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How to know you’re making progress

Getting in shape – whether that means crushing it at the gym, losing weight, or just feeling healthier in general – is a long game.

No matter what goals you’re chasing, you can bet you will need to work at them for months and years.

It makes me sad to see how many people give up on themselves before they’ve been at it long enough to see the true results of their efforts.

Some people try to do way too much and once and end up flaming out.

Other people focus exclusively on the most obvious measures of progress and ignore all the other signs that they’re moving in the right direction.

Both of these approaches set you up to fail. We have to be patient and keep showing up for ourselves if we truly want to transform the way we look, feel, and perform. This is why it’s so important to take a sustainable approach to training and eating.

We also need to adjust some of our expectations (for example, in regards to how much weight you’ll add to the bar each week or how fast the scale will drop) and expand our definition of what it means to progress in the first place.

Here are a bunch of things you can look for to tell you that you’re moving in the right direction.

Signs of progress toward your strength training goals:

  • Lifting more weight
  • Doing more total volume (sets and reps)
  • More density (doing more volume in the same amount of time)
  • Using better form
  • Things just feel easier
  • You’re able to train without pain
  • Progressing to a more advanced variation of an exercise (eg. moving from kettlebell deadlifts to trap bar deadlifts)
  • Changing the lifting tempo (slowing down, adding pauses, speeding up)
  • Increasing your workout frequency (how often you train)
  • Increasing your workout consistency

Read more: How to bust through training plateaus

 Signs of progress toward your weight loss goals:

  • Scale weight goes down
  • Measurements (like waist, chest, hips, arms, etc.) go down
  • Body fat % goes down
  • Clothes fit better, or you go down a size
  • You notice changes in the mirror or in progress photos
  • Other people notice changes (even if you can’t see them)
  • You feel lighter and more energized
  • You can consistently stick with your diet
  • Reduced instances of binge eating or completely falling off the wagon
  • Less stress and anxiety around food

Read more: To Weigh or Not to Weigh? The Many Ways to Measure Fat Loss Progress.

 Signs of progress toward building a healthy lifestyle: 

  • Sleeping 7-9 hours each night
  • Regularly including things that help you recover from training (eg. massage, low intensity movement, foam rolling and mobility work)
  • You can consistently stick with your diet (can be a generally healthy diet, does not need to be geared toward fat loss)
  • Less stress and anxiety around food
  • You can delay gratification in the short term so you will feel better in the long term
  • You feel lighter and more energized
  • Increasing your workout consistency
  • Increasing your activity outside the gym
  • Increasing your daily step count
  • Able to complete physical tasks that used to be out of reach
  • Reduced aches and pains
  • You feel less stressed out
  • Health metrics and/or bloodwork improves

I’m willing to bet that no matter how hard you are on yourself, you can find a few things in each category that already apply to you.

Keep going, keep an open mind, and reach out for help if you’re not sure what needs to change.

Are you feeling frustrated with your progress toward your goals? Sometimes we all need some help and guidance to make sure we’re moving in the right direction. You can apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.

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My Fat Loss Coaching Framework

There are a lot of diets and fat loss coaches out there. Nearly all of them have good intentions and really want to help you be successful (although there are a few charlatans just out to make a quick buck.)

However, good intentions don’t always lead to good results. If your diet fails to follow scientific principles or if it’s too restrictive, you’ll struggle to lose weight.

Furthermore, if the diet doesn’t help you make lasting changes to your lifestyle and environment, you’ll have a hard time keeping off any weight you do lose.

Any successful diet will focus on energy balance (establishing a caloric deficit) and work with your psychology (preferences, routines, beliefs) to help you make long-term, sustainable changes. Leaving out any of these pieces will make it nearly impossible to get and stay lean. 

Keep reading to learn the exact process I use with fat loss coaching clients to help them achieve their goals without falling prey to common dieting mistakes.

(If you want to apply for my fat loss coaching program, you can do so here.)

1. Gain awareness of current eating habits.

If you don’t understand what you’re doing now, it’s impossible to make well-informed decisions about how to move forward.

