Episode 52: 5 Signs Ego-Lifting is Killing Your Gains
When it comes to making progress in the gym, lifting heavier weights is often seen as the gold standard. But what if your obsession with stacking plates is actually holding you back? Enter ego lifting—a common but destructive habit that can stall progress, increase injury risk, and keep you from reaching your true potential. In this post, we’ll break down what ego lifting is, how to recognize it, where it stems from, and how to break free from it.
When it comes to making progress in the gym, lifting heavier weights is often seen as the gold standard. But what if your obsession with stacking plates is actually holding you back? Enter ego lifting—a common but destructive habit that can stall progress, increase injury risk, and keep you from reaching your true potential. In this post, we’ll break down what ego lifting is, how to recognize it, where it stems from, and how to break free from it.
What is Ego Lifting?
Ego lifting refers to lifting weights that are too heavy for you to maintain proper form, often to impress others or boost your self-esteem.
Instead of focusing on controlled, effective reps, ego lifters prioritize moving as much weight as possible—often at the cost of proper technique.
👉 This can lead to poor muscle activation, stalled progress, and an increased risk of injury.
Common examples of ego lifting include:
Performing half-rep squats with excessive weight.
Bouncing the bar off your chest in the bench press.
Using momentum to swing dumbbells instead of controlling them.
Deadlifting with a rounded back to move more weight.
Signs You May Be Ego Lifting
Not sure if you’re guilty of ego lifting? Here are some common signs:
You avoid warm-ups or mobility work. If you think warming up with lighter weights is a waste of time, you might be prioritizing numbers over performance.
You judge your progress solely by the weight on the bar. Strength is about more than just lifting heavier—it’s also about control, endurance, and muscle engagement.
You experience frequent injuries or stalled progress. If you’re constantly battling aches and pains or your numbers aren’t improving, ego lifting could be the culprit.
Your form breaks down at heavy weights. If you’re sacrificing technique just to complete a rep, you’re not lifting effectively.
You get defensive when someone corrects your form. If you bristle at constructive criticism, you might be lifting for validation rather than progress.
Where Does Ego Lifting Come From?
Understanding why we fall into the trap of ego lifting is key to overcoming it. Here are some common sources:
Gym Culture & Social Media Pressure – Watching others lift heavy can make you feel like you need to match them, even if your form suffers.
Misconceptions About Strength Training – Some believe that lifting heavy at all costs is the only way to get stronger, ignoring the importance of proper progression, technique, and time under tension.
Insecurity & Validation Seeking – Many lifters use heavy weights as a way to prove their strength, sometimes at the expense of actual progress.
How to Break Out of the Ego Lifting Mindset
If you recognize that ego lifting is holding you back, here’s how to shift your mindset and start making real progress:
Redefine Success – Instead of focusing on weight alone, measure progress in terms of endurance, stability, and overall strength development.
Prioritize Form Over Weight – A controlled, full-range rep with lighter weight is far more effective than a sloppy, heavy rep.
Use Progressive Overload Properly – Strength gains come from gradual increases, not jumping to the heaviest weight possible.
Film Your Lifts – Reviewing your technique can help you stay accountable and make adjustments where needed.
Surround Yourself with the Right Mindset – Train with people who value proper technique and longevity over lifting heavy for show.
Final Thoughts
Ego lifting is a trap that can derail your progress, increase injury risk, and keep you from reaching your full potential. By shifting your focus from lifting the heaviest weights to lifting with proper form and progression, you’ll build a stronger, healthier, and more resilient body. So next time you hit the gym, ask yourself: are you lifting to improve, or just to impress?
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Jayd (00:00):
Strength is more than just being able to lift heavier. It's just as much about having the control of your body and being able to control the weight while you're in motion. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for about 10 years, and I also grew up in the fitness industry. So I created this podcast to share some of the tips and wisdom that I share with my personal training clients and followers. In today's episode, we're going to take a look at whether or not ego lifting may be killing your gains. Ego lifting refers to trying to lift heavier weight than what you can actually control with good technique, usually with the intention of trying to impress other people or to boost your own self-esteem. Instead of focusing on controlled, effective reps, ego lifters will often prioritize lifting as much weight as possible as quickly as possible, often at the cost of proper technique.
(01:08)
Now, lifting this weight can lead to poor muscle activation. You're not going to get the gains that you would get through actually practicing slow controlled effective reps, which means that you'll likely experience stalled progress and even increased risk of injury. So today we're going to take a look at how to figure out if you might be ego lifting, and I'm going to give you some tips on how to reframe your mindsets so that you can practice your lifts effectively and with control to be safer about it and to make more progress. But before we get into the episode, make sure to give this video like if you're watching this on YouTube, and make sure to subscribe to the channel so that you always get the latest episodes and videos that I drop. I post pretty frequently on my YouTube channel, different exercise tutorial videos, as well as discussion videos just like this.
(01:58)
So never miss a video by making sure that you are subscribed. If you're listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Make sure to follow the show so that you always get the latest episodes delivered right to your device. If you would like more information on me and the services that I offer, check out my website, Jaydigains.com. That's J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-N s.com. Right now, I am accepting new personal training clients and my body sculpt program, and you can also sign up for my membership right from my website where you can download workout plans, meal plans, and get training tips, nutrition tips, fat loss tips, and other recipes every single month. Without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(02:43)
Ego lifting is one of the most common problems that I see in personal training clients, especially when they come to me with previous experience of lifting. As a reminder, ego lifting is when you try to exercise with more weight than what you can effectively control or execute with good technique. Lifting this way is really not optimal. You only want to train with the amount of weight that you can properly control. Not only does it mean that you will likely sacrifice some gains and stall your progress. In the worst cases, it often leads to injury. Common examples of ego lifting include performing half rep squats with excessive weight. If you are squatting with an amount of weight that you can't execute a proper squat, getting your thighs to parallel. If your mobility allows, then you're using way too much weight. Another example of ego lifting might be bouncing the bar off of your chest while you're doing a chest press.
(03:40)
Rather than allowing your muscles to generate the force to push the weight back up. In bodybuilding exercises, you may be swinging the weights around using momentum to get them up rather than generating the force with your muscles and also deadlift with a rounded spine. Basically, if you cannot perform the exercise slow and controlled with good technique throughout the entire range of motion, you should not be lifting that weight. Now, ego lifting can sneak up on even the best of us, even the most experienced and advanced exercises. We'll get into a habit of ego lifting from time to time. It's a good idea if you can pinpoint this starting to seep in early on so that you can adjust your mindset before it ends up getting you hurt. Now, if you're not sure whether or not you might be ego lifting, here are a few signs that you can look out for.
(04:30)
One, you tend to avoid warmups and mobility work. You might feel like warming up with lighter weights is a waste of time. Doing mobility work is a waste of time, and you may be prioritizing numbers like the weight on the bar or the number of reps over how you perform those reps. You may also begin to judge your progress solely by the amount of weight that you put on the bar. Strength is more than just being able to lift heavier. It's just as much about having the control of your body and being able to control the weight while you're in motion. It's also about your range of motion. Being able to manage a certain amount of weight in a deeper squat, for instance, getting more muscle engagement. All of these are really important parts of your progression as an athlete, as a lifter, if you have been ego lifting for an extended period of time, you may notice that you're getting a lot of minor aches and pains or chronic injuries popping up.
(05:35)
This might be happening pretty frequently. While at the same time your lifts aren't actually improving. You're kind of stalling in your progress. So if you're getting a lot of aches and pains and you're not really actually progressing, this is a good sign that you may be ego lifting. You may also notice that your form begins to break down as you add more weight onto the bar. If this happens a lot in your training sessions that you're practicing with poor technique but heavier weights on the bar, that's a good sign that you're ego lifting. And finally, if you get defensive when someone corrects your form or if they tell you to slow down, this is a good sign that you are ego lifting and that you're prioritizing the amount of weight on the bar over how in control you are of that weight. This means that you are more concerned with the validation of how much weight you put on the bar versus prioritizing progress over time.
(06:33)
Like I said, ego lifting can seep into your mindset no matter who you are, whether you're a beginner, intermediate, or an advanced lifter. I find however, that ego lifting is more often a problem with people who participate in certain gym cultures where you go to a gym and you can just kind of tell that there's sort of this competitive atmosphere, and this isn't every gym, but there definitely are some gyms that have a culture of competition where people regularly are putting more weight on the bar than they probably should, where their form failure is breaking down. You want to surround yourself with gym buddies that prioritize progress in terms of improved technique and control mobility, as well as how much weight is actually on the bar. It can also come from social media pressure, which is another aspect of who are you spending your time with.
(07:28)
If you are consuming a lot of social media where people are moving really crazy weights, this can sometimes lead to you kind of comparing yourself where you are in your journey to them and make you feel like you should be doing that, where you begin to rush yourself to add more and more weight to catch up with them, when really you should be focusing on your own journey and progressing one step at a time from where you currently are. Now, ego lifting can also come from misconceptions about what strength training is. Many people believe that strength training is all about always adding on more and more and more weight to the bar, which makes sense given that many of the competitive weight training competitions are really focused on how much weight you put on the bar, but true strength progression is about growth in your ability to control your body, to be able to command your muscles, to generate maximal force in a way that is safe and keeps your body in alignment.
(08:31)
For me, it's more impressive to see someone perform a squat with really good technique, but less weight than someone who performs a soup or heavy squat with really crappy technique. Form really should be your focus, improving your form and your technique at every stage of your journey and being able to execute each exercise with good technique, no matter much weight you put on the bar. Ego lifting can also set in due to personal insecurities or maybe you're seeking validation from the outside. Many people come to strength training because they feel like it's a way that they can prove themselves to somebody else or to themselves, and when you're super concerned with that validation or boosting your self-esteem can often lead to putting more pressure on yourself to add more weight to the bar than what you actually should. Now I'll be honest, the worst ego lifters that I've had to work with as a personal trainer often come from two main places.
(09:35)
One of those places is high school weight rooms. Whether you took weight training classes in high school or if you lifted with your football team, high school weight training classes and weight training groups often have that culture of competition of continue to put more and more and more weight on the bar and they don't spend as much time on proper technique and executing the exercises properly with good form. Many of the ex high school weight room students that I train really struggle with performing the exercises slowly and with good technique, and when you force them to slow down, a lot of times their form breaks down. They might be really strong at one range of motion within the squat, but if you force them to pause at another point in the squat, they fall over because they haven't had the chance to develop the balance in the control through the entire range of motion because maybe their gym group or their coach prioritized moving the weight as fast and explosively as possible.
(10:37)
Oftentimes, these people experience chronic injuries, and it's not until they work with me and we kind of reframe how to do strength training and how to do workouts in the gym, and they learn how to perform with good technique and prioritize good technique that they begin to actually make really crazy gains, but it often does require bumping back the amount of weight that they put on the bar and slowing things down for a period of time so that they can learn how to actually execute with good technique. Once they master that technique though, oh my goodness, it's PR after pr. I know another place that I get a lot of ego lifters from is the Starting Strength Program. This is a program that's created by Mark rto. It's one of the most well-known beginners strength training programs. It focuses specifically on just barbell training and progressive overload.
(11:29)
Within this program, lifters are encouraged to add weight on the bar every week of the program. Every time you go to do the same exercise, you should be adding on more weight. Now, there's not a lot of focus on mobility work or other accessories. There's not much discussion on how to modify exercises for your body type because there are different recommendations for people who have longer femurs or differently sized limbs, et cetera. Another problem that I have with this program is that the people who go through it often rush through their reps and they really struggle to work on an accumulation phase or mobility work or balance work, which is a necessary foundation for actually being in control of big weight. And this program often sets people up with the expectation that every time they lift, they should be adding on more weight to the bar, which is very unrealistic and not necessary for making gains.
(12:29)
So when one of these students comes to work with me and I start to acclimate them to block periodization where we have accumulation phases, intensification phases, and peaking blocks, they really struggle to do the foundational work necessary to establish good technique because they just don't value it. They also have a really hard time doing cardio because cardiovascular training is not really a part of the Starting Strength program, and it is actually another really important piece of being overall athletic and improving your strength. A strong cardiovascular system is really important for delivering oxygen to your muscles and helping you in the recovery process. So often what happens with these clients is they really struggle to stay consistent with their program because it's just not as fun to train effectively as adding more weight onto the bar every single week. And sometimes you can just start to kind of get into an ego lifting mindset because you might be feeling insecure and you feel like you have to prove something.
(13:29)
It happens to everybody at some point in their fitness journey. So let's talk about how to break out of the ego lifting mindset. If you recognize that ego lifting may be holding you back, there are a couple of things that you can do to help change the trajectory of your workouts, and it's definitely worth doing this because this will allow you to actually make gains, make progress, and perform your workouts more safely to avoid injury. One is that you need to sit down and redefine what success means to you. Instead of focusing on weight alone, the amount of weight that you put on the bar define success and improvement by improvements in your endurance, improvements in your stability, your overall strength development, your mobility, how in control you are of that weight, how long you can hold different points of the movement. All of these are great indications of progress.
(14:30)
Number two is to prioritize form over weight. It's not just about how much weight you have on the bar, it's about how in control you are of that weight at all points of the exercise. A controlled full range rep with lighter weight is hella more impressive than a sloppy, fast heavy rep. You also need to establish an idea of what proper progression is. Strength gains come from gradual increases of the weight over time, and also strength improves as you also improve your balance, your overall coordination, your muscular endurance and work capacity. If you don't focus on improving these aspects of your muscular fitness, then you're not going to be able to improve your strength. Strength is built on top of the foundation of hypertrophy, muscular endurance, proper technique work, working with time under tension. If you're not putting in the effort to execute these exercises with proper technique, more time under tension and building muscle while also improving your mobility, then you are going to stall and probably get injured.
