1. There is no “perfect” workout plan. Nobody can know what perfect looks like in advance. If you’re too afraid to start and make a mistake, it will keep you stuck at the starting line.
2. Build an action plan instead: 1 or 2 small actions this week, and everything else blocked out for now.
3. Action is what teaches you. Three weeks of imperfect reps will tell you more about what fits your life than three months of research ever could.

Do you ever feel like you’re stuck at the starting line?​
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You want to improve your health and fitness. But there’s so. much. going. on.

Every time you try to make a plan, you get 1,000 opinions on the “perfect” workout. The “perfect” diet. The “perfect” routine.

You’re not sure where to start or what to do.

So you freeze.

I hear this story so often that I gave it a name. And a face.

(h/t to Leo, our awesome illustrator who makes these images for us from scratch! )
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Meet Major Overload.

He’s every fitness voice on the internet at once.

Do this. Never do that. Fasted cardio. Never fasted cardio. Carbs are fine. Carbs are the enemy.

The Major loves it when you have 100 tabs open on your browser, but haven’t done a workout yet.

He wants to keep you plugged in to The Matrix. He feeds off of you staying stuck in planning mode while he drains your batteries.

My client Eric ran into him a few months ago.

He’d spent weeks searching for “best at-home workouts to lose fat”.
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In his words:

I know exactly how that feels.

It’s the way I felt when I tasked myself with running Nerd Fitness’s Instagram.

A million different opinions on how to do it. Hours spent researching. And weeks later, I still hadn’t filmed an actual video yet.

I was firmly stuck in analysis paralysis.

Same boss battle as Eric. Different rabbit hole.

What got me unstuck was the same thing that helped Eric.

It wasn’t finding the “perfect” strategy or plan.

It was two decisions.

1) Follow one plan and block out everything else for now.​
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​2) Commit to taking some small action, most days of the week.

The first one turned Major Overload’s volume down.

I didn’t need every voice. I needed a simple starting point. One that didn’t have a gajillion hoops to jump through.

The second one is where the learning actually happened.

I didn’t have to be perfect. I had to commit to imperfect reps.

I’ve learned more from a couple of weeks of posting than from all the agonizing I did beforehand.

Here’s what I told Eric, and what I’d tell you, too:

There is no “perfect” plan

Unless you’re Doctor Strange, scrubbing through 14 million possible futures to find the one where everything works out, you can’t know what perfect looks like. Neither can I. Nor anyone on the internet, no matter how loud they get.

Luckily, you don’t need a perfect plan.

You need an action plan.

Enough structure to get out there and do the thing. Not so convoluted that you never get started.

That’s why we built the Beginner Bodyweight Workout and our Strength Training Templates.

So you stop getting stuck at the starting line, and start putting in the reps.

Moving from planning to action does two things at once.

It breaks the inertia, and it teaches you what fits in YOUR life.

And that’s where the real magic happens.

It’s where you learn that, actually, training later in the evening works better for you than trying to force yourself up at 5AM.

It’s how you discover that splitting your workout up into two 15-minute chunks works better for your schedule.

Or that you prefer training with weights to training with bands.

You won’t know those things until you get out there and try.

It’s just as important to learn what DOESN’T work for you as what does.

Three weeks of taking imperfect action will tell you more about what works for you than three months of listening to Major Overload ever could.

Here’s what I want you to walk away with

Instead of searching for the “perfect” plan, build your action plan.

1 or 2 actions you can take this week, small enough to test and see how they feel.

• A short bodyweight workout​
• A free trial session at your local gym​
• ​A recipe you bookmarked to prep this week
• A lean protein at each meal

That’s exactly what we did with Eric.
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We mapped out his first few action steps. Things that fit his life, and he felt confident doing.

And now? He’s 4-months in and training consistently. Not perfectly. Consistently.

And that’s made all the difference for him.

One more thing about Eric’s story I want to leave you with. He also shared this with me as part of our conversation:

That’s something else I hear all the time. And it’s nothing to be ashamed of!

Sometimes, the bravest thing you can do is to ask for help when you need it.

That’s the whole reason we’re here.

When you’re stuck at step one, overwhelmed by information and not sure what’s worth your time, that’s exactly where a coach can help.

We build a program around you: your schedule, your equipment, your starting point. And then we help you run it and adjust as you learn.
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If that sounds like what you’ve been looking for, here’s my invitation:

​Fill out this short form. Someone from our team will reach out to have a real conversation about whether NF Coaching is a good fit for you.
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And if it’s not a fit? We’ll tell you that too, and point you in the right direction.

Either way, the goal is to get you out of analysis paralysis and moving forward.

Take that, Major Overload!

-Matt

TLDR: Build an action plan, not a “perfect” plan. Commit to something simple to start. Learn and build from there. And if you want guidance from a coach who’s been through it all before, here’s how to work with us.

The post Overwhelmed by Fitness Advice? You Need an Action Plan, Not a Perfect Plan first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Because the only predictable thing about life is that it’s unpredictable.