Oftentimes, people are already doing many things well. Yet their first instinct is to totally overhaul their nutrition and dive into a restrictive fad diet.

Identifying your baseline habits and routines can save you a lot of unnecessary headaches down the road.

Read more: All About Food Logging: Why and How

2. Fix your leaks.

Sometimes, one or two bad habits are behind the majority of extra calories in your diet. If possible, I try to help people reduce or eliminate these things first. This is a great way to get some fast wins at the start of your journey.

If you want to learn more about this concept and start identifying some of your leaks, check out this article I wrote on the subject.

3. Reduce calories in a sustainable way.

This where the bulk of the work occurs when dieting

Some of my clients track calories or macros, others monitor their portions using other methods.

During this step, I work with clients to iron out all the details of their individual diets. This usually involves some experimentation to figure out what does and doesn’t work.

Key questions we address in this stage:

  • How can I eat in the most satisfying way possible while still staying in a caloric deficit?
  • How can I manage hunger and cravings?
  • What foods help me feel my best?
  • How can I make good food choices in challenging situations?

4. Change your environment.

This is the most underrated and under appreciated step in the entire process.

Most of us gain weight because we live in an environment that makes it insanely easy to overeat and difficult to make healthy choices. Your will power can only take you so far if everything (and everyone) around you is pushing you to fall back on your old habits.

To lose weight and keep it off, you need to reengineer your environment to support your new healthy lifestyle. This might mean making changes at home, at work, and even in your relationships.

5. Build related healthy habits.

The only thing you need to do to lose weight is sustain a caloric deficit, and the best way to do that is through dieting. However, this is much easier if you stay active, get enough sleep, and manage stress.

A few ways I can help you achieve your fat loss goals:

I coach my 1:1 clients through every step in this process. If you want custom help right now, you can apply for the program here and I’ll follow up.

I also run a 6 week group course – Sane and Simple Fat Loss – to help clients lose weight without losing their minds. In the course, I teach a six pillar system to help you navigate steps 1-4 above (we don’t really cover exercise). Topics include increasing awareness, managing portions, and which foods to eat and which to avoid.

Sane and Simple Fat Loss is coming back on Monday March 8! If you think you may be interested, you can join the waitlist to receive early, discounted access on February 26.

If you’re struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts, join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.

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Who should count calories – and who shouldn’t?

My fitness journey began ten years ago when, during a routine check up, my doctor informed me that I was prediabtic. I was scared and knew I needed to make big changes to avoid a lifetime of illness.

However, this was not the first time I tried to lose weight. I knew for years that I wanted to change, but I didn’t know how. Without a concrete plan, I struggled to find my way.

Around the same time as my fateful appointment, I happened to discover a food blogger who had successfully lost a lot of weight. She laid out the steps she took to achieve her goals and many of them involved counting calories.

Losing weight always seemed like a mystical process beyond my grasp. Now, for the first time, I saw a clear path from where I was to where I wanted to go.

All I had to do was do a few calculations, start logging my food, and patiently trust the process.

I bought a food scale, learned to cook, and dutifully logged my calories every day. Right away I saw that I was eating WAY more calories than I realized. No wonder I was having so much trouble losing weight!

I used this data to experiment with different changes to my diet. For the first time, I saw real progress toward my goals and felt like I actually had the power to make this daunting change.

Calorie counting helped me with all of this:

  • It helped me detach from my extreme emotions about food and get objective.
  • It improved my relationship with hunger and cravings.
  • It showed me a clear connection between the foods I ate and the way I looked and felt.
  • It gave me the power to make changes based on actual data, not just how I was feeling. Instead of getting frustrated when my efforts didn’t match my results, I now clearly saw where I could make changes.
  • It eliminated my fear of “junk” foods, because I saw that I could enjoy them in reasonable amounts and still lose weight.
  • Most importantly, I actually saw real weight loss success.
On the left: just before I began my fat loss journey back in 2011. On the right: me in 2020.

Counting calories gets a bad rap in the fitness world.

Gurus love to tell you that counting is obsessive and that it destroys your relationship with food. I disagree with this appraisal because myself and countless clients have had the opposite experience.

