use to warm up as well:
If you’re curious, here’s my personal (advanced) warm-up:
Advanced Warm-up Routine:
Jump rope: 2-3 minutes
Jumping jacks: 25 reps
Bodyweight squats: 20 reps
Lunges: 5 reps each leg.
Hip extensions: 10 reps each side
Hip rotations: 5 each leg
Forward leg swings: 10 each leg
Side leg swings: 10 each leg
Push-ups: 10-20 reps
Spider-man steps: 10 reps
Our goal isn’t to tire you out, instead we want to warm you up.
That’s step one.
Completing your chosen at-home workout would be step two.
Below, you’ll find 8 sequences you can follow along with!
I warn you, the above sequence will hurt… in a good way. You should be proud if you can get through this three times.
Do you want to get as strong as possible so this workout ain’t no thang?
Sign up in the box below to grab our guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It’ll teach you all of these advanced bodyweight exercises!
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Home Workout #3: The 20-Min Hotel Routine
Sometimes, you just plain find yourself stuck in a hotel room. Maybe you can find the hotel gym, but I bet it’s terrible! It probably has 2 machines, a broken treadmill, and no free weights.
Ugh.
Instead, how about a 20-min workout you can do in the room itself! Utilize the furniture to its full potential.
If you don’t have time to run through the whole sequence, no problem!
Depending on how much time you have during the day, you can do your whole workout at once, or break up your training into four different sessions throughout the day (with each session being ONE of the exercises).
Here’s a sample day for your No-Equipment Workout:
Wake up, do 40 jumping jacks to warm up, and then do bodyweight squats.
At lunch, you grab your suitcase (if you’re at work, milk jug if you’re at home) and do inverted rows.
After work, you do another 50 jumping jacks and then do your push-ups.
After dinner, you do your planks while watching TV.
You could even split it up over two days if needed, but the goal would be to do it the whole sequence at once.
The main Angry Birds Workout article describes in detail Levels 1-6, but here’s Level 3 for you:
Bonus points if you somehow do this no-equipment workout in a cave, as that’s how Bruce Wayne would roll.[1]
This workout is separated into two days for you.
Here’s a video for the first day:
Batman No-Equipment Workout Day 1:
Rolling squat tuck-up jumps: 5 reps
Side to side push-ups: 5 reps
Modified headstand push-ups: 5 reps
Jump pull-up with tuck / Pull-up with Tuck-up: 5 reps
Handstands against wall: 8 seconds
Here’s a video for the second day:
Batman No-Equipment Workout Day 2:
‘180 Degree’ jump turns: 5 reps
Tuck front lever hold: 8 seconds
Tuck back lever hold: 8 seconds
Low frog hold: 8 seconds
This is a relatively advanced workout already, but if you want to progress to the next level, check out the main Batman Bodyweight Workout for tips on how to do just that.
NOTE: This is NOT a beginner program, and should not be attempted unless you have been training consistently and can do multiple repetitions of pull-ups and push-ups with great form.
Like this perfect push-up:
And this perfect pull-up:
Here’s how the PLP Progression works:
Day 1:
Pull-ups: 10 reps
Push-ups: 10 reps
Lunges: 10 reps (each leg)
Day 2:
Pull-ups: 11 reps
Push-ups: 11 reps
Lunges: 11 reps (each leg)
Day 3:
Pull-ups: 12 reps
Push-ups: 12 reps
Lunges: 12 reps (each leg)
How long do you keep doing this?
As originally envisioned by Chad Waterbury, the PLP Workout lasts 60 days.[3]
Yeah…by the end of it you’ll be doing more than 50 pull-ups.
There are two versions:
If you can do 10 straight pull-ups: Start day 1 with 10 reps of each.
If you cannot do 10 straight pull-ups: Start day 1 with 1 rep of each.
Complete your required reps each day in as many sets as you need, whenever you need to. The goal is to do it in as few sets as possible, but enough so that you can complete each rep with proper form.
If you want to advance to the Jedi Knight or Master Levels, check out The Star Wars Workout, which will also offer you a full description of each move.
Bonus No-Equipment Workout: The Playground Circuit
Do you have a nearby playground? Why not work out there! If you have kids, you can do it together. Or let them ignore you.
The trick here is to couple your home workouts with adjustments to your nutrition.
We’re big believers that you can’t outrun your fork, so any successful weight loss plan will include a focus on building a healthy plate.
That will look something like this:
If you want some help on adjusting your nutrition, I’ve got two great resources for you:
The Nerd Fitness Guide to Healthy Eating. This massive resource will help you slowly adjust your nutrition, without forcing you to give up the food you love (yes, you can still eat pizza here and there). No more diets, instead we’ll work on building habits together.
Nerd Fitness Coaching. If you want to take it to the next level, one of our trained professionals can help you adjust your way of eating to help you reach your goals. No shame. No judgment. Just a like-minded nerd who will show you the way.
I have two resources to help you design your own no-equipment workout:
The 42 Best Bodyweight Exercises: This guide will teach you how to perform the best bodyweight exercises – no equipment required! Check it out if you are unfamiliar with any of the movements referenced in today’s guide.
How To Build Your Own Workout Routine: Once you’re comfortable with a handful of bodyweight exercises, use this guide to pull them all together into a full-body workout!
That should get you going on building a workout you can do in the comfort of your own home.
Want more? Alright, eager beaver, I got you.
We built THREE options for people just like you:
1) If you want step-by-step guidance, a custom workout program that levels up as you get stronger, and a coach to keep you accountable, check out our killer 1-on-1 coaching program:
2) If you want a daily prompt for doing workouts at home, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
Try your free trial right here:
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 our guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It’ll help you start incorporating these bodyweight moves into your training.
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Alright, your turn: I’d love to hear how your home training is going!
Which workout above did you try? Did you make one of your own?
Leave a comment below with your results or any questions you have on working out at home.
For the Rebellion!
-Steve
PS: If you were going to buy one piece of equipment to utilize in your home, a kettlebell would offer you a lot of versatility:
However, as I mentioned in the intro, you’ll often hear that losing fat while gaining muscle is impossible. The argument goes that you should just focus on one or the other, because doing both at once is destined to fail.
Let’s explore this claim.
Losing Fat and Gaining Muscle at the Same Time (The Controversy)
To understand why losing fat while gaining muscle can be problematic, we need to explore both processes.
To gain muscle, your body needs to be in a caloric surplus. This surplus provides the energy your body requires to repair and build bigger muscles.
Given this, losing fat (caloric deficit) at the same time one is gaining muscle (caloric surplus) seems impossible.
However, if we go a few steps deeper into the science, it IS possible!
To appreciate the nuance here, let’s get into some specifics on losing fat and gaining muscle separately, and then we’ll combine them.
HOW DO YOU LOSE FAT?
There is a simple answer and a slightly less simple answer when it comes to losing body fat.
The simple answer: “consume fewer calories than you expend or burn.”[1]
Eight words, and one or two of those could probably be thrown out.
When your body needs more calories than the amount you are eating, you are in a “caloric deficit.” Your body doesn’t have the calories it needs as fuel, so it’ll start breaking down parts of itself for its energy requirements.
The hope is that your body will mostly pull from fat stores, though depending on how you are training it will also break down muscle too.[2]
Said again: when you are eating a caloric deficit, your body will pull from both its fat stores AND existing muscle for energy.
Troubling indeed.
From a physique and health standpoint, obviously we’d prefer that your body doesn’t break down muscle when in a caloric deficit, and instead really focuses on using fat stores instead.[3]
I make this point for a reason: your goal in fitness shouldn’t only be “weight loss,” despite the common vernacular used.
Who cares what the scale says, right?
The goal instead is to reduce body fat while also keeping the muscle you have (or even building more muscle).
That leads to a better physique and a healthier body.
This is why there is a big market for devices that supposedly assess your body fat percentage.
By reducing your total fat on your body, OR increasing muscle mass, you’ll end up with a lower body fat percentage (it’s just a simple ratio of fat to everything else).
And lower body fat percentages are where “toned arms” and “6-pack abs” hang out.
We’ll discuss tips on keeping and growing your muscle while in a calorie deficit later in this guide. For now, remember you need fewer calories “in” compared to calories “out” for weight loss to occur, from either fat stores or muscle.
You may be asking, “Steve, what’s easier to do? Burn more calories or consume less?”
Good question.
Numbers will help tell the story: though this is a gross oversimplification – let’s use the ‘widely accepted’ starting point of “3,500 calories equals roughly one pound of fat.”[4]
If you want to lose one pound – or half a kilogram – of body fat in a week (a worthy, sustainable goal for some), you need to create a caloric deficit of 500 calories per day.
Your options to create this caloric deficit include:
Consuming 500 fewer calories
Burning 500 more calories
A combination of the two
Which is easier?
Here are both halves of that equation. 500 calories equals:
The number of calories found in a Big Gulp of Mountain Dew.
When it comes to maintaining a caloric deficit, it really comes down to diet.
It’s significantly more effective and time-efficient to consume 500 fewer calories than it is to burn 500 additional calories.
As Time magazine controversially pointed out – with tons of cited studies – “exercise alone won’t make you thin.” It’s too easy to add more calories in, and requires too much work to effectively influence “calories out.”
This brings us to our slightly less simple answer on getting in shape:
To lose body fat, you need to watch what you eat, and do so in a sustainable way.
Here at Nerd Fitness, we are firm believers that 80-90% of the fat-loss equation comes down to diet (check out Rule # 4).
Here’s another idea we focus on: EAT MOSTLY UNPROCESSED FOOD.[5]
Meat, fish, eggs, vegetables, fruits, nuts are all great examples.
These foods are very nutrient-dense and often low in calories compared to their processed counterparts. Which means you get filled up without overeating.
Win-win-win.
Have you ever seen the difference between 200 calories of broccoli and 200 calories of a bagel? WiseGEEK does a great job of displaying this, so we’ll borrow a couple of their photos.
200 calories of broccoli:
200 calories of a bagel:
That’s why REAL food is the answer to creating a sustainable caloric deficit.
Most people can eat an entire bagel, no problem. Plates of broccoli, with all of the fiber, are much tougher to overeat.
We lay it all out in our Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. It’ll provide tips on how to gradually create habits that get you to a “REAL food” way of eating, including proper portion sizes, tips on batch cooking, and a cameo from Winnie the Pooh.
With all of this, we advise you to take it slow, so new habits of healthy eating become permanent.
Something you can do for the rest of your life.
It’s a strategy we work closely with our coaching clients on: small nutritional adjustments they feel comfortable making. It’s how some of them have been able to lose 50-100 pounds!
Let me explain again: what you eat will be 80%-90% of the equation for losing body fat.
The other 10-20%? Exercise.
Of course it’s exercise.
That’s a pretty good segue into…
HOW DO YOU GAIN MUSCLE?
If you want to build muscle, you’ll have to lift heavy things and ensure that your body has enough calories and protein to adapt by building more muscle.
I will always be on Team Strength Training. If you’re looking to build muscle, you’re gonna need to lift heavy things.
When you lift an object (or your own bodyweight) enough times, your muscles reach the point of failure. This causes your muscles to tear and breakdown.
When your muscle rebuilds itself following the workout, it’ll be bigger and stronger than before. Then you do it again.
And again.
And again.
As long as you are eating enough to rebuild your muscle, you’ll get stronger!
Not sure where to start on a Strength Training practice? No problem! You can download our free guide Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know when you join the Rebellion (our free community) below:
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Because your muscle needs to be rebuilt after exercise, the calories are gonna need to come from somewhere. I’ll talk a lot about proper diet in the next section (with a Harry Potter analogy), so I won’t spend too much time on it here.
Just know that eating the right quantity of foods will be a big part of gaining muscle.
#3) Rest
Your body rebuilds itself while you sleep, so make sure you get plenty of rest each night. I’m talking 7-8+ hours. This will help ensure your body has the time it needs to grow stronger.
If you’re strength training and only getting 6 hours of sleep a night or less, you’re really doing yourself a disservice. Go to bed!
That’s the short gist of how to build strength: challenge your muscles, eat well, and get some rest.
Let’s narrow in on our second point, “Eat a diet based on your goals.” It’ll become very important when balancing both losing body fat and gaining muscle.
To do that properly, grab your owl, and let’s chat about Hogwarts.
How to Lose Fat WHILE Gaining Muscle (The Science)
To answer the question of losing body fat and gaining muscle at the same time, I’d like to introduce an analogy from the world of Harry Potter.
Recall the “Sorting Hat:” The Sorting Hat’s job was to determine which of the four houses kids will call their home.
It’s almost like a traffic director: “Harry, you will go to Gryffindor! Draco, you will go to Slytherin!”
Your body operates on a VERY similar operation: every day it receives new calories (when you eat), and it needs to decide what to do with them!
For example:
You eat a chicken parm sub with fries and a 20-ounce soda. Your body then has to know where to route all those calories.
To keep things simple, it has three choices. It’ll sort those calories into one of three houses:[6]
A. Burn for Fuel.
B. Rebuild Muscle.
C. Store as Fat.
Right now, when you eat food, your body sorts most of those calories into “Burn for Fuel.”
There’s a number of calories your body needs each day just existing: to keep your liver functioning, your heart pumping, your brain operating, to regulate your body temperature, and so on – it burns a good chunk of calories just keeping the lights on.
This is your “Basal Metabolic Rate” which you can calculate for yourself in our TDEE calculator.
There’s also “B. Rebuild as Muscle” and “C. Store as Fat,” which I devoted entire sections to above.
This is where the problems arise: When you overeat calories and your body doesn’t need anymore to fuel itself, it takes those extra calories and stores them as fat.
However, our goal is the OPPOSITE of this.
We want to keep the muscle we have (or grow it) while getting rid of the fat!
So let’s imagine a scenario where we pull all this together by strength training heavy AND reducing our caloric intake:
You strength train regularly, and your muscles break down and need to be rebuilt.
You don’t consume enough calories to both rebuild muscle and fuel itself. There’s not enough to go into the “Burn for Fuel” and “Rebuild Muscle” houses.
Does your body just shut down?
NOPE!
Your body has been preparing for this, by storing any excess calories over the years in the “Store as Fat” house.
This means your body can pull from “Store as Fat” to make sure all the work still gets done, including your daily functions as a human and rebuilding the muscle you tore apart.
Said another way:
If you have fat stores (and we all do), you do not need to be in a “caloric surplus” to rebuild muscle. The calories stored in your fat cells act as this required energy.
There is also evidence that muscle can even be grown while in a caloric deficit.[7]
However, if you want to skip all the experimentation and trial and error, you can have a Nerd Fitness Coach do all the heavy lifting for you (not really, you’ll still need to work out).
TIPS TO LOSE BODY FAT WHILE GAINING MUSCLE
Let’s bring this all together and create some actionable steps to losing body fat and building muscle at the same time.
#1) Sustain a caloric deficit while eating enough protein
You need your body to burn more calories than you consume, and also provide your body with enough protein to rebuild its muscle.
You can only lose fat if you’re in a calorie deficit.
Remember the Sorting Hat analogy:
If you’re eating too much, your excess calories are being sent to the “Store as Fat” house.
We want to pull from this house instead. So eat less than you burn consistently.
To help here, I have 3 resources for you:
Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating. If you want tips and tricks to create habits based on REAL food, that guide will help get you there.
You don’t have to follow some predetermined blueprint like “low-carb.” You can create your own diet (which is what I do). Learn all about it right here.
#2) Strength train
If you could sell a pill that could be prescribed to every single person on Earth to make them healthier, it would look something like a strength training routine in a bottle.
It is one of the best things you can do for your body.[9]
And really, if you want to build muscle, you’re gonna need to lift something! Either weights or your own bodyweight.
You need to challenge your muscles in order for them to get stronger. Now, as we discuss in our article on the correct number of reps and sets, there are multiple ways to do so.
To build muscle:
Lift lighter weights for lots of reps.
Lift really heavy with fewer reps.
The important thing: pick a strategy and get started.
To recap: if you train heavy and eat a caloric deficit, your body will pull from its fat stores to both fuel itself and potentially also build muscle. This is a double whammy of AWESOME.
#3) Prioritize protein
Outside of being in a caloric deficit and lifting weights (or yourself), eating enough protein is one of the key components of both losing body fat and building muscle.
Protein is the number one nutrient for creating new tissue.[10]
So when you cut out calories to create a caloric deficit, don’t cut them from protein sources.
Studies have shown that participants can gain muscle, even while in a caloric deficit, as long as they eat enough protein.[11]
It’s important enough that I’ll say it again:
If you don’t want your body cannibalizing its muscles while you are in a caloric deficit, you need to eat plenty of protein.[12]
How much protein?
As we point out in our Guide to Protein, roughly 1 gram for every pound of your weight, with an upper limit of 250 grams.[13] Or two grams for every kilogram if you are on the metric system. This means:
If you weigh 300 pounds (136 kg), eat 250g of protein.
If you weigh 250 pounds (113 kg), eat 250g of protein.
If you weigh 200 pounds (91 kg), eat 200g of protein.
If you weigh 180 pounds (82 kg), eat 180g of protein.
The gist: don’t skip out on protein. It should be on your plate for every meal (we’ll show you exactly how much in the next section).
If these generalized recommendations stress you out, and you want to know exactly what to do, we can help!
I’ll remind you of Nerd Fitness Coaching, where we help clients lose body fat, gain muscle, and level up their lives. We provide tailored and specific recommendations based on your body and lifestyle, plus accountability and mindset changes to help ensure your new habits stick.
WHAT SHOULD I EAT TO LOSE FAT AND GAIN MUSCLE?
Remember, your eating strategy needs to include two points to lose fat while gaining muscle:
Sustain a caloric deficit.
Prioritize protein so you can build muscle even while in a deficit.
You may be thinking, “That’s all well and good Steve, but what’s that actually look like?”
A serving of protein is about the size and thickness of your palm.
*The 4 oz serving is for an uncooked piece of meat. Cooking reduces about 25% of the weight, bringing it down to about 3 oz.
If you’re curious, here’s how much protein is in a serving of food:
4 oz (113 g) serving of chicken has around 30 g of protein.
4 oz (113 g) serving of salmon has 23 g of protein
4 oz (113 g) of steak has 28 g of protein.
While all of the Healthy Plate above is important, I want you to pay extra attention to your protein intake since we are trying to build muscle.
If you’re having trouble making your protein intake goals, check out our Guide on Protein Supplements for some tips and tricks to up your intake, including some awesome smoothie recipes.
If you are NOT losing weight, it means you are still eating too many calories. Keep your protein intake high, and reduce your fat and carbohydrate intake.
Eventually, you’ll reach a status where there just isn’t enough fat on you to help with “Rebuild Muscle.” At this stage, you can no longer stay with a caloric deficit. You’ll need to flip to a slight “caloric surplus” to build more muscle.
Which means you’ll have to eat more.