A kid gets sick. Sleep falls apart. The to-do list explodes.

You can’t know which one is coming or when, but you can know something is, and you can build your routine to expect it.

That’s the whole trick: take two minutes and decide, in advance, exactly what you’ll do the next time life goes sideways.

Here’s the coaching conversation that shows how it works.

I want to let you in on one of my biggest lessons from the last 15 years of coaching.

Once you know it, it will feel like you can see the future.

On a live Q&A, George (not his real name) told me about a pattern he kept running into.

He’d start strong. A few good weeks.

Then a kiddo would get sick, or some other responsibility would pop up, sleep would fall apart for a bit, and the whole routine would go with it.

So I asked:

And he got this look like “Oooooohhhhhhhh…no. No I haven’t.”

He’d been treating the sick kid as something that happens to the plan.

Not as a predictable part of the plan.

So we talked through it right there. Here’s what we came up with:

Now, he wasn’t just reacting in the moment, trying to “gut it out.”

He knew exactly what to do and it fit what he needed.

Here’s the thing: these moments don’t come out of the blue. They are predictable.

A kid is going to get sick.

Your sleep is going to get messed up.

You’ll have WAY too much on your to-do list.

You’ll forget your gym bag at home.

Your motivation will come and go.

I don’t know which one, or when exactly, but I do know that it’s inevitable.

And that’s great news!

Once we accept that the only predictable thing is that life is unpredictable, we can use that to our advantage.

Take two minutes right now and finish this sentence:

First blank: the thing that knocked you off track the last time you were trying to get into a fitness routine.

Second blank: the best version of your plan you can still commit to on one of THOSE days.

You won’t always get it right.

Sometimes, life will throw something at you that you REALLY didn’t see coming.

But the more of these you’ve been through, the clearer the crystal ball becomes.

And the better you get at navigating it.

Hit reply and send me your crystal ball plan. I read every one, and I’ll tell you if I’d tweak it.

-Matt
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​P.S. This is exactly the type of stuff we work on in our coaching program. My job as your coach is to look into my crystal ball, and help you plan ahead so you don’t get blindsided. Learn more about how coaching works [HERE].

The post Why You Keep Falling Off Your Fitness Routine (and the 2-Minute Plan That Fixes It) first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

A few days off changes basically nothing, measurable losses take roughly two to four weeks depending on the quality (muscle endurance fades first, maximal strength last).

Muscle memory makes rebuilding faster than building the first time, and maintaining takes a fraction of the training that building did.

Here’s the timeline, and how it can inform your training.

Has this question ever crossed your mind:

This was an awesome question that Charles sent my way. (Thanks Charles! )

When life gets crazy and you find yourself skipping workouts, there’s a voice that says:

I had that exact thought the first time I had to take significant time away for a back injury.

And heck, just recently my kiddos brought home the “crud” from school and I missed a full week of workouts.

So, let’s look at what actually happens, and what it means for your training.

Strength is stickier than you think

Short version: a few days off doesn’t impact your maximum strength or muscle size basically at all.

Your muscles may look or feel “flatter”, but that’s because stored water and glycogen decrease, not because you are weaker.

And this “pump” comes back quickly once you start training again.

Here’s a rough timeline of when we start to see the effects of detraining:

• Muscular Endurance 1.5 to 2 weeks
• VO2 Max 2 to 3 weeks
• Muscle Size 2 to 3 weeks
• Maximal Strength 3 to 4 weeks

Highly trained folks and older adults will notice detraining faster than new or younger lifters (so they’ll sit towards the beginning of these timelines.)

But you don’t lose your progress in any meaningful way after a week or 2 away from the gym.

Your muscle remembers

And if you DO have to spend significant time away for whatever reason, I have good news for you, too:

“Muscle memory” is a real thing.

1) Your nervous system remembers how to do the movement.

The first session or two in the gym after time away may feel a bit clunky, but you’ll quickly regain the technique.

And a big component of strength is neuromuscular coordination (i.e. your brain and muscles firing together more efficiently, which improves rapidly.)

2) The muscle itself seems to hold onto some of the machinery it built, so it rebuilds faster the second time.

A general rule of thumb is about 50% as long as you were away (so if you were away for 12 weeks, it may take ~6 weeks to rebuild your strength.) Take this with a grain of salt as there is a LOT of variation here. This isn’t a hard and fast rule.

(And you don’t want to jump right back in at 100%. Use the 50/50 rule to get yourself going again.)

The point is, it’s generally easier to rebuild than to build the first time.

The work you did before still counts.

A little goes a long way

Building muscle and strength? It takes time and effort.

No one wakes up a day after a workout and has just magically put on 5 pounds of muscle.

But maintaining what you’ve built?

That takes only a fraction of the volume.

When you keep intensity the same (i.e. how hard the exercise is), doing 1/3 the number of sets maintains your strength for a loooong time.
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The point being: doing ANYTHING during a period where you aren’t able to consistently work out is still really really helpful!

So what do you do with this?

Two things:

1) Keep a toe in the water.