Too many people give up on their weight loss goals because they feel like they’re working really hard with little to show for it. This is where having actual data can be so powerful: you clearly see what’s going on which gives you the opportunity to make more impactful changes.

If you wanted to improve your financial health, you’d start to track numbers and data. You’d create a budget, monitor spending, create a debt pay-off strategy, and make smart investments.

No financial advisor would tell you to just listen to how you feel and trust that you’ll instinctively know what to do. And no one would be able to help you if you had absolutely no idea where your money was going.

Some people may take tracking a little too far and waste half their work day watching market fluctuations. Most people, however, would simply view this data as an objective measure of their success or failure.

They’d know they’re doing the right stuff when they see more and more money in the bank. If the numbers go in the wrong direction, they can look at their spending and budgeting to see what may be causing the problem.

Calorie counting works in the same way. You have a “budget” of calories that you need to stay underneath to lose weight.

Once you understand how your favorite foods fit into your daily budget, you can choose to eat the ones that are the most filling, satisfying, and energizing without going over your number.

You don’t need to count calories forever. I don’t do it all year long, and I don’t force my clients to do it if it’s not a good fit.  But, if you’ve been struggling to lose weight for a long time, counting calories for a while can be a helpful and illuminating experience.

You may benefit from counting calories if:

  • You’ve been following popular diets (Keto, Weight Watchers, Paleo, Whole30, Atkins, etc.) but haven’t been able to lose weight.
  • You’re tried of feeling like you’re working really hard to lose weight but not seeing the results you expected.
  • You’ve never tried to lose weight before and you don’t know the calorie content of common foods.
  • You are a person who likes to make decisions based on numbers and data.
  • You want to be able to enjoy some of your favorite treat foods while you diet.
  • You are a pragmatic person who prefers systems and science vs relying on intuition and feelings.

If you want to learn more about setting calories for your goals, check out this blog post.

You may want to skip counting calories if:

  • You’re incredibly busy and the thought of adding even one more task to your day stresses you out.
  • You’ve tried to count calories in the past and you know for a fact that it creates unnecessary stress, anxiety, or food obsession.
  • You don’t care about losing weight and would rather work on eating in a mindful, moderate way.
  • You have a history of disordered eating and have been instructed not to count, weigh, or measure food (please note this isn’t true across the board, some people – myself included – use calorie counting or food logging to help them recover from disordered eating).

If you want to learn more about how to lose weight without counting calories, check out this blog post.

And if you want some help with your personal fat loss goals, you can apply for my 1:1 coaching program here.

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A New Way to Think About Trigger Foods

A lot of nutrition coaches will tell you that there are good foods and bad foods.

“Bad foods” typically include things like fast food, baked goods, fried foods, and candy. Depending on which diet camp the coach belongs to, more contentious things like grains, dairy, meat, or even fruit could all be on the do-not-eat list.

There is typically a lot of shame, guilt, morality, and fear-mongering tied up in this approach to eating.

Early in my fitness journey, I fell prey to many of these questionable nutrition dogmas. I tried numerous fad diets looking for the perfect way to eat and lose weight.

My entire experience of food was heavily influenced by this good food, bad food dilemma. I remember the anxiety I would feel at a party or at a restaurant if I couldn’t find foods that fit within my narrow menu of acceptable options.

When I inevitably did eat an off-plan food, it sent me into a spiral of overeating because “I already blew it.”

As you might imagine, this approach did very little to help me lose weight. It certainly didn’t help me live a healthier life or improve my relationship with food.

These days, I consider myself a diet agnostic. I don’t believe there is one best diet for everyone and I never instruct my clients to follow a specific diet (although I will answer questions and provide information if someone asks me my thoughts).

Part of this shift has involved removing morality from food. I no longer think of foods in black and white terms like good or bad. Food is just food, and I think there are always instances when it’s appropriate to eat foods other coaches may consider off-limits.

Despite this attitude, however, I don’t think you should just eat whatever you want, whenever you want all the time. It’s still useful to consider which foods work for you and which do not.