(15:43)
Once you get to that intermediate and advanced stage of being a lifter, just know that your progress is going to be a lot slower than what it was in the beginning. When you are a beginner and you have those newbie gains, you can more realistically expect to add more weight onto the bar on a week by week basis, but that's not realistic for an intermediate or advanced lifter. Progress is a lot slower at that point, and that's why we focus our training in different blocks that work on improving different aspects of your muscular fitness because that's what it really takes in order to move the needle on your strength. Another thing that can help you get out of the ego lifting mindset is to film your lifts. Review your technique every single time you lift regardless of the lift, regardless of the phase of your training, review your lifts, and if you're working with a coach, send your coach those videos so that they can give you form feedback and prioritize improving your form over time and make that your focus over how much weight is on the bar. And lastly, make sure that you're surrounding yourself with people who have the right mindset. If you are within a culture, whether it's online or in an actual gym, make sure that you are spending your time with people who prioritize control and good technique over just slapping more weight on the bar. So there you have it. These are the ways that you can identify whether ego lifting has seeped into your mindset, and these are some tips for helping you to break out of that mindset.
(17:23)
Thank you so much for joining me for this episode of The Coaching Corner podcast. I hope that you found this discussion to be helpful. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. If you're watching this on YouTube, let me know in the comments what your experience has been with ego lifting. Is it something that you have recognized in yourself and what helped you to break out of that mindset? Or are you currently struggling with that mindset and what questions do you have about it? Leave those all in the comments below the video. Also, make sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel so that you always get the latest videos whenever they drop. If you're listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Make sure that you follow the show so you always get the latest episodes. If you would like more information on me and the services that I offer, head over to my website, Jaydigains.com. I am accepting clients right now for my bodys sculpt program, so you can find more information on that at my website. That's Jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N s.com. Thank you again for watching or listening, and I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
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Episode 51: How to Get Strong With Block Periodization
In this episode of The Coaching Corner Podcast, I break down the concept of block periodization and why it’s essential for intermediate and advanced lifters looking to keep making progress. I explore the four key aspects of muscular fitness—strength, hypertrophy, endurance, and power—and explain how structuring training into focused blocks can maximize results.
Want to break through plateaus and keep making progress in the gym? In this episode, I break down block periodization and how it can help you maximize strength, muscle growth, endurance, and power.
I’ll walk you through:
✅ The four key aspects of muscular fitness
✅ The three phases of block periodization (accumulation, intensification, realization)
✅ The best rep ranges, weights, and rest periods for each phase
✅ My top tips for warm-ups, core stabilization, and mobility work
If you're serious about strength training and want a smarter, more effective way to program your workouts, this episode is for you!
🔗 Resources & Links:
🎯 Tune in next week for more expert tips to help you crush your fitness goals!
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Jayd (00:00):
As you become a more intermediate or advanced exerciser, that's when your progress begins to slow down and in order to continue to make significant progress as an intermediate or an advanced exerciser, it's a really good idea to focus your training on one or a couple of specific adaptations at a time in order to make gains and make a dramatic difference in your strength levels. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for about 10 years, and I also grew up in the fitness industry, so I've created this podcast to share some of the tips, tricks, and wisdom that I share with my own personal training clients. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about how to get strong and how to think about planning your workouts. According to block periodization, I'm going to give recommendations for how much weight you should use, how many reps to do in each set, and how long to rest between your sets in each different type of block. If you're interested in working with me as your one-on-one online coach, check out my website. I am accepting new clients to my body, sculpt and at home training programs. You can find information for those on my website, Jaydigains.com. That's J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com. And without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(01:37)
One of the most effective ways to organize your training in order to get strong and improve your strength is to use what's called block periodization. When you first start your fitness journey or when you first start lifting weights, you can make a lot of progress really, really quickly and improve all aspects of your muscular strength in a relatively short period of time. We call this newbie gains, and you can experience newbie gains for anywhere from the first six months to the first two years of your training. When you are in the newbie gains phase, you're often able to do more reps, add more weight, get faster, and improve your technique really, really quickly, and see huge jumps in progress. But as you become a more intermediate or advanced exerciser, that's when your progress begins to slow down and in order to continue to make significant progress as an intermediate or an advanced exerciser, it's a really good idea to focus your training on one or a couple of specific adaptations at a time and order to make gains and make a dramatic difference in your strength levels.
(02:49)
So there are four main aspects of your muscular fitness and strength is one of them. Strength is technically defined as the ability of your muscles to generate force, and this is usually measured in terms of how much weight you can lift, push or pull, but this is one of four main aspects of muscular fitness that you want to work on developing in order to have a well-rounded physique and to be actually overall strong. Hypertrophy is another aspect of strength, which refers specifically to your muscle size. So our muscles are actually made up of really long, very thin strands of tissue, almost like a bundle of hair, right? So a muscle is a bundle of these individual fibers, and in order to be able to push, pull, lift heavier weight, these fibers have to be strong, and often that means that they need to get a little bit bigger.
(03:47)
So when you work towards hypertrophy, you work on actually increasing the size of those individual fibers so that they can handle more tension. Another aspect of muscular fitness is endurance, which involves your muscle's ability to contract over and over and over again over an extended period of time or to hold a contraction and hold tension for an extended period of time. And finally, you have power. Muscular power is strength, namely how much force your muscles can generate, but it also gives a factor of how fast you can generate that force. Now all four of these aspects of muscular fitness are important to develop in order to be strong, and it's important to develop them in order to safely be able to train the way that you need to train in order to lift more weight. Now, like I said before, if you're a beginner and you're in that new be gains phase, all four of these aspects of your fitness are going to improve no matter what you do.
(04:42)
But as your body adapts to training and as you become more intermediate or advanced, you are going to need to focus your training in order to make significant gains in any of these aspects. So for this reason, most intermediate and advanced lifters, especially if they're interested in strength, are going to separate their training into different blocks where they focus on one or a couple of different aspects of their muscular fitness developing the different aspects of their muscular fitness will overall accumulate towards them. In the end being able to lift more weight. So the standard block periodization format that we tend to follow is a format of three different main phases or blocks. First, you have your accumulation phase or an accumulation block. Then you have your intensification phase or intensification block, and then you follow that up with a realization or peaking block. The accumulation phase is all about accumulating the skills, the muscle mass, the technique, the mobility that's necessary as a foundation for moving big weight during the intensification block.
(05:56)
Then you start to acclimate your body to lifting progressively heavier and heavier weights while also continuing to condition your body with hypertrophy, endurance, mobility. And then finally in the peaking or realization block, that's when you bring the overall volume of your training down to focus exclusively on moving big weight. At the end of a peaking block, people will often retest their maxes, either their one rep maxes or they'll do a three rep max or five rep max, and then use that number as an estimation of their one rep max. For each of these different phases, you're going to use a percentage of whatever your previous max is, whatever your previous one rep max is, and you're going to use that as a baseline to decide what weight to use in different parts of the training. So let's get a little bit more into detail of these three different phases or blocks of training.
(06:50)
So first is your accumulation phase. Now if you're a beginner lifter, your accumulation phase is going to be a lot longer because you have a lot more skills and strength and mobility that you need to accumulate. But if you are more in intermediate or advanced, your accumulation block might last somewhere between three and six weeks, or it may be even longer if you have something specific that you're trying to develop during the accumulation phase. Volume is the name of the game when it comes to your big lifts, and by big lifts I mean your squat, bench, deadlift, overhead press, and other compound movements. So in terms of volume we are going to be working with is about 60% to 75% of your previous one rep max are your estimated one rep max. You're usually going to be working with higher reps in each of your sets, so somewhere between six and 12 reps.
(07:39)
I also have seen plenty of programs that do as many as 20 reps per set depending on what adaptation the program is specifically trying to get you to develop higher reps means more time at tension for your muscles, which going to lead a lot more buildup to lactic acid in the muscles and burning sensation, which is all great for developing hypertrophy. It's also really important to train this way in order to develop your muscular endurance and your overall work capacity. This will allow you to train the way that you need to train in the later intensification phase to actually make strength gains In the accumulation phase. You're also going to be working on mobility exercises so that you can get deeper into your squat. You're also going to slow the movements down so you have more time under tension, but also so that you can ensure that you are in total control of the weight throughout the entire movement.
(08:33)
So often in an accumulation block, I'm going to include a lot of tempo reps in my squats, bench deadlift, overhead press. I'm going to slow the movements down, and I'm also going to add some different pauses at different points in the movement to help my clients to develop their sticking points, work on their balance and ensure that they are totally in control of a weight before we progress that weight and add more. So a typical workout structure for an accumulation block would include some kind of cardiovascular warmup for five to 10 minutes, followed by dynamic stretches, which is always going to be the warmup for any block of any training that I do. And then there's going to be some kind of a core stabilizing sequence to fire up the core so that you can brace. And then you're going to probably have some priming exercises that are specific to your mobility issues, maybe help you to develop some balance, help you to correct muscular imbalances, and then you'll actually have your main strength training exercises, which will include one of your compound lifts or more, and then also some accessories In an accumulation phase, because the focus is high volume and hypertrophy, you're also likely going to see some isolation exercises like you would in a bodybuilding program.
(09:47)
For instance, I might put bicep curls in a bench day to help a client to develop their biceps so that they can better control the eccentric portion of their bench press, and I might also have them do tricep kickbacks so that their triceps are stronger so that they can lock out at the top of the bench. Rest periods are going to be a little bit shorter here, anywhere between 30 seconds to 90 seconds because the goal is to keep your muscles under tension for a longer period of time. Your goal is to go into each successive set of an exercise on a muscle group, less recovered so that you can accumulate that lactic acid and build muscle. An accumulation phase can really be an extended period of time as much as a year. However, if you are going to be doing a longer extended accumulation phase, I recommend breaking that phase up into multiple accumulation blocks.
(10:37)
This is what I typically do for my strength programs. I like to have my clients do at least two accumulation blocks before we begin to work into intensification. Now, your intensification workouts are going to include a lot of hypertrophy and endurance focused exercises just like the accumulation block. But in terms of your compound lifts, you're going to be working with progressively heavier weight and fewer reps per set. The goal of the intensification block is to gear you up towards being able to lift heavier weight so that when it comes to the realization or peaking block, you have the ability to push a lot of weight. So for this, you're going to be working for between 75 and 90% of your previous one rep max. The reps percent are going to be about three to six reps, and you're usually going to be doing a moderate to high number of sets, like three to four rest period is going to be a little bit longer for your compound lifts here in order to give your muscles the time to recuperate, rebuild a TP so that you can push as many reps as you can in each successive set at a higher rate.
(11:41)
Outside of the compound lifts, you're probably still going to be doing a lot of mobility work or hypertrophy work for other exercises. You still might be developing different muscle groups that are lagging behind, and you still probably include conditioning exercises that push your cardiovascular and muscular endurance. So this space can last anywhere between four and six weeks. But usually I'm not going to have my clients do this kind of a phase for very long. It is a lot of wear and tear on the body to be in an intensification block. So I typically don't have my clients in it for more than four to six weeks at a time. I'm also going to likely have them do a deload either before or after their intensification block. This allows the body the time to catch up with the recovery that maybe it wasn't able to heap up with during the accumulation block or during the intensification block.
(12:29)
It's not uncommon to feel like super, super tired and fatigued at the end of an intensification block because the point of intensification is to be intense, is to condition your body, get you ready to push big weight. In the realization or peaking phase, you're going to gradually taper off the amount of volume that you're doing so that you're not fatiguing the body as much while at the same time you increase the amount of weight that you're using for your compound lifts. You're usually going to be lifting between 85 and 95% of your previous one rep max for short sets of between one and three reps per set. Your rest periods here are recommended to be a lot longer between two and five minutes. That way, you are completely fresh and ready to rock with each successive heavy lift. The goal and focus of this realization or peaking block is to put all of the stuff that you've accumulated, all of the muscle, all of the hypertrophy, all of the skills, the mobility, all of that to work and training your muscles to work at the same time in the right order, firing up to push as much force as possible while also keeping good technique and keeping your body in alignment.
(13:44)
Now, the realization or peaking phase really should be the shortest. I don't like to have my clients in this kind of a phase for longer than three to four weeks because after a certain amount of time, without the stimulus of higher volume training, you can start to lose muscle and therefore you'll start to see a dip in your strength. So a really successful peaking block is about hitting a sweet spot where you are still able to push a maximum amount of force while not overly fatiguing your body. But in order to continue to keep muscle and build muscle, you do have to fatigue the body. So that's why most of the time lifters are in an accumulation or an intensification block because it's the actual stimulus of fatiguing the muscles that makes you get stronger over time. So it's not just about always lifting heavier and heavier and heavier weights.
(14:32)
Most of the time experienced lifters will be trying to build more muscle, trying to develop their overall control and mobility, increase their range of motion, and give their muscles the stimulus that they need to grow. That way they can actually eventually put more weight on the bar during a later peaking phase. Now, you don't necessarily even have to do a peaking block. You can just go right into a deload and then start back over with accumulation. The peaking block is kind of optional, and it's usually there to help gear you up towards testing your one rep maxes. Or if you plan on competing like in a power lifting competition, a peaking block can be helpful to prepare you for that. But a lot of people who don't compete will kind of just alternate between accumulation and intensification blocks, or they might just do an extended period of time where they just do multiple accumulation blocks successively.