When life throws you off track with your fitness goals, you’re not starting back from square zero.

And even a single session each week with a couple challenging sets is enough to hold what you’ve built until things calm down.

2) Get the work in now.

There’s that old saying that: “The best time to invest was 20 years ago. The next best time to invest is today.”

I think the same holds true for building up your fitness.

Every session you put in now is strength you get to keep later.

The effort is worth it.

This is exactly why we built our coaching program. Because having a coach makes both of those so much smoother.
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We take the thinking off your plate so it’s easier to get going.

We direct your limited time and effort toward the stuff that actually moves the needle.
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AND when life pulls you away (sick kids, a work deadline, etc.) we help you maintain and get right back at it.
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If that sounds like the kind of help you’ve been looking for, here’s how NF Coaching works.
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-Matt

The post How Fast Do You Actually Lose Strength? Slower Than You Think first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

That day-after ache (DOMS) mostly tells you that you did something new, not something effective.

Progress is more reliably measured in your training log: more weight, more reps, more control over time, sore or not.

Rachael (a reader and all-around amazing person) sent me a question about this so well-organized it came with multiple choice answers.

I LOVE this question, because almost everyone who’s getting started (or starting again) wonders the same thing:

What soreness actually tells you

Quick definition first. That achy, stiff, “why does it hurt to sit on the toilet” feeling that shows up a day or two after a workout has a name: DOMS, or Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness.

It usually peaks somewhere around 24-72 hours after you train.

Severe soreness is NOT an indicator of a good workout.

It’s a sign that you did something new that your body isn’t used to yet:

• a new exercise program
• a bigger range of motion than you’re used to
• coming back after time off (that’s when I personally get the MOST sore)
• more emphasis on the eccentric portion of a lift (the down phase, which is known to produce more soreness)

So it’s not something you need to chase.

But it’s also not something to be afraid of, especially if you switch up your routine and are mildly sore for a day or two.

Your body is adapting quickly! And as you adjust to the new exercises, you’ll be less and less sore from it.

Are there any benefits to soreness?

So when is soreness helpful, if ever?
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Soreness can give us a useful signal that we worked a muscle we were trying to target and hadn’t felt before.

But if you’re SUPER sore? Like, can’t get out of bed the next day and have to waddle around like a newborn giraffe sore? That’s a sign the jump was bigger than your body needed.

And the real cost (beyond the discomfort) is that it gets in the way of your next couple of workouts. Either because your technique gets sloppy because everything hurts, or you’re so wrecked that you don’t want to show up at all.

The best way to lower your odds of severe DOMS is to ease into a new program slowly.

Start with fewer sets and lighter weights than you think you need, and build from there.

Wait, don’t I have to push myself?

Yes! You DO need to push yourself over time in order to make progress:

• lift a little more weight
• do another rep or set
• run a little faster or a little longer

That’s the law of progressive overload, and there’s no getting around it.

Sometimes adding that extra bit will make you sore. Other times, it won’t.

But it’s the underlying principle that matters: are you asking a little more of yourself over time? Not: did it hurt afterward?

The Minty Toothpaste Effect

So why do we care so much about soreness?

Here’s what I think we’ve fallen into with fitness in general.

We as humans operate really well with feedback. If we touch a hot stove, we get burned and know not to do that again.

The same goes for fitness.

We want to know, immediately after doing something, whether it worked or it didn’t.

And with strength training, you don’t feel stronger the next day. It takes time to build up.

So we reach for proxies that close that feedback loop.

It’s exactly like the story of minty toothpaste.

As the story goes, toothpaste manufacturers had a hard time selling their product until they added mint.

Suddenly, there was a tingly clean feeling you could latch onto. “Oh, this IS working.”

The mint doesn’t clean your teeth. But it’s associated with the thing that does, and it gave people something to feel.

That’s where soreness sits for me.

It’s not the REASON you’re getting stronger.

But it can be associated with the work you do, especially as a beginner who is new to exercise, so we’ve learned to chase the tingle.

What to measure instead

Measure your output:

How much weight, how many reps, how many sets are you doing?

Is it going up over time?

Do you feel more stable and controlled with the exercise than you did last month?

Then great! It’s working. Doesn’t matter if you never get sore.

And if you do end up super sore after trying something new, it’s not that you “failed”.

Just take it as a cue to introduce things more gently next time.

So, back to Rachael’s multiple choice question.

C is really close. But I’ll add an fourth option:

D) Soreness tells you what was NEW. Your training log tells you what’s WORKING.

No extra fitness points for being sore. No points off if you do end up sore, either.

All the points gently ramping things up over time, and showing up again next time.

-Matt

Quick recap

Is it bad if I’m never sore? No. If your weights, reps, or control are improving over time, your training is working, sore or not.

How long does DOMS last? It usually peaks 24 to 72 hours after the workout and fades over a few days. If you’re regularly wrecked for longer, ease the jumps in your program.

Should I work out while sore? Mild soreness is fine to train through, and easy movement often helps. If you’re severely sore, target a different part of the body, scale down, or take another rest day; what we don’t want to do is have sloppy technique because we’re SO sore we can’t perform the exercise normally.

