Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
Life isn’t linear. Nor is it perfectly controlled—neither are sports.
In both life and sport, we rotate, we reach, we turn, and we spin. Yet in the gym, we often focus entirely on moving linearly and in a controlled manner.
And then we wonder why we get injured spontaneously reaching for something in the back seat of the car.
http://www.marksdailyapple.com/
In a perfect world, we’d all sit down every morning to a leisurely, healthy breakfast. In the real world, however, we’ve all done our share of eating breakfast in our cars, on the bus, or at our work stations Sometimes, where you eat the breakfast you grabbed on your way out the door can’t be helped. What can be helped, however, is what you eat. Keep in mind that while omelet muffins are perfect for breakfast on the go, they’d also be great for a weekend brunch. Double the recipe and make a dozen. Then, make time to sit down with family or friends and enjoy the type of long, leisurely breakfast that’s so hard to come by during the week.
The beauty of these omelet muffins? What you mix in for added flavor is up to you. Anything you love adding to an omelet—diced vegetables, meat, and some cheese if you’re so inclined—you can add to this recipe to create your own personal omelet muffin.
Servings: 12 muffins
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 40 minutes
Ingredients:
Instructions:
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Arrange the bacon on a parchment covered sheet pan and bake for 20-30 minutes, until it reaches the doneness of your liking. Allow the bacon to cool and chop or crumble it into small pieces.
Whisk the eggs and coconut milk/cream together in a large bowl. Add in the chopped bacon, chopped bell pepper, cheese, cilantro and black pepper. Mix together until well combined.
Spray a set of 12 muffin tins with avocado oil spray. Ladle the egg mixture into each of the tins, about 2/3-3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18-20 minutes, or until they are slightly puffed up, yet firm to the touch. Remove from the oven. and allow them to cool slightly before removing them from the muffin tin. The egg muffins will deflate slightly as they are cooling.
Nutritional Information (per muffin):
The post Primal + Keto Omelet Muffins appeared first on Mark’s Daily Apple.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
So you want to do a pull-up, eh?
Well you’ve arrived at the right place!
Pull-ups are one of my favorite exercises and a critical movement we teach our coaching clients!
Today, we’ll teach you everything you’ve ever wanted to know about pull-ups:
It’s a lot to cover, so let’s get to it!
If you’re just starting your strength training journey, check out our massive guide Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know. You can snag it for free when you enlist in the Rebellion (that’s us!) by signing up below:
Pull-ups are one of the best exercises you can do.
Here’s why:
#1) Pull-ups work every muscle in your upper body. Pull-ups are what we call a “compound exercise,” meaning they work out several muscle groups at once.
The muscles in your back, arms, and even abs all grow stronger from doing pull-ups.
Abs?
Yep! You engage your abs as you stabilize your body while hoisting yourself up.
#2) Pull-ups are a great indicator of overall strength. Since it’s just you against the force of gravity, if you can do a pull-up or chin-up, you have a greater strength-to-bodyweight ratio.
With push-ups, some of your body’s weight is supported by your feet.
Not so with pull-ups. It’s just you and the bar.
#3) Pull-ups will help you improve your posture.[1] By building strength in your PULL muscles, we strengthen and tighten your back muscles.
This will naturally cause you to pull your shoulder blades back and down into proper position, providing you a better posture.
#4) Pull-ups improve grip strength. Grip strength is another indicator of overall health. In fact, a strong grip has been correlated with lower mortality rates.[2]
Pull-ups are a great way to improve your grip since your hands and fingers have to support your bodyweight during the movement.
If you’re looking for a stronger handshake, regularly doing pull-ups will go a long way towards that goal.
A quick note: we have a full guide on improving your grip strength if you’d like to learn more.
#5) Pull-ups are convenient. Some other big compound movements require decent amounts of equipment to perform, like the deadlift or bench press. Meaning unless you have weights, barbells, and power racks at your home, you’re probably heading to the gym for your training.
Not so with pull-ups.
Doing a pull-up really only requires a pull-up bar, but even that can be substituted.
You can use monkey bars at a local playground, a towel around a strong beam, or even a sturdy tree:
If it’s taller than you and can support your weight, you can do pull-ups from it.[3]
Alright, enough about why you should do pull-ups. Let’s show you how it’s done.
