How to Reset a Slow Metabolism
Is your metabolism slow? Learn how to fix a slow metabolism when you have plateaued and are no longer losing weight with these 6 steps.
See if this sounds familiar to you. You’ve been working out hard for a while, dieting and running. At first, you were seeing really good results from your effort (assuming your goal was losing body fat). But then as you keep going, progress seems to slow to a crawl or stops altogether.
What do you usually do at that point? You start pushing your foot harder on the gas pedal, so to speak, demanding more from your body and eating even less. For a time that might work but then the same thing happens. Your progress stalls or stops AGAIN and now you are even more drained and hungry than you were before. Maybe this cycle has occurred again and again. Super frustrating!
Perhaps this is happening to you or you know someone that this is the case for. They complain that no matter what they do they can’t seem to lose any fat or they keep regaining the same body fat back over and over. Right about now we start blaming age or our genetics for the problem. Now those things will play SOME role of course but what if I were to tell you that how you treat your metabolism can tell it either to slow down OR to speed up.
Your metabolism and specifically your metabolic rate is quite frankly the most important piece of equipment you have in your proverbial tool bag. The current state of your metabolism is your KEY to getting where you want to go.
So what exactly is metabolism
If your metabolism were a Facebook relationship status it would say “It’s complicated”. The metabolism is a complex piece of machinery and a full discussion of every aspect of it is beyond the scope of this post.
It IS however important to understand the basic purpose of the metabolism, which is to convert food into energy in order to run cellular functions. It is literally ALL the chemical reactions that occur in your body to sustain and maintain your life. It’s kind of a big deal.
Knowing this is important because your fuel/food intake, specifically how much you consume relative to what your body's needs are is intimately related to how well your body functions and is able to sustain itself.
There is no fooling your metabolism. It knows EXACTLY what it needs based on what your body is being asked to do. Those jobs include important things such as keeping your brain and organs running on top of any other tasks you ask of your body. IE running that ½ marathon or trying to lose those 10lbs of extra body fat through diet and exercise. It knows what it wants or at least what it thinks it needs based on its current expectations.
Thermostat vs. calculator model
When discussing fitness or fat loss all too often we are led to believe that our metabolism is a simple calculator. Take in less energy than you put out = fat loss at a steady consistent rate. This model, however, is not a very accurate representation of how the metabolism works.
Your metabolism is an adaptive animal. Your metabolic rate adjusts to better keep you alive. It cares more about your organ function first and foremost, not your athletic endeavors or desire to lose fat. If it’s under stress and being asked to do a lot with very little it’s going to start fighting back by slowing down and wanting to hold on to the “rainy day fund” around your midsection or decrease the energy you have for that athletic endeavor and your performance will suffer.
The metabolism is better represented as a furnace and how hot or cold that furnace burns can change! The heat of your furnace will determine if you are making continued progress in your goals or are stalling out. The good news is that if it’s currently low it can be told to turn up!
What causes your metabolism to slow down?
The act of the metabolic rate adjusting is known as adaptive thermogenesis. This slowdown of your RMR (resting metabolic rate) or a general reduction in calorie burn can occur usually for 4 primary reasons:
Not eating enough. Eating much less than your body needs over an extended period of time.
Your body getting more efficient at the exercises you perform. This overtime means you are actually burning fewer calories to perform the same amount of work than you did when you first started out. Your body becomes more efficient and requires less energy to repeat the same activity.
Chronic stress causing hormonal dysfunction. That goes for all stress on our bodies. Emotional stress, work stress, diet stress, exercise stress, lack of sleep, etc. Stress is stress and your hypothalamus which helps regulate your metabolism via hormones is intricately linked to your nervous system. Also, as stress levels increase so does the hormone Cortisol which can inhibit thyroid stimulating hormones, the messengers between the hypothalamus and the thyroid gland. This is why high levels of stress (good or bad) over time can have a negative impact on the function of your metabolism.
Losing muscle (or just not having very much to begin with).
Fat Loss and metabolic slowdown
Everyone’s goal should be to try and maintain their metabolic capacity as much as possible.
That said, for fat loss to occur there are two universal truths to keep in mind:
You must be in a calorie/energy deficit
You must work to balance your hormones
For better or worse with a reduced calorie intake and exercise you are going to experience a slow down or metabolic compensation.
The rate at which one's metabolic rate slows down is an individual thing. Everyone’s system is unique. On average when someone is in an energy deficit the slowdown of metabolic rate can range between 200-800kcal/day or on average about 300kcal/day.
With any fat loss program at times, it usually becomes necessary to drop calories lower and/or increase exercise in order to continue to see progress. Such is the nature of the beast. Again you should only adjust this when progress completely stalls as you want to be able to eat as much as you can get away with for as long as you can and still net results. Jumping to a very low-calorie diet right away is a common mistake as this leaves you less room to drop down as your metabolism compensates (If you are already at a low-calorie point and not seeing results the next section is for you).
For example, two people start a fat loss diet and person A starts at 2,500 calories (based on their TDEE or total daily energy expenditure) and person B starts at 1,500 calories.
Person A has a LOT more dieting capacity and wiggle room. They can eat more food and still create an energy deficit. They also have more room for error. That 250 calorie cookie they eat at lunch isn’t going to take quite as big a bite out of their daily calorie allowance as person B who is more calorie poor.