(15:25)
But if you are trying to test your maxes or increase your maxes, this is a great format to follow, to build skills, build the muscle, and prepare your body for pushing or pulling more weight. Now, keep in mind that some intermediate and advanced programs are going to use the block periodization in a kind of different philosophy. For example, a juggernaut training systems based program that my coach wrote for me actually separated out my training into month long waves that included a week long accumulation block, a week long intensification block, and a week long peaking block followed by a week long, and then we just restarted with the next wave that way. Some programs also have what's called daily undulating periodization, where each day each workout day focuses on a different adaptation. So there are many ways to organize your workouts, and you might see intermediate and advanced programs that kind of play with the concepts of accumulation, intensification and realization. But there's also nothing wrong with sticking to the standard recommendations of working for three weeks at least in an accumulation block, followed by an intensification block, and then finishing off with peaking. So there you have it. Block periodization is a way that you can organize your workouts in order to maximize your strength gains progress in a way that's safe for your body, so that you can lift more weight and be more in control of that weight over time.
(17:02)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The Coaching Corner Podcast. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I hope that you found this discussion helpful in thinking about how to plan out your workouts so that you can get stronger over time. Now, let me know what questions you have. You can leave them in the comments below this video if you're watching on YouTube. If you are watching on YouTube, make sure to like the video and subscribe to the channel so that you always get the latest videos whenever I drop them. If you are listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Make sure that you followed the show so that you get the latest episodes delivered right to your device. If you're interested in working with me, I am taking on clients right now. Check out my website, Jaydigains.com. For more information on my programs, you can subscribe to my membership site to download and follow my strength training program, the one that I'm doing actually right now, or you can build muscle with me with one of the other downloadable programs. I will see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
Subscribe for Updates ✉️
Sign up to get notified whenever new episodes drop. Opt in for more tips on training, fat loss, and nutrition by filling out the form below:
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Episode 50: The 7 Exercises You Should Be Doing
In this episode of the Coaching Corner Podcast, I sit down with my friend and fellow content creator, Kris Lee (aka Terrible Hime), to talk about the ins and outs of planning for a successful fat loss phase. Kris shares her personal experiences, discussing the mental and physical preparation needed, how to set realistic goals, and how to manage calorie intake effectively.
We also cover the importance of self-awareness, setting boundaries, and creating a supportive environment. Fat loss isn’t just about numbers—it’s about mindset, habits, and sustainability. If you’re in a fat loss phase or considering one, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you stay on track.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How to mentally and physically prepare for a fat loss phase
✅ The impact of social interactions on fat loss progress
✅ Managing the mental fatigue of calorie deficits
✅ Why boundaries and self-care are essential for long-term success
✅ The role of hobbies and stress management in achieving fitness goals
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast.
In this episode, I’m breaking down the seven essential movement patterns that should be part of your weekly workout routine. Whether you're training for aesthetics, strength, or overall functionality, these fundamental exercises will help you build muscle, improve posture, and move better in everyday life.
I’ll cover:
✔️ Why these movement patterns are the foundation of any effective training program
✔️ How they support strength, muscle growth, and injury prevention
✔️ Exercise examples for pushing, pulling, hinging, squatting, pressing, and rotation
✔️ How to modify movements based on your fitness level
👉 Download my training programs at Jaydigains.com
👉 Join my monthly membership for exclusive workouts & programming
🎧 Tune in now & subscribe for more expert fitness tips!
🔗 Resources & Links:
🎯 Tune in next week for more expert tips to help you crush your fitness goals!
-
Jayd (00:00):
If you're working out for aesthetics or bodybuilding, these seven basic movement patterns will also help you to build muscle and look more aesthetic because by covering all of these basic movement patterns, you're essentially going to be hitting all of the major muscles in the entire body. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for about 10 years, and I grew up in the fitness industry, so I created this podcast to help share some of the tips and tricks that I share with my personal training clients and students. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about seven exercises that you absolutely should be including in your weekly training routine. These seven exercises will help you to get better at basic movement patterns like pushing, pulling, twisting, hip, hinging, squatting. Now, not only are these based on basic movement patterns that you use in your everyday life, but practicing these movements will help to increase your overall strength, strengthen your bones, and improve your posture, and that's why these movement patterns form the basis of all of the training programs that I create for my clients and my subscribers.
(01:18)
Keep in mind that I do have downloadable training programs that you can download and follow along with on my website at Jaydigains.com. You can also subscribe from my monthly membership where I post workouts of the month, including these exercises. And before we get into the episode, make sure to give this video a like and subscribe to the channel for more updates whenever I drop new podcast episodes and videos if you're watching on YouTube. And if you are listening to this podcast, make sure to follow the channels that you always get the latest episodes. Without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(01:57)
Now. Today we're going to be talking about the seven basic exercises that you should include in your training program, and we're talking specifically about resistance training here, but these basic movement patterns can also appear in other styles of training, like if you're doing cardio circuits or if you are doing some mobility work. These seven exercises are the basic movement patterns of the human body, and practicing them regularly will help you to move better in your everyday life. It will also improve your overall control and strength, and it will also improve your posture and alignment if you're working out for aesthetics or bodybuilding. These seven basic movement patterns will also help you to build muscle and look more aesthetic because by covering all of these basic movement patterns, you're essentially going to be hitting all of the major muscles in the entire body regardless of whether you are working out as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced exerciser.
(02:53)
All seven of these movement patterns should be in your workout program every week. So let's take a look at them. Now. First up is the push movement pattern. This is the basic movement pattern that you use when you perform exercises like pushups, planks, chest presses. In an everyday life, you might actually use this movement pattern if you are moving furniture or pushing yourself up off the ground. The major muscle groups that are involved with push strength are the pecs or pectoralis major muscles. That's your muscles in your chest as well as your triceps, the muscles in the back of your arms that are responsible for elbow extension and your shoulders or deltoid muscles. But you also have to have pretty significant stability in your core to perform push strength exercises. Well, your back muscles also have to engage isometrically to keep you stable as you perform push strength exercises, it's a good idea to include two to three different push exercises in your workout routine every week.
(03:54)
This will help you to practice the movement, but get a variety of stimulus for your muscles. You can do variations of pushups like regular pushups, kneeling pushups, incline pushups, decline pushups, and if you're using weights, you can do dumbbell or barbell chest presses or bench press using a flat bench, or you can also do it as an incline or at a decline to stimulate the muscles a little bit differently. Now, number two, press exercises are like push exercises in the sense that they involve you pushing against resistance away from your body, but instead of straight out in front of you, like the push strength, you're going to be practicing pressing against resistance overhead. This involves a very similar muscle group. It involves the deltoids or the shoulder muscles as well as the triceps, just like with push strength. But press exercises also involve a lot more of the back of the shoulder and upper back muscles like your traps and external shoulder rotator muscles.
(04:55)
Great examples of press exercises include the barbell overhead press or dumbbell shoulder presses, kettlebell shoulder presses, and if you're doing body weight exercises, that would be exercises that are variations of the handstand. Now, practicing press exercises is really important for not only strengthening your shoulders and making your arms look good, but it also helps to improve your posture and improve the health of your shoulders. Because press often involves external rotation of the shoulders. This is a really important movement pattern to practice to keep your shoulders healthy. Many of us work in front of computers or spend a lot of time on our phones where we're kind of rounded forward, and so our shoulders will often have this rounded forward position. But with press exercises, you really kind of have to focus on pushing your chest forward and externally rotating the shoulders in order to push the weight or the resistance overhead.
(05:52)
So this will help to improve your posture and alleviate back pain and shoulder pain by putting your body back in alignment. It is also one of the best expressions of overall total body strength to be able to press weight overhead and hold it there with stability. One of my client's favorite facts about the overhead press is that it is the primary way that in Marvel comics, they measure who among the superheroes is the strongest, and who among the superheroes that is the strongest is the one who can perform the heaviest overhead barbell press. I used to not really like this exercise as much as others because you typically can't use quite as much weight on the bar when you're doing an overhead press as you can for things like deadlifts, squats, and bench press. But it is such a great one for sculpting the shoulders and helping you to improve your overall total body control.
(06:50)
You can perform press exercises from standing or from a seated position with or without back support. Now, seated with back support is going to be the easiest version of an overhead press. The more unstable you can make either your seated position or standing, the more that your core and your other muscles are going to have to work to stabilize. So if you're just getting started with this exercise, I recommend starting from seated with some back support and then progressing up to the point where you can stand. I recommend performing press exercises one to two times per week. Number three, another important movement pattern for the upper body is pulling strength or horizontal rowing. Now this movement pattern is really important for helping you to develop good posture and put your body into alignment. Like I said before, many of us have a habit of rounding our posture forward with our shoulders rounded forward and hunched over.
(07:46)
But practicing a horizontal rowing or pulling is a great way to put your body back in alignment and strengthen the muscles that hold your spine upright. The main movers of this type of exercise are going to be the lats or lattice, his doci muscles as well as your posterior deltoid or the back of your shoulders, as well as your traps and your rhomboids, as well as external shoulder rotator muscles. Your biceps and forearms also will get a significant challenge while you're performing pole based exercises, which will strengthen your overall grip strength, which is a really important part of building overall strength. Great examples of pole strength exercises are cable rows, band rows, and dumbbell or kettlebell rows. You can do these with both hands going at the same time. Or for isolation work, you can do unilateral single arm rows. The angle of your elbow can change which muscles are doing the most work as you're performing your pole based exercises.
(08:48)
In general, the closer your elbow is to your body, the more you're going to be working your lats. The further out your elbow is from your body, the more you're going to be working more of your posterior deltoids and your traps. I recommend including two to three different pole based exercises in your routine every week. Now, in addition to horizontal pulling exercises, it's also important to practice pulling down or vertical pulling. Great ways to practice pulling down are exercises like the wide grip or narrow grip pull downs. You can also do assisted pull-ups where you use either a band or a assisted pull up machine. All of these are great ways to further target your lactus dorsi muscles or lats, as well as the other muscles in your back, like your traps and your rhomboids. Wider grip variations of the pull down will also help you to further develop your posterior deltoid and your external shoulder rotator muscles.
(09:48)
So if you really want to improve your posture and improve the health of your shoulders, pull downs, especially wide grip pull downs or pull-ups are a great option. Doing these types of exercises is really great for physique work and developing a nice wide strong looking back. And by improving your grip strength, you will be better able to perform activities of daily living like carrying heavy objects like groceries. And anytime that you train the muscles in the back, you are setting yourself up for a reduced risk of injury. I recommend including one to two variations of a pulling down motion exercise in your workout routine every week. So we've talked about different movement patterns that you should be focusing on with your upper body, but now let's take a look at lower body movements that are super important for you to practice for developing your overall strength and physique.
(10:42)
The hip hinge is an incredibly important and foundational movement pattern to master as soon as possible when you start to lift the hip, pinch involves flexing your hips or pushing them back behind you, keeping your back straight, and then you bring your hips back forward to a standing position by using your glutes and your hamstrings. Great examples of exercises that incorporate the hip hinge are good mornings using a band or barbell, as well as Romanian deadlifts and stiff like deadlifts. Hip thrusts from a bench are also hip hinge exercises. All of these involve you flexing and extending your hips under resistance. Now, when you're performing any variation of the hip hinge, you need to focus on keeping your back rigid and in alignment by engaging your torso muscles like your abdominals, your obliques, and your erector spina. The primary target muscles of the hip hinge are the gluteus maximus muscles in your bottom, as well as your hamstrings in the back of your thighs and your lower back, your erector spin muscles and your core muscles as well because they have to engage to stabilize your spine.
(11:50)
Mastering this movement will help you to greatly reduce your risk of injury because many people, especially as they get older, develop poor movement patterns when they go to reach down to pick something up from the ground. Having a solid hip hinge where you're using your glutes and you're keeping your back in alignment will help protect your back. When you go to do that, I recommend including some kind of hip hinge exercise in your training program one to two times a week. You can use bands weights, cable machines, and do a variety of exercises like I mentioned before, good mornings, R dls, stiff leg deadlifts and hip thrusts. In addition to developing a solid hip hinge movement pattern, it's also important that you learn how to master the squat. The squat is the basic movement pattern that you use whenever you go to sit down or stand up from something.
(12:41)
In addition to the hip hinge, this movement involves bending the knees and the ankles to lower your body down. And just like with the hip pinch, it's important to perform this exercise while keeping your spine in alignment. So having a solid core is important for this as well. The main muscles involved in performing squats are the quadriceps in the front of your thighs as well as your gluteus maximus muscles in your bottom, as well as your hamstrings. And then your caps and your tibialis anterior muscle along the front of your shin are also important. Here you can perform body weight squats to focus on mastering the form. I also like to give my clients a super band to hold across their shoulders to help cue them to keep their shoulders back and engage their upper back to keep their back straight. As you master this movement pattern, you can make it a little bit harder by adding weight.
(13:30)
I like to start with a goblet squat using a single hand weight or kettlebell in front of the chest, and then progress my clients into dumbbell front squats and eventually over to the barbell where you can perform different variations of the barbell squat, back squats or front squats. The squat is probably the most complicated of these movement patterns, and it usually takes a little bit of time to master it. Here are a couple of tips that I use to help my clients to perform this movement pattern correctly. One is that you want to focus on having your hips, your knees, and your ankles bending at the same time. Now, many people, because they sit in a chair all day for work, tend to have tight hamstrings and calves, and so if you have tightness in the back of your legs, that's going to greatly limit your mobility.