It’s debatable when this will actually occur, and we are all different. Reaching 8% body fat for men and 16% body fat for women is a good place to start.
It covers ways to increase your calories for muscle gain, from eating plentiful amounts of Paleo foods to drinking enough milk to make Santa Clause jealous.
Go check it out if you’ve been having trouble putting on muscle.
I want to stress that if you are lifting heavy, and not gaining muscle, diet is likely the culprit.
It was my problem for years, and I’ve seen it amongst countless readers of Nerd Fitness who have trouble gaining muscle.
HOW TO TELL IF IT’S ALL WORKING (Continuing to Lose Fat While Gaining Muscle)
If you’re trying to improve something, it’s important to track it. This also holds true of body composition.
Most people do this by jumping on the scale. This can be “okay,” but it’s only going to tell part of the story.
If you’re building muscle while losing fat, the scale might not go down. You might even weigh more!
Despite weighing more, you could potentially have a better physique.
That’s why in addition to jumping on the scale, I would also encourage you to take progress photos.
Take front and side photos in your mirror, wearing underwear or a bathing suit. Each week, take new photos, and record the number on the scale under the same scenario. Two forms of tracking here allow us to get the full picture.
The scale sometimes lies!
If you eat for a caloric deficit, strength train, and prioritize protein, see what happens.
You may find yourself losing some fat and gaining muscle.
Are you lifting enough? Perform resistance training consistently and track your workouts to determine whether or not you’re progressing via increased weight or repetitions.
The tips outlined above will get you started losing fat while building muscle, but if you’re looking to go a bit further…
#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:
#2) If you want an exact blueprint for getting in shape, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
Try your free trial right here:
#3) Enlist in the Rebellion! We have a free email newsletter that we send out twice per week, full of tips and tricks to help you get healthy, get strong, and have fun doing so.
I’ll also send you tons of free guides that you can use to start leveling up your life too:
Download our free weight loss guide
THE NERD FITNESS DIET: 10 Levels to Change Your Life
Follow our 10-level nutrition system at your own pace
What you need to know about weight loss and healthy eating
3 Simple rules we follow every day to stay on target
Alright, I think that about does it for this guide.
Did I miss anything? Do you have any tips and tricks when it comes to shedding body fat and building muscle?
Share it with us!
-Steve,
PS: Make sure you read the rest of the articles in our “How to Lose Weight 101” Series!
Check out this study on energy deficits and fat loss.
You can read a study on calorie deficits causing muscle loss right here and here.
Here’s a study on the importance of lean muscle right here.
3,500 calories in a pound of fat was determined in this 1958 report, although as Today’s Dietitian points out, it’s likely more complicated than that. However, it’ll work for our intent and purpose.
People are far more likely to over-consume ultra-processed foods due to their palatability, and as such, we should be consuming them in smaller quantities with less frequency if we’re looking to lose weight. For more, read “Ultra-Processed Diets Cause Excess Calorie Intake and Weight Gain: An Inpatient Randomized Controlled Trial of Ad Libitum Food Intake.” Source, PubMed.
Technically, there’s a fourth with “Store as Glycogen,” but we can skip that for now.
You can read this study for more. Although it should be said that if you’re already relatively lean, and have been lifting weights for a while, you may not grow much muscle in a deficit.
Check out this interesting study on gaining muscle while in a caloric deficit. It should be noted that the participants drank milk. We’ll touch on macronutrient breakdown being key to muscle growth below.
A study on resistance training benefits can be read here.
You can check out this report for a look at protein intake and muscle growth.
That study on protein and muscle gain is right here.
Here’s a systematic review on protein being critical for muscle retention. You can also check out these studies here, here, and here.
It’s suited for anyone starting their walking or running adventure, since our team of coaches will explain how to start both (plus offer an intro to hiking).
What is Couch to 5K? Why is the Couch to 5K Plan so popular?
“Couch to 5K” is a free program that takes people from their couch to running a 5K race in 9 weeks.
5K is short for 5 kilometers, or 5,000 meters or 3.1 miles.
This running program was invented by Josh Clark of CoolRunning WAY back in the day.
It has since been co-opted and copied by every running blog out there, so we’re going to be referring to a generic “Couch to 5K” program when we talk about it.
(When people ask the question “How long does it take to complete Couch to 5K,” it really depends on which program they pick.
It might be 6 weeks, or 12 weeks, or 9 weeks. The original Couch to 5K plan created by Cooling Running took 9 weeks).
Here’s the Couch to 5K plan a nutshell:
The program utilizes an uber-popular concept called interval training – moving at different speeds throughout a running session – and lays out exactly what to do every day for 6-12 weeks after starting.
By varying your pacing, your body is forced to adapt to different speeds, and your heart and lungs have to adapt to various levels of strenuous activity (and get stronger/healthier as a consequence).
As a result, you actually burn more calories and get better prepared for a race than compared to just training at a constant speed.
Over the weeks, Couch to 5K slowly ramps up the amount of time you spend running and cuts back the time you spend walking until you’re at the point where you can actually run a 5K without stopping.
“STEVE, I’M INTRIGUED. WHY IS COUCH TO 5K SO DANG POPULAR?”
#1) It’s simple and clear.
Print out a PDF or download an iPhone app and for the next 9 weeks you simply do what it tells you:
Today, do this.
Tomorrow, do that.
Repeat.
We’re all busy. Most of us lead hectic lives. And programs that tell us EXACTLY what to do allow us to follow instructions without needing to figure it out ourselves.
If you’re brand new to health and fitness, and you’re trying to lose weight, you’re most likely overwhelmed by what you should start with and how you should train.
As much as I would WISH that was the answer (it’s probably the fastest path to changing one’s physique), it’s often a bridge too far for many folks.
So a majority of newbies equate running with weight loss (which MIGHT be true, but MIGHT not, I’ll explain here), and decide to start with a jog around the block.
#3) Couch to 5K is not overwhelming.
It’s a free program (or inexpensive app), and it’s very approachable.
Programs like P90X and Insanity are designed to appeal to people that consider themselves hardcore (whatever the hell that means).
Couch to 5K appeals to people who are overwhelmed at the idea of doing P90X or Insanity or mustering up the courage to go to Crossfit.
Couch to 5K makes you think “maybe I can actually do this…” which is the most important part of any fitness journey: starting.
#4) Everybody wants to “have run a 5K.”
If you’re new to health and fitness and working on setting a good obtainable goal, “run a 5K this year” is a great place to start.
It’s a short enough distance that with some training you can pull it off, even if you have to walk some or all of it.
There are 5Ks practically every weekend, many of which raise money for charity or are themed in a fun way,
So in completing Couch to 5K, you train and get to see yourself progress weekly, you get to finish a race and feel a sense of accomplishment, and you go home with a medal you can hang on your wall reminding you of the proud moment.
Plus, it might get you in shape!
Maybe…we’ll explore in just a moment.
If you are trying to get in shape, I’ll mention our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. I know of no better way to transform yourself than through the help of an expert who knows exactly what to do. We’ve helped hundreds of people run their first 5K and helped others train for triathlons!
Does Couch to 5K actually work? Will I lose weight Doing Couch to 5K?
“Steve that’s all fine and good. But what do you REALLY think about running 5Ks and Couch to 5K?”
Okay, you got me. I got thoughts. I also got jokes (they’re bad).
RANT INCOMING!
Will the Couch to 5K program help you run a 5k? YES! If you actually stick with it for the entirety of the training program.
Will the Couch to 5K program help you lose weight? MAYBE.
Is Couch to 5K a program that will get you healthy permanently? MAYBE.
Will Couch to 5K make me sexy and look damn good in a bathing suit? MAYBE, but probably not.
Here’s the truth about Couch to 5K: It’s the same truth with popular programs like P90X or Insanity or any other structured workout program:
It totally works and will help you lose weight if you do two things:
MISTAKE #1: Couch to 5K totally doesn’t work and won’t help you lose weight if you do two things:
You actually complete the program, BUT
You don’t fix your diet.
As sexy as it is to think that just going for a run will help you lose weight, the data doesn’t back it up. In fact, as Time Magazine rightly pointed out years ago and got yelled at for telling the truth, exercise alone won’t make you lose weight.
This is Common Mistake #1: not fixing your nutrition if you’re running for weight loss!
If this were a movie, nutrition would be Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible and exercise is that funny sidekick who helps Tom. Let’s be real here, Tom is doing all of the heavy lifting to make that movie what it is.
Couch to 5K helps people run a 5K.
That’s it.
It’s not designed to help you lose weight or build a body you’re proud of. It’s also a temporary program that lasts a certain number of weeks until you run your 5K.
For Couch to 5K to be successful for you long term, and for it to help you lose weight, it needs to be the catalyst that causes you to build a consistent long-term habit of exercise and changes how you think about food.
Remember:you never get to be “done”, so you need to enjoy the journey and look forward to exercising daily.
You also need to train the right way to build the type of body you want! And eat the right way.
It’s suited for anyone starting their walking or running adventure, since our team of coaches will explain how to start both (plus offer an intro to hiking).
“Everybody wanna be a bodybuilder, don’t nobody wanna lift no heavy ass weight.”
In other words: “Everybody wants to be in shape, and look great, but nobody wants to put the work in to actually GET in shape and look great.”
And yup, getting in shape is tough; if it were easy we’d all look like Captain America and Wonder Woman.
Instead, 70% of America is overweight and 30+% are obese. Crap.
This brings me back to the most crucial question of this entire 5K process:
Do you even LIKE running?
The world is split into three groups:
People that like running and want to run.
People that don’t like running but eventually learn to love it.
People that don’t like running and will never like running.
Here’s that Ronnie Coleman quote, slightly adapted: “Everybody wants to have run a 5K, but many people don’t actually enjoy running.”
Running a 5K is a great achievement and a worthwhile fun goal, but it’s only one way of thousands to “get in shape.”
Many people feel like Andy Dwyer in Parks and Rec when they go running.
Some people love that feeling of anguish or pushing beyond the limits, and that’s awesome!
But for everybody else, they make Mistake #2: they force themselves to run even though they don’t like it!
So before you start Couch to 5K, think of it as a science experiment:
“I hypothesize that following Couch to 5K will help me run a 5K. I also hypothesize I’ll enjoy the process, enjoy how I feel after a run, enjoy running a 5k, and/or enjoy the achievement of having run a 5k.”
And that’s all this is: an experiment to see if running is the type of exercise you want to continue doing consistently for the next few years.
If 2 weeks into Couch to 5K you’re miserable and hate it: fantastic!
You just discovered that you hate running and are now free to NEVER RUN EVER AGAIN FOREVER. It doesn’t make you a failure.
It means your science experiment produced a result that you can now use to inform future exercise decisions.
Again, it doesn’t make you a failure.
It just means you found a type of exercise that doesn’t work for you.
If you discover you LOVE running and how it makes you feel: fantastic! You can now make running part of your regular exercise routine. Combine this with a good nutritional strategy, and you will build yourself a runner’s physique. And you’ve found something you can do for the rest of your life.
If you are running to prove something to yourself, because a friend is doing it, because you’re raising money for charity, or anything else: fantastic! Do Couch to 5K and then decide after if this is the strategy that you enjoy and want to stick with permanently.
Don’t make Mistake #2: If you’re ONLY doing this to lose weight and it’s making you miserable, quit. Don’t run. Ever.
Instead, pick an exercise you actually enjoy. But not because the exercise is going to help you lose weight – because doing an exercise you love is a constant reminder of “I’m making healthier choices, and thus I should probably eat healthier!”
If weight loss above all else is your goal, I’d recommend our Beginner Bodyweight routine you can do at home and combine it with our “Beginner’s Guide to Healthy Eating.” I can promise that if you read those strategies and start to implement them in your life, you’ll see results without ever having to set foot on a treadmill.
Phew! Okay, that covers “do you actually LIKE running?”
There’s another massive question you should be asking yourself before you start…
Are You Healthy Enough to Run a 5K?
Just because you WANT to run doesn’t mean you SHOULD necessarily start running just yet.
It could be a fast track to injury, disappointment, and misery!
Those are literally three of my least favorite things. The fourth being brunch.[1]
Back to your health: are you physically ready to run?
If you’re at or close to your goal weight, then starting a running program is a good idea.
If you are obese or very overweight, I think (power) WALKING a 5K is a great goal for the immediate future.
However, I think Mistake #3 would be running a 5K before properly preparing your body for it!In fact, running prematurely without addressing your weight might cause damage to your joints and ligaments and cause you to backslide a whole bunch.
You can earn some NF merch as you begin your walking adventure!)
Here’s why you should focus on strength and nutrition before pounding the pavement with hours of running:
As you begin to drop weight, a lot of the stress on your joints, organs, bones, etc. will start to decrease.
As you strength train, the ligaments that hold your body together will become stronger and more adequately prepared for the rigors of running.
As you refine your running form to minimize resistance and jarring shocks throughout your body, your body will learn to become more efficient.
When you start to approach your goal weight, you can start to introduce increase your speed from power walking to jogging – with correct running technique (see below) – and staying healthy.
“STEVE, I was all excited to run a 5k, and now you have me demoralized. I’m overweight but I still want to run!”
Okay okay okay, fine! I don’t want to keep you from exercising, I want to help you build momentum and make you antifragile.
Obviously, you’re going to do what you’re going to do, and if running before you’re physically ready is what you want to do, go for it!
If you want any help getting in shape to run your 5K, we got you! We help men and women and self-aware robots with our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. We offer nutritional guidance, professional accountability, and custom workouts!
How to Start the Couch to 5K Program
“Steve I’m in. I read all of that jazz above and I am ready to get started. Whether I’m walking or running, I want to start Couch to 5K!”
If you’re ready to do the Couch to 5K program, you can download the following which I believe is the Original Couch to 5K Program (they’ve made it quite tough to find!).
The reason it’s tough to find is they’re pushing people towards the official Couch to 5K App.
For us Nerds, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the super fun Zombies Run! app, which uses interval training combined with fun audio cues and video game mechanics throughout your running sessions.
What I would do next after downloading the program? Do the first day of training!
I would also recommend finding a race that’s 2-3 months from now, and sign up for it even if you’re not ready.
Recruit a friend or two to join you in training and the race!
HOW TO FIND A 5K IN YOUR TOWN: Let me google that for you. Type “5K + [your town]”, and I bet there’s a 5k every weekend for the rest of the year coming up. The Couch to 5K app also lists local races for you.
To recap:
Pick a race that looks fun that raises money for a good cause
Recruit a friend or two
Go for your first day of running!
It’s gonna suck, and you’re going to be fine. You’ll get better!
This is exactly what I did years ago when I dressed up like a Caveman with 20 of my friends and raised thousands of dollars for kids with cancer to go to summer camp!
How to Not Get Injured Training For a 5K
If you don’t learn how to run correctly, you’re doomed to develop an overuse injury and that’s going to negate the whole reason you started running in the first place!
This is Mistake #4: Crappy running form!
When you run, you’re putting hundreds of pounds of pressure on your joints and ligaments with each bounding step down the road.
This is then repeated thousands of times over the course of training and a race.
No wonder nearly every runner has tons of stories of injuries they’ve had to deal with. It can be a brutal activity that can wreak havoc even with good running mechanics.
With poor running mechanics, the results are compounded.
And not the GOOD kind of “compounded” like compound interest like you learned in 2nd grade with the story about starting with 1 penny a day and doubling it every day for 30 days.
The BAD kind of “compounded” like plantar fasciitis and stress fractures and sore IT bands and torn ligaments and crazy soreness all the time.
We don’t want that.
I’m going to get super granular into proper running technique in this section, so if you already have perfect running form, you can skip this section. But I’d still read it.
Yeah, you should probably read it.
Here are the “5 Steps to Not Sucking at Running a 5K,” thanks to my friend Jason Fitzgerald of Strength Running:
1) Lean From Your Ankles
Lean from your ankles, and keep a straight line from your ankle, through your butt, and up to your head.
If you’re standing still with this slight forward lean, you should feel like you’re about to fall forward.
When you start running, gravity will help keep you progressing forward. A proper lean from the ankles keeps your body in alignment and loads your muscles properly and efficiently.
2) Increase Your Cadence
Cadence is your stride rate, or the number of steps you take per minute. It will probably seem weird at first, but you’re putting less stress on your legs with shorter foot strikes.
Your cadence should be at least 170-190 steps per minute when you’re running at an easy, conversational pace. It will probably increase once you start running faster—that’s normal.
“Steve, what the hell do I do with “170-190 steps per minute?”
Great question. Go to Spotify and look for 170-190BPM playlists, like these which I found here:
Not on Spotify? Cool. (But like, why?) To get a cadence, try running to Outkast’s “Hey Ya” and time your strides to match the beat. That’s the cadence you’re looking for:
Research has shown[2] that increasing your cadence and taking more steps (around 180 per minute) provides many of the same benefits of barefoot running: less impact shock that goes up your legs, improved running economy (or your efficiency, which means you’ll run faster with less effort!), and a reduced chance of injury.
You’ll feel like you’re taking way more steps than normal – that means you probably had poor form before and now you’re fixing it!
If your legs get to the point where they’re going this fast, let me know:
3) Foot Strike at the Right Time
When your foot comes down and makes contact with the ground, it should be underneath your body, not in front of it.
Combined with a quick cadence and a slight forward lean from your ankles, you’ll be distributing impact shock evenly—and efficiently.
This aspect of running form is often skipped over by beginning runners.
Instead of focusing on where the foot is landing in relation to the rest of the body, they focus too much on running on their forefoot. If you don’t first land in the right place, a midfoot or forefoot strike will only do more damage.
As you’re running, a good mental cue is to think that you’re just “putting your foot down” in a straight line underneath your body.
There’s no reaching or stretching your leg out in front of you. Practicing this mental cue will have your leg touching down almost exactly underneath your center of mass, distributing your weight evenly and safely.
4) Land on Your Mid-Foot
While not as important as landing underneath your center of mass, becoming a mid-foot striker has a host of benefits.
It can help you avoid a lot of injuries by absorbing impact shock and preventing a severe heel striking running stride.
Heel-striking can’t be entirely blamed for injuries and labeled “bad.”
Even elite athletes heel strike when they run races! It’s not entirely bad— especially if you’re putting weight down on your foot just after you heel strike, instead of directly on the heel.[3]
What you should focus on is having a higher cadence, landing underneath your body, and not aggressively heel striking.
Try to land with your foot flat on the ground, instead of with your toes angled upwards.[4]
5) Symmetrical Arm Swing
Nobody wants to look at you running if you’re flailing your arms wildly all over the place like Elaine dancing from Seinfeld.
An ideal arm swing has your arm bent at about 90 degrees and a front-to-back swing (not side-to-side).
Imagine a pretend line that goes down your mid-line or center of your body. When you run, your hands should not cross over this imaginary line.
