I want to focus on several goals this fall:

• get stronger and build muscle
• build running speed and distance
• continue to improve cardiovascular health

Here in Colorado, the weather is perfect to focus on running. I plan to do 3 runs per week – two on pavement and one on trail.

I also want to prioritize strength training during this time. When you want to prioritize both strength and cardio at the same time, it’s called concurrent training or hybrid training.

Once the weather turns cold, I’ll focus mostly on lifting, but until then, I’d like to equally focus on both.

Here’s the hybrid training plan I’ll be using for running and lifting:

Since my work schedule is more flexible, I’ll be moving around my rest days to accommodate different days’ demands. However, I also created a hybrid running and lifting plan for both using a constant rest day, and two rest days:

Let me know if you’d like specific distances and times, and I can share those, as well.

The post Hybrid Fall Running and Lifting Plan appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

Tell me if this sounds familiar:

You used to be able to eat whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. Now? It’s 20 years later and it feels like your metabolism is broken. You’re wondering how you can boost your metabolism naturally.

The Good News:

Your metabolism is not broken.

But, your habits could use some fine-tuning.

Think back to when you feel like you had a super charged metabolism: What were you doing back then? Were you walking to and from classes, socializing and walking around town with friends, playing sports, or walking to and from meetings?

You were very likely much more active then than you are now.

Even if your life isn’t drastically different now, you’re probably sitting a lot more. Whether you’re driving the kids to and from their activities or sitting in front of a computer working all day, this is very sedentary and lowers your total daily energy expenditure (TDEE, or, the total calories you burn every day.)

If you’re looking to rev up your body’s metabolism, then we need to increase your NEAT, or your non-exercise activity thermogenesis. This basically all the moving you do outside of your workouts all day.

But first, what even IS metabolism and why does it slow down?

Simply put, metabolism is:  the chemical reactions in the body’s cells that change food into energy.

Whether your goal is shedding a few extra pounds or maintaining a healthy weight understanding and improving your metabolic rate can be helpful. And luckily it’s really not all that complicated.

What Does the Research Say?

Recent studies show that metabolic rate is NOT affected by age before the age of 60.

SIXTY.

This is GOOD news. Because it means there’s something you can do about it if it seems like your metabolism has slowed as you age.

So if it’s not age, what is it?

As we get older, many of us:

• lose muscle tissue
• eat more calorically dense foods, and
• move FAR less than we used to

And yes, as we age – especially women – our hormones change and estrogen declines as we enter perimenopause. This does impact body fat, but more so where you gain it as opposed to how quickly you gain it.

So what can you do to increase your metabolism naturally as you age?

First, here’s what you don’t need to do.

No, eating metabolism-boosting foods won’t do much at all to increase your TDEE.

Neither will any other pill, potion, Intermittent Fasting, or unlocking the “secret” to hormone/gut/insulin/keto health that fitness “gurus” out there are touting. (Read: they’re trying to make money off of you by making you think that they have some secret solution.)

And actually, it’s not even by exercising more in most cases. Adding more cardio can have diminishing returns, making your appetite higher and reducing your movement outside of your workout so much that up to 50% of the calories burned during your cardio session are lost due to decreased NEAT. Now, I’m not saying cardio is bad. I’m just saying more cardio isn’t always the answer to burning more calories.

Here’s exactly how you can boost your metabolism…naturally.

1. Increase your TDEE by increasing your NEAT (remember: non-exercise activity thermogensis)

2. By increasing your mass (i.e. gaining weight)

I’m going to assume you don’t want to gain weight if you’re here reading about how to boost your metabolism, so let’s discuss increasing your NEAT further.

If you feel like your metabolism has slowed as you age, do THIS:

Become more active.

The easiest way to do this is to simply walk more.

If you have a Fitbit or apple watch or other device that can track steps, check out your daily average step count. Then aim to increase it by 2,000. Read: you don’t need to aim for 10k steps/day. At least not right off the bat. Work up slowly.

Increase your steps and you’ll increase your NEAT and you’ll increase your TDEE, and thusly….your metabolism.

I’d also be completely remiss if I didn’t say that eating a healthy, higher protein diet with adequate fiber — and regular strength training also helps. The more lean muscle tissue you have, the more you burn (though recent studies have pointed out that this isn’t as much of an increase as we once thought.) But regardless of metabolism, strength training leads to maintaining or building muscle tissue, which is one of the best things we can do for our health as we age – especially women.