(14:18)
So you may not be able to lower yourself down all the way into a seated position with your thighs parallel to the floor, but that is the position that you want to eventually work towards being able to hold. If you have trouble getting low in the squat without rounding your spine, then you need to focus on developing your ankle mobility, the strengthen your calves, as well as the mobility of your thighs, namely your hamstrings and your quadriceps. Strengthening your back will also help you to be able to keep yourself upright while you're performing this exercise. I recommend taking it slow in the beginning and practicing all of your squats with a slow rate of lowering down for four seconds before pausing at the bottom to make sure that your body's in alignment and balanced. And then coming up for one second, going slow with this movement will help you to ensure that every step of the way as you're lowering your body down into the position, you're keeping your balance, you're using the right muscles, and you're keeping your body in alignment.
(15:17)
It's also a good idea to take a video of yourself performing this exercise from the side so that you can analyze how your ankles, your knees, and your hips are bending if they're going together or if one area is lagging behind the other. As you master the squat exercise, you can make it a little bit more challenging for yourself by performing unilateral squat exercises like Bulgarian split squats or lunges. But focus on mastering the form first and keep in mind that no matter how advanced you get as a lifter, you're always going to need to take some time to focus on your technique. It's very common for even advanced lifters to get some bad habits that slip into their technique here and there, which can greatly limit their ability to lift more and can also lead to risk of injury. So I always recommend taking the reps nice and slow most of the time, train some variation of the squat one to three times per week using a variety of exercises to develop this movement pattern and build muscle throughout your entire body.
(16:19)
And now number seven, the last movement pattern that you should be practicing in your workouts every week is rotation. By this I mean specifically rotation of the torso or thoracic spine. For this, you should practice actually rotating through the thoracic spine with exercises like Russian twists, wood chops, and bicycle crunches, which you also should practice anti rotational movement where you resist rotating while your body is performing some kind of an uneven exercise. Good examples of this would be holding a plank position while doing shoulder taps or lifting your legs or stepping them outside to side. All of this will help you to develop better posture and core control, which is super important for helping you to reduce your risk of injury while performing other exercises. It's also a really great way to develop mobility in your back. I know most of my clients struggle with tightness in their backs and performing rotational exercises greatly reduces the discomfort and the back pain that they feel in their everyday lives in addition to making their core stronger and allowing them to lift heavier.
(17:25)
Now, the main muscles that are involved in thoracic rotation are your obliques muscles in the size of your torso, but other muscles also have to engage here to stabilize you and to assist with the exercise like your latus and doci muscles as well as your abdominals. Practicing rotational exercises is also really important if you are an athlete because most athletic movement involves some form of rotation. So when you practice this movement pattern slowly with resistance, you can ensure that your body will move better while you're doing your athletic performance. This type of movement is important to practice a lot more frequently than the others, and I recommend including at least one exercise that involves thoracic rotation in every workout. You can do this as part of your warmup or actually do it as part of an accessory during the muscle building portion of your workouts. So there you have it. Seven exercises that you should be using in your workout program every single week to help you to develop a better overall physique, improve your athletic performance and improve your strength.
(18:34)
And that's the episode for today. Thank you so much for joining me. Let me know what your thoughts are about these seven exercises, and also let me know if you're using them in your workout routines. Are there any exercise patterns that you are not including that you are thinking about adding more of? Let me know all of that in the comment section. If you're watching this on YouTube, if you're listening to this podcast, thank you so much for listening. Make sure that you have followed the channel, that you always get the latest episodes. If you're on YouTube, make sure to like this video if you found it helpful and subscribe to the channels that you always get the latest videos. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. Remember that you can find my workout programs including exercise tutorial videos that I have made with some other additional coaching and guidance at my website, jd gains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com. And also keep in mind that you can join me live and ask your fitness questions on my Twitch channel on Tuesdays. That's Twitch tv slash Jaydigains. You can hang out with me while I do my workout, ask your fitness questions, and just share your progress and hang out. I hope you have a great rest of your day. I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
Sign up for updates ✉️
Sign up to get notified whenever new episodes drop. Opt in for more tips on training, fat loss, and nutrition by filling out the form below:
Your privacy is important to me! I will never share your information with any third party. Unsubscribe from the email list at any time.
Episode 49: Planning for Fat Loss with Kris Lee @Terrible_Hime
In this episode of the Coaching Corner Podcast, I sit down with my friend and fellow content creator, Kris Lee (aka Terrible Hime), to talk about the ins and outs of planning for a successful fat loss phase. Kris shares her personal experiences, discussing the mental and physical preparation needed, how to set realistic goals, and how to manage calorie intake effectively.
We also cover the importance of self-awareness, setting boundaries, and creating a supportive environment. Fat loss isn’t just about numbers—it’s about mindset, habits, and sustainability. If you’re in a fat loss phase or considering one, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you stay on track.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How to mentally and physically prepare for a fat loss phase
✅ The impact of social interactions on fat loss progress
✅ Managing the mental fatigue of calorie deficits
✅ Why boundaries and self-care are essential for long-term success
✅ The role of hobbies and stress management in achieving fitness goals
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast.
In this episode of the Coaching Corner Podcast, I sit down with my friend and fellow content creator, Kris Lee (aka Terrible Hime), to talk about the ins and outs of planning for a successful fat loss phase. Kris shares her personal experiences, discussing the mental and physical preparation needed, how to set realistic goals, and how to manage calorie intake effectively.
We also cover the importance of self-awareness, setting boundaries, and creating a supportive environment. Fat loss isn’t just about numbers—it’s about mindset, habits, and sustainability. If you’re in a fat loss phase or considering one, this episode is packed with actionable strategies to help you stay on track.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
✅ How to mentally and physically prepare for a fat loss phase
✅ The impact of social interactions on fat loss progress
✅ Managing the mental fatigue of calorie deficits
✅ Why boundaries and self-care are essential for long-term success
✅ The role of hobbies and stress management in achieving fitness goals
🔗 Resources & Links:
🎯 Tune in next week for more expert tips to help you crush your fitness goals!
-
Kris (00:00):
If you're like me and you weigh yourself every day, you feel really good when you see a low weigh in, but you see a high weigh in and you feel stressed about it or you feel bad. You're like, why did I just gain two pounds overnight when it's probably like water retention or food in your stomach or something like that. But yeah, the mental fatigue a lot of times is just as bad, if not worse than the actual physical fatigue of working out and being tired.
Jayd (00:38):
Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. In today's episode, I'm really excited to share with you a conversation that I had with my very good friend and fellow content creator, Terrible Hime or Krista Lee. Now, Kris has been on a fat loss journey over the last couple of months and she's been documenting her progress through her fat loss journey on her YouTube channel. Make sure to subscribe to her channel, which is linked in the description of this video below. If you're watching on YouTube, you can also find a link to her channel if you're listening to this podcast in the show notes. In a couple of the previous episodes, we've talked about what to expect if your body is comping. We've also talked about what to expect and what to plan for when you want to go into a bulk phase or an improvement phase.
(01:28)
I wanted to talk to Kris about her fat loss journey and have her share some of the tips and tricks that she's learned over the last couple of years as someone who has gone on different phases of dieting and muscle building and maintenance, I really have loved her updates on her YouTube channel and she has just so many great tips to offer for people who are looking to cut weight and go into a calorie deficit. So this is a little bit of a longer episode, but it is so well worth it. Kris offers so much insight and so many very helpful strategies for navigating going into a cut phase. So if you are thinking about going into a calorie deficit, I really recommend giving this episode a listen and taking some notes. And before we get into the episode, make sure to this video and leave a comment in the comment section of what you want to know in regards to what to expect when you are planning a cut, a bulk or a maintenance phase. If you're listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Please make sure to follow the show so that you get notified whenever there's a new episode. Without further ado, let's get into the discussion with Kris. A Terrible Hime, how are you doing today?
Kris (02:49):
I'm good. As good as can be expected, I guess.
Jayd (02:52):
Right. How many weeks are you now into your cut?
Kris (02:55):
This is coming to the end of week 10. Week 10 out of 16.
Jayd (03:02):
Okay. Where's your motivation and mood at right now?
Kris (03:12):
It's okay. Right around week eight, the halfway point, I was not really feeling so great. I was getting pretty fatigued mentally and physically, but I took a weekend to deload and I did a very conservative refeed day. Just one very conservative refeed day and actually I'm feeling a lot better after that.
Jayd (03:38):
Good.
Kris (03:38):
And obviously the end is approaching, so I'm feeling good about that as well and I have a big vacation planned after that.
Jayd (03:47):
Yes, yes. Well, for everybody who is joining in has not met this lovely, lovely lady before. This is terrible. I'm Jaydigains, Jayd Harrison, terrible Heime and I met as streamers on Twitch in the fitness and health category and we've been friends for the last couple of years and both of us moved over onto YouTube. She moved over a lot earlier than I did and she has been documenting her fat loss journey over the last 10 weeks And
(04:23)
It's been really cool. I love your vlogs and I will be linking those below in the description of this video, so make sure that you subscribe to Terrible Hime's channel. She is doing vlogs for her fat loss journey, but she also has a lot of other really cool vlogs. I love your planners and your journal content As a planner journal, girly myself, it's always fun to see how other people are doing their planners and their journals. And I wanted to have you on today because I have been kind of covering the bases with my audience on the different phases of fitness and diet that people can go through depending on what their focus is. We have covered comping or being in a maintenance phase. We've also had a discussion on things to think about before going into a bulk and what to expect before going into a bulk.
(05:27)
And I wanted to talk to you specifically about things too that people should think about going into a cut phase or a diet phase focusing on fat loss because it is something that you don't want to enter into too lightly. You want to have a plan about it and also have your mindset in the right place. And like I said, plan through it and I figured who would be best to talk to about planning a cut phase than you because you are so organized yours and you manage your cut phases well and you have so much success with them. So could you just introduce yourself a little bit to my audience?
Kris (06:07):
Yeah. Hi, I'm Kris, a Terrible Hime on the internet. I also make videos here on YouTube about, as Jayd said, fitness planners and the occasional vlog. I have been on a fitness journey or living a fitness lifestyle for over 10 years. I was at one point a certified personal trainer, but unlike Jayd, I've never actually worked with clients. I did it more for personal education I would say. And yeah, I am mostly a lifting girly. I primarily do weight training and I've gone through several bulking and cutting cycles and honestly right now I feel like the current fat loss phase that I am on has been the easiest and the most successful fat loss phase I've ever done.
Jayd (07:01):
That's amazing. I think that I've seen you go through fat loss phases. I think maybe you've done one every year. Is it once a year?
Kris (07:11):
About once a year. The last time I got very lean was like two years ago, I think in 2023, but then I had a hernia and I had to get surgery and I kind of fell off a little bit after that. Not on fitness in general, but just kind of being on the very lean side. I did a small fat loss phase in 2024, but I didn't get super lean I would say.
Jayd (07:45):
I mean, you've been a gym girly for almost, it's got to be 10 years now, right?
Kris (07:51):
Yeah, I'm not sure exactly. 10 plus something like that. Somewhere in that time. I'm really bad with dates. Me too. So honestly, I couldn't tell you exactly when I started. But
Jayd (08:01):
Yeah, it has been a while and I think that for people who have been on a fitness journey for as long as we have in that intermediate to advanced level of fitness, we do have to be more concentrated and focused in order to make a difference on our bodies. We are way past newbie gains, which for most people when they first start on their fitness journey, they they can experience a drastic change in their bodies. They can burn a lot of fat and build a lot of muscle pretty quickly within the first six months to year or even two years sometimes, depending on the person.
Kris (08:51):
In the first three years of lifting weights, I probably put on about 30 pounds of muscle. It estimated about 30 pounds. And then since then it's definitely slowed down significantly, but still slowly gaining over time.
Jayd (09:09):
And I mean that's just normal and I think a lot of people who hit that three year mark or that six month mark whenever it is that they're going to hit the end of their newbie gains, which is different for every person. They can sometimes be like, oh no, I am doing something wrong. My gains are not happening as fast as they were before. I'm not burning fat as fast and I'm not building muscle as fast. And that's right on track. That's right on schedule. When you kind of cross over from the newbie gains, you do need to focus what you're doing with your training and what you're doing with your diet to make significant gains. If you want to speed up the gains that you're making, whether it's fat or fat loss or building muscle, you kind of have to alternate between blocks or phases of training and diet where you're either focusing on specifically burning fat or building muscle. And I think for both of us, we spend the majority of each year in more of a muscle building phase or a maintenance phase at the least, right?
Kris (10:15):
Yes, for sure. At some point when you're in a fat loss phase, what do you say? Diminishing returns. It's diminishing returns. You have to keep slowly dropping your calories. Over time you're more and more fatigued and at some point it's so awful, it's not really worth the extra half a pound or one pound of fat loss. So for me personally, 16 weeks is about the maximum I will do for a fat loss phase, and then I'll either go back into maintenance for a little while, let my body recover, let my fatigue levels drop off, and then if I wasn't quite where I wanted to be with that fat loss phase, I might go into another fat loss after a few months or I might go into an improvement phase or a muscle building phase.
Jayd (11:10):
I really love that you call it an improvement phase because a lot of people, particularly women, are really sketched out by calling fat phase a bulk, which is what most gym goers will call it, is a bulk when you're trying to build muscle, when you're focusing on building muscle. And I think it's because it evokes this idea of like, oh, I'm going to get bulky, which I think as lifting weights has become more popular for women, that does seem to be less of a fear, but it's still something that I hear from clients, a lot of women who are like, I want to build muscle, but I don't want to become bulky. And they kind of have this sort of misunderstanding that they're going to look like a competitive bodybuilder man if they build muscle.