Cup your hands loosely together (no clenched fists!) and if you want to use your arms for momentum, pump your elbows, not your hands.
Once you incorporate these changes into your running form, you’ll feel a lot more comfortable and your injury risk is going to plummet.
For extra credit, learn to run softly and quietly. Foot stomping isn’t allowed and gets increasingly more difficult as you approach 180 steps per minute.
A few other things you want to keep in mind:
Keep a tall back, chest up. No slouching.
Look 30-50 meters in front of you – not head down looking at your toes.
Both are easy cues to keep an athletic posture and good running form.
Go back through and read this section a few more times. We know it’s a LOT to think about while running, but it is incredibly important. If you get a chance, have somebody film you running, and then watch your tape back to see how you’re doing.
I should note that we provide form checks to our coaching clients. Through our awesome app, you can record a video of your running form or exercise technique and send it right to your coach! That way you can know your running and training safely and correctly!
10 Tips and Tricks for Training for Your 5K
Although the Couch to 5K Program covers specifically how you should be training, it still leaves out quite a few important things (like technique, which I covered above!).
Once you’ve picked your 5K training program, here’s how to get yourself to ACTUALLY follow through on your training!
#1) Recruit an accountability partner. Have somebody that trains with you (or at least somebody you tell about your training), so that each day you can check in with each other.
Wanna be diabolical?
Give somebody else $100 of your money. And tell them you’ll check in with them after your training every day – if you don’t do your run, they’ll donate $50 of that money to a political cause you HATE.
While you’re building the habit of running, you need to make the pain of skipping your run greater than the pain of doing the run.
Do this enough times until you build up enough momentum and get hooked on that runners high so that you actually look forward to training.
#2) Warm-up before, stretch after. Don’t do static stretches before your runs. It’s not doing what you think it is[5]. Instead, you’re going to warm up your muscles through active movement.
Do a dynamic warm-up before you run. Continue this by going for a light jog, high knees, and warming up your muscles through movement.
#3) Make it the first thing you do each day. Build the habit of doing your run first thing in the morning when life hasn’t had a chance to get in the way.
Sleep in your running clothes.
Put your alarm clock/phone across the room. Put your running shoes by the door. By hacking your Batcave, you’ll minimize the steps between you and the new habit you’re trying to build.
#4) Strength training makes running easier. Doing 1-2 sessions of strength training per week (on days you’re not running) will help you burn fat, build muscle, and stay injury-free.
Follow our Beginner Bodyweight Routine, no equipment required. We’ll have you training with your furniture instead:
If you sign-up for our free weekly newsletter, I’ll send you a PDF of the workout so you can track your progress.
Grab Your Beginner Bodyweight Routine Worksheet. No Gym Required!
Complete this workout at home, no equipment required
Avoid the common mistakes everybody makes when doing bodyweight exercises
Learn how to finally get your first pull-up
#5) Don’t worry about your shoes when you start. Wear whatever shoes you have so that you can just get started building the habit immediately. If you START to love running, read our article on proper footwear and get yourself some better kicks.
The same is true for “running clothes.” Do not let this be a barrier to entry.
Start running first and make sure you like it before you go spending any hard-earned cash on stuff you’re not gonna use.
Oh, and as Coach Jim mentions in the video below, DON’T RUN IN BRAND NEW SHOES!
Trust us on this one.
#6) Sign up for your race as far in advance as possible. Use 20 seconds of courage if you need to, but commit to the race.
If you don’t sign up, you’re going to be much more likely to back out when life gets busy.
But if you pay for it ahead of time, and get other people to run with you, you’re going to be using positive peer pressure to follow through on your commitments.
#7) Your race time doesn’t matter! Who cares if you’re the last person to finish? Like the Rock taught us, it doesn’t matter.
What’s important is that you finish something that you started. That’s a huge accomplishment in itself.
#8) Start a running club or join one at work – the more people you surround yourself with that are doing the things you want to do, the better. Hang out with runners that are faster than you.
You’re the average of the 5 people you associate most with, so you might as well start associating with faster, healthy runners.
#9) Don’t have an in-person running community? That’s cool! Join the Scouts Guild in the Nerd Fitness Rebellion.
It’s the section of our community that does running, biking, swimming, and other distance-based activities!
#10) Hire a coach. Outside of having a group of friends or co-workers keeping you accountable, a coach who routinely checks in with you and your progress can be a godsend. We’ve helped tons of people build the habit of running!
What Do I do After the Couch to 5k?
You made it through the training, and you ran/walked your first 5K! I’m so proud of you.
Gold star.
A+.
So after successfully completing your first 5K, you may be wondering what you should do next. To run again or not…
Many new runners absolutely love the atmosphere at a race; the number pick- up, pre-race motivational speech, cheering crowds, and crossing that finish line.
Oh, and the post-race beer and meal is the best food and drink you’ve ever tasted.
So after the excitement settles down, you need to ask what you want to do next.
Your three options:
Run Faster: Sign up for another 5K, keep training, and try to beat your previous race time.
Run longer: Maybe you want to run a longer race like a 5 miler, a 10k, or go slay a bigger dragon, like half-marathons or marathons.
Pick a different activity: Going from Couch to 5K to Couch doesn’t help you at all. Temporary changes create temporary results.
Notice there wasn’t a 4th option, the option that usually everybody picks:
“Go back to sitting on the couch”
That’s Mistake #5: not having a plan to CONTINUE exercising after Couch to 5K!
As we say at Nerd Fitness: “Temporary changes create temporary results.”
So you have to do SOMETHING next, otherwise all that hard work and training will have been for naught!
Want help figuring out exactly where you should go from here? I got you!
Pick the option below that best aligns with your goals and timeline:
It’s suited for anyone starting their walking or running adventure, since our team of coaches will explain how to start both (plus offer an intro to hiking).
#2) We have a bunch of NF Coaching clients that are training for 5Ks, 10Ks, half-marathons, and tough mudders. If you want step-by-step guidance on how to lose weight, eat better, and train for races, check out our killer 1-on-1 coaching program:
3) Check out these other sweet running resources:
Beginner’s Guide to Running: Covering everything you need to start a running practice, including technique, proper footwear, and a training schedule.
To recap our guide on the Couch the 5K plan, these are the 5 Mistakes to avoid:
Running a 5K might be a good way to lose weight. It is entirely dependent on your nutrition. The same is true of literally ANY workout program. (Mistake #1: Not changing your nutrition)
Couch to 5K may or may not be a great program for you. It depends on how much you enjoy running, and what you are hoping to get out of the program. (Mistake #2: not actually enjoying running)
Make sure you are fit enough to endure the rigors of running! If you’re severely overweight, let’s get you in shape FIRST before we put stress on your knees and joints for thousands of running steps. (Mistake #3: Running before you’re ready)
Make sure your running technique is solid. It’ll save you years of pain and injury. (Mistake #4: Running with improper form)
Recruit a friend or find a way to stay accountable so you actually do the race!
Who cares about your race time! Just completing the race should be your goal.
Once you finish the race, decide if you want to keep running or if you are going to pick a different activity. (Mistake #5: Not having another goal after completing your 5K)
Okay, it’s your turn. I’d love to hear your experiences when it comes to training for a 5K, and if you enjoyed the process.
Have you DONE Couch to 5K? Did you stick with it?
What challenges did you run into along the way?
Share it in the comments below!
-Steve
PS:I’ll leave you with a final reminder of our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. If you’re blown away by the fact that you don’t have to run to get in shape, but don’t know where else to begin, we got you.
We’ve helped hundreds of thousands of people like you transform into actual superheroes, and we focus on proper nutrition to do so.
These are the exact strategies we teach our Online Coaching clients, and we’ve used these tips to help them lose weight and get in great shape without being miserable.
Plus, we use fun LEGO photos and gifs to keep you entertained.
In this Ultimate Guide, we’ll cover everything you need to start eating healthy today:
It’s really easy to tell people the following advice:
“To lose weight, just eat more REAL food.”
“Just eat less fast food and junk food.”
“Try to eat more organic vegetables watered by unicorn tears, farm-to-table meals served by centaurs, and kale omletes made with eggs from chickens that you raised since birth.”
Okay so maybe people don’t say the last one.
But it’s not far from what healthy people say to people who can’t seem to get healthy.
In my opinion, these positions are completely out of touch with reality and it makes me plum dog mad.
For starters, fast food is crazy delicious and dirt cheap, and often the only way that many busy parents can feed themselves and their kids.[1]
Next, applying morality and guilt to food consumption (“I’m being ‘so bad’ by eating this cookie”) creates an emotional rollercoaster – my least favorite kind of roller coaster.
I mean come on, we don’t need to be told that freshly grown fruits and veggies are better for us than junk food.
We don’t need to be told that organic grilled chicken and kale salad is healthier than a Double Whopper with Cheese.
We all know this!
So rather than “trying harder” to eat healthier we’re going to use things like “science” and “human psychology” and “excessive quotation marks.”
Cool?
Here’s what you need to know: If you’re just trying to be healthier and maybe lose some weight, there’s no need to start funneling kale smoothies, mainlining chicken and broccoli, and abandoning your loyalty to the Burger King.
You can lose weight and be healthy while still eating these foods occasionally.
Heck, people have lost weight by eating Twinkies[2] and drinking soda and eating at McDonald’s 3 times per day.[3]
I share this info not to promote those foods, but rather to make a big point:
If you are terrified of giving up all “junk food”…
You do not need to give up fast food if it brings you joy.
You do not need to feel shame for eating ice cream.
You do not need to use terms like “cheat meal” or “guilty pleasure” when talking about a chocolate chip cookie.
Food isn’t good or evil, my dear friend!
It’s just food!
Let’s bring it all together:
If we have certain health goals, we can give ourselves the best chance of success by getting strategic about what foods we say “YES” to, and what foods we say “SOMETIMES” to.
These YES foods give us more energy and have fewer calories on average than “junk food,” which means we’re likely to eat fewer total calories without realizing it.
We humans are terrible at estimating how many calories we eat.
Like, really really bad at it. I bet the proportions of the above foods surprised you.
We consistently eat much more than we realize, by as much as 47%+.[10]
To make matters worse, we also OVERestimate how many calories we burn through exercise.
One study showed that Fitness trackers like AppleWatch or Fitbit do not estimate energy burned through exercise accurately, some by as much as 90%![11].
That’s why we made this fun infographic:
So when we “can’t lose weight,” it’s not because we have a broken metabolism.
It’s because we consistently eat too much food without realizing it.
Because we always have a ready supply of new energy from recently eaten food, more than we need, our body NEVER has to dip into our stored fat to burn for fuel.
And when we think we’ve out-exercised our bad diet, we really haven’t.
So it’s time to stop “trying harder” and instead “try differently”:
In order for us to get healthy, we need to find ways to include more foods that fill us up AND taste good.
Luckily, I have that list riiiiight here!
How to Start Eating Healthy (Healthy Food List)
There are three big macronutrients that we’re going to focus on as we build our plate like the image above:
Protein: building blocks for our muscles.
Carbohydrates: our bodies will burn as fuel.
Fats: can be burned as fuel, and also helps with nutrition absorption!
#1) PROTEIN: Priority Numero Uno.
Protein is amazing.
Your body uses protein to rebuild your muscles and keep you strong, especially if you are exercising or strength training regularly.
Protein is both good for you AND highly satiating.[13]
Protein can come from any number of sources, including:
A serving of protein is about the size and thickness of your palm.
*The 4 oz serving is for an uncooked piece of meat. Cooking reduces about 25% of the weight, bringing it down to about 3 oz.
When building a plate, aim for the following amount of protein:
Dudes: 1-2 servings (6-8 oz or about 170-228 g): two palms
Dudettes: 1 serving (3-4 oz or about 85-114 g): 1 palm.
If you’re curious, here’s how much protein is in a serving of food:
4 oz (113 g) serving of chicken has around 30 g of protein.
4 oz (113 g) serving of salmon has 23 g of protein
4 oz (113 g) of steak has 28 g of protein.
As we cover in our “how much protein should I eat per day?” you can target anywhere from 80% to 100% of your bodyweight in pounds per gram of protein, with an upper limit of 250g[15]:
If you weigh 150 pounds (68 kg), target 120-150g of protein.
If you weigh 200 pounds (90 kg), target 160-200g of protein.
If you weigh 250 pounds (113 kg), target 200-250g of protein.
If you weigh more than 250 pounds (113 kg), target 250g of protein.
#2: VEGETABLES: The difference-maker when it comes to healthy eating and weight management.
They are nutrient-dense: full of all the good nutrients that your body can use to function at optimal performance.
Next, they are voluminous but calorie-light, which means you can eat lots of them, you’ll feel full, but you’re unlikely to over-consume calories.
A serving of veggies is about the size of your fist.
Remember this is what just 200 calories of broccoli looks like (holy crap). This is at least 5 full servings:
Here’s a quick, non-complete list of veggies that can fill your plate:
These are the foods that can be an important part of a diet, provided you eat them in the right quantities for your goals.
These foods are also great to consume right after a strenuous strength training workout to help your muscles and liver refill their glycogen stores (their energy tanks[17], essentially).
Back to healthy carbs: when consumed in appropriate amounts, these are great foods that can help you feel full and give you energy and all that jazz.
Just make sure you know what an actual portion of these foods are!
A LOT of people accidentally overeats carbohydrate-heavy foods, even healthy ones, and then wonders why they aren’t losing weight.
To help you get better at eyeballing serving sizes:
1 serving of a starchy carbohydrate is 1 cupped hand (uncooked), or your two hands forming a cup (cooked).
Here are some images to help you learn proper portion sizes (thanks to SafeFood):
#4) HEALTHY FATS: No longer the enemy!
Fat had a bad rep in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, but now things are swinging wayyyyy back in the other direction.
In some circles, dietary fat is considered a superfood – the healthiest thing on the planet that also does your taxes for you.
Let’s get to the truth:
Fat is neither a superfood nor evil.
It’s just a macronutrient that you can eat that can help you reach your goals in the right quantity, or keep you from your goals if it’s overconsumed.
When your doctor tells you to eat more healthy fats, she’s referring to polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats[19].
Healthy fat can be found in foods like:
Avocado
Almonds
Walnuts
Macadamia nuts
Olive oil
Almond butter
Peanut butter
Now, science has recently come around on saturated fat too[20]– once completely vilified, but now cautiously considered okay for moderate consumption.
Saturated fats can come from things like:
Whole milk
Full fat dairy
Coconut oil
Grass-fed butter
Lard
Fatty cuts of meat
Fat can be good for you provided you’re eating the right quantity for your goals.
However, like carbs, fats can be overconsumed accidentally too.
To help you gauge: a serving size of fat is roughly the size of your thumb!
THIS is a single serving of almonds (162 calories):
THIS is a serving of olive oil (119 calories, taken from Runtastic):
As you can see, if you’re not careful – you can accidentally eat an extra 500 calories of “healthy fats” by absentmindedly eating too many “heart-healthy” fats.
Many folks in our Coaching Program had us analyze why they weren’t losing weight, even though they “only ate grilled chicken and veggies.”
When we dug into it, they had been preparing all of their food in an extra 500-600 calories worth of olive oil they weren’t accounting for.
To recap carbs and fats: feel free to include a starchy carb on your plate in the form of rice, potatoes, pasta, or legumes. Healthy fats can spice up a meal, provided you’re using an appropriate portion size
I realize that was a CRAZY amount of info, so let’s put it all on the same Healthy Plate:
1-2 servings of protein (¼ of plate)
2 servings of vegetables (½ of plate)
1 serving potatoes, rice, or pasta. (1/4th of plate)
1 serving of fat (size of your thumb)
1 zero-calorie or low-calorie beverage (water, diet soda, tea)
I know that not all of your meals are going to be perfectly segmented like a bento box. For example:
A fatty cut of meat like chicken thighs means your fat and protein are commingling. Cool.
Lentils and legumes mean your protein and your carbs are attached at the hip. Swell.
A burrito bowl with chicken, rice, guacamole, and cheese means all of your macros are cohabitating. Neato!
Salmon cooked in olive oil and coated in almond flakes means your fat and protein have fused. Stupendous!
This plate and serving size stuff above is just to help you get started thinking about healthy food differently and in proper portion sizes:
Trying to lose weight? Reduce your portions of carbs and fats.
Trying to gain weight? Increase your portions of carbs and fats!
Remember, all calories count.
I can already predict your next series of questions:
“What about beverages?” Simple. Liquid calories count too. So stick to low or zero-calorie drinks like water, tea, coffee, and diet soda.
“How about condiments?” Grilled chicken slathered in 1000 calories of buffalo sauce means you’re still eating a calorie bomb!
“But what about things like Paleo or Keto? I thought low carb = healthy?”I address that in the “which diet is right for me?” section. Keep reading.
What’s the Deal with Fruit? Is Fruit Healthy?
As we lay out in our “Is Fruit Healthy?” Guide, fruit is absolutely healthy and can help you reach your goals – in the right quantities.
Fruits are full of nutrients, packed with fiber, and can make for a great snack or part of a protein-focused breakfast!
#2) Dried fruit: notoriously easy to overeat because they are so small. Since the water has been taken out, all that’s left is the sugar and fiber.
Here’s 1 serving of raisins, which is 108 calories and 21 g of sugar:
If you are saying “oh man, I eat 5x that many raisins when I eat them…” then multiply those calorie and sugar numbers by 5!
3) Fruit Smoothies: Just because it’s a fruit smoothie doesn’t mean it won’t make you fat! Have you seen the calorie count and sugar content of smoothies and ‘green drinks’? Yikes.
Green Machine Naked Juice (15.2 oz or 450 ml bottle): 270 calories, 53 g of sugar.
Smoothie King Banana Boat (20 oz or 591 ml smoothie): 450 calories, 70 g of sugar.
**If you prepare your smoothie at home with a blender, it can actually be healthy since the fiber is intact. Here’s my personal recipe.**
To recap: fruit is healthy, provided you stick to fresh or frozen and not fruit-like food, dried fruit, or canned fruit packed in syrup.
If you enjoy a small glass of orange juice occasionally, or you pack a serving of raisins in your lunch and it makes life worth living, by all means!
Just don’t chug OJ by the gallon, drink a 64 oz “real fruit smoothie,” and eat raisins by the handful and then wonder why you’re not losing weight.
Are Cheese and Dairy healthy?
We get questions about these two types of food frequently.
Let me start by saying I’m assuming you’re not doing Paleo (which says “NO dairy and NO cheese”), or plant-based (which says NO to all animal products).
I’ll also assume you’re not doing Keto, which almost requires you to load up on dairy and cheese to eat enough fat every day!
Let’s pretend you’re just curious if cheese and/or dairy can be consumed on a “healthy diet:”:
YES, you can still eat cheese and be healthy.
YES, you can still eat dairy and be healthy.