The post Boost Your Metabolism Naturally: Effective Strategies to Increase How Much You Burn appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been in this situation, but if you have, I’m here to tell you that:

a) It’s OK. You’re not “messing up” and
b) You’re not alone

Over the years I’ve had women email and message me asking why, when they’re doing everything right, they’re just not seeing the results they feel they should be seeing.

Before we go into troubleshooting mode, let’s talk about two things.

1. What does “doing everything right” mean?

For some this means eating what they perceive to be healthy and working out. If this answer were on a continuum of vague to specific, it would be on the end of the ‘vague’ side.

That’s not to say this answer shouldn’t give you any credit. Eating more healthy foods than you were previously eating and exercising regularly is a HUGE win, in and of itself.

On the other side of the continuum we have someone who defines ‘everything right’ as tracking everything they’re eating and doing every workout in their program written to a t.

Neither is right or wrong; I just want to lay some context for how much variance this phrase can have.

2. What are realistic expectations for results?

Most of my clients want to see steady, sustainable results that don’t lead to them yo-yoing. And if a client wants super fast results that aren’t sustainable, I usually refer them to another coach.

Realistic results will vary depending on your goal. But for the sake of fat loss, let’s say a realistic goal is .5-1 pound a week, knowing that scale weight especially is NOT linear and some weeks will be more or less than this.

And sometimes, you might notice that your clothes are fitting better even on a week(s) the scale didn’t move. That’s still awesome progress. This is why I don’t put too much stock in the scale. It’s a good measurement tool, but I prefer the month to month progress view even over week to week. Especially with women who have hormone fluctuations throughout the month that influence the number on the scale, but don’t necessarily have anything to do with true fat loss.

Ok, now that that’s cleared up….

So when one of my clients’ progress stalls, before automatically adjusting their intake, macros, or nutrition guidance, we do a quick troubleshoot. A little back and forth Q&A.

These five areas have a tendency to get a little misconstrued, and are common reasons why you might not be seeing the progress you “should” be seeing.

1. Logging Retrospectively

For my clients who are tracking their food (intake, protein, or all 3 macros,) I ask them to log their food for the next day the night before. This way they have a plan for what they’re going to eat, and it’s already all plugged in. If a meal changes, NBD. They can go back in and change it.

Accuracy really starts to plummet when you track your food for the day at the END of that day. Not only can you likely not remember every bite, but the accuracy in your portions eaten is likely off, as well.

Something as minor as this could end you up back at maintenance.

2. (Mis)eyeballing portions

What we often think is a serving of food is actually far more than one serving.

Case in point: peanut butter, and anyone who’s measured out 2 tablespoons/32 grams of PB vs eyeballing it with a kitchen spoon.

A little measuring or weighing can go a long way in ensuring accuracy, especially when first starting out, regardless of whether you’re tracking your intake or macros or not.

3. Bites/licks/tastes throughout the day – and not accounting for them

Before I had kids, I’d always have clients who said they always pick on the food on their kids plates – or leftover from their plates. And I never got it. Like….why?

Then I became a mom and started doing it myself. I still can’t really explain it, but when an entire serving of chicken is left on the plate that you just cooked for them, and you didn’t have time to actually make your own lunch and sit down to eat it, three chicken nuggets can become your lunch.

And some animal crackers.

And then as you’re cooking dinner cheese and crackers because you’re so hungry because you didn’t sit down and eat an actual lunch like an adult.

At least this is what I hear.…ahem 😉

4. Not accounting for higher calorie condiments

I don’t have my clients track fibrous veggies or low calorie condiments like mustard. But mayonnaise and mayo-based sauces can pack on a good 300-400 missed cals when not portioned out and accounted for. (And I’m not hating on mayonnaise – it’s probably my favorite condiment!)

5. Just not being as consistent as you think you’re being

This is a big one. We tend to over-inflate the days we acted in a way to move toward our goals and down play the days we didn’t. I ask my clients to adhere to the plan at LEAST 80% of the time. That means if you’re on plan Mon-Thurs but not Fri, Sat, or Sun, that’s only 57%, which could land you at maintenance – or in a surplus. Even 5 days out of 7 is still only 71%.