Metabolic damage symptoms
When your metabolism gets increasingly stressed you will experience:
Increased hunger
A drop in energy levels
Increased cravings
ALL this is done to try and force you to take in the energy (aka food) that your body wants.
When this happens, your hormones start getting out of balance and typically after a while we cave on our low-calorie diet. Now, since you have a slower resting metabolic rate 2 things can happen:
You regain the fat you worked hard to lose.
Your body overcompensates and you end up gaining even more weight than what you started with. Not ideal.
Depending on one’s diet history, the hard facts of life are your metabolism may no longer be set up to let you continue to lose body fat. If you have been in a chronic low energy state through a combination of low-calorie intake and exercise AND not seeing the results you are after your metabolism and hormones are probably hitting the brakes pretty hard and won’t play the fat loss game any further. Your metabolism has probably compensated pretty hard to make up for the imbalance it has been dealing with in its energy budget and dialed that furnace way down.
The trick is not JUST to work harder but work SMARTER and understand that at times increasing your metabolic capacity and INCREASING calories is the way forward.
Increase your metabolic or dieting capacity with reverse dieting.
Let me give you a hint. Eating smaller frequent meals has nothing to do with ramping up your metabolism. Meal frequency or meal timing can have different effects on your body but has nothing to do with increasing your RMR.
The first thing to do is to stop what you are doing, which is probably just more of the same and think differently. It might be time to start reversing metabolic damage by SLOWLY start adding calories back into your diet, releasing the hormonal brakes on your metabolism and focusing on anabolic (aka. muscle building) activities.
6 Steps to Resetting Your Metabolism When it’s No Longer Working for You:
Start a food log. If you haven’t ever kept a food log now is the time. It’s not hard. It just takes some discipline and practice to get a feel for it. I really like using MyFitnessPal for this task. You might find that on your average week or day you are actually taking in FAR MORE calories than you previously thought. This might be the reason for you stalling out on your fat loss. If you are hungry, have low energy and your cravings are high, however, I guarantee you that eating too much isn’t your problem. Keeping a food log is going to be the tool you will use to help you understand where you are now and how to SLOWLY increase your calories.
Have an intelligent macro (carbs, fats, proteins) approach. Arguing for or against a certain macro percentage or eating style is not the focus of this post and could be a much larger discussion but I would just say make an informed decision about what your plan will entail and follow that in relation to your calorie budget. Balance is key. If you haven’t had a macro plan previously I would suggest starting with either:
50% carb / 30% protein / 20% fat
40% carb / 30% protein / 30% fat.
Reverse diet. Yes. You still get to diet! Just in reverse! This is not a free for all. This is still eating with goals and guidelines in mind. This is the part however where you get to start adding more calories back in on a weekly basis. Again the keyword when adding calories is....SLOWLY.
If you have been eating 1,200 calories for quite some time and you just start adding in tons of extra calories you are just going to put on a lot of extra weight which isn’t the goal. Your goal is to increase as much as possible but have your body still maintain homeostasis. I.E. Your weight and/or your body shape should remain fairly close to where you started. That said if you are very underweight or have been treating carbs like they are the spawn of Satan you most likely will see an initial WEIGHT fluctuation. That’s ok though! Remember not to let your emotions run away with you and start associating WEIGHT with FAT. It’s not the same thing.
On a weekly basis, you are going to add in 50-100 calories or 2-3% of your body weight. Follow the plan for a week, check in at the end of your weekly cycle and EITHER increase again if your body is relatively close to your starting point OR hold steady for another week and check back in after your body has reached more of a point of homeostasis. Remember your metabolism slowed down over time it’s going to take a bit of time to build it back up. Enjoy eating more and having more energy!
Start focusing on muscle-building anabolic workouts. Building up muscle requires energy both to build and more importantly to maintain when at rest. IE. You get to eat more and still look awesome.
Muscle building activities stokes the anabolic hormones of the body and revs your metabolism up. This is not sex-dependent! This goes for both men AND women. You don’t need to train like a pro bodybuilder but you should be incorporating some heavy, challenging weights (for you) into your week and continuing to add challenge week to week. If you are lifting the same weight over and over you aren’t stimulating the muscles or the anabolic (building) process the same way after a certain point. Again if your metabolism is your focus, some strength training should be as well.
Get adequate sleep. Remember how we talked about chronic stress having a detrimental effect on your hormones and your nervous system? Well getting enough sleep is part of how your body recovers and recoups itself. Your general aim should be to get about 7-9hrs a night. Getting enough sleep in our busy world is seemingly harder and harder to do but just make it your aim to improve it if you are currently getting way less than you should.
Reduce stress. Suffering from low motivation? Low energy during the day? Low sex drive? Feeling depressed? Have no energy to do your workouts? Feeling run down often? Unreasonably anxious? Surprise! You’re probably dealing with chronic stress at some level. Stress is fine. Chronic stress is not. It wreaks havoc on your nervous system, and your hormonal balance let alone your quality of life. Remember balancing hormones is also a part of healing your metabolism or at least getting your hormones more willing to play the fat loss game or improve sports performance. A constant state of stress is not going to let your body recover the way it should. The first step is to identify what is causing your stress and then work on it as if your health depends on it…because it does. What you need to do to improve stress will be different for everyone. For some, it actually might mean exercising less. For others, it could mean incorporating yoga and a hot bath into their week. Or maybe just more time with friends and loved ones. Work to find strategies to improve your current stress status and not just hoping it will go away.