This is especially true if you’re trying to lose weight, or if you have a history of disordered eating like I do.

I love the concept of red, yellow, and green light foods that I learned from Precision Nutrition.

Red light foods are foods you don’t want to eat very often, or ever.

This category includes foods you’re allergic to, or those which strongly clash with your values (eg. meat for a vegetarian).

Red light foods could also include foods you have a really hard time regulating yourself around. For example, I know there are particular foods that are heavily associated with binging for me, and I choose to avoid these foods.

Note that there isn’t necessarily anything inherently wrong with these foods, they just aren’t a good fit for your body, psychology, or goals.

Yellow light foods are foods that you can enjoy in moderation but don’t want to eat all the time.

Sometimes these foods are higher in calories, so we want to be mindful of portion sizes so we don’t accidentally overeat (think nuts, nut butters, pasta, etc.).

Other times we may feel uncomfortable if we eat too many of these foods. For example, many people are mildly lactose intolerant and can only eat so much dairy before they start to experience side effects.

In other situations still, yellow light foods may be treat foods that we can enjoy in small amounts but want to be careful not to overindulge. I usually have a couple of chocolate bars in the house, but I limit myself to one or two squares at a time.

Green light foods are foods that make your body and mind feel good and support your goals.

They should make up the bulk of your eating if you want to look, feel, and perform your best. Although the specific selections will vary for each person, green light foods include things like fruits, veggies, lean meats, whole grains, beans and legumes, and eggs.

How to use this system:

  • Most of your meals should consist of green light foods.
  • Occasionally, you can enjoy yellow light foods in appropriate portions.
  • Skip red light foods most of the time. I would not keep these foods in your house, and if you do decide to eat them I would be very intentional about the setting.

Keep in mind that these categories are fluid and will likely change as you get older or chase different goals. And remember to remove shame from the equation. Red light foods are not inherently bad, they just don’t work for you at this time.

Are you struggling to lose weight and keep it off despite your best efforts? Join me in a free webinar to learn how to avoid the common dieting mistakes that are standing in your way.

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Returning to the gym? Read this first.

After months of closures, gyms around the country are slowly resuming operations.

There are plenty of people discussing all the ways to protect yourself from COVID-19 when you return to the gym. I’m not going to talk about that today, as those policies will come directly from your gym or local government.

Each person also has their own unique circumstances with work, family, and finances as well as their own personal risk tolerance, all of which could affect their decision about when to return to the gym.

Instead of digging into these issues, I want to discuss another crucial element of staying safe when you go back to the gym. It’s hard to overstate just how important this consideration is to protect yourself.

Be cautious to avoid injuries.

You are not the same trainee that you were back in early March.

If you don’t take your time easing back into full weight room workouts, you are setting yourself up for pain and injuries.

Even if you’ve been crushing your home training, your body is not in specific shape for the gym.

There is a big difference between squatting with a band or kettlebell and squatting with a barbell.

Same idea applies to other exercises. If the only pressing movements you’ve done for three months are various types of pushups, your body is no longer fully adapted for barbell – or even dumbbell – bench pressing.

Now, this doesn’t mean you’re totally out of shape if you’ve been training without access to real weights. I have clients that lost weight, built lean muscle, and are moving better than ever thanks to their quarantine workouts. You may even feel stronger and fitter than you did before the gym closed.

However, the specific stressors placed on your ligaments, tendons, and joints are different with different training tools.

Barbells in particular are not very joint-friendly and a lot less forgiving of form errors. Placing too much load and stress on delicate connective tissues before they’re ready is a great way to hurt yourself.

Getting hurt now only means more time away from the gym. Nobody wants that!

The absolute worst thing you can do when you go back to the gym is try and jump right back in to the exact workouts you were using before quarantine. 