The post Does Soreness Mean a Good Workout? No. Here’s What It Actually Tells You first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

A bridge task is a small, neutral action (not fun, not hard, just…meh) that you put in between the two so the jump is smaller.

Below is the 5-step version one of our coaching clients uses with her own students, plus a free worksheet to map your own.

A few weeks ago I was talking with Tabitha, a Nerd Fitness coaching client, about a challenge a lot of people face.
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Some quick context: Tabitha is an executive function coach. She helps neurodivergent students and their families build the skills and systems that support their academic and personal goals.
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And she noticed something:
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The challenge of getting started on a workout is almost identical to the challenge her students face when trying to start homework.
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This might sound familiar. You get home after a long day, mentally fried, and all you want to do is veg out on the couch.
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In that state, getting up to cook a healthy dinner or go do a workout can feel really freaking hard.

Why starting a workout is harder than the workout itself

Here’s Tabitha’s insight:

Switching from a “YEAH!” task (chilling on the couch) to a “NAH!” task (workout/homework), is often harder than the task itself.

If we can make that gear shift less dramatic, it can make a big difference!

What is a bridge task?

That’s where bridge tasks come in.

Instead of going from YEAH! to NAH!, you insert at least one task that’s just…MEH.

I’ll let Tabitha walk you through it.

How to use bridge tasks: the 5 step YEAH -> MEH -> NAH sequence

I’ve been working with Nerd Fitness for 3 years now and have had so many successes! Coach Sarah and I have been working on my self-trust and mindset, along with cross training to support my aerial silks goals (inversions, I’m going to own you one day!)

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During our sessions, Coach Sarah and I often talk about the overlap between how executive function impacts the ability to achieve fitness goals just as it impacts our students’ abilities to achieve their goals, so when Matt sent out his message about a back to school fitness group, I was struck by the parallels between the challenges we have with task initiation for fitness and how those challenges show up for our kids.

If you are also struggling with the executive function skill of task initiation, whether it’s getting to the gym, or hitting the books, here’s the process that we use to help parents build the bridge from preferred to non-preferred tasks – by adding some “meh” into the mix.

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1. What’s the yeah?

Identify the preferred activity and postpone the decision that requires gear switching.

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Example: I’m sitting in my cozy spot on the couch and I’m tired and it’s time to workout.

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​2. Delay and take one step away.

Delay the decision. Rather than fixating on the NAH task, instead focus on movingawayfrom the preferred activity.

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Example: I’m not going to worry about my workout right now, I’m going to put my coffee down and get up to get cold water for my electrolyte drink that I love.

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​3. One step forward.

​Start closing the gap. Take some physical steps that move you closer to the final location.

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Example: I’m going to go down the basement stairs and check to make sure my guest room is ready for a visit (our daughter recently moved close enough to come for a weekend so this makes me really happy.)

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​4. Revisit and micro-commit

​Now is the time to remind yourself of the NAH task and make a micro-commitment. What is the tiniest step you can take? 2 minutes or less.

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Example: OK – I can put on my shoes and turn on the treadmill to walk S L O W L Y.

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​5. Reflect
​Nerd Fitness has been fabulous at making sure I don’t forget this step. Shoutout to Coach Sarah! <3

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Example: I wasn’t resistant to the workout, I was resistant tostartingit. When I added more “meh” tasks in my toolkit, it allowed me to dial up and down as needed.

The big takeaway

OK, Matt again.

Here’s the big takeaway:

If you’re struggling to start your workout, don’t fight the gear change. Bridge it.

Add a little MEH to the mix and see what happens.

Tabitha put together a free worksheet that walks you through mapping your own task initiation sequence. Your personal YEAH -> MEH -> NAH.

Try it this week, and keep me posted on how it goes.
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You got this.
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-Matt

Whenever you’re ready, here are other ways we can help:

1) Not sure where to start? Take our Getting Started Quiz.

2) Want a coach who builds a plan and walks with you each step of the way? Learn about NF Coaching.

The post How to Start a Workout When You Really Don’t Feel Like It (The Bridge Task Method) first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

People in their 70s, 80s, and 90s get meaningfully stronger when they start strength training, and beginners tend to see the biggest response to training.

You also need far less than you’d guess: 30 to 60 minutes of lifting spread across a week is a great starting point.

Here’s the science, three ways to begin, and a client who started at 57 and is still going at 77.

A reader wrote me this week. Her whole email was one sentence:

That hits deep. That fear of: have I missed my window?

I want to share with you what I shared with her, because the science behind this is actually super cool and empowering.

Heck no, it isn’t too late! 

What happens when you start strength training later in life

Your body doesn’t have a cutoff age.

People in their 70s, 80s, and 90s still get stronger when they start lifting. And it meaningfully improves how they move through their lives.

And if you’re someone who hasn’t trained before, or hasn’t trained in a while, I have even better news.

As a beginner, your body is even more sensitive to training. Translation: you get even more reward for your effort!