HOW TO DO A PULL-UP, STEP-BY-STEP:
That’s it!
You may be thinking, “That’s all well and good Steve, but what if you can’t even do a pull-up yet! What should I do?”
Don’t panic!
I got you covered boo.
I’m going to share with you the exact pull-up progression plan we use with our 1-on-1 Coaching Clients.
This section is taken from our guide “Get Your First Pull-up.”
If you can’t quite hoist yourself up yet, don’t fret!
We’re going to work on increasing your “pull” muscles through a series of exercises.
First up…
Bent-over dumbbell rows:
What weight should you start out with initially?
Whatever allows you to get to at least 5 reps a set.
Once you can do 3 sets of 8 reps (each arm), it’s time to pick up a heavier dumbbell.
This will allow you to get stronger and stronger.
When you can lift a 25-pound (10kg) dumbbell or heavier, consider moving up to the next level.
Bodyweight rows are the PERFECT precursor to pull-ups – they work the same muscles, and have you lifting your own bodyweight, just at a different angle.
Our goal here will be to work towards a lower and lower angle, increasing the difficulty of the movement.
So at first, we’ll do rows with the bar higher up:
Then we’ll progress to getting the bar lower:
As soon as you’re doing bodyweight rows where your body is at a 45-degree angle or lower, you can progress to the next level.
At this point, you are going to start actually doing pull-ups…with a little bit of assistance.
We’ve got a few options for you.
#1) Assisted Pull-ups with Chair
Either one foot or two on the chair, depending on your needs. Your feet are ONLY there for support, use your upper body as much as possible.
#2) Assisted Pull-ups with an Exercise Band
You can get different types of exercise bands with different levels of strength, or a variety pack for easy progression.
Put your foot in the exercise band and pull yourself up.
#3) Assisted Pull-Ups with a Partner
Have a friend hold your feet behind you and help you complete each rep. Have them use the least amount of help possible to get you through your workouts.
Once you’re comfortable doing a form of assisted pull-ups, and can do about 10 repetitions, it’s time to advance to the next level.
This is probably the TOUGHEST level before getting your pull-ups. If you get stuck on “assisted pull-ups” and “assisted chin-ups”, you’re not alone. This is where most people get stuck.
We work hand-in-hand with people like you to get them their first pull-up in our Online Coaching Program. If you don’t know how to fit these movements into your workouts, or you just want somebody to give you the exact workout to follow every day, we got you!
Our next level on our path for a pull-up is what we call “negative pull-ups.”
As you continue to lower yourself down, you’ll build strength, eventually creating enough muscle so you can pull yourself up.
If you want more specific instructions on any of these levels or movements, check out our guide “Get Your First Pull-up” for more.
You may hear the term “pull-up” and “chin-up” used interchangeably.
However, there is a difference, so definitions are in order:
A PULL-UP is when your hands are facing away from you.
This will work your back and biceps.
A CHIN-UP is when your hands are facing towards you.
Although this also works your back, it has more emphasis on your biceps.
Are chin-ups easier than pull-ups?
Yes, chin-ups are generally easier to perform than pull-ups. The wider grip of a pull-up isolates your lats, which means you get less assistance from your biceps.
We recommend including both chin-ups AND pull-ups into your workout, which we’ll discuss in our section on including pull-ups into your training.
Mistake #1: You don’t extend low enough or pull high enough.
Full extension and a full range of motion are major problems for many people training pull-ups and chin-ups. Most people I see in the gym are doing half pull-ups. Either not pulling high enough, not dropping low enough, or both! It’s not a full rep, and it’s robbing your body of effective work.
Solution:
With each repetition you want your body to be in a straight line at the bottom – keep your elbows extended and your shoulder relaxed slightly up to your ears. Full range of motion for the win! Better to do a few proper pull-ups than more half-rep ones.
Mistake #2: You don’t engage your shoulders at the start. Another problem I see with people is not setting their shoulders properly when they start their pull-ups, which can put unnecessary strain on your joints/tendons/muscles. It can also be the difference between being able to get your first pull-up or chin-up and flailing around on the bar!