Kris (12:04):
Yes.
Jayd (12:04):
Do you have anything to speak to that in particular?
Kris (12:08):
I mean, it's kind of like for me personally, the proof is in the pudding. If somebody says that to me, I ask them, well, what do you think about my body type? I've been training weights for 10 plus years. Do you think that I look bulky? Do you think that I look like a man or a male body that's a competitive bodybuilder? And I think in most cases the answer is no. I probably look more fit and more muscular than the average woman, but not in a way that is super masculine. I still have a smaller waist, I have wider hips. I have kind of that hourglass shape, and actually I've built that through weightlifting because prior to lifting weights, I had more of a straight up and down figure.
Jayd (13:03):
Yeah, I do have to say your booty has come such a long way since I've known you because a couple of years ago you really didn't like to do leg work and you and your husband Joey, working out on stream, you would mostly prioritize hitting upper body. And I think maybe it was three years ago you started to really focus on doing leg work. And I can tell a huge difference. Respectfully. I'm looking respectfully, but your booty, your legs, they look so good. And I know what actually, to me it looks like, I think that for a woman who wants to get into weightlifting or has in the back of their mind this fear of getting bulky, I think the best case scenario really for you is that she'll look like an action, an action character,
Kris (14:03):
Like a superhero
Jayd (14:04):
Like
Kris (14:05):
Wonder Woman.
Jayd (14:06):
Yeah. You'll end up more, the more likely thing that's going to happen is you're going to look like a video game character or an action movie star like Angelina Jolie, tomb Raider. So that's the more likely scenario because as women, it's just really hard. Well, it's hard actually for anybody, men and women, it is hard to build muscle.
Kris (14:31):
Yes, it's hard.
Jayd (14:32):
Yeah. Competitive bodybuilders, most of them are on gear. Most of them are on steroids to get as big as they are, and they also have to eat a stupid amount of food to get as big as they are.
Kris (14:45):
Yes.
Jayd (14:46):
For most gym goers like you and me, most gym girlies, like you and me, we do spend the majority of the year in an improvement phase trying to build muscle or a bulk phase in the traditional term, and even in a bulk, even in an improvement phase, we don't look like men. In fact, I think I look way curvier during bulk phases.
Kris (15:11):
I think I do as well.
Jayd (15:13):
I love being in a bulk. I get so many compliments on my butt when I'm in a bulk because I also respond really, really quickly to being in a bulk. I start building muscle really, really quickly, especially in my legs. So my legs start to look really like my thighs start to look really nice and big and firm, and then my butt just starts to get really firm as well. And then when I cut it, it can be a little demoralizing in a different way.
Kris (15:47):
You can't choose where you start losing the weight. And most of the time for most people, you start losing in your limbs, which includes your legs, and a lot of times we retain the fat around our midsection, which is where everybody wants to lose it first. So yeah, you start to see yourself changing, but you don't always love the very specific results that you get, unfortunately.
Jayd (16:16):
Exactly. And when I do go into a bulk, one of the first things that I lose is that definition in my belly, and that can be really a little bit jarring for my personal body dysmorphia, which I think a lot of us have to some degree, and it's something you just kind of have to go with. But I probably won't be going into a cut phase myself anytime soon because I'm really, really enjoying the gains. I'm really enjoying how quickly my muscles are growing now that I'm actually feeding them properly.
Kris (16:53):
The strength too
Jayd (16:54):
And the strength, I really love my strength gains. It's so fun to be able to put more weight on the bar and it not feel uncomfortable or scary, you know what I mean? So I probably won't be heading into a cut anytime soon. It probably won't be until next year, and that's normal. I think when you get to that intermediate phase of training, not only is it like you're going to spend most of the year probably in an improvement phase where you're focusing on building muscle, you may not even cut. You might go through a whole year where you don't even cut at all and you might just bulk or build muscle throughout that whole year. But I think a lot of gym goers do tend to bulk cut and recomp pretty cyclically according to the season.
Kris (17:45):
A lot of people want to get more lean summer for vacations for going to the beach and stuff like that. Personally, it just so happens that my cut kind of coincides with getting leaner for the summer, but in the whole of my fitness career, more often than not, I've been leaner in the wintertime. It really depends on how my fitness journey is going. Mean I like to be in an improvement phase for much, much longer than I'm in a fat loss phase because building muscle takes time and I don't really want to put on a large percentage of fat. Obviously when you're gaining weight, usually it's a little bit of both, but if you gain a bunch of weight really quickly, it's more likely it's fat content rather than muscle. So I prefer eight months to a year or more in an improvement phase.
Jayd (18:46):
Well, let's talk about, if you're thinking about going into a cut, I think one of the first things that you should think about is when and for how long are you going to be cutting? What's your goal? So when you yourself reach a point where you want to start to cut, what are the things that kind of trigger that for you? What are the things that make you think, okay, I'm going to start planning out a cut phase for myself?
Kris (19:13):
So I usually take into account my body fat percentage, and it's usually not an exact measurement, just kind of a visual estimate of what my body fat percentage is. When I personally get to around 25%, that's when I start thinking about going into a fat loss phase. The other really big factor for me is my hunger levels. A lot of times because I do these fat loss and then weight gaining phases when I'm eating a lot to gain weight, I don't want to really say that I'm a hard gainer. I don't necessarily think that's what I am, but sometimes it does get to the point where I just don't feel like I want to eat to keep growing. I feel full a lot. I feel like I'm forcing myself to eat. I'm feeling sluggish and also just how my body feels. If I am getting to the point where I'm finding it harder to move or I'm finding that a lot of my clothes are not fitting in a way that I find flattering or comfortable, that also starts to tell me, Hey, maybe it's time to start dialing it back and go into a fat loss phase.
(20:38)
So yeah, I guess that's three main things. My body fat percentage, my appetite, and how comfortable I feel in my own body.
Jayd (20:47):
I think that's a really good point. Number two that I don't often think about because just like when we are in a fat loss phase, as you decrease your body mass and your maintenance level of calories decreases, then you in order to continue to burn fat, you have to adjust your calorie intake. The same is true if you're deliberately trying to build muscle, because as you build muscle, your body needs more calories. And so if you've been in an improvement phase for a really long time, your body will adjust to the number of calories you're eating, and so you can very easily plateau in the amount of muscle that you're gaining in order to get over that plateau and get your body building muscle again. You have to eat more, you have to eat more calories, you have to eat more protein.
(21:38)
And yeah, that's definitely an issue that I think a lot of people in my audience probably never really have run into before or yet because a lot of people are mainly focused on fat loss, but the other side of the coin is true as well. You can reach a point when you're wearing your fitness journey where you're trying to build muscle and you can't eat enough and you feel like you're force feeding yourself, that is another really good sign that's maybe time to dial it in and consider either going into a maintenance phase or cutting.
Kris (22:15):
And definitely I'm not the kind of person that eats a very small amount. I love food. I love high calorie food, I love fatty foods, I love fast food, and I can really tell when I'm getting to that point of, okay, I really don't need to go out today. I really just need to eat a vegetable. You can feel it. You get to that point where you're just like, my body needs something more nutritious.
Jayd (22:46):
And you track your calories and your macros all year round, right?
Kris (22:52):
No.
Jayd (22:52):
No. Okay, gotcha. So
Kris (22:55):
I'm very specific about it.
Jayd (22:58):
Okay.
Kris (22:59):
I would say that generally speaking, I have a good relationship with food and mental health wise food, and we kind of vibe
Jayd (23:07):
That's Good.
Kris (23:08):
But I find that when I am tracking my macros and my calories all year round, especially when I'm in an improvement phase trying to eat more, I get into kind of a weird head space where I have a hard time eating foods that I don't feel like are worth it. So I'll on purpose stay away from higher calorie, less satiating foods, even though I can fit them into my macros. So things like candy, chips, snacks, even protein bars, sometimes I won't eat them because I feel like it's not worth it. So usually when I'm in an improvement phase, I'm still really focused on eating a lot of protein, but I don't necessarily track my food all the time just to give myself a mental break.
Jayd (24:05):
That's interesting because it just kind of shows that you don't have to be tracking all the time in order to be successful. So you just keep an eye on protein basically.
Kris (24:16):
I mean, I don't even really track anything.
Jayd (24:19):
Oh,
Kris (24:20):
When I get into a serious improvement phase, so I'll track when I am in a fat loss phase, I'll track when I'm at maintenance and I might track for a month or two into an improvement phase, but I've kind of been doing it for so long, I can tell when I'm getting enough protein. I also might incorporate some specific strategies. I always drink protein coffee in the morning, and that's just like an easy 20 grams of protein. And I might be like, okay, I definitely want to have an extra protein shake every single day, and that's another 25, 30 grams of protein. So that's already third of what I need throughout the day, and I'm definitely going to have some sort of protein with dinner, and I'm definitely going to have some sort of protein with lunch, and I just try to make sure you have your healthy plate model. I Just try to make sure that I have that kind of larger portion of protein on my plate whenever I eat something.
Jayd (25:21):
Hell yeah.
Kris (25:22):
I never have just a plate of plain noodles or instant ramen without adding eggs and meat or tofu into it.
Jayd (25:33):
Yeah, I just
Kris (25:33):
Always trying to prioritize.
Jayd (25:35):
I love that you allow for yourself to eat more intuitively when you're in an improvement phase because that is something that going into a cut phase. I think another thing that people need to think about and be conscious of is that if you are going into a fat loss phase, then you do have to be more careful and mindful about what you're eating because you can't really get away with as much as when you are in an improvement phase, an improvement phase, your body is going to use whatever energy you put into it. It may store some of it as fat, but especially if you're hitting the gym as hard as you should, then most of that is going to be going to your muscles. But when it comes to fat loss, you are going to have a hard time actually burning fat unless you're keeping an eye on your caloric intake.
Kris (26:23):
Yes.
Jayd (26:24):
So I love that you give that mental break for yourself so that you don't have to track all year round because that can be pretty fatiguing for people.
Kris (26:32):
Yes. Yeah, definitely.
Jayd (26:34):
And what do you use to track your food when you are in a maintenance or a fat loss phase?
Kris (26:41):
So I have used MyFitnessPal in the past. Currently I'm using Macro Factor. I think there are a lot of really good apps out there, and honestly, I mean you could just use a spreadsheet and a calculator if you just want the cheapest option possible. I think macro factor is good with some caveats that it is a paid app and most people can get away with using a free app or an app that has a free option. Like MyFitnessPal. I used MyFitnessPal for many, many, many years without paying for anything and without using the barcode scanner, just searching for stuff and using stuff that I had used many times in the past, and I had absolutely no issues with it. I was just looking to try something new. So I've decided to use macro factor for now.
Jayd (27:38):
When you are going into a fat loss phase. So we talked about what makes you decide to go into one, but when you actually sit down to plan it, what are the things that you think about when you're planning your fat loss phase? How long will it be and how many calories you're going to eat or what your macros will look like? Could you share a little bit about that part of the planning
Kris (28:03):
Process? Yeah, for sure. So for me, 16 weeks is the max, and I will usually have in my mind a certain body fat percentage look that I'm aiming for or I might have a specific weight goal. I tell myself, if I get that ahead of 16 weeks, maybe I'll stop early. So anywhere from 12 to 16 weeks is usually what I allow myself. Also, because I don't want to force myself to be so restricted to lose really, really quickly. I want to give myself time to kind of ease into a little bit and kind of lose at a steady, slower sort of pace. And then when it comes to planning, well, I will say that I have a very easy lifestyle for fat loss. So I don't have children. My husband is also into fitness and we typically will be in bulking and cutting cycles at the same time, he also takes care of most of his food throughout the day.
(29:21)
We only have dinner together, and it's easy for me to plan out how I'm going to schedule how I eat. So I have in my mind what I'm going to do throughout the day. So I'll have my protein coffee, I'll have a protein shake, I'll have a small lunch and I'll have a bigger dinner. And when it comes to deciding how my macros are formed, I guess I always prefer to get one gram of protein per pound of body weight. So as somebody who's already on kind of the leaner side, even when I have reached peak bulk, I'm still probably on the leaner side for women. One gram per pound of body weight usually works for me either way,
Jayd (30:13):
Right
Kris (30:14):
Around one 50, A little bit more, a little bit less day to day is totally okay with me for hormonal health, especially as a woman, I try not to let my fat intake get too low. I usually go for around 40 to 50 grams of fat a day, and then I just let the rest of the calories get eaten up by carbs. And when it comes to setting a specific calorie intake goal, I will start on the conservative side and then adjust over time based on how my weight is fluctuating. So I look at the trends. I do weigh myself every day and there's ups and downs to that, but I try to look at the trends over time, and if I see that it's not really going down, then I adjust.
Jayd (31:08):
Do you know your maintenance calories going into this or do you calculate them using your app or something?
Kris (31:15):
So the macro factor app, and I'm really not trying to plug this app too much because it has some downsizes.
Jayd (31:23):
No, I just want you to talk about what you use and what works for you. Because even if people are using MyFitnessPal, it's a very similar process. Most of these apps kind of give you some estimates.