In the first few weeks, most people feel stronger before they look any different.

That’s because a lot of early strength is actually your muscles and brain learning to coordinate. The movement gets smoother. Standing up from a chair feels a little easier. Etc.

Over a few months, muscle starts to build.

Your bones respond to the load too (strength training is one of the best-supported ways to support bone health as we age.)

Balance gets better.

You’ll start to feel some muscle in your arms that you didn’t notice there before, like this reader who’s been doing workouts 3x/week and kicking butt with it:

Is every body different? Yes. Does it also depend on sleep, nutrition, and what else life is throwing at you? Also yes.

But the direction is the same for everyone. No matter your age, you can make a meaningful impact in your overall health, fitness, and quality of life!

How to start strength training after 70: three ideas to get you going

1) Don’t start with workouts. Start with practice.

Take a few minutes each day to learn and practice a couple of strength moves.

You’re not training yet. You’re getting acquainted.

Try some push-ups off of the wall or the countertop.
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Sit down in a chair, slow and controlled, and practice keeping your weight evenly spread across your feet (that’s a squat right there!)

Grab a gallon jug, some light dumbbells or canned goods or whatever you have on hand, and practice a one-arm row. See if you can feel it in your upper back as you pull the weight up.

Work within whatever your ability level is, what feels safe and approachable to start.

You’re collecting information about what your body is ready for, and learning exercises like you’re learning a new skill.

2) It takes way less than you think.

30-60 minutes of strength training in TOTAL across the week goes a surprisingly long way.

You can break that up however works best for you. A short 5-10min session most days of the week, inserting some “movement snacks” throughout the day, or a couple of longer sessions 2x/week, etc.

It doesn’t require hours of your day to make serious progress.

3) It’s easier to level up than to cut down

Because your body is more sensitive to strength training, you’ll likely feel more sore in the beginning.

So in general, I recommend you err on the side of less is more.

If you do a few short sessions during the week, and wake up the next day feeling great with little to no soreness, great! You can add a bit more the next week.

Mentally, I’ve also just found it’s way easier to be “leveling up” than having to cut back, which really helps with building that early momentum.

Becky started at 57. She’s 77 now.

Becky, a Nerd Fitness coaching client, is someone I immediately thought of when I read that initial email. She’s 77, and didn’t start going to the gym until she was 57. Here’s what she had to say:

I couldn’t have said it any better myself, Becky.

No matter your age or where you’re starting from…YOU GOT THIS!

-Matt

Whenever you’re ready, here are more ways we can help

1) Here’s an article with a bunch of different bodyweight exercises and progressions you can do at home.

2) Our coaches build programs specific to you and your needs. Here’s the exact system we use.

The post Is it too late to start strength training at 70? (No. Here’s what happens when you do.) first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

Bodyweight training and weight training are both strength training, and both run on the same principle: progressive overload.

In a gym you add weight to the bar; at home, you change your leverage.

Each has real advantages. Bodyweight goes anywhere, needs little or no equipment, and is still highly scaleable. Weights make heavy loading and progression math simpler, and cover pulling exercises more easily.

Your progress is based on the principles of training, not a specific location.

Here’s how that works, and why one reader’s plan got derailed by a single sentence from a friend.

Enter Ant-Man

I was chatting with a reader a couple of weeks ago – let’s call him Ant-Man to protect his secret identity.

He’s been doing awesome with tracking his food and dialing in his nutrition. But on the workout side of things? He was feeling stuck.

So we decided to start off with a bodyweight routine at home.

Then he told a friend about it.

To paraphrase, his friend said something like:

“That’s kinda pointless. You’re gonna have to go to a gym eventually if you want to make progress.”

When I followed up with him, Ant-Man told me this:

“I feel kinda silly admitting this, but it really deflated me. And I haven’t been able to get myself to workout for the last month.“

First things first: it’s not silly to feel that way. That kind of comment lands hard when you’re already unsure about starting.

The real bummer is that these types of comments are rampant within the fitness industry as a whole – not just from friends, but from other personal trainers and strength coaches. “It only counts if you do it THIS way.”

And. It. Drives. Me. CrAzY.

It only puts more barriers between people and the thing that would help them.

It keeps folks stuck waiting for the “right” way instead of starting with the good way that’s available today.

Even if the claim that you eventually need to go to a gym were true, it’d be bad advice to give someone.

Lucky for us, it also happens to be untrue. Let me show you why.

Can you get really strong with bodyweight training?

Yup.

Here’s the thing that often gets confused about bodyweight training and weight training – they are BOTH strength training, and they operate on the exact same engine: progressive overload.​

Challenge your muscles, let them adapt, then increase the challenge.

With weights in a gym, you add pounds to the bar or the machine.

With bodyweight, you change your leverage. I.e. you put yourself at a mechanical disadvantage so your muscles have to work harder to perform the same task:

• Squat -> Staggered squat -> single-leg squat (you’re increasing the load that each individual leg supports)
• Incline push-up -> floor push-up -> decline push-up (changing the angle changes how hard your muscles have to work)

Same principle, regardless of where you train or what implement you use.