And there was much rejoicing:
Like the healthy carbs and fats listed above, it all comes down to your calories consumed in a day, and if these foods fit into your daily calorie goals:
Want to put cheese on top of your salad of chicken and vegetables? Great!
Want to eat greek yogurt, a scoop of protein powder, and frozen berries for your breakfast? Amazing!
Want to eat a bowl of cereal with skim milk (or whole milk) in the morning with your kid before school? No problem.
This is true for higher-fat cheeses or full-fat dairy too – the food just needs to fit into your goals!
Luckily, all dairy comes labeled, and most cheese will come with a nutrition label on it too.
Just ensure that you’re choosing appropriate portion sizes. For reference, here are four different servings of cheddar cheese (about 113 calories a serving):
And here’s a serving of greek yogurt (120 calories in 142 grams):[25]
And although nobody in the history of the world has ever eaten just one serving…here is a serving of ice cream:
(A scoop of ice cream the size of a tennis ball is about 127 calories, cleverly shown above.)
So, dairy and cheese are both perfectly acceptable healthy food options! Just make sure they fit into your goals.
If you are NOT losing weight, and you consume a lot of dairy and/or cheese, consider measuring your intake and see if it’s in line with your expectations!
What’s the Best Diet for Me? Keto vs Paleo vs Plant-based.
“Low fat diets? Low carb diets? No carb diets? I don’t know which one is the BEST diet!”
“Help me, Steve Kamb, you’re my only hope.”
Okay, you’re probably not saying that, but it’s an excuse to pay homage to Star Wars so I can use the great photo above.
You probably do have questions though about what’s healthier, a low fat diet or a low carb diet.
Low carb diets are all the rage right now, but are they healthy and will they help you lose weight?
Maybe.
It may depend on how your body regulates glucose (blood sugar):[26]
Some who don’t regulate glucose well may do better on a lower-carb diet.
Others who do regulate glucose well might do better on a lower-fat diet.
Studies show that people who follow EITHER a low fat OR a low carb diet will still lose weight, as long as they are in caloric restriction and can adhere to the diet for at least a year.[27]
So, it comes down to: “which diet are you more likely to stick with for a year or longer?”
Let’s look at each of these diets and explain why they will help you lose weight, at least temporarily:
Truth #1: Every diet works in the short term.
Truth #2: Nearly every diet fails in the long term.
Let’s address these two truths individually:
Why does every diet work in the short term?
All the diets above have a clever way of restricting calories without you needing to count calories, which leads to weight loss:
Paleo Diet: eliminate everything but veggies, meat, fruit, and nuts.
Intermittent Fasting: skip an entire meal!
Keto Diet: remove an entire macronutrient from your diet (carbs).
Military Diet: Only eat specific foods in certain quantities.
Plant-based Diet: Only eat foods from plants.
Carnivore Diet: Only eat meat! Eliminate everything else.
Of course, there are plenty of benefits from following certain diets for certain groups of people. For example, Larry went Keto and it helped him reduce inflammation from rheumatoid arthritis.
However, 99% of the reason why these diets result in short-term weight loss is that they get us to eat fewer calories!
The problems arise when we get to Truth 2:
“Nearly every diet fails in the long term.”
Put another way:
Temporary changes create temporary results.
If somebody “goes Keto” for 60 days, they’ll most likely lose weight, and might even feel better! This is cool.
BUT!
(There’s always a but…)
If they spend those 60 days in misery, dreaming of carbs, counting down the meals until they can “go back to eating like normal,” they will put all of the weight back.
In order for restrictive diets to create permanent results for somebody, they need to be adopted PERMANENTLY!
For most of us mere mortals, we can’t stick with a restrictive diet for 30 days, let alone a year or a decade.
For these reasons, I strongly advise you to change how you think about dieting.
You need to determine how likely you are to stick with a restrictive diet permanently:
How averse are you to change?
How likely are you to stick with your changes?
Have you tried a restrictive diet in the past and failed?
Do you have a healthy relationship with food?
Do you have an “all or nothing?” mindset?
Like playing a video game, you need to determine what level of difficulty you are willing to attempt.
Playing on “Ultra Hard Difficulty” (like Keto) gives you less room for error, but it can also produce impressive results quickly – if you don’t rage quit.
And 99% of people rage quit restrictive diets like Keto.
It’s not a diet. It’s a lifestyle change. Permanently.
And that’s what I would recommend for you:
Small, non-scary, permanent changes over a long time period!
You need to start thinking in terms of “days and years,” not “weeks and months:”
How to Grocery Shop, Cook and Meal Prep!
Okay! Now that you’ve determined your healthy eating strategy, it’s time to take action.
There are three big steps you’ll want to master if this is your path:
Step #1: Grocery Shopping!
You can read our full guide on “How to grocery shop”, and we even have a video that keeps things fun too:
Here’s how to grocery shop like a pro:
Stick mostly to the outer rim. This means you’re mostly buying meat, fruit, and veggies[28].
Read the nutrition label! Just because it says it’s healthy on the front doesn’t mean it is. Read the nutrition label and learn portion sizes. This can help keep you below your daily calorie goal.
Don’t shop hungry! It may seem silly, but you end up buying way more junk food accidentally if you shop while hangry (a mix of hungry-angry, never a great emotion).
Make a list. Before you go grocery shopping, write down everything you should get. You can even put “non-healthy” food items on the list. But then you can only buy what’s on your list! This means no candy in the check-out aisle, or buying Oreos just because they’re on sale! Plan ahead. Stick to the script, sister.
Step #2: Learn to cook!
In the next section, we share recipes for basic healthy meals that you can cook at home.
Here’s why cooking at home is amazing:
You know all of the ingredients. When you eat at restaurants or pick up fast food, there are often hidden calories in the cooking oils and sauces that are sabotaging your healthy efforts. Because of this, it’s really hard to have an idea of how many calories you’re consuming. When you prepare food at home, you know what you’re getting.
You can recreate healthier versions of your favorite foods. Making homemade tacos or pizza with homemade dough can be a great date-night experience, makes your stomach happy, AND can help you reach your goals!
You save money. If your budget is tight, grocery shopping and cooking your own meals is a great way to balance your budget and free up some cash! Our most successful coaching clients work with their coaches on building the habit of cooking at home.
Now, if you’re somebody who only ever uses your kitchen to heat up microwave meals, that’s no problem.
Here are the guides you should check out:
Cooking 101: Essential Kitchen Tools: Not sure what kind of knives to get, or what you REALLY need? I’ve been there. This is why we created this guide for you!
How to Stock Your Pantry: If you’re not sure what to stock your shelves with, and how to set yourself up for long-term success.
Step #3 (BONUS): Meal Prep and Batch Cooking!
This step isn’t necessary, but if your goal is to make healthy eating a habit for you and your family, batch cooking can be the difference maker!
By “batch cooking,” I simply mean setting aside time to prepare larger quantities of food at the start of the week, so that throughout the week you already have meals to eat!
And every single success story we’ve featured on Nerd Fitness (like this one) involved some sort of batch cooking (planning your meals for the week ahead).
Follow these rules, and you will crush it in the Healthy Eating Department[29]!
19 Healthy Eating Meals You Can Cook Today
“Okay Steve, you have me convinced I should be eating more healthy foods. But I am a nerd and I need specific instructions to follow!”
I got you.
As a kid raised on LEGO and K’nex, I am the exact same way!
Here are options to get the ball rolling on healthy breakfasts, lunches, snacks, and dinners. Use these as inspiration or starting points for your meal planning!
In the video above, Coach Staci walks you through her step-by-step plan for simplifying nutrition.
Yeah, I’ve thrown a lot at you today.
But as Staci mentions above, you can start off small, with some simple steps. Once you get these down, we can work on adding some more simple habits.
To start eating healthy:
Have a glass of water with every meal.
Have a vegetable with every meal.
Have a source of lean protein with every meal.
That’s it!
When someone joins our coaching program, these are often the steps we have them take.
Yeah, sometimes they’ll bulk, thinking this is not enough…
…but consistency is where people start to see real progress.
Don’t overlook the power of simple and consistent habits.
Will You Commit to Healthy Eating?
As we start to wrap up this guide, I have one BIG final question for you:
“Why the hell are you reading this?”
Sorry to be so blunt, but your answer matters!
If you are trying to eat better because somebody told you to, or because you think you should, you’re setting yourself up to fail.
You might be excited and motivated to eat healthy today, and that’s great!
But next week, Oscar in Accounting will put cake in front of you at work, and ask you to “live a little” and eat some cake “just this once.”
And then you’ll discover apps are half-priced at Chatchki’s during happy hour, and you figure “well I already had cake, might as well split some shrimp poppers and extreme fajitas with Meredith.”
It’s our Big Why that stops us from living emotionally and chasing instant gratification from a donut or six slices of pizza when we’re sad or stressed.
It’s our Big Why that allows us to say “Yes, I can have a slice of pizza, because I planned for it in my ‘calorie budget’ today. I’m not gonna feel bad about it either, because my breakfast tomorrow is gonna be great.”
It’s our Big Why that allows us to get back on track after a vacation or after just one day of poor eating, instead of letting things slide for a week or a month.
Have your Big Why, and remind yourself of it constantly!
Write it down, put it on a post-it note on your bathroom mirror, staple it to your forehead.
But have a REASON you’re committing to change.
It will be crucial when life starts to get busy next week and you want to give up. So let’s talk about next week (and beyond!)
Healthy Eating: Next Steps!
This guide has provided you with all of the tools you need to start making healthier choices, but if you are looking to go a bit further…
#1) Our 1-on-1 Online Coaching program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you. Just click on the image below for more details:
#2) If you want an exact blueprint for leveling up your nutrition, check out Nerd Fitness Journey! Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
If you follow our Nutrition missions, you’ll learn to eat healthier while earning XP! Sah-weeeet.
Try your free trial right here:
#3) Join The Rebellion! We have a free email newsletter that we send out twice per week, full of tips and tricks to help you get healthy, get strong, and have fun doing so.
I’ll also send you tons of free guides that you can use to start leveling up your life too:
Download our free weight loss guide
THE NERD FITNESS DIET: 10 Levels to Change Your Life
Follow our 10-level nutrition system at your own pace
What you need to know about weight loss and healthy eating
3 Simple rules we follow every day to stay on target
Healthy eating will change your life.
But it needs to fit INTO your life too.
Small changes, not dramatic shifts!
You don’t have to give up the foods you love, you just need to PLAN for them.
Prioritize protein, and always put a fruit or vegetable on your plate before filling the rest of it up!
This will get you 90% of the way towards a great healthy eating strategy.
And when in doubt, whenever you’re not sure if you should eat a particular food, ask yourself “What would Batman do?”
Seriously, this has been studied with children, and it helped them make healthier food choices by giving the decision-making over to somebody they looked up to [22]. It’s called “self-distancing,” and there’s no reason it can’t work for you too.
Oh, and when you eat a bad meal – who cares?! “Never two in a row,” right? Make the next meal healthy.
YOUR MISSION, SHOULD YOU CHOOSE TO ACCEPT IT:
Start eating healthy today with literally one change:
Try a new vegetable.
Cut one soda out of your day.
Prioritize protein in your next meal.
Swap out one high-calorie drink for a zero-calorie drink.
I don’t care what the change is, just as long as you make one!
Okay enough about me, let’s talk about you:
What’s the ONE change you’re going to make today?
For the Rebellion!
-Steve
PS: Make sure you read the rest of the articles in our “How to Lose Weight 101” Series!
You can read a study about what drives fast-food intake right here. Tangentially related, but this Atlantic article is fantastic: How Junk Food Can End Obesity.
Read, “Adherence to Mediterranean diet and health status: meta-analysis.” Source, PubMed.
Read, “Longitudinal association of changes in diet with changes in body weight and waist circumference in subjects at high cardiovascular risk: the PREDIMED trial.” Source, PubMed.
Read, “Evolution of Well-Being and Happiness After Increases in Consumption of Fruit and Vegetables.” Source, PubMed.
Fiber is a carbohydrate that can’t be broken down by the body, so it travels through you relatively intact. However along the way it can do all sorts of good stuff! For example, increased fiber intake can help reduce blood glucose levels.
This won’t be on the test, but here’s what unsaturated means in this context: a type of fat containing a high proportion of fatty acid molecules with at least one double bond (mono) or many double bonds (poly).
Today, we’re answering both of them (and much more).
Walking is a great form of exercise and something we often recommend to folks starting our coaching program. Some have had great success walking, including Megan, who has a daily practice to maintain her weight loss journey.
How Many Calories Does Walking Burn? (Calorie Calculator)
In true Nerd Fitness fashion, we scienced the crap out of this, and even created a handy calculator for you – simply put your stats in the calculator here:
A few things to remember about the above equation:
There’s a difference between gross calories (total calories) expended and net calories (additional calories) expended! Your body burns most of its calories every day JUST by existing.
Gross calories: calories burned while walking PLUS the calories burned just existing
Net calories: ADDITIONAL calories you burned thanks to exercise.
Also, our calculation is an ESTIMATE. You’re a unique snowflake, and no box or formula can capture your awesomeness/uniqueness. This equation below is JUST a starting point!
Also, if you don’t feel like playing with our calculator (boo), here’s how many calories you burn walking:
On average, a mile burns about 100 calories when walking.
Another point: ANY exercise pales in comparison to a much more important part of the weight loss equation: nutrition.
If you’ve come this far, and you want to learn more about why walking is so amazing, continue reading.
And you’re damn right, I’ll show you exactly how to walk to Mordor too.
What Are The Benefits of Walking?
We are designed to walk. It’s in our DNA, and it’s a huge part of our emergence as the dominant species on this planet (along with opposable thumbs, big brains, and Nintendo).
Let’s get the basic stuff out of the way:
Every day, it’s recommended by the CDC that we walk around five miles, or 10,000 steps.[1]
Hence the reason why your Fitbit – which I’ll get to shortly – has that 10k step goal as its default number.
Unfortunately, we Americans tend to average HALF that: 2.5 miles or 5,000 steps.
And I’d imagine that people who work outdoors or have more physically active jobs drag that average wayyyy up.
Which leaves us desk jockeys, who don’t walk nearly enough.
We use our feet to get us from the front door, to our car, to our desk, to our car, to our front door, to our couch… where we put them up while watching four hours of TV before going to bed.
Not walking enough can be a big factor in the creep-up of weight gain over the years.
You might have questions like:
Can I walk more to lose weight?
Is walking REALLY good for me?
Do I need to do more intense exercise?
Long story short:
You should walk more and it can help you lose weight and be healthier.
Short story long…
Here’s why walking is important:
#1) Walking burns calories without exhausting you.If you walk the recommended mileage each day (5 miles instead of just 2.5), it can lead to a tremendous amount of weight loss over time.You’ll burn an extra 100 calories walking just ONE more mile each day than normal: When that’s multiplied out, it’s an extra 700 calories burned per week, which results in approximately a pound of fat lost every five weeks, or 10 pounds in a year. You can scale up your distances to get your desired results!
#2) Walking doesn’t add to training stress. If you are strength training regularly, adding in more weight training or running can lead to burnout, breakdowns, and injuries. If you are trying to look like a super-hero, extra cardio sessions (or long-distance cardio sessions) might kill your gains. But you can just walk. You can walk great distances, provided you’ve built up your body’s physical ability, and not get tired or sore – walking (especially outside while soaking in some sunlight) can make you feel better, not worse.
#3) Walking is low impact. Unlike running, which can wreak havoc on people’s joints if they run improperly or are severely overweight, walking doesn’t have those impact issues. If you go for a walk and your feet or joints hurt, you’re doing it wrong – read the next section!
#4) Walking can burn fat. Because walking is low impact and low intensity, your body doesn’t need to pull much glycogen and glucose stores to fuel itself, which happens when you strength train or push yourself into “aerobic training” with higher intensity cardio. Proponents of intermittent fasting suggest walking in a fasted state in the morning before eating anything in order to help burn extra fat. It’s a little controversial, so this will have to be something you attempt and measure for yourself.
#5) Walking relieves stress. Seriously! Put on your favorite playlist, and go for a pleasant walk around your neighborhood or through the woods as the sun is going down. It’s a recipe to forget the worries of your day.
Bonus points if you can get someone to follow you with a boombox:
#6) Walking improves mental health (especially in older hobbits). Walking can improve mental health, increase brain size, improve memory, and is correlated with improved, longer lifespans.[2]
How Walking Can Change Your Life
If you are severely overweight and can’t run or strength train, walk on.
If you are building muscle and bulking up, walk on.
If you are trying to lose weight, walk on.
If you struggle with following a routine, or have failed in the past with weight loss, walk on.
Why? I’m a HUGE fan of small habit change and tiny victories – walking is the PERFECT habit builder. If you’re brand new and starting out, go for a walk TODAY and begin your journey to Mordor.
This afternoon, go for a five-minute walk. Tomorrow morning before work, before breakfast, as SOON as you wake up, put on your shoes, and go outside for a five-minute walk. No snoozing, no lying in bed, no checking email or Twitter. Put on your headphones, pick your favorite song, go outside, and start walking.
Here’s why:
Walking for just five minutes a day is the start of a new habit.Every morning for a few weeks, you’ll have to force yourself to walk. Initially, it will take effort and willpower to walk instead of snoozing. However, with each passing day of success, you’ll need to use less effort and willpower to get out the door. After all, it’s only five minutes, right? Once it’s something you do automatically without thinking, you can add on to it by increasing your walk time.
Walking briskly outdoors in the fresh morning air can be a great caffeine-free wake up call! If you make walking the FIRST thing you do in the morning, especially if you’re doing it before anybody else is awake, there will be zero distractions and no reason to say “sorry, I didn’t have time.” Of course, we like caffeine too (in moderation).
Walking will give you a chance to gather your thoughts and clear your head before the day begins. We’re constantly distracted at home: TV, iPads, smartphones, etc. Walking is so primal – no gadgets, just walking. Many people cite walking as the impetus for their creative or intelligent breakthroughs.
Walking and successfully building a habit will give you a habit blueprint to follow for anything else you’d like to accomplish: “Hey, I was able to make walking a habit, what else can I tackle in the same way?” Slow and steady wins. One foot in front of the other, my friend.
How to Walk Properly
“Uhhh, Steve, I know how to walk. I do it every day!”
Welp, if you’re starting from only walking from your car to the office, we need to make sure you’re walking the right way for when you push that mileage up.
Let’s start with your feet, provided you’re not gonna glue hair to your feet and go barefoot to become a hobbit.
I recommend walking in shoes that have a wide toe box and minimal drop (height at the heel vs height at the toes), as we discuss in our monster post on healthy feet and footwear:
You might not be used to walking with minimal cushioning under your heels, so walk slowly and land softly. Walking on softer surfaces to start isn’t a bad idea either.