What to do instead

  • Start with shorter workouts. Your work capacity for lifting weights is likely reduced. I recommend 30 minute workouts for at least the first two weeks. You can always fill in extra time with cardio or non-lifting activities.
  • Prioritize recovery. Get plenty of sleep, eat primarily nutrient-rich foods, drink lots of water, and go for easy walks on your off days. You can also experiment with bodywork, contrast showers, and other recovery tools.
  • Use less weight. No matter what exercise you perform, start with lighter weights than you think you can handle.
  • Be cautious about barbell training. I actually recommend avoiding barbells for the first 2-4 weeks. Focus on dumbbells, kettlebells, cables, and machines. Then, once you’re back in the swing of things, you can add barbell movements  back into the mix.
  • Consider starting a new training program. Hiring an experienced coach or trainer to guide you through this process can take a lot of pressure off your shoulders.
  • Be nice to yourself. You will likely feel pretty weak and out of shape the first time you return to the weight room. Don’t let this get you down. If you stayed active during quarantine, your gym strength and endurance will return pretty rapidly. If you were totally sedentary for the last three months, this process will probably take a little longer.

One last note – expect to be very sore when you first get back into lifting weights. In my experience, people feel the most intense soreness when they return to lifting weights after a long period away or do exercises they haven’t done in a while.

This is another reason to take it easy with lighter loads and shorter workouts until you re-acclimate to the gym.

Do you have questions or concerns about how to safely resume your gym routine? Apply for my online training program and I can provide customized plans, support, and advice to help you navigate this transition.

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You Don’t Need the Gym. But You Do Need This.

Hear me out on this one. 

I truly love the gym. Over the years, I’ve probably spent more time in weight rooms than anywhere else (except for maybe practice rooms back when I was a musician.)

COVID-19 threw me and many of my fellow meatheads off our game. We’d become so reliant on training in a particular way that we thought we’d never be able to maintain our fitness level or our gains without access to lots of weights.

Thankfully, my worries were misplaced. Through writing (and performing) dozens of home workouts over the last two months, I’ve learned that you can keep kicking ass no matter where you are or what you have access to.

Read more: Five ways to get motivated work out at home

That’s because the principles that drive progress – focus, hard work, intensity, open mindedness, and consistency – don’t require anything beyond your body and your brain.

–>You don’t need the gym to get results. But you do still need to stay consistent and check the exercise box as often as possible in ways that you enjoy.

Read more: Not seeing gym results? You’re probably making this mistake.

–>You don’t need heavy weights to maintain or build strength and muscle. But you do still need to train with intensity and push your limits.

Read more: Five ways to make bodyweight training more challenging

–>You don’t need lots of equipment to have a fun and effective workout. But you do need to get creative and make the best use of the tools at your disposal.

Read more: Turn household items into exercise equipment

Is it nice to work out in a gym with heavy weights and cool toys? Absolutely.

Will I be back lifting and helping clients in the gym as soon as it’s safe? You bet.

But that doesn’t mean I’m going to stop training myself or my clients in the meantime.

Accountability, structure, and guidance are three more things we all need even though gyms are closed. Most of us don’t have the time, knowledge, or desire to consistently create effective and engaging workouts for ourselves, especially when gyms are closed and our options seem limited.

I provide this service to my online clients. If you’re looking for a creative, supportive, and experienced trainer to guide you through the process of working out at home, you can apply for my online training program here.

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Five tips to help you stop stress eating

Even before coronavirus quarantine, stress and emotional eating were the biggest nutritional challenges faced by my clients.

Stress eating is even more widespread now, as everyone tries to navigate an uncertain and upsetting situation while being confined to their homes.

It’s not easy to overcome these challenges, but it is absolutely possible. If you’re tired of feeling trapped in the emotional eating cycle, try using one or more of the tips below.

By slowing down, gaining awareness, experimenting with your actions and environment, and being kind to yourself, you can break free of stress eating.

Get curious and pay attention.

Stress eating happens so fast that it seems to come out of the blue. Before you even know what’s happening, you’re finished with a pint of ice cream or are working on your second sleeve of girl scout cookies. We’ve all been there!

Although it seems automatic, stress eating is always preceded by a cue. Some event, emotion, interaction, or other stimulus triggers you to dive into the familiar cycle. These can be negative cues, like wanting to avoid an unpleasant emotional state, or positive cues, like associating a certain food with happy memories of a place or person.