And the ceiling is much higher than people think. Look at gymnasts and calisthenics athletes – they are some seriously strong, seriously muscular humans built largely on leverage and bodyweight.

Or look at our client Jimmy – he trained at home, got strong, and cosplayed as his favorite superhero: Spider-Man.

Jimmy had the exact same concern when he started out – he didn’t enjoy going to the gym, had a packed schedule, and wasn’t sure if he’d be able to make serious progress at home. 12-months later, and he was ready to swing around the Spider-verse.

Bodyweight training has it’s own set of superpowers:

Travels well (living room, hotel, park, etc.)

Minimal (or zero) equipment required

Highly scaleable based on your current ability level

OK, so what about the gym?

Let’s be fair to Ant-Man’s friend. Weights and gyms have real advantages, too:

• Simpler progression math. Sometimes it’s easier to add 2.5 or 5 pounds to a movement than to find your next leverage tweak.
• Heavier loading (especially for the lower body). If your goal is maximal raw strength, a barbell lets you load beyond what bodyweight alone can. You can still build an awesome foundation of lower-body strength and power with bodyweight exercises – a barbell just makes really heavy really convenient.
• Pulling exercises. If you’re going strictly no equipment, rowing exercises can be harder to perform at home. (Though a cheap pair of gymnastics rings or some creative towel set ups go a long way.)
• A separate space. For some people, the gym is where they step away from everything else and focus on themselves. That can be valuable in and of itself.

Some people love the gym.

Some people love training in their living room.

Some people do both, depending on the season of life.

It’s all good stuff.

The real deal about progress

Your progress, especially when you’re getting started, isn’t owned by a place or a piece of equipment.

It’s made of principles, and you can dial them up wherever you are:

1. Increase intensity – add weight, or decrease your leverage
2. Increase volume – add a rep, a set, a round, or an exercise
3. Introduce novelty – a new exercise variation, angle, or position can help if you’ve stagnated

So the question isn’t “which type of exercise counts?”

It’s: which one works for you, consistently, in your life right now?

For Ant-Man, that’s a bodyweight routine at home.

For his friend, that may be the gym.

Both totally cool.

So if you’ve found yourself thinking, “It doesn’t really count unless I….”

W’ere here to help.

You got this.

-Matt

Whenever you’re ready, here are the ways we can work together:​
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1) If you’re where Ant-Man was, ready to start but no gym in the picture, grab our free Bodyweight Adventures Workouts. They are scalable, progression-based, and doable in your living room with little to no equipment. [Snag the workouts HERE]

2) We’ve helped thousands of nerds build confidence in their fitness.  This video shows the exact systems we use.

The post Do you need a gym to get strong? Bodyweight vs weights, explained by a Coach first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

You’re at the hardest jump in the progression ladder.

Here’s how to break through: work in the 5 to 10 rep range, add a rep a week, and only move up once 10 reps feel strong.

Not there yet? Add another set, add reps, or add a pause at the bottom of each rep, and try again in a few weeks.

(For the full wall-to-floor plan, see The Push-Up Progression Plan.) Below: the ladder, the level-up rule in detail, and one form cue that unlocks pushups for most people, and how to fit it into your week.

Push-ups are rad.

Like, legitimately. I get excited just talking about it.

But if you’ve struggled to conquer the push-up, you may see them in your workout and think, “Ugh.”

It doesn’t feel good to keep doing an exercise that makes you feel weak or awkward!

And that’s exactly how a reader was feeling recently when they emailed me:

“How do I finally get my first push-up!? I feel like T-rex when I try to do them.”

Don’t worry, I’ve got you!

Let me be your guide and make a case for the humble push-up as an absolute S-Tier exercise – and how to progress them so you can bust out a few push-ups whenever you want!

Are push-ups the best exercise?

Hear me out:

They adapt to nearly any strength or ability level. There’s a push-up variation that most folks can do right now, today, no matter where you’re starting.

They go anywhere. No gym membership. No equipment.

They work multiple muscles at the same time. Chest, triceps, shoulders. Plus, you get some isometric work for your core, glutes, and quads.

They squeeze into real life. A couple off the countertop after you brush your teeth. A few while the coffee brews. One or two on the floor before you queue up Netflix. They all add up.

That last one matters a lot. During busy seasons, fitness is often one of the first things that gets dropped. The push-up is one of the best “everything is crazy but I can still squeeze this in” movements I know.

We often use them in our coaching program as a Next Available Win to get right back on track.

So let’s walk through exactly how to get started with what we lovingly call “earth downs” – and how to make steady progress towards that first full push-up.

Step 1: Pick Your Progression

This is the basic ladder, from easiest to hardest.

1. Wall push-ups
2. Countertop push-ups
3. Elevated push-ups (hands on a lower surface – a couch, a chair, a bench, the stairs, etc.)
4. Knee Push-ups
5. Floor Push-ups

Pick the rung where you can do 5 controlled reps to start.