We were designed before the invention of big clunky shoes… thus, we should be able to walk without big clunky shoes.[3] If you are interested in going barefoot as a runner, get started by walking short distances first. Your feet will toughen up (though they probably won’t grow hair quite like Frodo and Sam), your joints and muscles around your feet and ankles will strengthen, and your knees will deal with less stress.
When going for a lazy stroll, focus on landing softly, which is much easier when you don’t have thick-soled shoes to cushion your stride: land softly with your heel barely touching before rolling onto the middle (ball) of your foot, and then push off. You might need to take shorter strides than you’re used to if you were a big heel striker with a long stride.
If you’re aiming to walk quickly and up the intensity, shorten your stride and aim to land in the middle of your foot while pumping your arms. This is more easily done when walking uphill (which is also a great way to burn extra calories).
Is Walking Enough for Weight Loss?
Can walking help you lose weight?
You’re darn right it can!
The above photos are from Don, one of our coaching clients. Don credits his daily walking practice with helping him lose 85 pounds!
He’s not our only example of walking for weight loss:
Megan, who I mentioned earlier, is another client who walks daily to maintain her weight loss.
Case closed?
Of course not!
Both Don and Megan also made adjustments to their nutrition to reach their amazing results.
One of the Rules of the Nerd Fitness Rebellion is that we know “you can’t outrun your fork.” No amount of exercise can counter a bad diet, as your nutrition will be responsible for 90% (not an exaggeration) of your success or failure.
Here’s an example:
Let’s say you go for a 5-mile walk, which takes you 90+ minutes.
If you then consume a 20 oz Gatorade and a small bag of Fritos (a typical snack for many here in America), you will have already undone all of the calories burned while walking.
Depending on your nutrition and love/hatred for exercise, this is either great news or bad news!
The BAD news: you can’t eat very badly in mass quantities and then expect to lose weight with a bit of exercise every week, even if it’s strenuous.
The GOOD news: Even if you dislike exercise, you can avoid exercise and still lose weight! Instead, put ALL of your focus instead on fixing your nutrition, and then go for a walk every once in awhile.
Oh, and if you want to see if a Nerd Fitness Coach can build you a program to lose weight while doing movements you enjoy (like walking), click on the button below:
The Best Practices for Walking (Tips and Tricks)
Here’s how to improve your walking technique:
#1) Focus on posture! Head up! Shoulders back! Walk with a confident stroll – practice this one in the morning if you’re not used to walking like this. It’s also a great way to appear instantly more confident; we nerds and hobbits need all the confidence we can get! Look around at your surroundings with your head up, arms swinging in rhythm.
You can also do some well-placed neck swings and jacket removals:
#2) Walk uphill to burn more fat. If you are walking on a treadmill, set it to an incline to increase the intensity and thus increase the amount of fat burned. Just don’t be that person who sets the incline way up, then holds onto both sides and leans their body back to be perpendicular with the incline. Keep good posture, lean forward into the incline, shorten your stride, and pump your legs.
#3) Hiking is a great way to practice walking, enjoy the scenery, and play Lord of the Rings in the woods with plastic swords and capes. Not that you should do that (you totally should). Here’s a beginner’s guide to hiking!
#4) When walking downhill, especially while barefoot (or wearing minimalist shoes), keep that stride short and be careful on how you are walking. Make sure your knee is bent when you land and absorb the impact rather than jamming the impact through your heel, knee, leg, hips, and lower back.
#5) Consider going for fasted walks in the morning. When you wake up first thing in the morning, your body has burned through most of the carb-fueled energy stores during the night. Which means when you go for a walk first thing in the morning, your body is more likely to have to pull from the only fuel source available to it: fat! This is the entire philosophy behind things like Intermittent Fasting or really low-carb diets like the Ketogenic diet.
#6) Get yourself a sturdy walking stick, if only so you can use it to battle imaginary ogres, goblins, cavetrolls, etc. It can also make you feel far more adventurous than if you’re just walking, and help you get up hills and land softly when going back down.
#7)Try Temptation Bundling. Load up an audiobook or your favorite podcast, and tell yourself that you can ONLY listen to the book or podcast while walking.
Is a Fitbit Helpful for Walking? (Which Fitness Tracker Is Best for Me?)
If you’re somebody who has been interested – or is getting interested – in walking, you’re probably familiar with step-tracking devices:
Personally, I’m a huge fan of fitness wearables, but not for the reasons you’d think.
For starters, you’re wearing a constant reminder that you are prioritizing movement, which can only be positive. You can even trigger it to remind you to get up and move every hour.
It can also allow you to see how many steps you normally take, and thus allow you to prioritize moving MORE.
Although Fitbit has a history of being sued for the inaccurate heart-monitor portion of its devices, I’m less concerned about heart rates and 100% accuracy of step distance, and instead think in terms of personal improvement.
Just like with tracking your bodyfat percentage or your weight, “that which gets measured gets improved,” and that carries over to your total steps. The fact that you’re tracking it means you’re going to be more aware of it, which means you’re going to be more likely to be able to improve it.
And that’s why, in a weird way, I’m not very concerned about the total accuracy of these devices. Even if your scale is off by 5 pounds, or your body fat caliper is inaccurate by 1%, as long as you use the same device and measure in the same way under the same conditions, you can track trends and paint the picture of your health and whether or not it’s improving!
And that’s what these fitness trackers should be used for: a reminder and a trend tracker!
What you SHOULDN’T do: take your fitness tracker as gospel, and use that to calculate down to the calorie and macro how much food exactly you can consume.
What you SHOULD do: track your trend over time, and see if you can improve your average. Use the technology to aid your fitness quest. Use the community portion of the band to compare your stats against friends and get some positive friendly peer pressure to get you off your ass.
Okay, if nerdy fitness technology isn’t nerdy enough for you, let’s go full-nerd.
How to Actually Walk to Mordor
Did you know it’s 1779 miles between Hobbiton to Mount Doom? [4]. We can actually determine how far Sam and Frodo walked, and then set out on the journey ourselves! It’s one thing to go for a stroll around your neighborhood. It’s another to know that, “If I take one more step, it’ll be the farthest away from home I’ve ever been.”
So let’s take a look at how far we need to walk first:
458 miles: Go from Hobbiton to Rivendell.
462 miles: Set out with the Fellowship from Rivendell, through Moria, to Lothlorien.
389 miles: From Lothlorien, down the Anduin, to Rauros Falls.
470 miles: Follow Frodo and Sam on the quest from Rauros to Mt. Doom.
535 miles: From Minas Tirith to Isengard
693 miles: From Isengard to Rivendell.
397 miles: From Rivendell to Bag End.
467 miles: (bonus!) Follow Frodo to the Grey Havens and return home with Sam.
Following this path, you need to walk a total of 1779 miles to get from Hobbiton to Mt. Doom. Then it’s time to destroy the ring and get carried to Minas Tirith by the Great Eagles.
Then you’ll walk 1625 miles back to Bag End (and an additional 467 miles if you’re interested in doing a round trip to the Grey Havens).
Obviously, you don’t need to move at the same speed as the hobbits (18 miles on the first day is no joke! Damn, those hobbits covered some ground!), but it’s still fun to track your walks and your total miles to see where you’d be on your journey.
However, like Frodo and Sam, it starts with the first step.
I’ve created a Google Doc that you can copy for yourself to track your distances to follow Frodo and Sam on your journey to destroy the One Ring.
Here’s how to do it:
Open the document, and then click on “file,” “save a copy,” and then you can edit your own copy of the document.
Track your distances with a pedometer, Fitbit, your iPhone or Android phone.
Input your distances and work towards completing each section of the journey over months. As you input your distances, it will automatically let you know when you reach each destination so you can get you started on the next one. 5 miles a day on average will have you destroying the Ring within one year.
Oh, and if you’re curious, according to my rough gorilla math, Frodo burned at least an additional 61,0000+ calories (100,000+ gross calories) by walking “there and back again” – you’re welcome[5].
What’s that?
You want some help getting out the door?
You got it – but only cause you asked nicely.
Here are three ways to level up alongside Nerd Fitness.
#1) Our Online Coaching Program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you. Just click on the image below for more details:
#2) If you want an exact roadmap on how to get in shape, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
We even have fun missions that will help you walk more, all while you earn XP! Righteous.
Try your free trial right here:
#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 our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.
Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.
Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
Alright, your turn:
What questions do you have about walking?
How have you incorporated it into your daily routine?
You’re probably wondering about the math on this one. I followed this thread down a rabbit hole and estimated a hobbit at 3.5 feet tall would weigh 60 pounds. I then put that into the calculator to determine calories walked. Again – this is just an estimation, and probably could be even more accurate if we had the topography of middle earth to determine elevation climbed too! Feel free to get me more accurate numbers in the comments and I’ll update this!
If you find yourself with a billion other strength training questions as you build your own workout, or you’re overwhelmed at all of this and not sure how to get stronger…you’re in good company!
It can be scary enough to keep MOST people from starting, which is actually why we created our Coaching Program.
Your NF Coach will do an initial assessment to calculate exactly how much weight you should start lifting. They’ll then design a program that they’ll adjust regularly based on your progress and schedule.
Plus, with our app, your coach can do regular video form checks to make sure you safely make consistent progress.
With that out of the way, let’s jump into the nitty-gritty of “How much weight should I lift?“
Step #1: Why You Should Lift Your Own Bodyweight First
Stop! (Wait a minute…)
Before trying to figure out how much weight you can lift, let’s make sure you know how to do the movement, as flawlessly as possible, without any weight at all.
Why?
Because if you can’t do a movement correctly without weight, how can you expect to do it right WITH weight?
Think about it – if you can’t walk up a flight of stairs normally, would you expect to be able to walk up the flight of stairs carrying a sack of hammers?
Also, what are you even doing with a sack of hammers?
STEP ONE: learn each movement without any bars, dumbbells, or added weight.
Which might make you say:
“Staci, how on earth do I do a deadlift or an overhead press without any weight? And I know I can do a bodyweight squat, but isn’t it completely different doing a barbell back squat?”
Easy – grab either a broomstick (be careful for splinters!), mop handle, or PVC pipe (I use a 1.25” PVC cut in half) and pretend it’s a barbell.
If you’re trying to mimic a dumbbell movement, either grab a short dowel, PVC, or just hold your hands in a fist as if you were holding on to something.
While it’s not the exact same as holding actual weight, it will allow you to practice getting into the correct positions.
Practice the movements in your own home without other people around you (so you’ll be less nervous).
Also, you can videotape yourself pretty easily. I’ve use my computer’s webcam, or my phone camera and a little tripod, then completed the movement with a broomstick.
See if the gym has a lighter barbell – some have a “women’s bar” or a “training bar” that usually weighs 30-35 lbs and 15 lbs, respectively. These are usually shorter, but that’s okay!
Start out with dumbbells – while the movement is not the exact same, it allows you to build up the strength:
This will help you handle a barbell down the road.
Focus on bodyweight training (push-ups, pull-ups, lunges, squats) until you build the strength to handle the bar.
Now, on opposite ends of the spectrum, if the bar seems really light, I would STILL encourage you to complete your first workout with just the bar.
Why?
According to Mike Rebold from Hiram College, when you start lifting the barbell or dumbbells for the first time you will notice muscle deficiencies (i.e., one side that is weaker than the other). It can often come down to motor units, or the nuerons that help muscle fibers.[2]
Rebold explains:
When you first start strength training and lifting the barbell or dumbbells, your motor units don’t fire as quickly and smaller motor units that don’t generate a lot of force are recruited. As you continue working out and become more trained, your motor units fire more rapidly and your brain recruits larger motor units that can generate more force allowing you to lift heavier weights. This is why the progressive overload principle is important.
That means focus on getting each rep correct, and worry about adding weight next time.
Check your ego at the door!
I would rather see somebody in the gym lifting the bar with proper form than watch somebody with awful form lift 400 lbs.
That makes me…
Note: If you finish your first workout with the bar and still aren’t comfortable with the movements, it’s never a bad thing to do your next workout with just the bar again.
If you’re not comfortable with the movement and you start adding weight, not only will you be more likely to injure yourself because your body isn’t ready, but you’ll be more likely to hurt yourself because you won’t be confident under the bar.
Confidence is something that is very important as you start lifting heavier and heavier.
Mike Rebold supports this idea:
Self-esteem is confidence in one’s own abilities. Research has shown that in order to improve one’s self-esteem, or one’s confidence to exercise and lift heavier weights, you must first incorporate and master simple exercises.[3]
This is why we also recommend starting with the barbell or light dumbbells. Because as you master these simple exercises, that will result in your self-esteem being improved and then you will have more confidence to try new exercises and to lift heavier weights.
Speaking of, if you’re planning on using dumbbells as your main lift (and not a barbell):
Start with 5-10 lb dumbbells to get a feel for things.
Whether you’re starting with dumbbells or ready to move onto a barbell, it’s important to do it properly!
We check the form of EVERY online coaching client on their workouts so they have the confidence that they’re doing these moves correctly!
We’ve also created a specific sequence of workout routines you can follow along with for free in our guide Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know.
Grab yours free when you sign up in the box below:
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Step #3: How To Start Adding Weight to the Barbell
2) Add a small amount of weight to the bar. Depending on how heavy the bar felt, start by adding:
2 – 5 pounds for upper body exercises.
5 – 10 pounds for lower body exercises.
When in doubt, add the lower amount.[6] You can always add more! Do another set of 8-12 reps at this weight.
(Note: If you’re doing dumbbell training, instead of adding weight to the bar, increase the weight of the dumbbell. Start with 5 lb. dumbbells, then 10 lb. dumbbells, for example)
3) If you were able to complete those reps both without losing form and without the speed of the bar slowing, add more weight to the bar.
Base the amount of new weight off how it felt – if the last set felt really light, add 5’s, if it felt heavy, add 2.5’s’s.
If a person can do two or more reps than the goal in an exercise on two consecutive training sessions, then they should increase the load.
4) Continue to do this until your form starts to break down or the speed of the lift gets slower on any of yourreps.[8]
The weight you used right before your form started to break down is your starting weight on which you will base all future workouts!
5) If it is a lower number than you expect, that’s great actually!
Don’t try to be a hero your first workout, it is better to start out too light than too heavy.[9]
Remember – we’re trying to get solid, productive sets in, not find our max, so we want all of the reps to be fast and with as perfect form as our body allows.
Since you’re testing out heavier weights for the first time, never be afraid to have a spotter, or to use pins to ensure your safety!
If you don’t want to figure ANY of this out on your own, and you just want somebody to tell you exactly how much to lift, how many sets, reps, etc., I hear you.
I’ve had a lifting coach for years and it’s the best investment I make each month!
Step #4: How Do I Know When to Add More Weight?
Once you’ve found your starting weight, you’ll want to start using something called “progressive overload.”
This sounds a lot fancier than it really is.
As Coach Jim explains above, progressive overload means gradually increasing the stress put on your body during training.[10]
In other words, we need to increase something, regularly. Usually, this means the amount of weight we lift.
And for beginners, that can often happen after every workout.
During every workout, our muscles are torn and broken down. Then after every workout – for the next 24-48+ hours, our body repairs itself. If you’re getting proper sleep[11] and nutrition,[12] it heals back stronger than it was before.
Conversely, if you do 5 sets of 5 squats at 100 lbs every single workout for months, are you getting stronger?
Most likely not.
Your body is actually just getting more efficient at lifting 5×5 at 100 lbs, burning fewer calories, and using less energy to make that movement happen.
So, how much weight do you add when you’re ready to increase your workouts?
That depends on how difficult the set was last time.
This is where great note-taking comes in (I’m a huge fan of a simple notebook, or Evernote docs on my phone).
PATH A: You failed to complete any of your reps or your form started to break down. Do the same weight again next workout, and focus on boosting your form and technique of each rep.
Remember, if you are doing the same workout as last time, but each rep is more solid and with better form than before, you’re still doing better than you were the last workout.
In other words, you’re still leveling up.
You don’t necessarily have to go up in weight every workout to see gains.
You could also focus on:
Less rest between sets.
More control and better form.
More repetitions.
All of which means you are getting stronger.
PATH B: You were able to get through all of your sets with great form, and without the bar slowing down. Congrats! Consider adding more next week. It’s not unheard of for beginners to add 10-20lbs a week to some lifts (especially squats and deadlifts), though don’t get discouraged if you’re only adding 2.5 or 5![13]
The BEST THING YOU CAN DO: slowly add the smallest amount of weight possible, and progress consistently. This is much preferred to progressing quickly and then hitting a plateau.
Each week, as you add a little bit of weight, you are building strength, confidence, and momentum.
Note: For some lifts, especially the overhead press or bench press, adding just 5 lbs may be too much to go up per workout.
I personally have a set of 1.25lb plates that I bring with me to the gym so that I can still progress regularly.
Remember: You’re going to have shitty days at the gym. There will be days when you can’t add any weight, or you feel like you have to take a step backward.
So many things affect how your lifts are going to feel:
A baby crying all night – causing sleep deprivation and resulting in systemic inflammation and decreased GH release = poor recovery
Lots of stress at the office.
To drinking too much at the big game – causing stomach discomfort and bloating.
Just not eating enough for your goals – not consuming enough carbohydrates and fats to support energy demands or not consuming enough protein to facilitate muscle protein synthesis and recovery.[14]
It’s important to listen to your body over listening to some number telling you what you should be lifting.
You want to make progress every time you walk into the gym, and that means having a specific plan to follow.
Don’t have a workout to follow? Tired of not getting results despite all the effort?
This is what we do for a living! Help people like you get out of ruts and finally get them the results they want.
After doing my own workout programming for 5 years, I hired a coach and it changed my life. Let us help you hit your goals too.
Step #5: How Do I Calculate My 1 Rep MAx?
It’s really fun to find the maximum amount of weight you can do for one repetition (one rep max) every once in a while.
I would suggest you follow a program for at least six weeks before even attempting “a heavy single”.
Why?
Even if your form is as good as you can get it now, you will get far better, learning how to make tweaks and corrections as you go.
When you first start out, you’re still getting everything down, so your one-rep max won’t be a “true” one-rep max.
Plus, when you train, you’re training everything in your body.
Some things, like muscles and bones, get stronger, while others, like your nervous system, get more efficient.
The more you do something, the better you get at it. And in the beginning you’ll get better very quickly.
It’s unwise to attempt a 1 repetition maximum when you’re learning the movement.
This is one of the classic blunders! The most famous of which is “never get involved in a land war in Asia.”
But only slightly less well-known is this: “Never attempt a 1-rep max as a beginner.”
Even if you can do it with proper form with lighter weights, as soon as the weight gets close to your 1 rep max your form will start to break down, and you are more likely to hurt yourself.
Some words of caution here from Mike Rebold, an expert in exercise physiology:
During 1RM testing, fatigue will happen! One-repetition maximum testing has been found to overload the neuromuscular system resulting in lower motor unit activation, less force production, and ultimately more fatigue. This level of fatigue experienced by the lifter can be enough to result in injury, especially if the lifter is a novice (i.e., beginner).