Solution:
Imagine pinching a pen in between your shoulder blades, then do the pull-up. In other words, pull your shoulders down and back before you bend your elbows to pull up. This puts us in a far more efficient position. By not using our back and shoulder muscles fully, over the long run we’ll be weaker and at a higher risk for injury.
Mistake #3: You’re doing too hard a variation. Whether it’s lack of strength or too much body mass, you should choose a variation that allows you to have great form while getting stronger. Use a box, an assisted band, or an assisted pull-up machine to start at a low weight and build up your strength.
Solution: Always do proper pull-ups and chin-ups. Get your chin over the bar from a hang with every rep, and maintain good form. If you find yourself committing the mistakes on this list, make your variation easier.
Mistake #4: Not engaging your shoulders at the top. Many people will get a good extension at the bottom of their chin-up and start with great form. But then as they perform the movement, they’ll find their shoulders in a poor position at the top.
A classic sign this is happening is if the chest/neck doesn’t touch the bar, or the body curls inward significantly at the top.
Is your shoulder elevated to the ears or rolled forward? Are you shrugging your shoulders as you’re struggling to get above the bar?
Solution: Make your variation easier by working on an assisted chin-up and maintaining a strong shoulder position at the top.
Keep your shoulders down and back and engaged through the movement.
A chin over the bar is a chin-up – we aren’t trying to take away your chin-up if you aren’t getting your chest to the bar. But consider this a progression to even better form so you can eventually work on harder skills like pull-up variations or the legendary muscle-up.
Mistake #5: You use violent kipping motions to do your pull-ups or chin-ups. We know CrossFitters use the kip to get more pull-ups in a short amount of time.
NOW, it is the humble opinion of our team that you should only be kipping AFTER you are capable of doing perfectly functional and safe pull-ups and chin-ups (in fact, many CrossFit gyms require qualifying strict pull-ups before you can kip).
Solution: Build strength and good position (the foundation!) before you worry about speed. You want to know how to drive a car before you learn how to race it!
In summary, don’t sacrifice good form for more pull-ups or chin-ups. You’ll create bad habits this way.
To check your form, simply record a video of yourself doing your pull-up variation and match it against the gifs and videos here.
If you want an expert to review your form, we can help! Through our spiffy app a Nerd Fitness Coach can evaluate your movement so you can perfect your technique!
Once you’re able to do 3 sets of 10 pull-ups or chin-ups, it’s time to start thinking about upping the difficulty.
You have two options:
OPTION #1: Continue to get better at doing more reps – 3 sets of 12, 3 sets of 15, 4 sets of 20, etc.
OPTION #2: Start doing other types of pull-ups.
Here are some advanced pull-up variations that you can start doing:
#1) Wide Grip Pull-Ups:
Grab the bar WAY out with both hands. With your grip further out, it’ll require even MORE strengthen from your back (remember our pull-up vs. chin-up discussion).
#2) Side to Side Pull-Ups:
#3) Ring Pull-Ups
Rings hanging from the ceiling are inherently less stable than a pull-up bar. Thus ring pull-ups engage your core more as you stabilize yourself during the movement.
Want in on some ring action? Read our full guide on gymnastic rings workouts for more.
#4) Towel Pull-Ups
If you’re trying to improve your grip strength, try utilizing a couple of towels for your pull-ups. You’ll build lots of strength in your hands as you grasp the towels during the movement.
#5) L-Sit Pull-ups
Raise your legs straight in front during your pull-up. This will challenge your core like you wouldn’t believe.
#6) Clapping Pull-Up
The trick here is to have enough power to explode above the bar so you can clap your hands. The next trick is to grab the bar in time to bring yourself back down.
Be careful here.
#7) One-Arm Pull-Ups
This is the most difficult pull-up variation you can do, what with the whole only using one arm business.
To keep yourself stable during the movement, keep your inactive arm close to your body while you pull.
If you start doing one-arm pull-ups, email us. Seriously.
That should get you started experimenting with pull-up variations to increase the difficulty.
The other way to “progressive overload” your pull-ups is to add weight to the exercise, which we’ll devote our next section to.