Kris (31:34):
So at the beginning of my fat loss phase, which was right around the beginning of January, my estimated total daily energy expenditure was between 18 and 1900 calories a day, which seen, I would say I was surprised. I thought that was on the low side, but I'm also very sedentary unless I'm making myself move around more. I typically get around 5,000 Steps,
Kris (32:05):
Which is not a lot. Even with working out just lifting weights, it's very low. So even though I have kind of a higher muscle mass, total daily energy expenditure is pretty low. And then I would probably, I actually had macro factor tell me at the beginning of this fat loss phase what my calories and macros should be. But if I were to do it without that, I would probably cut about 300 calories off of that and adjust over time.
Jayd (32:35):
Got it.
Kris (32:36):
So if I was estimated around 1800, I'd probably drop down to 16 or 15 and see how that worked. For me,
Jayd (32:47):
That seems so low. That's so interesting. When I think about our lifestyle, because you are, you've always been way more leaner than me, I tend to run a little bit higher body fat percentage wise, and that's kind of where my body likes homeostasis wise. I stay a little bit higher. And then from time to time, really for maybe a month out of the year, I'll be super, super lean. And usually that's not on purpose. It's usually because of stress and I'm A DHD, just kind of forgetting meals and stuff, which is not good either. But also at the same time, I have a very, very, very active lifestyle. I'm on my feet moving around all day. I work full time as a personal trainer, and I have clients all day. Sometimes my sessions will be back to back for seven to 10 hours straight. So
Kris (33:40):
Yeah, that's on top of your own workouts.
Jayd (33:43):
Yeah, exactly. That
Kris (33:44):
Are pretty intense with the power lifting.
Jayd (33:47):
So for me, and I'm shorter than you, much shorter than you. It's just so interesting. The difference in, for me, eating 1500 calories, I would just be so miserable. 1500 calories for me would be mental health issues, and I would experience all of the things that happen when you're not eating enough calories, and that would be unhealthy for me. My usual maintenance level of calories tends to be somewhere around 2105, 3, 130 to 135 pounds. Although I've been trying to gain weight. I want to get to be 1 45, but I'm still 1 35. I just stay there.
Kris (34:30):
I mean, is it possible to recomp in the opposite direction
Jayd (34:35):
Where yeah, it
Kris (34:37):
Is, or is it still considered the same thing as you are not really gaining a lot of fat, but you're definitely getting stronger and probably building muscle at the same time? Yeah,
Jayd (34:48):
I actually, I think I have been recomp for a while because recently I've been much leaner and I've been building muscle and getting stronger. Yeah, definitely. Although I would say I'm like you. When I'm in an improvement phase, which I am, I consider myself to be in a bulk. I am very, very loosey goosey with my diet. I just try to eat enough protein. For me that's at least 95 grams of protein a day. And if I get that very minimum, then I'm happy. But I know that I could totally eat a lot more and probably make a lot more progress in my bulk, but I have to balance that out with busyness. But all that to say, one person's needs for calories and macros can be very wildly different from another person's, and you can't just compare what your body needs to what another person's body needs. It's
Kris (35:52):
100%
Jayd (35:53):
Right, because we all have different lifestyles, and in general, if you are more active, if you are on your feet a lot, you're going to need to eat more. So the amount that I have to eat in order to build muscle is just, it's not sustainable for most of the time. And so I do kind of just stay at a recomp. I just stay at maintenance most of the time. Even though I say I'm in a bulk, I'm really comping because it's not feasible with the amount of activity that I get. Probably if I was a little bit more sedentary that I probably would be able to build more muscle. And so I think it's important to make that distinction because people, we can sometimes get a little bit of different lifestyles, get a bad rap, and we can assign shame or bad to different things. And it's not necessarily bad. You can be healthy with different lifestyles. You can still be a gym girly if you have a sedentary job and it's not good or it's not bad. It's just what your body needs in terms of how many calories you need to eat.
Kris (37:05):
And also for you, I would say that eating more carbs probably helps with your energy levels being on your feet all day. Whereas for me, and just primarily lifting when I do move around, having really high protein actually helps a lot with muscle soreness. So yeah, I find that for me personally, having a really more protein that I need on a daily basis actually really, really helps with my recovery.
Jayd (37:37):
Hell yeah. I think that I get away with it. I mean, I do definitely have a lot of soreness at the beginning of a new block, but in general, once my body, once I get into the second week, I'm good, I'm good to go. And I think probably I get away with it because I do have a lot of sugar. I do eat more sugar
(37:59)
Because I have hot chocolate with my coffee twice a day, and I don't deny myself treats a couple of days, and if I feel like having donuts, I get some donuts and I'm not eating donuts all day, but I allow myself these things and because of the effect of protein sparing because I'm so active and I give my body enough sugars for the level of activity that I have, that's probably why I'm able to get away with having a lower protein intake, especially on those A DHD days where I hyper focus, then I don't eat enough.
Kris (38:36):
Probably also just the way that you move around so much and work with your clients, you're probably getting some mobility work out of that that kind of helps get the soreness out of your system. Whereas I'm sitting at my desk all day eight hours a day, just like,
Jayd (38:54):
Right, right. And that does make it harder. So that's another thing that someone should keep in mind if they're thinking about going into a cut phase. Let's talk about soreness because we've talked about how you plan going into a cut, and then also the limits that you put on your cut, you'll cut until you get a certain body fat percentage at the most 16 weeks. Let's talk about the things that people don't often think about going into a cut phase, what they need to know and what they need to expect because it's not going to be sunshine and roses and rainbows the whole time. There's very real negative downsides to being in a calorie deficit, especially if you are in a steep calorie deficit or if you've been in a cut for a really long time. So could we talk about the things that people need to have themselves prepared for going into a cut?
Kris (39:57):
Definitely the biggest thing that you need to prepare yourself for is not only the physical fatigue, but the mental fatigue of being in a calorie deficit. For me, even with all of my planning and all of my strategizing, the mental fatigue still builds up over time thinking about food all the time. What am I going to eat? What's going to fit into my calories? How am I going to get my protein? Thinking about my workouts, like, oh, am I going to get injured? Do I have to be careful? Am I doing all right? Do I have to get more steps? I added steps into my routine to help facilitate fat loss that I wasn't doing prior to this. So it's like, okay, how many steps do I need to get this week? Do I need to be on the treadmill for how long do I need to be on the treadmill?
(40:48)
These kinds of things just build up over time, and usually the longer you're in a fat loss phase, the worse it gets because you're also not eating a lot of food. Most people when they're not eating a lot, they're really grumpy. When they're low calories, they feel hungry, they feel tired because a lot of times when you're in a fat loss phase, you don't sleep as well. And I can't remember the specific reason why that happens, but there is a specific reason why that happens. One thing that I don't think gets talked about a lot that I find mentally fatiguing is that when I'm in a fat loss phase, I lose hair much more quickly.
(41:36)
So it's like when I take a shower, it's like a huge clump of hair in the drain. And as a woman, hair loss is not really something that you necessarily worry about. It's not as talked about among, I would say the female community, I guess. So sometimes that can be really draining. Sometimes if you're like me and you weigh yourself every day seeing you feel really good when you see a low weigh in, but you see a high weigh in and you feel like stressed about it or you feel bad, you're like, why did I just gain two pounds overnight when it's probably water retention or food in your stomach or something like that. But yeah, the mental fatigue a lot of times is just as bad, if not worse than the actual physical fatigue of working out and being tired.
Jayd (42:29):
I totally agree. That's something that I have seen with my clients. It is really the hardest thing to overcome. I find most of my clients the main struggle is mental, the mental health side of things. If you are prone to mental health issues, if you are prone to mental health issues, going into a calorie deficit can bring those out, can make those more exaggerated, especially when you are in a low calorie deficit. This is not to say that you can't cut and that you can't burn fat if you have mental health issues, but I generally am going to steer someone away from a really deep calorie deficit where they're eating way, way, way low calories if they are prone to mental health problems, and
(43:22)
Instead, I will have them do a longer but really shallow calorie deficit, and you can maintain a calorie deficit of just a hundred calories for a pretty long time, and a hundred calories is really easy to cut out. That's a matter of using a spritz can on your pan when you cook versus dumping olive oil into the pan. That's an easy,
Kris (43:50):
The way that most people use olive oil when they cook, that's probably more than a hundred calories, to be
Jayd (43:57):
Honest. When I'm in an improvement phase, which I am, I will just dump the olive oil on the vegetables, dump it into the pan. But if I'm trying to cut back a little bit and be more conservative in my calorie intake, then I switch that over into a spritz. That is a simple, easy way to get rid of a daily 100 to even 250 calories.
Kris (44:22):
If you switch your milk, if you typically drink whole milk, you switch it to 2%, 1% fat free. That's a ton of calories, even if you're the kind of person, for me, I don't just sit and drink a glass of milk, but I put it in my coffee and nowadays I'm using fat-free milk and I think it's, I don't know, 40 calories for as much as I dump into it. If that was whole milk, that'd probably be like three times as much.
Jayd (44:52):
Exactly. And so let's just make sure that we cover everything in terms of the mental things to expect or the downsides that you need to be prepared for, because if you're not prepared for the downsides, they can make you feel like a failure. That's the more common outcome is that if you're not expecting, oh, I'm going to be low energy, I'm probably going to be having some depressive low energy, or even just I'm going to be feeling sad and irritable. If you don't know that that's likely to happen, then it can make you feel all kinds
Kris (45:28):
Of gateway ways. I get really irritable.
Jayd (45:29):
Yeah, I do too. I just get really sad and doom and gloom when I am in a calorie deficit. If it's too low, if it's too low and it is more likely that these things become issues, the lower you go. What is the lowest that you personally will go in a fat loss phase? What's your cap on how quickly you burn fat?
Kris (45:54):
Right now, I am at 1450 calories a day, and I probably would not go lower than this. This is actually the lowest I've ever been in terms of calorie intake for a fat loss phase. And I think that maybe the goal that I set myself since I started out using macro factor to tell me what to set my calorie and macro intake at. I think my initial goal was a little too aggressive considering that I'm already on the leaner side, but I've kind of come into it and am doing really well on the 1450 calories. I am not feeling super hungry and I'm still able to eat a lot of foods that I like, but I wouldn't go lower than this personally. But I know that I am kind of on the bigger side and there are lots of people that would need to get a little bit lower in order to be in a fat loss state.
Jayd (47:08):
Personally, if nothing changes about my lifestyle with where I am now, I couldn't go lower than 1500. 1500 is really bare minimum for me. And I have lived at 1500 by accident for stretches of time, and I mean you've kind of seen how that was for me. I am more likely to burn out. I do have autism and A DHD and the lower that I go in my calories or the longer that I am in a calorie deficit, I am more often going to hit burnout. And burnout is that mental fatigue that sets in. It can often feel like a depressive episode where I just don't
(47:55)
Have the energy or motivation to do anything. I do a lot of bed rotting and I just need a lot of time to recharge after my very active, very social job, which makes it very hard for me to put in the work on my content, which is my other job. So that's a limitation for me in going into calorie deficits because I know if I have some big projects or a product launch or I'm trying to take on new clients or I'm designing a new program, that is not a good time for me to go into a calorie deficit or a cut phase. So you kind of have to think about that as well when you're planning on one.
Kris (48:43):
Yeah, you have to really think about your entire lifestyle. For me, I am very busy around the holidays because of work, And Then on top of family obligations with that, whatever people want to eat, they want you to eat. So personally speaking, I would never try to cut in October, November, December, it would be dooming myself to failure. It's just not a good idea. And I also usually go on vacation in May, so I wouldn't want to try to schedule a fat loss phase for that time either. Maybe when I got back, and I have done that before where I come back from vacation and I go right into a fat loss phase. But you have to think about the cycles in your everyday life and what makes the most sense for a fat loss phase. If you know your job is super duper busy at the beginning of the year, first quarter, you probably want to avoid going into a fat loss phase during that time. It just doesn't make sense to put yourself through that if you can do it some other time.
Jayd (49:55):
Oh, that's such a good point because a lot of people enter into the new year and they think, oh, it's the new year, so I should start my fat loss journey. But if they are in a business or in a field of that's very, very busy during Q1,
(50:12)
That is a terrible time to cut. I have a client who's a CPA and we've really struggled since he came to work with me. He came to work with me right out of grad school, so he's still kind of figuring out the waters in terms of his new life routine. But when it gets, there's multiple busy seasons throughout the year for CPAs. There are different deadline periods. He does work with businesses. So we've just figured out the best solution for him was initially let's settle into a generally healthy baseline lifestyle where you're generally following a baseline of following a healthy plate model and eating enough protein and then getting in two to three workouts a week and then just try to stay active when you can. And then once he passes a deadline, then we can do a mini cut, like a short and sweet period where we just cut back while he has the mental space and capacity, and then
Kris (51:20):
That totally makes sense.
Jayd (51:21):
And then that's a very short period because with CPAs, they have, I mean, there's a lot of different deadlines throughout the year, and so he's had to kind of think about when his cutting phases will happen according to that. And I think that's also important for most people to consider. I think around the holidays is a really bad time for most people to cut, but also don't be tempted by the New Year's resolutions if it doesn't really align with your lifestyle. Figure out when is the least stressful time of your year where you'll be able to actually put the effort into it, but at the same time, you have to ask yourself if that's worth it to you, because being in a calorie deficit is going to introduce stress into a time period for you that is normally not stressful, and your overall system may actually need that time to be more loosey goosey. You have to think about that as well,
(52:24)
Because you could very easily, for me, I have to be very careful about going into a burnout because with autism, burnout's a pretty serious threat. I think anybody with any brain type can burnout. You don't have to be on the spectrum. But for people who are on the spectrum, autistic burnout can lead to regression, regression in skills. It can literally cause brain damage. So there's a reason why many people, even people who are high masking or who are high passing in neurotypical society, a lot of them, once they reach burnout, there's some people who never recover from it and end up having to go on disability or it starts to manifest in physical illnesses. So you have to think about that as well. And that's not all to say that you can't burn fat, but doing a 500 to 1000 calorie deficit may not really be the best choice for you. So if you do want to focus on burning fat and you're going into a phase of your life where you feel like, I can focus on this right now, I think it's probably better to stick to longer periods with a very short amount of calorie deficit, 100 to 250 calories below maintenance versus trying to do an more extreme fat loss phase, which is 500 to a thousand calories below maintenance.