If you’re not sure what your cues are – and there could be many of them – the fist step is to pay more attention. Take notes after you stress eat. What were you doing before? How did you feel? What were you thinking about? Who were you with? What time of day was it?

It’s helpful to write this stuff down in a journal or on a note on your phone so you can review it and look for patterns. In time, you will start to identify specific cues and build greater awareness around your behavior.

Give yourself other options.

So you’ve identified your stress eating cues – now what?

You need other tasks that you can turn to when a craving strikes. Ideally, these other tasks will help you address the real need you’re trying to solve through food.

Are you feeling anxious or stressed? Try going for a walk, journaling for a few minutes, or sitting quietly and following your breath.

Are you lonely? Call or facetime a friend.

Are you bored? Go for a walk, read a good book, play a game, or start tackling a household chore.

Are you actually hungry? Try reaching for a healthy snack like fresh fruit, veggies, or protein.

I made a list on my phone of all the things I can do instead of stress eating. Create your own list and reference it when you feel the urge to reach for food. Most of the things on your list should be easy to do or you run the risk of ignoring them.

Make it easier/make it harder.

Our environment has a huge influence on our actions. If you’re struggling with stress eating, you can rearrange your kitchen and pantry to make it easier to eat healthy foods and harder to eat junk food. Some ideas:

  • Keep a bowl of fresh fruits out on the counter in plain sight.
  • Keep treat foods packaged and out of sight if possible, such as in a pantry with a closed door.
  • Keep chopped veggies or other healthy snacks in the front of your fridge.
  • If you know you have a hard time resisting certain treat foods, don’t buy them and don’t let others bring them into the house.

Plate it and savor it.

Sometimes, you’re going to indulge in treats. If you’ve followed the steps above and consciously decided you really want to eat something, do your best to enjoy the experience.

Plate your food by removing it from the container, placing however much you plan to eat on a plate or in a bowl, and sitting down at the table to eat it.

Savor your treat by eating slowly and minimizing distractions. You may be surprised at how much more satisfying eating can be when you’re mentally present.

Practice self compassion.

When I was knee-deep in my eating disorder, I lived in a constant state of shame. I felt terrible about myself for the way I was eating, which only made me want to give myself the middle finger and eat more. It was incredibly tough to break free from this vicious cycle.

Many of us think we can motivate ourselves to change by shaming and berating ourselves. In reality, this only feeds the bad habit cycle.

The answer is not to punish or talk down to yourself, but to be kind and gentle. When you overindulge, forgive yourself and try to learn from the experience. Understand that you’re not alone (especially these days) and you’re not broken beyond repair.

The goal of self compassion is not to give yourself an excuse to stress eat, but rather to rid you of toxic feelings of guilt and shame which keep you trapped.

Overeating doesn’t make you a bad person and it doesn’t mean you’ll never achieve your health and fitness goals. It’s just one more obstacle to overcome so you can grow and live your happiest, healthiest life.

If you want more help with this, I’m here for you. Fill out an application for my online coaching program for personal support, accountability, and compassion from a coach who personally knows how hard it is to combat stress eating.

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Five ways to get motivated to work out at home

I love working out in gyms. I’ve always been able to focus more and train with greater intensity in the gym atmosphere.

It’s harder to find motivation to train at home, especially when you’re stuck there all day every day. Your sense of time and space gets blurred when your entire life is happening in one location.

Fortunately, you can overcome these challenges with mental reframing and clear practices around your workouts. Below are my five top tips for finding the motivation to work out in your home.

Change your expectations.

Most of us are not going to be able to replicate our regular gym workouts at home. The sooner you accept this, the better. You’ll have more fun training at home when you aren’t constantly comparing those workouts to ones you used to do at the gym.

Adjust your training goals.

Certain goals – like building lots of strength and muscle – are lot harder to achieve with minimal equipment. Additionally, your priorities may have shifted thanks to quarantine and new concerns about health, safety, or finances.

It’s okay to adjust your training goals to address your current situation. You will likely be more motivated to work out if your reason for exercising is aligned with your values and circumstances.