How long does it take to reset your metabolism? There is no real answer to that because every BODY is unique. In the end, remember ber progress, not perfection is the goal. If you are moving in the right direction and taking steps forward you will feel like a success. Focus on the journey and the big picture. Don’t get caught up in the craze of quick fixes or just repeating the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Sometimes the way forward is for you to stop, breathe and refuel your body so that you can continue making progress on your big long-term goals.
Is your metabolism slow? If you have been struggling with a slow metabolism and haven’t been getting the results you want from your training program, then contact us! We offer nutrition and workout plans that are custom-tailored for our clients both in-person in Denver and virtually all over the globe.
I’m a personal trainer in Denver and an online training coach and have been training clients for over 11 years. I’m passionate about teaching my clients how to get their dream body and helping them reach their health and fitness goals. In an industry driven by fads and hype, I strive to be a sound voice helping to filter the noise out for my clients so they can focus on just the things that matter. I believe looking your best and feeling great isn’t just a destination but a lifetime of good habits put into practice. Get my Top 5 Ab Moves HERE.
Weight Loss vs. Fat Loss - What’s the Difference?
Losing fat and losing weight is NOT the same thing. Learn the difference plus how you can track progress when fat loss is your goal.
Often when we discuss losing weight, we are really discussing fat. The problem is that they are not a one-to-one thing but we emotionally think they are.
Too often we are dictated by the tyranny of what the scale says, we think it’s telling us exactly how “fat” we are in a given moment. It goes up, it goes down, and at times it seems to have a mind of its own.
It can really mess with your mind when you’ve been working out, are feeling good, and visually look better, but STILL, the scale weight either stays the same, barely changes, or even (God forbid) goes up! Many times, as a trainer, I have to talk folks off the ledge when this happens. What gives!
Unfortunately, the scale is often the ONLY tool folks use to track whether or not they are losing body fat and the scale number comes to define whether they are being successful or not.
What does the number on the scale really mean?
Truthfully, for a fat loss goal, the scale by itself is a fairly crappy measuring tool. It will tell you your weight but it can’t differentiate WHAT that weight is composed of. Items such as fat, muscle, water, waste, and so on. Your scale weight is simply your current relationship to gravity. That’s it. We all (me included) attach too much emotion to what that number sometimes signifies.
Our body weight is constantly changing a little bit up and down every day. The scale can’t tell us what percentage of our weight is water at a given moment (more or less dehydrated), whether we have gained muscle from training, lost some body fat, what one’s current hormonal state (ie. where someone could be in their menstrual cycle), what current waste is being held in our bowels or bladder, or whether we have been having more (or less) carbohydrates in our diet.
For example, for every 1g of carb you take in, your body also holds onto about 3g of water. So if you consume, say, an extra 200g of carbs on a given day, that’s an extra 600g of water right there. 1lb = approx 454g so that 200 grams of carbs you just ate represents almost 2 more lbs right there between food and water in your system.
Losing fat and losing weight are NOT the same thing.
They have a relationship but they are not one in the same. It’s important to try and emotionally understand that, as hard as it is sometimes. What you SHOULD focus on most when thinking about losing WEIGHT is actually losing body fat, gaining muscle, and, in turn, changing the SHAPE of your body.
Really, in the end, that is what we mean by losing weight. We really want to feel a certain way or look a certain way. 1lb of fat takes up a lot more space in the body than 1lb of muscle.
For example, if you lost 5lbs of body fat BUT also GAINED 5lbs of muscle, you would weigh the same on the scale but would look much different and your body would have a different shape.
Here are 4 tips for measuring your progress:
First things first. If you are trying to lose body fat, focus on making a plan, following a reasonable, balanced nutrition and fitness plan and stick to it. When you track anything, scale weight or not, it should be measured against how your plan is working out or not.
1) Reduce your frequency of getting on the scale
If you are a chronic weight scale checker I encourage you to reduce the frequency you get on it and torture yourself. I have absolutely no problem with checking body weight but anything more than 1x a week or every other week is plenty. Remember that the scale weight doesn’t give you the whole story, it won’t take into account other factors such as fat, muscle, water weight, waste, food, bloat, etc.
2) Take circumference measurements
In addition to checking your body weight, another tool you should be using is a tape measure to take circumference measurements. You can buy a very inexpensive tape measure for under $4 and take them at home. Remember that when your goal is to change your waistline or body shape, a tape measure is going to be a much better tool to use than a scale to measure and track changes in your body.
3) Measure with a piece of clothing
One of our favorite measuring tools with clients in our programs besides photos and circumference measurements is using a piece of clothing to measure progress. usually, a pair of tighter pants or jeans works well. You can check progress every 2-4 weeks and see if they start to become looser on you.