Personally, my favorite thing to do in a gym is weighted pull-ups:
If you’re at this level and interested in doing so, here’s what you need to do:
If you want any help scaling your workouts, check out our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program. We’ll create you a plan that escalates in difficulty as you grow stronger! You’ll never have to worry about what exercises to do or how much. Instead, just follow the workout prescribed by your coach!
You now know how to do a pull-up, a chin-up, and tons of variations.
The only thing left to cover is WHEN to do pull-ups.
For that, let’s talk about building your own workout.
Unless you’ve been strength training for years and know what you’re doing, we recommend that you pick a full-body routine that you can do 2-3 times a week.
You want a workout routine that has at least one exercise for:
Pull-ups, chin-ups, and all the variations covered would make a great addition for your “pull” muscles (back, biceps, and forearms).
So a sample workout routine that includes pull-ups could look like:
Boom! Five exercises you can do at the gym and then go home.
Wanna avoid the gym and just train at home in the first place?
No problem! Lots of our coaching clients choose to train and do pull-ups in their home. All you’ll need is:
Seriously, you don’t have to leave home to start doing pull-ups and get in shape.
Want proof?
Meet Christina:
Through our coaching program Christina learned to pick herself up, literally, and now crushes her training without ever stepping foot in a gym. You can read her full story right here.
Start doing pull-ups regularly and I promise you your life will improve for the better.
If you’re interested in progressing but want help on the next step, we’ve built 3 options that might float your boat:
#1) If you want step-by-step guidance, a custom strength training 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) Good at following instructions? Check out our self-paced online course, the Nerd Fitness Academy.
The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles, meal plans, a questing system, and supportive community.
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 pull-ups and chin-ups into your training:
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
That should get you going mastering the pull-up.
Alright, your turn?
Do you head to the gym to crush pull-ups?
Do you have a pull-up bar in your own home?
Any tips or tricks we missed?
Let us know in the comments!
For the Rebellion,
-Steve
PS: Check out our other two articles on pull-ups:
PPS: Want to learn more? Read the rest of Strength Training 101 series:
###
Photo Sources: Scenes from an empty lot in Brooklyn, vol 1, Morning run with the Fitbit, Tampa Bay AirFest 2018, Girl on Monkey Bars, Weighted Pull Up, Sunset Nature Climb Animal Tree Monkey Wilderness.
GIF Source: Kipping Pull-up, L-Sit Pull-Up, Clapping Pull-Up, One-arm Pull-up.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
Today you learn one of the most underrated exercises of all time: the dip.
It’s something we remind our coaching clients not to overlook, and I’m excited to share the exercise with you today.
Here’s what we’ll cover so you can learn the bodyweight dip:
A quick note: we have compiled ALL of our strength training content into a comprehensive guide that will remove all the confusion and answer all the questions you have about weight training! Grab our guide, Strength Training 101: Everything You Need to Know, when you sign up in the box below!
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
The dip is a compound, bodyweight exercise.
You grab two parallel bars, hoist yourself up, and then lower your entire body by bending your elbows.
When you hear “compound exercise,” it’s referring to multi-joint movements that work several muscles or muscle groups at the same time.
The dip exercise trains your:
You may be thinking, “abs?”
Yep! You need to stabilize your body as you raise and lower yourself.
Which is one of the reasons bodyweight dips are so great!
Some would even argue that dips are the best chest exercise out there, even better than the bench press.
There’s some logic to it.
Instead of isolating your chest for 5 exercises, your shoulders for 5 exercises, and triceps for 5 exercises, just do dips!
First of all, make sure you can do a dip.
Don’t hop up there and then lower yourself unless you’re fairly confident you can get through at least one of these things. We can’t have you tearing any muscles or falling on somebody, because that would suck.
Head to our progression plan if you can’t do a full dip yet.
Here’s how to do a proper dip exercise:
Those are dips.
Keep your elbows as tight as possible, engage your abs, and hold your body in balance as you go up and down.
Are you doing it right?
Check your form by recording a video of yourself and matching it against the videos and gifs here. If it looks close then you’re doing great!
Want to have an expert review your form? Our coaches can do just that in our spiffy app!
If you don’t quite have the strength to do a full bodyweight dip, follow our progression plan below.
You’ll be doing the complete dip movement before you know it!