When your form starts to break down, you need to have the experience behind you to finish (or bail out of) the lift safely.
If you watch any weightlifting or powerlifting competition, sometimes the lifts are not the prettiest lifts you’ve ever seen.
However, the lifters are experienced enough to handle this, and know how to bail if something goes wrong.
If you want to work with a coach that can help you perfect your form and train to hit 1-rep maxes too, we’re here for ya! We’re slightly biased, but having a coach in your corner is an absolute game-changer.
Step #6: what is a respectable amount to be lifting?
The simple answer? The weight that’s right for you.
You are not competing against the guy next to you; you’re competing against the YOU from last week (like racing your ghost in Mario Kart).
As far as what you can strive for, there’s no easy calculation or formula.
While some people have put out strength standards, it’s truly up to your body, your body type, your background as an athlete, your genetics, and many other factors.[15]
You should be lifting the amount that’s right for you today. In your next workout, you should be trying to lift more (even if you can’t do more weight, try doing one more rep, or with less rest between sets) than you did last time.
That’s it.
As a part of this journey, I want you to completely forget about strength standards and forget about everyone around you.
I don’t care if the guy (or girl) next to you is squatting 500 lbs for sets of 10.
If you’re squatting 50 lbs, and that’s the weight that is challenging for you, then that’s the weight you should be lifting.
These are the BIG mistakes you need to avoid:
Never EVER try to outlift the person next to you.
Never EVER adjust the weight to impress someone.
No one’s judging you based on the weight on the bar, and if they are, they aren’t worth your time or energy.
The strongest lifters warm up with “just” the bar.
The strongest lifters focus on getting their reps in, and aren’t ashamed that they’re lifting less than the guy next to them.
The strongest lifters take time to get things right, even if that means lifting less weight than they know they “can” do.
The strongest lifters started off doing a beginners program just like you.
So remember – start slow, add weight slowly, and stay conservative.
It’s amazing how much even adding just 5 lbs (2kg) a week adds up to! It’s far better to play it safe in the beginning than to find yourself injured and frustrated before you have a chance to progress.
Do You Even Lift?
Hopefully, this article EXCITED you about strength training, and you now know exactly how much to lift.
For people looking for the next step, we’ve got 3 options you want to check out:
1) If you want to follow a strength training program that’s specific to your goals, check out our popular Online Coaching Program.
You’ll work with a certified NF instructor who will get to know you better than you know yourself, check your form, and create a workout strategy that will evolve alongside you.
2) If you want a daily prompt for doing workouts at the gym (or at home), check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
Try your free trial right here:
3) Join the Rebellion! Join hundreds of thousands of people like you. It’s free to join, and we have a dozen free guides for you when you sign up in the yellow box below.
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Let’s get these questions answered so you can get back to getting stronger!
What are your other big questions about lifting weight and how much you should be lifting?
-Staci
PS: Be sure to check out the rest of Strength Training 101 series:
Read, “Effects of a 12-week resistance exercise program on physical self-perceptions in college students.” Source, PubMed.
The American College of Sports Medicine (ACSM) recommends for novice (i.e., untrained individuals with no strength training experience or those who have not trained for several years) lifters, lifting loads that will allow for the completion of 8-12 repetitions. The ACSM also recommends a training frequency of 2-3 days per week for novice lifters.
Haff G, Triplett NT. (2016). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Fourth edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000
According to the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA), for less trained people (i.e., beginners), it is recommended that for upper body exercises you increase the load by 2 – 5 pounds and by 5 – 10 pounds for lower body exercises. For more trained people (i.e., advanced), it is recommended that for upper body exercises you increase the load by 5 – 10 pounds or more and by 10 – 15 pounds or more for lower body exercises. Source: Haff G, Triplett NT. (2016). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Fourth edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.
Haff G, Triplett NT. (2016). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Fourth edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000
You may be asking yourself why is the speed of the lift important? Barbell speed is important because it allows one to train for power, which is important not only for athletic success, but also to decrease our risk for frailty and sarcopenia. As frailty progresses, we become more vulnerable to numerous adverse events such as falls and fractures, cognitive decline, disability, hospitalization, nursing home placement, and death. How does one train for power? The NSCA recommends the following: 75-85% of your one-repetition maximum (1RM); 3-5 sets; 3-5 reps; and 2-5 minutes of rest in-between each set and exercise.
If you go too heavy too soon then you are increasing your risk of sustaining an injury and experiencing the worst delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) 24-72 hours post-exercise. Sustaining an injury and/or experiencing the worst DOMS may likely be enough to cause you to call it quits and not commit to your exercise goals. Research has found that when one has negative experiences associated with exercise then they are more likely to reduce their exercise and become more sedentary.
Haff G, Triplett NT. (2016). Essentials of Strength Training and Conditioning. Fourth edition. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics; American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2000
Sleep deprivation has been found to have a negative impact on immune health resulting in systemic inflammation. A decrease in systemic inflammation is needed for the restoration of energy and recovery. Growth hormone, a hormone responsible for regulating muscle growth is released during sleep
According to the National Academy of Medicine, adults over the age of 18 years should be consuming 0.8g/kg/day. This will ensure that you are consuming enough protein to support functions such as structure (e.g., collagen), movement (e.g.,contractile protein), and immune function (e.g., antibodies). The recommendations do change depending on your training, but that is for another time and place.
As mentioned earlier in this article, according to the NSCA, for less trained people (i.e., beginners), it is recommended that for upper body exercises you increase the load by 2 – 5 pounds and by 5 – 10 pounds for lower body exercises. For more trained people (i.e., advanced), it is recommended that for upper body exercises you increase the load by 5 – 10 pounds or more and by 10 – 15 pounds or more for lower body exercises.
Powers SK, Howley ET. (2011). Exercise physiology: Theory and application to fitness and performance. New York: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages.
A lot of people fail to realize that genetics does play a huge role in how we respond to exercise. Genetics can contribute up to 50-60%. One of many genetic-related variables that determines how we respond to and succeed in exercise is our muscle fiber type. We have three major muscle fiber types: slow twitch (type I) and fast twitch (type IIa and type IIx). Although, with the correct exercise, you can increase all of them.
So you’re having trouble working out consistently?
I get it.
Life is busy and hectic. You probably wear multiple hats in your life.
Hopefully, one of them is a pirate hat:
If you are having trouble exercising regularly, know that you aren’t alone.
Not being able to work out consistently is one of the top issues facing our clients in Nerd Fitness Coaching. Luckily, there are some tips and tricks that help them, which we’ll share with you right now too.
As I mention in the video above, it’s okay to stumble – everyone misses a workout now and again.
Life happens:
Your job might need you to stay late.
Maybe your spouse can’t pick up the kids today.
Or perhaps you just lost track of time while playing video games.
These things happen, so don’t freak out whenever you miss a workout.
“Wait, wait, wait Jim! I thought this article was about consistency – then you start off saying it’s OK to miss a workout?”
What I’m saying is to not beat yourself up over it. I’ll see people be so tough on themselves for one missed workout, that it spirals downward and then they’re doing NO workouts.
It’s unnecessary, and it’s not sustainable.
Here’s something I remind my clients: If being tough on yourself helped with workout consistency, it would’ve helped by now.
So first of all, forgive yourself.
Then, I share with them a saying we have here at Nerd Fitness:
“Never Two in a Row.”
As Rebel Leader Steve mentions in the video below, it means aim to not miss two workouts, back to back:
It’s a mantra you’ll hear throughout the Rebellion (our community!).
Here’s the justification: as I mentioned, missing one workout is nbd.
However, two workouts in a row could be the start of a trend. If you’re not careful, after a few missed workouts, you could just stop exercising altogether.
That’s the real danger.
So we aim to not allow the trend to start in the first place.
Takeaway: If you miss a workout, it’s fine. Just try not to miss the next one.
Step 2: Building a Workout Plan
Here’s a great quote from Benjamin Franklin:
If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail.
When it comes to working out consistently, we need to define what “consistently” actually means.
As Coach Staci mentions in the video above, we want to focus on three key questions when programming our training:
What type of workout are you doing?
When do you plan on doing your training?
Where will this workout take place?
All three questions are important, but we’re going to focus on “when” right now.
Determining “when” you’ll train is easily the most important step for working out consistently.
That’s why I want you to place your workouts in your calendar!
Schedule your workout like it’s the most important meeting of the day!
(A reminder that you ARE important!)
That’s what I have my clients do in our 1-on-1 Coaching Program. It goes a long way to helping them stick to their workout schedule.
So if you plan on training first thing at 8am, have a calendar reminder go off at 7:50am.
It’ll make a difference. I promise.
What days should be workout days?
For that, I have a couple of resources to share with you:
How to Build Your Own Workout Routine. Our MASSIVE guide will teach you exactly how to create a training schedule, including what exercises to do and when to take rest days. If you want to get your hands dirty by building your own workout, this is the way to do it.
Nerd Fitness Journey. Our fun habit-building app will tell you exactly when to workout, with video tutorials for every exercise covered. No need to create a plan, just open up the app and check your missions for the day. Plus, you’ll build your very own superhero as you go, which is totally sweet. You can try it out for free right below:
Step 3: Why “All of Nothing” Hurts Workout Consistency
Another one of the best things you can do to improve your workout consistency: have a backup plan.
Let’s say a pipe bursts at your gym, and it’s closed for the next few days.
Does that mean you should stop working out until they resolve their plumbing emergency?
Here’s another trick to start enjoying your workouts – do them while listening to some of your favorite music, or a podcast you enjoy.
Heck, you can even flip the TV on in the corner and watch your favorite show while you train.
We call this “Temptation Bundling” and I’ve seen it help a lot of my clients:
If you only listen to your favorite podcast when you run, eventually, you might start looking forward to running.
The same thing could happen with music. If you start to associate your favorite tunes with building up a sweat, one day you might actually enjoy building up a sweat.
Let’s say you only watch The Great British Bake Off while on your elliptical. If that’s the case, you’re going to start protecting your time exercising (“Don’t bother me now”).
Don’t overlook the power of coupling activities you enjoy with your workouts.
Step 5: How to Build Workout Accountability
Another strategy we can deploy when improving workout consistency: accountability and support.
There’s nothing quite like being accountable to another human being when it comes to exercising regularly.
There are a few ways we can create workout accountability:
#1) Tell Friends and Family
Share your goals with your loved ones, then let them know the times you’ll be working out.
This will help for a couple of reasons:
We’re more likely to follow through with action if we commit ourselves in front of others.
If we don’t show up for a workout, they may politely call us out on it.
#2) Join an Online Community
In the 21st century, it’s very easy to find a group of people who are on a similar mission.
If you want to exercise regularly, I’d wager you aren’t the only person on the internet working towards that goal.
So join a digital community! That way you can get in on some group accountability.
We regularly hold group challenges through our app, Nerd Fitness Journey. I’ve been told by countless Rebels that they’re more likely to get their training in if they know everyone else in the community is doing it too.
Heck, I did burpees in the snow because everyone in the Rebellion was doing a burpee challenge.
If you want to try out some of these experiences, you can sign-up for a free trial to our snazzy new app right here:
If you want some next-level accountability, I have to mention the ultimate power-up: hire a coach.
It could be a half-mile around the block. Or it could be to the mailbox and back.
The exact amount doesn’t matter, but being intentional is. That’s how we work to build consistency.
So do a short walk today. Then another one the day after tomorrow. Then a third two days from then.
Boom, three workouts in one week, all by just walking.
Step 7: How to Find Time to Workout
I’ll be real with you: no one is sitting around, twiddling their thumbs with time to kill.
If you’re going to make time to work out, you’ll need to figure out what activity in your life you can change or eliminate:
Maybe your two-hour nightly TV ritual can come down to an hour.
Maybe you start biking home from work instead of driving.
Maybe you catch up with your spouse over an evening walk instead of a drink.
This is why scheduling your workouts in your calendar can be so critical – it helps you see what needs to be moved around to get your training done.
Also, it’s okay to experiment here.
If you create a schedule, and you don’t hit it all, it’s okay.
Perhaps you just created an unrealistic schedule.
If so, then modify the workout:
Try a 30-minute workout instead of an hour.
Try two workouts a week instead of three.
Go around the block once instead of twice.
Again, we’re not worried about the amount of time here. Instead, we’re concerned about you hitting your workout schedule consistently. It’s okay to scale down to do that.
Once you’re rocking and rolling, we can always scale it up if it seems right.
If you want some tips on how to gauge your adherence to sticking with your workout schedule, then check out How to Track Your Fitness Progress.
Start Working Out Consistently
There you have it, my friend.
To recap…
Here’s How to Work Out Consistently:
Step 1: It’s okay to stumble (Forgive yourself). Everyone I know misses a workout here or there. It’s nothing to feel shame over.
Step 2: Have a plan! Without scheduling your week’s workouts, how do you even know if you’re being consistent or not?
Step 3: Have a backup plan! (Lose the “all or nothing” mindset). If your first plan falls through, nbd. Just move onto the next one. “Some” workout is always better than “no” workout. Do the best you can.
Step 4: Make it fun. Your workout doesn’t need to be something you dread. If you like hiking, go hiking. If you like swimming, go swimming. Any movement is beneficial and should be encouraged. No one said you have to hate it.
Step 5: Find an accountability partner. Going alone is almost always harder. If you can find a friend or coach to team with, it will make working out consistently easier.
Step 6: Embrace “action” not “motivation.” If you have to wait around for motivation to start working out, you might be waiting for quite a while. You’ll become motivated after you act.
Step 7: Don’t find time, make time. Your schedule won’t magically free itself. Look at your calendar and start prioritizing.
That’s it.
The most important thing you can do now today: START!
Not tomorrow. Not next Monday.
Today!
If you don’t know what to do, look at the next free spot on your calendar. Then schedule a walk.
Then schedule it a couple of days later.
Then the following week.
BOOM! You just started a plan for working out consistently.
As always, if you need any help here, we gotcha.
Here are three ways that Nerd Fitness can help you exercise regularly:
#1) Our Online Coaching Program: a coaching program for busy people to help them make better food choices, stay accountable, and get healthier, permanently.
As I said, this is the ultimate way to build workout accountability. Not only will a NF Coach build your workout, but they’ll check in with you too to make sure you’re able to do it.
If you can’t?
No problem, they’ll work with you to create a new plan.
You can schedule a free call with our team so we can get to know you and see if our coaching program is right for you. Just click on the image below for more details:
#2) If you want an exact roadmap for working out consistently, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app tells you exactly what days to exercise, what days to rest, and helps you track it all so you know if it’s working for you.
Interested?
Try your free trial right here:
#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 our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, our Strength Training 101 eBook, and much more!
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.
Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.
Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
Alright, I want to hear from you now:
What’s your biggest issue with working out consistently?
What tips helped the most?
Are we missing any helpful suggestions for a beginner?
“If you want to gain weight, eat more calories than you burn regularly. Want to put on the right KIND of weight? Exercise and eat the right way too.”
Now, there’s plenty of nuance to this when comparing men and women:
Due to our natural hormones, it’s generally more difficult for people with typical female anatomy to gain muscle than people with typical male anatomy.[1]
We have a lot of factors (such as hormonal birth control) that have been proven to make it even harder as well.[2]
But that doesn’t mean it’s impossible!
It just means we have to work harder for it.
Ugh, I know.
Now, one thing I want to touch on quick: if you see a woman who is absolutely jacked and at an extremely low body fat percentage, I guarantee she has been working her butt off for a very long time with the goal of building muscle.
It’s not something that happens overnight, or by mistake.
In addition, some women with larger amounts of muscle mass choose to take steroids to help assist them in gaining muscle, because we simply don’t have the hormones naturally to get to that size.
So if you’d like to build muscle, but not as much as a professional bodybuilder – don’t worry, it’s not something that happens by accident.
With that out of the way, let’s talk about body fat and body types:
As we point out in that body fat percentage guide, we women can look very different at any weight depending on our body shape and how much muscle we have. It comes down to our own personal goals!
This guide is going to primarily focus on two things:
How to eat to gain weight and build muscle.
How to strength train to build muscle.
We’ve helped thousands of women with our online coaching program, many of whom are trying to gain weight and strength train for the first time in their lives.
Everybody is on their own journey, at their own pace, and everybody will end up with different results too!
Should Women Build Muscle? (7 Reasons Women Should Grow Muscle)
If it can be harder for women to gain muscle (compared to men), why go through the trouble?
I’m glad you asked!
Here are the top 7 reasons why women should strength train:
#1) When you’re stronger – everyday life is easier. No need to call for help to get that 50lb bag of dog food off the top shelf, or carrying an air conditioner unit up a flight of stairs. LIFE is easier when you’re stronger.
#2) Less injury risk – when you build strong muscles, you’re also building stronger bones, ligaments, and tendons, making you less prone to injury doing things you love (like playing in a quidditch league).[3]
#3) Helps combat age-related muscle loss,[4] allowing us to remain independent longer as we age:
#4) Muscle is harder to maintain, which means you need to eat more just to hold on to it.[5]
#5) Reduce pain – having a strong body makes living easier on your joints, as well as allows you to hold a better posture, and reduce back / hip pain.[6]
#6) Appearance – this is a personal preference! Some women like to have a lot of muscle, and some don’t. While you can’t spot reduce fat, you can choose to build more muscle in specific areas, changing your body shape. Growing up, I was an extreme pear shape, but due to strength training, I now have more of an hourglass shape.
#7) Live longer – want to spend more time on Earth? Strength training and growing muscle will help you do just that.[7]
How to Eat to Gain Muscle as a Woman
As we said above, gaining weight comes down to thermodynamics and science.
Every day, we burn a certain number of calories just existing, which is called our BMR (basal metabolic rate). We then factor in our daily activity level, and get a number that is called our “total daily energy expenditure.” You can calculate yours below.
(Note: we have used The Mifflin-St Jeor Equation to create this calculator! [8]).
Since we want to gain weight, we want to take our TDEE and add 250 calories to it to get our daily goal. This should result in gaining about half a pound per week.
Now, although eating ANY EXTRA calories from any source will result in weight gain, our goal is to gain the RIGHT kind of weight, in a healthy way.
And thus, we’ll be focusing our efforts on a “healthy muscle building” strategy.
We could easily add more calories each day, and gain weight quicker, however, the slow method gives you the best chances at gaining mostly muscle, with minimal fat. The faster you try to gain weight, the higher the percentage that will likely be fat – so starting off at half a pound per week is a great place to start!
In addition to the number of calories we’ll be adding, we also want to pay attention to the type of foods we’re eating.
As we cover in our “Healthy Eating Guide,” we’re going to build muscle by consuming the three big macros in the correct quantities:
Protein: rebuilds muscle after you break it down.
Carbohydrates: provides your muscle with fuel and body with energy.