4) Take pictures to track your progress
It can be very easy to forget what your body looked like before you started on your fat loss journey. Even if you are noticing changes, they most likely are subtle changes over days, weeks, or months and you are not going to really remember precisely where you started. As much as we all hate taking pictures of our bodies when we are not in our best shape, just DO IT! We have had clients tell us that they don’t think they’ve made much progress with the way their body looks, only to find out later that they actually made HUGE progress in their body composition when looking at their before and after photos side-by-side. It’s easy to forget where you started once you’ve already made progress and only see the way your new body looks.
Once you take your “before” photos just set them aside and forget about them for the moment. Don’t sit there and judge them. If you are making changes you WILL look differently as you go and really what the end product looks like is much more important than where you started. We recommend taking updated progress photos every 2-4 weeks and throwing them into that same folder to look at down the road when you are ready or entering the photos into a fitness app that will allow you to see your progress shots side-by-side. When taking your photos, try taking them at the same time of day, morning is usually best, and if possible, in the same outfit or swimsuit. Again, If you are serious about making a healthy lifestyle change, and staying consistent with your workout and nutrition plan, you WILL see major changes in your body!
Whatever you choose to do to track your progress, just remember, that body weight and body fat are not the same thing and that the scale is mostly just telling you your relationship to gravity in a given moment. Change doesn’t happen overnight so just keep focusing on making positive changes for your body through good nutrition and fitness habits. Your hard work WILL pay off in the end!
Want to reduce inflammation and lose fat for good? Start by downloading our free guide: 5 Easy Steps to Beating Belly Bloat!
We are Chris and Amber, a husband and wife team dedicated to helping you improve your nutritional and personal fitness habits for a better lifestyle. If you have issues with bloating, inability to lose fat, brain fog, or are in need of a proven nutrition and fitness plan to get you out of a rut, then sign up for our 28-Day Beat Belly Bloat Program today!
5 Tips to Avoid Holiday Procrastinating So You Can Crush Your Health and Fitness Goals
5 Tips for how to avoid holiday procrastinating so you can crush your health and fitness goals.
The holidays, believe it or not, are just around the corner! Amber and I have been seeing Christmas displays popping up in stores recently, which absolutely blows my mind, given that’s it just the mid-October! At least wait till November folks!
Seeing Halloween decorations and costumes next to Christmas trees is pretty hilarious though. The reason I bring up the holidays is that NOW is the time to start up building good fitness habits instead of after the holidays!
Every year, I see folks waiting until after the New Year to implement a fitness and nutrition program thinking that’s the best approach. Remember 2 or 3 months from now is a decent chunk out of the year - that’s 16 – 20% of your year!
After the fallout of the holidays, not only are you then trying to FINALLY establish good workout and nutrition habits BUT also typically digging out of a MASSIVE hole that was dug over the months around the holidays eating season.
The statistics of post-New Year fitness habits actually sticking around are pretty bleak because you don’t already have those good habits put into place after eating and drinking a lot over the past few months. It can also be confusing not knowing what workouts you should be doing and can be discouraging.
Plus It’s cold and dark out. It takes some will power to get out and get your butt to the gym. Losing those inches around the waistline takes more time then people believe and too often folks quickly throw in the towel.
Hopefully now you see that the urge to procrastinate on your health and fitness goals is a huge mistake and is one that the AVERAGE person unfortunately often makes.
We don’t want you to be average! We want you to separate yourself from the average and choose something different.
NOW is the time to start building those habits! TODAY is the day you do that workout. Not 2 months from now. Doing something that builds up your good habits and helps you feel fitter and stronger is going to pay off in the end.
If you start focusing on your nutrition and building a fitness habit now, you will go into the holidays actually burning more through building exercise and establishing better eating habits. So when the holiday parties roll around, you can enjoy it guilt free and know that you have prepared your body to be able to put those extra fun calories to good use in the gym!
EVEN IF all you end up doing is staying mostly the same, CONGRATULATIONS!!! The average weight GAINED during the holidays is 10+lbs so you’ve avoided that AND you have the habits necessary to sustain you post holidays.
The urge to procrastinate is a strong one and one that I have to fight off as well.
Don’t wait for things to be perfect to get started because there will never be that perfect time. Focus instead on the little things that build you up towards your future self. Focus on the things you CAN do!
5 Tips for how to avoid holiday procrastinating so you can crush your health and fitness goals:
#1: Ask yourself what motivates you to get the results you want to see? What drives you?
This is your chance to stop and listen to yourself, cut out the outside noise and see what intrinsically motivates you. Write it down! Be specific! General responses tend to lead to general outcomes.
#2: Get started by establishing a short term goal with a reward at the end.
Wanting to lose 50 lbs is awesome but why not start with actions that lead you towards that goals such as going to the gym 4 days a week for the next 2 weeks. When you do that, plan a little reward for yourself. The brain likes to be rewarded and it feels good to accomplish something you set out to do. Once you’ve accomplished that, they shoot for another 2 weeks.
#3: Practice visualization.
You need to actually envision the future, see your future self and imagine what you will look like, how your clothes will fit, and how it will feel to like to achieve this for yourself. Some of the most accomplished athletes and people in the world make this a practice. You are training your mind to help you accomplish the tasks you need in order to achieve your goal.
#4: Prioritize the tasks that are going to lead you to success.