As a last little factor here, I will say that one other possible contributor is a subconscious decrease in NEAT, or non-exercise activity thermogenesis.

Here’s the thing – the body naturally wants to take the path of least resistance. Burning body fat (and conversely, increasing lean muscle mass) is NOT that path.

So the body tries to adjust for this by automatically decreasing (or increasing, if you’re in a surplus) NEAT.

NEAT is just the amount you move throughout the day that’s NOT your actual workout, and it accounts for the largest part of your total daily energy expenditure (outside of your BMR.)

And circling back to the beginning of this post….you’re not “messing up.” You’re setting a goal and striving to make steps in the direction toward that goal. You can’t mess this up! You learn and apply and keep on applying 💗

I hope this is helpful for you! XO
Paige

The post You’re Doing Everything Right, and Still Not Seeing Results appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

During pregnancy, the body changes and shifts in order to accommodate the growing uterus (and baby inside.) Some muscle groups change more than others – and one of these are the muscles of the abdominal wall. More specifically, the transverse abs (TVA) weaken – and unfortunately this can cause pelvic and abdominal dysfunction, as well as other muscle groups and joints taking on additional strain and stress. Additionally, under-active and weak core muscles including diastasis recti can also lead to a distended belly. Something that is very common, but can also be a sign of abdominal weakness. TL;DR – if you had a baby recently or years ago, knowing how to strengthen the TVA will be of great service to you! Here are a few of the TVA exercises I include in my postpartum training program. 1. Bent-knee fall outs

The post Post-pregnancy Ab Exercises appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

This question came from a client who was concerned with exactly how much the weight was going up each week on the bar (or machine, or dumbbell.) After a conversation with her, it was clear that there was a little too much focus on load, and not enough on a few other key factors for determining progress and results.

So let’s dig into the answer!

“When should I be going up in weights?”

This depends on a couple things.

First, are you asking this question regarding within the workout itself? Or from week to week?

If the former, this would be ascending load, where you do set 1 with a starting weight. Then you add a little weight for your 2nd set, then a little more for your 3rd, until you can’t add any more or until you reach your prescribed number of sets (assuming you’re reaching the amount of failure intended.)

This is just one way to load the weights, and shouldn’t be used across the board, but instead, strategically. You’ll often see this type of loading in some neurological-type of programming, as well as some hypertrophy.

There are other programs where the weight you choose should remain the same across all of your sets.

Even still, you should only add weight to each set if you can while still maintaining good execution. This is depending on a number of things, but primarily, your recovery.

For example, if you start your workout after a poor night’s sleep, and having played basketball for two hours the night before, your load for each set would likely look different than a session coming off of a night of rest + quality sleep.

Now, for the latter question:

when should I be going up in weights from week to week?

Or put another way, should you lift heavier on an exercise you’re doing in week 3 of your plan versus week 1?

Yet again, it depends.

It depends on recovery again, as noted in the example above, but it also depends on the exercise.

For example, for a leg press, you have the option of adding just a fraction of the total weight you’re pressing from week to week. A 2.5 or 5 lb plate added to 125# isn’t much. You’d likely be able to progress in weight each week.

Now, for an exercise, like a front raise, where any increase in weight will be a much larger fraction of the total weight? Probably not.

That’s just one reason why weight isn’t the be all end all of progressive overload.

So, how else can you document progression from workout to workout – or even within the workout itself?

-rep range
-tempo
-RPE
-execution (simply getting BETTER at doing the exercise)
etc.

It’s especially important to hit targeted rate of perceived exertion, sets to failure, and proper execution and tempo, in order to achieve the desired stimulus of the workout/program. Just adding weight to a set will do minimal if the prior factors aren’t in line.

I hope this is helpful in that it gives you a fresh thought process in your next workout or current training program.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

The post When Should I Increase My Weights? appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

Sunday rolls around, and it occurs to you that you should put some effort into your menu for the next week. But then other things get in the way – family time, cleaning, prepping for the week, and so on.

All the sudden it’s Monday night and you’re looking into the deep void of your fridge, deciding what to make for dinner.

Decisions, decisions…   

One thing I’ve solidified over the past year into my routine and positive habits is planning out my and my family’s menu for the week ahead. Or at least for breakfast and dinner. Lunches are easier to fly by the seat of my (yoga)pants, personally.