Level 1 Dip Progression: Knee Push-Ups
If you’re just starting to develop your push muscles, our first stop will be knee push-ups. We’ll build your strength up so you can start doing…
Level 2 Dip Progression: Push-Ups
Can you do a push-up with proper form yet? If not, that’s our stop.
Push-ups will help you develop chest muscles for doing proper dips. Only after you can do 20 proper push-ups should you consider trying to do a dip.
Level 3 Dip Progression: Assisted Dips
It’s now time to do some dips! With a little bit of assistance…
We’ll use a resistance band to help support your weight while you grow stronger. You can progress with weaker and weaker resistance bands until you feel comfortable trying a proper bodyweight dip.
How about using an assisted dip machine?
We’re not huge fans of machines here at Nerd Fitness.
Here’s why: an assisted dip machine stabilizes your body during the movement, which means your own muscles don’t need to do any of that stabilization work! We’d rather you stick with resistance bands than mess with this contraption, as it still makes your muscles work together throughout the movement.
Sure, if you don’t have bands and can ONLY do dips with the machine pictured above, it’s not the end of the world! Just make sure you are also doing other movements as well that DO recruit those stabilizer muscles (push-ups, presses, and so on).
If you find yourself getting stuck on “assisted dips,” you’re not alone. Lots of folks find it difficult to move beyond the support of the band.
We work hand-in-hand with people like you to master bodyweight training in our Online Coaching Program. If you don’t know how to add dips into your workouts, or you just want somebody to give you the exact workout to follow every day, we got you!
Here are some extra tips on getting better at dips:
#1) Don’t swing – this goes for practically every exercise. If you start swinging your body as you go up and down, you take the emphasis off the muscles you’re actually trying to work.
Save swinging for the playground:
#2) Don’t flare out your elbows if you can avoid it – the more “out” your elbows are, the more emphasis on your chest. Elbows tight = emphasis on shoulders and triceps.
Nicholas Elorreaga does a good job showing the difference here:
#3) Don’t do half reps – again, this could be another universal rule. Challenge your muscles by bringing your triceps parallel to the ground, then make sure you extend arms to almost “elbows locked” at the top:
#4) Don’t go too fast – you want to be slow and in control during your dip. When you go too quickly, proper form is often sacrificed. Make sure you train safely by going slowly…this isn’t a race!
#5) Don’t settle for cheap substitutes – don’t use dip machines or other isolation tricep machines:
These don’t recruit any of your stabilizer muscles, put your body at weird angles, and don’t give you full results. Stick with bodyweight dips!
Once you can do 3 sets of 15 dips no problem, you have a few options to ramp up the difficulty:
#1) Add weight to your bodyweight dips by:
#2) Go Slower: keep your abs tight, and lower yourself ridiculously slow.
Your body will have to recruit every muscle in your chest, shoulders, and triceps (including all stabilizer muscles) to keep your body under control.
#3) Try Ring Dips:
Lower yourself down until your chest touches the rings (yes, that low!) and then push up until you are in a straight arm support position.
If you’ve never played with gymnastic rings before, the instability of the rings will provide a greater challenge than your standard dip station.
You can also lower the height of your rings to utilize some support from your feet:
Raise the rings higher and higher as you grow stronger and stronger.
Make sure you check out our “Guide to Training with Gymnastic Rings” if you’d like to learn more.
Now that you know how to do dips, let’s discuss when to do them.
Unless you’ve been strength training for years and know what you’re doing, we recommend that you pick a full-body routine that you can do 2-3 times a week.
So let’s build a full-body workout right now!
You want a workout routine that has at least one exercise for:
Dips would make a great addition to your “push” muscles (chest, shoulders, triceps).
So a sample workout routine that includes dips could look like:
That’s all!
Do your full-body workout and then go play some Nintendo.
Need some help getting started?
I have three great options to help you with your dip and strength training journey:
#1) If you want step-by-step guidance, a custom strength training 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) Good at following instructions? Check out our self-paced online course, the Nerd Fitness Academy.
The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles, meal plans, a questing system, and supportive community.
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 dips into your training:
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
That should get you going on mastering the bodyweight dip.
Alright, your turn?