Some people will tell you “if it isn’t from the floor, it doesn’t count.” Those people are wrong. And probably woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning. All these progressions count as push-ups.

As evidence, right out of college, I had just moved to Japan. I was by myself, in a totally new place, and within the first week of being there I severely sprained my ankle. I couldn’t walk right for MONTHS.
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Knee push-ups were one of my only options for strength training, and I got really heckin’ strong doing them. You’re pressing basically 50% of your bodyweight! That’s cool!

Step 2: Know When to Level Up

Here’s a simple system you can use.

Work in the 5-10 rep range. Each week, see if you can add one rep.

Once you can do 10 reps and feel super strong doing them -> try the next progression on the ladder.

Not quite there yet? No problem. Go back to your current rung and:

• Add another set, or
• Add a few more reps (up above 10), or
• Add a pause at the bottom of each rep (the bottom is where most people get stuck, so building strength there pays off big.)

Then try the next rung again in a few weeks.

Step 3: Dial in Your Technique

Quick form check: from above, your body should look like an arrow – upper arms at roughly 45 degrees from your torso – not a T with elbows flared straight out to the sides.

This puts you in a better position to push from!

I actually filmed a short video about this exact thing. Two of my coaching clients were stuck moving from knee push-ups to full push-ups, and one cue helped them get unstuck. I think it’ll help you too (and might change how you think about push-ups):

​[WATCH: the technique tip]​

Step 4: Programming

If you’re working towards you’re first push-up, I love 2-3 workouts per week where the push-up (or an equivalent movement like the Bench Press) is featured near the beginning of your session for 2-5 sets. So you’re getting at least 5-10 total sets per week of your current progression (that “challenging but strong” feeling.)

And in between? Sprinkle in skill drills: a few reps here and there throughout the day, not pushed to exhaustion. The goal is to practice the technique and feel strong and confident doing it.

(This is exactly the countertop-while-the-coffee-brews move. Your secret weapon.)

—-

You’re rad. Push-ups are rad. Let’s get you that first one.

You got this.

-Matt
​
Here are a couple of other ways we can help:​
​
1) Snag our full push-up guide, including a dedicated push-up workout HERE.

2) We’ve helped thousands of nerds build confidence in their fitness. This video shows the exact systems we use.

The post Stuck between knee push-ups and full push-ups? Here’s how to level up first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

You need a plan for the chaotic days.

Take five minutes and write down one emergency backup meal and two or three “movement snacks” you can fit anywhere in your day.

That’s the starting point.

Here’s why that’s enough, and a story about the night I realized how many of us are quietly carrying the same thing.

A while back, as we headed into back-to-school season, I sent out a quick call-out to the busy parents in our community.
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I expected a handful of replies.
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I got hundreds.
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Parents from all over the world, writing in about all the hats they’re juggling – work, kids’ schedules, aging parents, packed calendars – doing their best to make fitness work in their crazy routine.
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Reading through them, I kept thinking about something unexpected that happened to me a few weeks earlier.

“Raise your hand if…”

My wife and I took our kids to their first ever concert this summer: Alex Warren. (You’ve probably heard this song, but this one’s actually my favorite ~ warning, it’s emotional!)
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If you don’t know Alex, he jokes that he’s a two-trick pony: he writes songs about his wife and songs about his parents who passed away. (Case in point from the two music videos I shared above. )
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We’ve listened to his album front to back dozens of times in the car, so we knew what to expect from his music.
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What I didn’t expect was all the people in the crowd holding up signs about the loved ones they’d lost.
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Alex paused multiple times in his show to read them out loud, and talk to the crowd about them.
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He shared how grief made him feel completely isolated growing up – like he was the only one carrying it. It wasn’t until he started writing music about it that he realized losing someone is one of the most human experiences there is. It’s something that unites us.
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At one point, he asked everyone who had lost someone close to them to raise their hand.
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I looked around a room of 20,000 people, and every hand was up (including my kids, who lost their great-grandfather a few years ago.)
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We went in expecting a fun night of music – and we got that!

But we also experienced something surprisingly cathartic: a room full of strangers realizing they weren’t carrying that weight alone.

Why am I telling you this?

You might be like – Matt, what has this got to do with fitness again?

Because I think many of us carry the weight of our expectations around fitness for ourselves in the exact same way. Quietly. Alone.

After coaching and talking with thousands of people over my career, I keep coming back to this:

Most people are juggling a LOT.

They’re productive and successful in so many areas of their lives. They are on all the time. And yet fitness feels like the one thing they just can’t quite figure out.

And because social media blasts us 24/7 with people who seem to have it all dialed in, it’s easy to conclude you’re the only one struggling.

You’re not.

The hundreds of emails from parents in our community are proof. Steve’s whole book, How to Try Again, is full of stories that prove it too.

We’re all in different boats. But they’re remarkably similar ones, too.

So let me just tell you:

You’re doing a lot.
You’re doing better than you think.
And fitness doesn’t have to be one more stressor on your plate.

We got you.