I’ll get new cookbooks, rely on go-to food blogger recipes, or use the list of endless options created for my membership program and create the menu…

Or..

Or, I’ll follow this simple framework:

Protein + Carb + Veggie = Dinner

Now, I know this isn’t revolutionary, but that’s not where the framework stops. There’s a liiiiittle more planning involved.

1. Create a master list of proteins that you and your family enjoy

I.e. ground beef, salmon, shrimp, cod, beef stew meat, etc.

2. Add a few seasoning options or marinades that will work with each protein

I like to rely on TJ’s seasonings, seasoning packets, and quick and easy marinades (helloooo freezer packs of marinaded chicken tenders for easy thaw + cook nights!)

i.e. chorizo seasoning, garlic blend, cajun seasoning, italian seasoning, stuff to make meatballs, etc. I like to rely on TJ’s seasonings, seasoning packets, and quick and easy marinades (helloooo freezer packs of marinaded chicken tenders for easy thaw + cook nights!) )

3. Create a master list of carbs your family enjoys

i.e. sweet potatoes, parsnips, rice, quinoa, etc.

4. Create a master list of veggies your family enjoys

i.e. peas and tomatoes (tomatoes count??)

Ok, discounting my 1 year old:  peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, salad

5. Mix and match and make it dinner!

Things like pasta dinners and stir frys totally count here, too.

Easy peasy (pun always intended.)

Create that master list…you now have a system! Just plug it into your weekly routine.

The post A Simple Framework for Easy Dinner Ideas Your Whole Family Will Love appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

Sunday rolls around, and it occurs to you that you should put some effort into your menu for the next week. But then other things get in the way – family time, cleaning, prepping for the week, and so on.

All the sudden it’s Monday night and you’re looking into the deep void of your fridge, deciding what to make for dinner.

Decisions, decisions…   

One thing I’ve solidified over the past year into my routine and positive habits is planning out my and my family’s menu for the week ahead. Or at least for breakfast and dinner. Lunches are easier to fly by the seat of my (yoga)pants, personally.

I’ll get new cookbooks, rely on go-to food blogger recipes, or use the list of endless options created for my membership program and create the menu…

Or..

Or, I’ll follow this simple framework:

Protein + Carb + Veggie = Dinner

Now, I know this isn’t revolutionary, but that’s not where the framework stops. There’s a liiiiittle more planning involved.

1. Create a master list of proteins that you and your family enjoy

I.e. ground beef, salmon, shrimp, cod, beef stew meat, etc.

2. Add a few seasoning options or marinades that will work with each protein

I like to rely on TJ’s seasonings, seasoning packets, and quick and easy marinades (helloooo freezer packs of marinaded chicken tenders for easy thaw + cook nights!)

i.e. chorizo seasoning, garlic blend, cajun seasoning, italian seasoning, stuff to make meatballs, etc. I like to rely on TJ’s seasonings, seasoning packets, and quick and easy marinades (helloooo freezer packs of marinaded chicken tenders for easy thaw + cook nights!) )

3. Create a master list of carbs your family enjoys

i.e. sweet potatoes, parsnips, rice, quinoa, etc.

4. Create a master list of veggies your family enjoys

i.e. peas and tomatoes (tomatoes count??)

Ok, discounting my 1 year old:  peas, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, spaghetti squash, salad

5. Mix and match and make it dinner!

Things like pasta dinners and stir frys totally count here, too.

Easy peasy (pun always intended.)

Create that master list…you now have a system! Just plug it into your weekly routine.

The post appeared first on Paige Kumpf.

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Secondly, did you know you can petition to have a TJ’s open in your city?

Anywhoo, I received lots of positive feedback from my first Trader Joe’s meal prep meals post, so the other week I went back with the same goal in mind — but with 5 different meals.

And again — all of the meals below take minimum time to prep, and not much time to cook either.

Meal 1 – Shrimp, Sausage + Peppers sheet pan

Meal 2 – Za’atar Pork Tenderloin Sheet Pan

 

Meal 3 – Lemon Garlic Chicken Sheet Pan

Meal 4  – Fajita Sheet Pan 

The post More Easy Trader Joe’s Meal Prep Meals appeared first on Paige Kumpf.