Here are some ideas on how to pivot:

  • Instead of actively trying to build strength or muscle, train to maintain what you already have.
  • Train with low-moderate intensity to manage stress and anxiety as opposed to doing hardcore HIIT workouts all the time.
  • Focus on stretching and mobility to counteract extra time spent sitting. This will pay big dividends in how you feel even if you can’t get in any longer workouts.
  • If you want to lose weight, now is a good time to improve your eating habits by learning to cook, logging your food, and getting in touch with emotions to battle stress eating. I understand this may not be possible for people under very high stress, such as those who have kids at home.

Create a buffer between your workout and whatever you were doing before.

Give yourself 15-20 minutes to get amped up. Drink some coffee or an energy drink, eat something small, put on some music, and start warming up. Don’t expect to be able to easily shift gears into workout mode immediately after doing another task.

Build a routine and develop rituals around your workouts.

Ritualizing as much as possible about your workout makes it easier to find motivation to be consistent.

Some ideas:

  • Work out at the same time every day and/or on the same days of the week.
  • Create a designated workout space in your home, even if it’s just a few square feet.
  • Use the same pre-workout ritual every day. Have a snack, drink some water, get dressed, etc.
  • Do the same warm up each time you work out.
  • Play a certain type of music to get you in the mood to work out.

Have someone else do the hard part for you.

Designing your own workouts takes a lot of time and effort. You can spend hours googling or searching social media for inspiration and still not be sure you’ve put together a workout that’s actually effective. This creates additional stress and can turn into yet another obstacle to working out.

If this sounds like you, I recommend hiring a trainer or coach to help you create a workout program. You can join my Workout From Home Club to receive three done-for-you home workouts delivered directly to your email inbox each week. Of, if you want a more customized experience and the option to do virtual sessions, you can apply for my online training program here.

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How to stay injury-free when training from home

I work with a lot of people who are recovering from injuries or dealing with pain. I love helping these clients figure out how to push themselves safely so they can get stronger, achieve their goals, and reclaim their physical fitness.

In the gym setting, there are a ton of tools I use in this process. I can tweak a movement in countless ways just by using a different implement or changing a client’s position.

Working out at home is a different story. Many of my favorite adjustments and exercises aren’t accessible or even possible. And a lot of the stuff that’s easy to do with no equipment is not a good fit for clients who deal with knee, back, and shoulder problems.

Many of the home workouts floating around the internet right now are geared toward people with zero injuries and no pain. When I see some of the suggested exercises, I wince because I know many people who attempt them are banging up their bodies unnecessarily. Then, when they feel crappy after their workouts, they may give up on home training altogether.

Thankfully, with some creativity and patience, it is possible to adjust home workouts so you can still train without aggravating (or causing) joint pain. This does require you to be a lot more discerning about which exercises you perform and which you modify or skip.

Here are five tips to help you avoid injuries and feel better during your home training.

Do you really need to do those plyometrics?

A lot of home workouts heavily feature plyometric exercises and jumping. People like these because they make them feel like they’re really working hard. And for advanced trainees, they are certainly a good way to up the intensity of a home workout.

If you’re newer to strength training or have a history of joint pain, however, it’s probably best to skip these for now. Instead, focus on building strength, coordination, and balance while staying firmly on the floor.

If you want to build power at home without plyometrics, you can also use isometric holds. Pick a movement and hold the hardest position for time. Try to squeeze every muscle in your body as hard as you can – this constant full-body tension is what drives the nervous system adaptations that make you stronger and more powerful.

Look beyond lunges

Trainees with knee problems may struggle with lunges, another staple in many home workout programs.

If your movement is very limited or you’re in pain, try replacing all single-leg exercises with glute bridge variations. You can also perform hinging and leg curl variations to build supporting strength in your joints.

If you’re only somewhat limited, you can swap lunges for exercises like split squats or step ups. There are countless single leg variations and with some experimentation, you’ll likely be able to find one or two that work for you.

Improve your pushup technique

A third potential injury risk with home training is jacking up your shoulders from too much pressing with poor form. I’ve seen a lot of cringe-worthy pushup videos on social media recently and don’t want you to be one of them.