A 5-minute step you can take right now

Since so many of you asked about building a routine that sticks, especially when heading into a busy season of life, let’s start with one of my favorite strategies.

Grab a sticky note or your phone and take the next 5 minutes to write down:

1) One emergency backup meal. Something you can always fall back on when the day goes sideways. A go-to order (mine is a Chipotle bowl!), or something quick you can throw together, like: rotisserie chicken + microwave rice + a bag of frozen veggies. Done.

2) Two or three “movement snacks.” Tiny bits of movement you can sprinkle throughout your day, without a huge time commitment or pushing you past the point of exhaustion:

• Countertop push-ups while the coffee brews
• 10 squats while the kids brush their teeth
• A 5-minute walk after drop-off

This stuff matters. It adds up over time.

And instead of starting by building your “ideal” routine, we build the thing that helps you stay steady when things are chaotic.

Take those notes and post them somewhere you can see or easily reference so they don’t become something lost in the shuffle.

It will take some practice reps to get them going, but once you add them in, you’ll level up with a new skill set that will serve you for years to come.

Let me know what you came up with!

-Matt
​
​P.S. Here are a couple of other ways we can help:​
​
1) Snag our How to Stay Consistent guide – you’ve just written out your “Red Days” (the chaotic ones), so you’re already a step ahead!

2) We’ve helped thousands of nerds build confidence in their fitness. This video shows the exact systems we use.

The post How Busy Parents Can Stay Consistent With Fitness (Start With this 5-Minute Step) first appeared on Nerd Fitness.

…it didn’t go how I expected.

I’ve been a coach for over 15 years. It’s my passion, and why I was hired at Nerd Fitness back in 2018.

But my role at Nerd Fitness has grown. These days, I’m not just responsible for our coaching.

I’m also responsible for making sure the right people out in the world – the folks we were built to help – can actually find us.

As it turns out, that’s its own huge, complicated, overwhelming problem.

I had a million questions:

• How do I write a good newsletter?
• How do I make a video that someone actually wants to watch? And WHAT DO I DO WITH MY HANDS WHEN I’M FILMING?!
• Long form? Short form? SEO? AEO? Social media? I haven’t posted anything on my own social media since January 2021 (no joke). Better start figuring that whole thing out.
• What data is important to track? How do I track it? What about software, and split testing, and all of that?
• And most of all, how can I do this in a way that feels authentic to who we are: nerds who are turned off by all the rhetoric, hacks, and false promises rampant in the fitness industry?

And everywhere I looked, there were competing voices telling me what mattered most, what to focus on, and how much time to spend on what.
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So I did what any good nerd does when they’re confronted with a new problem…

I started collecting underpants.

I read dozens of articles and how-tos. I subscribed to Youtube channels and binged their content. I went to live workshops. I bought programs. You name it.
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And it helped. At least a little.

But I kept catching myself in a familiar loop.

I’d look at what I made and think:

I was stuck.

I could tell it wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be, and that would freeze me from taking action.
​
​I’d re-film a video 10 times before quietly canning the project.
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I’d feel butterflies in my stomach every time before I clicked “send” on an email.

Classic “all-or-nothing” mentality.

If I couldn’t do it perfectly, why do it at all?

Then I Had a Moment of Realization

During a conversation with Coach Justin (one of our awesome team members ) – it dawned on me:

I was craving…a Coach.

Just for the marketing version of how to reach people more effectively.

Not another article. Not another 40-minute video from another expert.

I wanted a person.

Someone willing to sit down with me, learn about our situation and our history, take this whole complicated mess and say:

Someone who would check in when I hit roadblocks.

Who would keep me focused on getting actual stuff done instead of endlessly second-guessing.

Who would catch me when I started beating myself up and get me moving again.
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​Someone who actually gave a crap, and was in it with me.

Because that is what our coaches do for fitness.

I just hadn’t connected the dots before.

I get emails like this every week:

Sound familiar?

Being a beginner again taught me something I thought I already knew: the problem isn’t lack of information.

It’s direction and support from someone you know and trust.

That’s where coaching comes in.

A coach isn’t another voice adding to the noise.

They’re the person who turns the noise down.

Who knows you, simplifies things, points you at the ONE next thing, and sticks around while you figure it out together.

Not every situation needs a coach

Sometimes all we need is that quick resource or starting point.

• The Beginner Bodyweight Workout to start exercising more.
• The Balanced Plate Guide to start prepping some meals.
• An idea of How to Try Again.

But if you’re carrying one of those big, complex, “I can’t seem to crack this” problems – one that’s got you feeling lost, stuck, and alone – that’s not a quick-answer problem.

That’s a “someone in your corner” problem.

So if you’re overloaded and you keep thinking “why can’t I figure this fitness thing out?”

You’re exactly the kind of person we were put here to help.

I’d love to have a conversation about what’s going on and what working together could look like.

Just hit reply and tell me where you’re feeling stuck.

We’ll figure this thing out together.

-Matt

The post Do You Need a Fitness Coach? How to Tell an Information Problem from a Support Problem first appeared on Nerd Fitness.