Now that you know what you would like to achieve, you’ve clearly defined what that is and you can see yourself doing it. Now is the time to cut out the distractions. Every one of us has 24 hours in a day. Most often the things that aren’t as important will just end up taking care of themselves if you can just FOCUS on the things that matter. Stop with the illusion of multitasking. Often the multitudes of things that you are juggling are just keeping you feeling busy but robbing you of focus. Focus on your priorities before even worrying about the other things.
#5: Get in there and get messy!
Life is messy and so is starting something new. Just make a mess and get started. It doesn’t have to be perfect as long as you make an effort. Your future self will be very grateful you did!
Learn How to Stop Bloat From Happening
Want to reduce inflammation and lose fat for good? Start by downloading our free guide: 5 Easy Steps to Beating Belly Bloat!
We are Chris and Amber, a husband and wife team dedicated to helping you improve your nutritional and personal fitness habits for a better lifestyle. If you have issues with bloating, inability to lose fat, brain fog, or are in need of a proven nutrition and fitness plan to get you out of a rut, then sign up for our 28-Day Beat Belly Bloat Program today!
Stairs Are Your Mortal Enemy: The Leg Workout
If you are looking to change up your leg routine or just bored and want to try something different and aren’t afraid of a little pain and suffering (it’s worth it in the end) then give this leg routine a shot. Remember, tears are just weakness leaving your body. Haha kidding!
Warm up:
Plank: 2-3 minutes total time
Side plank: 90 seconds per side total time
Single leg glute bridges - 30 reps per side
Walking lunges, bodyweight - 45 seconds
Workout:
1) Walking barbell lunges (use dumbbells if barbell isn’t possible): 4 sets
> 12 steps out and 12 steps back (count each step).
> Add 20-40lbs in weight per set for a barbell or 5-10lbs for dumbbells.
> 60-90 seconds rest between sets.
2) Incline leg press: 2 sets x 100
> That’s right. 100 reps per set. Try and get as low as you can for a full range of motion and push out as many as you can in one go. If you need to (you’ll need to) take a SHORT rest pause between reps till you are at 100. The rest pause is just that, a pause. The break comes after the 100 reps.
> If it starts to really suck around 20-25 reps keep going, you are doing it right.
> Put an appropriate amount of weight on. Hint. It will be a lot less than your usual strength sets. ie. If you are pushing 6+ 45lb plates for sets of 10-12 you are putting 2 plates on.
> Rest 2 minutes before diving into your second set.
3) Leg extension drop sets: 3 sets x 10,10,10 (each set consists of 30 reps total)
> Put on the most weight you think you can do for 10 reps and then immediately drop the weight down after the first 10 to a lighter weight and do the same thing. Do that once more to finish out the set. You’ll do a total of 30 reps per set
4) Lying leg curls, with toes pointed: 4 x 10-12 reps
> Point your toes while doing this exercise. You’ll use less weight then you are used to but by pointing your toes your calves can’t assist at the knee to help move the weight so the hamstring will be doing all of the work and not your calf.
> Rest 60 seconds.
5.) Barbell glute bridges: 4x 12-15 reps
> Do this exercise if possible with your upper back on a bench with the bar across your hips. You might want to add a pad to the bar so that it doesn’t dig in too much. If you are doing a fair amount of weight (you should be) then that can be a real life saver. Once you have lifted the bar up and are in bridge position, hold onto the bar as you do the exercise. Make sure you are supported enough with your upper/middle back on the bench so that you don’t feel like you are sliding off the bench when sitting down.
> Rest 60 seconds.
This workout will take anywhere from 60-90 minutes.
Have fun and let me know how it goes!
Disclaimer: I earn a small commission if you use some of the highlighted links to purchase products mentioned in this blog/website. I recommend only products that I would use my own home or that I would recommend to clients.
Amazon Disclaimer: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.
Get Cut Like a Jack-O-Lantern Kettlebell Workout
What’s up guys! It’s hard to believe that October is already here and soon Halloween will be knocking on our door. What the @!&@# happened! Personally, I love the months of September/October. As much as I love summer, the warm weather, going to the beach and not having to bundle up in a million layers, fall is one of the best times of the year. The air is crisp, the changing of the leaves are awesome and as great as summer is, it’s great to have a break from 90 degree weather with humidity. Fall adds balance and symmetry to the year.
As we train, balance and symmetry are also what we are chasing with our workouts. Whether you are seeking symmetry just for aesthetics or muscular balance and control to be better able to move and perform outside the gym, balance is a key component to that. Balance from our left to right side and front and back of our bodies.
With that in mind, today’s kettlebell workout will focus on unilateral movements combined with supersets. Supersets are performing two exercises back to back with no rest in-between. If you haven’t used supersets before they are a great way to really up the intensity factor and get yourself going. Not only that but they can allow you to pack in more work in less time. There are many ways to do supersets but for this workout we’ll have you targeting the same muscles for each pair of exercises.
So get ready to push yourself with this pre-Halloween workout, but most of all have fun with it and keep challenging yourself!