Fat: helps your bodily functions and can also be burned as fuel in the absence of carbs.
Let’s look at each of these individually:
PRIORITY #1: PROTEIN
Protein can come from any number of sources, including:
As we cover in our “How much Protein do I need?”, claims for the amount of protein required for muscle growth vary wildly from source to source (and athlete to athlete).
Here is our recommendation:
If you’re of healthy weight, active, and wish to build muscle, aim for 1 g per pound of body weight (2.2 g/kg).
If you’re an experienced lifter on a bulk, intakes up to 1.50 g/lb (3.3 g/kg) may help you minimize fat gain.
Let me simplify it for you:
“To build muscle, target at least 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight (2.2 grams per kg).”
If you’re curious, from our healthy eating article, this is what a portion of protein looks like:
Here’s how much protein is in a serving of food:
4 oz (113 g) of chicken has around 30 g of protein.
Fat is a macronutrient that can help you reach your calorie goals (in the right quantity), as fat can be high in calories. Plus, you can eat lots of it without feeling full. Helpful if you’re trying to put on weight.
Healthy fat can be found in foods like:
Avocado
Almonds
Walnuts
Macadamia nuts
Olive oil
Almond butter
Peanut butter
Science has recently come around on saturated fat too.[10] Once completely vilified, but now considered okay for moderate consumption.
Saturated fats can come from things like:
Whole milk
Full fat dairy
Coconut oil
Grass-fed butter
Fatty cuts of meat
Lard
To help you gauge: a serving size of fat is roughly the size of your thumb!
For reference, this is a single serving of almonds (162 calories):
THIS is a serving of olive oil (119 calories):
As you can see, you can eat an extra 500 calories of “healthy fats” by eating lots of “heart-healthy” fats like nuts or adding more olive oil to your meals.
PRIORITY #4: VEGETABLES!
Last but not least, you need vegetables in your diet.
As you start to eat more food, your stomach, intestines, and other bodily functions will thank you for consuming more high-fiber vegetables!
A serving of veggies is about the size of your fist.
Here’s a quick, non-complete list of high-fiber veggies that can fill your plate:
Consume 1-1.5g per pound (2.2-3.3g per kg) of body weight in protein every day.
Consume the rest of your calories from foods composed of carbs and fats.
Always eat vegetables so that your body can actually PROCESS all this extra food. I like to aim for half of my plate of vegetables.
If you are not gaining weight, (and you’re hitting your protein goals), add more carbs and/or fats to your meal.
It really does come down to the following:
If you are not gaining weight fast enough, you’re not eating enough. Increase your portions of carbs and fats!
Whenever we work with coaching clients who struggle to build muscle, this is the area we target: adding more carbs and fats to each meal.
8 Strength Training Exercises For Women to Build Muscle
Years from now, you’ll look back and thank “Past You” for starting strength training today.
And don’t worry, I’m going to tell you exactly what to do so you can start strength training TODAY!
Here’s why strength training is so important: when you eat a caloric surplus (more calories than your body needs each day), the extra calories have to go somewhere.
If you don’t do any exercise, your body will choose to store the extra calories as fat for later.
However, when you strength train, your muscles are broken down. Then they’ll use the extra calories to rebuild themselves bigger and stronger over the next 48 hours!
“Staci that sounds great, but I’ve never strength trained before, and I don’t know what I’m doing…Halp!” You might be saying into your computer or phone.
Fear not! I’ll help. Strength training doesn’t need to be scary or overly complicated.
Simply put, “strength training” means two things:
#1) “Movement of any weight against “resistance” (including your body weight) – Doing ANY exercise that pushes your muscles outside of their comfort zone, forcing them to rebuild stronger to prepare for the next challenge.
#2) Progressive overload: doing slightly more than last time (lift a heavier weight or do 1 more rep) consistently. Your muscles will have to constantly adapt and rebuild themselves stronger. This is called “progressive overload.”
Coach Jim breaks down different strategies for progressive overload in this video:
This means if you drop down and do ONE push-up or knee push-up right now…
Here’s what you need to know about strength training:
Strength training is one of the BEST things you can do for yourself.
Strength training will help you put on muscle while eating in a surplus.
While you can’t spot reduce fat, you can focus on building more muscle in specific areas, which can help you attain a specific look you’re going for.
If you don’t like the gym, you don’t need to go, ever. But I hope you do. Because that’s the easiest way to start training with weights.
Regardless of your fitness level, body fat percentage, strength level, or biological sex, you have every right to be in the free weights section in the gym, training with heavy weights, with everybody else. The people in the gym who are very strong with a lot of muscle started somewhere, too!
I used to be a CrossFit instructor, and my favorite thing about CrossFit was that it destigmatized barbell training and heavy lifting for many women.
In order for us to strength train and build muscle, we’re going to approach this intelligently.
We’re not going to pick up small dumbbells and do lots of reps.
We’re not going to sit down at various machines and scroll through our phones while doing leg curls.
Instead, we’re going to:
Get very strong with compound movements that recruit LOTS of muscles to work together.
Do our workouts quickly and get out of there. The workout should take no longer than 45-60 minutes.
This is how we efficiently build muscle in the minimum amount of time. What are the exercises that we’re going to target?
1) The Push-Up: The best exercise you could ever do for yourself when it comes to using your bodyweight for push muscles (your chest, shoulders, and triceps):
2) The Bodyweight Squat: This exercise serves a dual purpose: it is the foundation for building strength AND helps build proper mobility. If you are going to ever do barbell squats, you need to work on hitting proper depth with a bodyweight squat first!
3) The Inverted Bodyweight Row: Until you can get your first pull-up or chin-up, these exercises are GREAT to start building your pull-muscle strength (your back, biceps, and forearms).
4) The Pull-Up and Chin-Up: Once you can support your body’s weight above the bar, the world becomes your playground. No strength training routine should be without pull-up or chin-up work! (Click here if you can’t do a pull-up or chin-up yet):
And now we’re into the best weight training exercises:
5) The Barbell Squat: Probably the best exercise when it comes to building strength and muscle throughout your whole body. It also burns crazy calories and makes life better. This is a MUST:
6) The Barbell Deadlift: Maybe the best exercise of all time. Actually no, it IS the best exercise of all time. It’s certainly the most primal: “pick the weight up off the ground. Done.”
7) The Barbell Bench Press. Lie on a bench, squeeze your shoulder blades to keep your back tight, and then lower a barbell until it almost touches your chest. Pause, and then press it back up towards the sky. Repeat! And get strong.
8) Barbell Overhead Press: Stand with your feet about shoulder-width apart and lean back by pushing your hips forward. While keeping your entire body tight, press the bar overhead.
Once the bar passes your forehead, move your body back under the bar by driving your torso forward and back into a standing position. At the top of the lift shrug your shoulders slightly and lock your elbows.
These are some of the best compound exercises you can complete in order to build muscle. Want more muscle? Great! Get stronger at these movements!
One quick note: when I first started lifting, it took a while to build up the strength to be able to bench press or overhead press with the 45-lb bar. If your gym doesn’t have a lighter bar, dumbbells are a great option!
Your mission, should you choose to accept it:
Commit to trying ONE of these movements in the next week. Use 20 seconds of courage, recruit a friend who has lifted or trained before, and try your best.
I have three options for you next:
Select one of the muscle-building routines for women in the next section.
Work with me and our coaching program to follow a custom strength training routine for your goals.
5 Muscle Building Workout Routines For Women
I’m going to walk you through three different levels of strength training, and by the end of today, you’re going to know exactly how to get started.
My advice: do 2-3 strength training routines per week, with 1-2 days off in between. As the saying goes: “muscle isn’t built in the gym, it’s built in the kitchen!”
So your goal should be to do a strength training routine, and then make sure you eat a caloric surplus so that your body has enough calories to rebuild your muscles bigger and stronger!
10 Dumbbell rows (use a milk jug or other weight).
15 Second Plank.
30 Jumping jacks.
We also have a downloadable worksheet of this beginner’s workout that you can print out and hang on your fridge to track your progress! Get it when you sign up below:
Grab Your Beginner Bodyweight Routine Worksheet. No Gym Required!
Complete this workout at home, no equipment required
Avoid the common mistakes everybody makes when doing bodyweight exercises
Learn how to finally get your first pull-up
LEVEL 2: DUMBBELL WORKOUT
If you have dumbbells at home or access to a gym, you can pick our Level 4 workout from our 6-Level Gym Workout Routine.
So your Dumbbell Workout is 3 circuits of the following:
10 goblet squats (holding the dumbbell like a goblet with 2 hands):
If you like this Kettlebell workout and want to follow along on a worksheet, simply print out our Kettlebell Workout and bring it with you:
Grab Your Beginner Kettlebell Routine Worksheet!
Complete this workout at home or gym with 1 kettlebell.
Avoid the common mistakes everybody makes when doing kettlebell exercises.
Build strength, burn fat, level up your life!
LEVEL 3: BARBELL GYM WORKOUT
Here’s a Barbell workout you can follow from our Level 5 Gym Workout Routine.
BARBELL BATALLION WORKOUT A:
3 sets of 10 barbell squats
3 sets of 10 push-ups
3 sets of 10 bodyweight rows:
BARBELL BATALLION WORKOUT B:
3 sets of 5 barbell Romanian deadlifts (video pulled from our courses in Nerd Fitness Prime)
3 sets of 10 bench presses:
3 sets of 5 pull-ups, assisted pull-ups, or negative pull-ups:
PICK A WORKOUT, GET STARTED!
The whole point is to do challenging movements that really make your muscles work, and then try to do ONE more rep, or lift a SLIGHTLY heavier weight next time!
Still overwhelmed? Check out our coaching program. We get to learn your story, and then build a program and strategy around your goals that you CAN do.
10 Tips for Building Muscle as a Woman
I interviewed multiple other coaches on our team and asked for their best advice on how to build muscle as a woman.
Here’s what they said:
Susy (Coach, BS in Psychology, Certificate III & IV in Fitness, 5+ years of experience)
Tip #1: Food is your friend when you are looking to build muscle and get stronger – your body will need fuel, so you may need to eat more on the days that you work out!
Tip #2: Strength and muscle building requires structure to your workouts – you progress through getting better at specific movements, so make sure that you enjoy the style and structure of your workouts so that you can be as consistent as possible.
Tip #3: Your progress will always be fastest if you avoid injury, so correct form and listening to your body is super important. Your muscles will fatigue and feel sore, but joint pain and sharp, stabby pain means something isn’t moving quite right.
Kerry (Coach, NASM-CPT, 6+ years of experience)
Tip #4: Fall in love with the process. Getting stronger is a journey, one that is both rewarding and challenging. So no matter where you are starting from, take the time to celebrate each small step along the way towards a more badass version of yourself!
Christy (Coach, BS in Applied Health/Fitness, National Personal Training Institute Graduate, Precision Nutrition Certification, 6+ years of experience)
Tip #5: To get strong, you gotta lift weights. When lifting weights to get strong, you gotta be okay with testing your boundaries every now and then.
After exercising with your current weight, for the next training session…stop…and try a few reps with the next weight UP to test it out! It might surprise you how much more weight you can lift!
Here are some other tips to help you build muscle.
Tip #6: Boost your testosterone naturally: Consume enough saturated and monounsaturated fats, keep your sugar intake low, and make sure you’re getting enough Vitamin D and Zinc.
These are items linked with boosting your testosterone naturally.[12]
Speaking of testosterone – I know you may think of this as a “male” hormone, but it plays a huge part in women muscle building,[13] fat loss,[14] increase bone mass,[15] and many other health-related issues[16](remember: estrogen is made from testosterone).
Men make about ten to fifteen times what we make naturally,[17] but it doesn’t mean we don’t need it too.
Another way we can help our testosterone levels is to watch our cortisol levels.
Cortisol is a hormone that is promoted by stress and reduces free testosterone levels (in addition to signaling for your body to store fat).[18]
Steve drinks two smoothies a day to reach his protein goals and you can check out our Guide to Protein Shakes for his personal recipe.
On the go with no blender? I like to keep protein powder with me in a small Ziploc bag – that way I can grab a bottle of water, rip off the corner of the Ziploc bag, and use that as a funnel to get the powder into the water bottle. Then, just replace the cap and shake and you’ve got a protein-filled snack!
Tip #9: Get more sleep! When you build muscle, your body is working overtime, burning extra calories. It’s going to need some time to recover. Remember, muscle is built when you rest, not when you actually lift.
Go to bed!
Tip #10: Start today!
Gaining muscle comes down to eating right and strength training. Let’s get you lifting today!
You’ll work with our certified NF instructors who will get to know you better than you know yourself, check your form, and program your workouts and nutrition for you.
2) If you want an exact blueprint for growing strong, check out NF Journey. Our fun habit-building app helps you exercise more frequently, eat healthier, and level up your life (literally).
Try your free trial right here:
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 our guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. It’ll help you begin your journey on building muscle.
Download our comprehensive guideSTRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Everything you need to know about getting strong.
Workout routines for bodyweight AND weight training.
How to find the right gym and train properly in one.
Lastly, I’d love to hear from you!
PLEASE leave your questions, eating or strength or otherwise below so we can answer them and become best friends and practice karate kicks in the garage:
How can I help you get bigger and stronger?
What part of this journey are you still struggling the most with?
What are your favorite bulking up foods!?
Share with your friends in the comments so we can all go buy it in bulk at Costco.
-Staci
PS: Make sure you check out the rest of our Strength Building Articles!
“Testosterone in women–the clinical significance” Source; PubMed
Check out this study “Exogenous androgens influence body composition and regional body fat distribution in obese postmenopausal women–a clinical research center study” Source: PubMed
“A concise review of testosterone and bone health” Source: PubMed
Check out this interesting interview with Dr. Stephanie Faubion on testosterone in women. Source: MayoClinic
You can check out this study “Circulating Testosterone as the Hormonal Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance” for more: PubMed.
Check out “Effects of mindfulness meditation on serum cortisol of medical students” for a study on meditation lowering cortisol levels. Source: PubMed.
Before you fork out some cash for a personal trainer, read this guide!
It’ll help you spot the difference between a bad personal trainer and an AMAZING trainer.
And trust us, having the right trainer can make ALL the difference in the world.
There’s nothing worse than spending 6+ months in a gym (and thousands of dollars) with a trainer, only to step on the scale and realize that you haven’t made any progress.
It’s…
I’ve worked with good trainers and bad trainers over the past 16 years, have worked with the same online personal trainer since 2014, and we have a team of 15 personal trainers on Team Nerd Fitness.
Long story short, we know our stuff, and we’ll give it to you straight.
Whether or not you want to check out our 1-on-1 Online Training Program, this guide is going to help you with all the details.
In this guide we’ll cover the good, the bad, and the ugly when it comes to personal trainers – both in-person and online:
As Coach Matt explains in the video above, the first question you need to ask when hiring a personal trainer: do they match up with your goals?
And yep, that means we’re going to have to pick some goals in the first place!
So start by picking your goals and then determine if the trainer you’re paired up with is the right fit for you. Like dating, you can meet somebody who’s amazing but not right for you.
If somebody is a competitive marathon runner, they might not be a great powerlifting coach, and vice versa.
So, start with your goals for finding a personal trainer:
These goals will largely determine the type of trainer you’re looking for.
MISTAKE #1: Not making sure your trainer has expertise in the area you want to train in.
Expertise in one area does not necessarily make them a good fit in another!
After that, you’ll want to think about what you NEED from your personal trainer:
Are you looking for a powerlifting coach to show you the basics (squat, deadlift, bench) so your form is right? Just a few sessions up front and a few later down the line to confirm you’re on the right path might suffice.
Are you new to working out or looking to kick start your first 2 months of training with 2 sessions per week to keep you disciplined?
What type of person are you? Do you need more hands-on guidance throughout your workouts, or more space to take ownership and thrive on your own? Do you need somebody who will cheer you on or do you need tough love from somebody to call you on your bullshit?
Once you set proper expectations with what you want and how long you need a trainer for, then you can pick out one that hopefully will work for you.
How to find a good personal trainer
Once you find a trainer you are considering working with, the next step should always be an in-depth conversation.
MISTAKE #2: Blindly accepting what your trainer tells you without making sure you fit together!
They SHOULD be listening to you completely and hear your full story.
They SHOULD ask about any past issues with injuries or experience with exercise. If you’re injured or have any deficiencies, they should know this so they can create a great program for you.
They SHOULD ask you about your nutrition. If they don’t ask about your nutrition, you’re going to be wasting your time.
They SHOULD practice what they preach. They don’t have to be an Olympian, but should have a healthy lifestyle.
They SHOULD tell you about their expertise and how they can help you. They should be able to share past successes of clients with you or point to their credentials and history of success.
They SHOULD set proper expectations. You won’t get ripped in a month, but they can let you know it could take many months to get in shape or build the right kind of habits.
That’s what to look for. These are the things we specifically focus on with our 1-on-1 online coaching program. We love helping people in a way that fits their lifestyle, at a pace that they feel great about, while actually having fun.
What are the Signs of a bad personal trainer?
Beware the “entertainment exercise” trainers with a routine that isn’t catered to your goals.
MISTAKE #3: Thinking a workout is more effective because it’s confusing.
Many trainers just try to confuse you with needlessly complex movements, and put all their clients through roughly the same cookie-cutter plan.
Why? because they know it makes them look knowledgeable without actually needing to do something effectively:
“Now balance on this bosu ball while doing these dumbbell squat lunge curls and standing on one foot with your tongue out! Muscle confusion!
I hope you saved some energy for the row machine.”
Tough workouts are great, but remember that while it’s easy to get someone tired (“go do 100 burpees!”), it’s harder to help someone slowly improve and build momentum.
Sure, it might elevate your heart rate and tire you out, but if it’s not building towards your goals in a way that you couldn’t do at home, what are you paying for?
They might also have just obtained a basic certification and stopped their education there, relying on ‘conventional wisdom’ rather than doing the research and building the experience.
If your trainer says any of the following phrases, run for the high hills:
“Yeah you don’t want to squat too low – it’s bad for your knees.”
“Use this machine; it’s safer for you than free weights” (unless you have an injury)
“Yes, you should be using mostly your back. That’s why it’s called the back squat”
I have overheard all of these sound bites from real trainers in real gyms, and it made me weep like the Native American in the 1970s pollution ad:
Your trainer should be results-focused, not focused on scheduling you a new session and keeping you around.
I often see clients working with trainers for months and months and that client never looks any different.
The trainer is just interested in cashing another check.
Remember,your personal trainer works for YOU: Don’t let them build a program that doesn’t actually fit your needs!.
Do they adjust your workout to take care of any pre-existing injuries you may have, or do they just give you a cookie cutter workout?
Are they encouraging or helping you succeed in the way you want to be encouraged, or are they scrolling through Instagram models on their phones while you’re doing your sets?