Kris (54:00):
And I think sometimes instead of going into a steep calorie deficit, you can go into a more moderate or low calorie deficit and add in more activity. A lot of people find that more sustainable going on walks or bike or something pretty low intensity that doesn't necessarily sap your energy a ton, but it's definitely burning an amount of calories.
Jayd (54:30):
Yeah, really
Kris (54:31):
Good point. Overall, you might be in more of a calorie deficit than you think. It's just not all through food.
Jayd (54:37):
Right? I think that's a really good point to make and also reminds me of my CPA client because he started making a lot of gains with his fat loss journey once he started playing disc golf with his friends. He does that a couple times A week, Disc golf, and I have a lot of clients who play pickleball as well, which has the added benefit of socializing time. So it's not just exercise, but it's something that they're doing in meeting with other people, maybe doing a little bit of business networking as well, or bonding, like social bonding. So that has a net positive in a number of different ways. One, it helps to kind of get calorie, the calorie burn high, but also you're scratching that social itch and getting to your social needs as well. I love that as a strategy.
Kris (55:25):
When I'm in a calorie deficit, I really try to not watch something that I know will be detrimental to my mental health. So I try to avoid sad movies and sad series. I try to find comedies or something fun to watch just to help boost my mood. I know that if something triggers me into a mood, like a sad mood or a depressive mood, I am going to be stuck there longer. I just won't have the mental energy to kind of hype myself out of it. So yeah, I try it specifically to look for things that I know are going to bring me joy.
Jayd (56:13):
Oh my God, that's such a good point. And I think that's another thing that people need to think about and plan for when they're going into a cut is how are you managing, how are managing your life to not add extra stress to it? And I think we can get into trouble, especially in the current climate currently, if you have a habit of doom scrolling on social media,
Kris (56:40):
Oh my gosh,
Jayd (56:41):
You are going to have a really hard time mental health wise while you're also in a calorie deficit. At the same time, you are also more likely to sabotage your fat loss by doing that because into, if you get stuck into that depressive spiral, that's when you're more likely to cheat on your diet and just to lose motivation with it. So you have to, in therapy, we talk about trauma triggers, right? So you definitely want to avoid triggers for yourself that could trigger a depressive episode when you're especially vulnerable like you are when you're in a cut. But there's also a term called glimmers, which are the opposite of triggers. Glimmers are things that spark joy. They're things that give you a shot of serotonin or oxytocin, which are your feel-good hormones. And so when you are in your cut phase, you want to make sure that you're filling your life, you're conscious of filling your life with the things that give you serotonin, your glimmers. What are some of your glimmers? What are your things that give you that little boost and shot of joy to keep you going? Well,
Kris (57:59):
Specifically in the past 10 weeks, I've watched more comedy series, like TV shows. So I watched what we do in the Shadows, which is very funny, very silly. I also watched only murders in the building, which is kind of a little serious, but it was also a lot of funny moments.
(58:25)
I specifically for social media, I specifically do not engage with stuff that I know is going to be mentally difficult for me. And when I'm not in a fat loss phase, I watch a lot of food content because I love food. So I watch a lot of YouTube videos centered around food or traveling and food. But I have to stop myself from watching that kind of stuff when I'm in a fat loss phase because not only does it, it just makes me feel bad all around. I can't eat it. It makes me hungry. So I try to focus on my other hobbies. So plant stuff, planners and journals, art, stuff like that. Something that like a hobby to keep me interested but isn't going to set me back or make it difficult for me to stick with my fat loss.
Jayd (59:21):
Yeah, I think leaning on hobbies and adding more hobbies is a really good
Kris (59:26):
Thing to specifically active hobbies, stuff that you do with your hands, not just, there's nothing wrong with just chilling out and watching tv, but sometimes when you don't have something to really focus on, you start boredom eating. I'm a big boredom eater. I'm big. Get up, go look at the pantry, see what's going on in there, and then maybe get something. And it's kind of hard to stop myself from doing that if I'm just sitting around not engaged actively with something.
Jayd (01:00:01):
For me, this is something that we share the plants. That's definitely a special interest for me. I love and adore my house plants and my vegetable garden. For me, it's also a low stimulus type of thing because my life is really busy and I'm in front of screens a lot. And so getting in front of just taking care of my plants is something outside in the real world, not in front of a screen. There's no lights and it's just low stimulus types of things. But also, I watch a lot of YouTube as well, but my self-care YouTube is mostly, or exploration videos of my favorite video games. I love to just think about Dark Souls and Elden Ring and Alan Wake and watch video essays on what's the deeper meaning behind this. And let's see, snuggling with my dog. I snuggle with my dog so much and play with my dog so much. So little glimmers like that help me to have the mental fortitude to get through not only the stress of being in a cut, but also, I mean, that's just kind of good self-care skills to have in general for whatever. These are things that we should be doing for ourselves no matter what.
(01:01:21)
Another thing that people should be wary of, which we mentioned were triggers. Being in a calorie deficit is a good opportunity for you to practice good self-care skills and therapeutic skills like journaling, because you do need to practice a lot of self-awareness and develop a lot of self-awareness to be in a cut successfully because you want to be aware of things like what situations tend to trigger you, not just mental health wise and depression wise, but also what are the things that tend to trigger you into mindless snacking or going off plan. What are the things that kind of trigger you into mindless snacking?
Kris (01:02:04):
I'm pretty okay when it comes to the mindless snacking, but I know that I have a really hard time holding back if I go to a restaurant.
(01:02:17)
So I am not saying that you should always avoid restaurants when you are in a calorie deficit, but I only go to restaurants when I know very specifically exactly what I will order, how it's going to fit into my plan. Otherwise, I will order everything on the menu and eat every last bite. I just go crazy when I go to restaurants sometimes it's a big problem. So yeah, for me, I have to avoid it when it comes to snacking. I'm the kind of person that can have just a very small amount of something and be okay with that. I can have one tiny piece of chocolate and I'll be good. I got the taste of it, so it's okay to have that kind of stuff in my pantry, but restaurants are just like, yeah, it's really hard when I'm at a restaurant.
Jayd (01:03:15):
Yeah, I noticed for a lot of my clients, if it is in the house, they can't have it in the house. If it's in the house, they'll eat it. And especially
Kris (01:03:23):
My husband is like that.
Jayd (01:03:25):
If it's in the house, they'll eat it and they won't have any self-control when it comes, they'll eat the whole bag. I think that I'm also that way. I am that way, especially if I'm super stressed. I could just house an entire box of Cheez-Its, or
Kris (01:03:44):
What I try to do is I try to get small things. So instead of getting a whole bag of chips, I'll get the little bags that are meant for kids'. Lunches
Jayd (01:03:56):
Doesn't stop me. I'm a cookie monster. I will be like, okay, well, I'm going to grab 1, 2, 3, I want some more.
Kris (01:04:02):
I can do just one or the mini bags of popcorn or just the two packs of Milano cookies from Costco. That's fine for me, but my husband in anything in the pantry try to eat it unless he just doesn't like it.
Jayd (01:04:20):
And those are things that we just have to learn about ourselves. And sometimes you don't know until it's like, Hmm, I'm really having trouble with this behavior.
(01:04:29)
And That's why I think journaling is such a powerful tool for life. But also when you're in a cut, it's important to journal, if not every day, at the end of every week, reflect on what you learned about yourself that week. Did you identify triggers that you weren't aware of before? And also it gives you an opportunity to brainstorm strategies to help you navigate those triggers.
Kris (01:04:59):
Sometimes
Jayd (01:04:59):
We can't avoid them for
Kris (01:05:00):
Sure.
Jayd (01:05:01):
Sometimes you can't avoid them. The biggest trigger for people I find is it's in the house, I'm going to eat it. But also social settings. Social settings is the biggest, but I don't like
Kris (01:05:13):
The house.
Jayd (01:05:14):
Right. That's the biggest hurdle for a lot of my clients, especially on the weekends. They'll get together with their friends, they'll be drinking, they will eat whatever. Shitty food, bar
Kris (01:05:30):
Food,
Jayd (01:05:30):
Bar food. Exactly.
Kris (01:05:32):
Yeah. Nothing healthy at a bar.
Jayd (01:05:34):
Exactly. That's not really a problem that you experienced because you guys aren't really in the bar scene type of thing, right?
Kris (01:05:42):
Yeah, I mean, I actually just don't like alcohol. I don't like the taste of it. I don't like the way that it makes me feel. So I have no problem avoiding it, but I'm also just not very social. I am truly privileged to have the type of lifestyle that makes it much easier for me to be in a fat loss phase than most people. But yeah, I have very few social obligations. I only leave the house once a week and that's like to go grocery shopping. I don't like bars, I don't like alcohol. Yeah.
Jayd (01:06:22):
Yeah, same. I am not really into that kind of scene as well
(01:06:28)
Because I am just too busy and I'm too tired by the end of the week usually if I have free time because my job is so social and because I'm streaming and whatnot, if I have free time, I really, I'm a grandma. I just kind of want to stay home and play with my plants or just read or watch TV or something because of just I'm talked out. But what I have found for a lot of my clients who do have social lives where they go out or they have parties or they have get togethers, a couple of things that have helped them. One is eating beforehand. If you go hungry to one of these gatherings, you are more likely to just go crazy and go off your diet and go off of your plan.
Kris (01:07:12):
Definitely.
Jayd (01:07:13):
Yes. So eating ahead of time, fall, eating ahead of time. What was according to your plan. Also, the thing, like you said, looking ahead of time, if you know where you're going to be going, if it's the restaurant or something, and ahead of time what is going to be on the menu, then you can go ahead and kind of plan for what you're going to eat and what you're going to drink while you're there. A lot of my clients plan for having two drinks max, which I think is kind of a good practice anyway just for health sake, but especially when you are on a calorie, when you're in a calorie deficit, that can be very helpful with setting a limit for yourself. And then also opting for lower calorie alcoholic beverages like a spritzer, like a vodka soda, something like that, versus a beer or a really sugary mixed Drink.
(01:08:04)
But also I have lot of other clients who they just don't do alcohol while they're in a cut, and that's fine because it's just empty calories anyway. It doesn't really do anything for you health wise. And also alcohol does tend to interfere with fat oxidation. So your body doesn't really burn fat while there's alcohol present in your system. So if you're focused on fat loss right now, drinking alcohol is really not going to help you. So you definitely want to think about reducing while you're in a cut phase or plan to reduce, or at least set a limit on what you're drinking. And in terms of the food plan ahead or eat ahead would be the best thing to do for social interactions. That one thing that one of my clients did, I'm super proud of him. He and his wife have a nerd night that they do once a week, and it's their very special time that they hang out with their friends.
(01:09:08)
They play board games or DD or they watch Lord of the Rings or something like that. And this is a creative outlet for this client because he really likes to cook. He likes to joke that his fantasy is being a 1950s housewife. He really loves to cook food for people. He loves to entertain. So for him, that's kind of how he shows love. And he had a little sit down with his group to explain to them, Hey, look, I'm really trying to eat healthier, and I know that I usually go all out and I make all of this really cheesy food, and he's polish too, so a lot of
Kris (01:09:51):
Cheese. I love cheese
Jayd (01:09:52):
Sausages and that kind of stuff. And he explained to them and said, I'm going to have to change the kind of stuff that I make for us during nerd night because I need to dial it back. And his friends were like, dude, that's fine. You're the one who makes the food. Nobody's holding a gun to your head. Make whatever you need and we're happy to eat whatever you cook. So it was like for him, a mental thing where he had to, he felt social pressure to create meals that were unhealthy or not unhealthy, but treat meals. Right, tasty.
Kris (01:10:23):
Yeah,
Jayd (01:10:23):
Tasty treat meals. And so when he talked to the people, he realized, oh, they didn't have any expectation of him to make these crazy, elaborate tasty foods. They were happy to just eat whatever he makes because it's a social situation. So sometimes you talk to your friends and be like, Hey, so here's what I'm trying to do with my lifestyle, and I'm not trying to push it onto you at all. It's just for me
(01:10:49)
Right now, I'm trying to make these changes. Is there something, would you be interested in being a part of it? And then you might be surprised that your friends will be like, oh, hell yeah, I need to cut back too. I need to get healthy too. So then maybe instead of meeting at this brewery or this bar, why don't we meet at somebody's house, maybe get catering from a Mediterranean restaurant or something, or maybe we make Mediterranean food something healthier and we hang out. We play d and d. And maybe not. Your people may be more supportive if you also bring them into the process, and actually they may actually be grateful to be part of it with you. So it's worth talking to your social circle about what your goals are and asking them without putting pressure on them, because
(01:11:46)
Everybody's Allowed to have their own journey, and nobody has the right to force fat loss on anybody else. But if you ask them if they want to be a part of what you're trying to do, if they want to support you and maybe keep you accountable, they might surprise you and be like, you know what? I kind of want to do that too. Let's do it together. And now it's a thing that you're doing together, which can be really beautiful. What other cautions or common pitfalls would you also want to want people to know about before they go into a cut that we haven't talked about already?