Perform each pair of exercises then rest; repeat the same pair for 3 (or 4) sets
Sets: 3x (4 if being ambitious)
Reps: 15
Rest: 45 seconds between supersets
** Perform a dynamic warm-up to prep your body to train**
Let's Get Started
1A.) Single arm overhead shoulder press
1B.) Single arm upright row
(do both these exercises for reps on one side and then transfer over and do the same on the other side)
2A) Bent over single arm row, elbow in close to the body leaving your hand in a neutral grip postion
2B) 2 arm kettlebell swing X 2 (1 set after each set of rows)
(do the row for reps on one side, the kettlebell swing, then transfer over and do row on the other side followed by another kettlebell swing)
3A) Single arm press laying on the floor
3B) Push-ups – as many as possible (AMAP)
Regress this exercise if you need to. Knee pushups, or pushups on a raised surface will work. Keep form good! Put your knees down or work at an angle if your pushup form looks like a wet noddle with no core/trunk stability
4A) Single leg squat (weight held by your side on the same side as your squatting leg)
Regress to two legged squats if your balance or strength won’t allow you to single leg squat yet. Hold the kettlebell in the rack position for this regression. Each circuit switch up which side you hold the weight on.
4B) Single leg deadlift (hold the weight in the OPPOSITE hand from the leg you are standing on)
Regress to two feet on the ground and two hands on the kettlebell if unable to stand on 1 leg
5A) Seated Russian twist
5B) Crunches – 20-50 reps depending on ability
Full Body Kettlebell Workout For Beginners
Fall is officially here, it is time to stop slacking, get back to the weights and put the work in! Hopefully, the summer happy hours and vacation off-plan eating didn’t wreck you too badly! We’ve all been there… I mean, I haven’t (who am I kidding), but I understand things happen. Haha! Fall is a season of change and if you are looking for a new and exciting way to change up your workouts, kettlebells might be the answer. So have some fun, mix things up, and start adding some kettlebell work into your weekly workout routine.
Strength in large part is a neuromuscular skill. It’s not simply about having more muscle mass. When you train with kettlebells, you are working on improving the skill of your nervous system. The purpose is not to approach it like a traditional body part split routine training only parts of the body but working to improve how your body moves as a unit. Control, speed, accuracy, and consistency that you can skillfully apply are the goal. As your movement patterns improve and your body adapts, your ability to work with heavier loads and do more complicated moves will bring about the strength that most of us are after.
Aside from strength, doing this circuit is also an awesome way to get off the treadmill or other machine and start using your body for real to do cardio. Instead of jumping on a machine for a one plane of motion boring routine think about picking up a kettlebell and using more muscles to achieve better results!
Circuit: 3x
Reps: 15-20
Rest: 60-90 seconds between circuits
** Perform a dynamic warm-up to get the body better ready to move
NOTE: during the circuit don’t put the kettlebell down unless you are moving to another exercise & you have to or you need to grab a heavier or lighter kettlebell to work with. Your goal should be to be able to do all the exercises with the same weight.
Let's Get Started!
1.) Goblet squat
2.) Deadlift
3.) Rack postion, single arm front squat (10 right, 10 left)
4.) Single arm overhead shoulder press
5.) Standing upright row (2 hands on the kettlebell)
6.) Pushups, 1 hand on the kettlebell, one on the floor
a. Regress this exercise if you need to. Knee pushups, or regular pushups on the floor or a raised surface will work.
7.) Wide elbow, bent over kettlebell row
8.) Front plank (on forearms) - 30 seconds, Side plank - 30 seconds, Side plank - 30 seconds
a. Try and transition from front to side planks without coming down to the floor
What The Hell Are Kettlebells? And What’s With All That Swinging?
Kettlebells have been around for a really long time and are nothing new to fitness, but in the last 5-10 years kettlebells have become much more prevalent in the big box/corporate gyms that many of us go to. Unless you are the gym, Planet Fitness…. Then you have only treadmills, a smith machine and a small smattering of dumbbells. I kid! Not really though. Just make sure not to make any noise or put any effort in there or you might be asked to leave. Ok! Mini rant over. Ha!
Kettlebells originated out of Eastern Europe many moons ago. As folklore would have it Kettlebells were used as counterweights in Russian markets, then after hours when the market closed, farmers would use the Kettlebells to swing and toss around both for fun and for physical exercise.
As with most resistance training techniques the Russians/Eastern Europe where the first to start incorporating kettlebells for exercise. In the 1980s Russia, Kettlebells started to be used to raise the popularity of physical culture. In 1981, the USSR Weightlifting Federation established a Kettlebell commission in order to keep the masses fit and help decrease healthcare costs. Kettlebells were an easy way to get weights in people’s hands and get them moving without having to have an entire collection or different weights and machines.
The USSR had a unique position in history.
- They had complete control over what to use/promote for health and fitness
- They had the most advanced sports and human performance scientists at the time
- A need to minimize upfront costs & a desire to reduce long term health expenses
- Desire to maximize the longevity and work capacity of its population
Their choice of tool to achieve these goals was the Kettlebell. Today, we live in a society that’s sole motive is to sell and market without a need or concern if what they are selling is actually achieving the results that are desired.
Kettlebells are about efficiency. Efficiency of movement, cost , space needed and they are multipurpose. Perfect for a home gym setup as all you need is 1-2 appropriately challenging Kettlebells, a little bit of space and you have a home gym!