Do you head to the gym to crush dips?
Are you currently progressing through assisted dips?
Any tips or tricks we missed?
Let us know in the comments!
For the Rebellion,
-Steve
PS: Want to learn more? Read the rest of our Strength Training 101 series:
###
Photo source: Fitness time, Lost, Assisted Dip Machine, Blue benny, Maltz Challenge, The Harbor Divers of Stone Town.
GIF source: Weighted dips, Bodyweight Dip.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
We have all heard our training partners tell us to “get mad at the bar” when egging us on to make ever-bigger lifts. It works. Indeed, in order to get the most out of ourselves physically, we must get our state of arousal to an ideal level. But what is that ideal level? How does our arousal level affect our performance? Well, in the grand tradition of my old economics professors, I will try to explain this graphically.
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
No two women are alike, from their bodies to their deliveries to their recovery and subsequently the healing process. And while each woman may differ, when a person feels ready to start exercising again, the main rules will remain the same.
The most important thing is to wait until your body is healed. Your body will need to be able to cope with the physical demands of exercise, and until you’ve been cleared by a medical professional, which can be anything from six weeks to six months depending on your labor, you must proceed with caution.
Originally posted at: http://www.nerdfitness.com/
So you decided to start working out! Amazing!
Now you’re left with the inquiry: “How often should I work out?”
We answer questions just like this in our 1-on-1 Online Coaching Program, and today we’ll explore what we teach our clients:
Here’s what we’ll cover in today’s guide:
If you’re just starting your fitness journey, make sure you grab our guide Strength Training 101: Everything You Need To Know. It covers how to work out, when to train, and tips to keep progressing. Grab it for free when you join the Rebellion (that’s us!) by enlisting below:
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
We get the question “How often should I work out?” quite a bit, usually from overeager beavers who decide they are going to go from “sitting on the couch watching The Office on repeat” to “exercising 7 days per week.”
I would advise something different.
I mean you can still watch The Office, but you don’t need to be training 7 days a week!
Why? We often see newbies burning out quickly and falling back to square one.
Instead, focus on building proper habits and set a goal of 2-3 full-body workouts per week.
For starters, your muscles don’t get built in the gym.
They actually get broken down in the gym, and then get rebuilt stronger while you’re resting…watching The Office.
By giving your muscles 48 hours to recover between workouts, especially when training heavy, you’ll stay injury-free and get stronger.[1]
What’s a full-body workout look like?
Great question! I knew you were smart.
We’re going to make sure we train the following areas:
We’ll start with bodyweight exercises (where you lift your own body’s weight), as that’s where our coaching clients often begin.
Here’s a sample full-body bodyweight workout for you:
Bodyweight Squats (Quads): 10 reps
Hip Bridge (Butt and Hamstrings): 10 reps
Push-ups (Chest, Shoulders, Triceps): 10 reps
Inverted Bodyweight Row (Back and Biceps): 10 reps
Plank (Core): Hold for 60 seconds
Again, aim to do such a workout about 2-3 times a week.
A Monday-Wednesday-Friday workout routine works well to ensure enough time to recover, especially when you are just getting started.
If you want to do Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday, or Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday, great.
Personally, I stuck with a Monday-Wednesday-Friday full-body routine for nearly 10 years and just focused on getting stronger with each movement.
These days, I train on Monday-Wednesday-Thursday-Saturday (my workouts on Wednesday and Thursday don’t work the same muscles!)
Do what works best for you!
If you want help building a different training routine, I’ve got two great options for you:
The first is our guide How to Build Your Own Workout Routine. It’ll walk you through creating a routine with bodyweight exercises or free weights, in case you want to train in a gym.
The second is the Nerd Fitness Coaching Program. Your coach will do all the heavy lifting for you (not really, you’ll still need to train) and create a workout specifically for your experience level, that will progress in difficulty as you get stronger.
Let’s say you NEED to exercise every day.
No judgment, I like the enthusiasm!
While it’s very important to let muscles heal and recover from your training, a little exercise every day can be beneficial.
Personally, I know I am far less likely to eat poorly when I’m doing some active recovery than when I’m not doing anything deliberately. As we know, 80-90% of our fitness success will depend on how we eat.