Are they putting in the time so they can see you get results, or are they putting in the time so they can check the box and collect your money?
You’re paying money for this person’s expertise and attention – it’s not too much to ask to find somebody who takes those things seriously.
What certifications should a personal trainer have?
There are a wide variety of personal trainer certifications and other “credibility indicators.”
The more traditional path – a degree in exercise science or kinesiology may mean the trainer in question is knowledgeable about the human body.
However, that doesn’t speak to any experience they may or may not have coaching in real-world circumstances.
6 of the most popular personal trainer certifications are:
T-Nation provides a rundown of the pros and cons from a trainer’s perspective that we feel is also useful insight from a client’s perspective. Be sure to check them out if you want to learn more about what’s behind your trainer’s certification.
CrossFit certifications are completed in a single weekend. While a CrossFit certification does not make a trainer bad (there are plenty of excellent CrossFit coaches out there!), it does not guarantee excellence either.
A certification from NPTI – the National Personal Training Institute – is a credential gained from going to a full school on personal training (rather than attending a class or taking a test).
While no certification can fully promise excellence, we believe trainers with NPTI certifications are worth your consideration.
CAVEAT TO ALL OF THIS: Plenty of trainers who have NO certification are incredible, and plenty of other trainers have the most elite certifications and are terrible trainers.
MISTAKE #4: Blindly accepting a trainer’s credentials or discounting a trainer without certain credentials.
Certifications can be a starting point, but it shouldn’t be the determining factor.
One of the most important things to look for in your trainer isn’t a credential or certification at all, but real experience and an enthusiasm for helping you reach your goals.
For example:
Looking to powerlift or get into Olympic lifting? Look for someone who has successfully competed in their fields, or someone who actually coaches athletes who do compete!
Need to lose a lot of weight? Ask a trainer to share with you success stories from people who are like you.
In our view, finding a trainer with proven experience and a track record of performing or coaching (or both) in the area of your goals is the most valuable step you can take to ensure quality.
The credential is only a starting point.
Trainers aren’t cheap, but the benefits can be priceless.
Remember, you aren’t paying simply for their time with you. You’re paying for the years and years they’ve spent learning, training, and coaching.
It’s the years behind the certification that makes their time so valuable, so expect the cost of a trainer to be significantly more than the cost of a basic membership at your gym.
How much does a personal trainer cost? Are Personal Trainers Worth it?
The cost of a personal trainer can vary dramatically depending on:
Where you live (in an expensive city, small town, etc.).
The quantity and duration of your training sessions.
What kind of training you are looking for.
But you want specifics.
The average North American trainer charges $55 for an hour session.[1]
That’s an “average” so let’s break it down a little.
Here are the prices for working with a trainer in various capacities at my generic commercial gym in the NYC area (definitely on the more expensive end):
4 sessions per month: $95 per session = $380/month
8 sessions per month: $85 per session = $680/month
12 sessions per month: $79 per session = $948/month
Is this pricing more or less than you expected?
Here is how much a personal trainer costs at:
Global Gyms: Most big box gyms offer personal training:
LA Fitness: you can expect to pay about $60 per session.
24-Hour Fitness: it’ll be about $80 per session.
Anytime Fitness: as little as $35 a session.
Luxury Gyms: If you go to a more upscale gym like Equinox, expect to pay “luxury” prices of $110+ an hour.
In-Home Personal Training. If you don’t want to head to the gym, you can actually have a personal trainer come to your home. The cost on this could be all over the place, but a rough average would be about $65 for an hour session.
Different trainers will have different qualifications and expertise, leading to vastly different training experiences.
This can be really important.
MISTAKE #5: Thinking “more expensive” automatically means “better results.”
Cost is not the right metric. VALUE is the right metric!
Depending on your goals and the results you’re after:
$30 per session might be overpaying for a crap trainer who gives you a generic workout and doesn’t care about you.
$100 per session might be a STEAL if it’s an amazing trainer that gets to know your life and your personality, motivates you in the way you need to be motivated, and helps you get past a plateau when you stall.
That’s why remembering your “get in shape” goals is critical when buying a personal trainer.
If you’re looking to do 5 sessions to improve your powerlifting technique, that’s different than hiring a trainer to be with you in person 3x a week to get you to the gym.
HOW TO THINK ABOUT HIRING A TRAINER:
You’re not just paying for an hour of somebody’s time.
You’re paying for their years of experience, schooling, training, and expertise.
You’re paying to outsource ALL of your fitness questions to somebody who knows what they’re doing.
Somebody who gives you the confidence you’re training correctly.
So instead of “I am paying this trainer for 1 hour, this is too expensive,” what you’re really paying for is confidence, momentum, and (hopefully) results.
As somebody who has worked with an online trainer since 2014, I would pay any amount of money to my coach (just don’t tell him that) because I love getting results after years of struggle.
Our pricing comes in at a less-expensive price than 4 sessions per month with a trainer.
In addition to building you a workout program for the month, we also help you with your nutrition, mindset, and goals, and answer all the questions you have.
#1) Freedom to fit your schedule. With an online personal coach, you can train when and where you want to fit your schedule – your coach builds the workout program for you ahead of time, so you can fit it in at your convenience.
Compare this to a traditional coach, and you’re at the mercy of their busy schedule. If they only have time Friday morning at 8am, and you’re not a morning person, conflict ensues.
#2) Persistent worldwide accountability. I’m borrowing this phrase from a NF Coaching Client, Jeff (his success story is great). No matter where in the globe you are, your online trainer comes with you.
Which means the accountability never stops. If you travel for work, your coach can plan for that and build you a special travel routine. Getting relocated for work? No problem – your coach will still be there.
#3) Nutritional guidance. With most traditional personal trainers, you engage with them only during your scheduled visits: they help you work out and that’s about it.
With an online personal trainer, you’re connected whenever you have access to the internet. And I would imagine that MOST online coaching programs, work with you on the most important part of the equation: eating healthier!
AKA everything that happens in the 23 hours outside of the gym.
#4) More cost-effective. Most in-person personal trainers are expensive, especially if you work out with them two or three times a week.
That’s because if your trainer is working with you, they can’t work with anybody else at the same time.
When you work with an online coach, because you aren’t training with them 1-on-1 in the gym, they can provide more cost-effective guidance.
When you factor in their availability via chat and their help on habits and your nutrition, you’re looking at a life-changing experience if you find a coach that fits your personality.
When comparing online coaches versus regular coaches, I’m going to share the cons as if you have the option between a GREAT online coach and a GREAT in-person coach.
Neither of those is guaranteed.
Here are the cons of an online coach when compared against a real-life equivalent:
#1) Your coach can’t do the work for you. There’s nothing stopping you from skipping a workout and lying to your online coach that you did it. Nobody wins in this scenario, but I can totally see it happening.
So yeah, an online coach can’t pick up the weight for you, and they can’t yell at you to put down the donut. You have to do the work!
#2) No real-time feedback and instant form check. If you’re learning how to powerlift, or you’re going for a particular heavy lift, having a coach right there is HUGE.
They can tell you to move your squat slightly wider. They can guide you through the movement and consistently remind you – even when tired – to keep great form.
Although we do form-check videos, where we have coaches and clients send clips back and forth to each other, it’s not the same as having somebody critique you in real-time.
If you’re looking to nail a particularly challenging lift, or learn a dangerous gymnastics move, working with a trained professional in person is invaluable.
#3) The value of sunk cost. If you pay for a month of online coaching, there’s nothing inherently motivating you to go to the gym when it’s cold and you’re tired – your coach can’t yell at you, and you’re not letting anybody down in the moment when you don’t make it.
Compare this to working with a real coach in person.
You paid $100 for a session, and if you don’t show up, that money is *POOF* gone. So you tell yourself, “I already paid for this, and my coach is gonna be mad, I should probably go.”
And then you go. And you’re so glad that you did.
Although your online coach can notice that you haven’t signed in on your app, and they can ask what’s going on, this is after the fact compared to an in-person coach getting stood up.
I wouldn’t say one format is clearly better than or superior to another. It really depends on what you’re after and the circumstances of your situation.
MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE: I’ve been working with an online trainer since 2014, and it’s truly been life-changing for me.
I had some goals that had evaded me despite a DECADE of effort, and it took a great coach to coax out the right strategy. It’s how I say (jokingly) that I went from Steve Rogers to Captain America.
And it was my coach’s programming that got me a 420-pound deadlift at a bodyweight of 172 pounds:
I’m not gonna set any powerlifting records, but I’m healthier, happier, and stronger each and every month, and I’m damn proud of that.
For somebody that can’t afford a top-of-the-line professional coach for each session, having an online coach to build your programming and guide your food choices is a verrrrry close second.
How to hire a personal trainer
HERE’S MY ADVICE: Give your new personal trainer 5 sessions before making a decision that things aren’t working out (sessions are often sold at a discount in a package).
The first session is often exploratory, explanatory, and introductory, and the trainer needs to test your limits and movements to build upon that.
This isn’t a “get fit quick” strategy, but rather one that could take months and months for you to find the right person to aid you on your journey.
Don’t expect miracles in a day!
A few words of wisdom if you do hire a trainer:
DO NOT USE YOUR TRAINER AS AN EXCUSE: Too many people will hire up a trainer and give no effort in the gym or the kitchen.
Then, when they fail to see results they can turn to their friends and say “man, my trainer is terrible, THAT’S why I’m not losing weight/getting stronger/etc.”
This happens so much more often than you’d think. A trainer is a guide, like Morpheus.
You have to take the pill and walk through the door yourself.
MAKE CRITICISM CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM: Often when the trainer asks them to do something (walk every day, throw away junk food, eat a vegetable), the client/trainee comes back with 1,001 reasons why they can’t do that.
No compromise or discussion of possible solutions. This stinks.
Instead of saying “no,” offer an alternative solution and negotiate a plan: “I don’t really like broccoli, do you have a way to make vegetables taste better?”
In other words, don’t look for problems, look for solutions.
IF YOU ENJOY WORKING WITH YOUR TRAINER: Let them know and continue working with them.
The more information you can give them on your progress, the easier it will be for them to alter your program as you go on.
IF YOU DON’T ENJOY WORKING WITH YOUR TRAINER: That’s okay too. Not all relationships end in marriages.
I think you can be honest with them and let them know that it’s not a good fit and you will not be continuing to work with them.
Good trainers at this point will ask what they could have done better.
Trainers who are simply after your money may guilt trip you or beg you to stick around. Try somebody new and keep the search going.
REMEMBER: this is a lifelong quest, and you’re on the hunt for a great guide to help you on your journey.
They won’t do the work for you, and they can’t work miracles.
Have proper expectations, do what you’re told, and this could be the best investment you’ll make in your entire life!
Trainers in the Rebellion, what did I miss?
Those who have had experience working with Trainers, any wisdom to share from your experience?
One final note: Going to a gym is intimidating, especially if you’re starting out.
If you are in a location where there aren’t any great trainers, you don’t have access to a gym, or you’re just not ready to work with somebody in person, consider checking out our Online Coaching Program!
Schedule a free call to learn more by clicking on the image below:
If you have questions about what you need to look for when it comes to training with a coach in person, or even questions about working with an online trainer, leave them in the comments below so I can chime in!
This reason is going to help you keep going when it’s raining or you’re tired or you had a crappy day at work and you just want to binge-watch the Office and eat takeout.
In addition to having a good reason, many people get inspired by reading success stories of folks like them.
Luckily for you, we have lots of those stories on Nerd Fitness with many more to come. These are real people who love video games and books and work desk jobs (click on each to hear their full story):
If you want to get in shape quickly, start making slightly better food choices!
80% of your success when it comes to getting healthy will depend on your diet – unless you are running marathons on a daily basis, you cannot outrun your fork, and you can’t out-train a bad diet.
So, if you can work on making SLIGHTLY better food choices, and filling up your plate with plenty of protein and vegetables, you’re less likely to overeat calories!
Whether you want to count calories, cut out certain foods, or attempt a new diet altogether, this is the most important step you can take.
Here are some resources to level up your nutrition:
How to Eat Healthy (Start Here) – yes, it’s a long read. But it covers the basics and teaches you what to eat and not to eat.
The 5 Rules of Weight Loss – This guide will help you lose weight without having to go on “yet another diet.”
“How to Lose Weight: Pick the Right Diet“ – Speaking of diets, here’s an explanation of all the popular diets and how to pick the one that’s right for you.”
Now, most people can’t stick with nutritional changes because they try to make TOO many changes at once, their stomach freaks out and they run back to their comfort foods.
Sure, you can do things like the Keto Diet or Paleo Diet, but restrictive diets are really tough to stick with for the long term.
And temporary changes create temporary results!
My advice? Pick one food change every few weeks, and stick with it.
Here are some examples of nutrition adjustments you can make to get in shape:
These small changes can lead to big successes in the long run.
I know how changing your diet can be overwhelming sometimes, and sticking with changes in the long term is really tough.
It’s why we built a 10-level NF Diet that tells you exactly how to transition your diet slowly so you can lose weight the right way and transform your physique permanently!
Download our free weight loss guide
THE NERD FITNESS DIET: 10 Levels to Change Your Life
Follow our 10-level nutrition system at your own pace
What you need to know about weight loss and healthy eating
3 Simple rules we follow every day to stay on target
Step 3: What to Do For Exercise (Move!)
Okay, so now you should be all fired up and inspired and thinking,
“Hey Steve, this Nerd Fitness stuff is cool. I’m ready to get in shape.”
Perf. Let’s get started.
A) Pick goals that are SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely).
Be incredibly specific with your goals so that you can actively plan what steps are needed to achieve those goals:
“I’m going to lose 25 pounds this year by going to the gym 3 times per week for the next 6 months.”
That’s a good goal.
Alternatively, you could also work on a reoccurring habit that will indirectly help your goal.
EXAMPLE: “I’m going to walk to Mordor by walking a mile every day for a month. If I go for a walk, I win.”
This allows you to review your day/week with a simple question: “Did I do what I set out to do?”
Whichever method you decide, it’s important to be deliberate in your actions:
If you are setting goals – be SUPER SPECIFIC, write them down, and plan them out.
If you are building new habits – add them to your calendar, set phone alarms or alerts, and do them EVERY DAY.
Understand that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and Optimus Prime didn’t transform in one move. This is NOT a diet, or a quick fix, but a LIFESTYLE CHANGE. Don’t expect results overnight, or abs in two weeks. Slow, steady progress.
We’re genetically designed to be active, so find something you enjoy doing.
So if you “don’t like exercise,” it’s time to try new things until you find something that you DO like.
Sign up for a new class, join your company’s running club for a day, try out something in your basement or living room, just keep trying new stuff until you find something that you like.
And then do it as often as you can. As long as you’re consistently under your daily caloric energy expenditure, you will lose weight.
If you’re overwhelmed at the very idea of how to get in shape, I hear ya.
From bootcamps to “What is CrossFit” to Weight Watchers to paleo to vegan to Klingon, how are you supposed to make sense of all this information to find the right path?
The truth is that there is no ONE path that works for everybody.
So, if you want a coach to build a workout program and diet plan that’s specific to YOUR unique situation, check out our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program.
Step 4: Who is On Your Squad? (Support)
Last but not least, you need support.
Yes, I understand it’s kind of fun to be an army of one: the lone ranger trying to succeed against insurmountable odds….but it’s not necessary.
Once you decide to get in shape, want to know the best way to guarantee success?
Here are 5 ways to find support while getting in shape:
#1) Consider making it public.
Tell your friends, start a blog, and/or inform your co-workers and ask them to keep you accountable!
Unless you like being called a quitter, you’ll probably think twice about skipping out on your workouts.
Maybe your word isn’t your bond, and you need a different kind of motivation and support to succeed.
#2) Put your money where your mouth is.
My buddy Saint said he would pay his friends $500 if he didn’t get in absolutely incredible shape for his wedding six months down the road.
Saint didn’t have $500 to lose, so he decided instead to just get in great shape…and it worked.
There are going to be days when you want to sleep in and skip your workout. There will be afternoons following a crappy day of work where all you want to do is play Halo.
Find somebody who’s at a similar level of fitness as you, and work out with them!
He/she will push you on days when you’re dragging, and vice versa.
You can inspire and support each other, feed off of each other’s success, and offer up tough love when the complaining gets too much (and yes, there will be complaining).
Now, let’s say you’re the ONE person in your group of friends that wants to get in shape.
Or you’re the only person in your office who doesn’t stuff his face every day. Maybe you don’t have anybody to turn to for support or advice…
Welp, we’ve got you covered:
The Nerd Fitness community – a persistently amazing, always inspiring, never judgmental group of people who want nothing more than to help you succeed.
I have never been more excited and proud to be part of a community.
Or if you want to take it to the next level…
#5) Join our coaching program: If you like the cut of our jib, consider hiring one of our nerdy trainers to keep you accountable and answer any questions you have.
You can expect to lose around 1-2 pounds per week safely if you start reducing your calorie intake (80% of the equation) and moving more (20% of the equation).
Join the Rebellion – start fixing your nutrition with small changes today.
If you just finished reading these 2,500 words and you’re still overwhelmed, you’re not alone!
This stuff overwhelms the best of us. If you are looking for a bit more hands-on instruction, or you really want the peace of mind knowing that you’re doing the correct program, I got ya!
We have three options that have both helped thousands upon thousands of people like you get started:
#1) Most involved: Our 1-on-1 coaching program where a NF coach will get to learn your situation, your lifestyle, and your experience, and then build a workout program and nutritional strategy that fits into your busy life.
We get to know you better than you know yourself, and we’ve got the results to prove it! Consider checking out our coaching program if you’re looking for that next level of expert guidance and accountability.
#2) Go-At-Your-Own-Pace, Do It Yourself: Nerd Fitness Journey. This is our app that allows you to get in shape while building your own superhero..
Tons of bodyweight workout plans (no gym required), a nutritional program that won’t make any scary changes, video demonstrations exercises, boss battles, daily wins, and group challenges!
Oh, and you’ll earn XP and receive loot the whole time.
Sign up for your free trial right here:
And don’t forget to…
#3) Join the Rebellion! We need good people like you in our community, the Nerd Fitness Rebellion. You’ll meet individuals who are attempting to get in shape the 1st time or the 50th time, all who want to better themselves alongside of you.
Sign up in the box below to enlist and get our Rebel Starter Kit, which includes all of our “work out at home” guides, the Nerd Fitness Diet Cheat Sheet, and much more!
Get your Nerd Fitness Starter Kit
The 15 mistakes you don’t want to make.
Full guide to the most effective diet and why it works.
Complete and track your first workout today, no gym required.
Big things come from small beginnings, so pick the tiniest change or action you can take to get started, and then repeat that every day.
As you start to build the habit, you can increase the ‘difficulty’ and try something a bit more challenging, but it all starts with habit building.
Educate yourself, find your inspiration, and create your support group.