Another aspect that makes Kettlebells unique from other weights is that the weight is not perfectly centered in the hand. The weight and center of gravity is away from the hand on a handle and better mimics objects that one would actually come into contact with in the real world. ie. A backpack. You have a strap with off centered weight from the handle or strap. The take away here is that Kettlebells will better mimic the type of objects we will actually encounter in the real world.
The benefits of Kettlebells include:
- Strength
- Endurance
- Caloric expenditure
- Functianal movement patterns
- Improvement in timing and space awareness
- Better balance
- Improved coordination
- Focus
- Injury prevention
Injury prevention is one of the big benefits of Kettlebells. Most often injuries incur during deceleration of weight . For example jumping. Landing and absorbing the force of the jump is where most people injure themselves. Not the initial leap. Kettlebells help teach your body to better manipulate weight that is not perfectly centered in your hand and to better absorb force through rapid, smooth deceleration by spreading forces through the body. Kettlebells help promote trunk stability and encourage hip dominant movement.
In summary, Kettlebells are great for training the body to manipulate weight more efficiently, learning to absorb force through the body, are low cost and easy to have and use for home (or in the gym) to achieve great results in less time.
“Physical fitness is the ability to carry out daily tasks with vigor and alertness without undue fatigue and ample energy to enjoy leisure time pursuits and meet unforeseen emergencies”. - According to The President’s Council on Physical Fitness and Sport
So the next time you are thinking about what to add to your home gym arsenal without spending a fortune or you want to add a new challenge to your body and shake up how you go about your workouts give Kettlebells a try!
Full Body Stability/Strength Workout that Will Kick Your Ass (If you do it right)
This workout is a great way to use those dumbbells that you may have lying around your house and squeeze out more strength and value from them. If you are in the gym you can take your pick with any dumbbell you think you can use and keep the tempo and form. At home you are probably limited to 1-3 different dumbbell weights so your options are more limited… but that’s ok! The slower tempo (if done right) is going to make the workout and exercises much more challenging!
Equipment:
Stability ball
1 or 2 dumbbells
Strategies Used:
Circuits
Slower tempo (4/2/1 count)
Approximately 4 second to lower a weight or your body, 2 seconds to hold and stabilize the weight, 1 second to press or pull a weight
Variables:
- Circuit: 2x through working up to 3x through
- Reps: 20
- Tempo: slow (4/2/1)
Full Body Stability/Strength Workout
1A) Stability Ball plank: 30-60 seconds
- Forearms on ball, feet on floor
1B) Glute bridge on the stability ball
- Upper back on ball face up position
- 2 seconds squeeze at the top of the movement
1C) Single arm stability ball DB chest press
- Lay on the stability ball so that your head and upper back are supported and your hips are lifted. Feet should be about hip to shoulder width apart with your feet staying straight
NOTE: Regress to 2 arms if you are feeling too unstable or can’t maintain form
1D) Standing Single arm “birddog” row
- Start with left hand on ball and a dumbbell in your right; hinge at the waist so that the opposite leg from your rowing arm is lifted up and pointed straight back (maintained through the whole movement).
1E) Single leg squat OR slow tempo squat
1F) Standing single leg/single arm dumbbell side raise
- ie. Stand on your left leg and with the weight in your left hand bring the weight out to your side approximately shoulder height. Hold the weight at the top for 2 seconds before slowly lowering back to your side and repeat for reps.
Weight Training 101: Choose the Right Weight for Strength
One of the biggest mistakes I usually see in the gym is guys lifting weights that are clearly too heavy for them and are either half repping it or swinging the hell out of the weight and lifting with momentum. On the other end, you see girls lifting too light of a weight to effectively challenge their muscles. Although these criminal offenders are on the polar opposite of the weight spectrum, they both have essentially the same issue. They have chosen the wrong weight to create the appropriate amount of tension. In simple terms, how a muscle gets stronger is through a damage/repair cycle. By creating micro tears in a muscle through resistance training the body is sent a signal that it needs to repair those tears and increase the strength of the given muscle fiber. If the weight is too light, not much is going on. If the weight is too heavy, the person is probably not going through a full range of movement or cheating in some form or fashion just to move the weight and isn't placing full focus on the targeted area.
For example swinging up a bicep curl and using a lot of momentum to carry you through the movement and/or leaning back to assist you in bringing the weight up is taking a lot of focus off your bicep and instead putting more work in your back and shoulders and hips to help generate the necessary force to bring the weight up. An important thing to remember is that our muscles are blind as a bat. They have no idea what weight you are picking up, all they know is what kind of tension is being placed on them. We often get caught up with the number on a given weight (myself included) but you've got to remind yourself that what's most important is the tension. One of the best ways to really emphasize the tension being placed on the muscle is to concentrate on the negative or eccentric part of the movement. For example, when doing a dumbbell chest press lower the weight down in a slow controlled manner (2-4 seconds) to increase the time under tension for the muscle and then continue to push the weight away from your body on a 1-2 count. You will quickly feel how much more difficult a given exercise becomes and how much greater the tension being placed on the muscle is.
For guys, this can be a great way to take a step back and make sure that you are lifting a weight that you can actually handle, going through a full range of movement with that controlled eccentric tempo sometimes means going down in weight but you can sometimes get much more superior results with that increased discipline.