To maintain momentum, “off days” shouldn’t become “cheat days.”
In other words, doing some exercise daily can help guide our forks in the right direction.
Plus, movement of any sort helps raise our Total Daily Energy Expenditure (TDEE), which is just a fancy term for how many calories you burn a day.
While strength training the same muscle groups again is off-limits (you need to heal), it doesn’t mean Netflix is your only choice.
You have two options to keep progressing while your muscles recover from your workout.
“Fun exercise” is any type of exercise that doesn’t feel like exercise.
Do you like walking? Or dancing? Or hiking?
Perfect. Do that.
Anything that you enjoy that raises your heart rate is a perfect fun exercise.
Your other option?
“Active recovery” is any gentle movement designed to help your muscles heal after training.[2]
Stretching, using a foam roller, and yoga can all help your muscles heal after an intense training session.[3].
The other thing you can do on your “off days”?
As we know, a healthy body is made in the kitchen, not in the gym.
It’s important to stay diligent with healthy nutrition even on days when you’re not actively working out.
One of the best ways to do that is to use one of your non-training days to prepare your meals for the week! NF Coach Staci Ardison does all of her meal prep for the week on Sundays, and looks at it like an activity that is furthering her fitness journey.
Interested?
Staci walks you through everything you need to start cooking for the week in our Guide to Meal Planning and Prep. Plus, here’s my exact recipe for batch cooking chicken:
If you’re just starting your fitness journey, don’t stress too much about how often you are working out.
Three to four times a week may be ideal, but once a week is WAY better than none a week.
If you can do a full-body workout two to three times a week, awesome! You’ll be rocking and rolling on your fitness journey.
If you can only get yourself to train once a week, that’s okay! Let that become normal, then we can brainstorm ways to squeeze in an extra day.
Building the habit of working out is our goal today. We can worry about maximizing “gainz” down the road.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m all about maximizing gainz.
The most important thing you can do now: start. Try the workout sequence we laid out earlier.
Or give our Beginner Bodyweight Workout a try:
It’s designed for a newbie in mind and many a Rebel have used it to springboard their strength training. If you don’t know where to start, start there.
It’ll help you get going.
Want more tips for next steps? You seem like a nice person, so I’ll share with you my top suggestions:
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) Good at following instructions? Check out our self-paced online course, the Nerd Fitness Academy.
The Academy has 20+ workouts for both bodyweight or weight training, a benchmark test to determine your starting workout, HD demonstrations of every movement, boss battles, meal plans, a questing system, and a supportive community.
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 a full-body workout into your training.
Download our comprehensive guide STRENGTH TRAINING 101!
Alright, enough from me. Now it’s time to hear from you!
How often do you train and work out?
Do you do any type of “active recovery”?
What’s your goto “fun exercise”?
Let me know in the comments!
-Steve
PS: If you have more questions on how you should train, like when to work out and for how long, read our guide How to Build Your Own Workout Routine. It’ll give you everything you need to create the habit of working out.
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Photo source: Football, Bicycle, Decathlon, Running.
GIF Source: Fork, Swedish Chef.
http://www.thealternativedaily.com/
Is there anything that coconut oil can’t do? Well, it may not rocket you to the moon, or give you the ability to travel through time…but the list is pretty short. It is becoming increasingly well known that raw organic, extra-virgin coconut oil is one of the healthiest foods you can add to your diet. […]
Originally Posted At: https://breakingmuscle.com/feed/rss
Welcome to Ego Lifting 101 this is your bro coach speaking. Social media never fails to astound us with the tomfoolery that demonstrates the fitness community’s finest lifters. Instagram is riddled with trips to snap city on a deadlift or a demo of a knee-jerking quarter squat or a bicep curl that looks more like a cardio session on an elliptical. We have become obsessed with breaking a personal record (PR) without paying much attention to the fundamentals of smart programming. We are stuck with a group of persons that have embraced PR syndrome.
http://chriskresser.com/
Effective time management strategies can help you run your Functional Medicine practice—without running yourself into the ground. Here’s how to find the time to make a big difference in the world without compromising your health.
The post 12 Time Management Strategies for Your Functional Medicine Practice appeared first on Chris Kresser.
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