Make sure you’re doing pushups correctly. This means no shoulder shrugging, keep your elbows within 45 degrees of your sides, use a full range of motion, and maintain proper core position.

If you’re struggling, you may need to elevate your hands on a couch or go down to your knees. It’s better to make things a little easier than to bulldoze ahead with poor technique. Your shoulders will thank you!

Don’t ignore your upper back

When I work with clients at the gym, I want their pulling volume to match or exceed their pushing volume. This is hard to do at home because it’s really tough to train your back without equipment. Combine this with the poor pushup form discussed above and you’re setting yourself up for pain and stiffness.

I strongly recommend purchasing resistance bands to help keep your neck and shoulders happy. You can use bands to perform a number of rowing variations during your home workouts. If you own your home or condo, you can also buy a TRX or rings and mount them somewhere on the wall or ceiling.

At the very least, I recommend performing several sets of band pull aparts throughout the day. This simple exercise pulls you out of your slouched computer posture, opens up the chest, and builds strength in the supporting muscles of your upper back and shoulders. 

Prioritize good movement and mobility

One of the gifts of having life disrupted in such a major way is that many of us have more time to focus on things we were neglecting before. We can’t get after the weights, but we can take the time to do some maintenance on our joints and practice moving with greater ease.

Here are some ideas:

 Even if you do nothing else during this quarantine, doing some easy bodyweight drills and stretching for a few minutes per day can do wonders for your physical and mental health.

If you’d like some help putting together home workouts, join my WFH Club. I’m emailing three done-for-you workouts to members every week. Learn more and join us here.

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Have a snack…

…a movement snack, that is.

Unless you are essential personnel, you are spending a lot more time at home these days. This probably means more time sitting and working in unusual places like your couch or (in my case) on the bed in your spare bedroom.

Most of you sit at your regular offices. However, you likely have a real desk and an appropriate chair. Perhaps you’re lucky enough to have a standing or sit-stand desk. 

If you work in a big city like Chicago, you also probably walk a lot as part of your daily routine. You walk to and from the train, when you go out for lunch, and when you hit the gym after work. All of this movement adds up and helps your body and brain operate at higher capacities.

Working from home is another matter entirely. Many people actually work more hours – and therefore sit more – when they’re wfh.

Even if you do get up to do things, you are limited by your space. It takes me 10 seconds to walk from one end of my apartment to the other. Contrast that with my gym, where I have to go up and down a flight of stairs every time I want to use the restroom.

Being stuck at home means we are all moving less and sitting more. This is a recipe for feeling sore, achey, cranky, and sluggish during a time when we are already operating at high stress levels. If you’re feeling pain or soreness in unusual areas, I can almost guarantee it’s coming from the way you’re sitting and working.

One way to counteract all this sitting is to be proactive and schedule movement breaks (I call them movement snacks) in your day. You may not realize it, but after a long period of sitting and working your body and brain are going to be hungry for movement.

You can create a movement snack using any combination of movements. I generally pick three or four stretches, bodyweight movements, and drills that hit as many joints as possible. Shoulders, backs, hips, and necks tend to get particularly tight after too much sitting.

Here are four options I’ve been using a lot:

Walkout + pushup + 3 point lunge each side + walk back, repeat 3-5 times 

 5 standing head nods + 5 wall slides + 2 standing hip CARs each side 

 5 cat cows + 5 hip rockers + 3 squat to stand w/ rotation 

 3 bodyweight squats + 2 shoulder CARs on each side

After any movement snack, walk around your home for 1-2 minutes before sitting down and resuming work or Netflix.

For best results, I suggest having a movement snack every hour on the hour. You can set a recurring alarm on your phone or computer to remind you that it’s time for a break.

If every hour seems like too much, or if that will seriously disrupt your work flow, do every 90 minutes or 2 hours. The important thing is to make a conscious effort to get up and move on a regular basis.

Building movement snacks into your wfh routine is one small thing you can do to feel better right now. If you want more help designing home workouts, join my WFH club. I’m sending members three done-for-you home workouts three times every week. Learn more and join us here.