For women, if you are feeling stuck at a given weight or don't feel confident in taking that next jump up this same technique is a great way for you to continue to squeeze out as much value from the same weight you have been using. Remember if your goal is strong, lean muscle and you are able to do 12 reps, it's time for you to step it up in the weight department to continue to progressively overload the muscle to get stronger!
So the next time you are at the gym DON'T be that guy or girl. Now you know better! Keep lifting and working hard and results will come.
Ditch Empty Calories and Eat Real Food for Real Weight Loss
It's mid-December and everyone is already buzzing about their New Year's Resolutions to lose weight. You may be hearing a lot about detoxes or juice cleanses that will help to shed those pounds you gained over the holidays. But today we want to just stick with the basics: empty calories and exercise. We always hear so much about how to lose the weight the fast way but we want to talk about the reason so many of us are in this situation in the first place and what it would realistically take to lose the weight. NOT all calories are the same. In a day and age when so many foods we get are processed and packaged and picked up at a drive through window so many of the calories we are actually taking in end up being empty calorie foods which are calorie dense but are nutritionally devoid. Empty calories are the walking dead of calories. They pack all the punch calorically often have lots of sugars but are devoid of the fiber, vitamins and minerals that the body requires. All those empty calories that don’t truly feed the body also take a lot of effort to work off.
Here are some average calories burned after walking or jogging 1 mile:
100lb person: 70-90 calories 150lb person: 90-110 calories 200lb person: 110-140 calories 250lb person: 140-170 calories
Now let’s compare how much I would have to run just to simply burn off an order of French Fries.
1 order of small French Fries (230 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 2.1 miles 1 order of med. French Fires (380 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 3.45 miles 1 order of large French Fries (500 cal) = Jogging 6 mi/hr pace for 4.54 miles
I would have to jog more than a 5k race to burn off a large order of empty calorie French Fries!
To put that in context of bodyfat, there are 3500 calories in 1lb of fat. So if I wanted to burn off 3500 calories from those nutritionally devoid empty calories that I ate I would have to jog 31 miles.
We are just picking on French fries here, but you can replace this with any nutritionally devoid food. It is important to know the amount of calories your body needs daily and choose your calories wisely!
Now we can't sit here and talk about French fries all morning and not include an awesome recipe! So next time you have a hankering for French fries, make yourself a healthy version that won't hinder your fat loss goals. We found this amazing sweet potato fries recipe from Nom Nom Paleo!
Baked Sweet Potato Fries - via Nom Nom Paleo
Ingredients:
- 2 large garnet yams
- 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, melted (I just nuke it in the microwave for ~30 seconds)
- Kosher salt
- Freshly ground pepper
- Smoked paprika (or your favorite seasoning – cinnamon works well, too!)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 400 F on convection bake (or 425 F in a non-convection oven).
- Peel the yams and cut them into even matchsticks. Toss the yams with the coconut oil, salt, pepper, and smoked paprika and place them in a single layer on a foil-lined baking tray.
- Pop the tray in the oven for about 30 minutes, flipping the frites and tray halfway through. The fries are done when they’re brown and crispy on the edges.
Serves 4 people as a side dish.
Leave us a comment and tell us what food what your favorite healthy food swap is?
Thanksgiving Day Bodyweight Workout
3 days until the big feast! Things start to get a little crazy as we get closer to Thanksgiving day, we all get in preparation mode with grocery shopping, party planning and of course food preparation. We understand that it gets harder and harder to make it to gym when family is in town and you have a million things on your todo list. Last week we gave you 3 solid ways to avoid holiday weight gain and we really want to keep the momentum up so this week we are giving you another tool to arm yourself with. So here is a at-home workout to help you stay on track with your goals this holiday season. This bodyweight workout can be done in your backyard, garage or wherever you can find space. Start thinking about when your ideal time to workout would be and have a plan, morning before everyone is still sleeping is probably best and you will feel motivated and ready to start the day!
THANKSGIVING DAY BODYWEIGHT WORKOUT ROUTINE
3 Sets of each workout with 90 seconds to 2 minutes rest in between each circuit before repeating
1)Prisoner Squat (4 seconds down, 2 second hold at bottom) – 20 reps *raise your heels up slightly with a book or something equivalent if you are having trouble keeping from folding forward too much in your squat or you can't get low enough in your squat
2)"Happy feet" for 10 seconds then drop and do 10 push ups – 6x (Happy Feet - find a straight line to step over, one foot at a time forward and then one foot at a time backward, as fast as you can.)
3)Reverse crunches on floor - 20-30 reps
4)Forward lunge to a raised step-up to back lunge on the same leg then alternate to the opposite side – 20 reps per side
5)Jumping Jacks – 30 reps
6)Vertical Jumps w. stabilization (2 second hold at the bottome of the squat) – 10 reps
7)Planks – 30-60 seconds
8)Dive bomber pushups – As many as possible
9)Side planks – 30 seconds per side
10) Shuttle Sprint – 30 seconds
We hope you have an amazing Thanksgiving and look forward to seeing all of your foodporn photos on instagram! If you have any questions about the workout, leave them in the comments below!
What are some of your favorite workouts to do when you have a crazy busy week?