Kris (01:12:21):
For me, the thing that has been the most helpful and made this specific fat loss phase, the most successful one that I've ever done, is how much time and effort I put into planning before I even started. So this might not necessarily apply to a lot of your clients because they're working with you, but for other people that are watching or listening to this podcast that are kind of on their own, try to set yourself up for success ahead of time. So for me, what that looked like was having my entire workout program for the 16 week fat loss phase already completely planned out. So I made myself two eight week blocks of five workouts a week, and I literally set up my spreadsheet for 16 weeks so I don't have to think about what I'm doing for workouts at all. I just have to pick an appropriate weight the day of what I'm feeling is going to work for me. And that was awesome. That was so helpful. It's just one thing that's not causing me mental fatigue.
Jayd (01:13:44):
Hell yea
Kris (01:13:46):
When it comes to food, I don't meal prep or anything like that, but that might be something that you think about ahead of time. If food is something that stresses you out or something that is difficult for you, come up with a strategy, maybe have a set of recipes ready to go that you can choose from that are easy and quick for you to make or consider a meal prepping service to help you out, something like that. So just planning and strategizing ahead of time before you're already in a place where you're feeling really fatigued and stressed out. That was the thing that really, really, really helped me out this time around.
Jayd (01:14:35):
Yeah, I totally agree. I think that for me, the biggest thing that's helped me with my bulk, because it's the bulking part that I struggle with the most, is being on a rotating meal plan where I have the same recipes that I rotate through every six weeks and sticking to that. As long as I stick to that, I'm pretty successful and I'm able to eat as much as I need. But the same can be true of following a calorie deficit plan, having the same kind of rotation of things. And you don't have to eat the same thing every day, every week too. I personally,
Kris (01:15:06):
For sure,
Jayd (01:15:07):
Yeah, I prefer to have a rotating six week meal plan where week one is these three lunch and dinner recipes. Week two, we switch over to these three recipes and it is rotating every six weeks. And I eat the same thing for breakfast more or less, and I'll switch it out here and there as I get tired of eating Greek yogurt with blueberries or something like that. But yeah, making it so that you have to think about or plan in the moment as little as possible is so important because as you get tired, the mental fatigue of the cut sets in, you're going to have a lot less mental space for doing that, and that will make you more miserable.
Kris (01:16:03):
Yes, definitely.
Jayd (01:16:05):
I think one of the things that is important to do before you head into a cut as well is kind of prepare the people that are closest to you in your life, Because That is another really important influence on how you feel throughout your cut. And also those are the people who are more likely to sabotage, maybe not even meaning to. So it's worth having a conversation with the people that are closest to you, the people that you live with, maybe your Partner
(01:16:39)
Or other people in your life, especially if you tend to notice that you have certain triggers, like for you or for Joey when there's certain snacks in the house, he knows I don't have, I am not able to control myself with this thing. Please don't buy this at the grocery store.
Kris (01:17:00):
No, he actually, so he loves Oreos,
Jayd (01:17:04):
Right?
Kris (01:17:06):
He loves Oreos, and Oreos does this thing where a lot of times they have special limited edition variance. And he told me, if they have it at the store, buy it, but don't tell me if you buy it, but if you do, buy it, hide it and don't bring it out until May. And I was like, okay, I got you.
Jayd (01:17:31):
Yeah, that's beautiful. That's such a great way that you guys are working together, and it's so considerate and it's such a beautiful respect of boundaries. And I think that that's a testament to the strength of your relationship because that is, if you have a relationship where there's not clearly set boundaries and there's not the established expectation that the boundaries will be respected, then you are going to struggle a lot, especially if you live with that person. And that is going to be a major hurdle for you in your diet. So you have to plan for that. You may not be able to fix that part of the relationship. You may be living with someone that you know is just not going to change and their behavior, and they're not going to be respectful of those boundaries. So you have to know the person that you're with and whether or not a conversation like that or setting boundaries that might actually work, but with the assumption that you have a healthy, respectful relationship where you respect each other's boundaries, it's worthwhile to have that conversation with each other and say, look, this is what I'm trying to do for this period of time. It would really help me out if you could
(01:18:58)
Avoid having candy on the couch because if it's there or having candy on the coffee table, because if it's there, I'm going to eat it and I'm not going to be mindful of it. So Could You store your snacks somewhere else? That's a conversation that one of my clients had to have with his partner. But at the same time, if you know that your partner is not going to be cooperative, then you have to plan for that. And keep in mind that at the end of the day, you and you alone are responsible for your own gains. You are responsible for your own gains. You're going to have to take on a lot more responsibility for your gains to reach your goals, and don't expect any support from this other person and just plan for that
(01:19:49)
plan How You're going to navigate the obstacles of their behavior in order to do what you need to do. It's not acceptable to use your person or this other person as an excuse for you not doing the thing that you need to do. If you know that you're living with an uncooperative person, then you need to just plan for that and you can plan for it. And that's something that has kind of gotten on my nerves with some clients in the past where they kind of use their spouse, I imagine as an out of like, oh, well, she doesn't want to be doing this, and if she's eating ice cream, she wants me to be eating ice cream too. And it's like, well, you need to have a conversation about your relationship if you have the type of relationship where you're not able to say, no, that's not good for my body right now, but you do what you want to do. That's a problem with the relationship, and I think there's a larger conversation that needs to happen there.
Kris (01:20:45):
Definitely. My husband denies Joey, even though a lot of times we are in a similar phase in our fitness journey as a male body, he typically loses weight on much higher calories than me. He typically doesn't get below 1600 and 1600 is at the very, very end of a fat loss phase. So he has a lot more room to play with when it comes to his food intake. And a lot of times if he's snacking, that's on him and that's what he can do. But I'll have to remove myself from the situation. So we might be hanging out at night and he's having his cookies, and I'll just have to focus in on what we're watching completely have him out of my line of sight. And our house setup is very weird, but if I'm in the chill area and he's at the dining room table, we can both watch something, but I can't see what he's eating. I can't smell what he's eating, and it's still something we can watch together, but it's not tempting me. So if I have to remove myself from the dinner table, that's what I have to do.
Jayd (01:22:08):
And it all comes down to knowing yourself and knowing your triggers, practicing self-awareness, also, being able to set boundaries for yourself, respect those boundaries, and also be able to communicate those boundaries with the people in your life if they're the type of people who respect boundaries. And if not, then you have to strategize around that and plan for their, you have to plan for them not doing, you can't control other people and nor should you try, but if you sometimes have to remove yourself from a situation, then so be it. And I think that's important to go into this knowing. And I do also have to say, with that said, going into a calorie deficit, if you are in a new relationship and you do have a partner and you communicate this to them and you set boundaries around what you need from them, and that is a really great way to see what a person's made of and whether they are the type of people that will respect boundaries if they do begin behaviors where they sabotage what you're doing. I know people who have had partners that will playfully do the things that they ask them not to do and call it a joke, like, oh, I'm just joking around. And it's like, no, I've actually told you that this isn't funny to me. I've already asked you to stop and I've told you that this is something that I need from you, and you're making light of it. That's a good sign that this is a person who doesn't respect boundaries. And I would argue A Huge red flag, huge red flag, that tells you a lot because that's a behavior pattern that's going to continue and get worse over time. So I would take note of that. If you are with somebody who is sabotaging on purpose and you've had these conversations, you've set
Kris (01:24:11):
These
Jayd (01:24:12):
Boundaries, that is a sign,
Kris (01:24:14):
And not just around food, but also around your workouts. For me personally, the food is not really difficult. I enjoy cooking and I enjoy eating, and I am making 1,450 calories work for me without feeling like I'm missing out on a lot of stuff. But I really struggle to work out. I actually don't really like working out, and it can be hard to get myself into the gym to do the workouts that I know I need to do to keep my energy expenditure up. So not that he was trying to make me wait for him, but I've had to tell Joey, my husband, that I need to work out by this time of day, and if it gets any later than that, I lose all motivation to work out. If it's past six o'clock, I'm ready to lay down. I had to tell them, I know that we like to work out together, but if you have to work late, I need to get my workout in earlier in the day, otherwise it's not going to happen. So that's something that we had to have a little bit of a conversation about, and it was totally fine, and he understands, and if he wants to work out after he gets home, if it's later in the day, he'll get his workout in by himself.
Jayd (01:25:36):
I think that that's also really important that you had that conversation. I do have some clients that are a couple, and it was a pretty big deal once they realized she took on a job that was making her schedule different from her, and they had been doing all of their workouts together for the past five years, and they reached the point where they kind of had to do some without each other, and that was a really difficult transition emotionally for them. But again, at the end of the day, there comes a point where you do have to be mindful that you are, and you alone are responsible for your own gains and your own body.
Kris (01:26:22):
Exactly.
Jayd (01:26:23):
And it's okay for you to do some things together and some things apart because there's benefits to doing things on your own that actually can strengthen the bonds between you and your other person when you both have things that you do on your own and then you come back together and you bring those things to the relationship. Going into a cut is something that can put you in a vulnerable state, but it also can be a really great opportunity for you to grow as a person and also grow in your relationships, develop more.
Kris (01:26:57):
Communication is really important.
Jayd (01:26:59):
Exactly. More communication, refine your boundaries, practice respecting each other's boundaries, practice messing up and making the repairs to the relationship, all of that.
Kris (01:27:10):
And also know that you're probably going to be more irritable. So you also, both probably, if you and your partner are both in a fat loss phase, you need to be kind to each other. Maybe you need to take some time to yourself. Also, if something is getting a little bit heated, cool off and then come back and address it again later after you've had some time to think about the root of the problem or the root of the issue, whatever it is,
Jayd (01:27:40):
Yeah. And know that those things are going to likely happen more often. It's not an excuse for shitty behavior, it's not an excuse for treating each other badly, but your patience is going to be thinner, and you are going to more often have a harder time being your best self, which you should always be trying to be your best self. But just know that when those things come up, it's okay, like you said, to take a step back, cool down, and then come back and address things. And a lot of times it really comes down to I was just really hungry. I'm really sorry that I said that.
Kris (01:28:18):
A lot of times before I even will bring something up, I try to ask myself, is this bothering me because it's truly an issue that needs to be addressed, or is this bothering me because I'm hungry and irritable? And honestly, truly, nine times out of 10, I'm just being irritable. And if I sat down and was 100% real with myself, it was something that wouldn't have bothered me in the slightest if I wasn't
Jayd (01:28:50):
Hungry. Hell. And again, that's a really great thing that you've developed through many years of doing this, practicing self-awareness and also doing the work in your relationship and with yourself To Understand yourself and what's going on with you. So I think you're doing an amazing job.
Kris (01:29:13):
Thank you.
Jayd (01:29:14):
Congratulations on getting to week 10 of your 16 week cut. You're looking amazing. Your content is amazing. I love the quality of your vlogs. Everything you put out there is just so much, it's so relaxing to watch. We were talking about off stream or off recording, whatever. We Talk about how both of us really in this phase of our life are all about cozy, cozy fitness.
Kris (01:29:42):
And I said that it was funny because I don't really see myself that way, but you said it. And actually other people have said that to me as well. And I always kind of see myself as, I don't know, I don't know how I see myself, but not cozy and relaxing.
Jayd (01:29:58):
Yeah, no, you are though
Kris (01:30:00):
Kind of chaotic, I guess.
Jayd (01:30:02):
Well, there's relaxing chaos, I suppose.
Kris (01:30:07):
Yeah,
Jayd (01:30:08):
No, I love your channel. I've always loved your vibe. And when you were streaming on Twitch, I think one of the reasons why you were one of the more popular fitness streamers is because you do have, I
Kris (01:30:19):
Don't know about that.
Jayd (01:30:20):
You were, and I think the reason is because, well, it's just the vibes. Your vibes are very cozy, but also when someone comes to your stream or to whenever your YouTube videos, you are very straightforward. I don't feel like you're interacting with a person who is putting a false persona. You are always yourself. You're always 100% yourself. Maybe you just kind of dial up a little bit. The interactivity.
Kris (01:30:51):
I always tell people that when I am doing something for the public eye, I try to be myself, but I try to make it entertaining because if you saw me in real life, I'm just very quiet and not really moving around that much. But that's not very interesting for YouTube or Twitch or whatever,
Jayd (01:31:15):
Authentic.
Kris (01:31:15):
So I try to be myself. Yeah, I try to be authentic, but just engaging, I guess would be the word.
Jayd (01:31:22):
I like it. And I think one of the reasons why you are so successful in inspiring people to work out and to eat better and start a fitness journey is because,
Kris (01:31:35):
Which I also don't understand, because I'm just like, I tell people I hate working out, and I think it's just I'm being on a diet
Jayd (01:31:45):
Because you're walking the walk and you don't make a big deal out of it. I think there should be more people like that, which is just like, this is just part, I just have to take care of myself. I'm just here to take care of myself. I'm here to, I am just going to share what works for me, don't feel any pressure to do it my way. This is just kind of what helps me. And I think that that vibe really resonates with a lot of people, myself included, because there are enough people in the fitness industry, there are enough fitness influencers who are never eat this, don't eat that, and they really,
Kris (01:32:22):
I hate telling people what to do. I really do. I hate being a manager. I used to work at a grocery store, and I was starting to get to the point where I was in a managerial position and I really didn't like it. I just want to be responsible for my own gains, and that's it. No one else
Jayd (01:32:41):
Is. Well, I think that that's why it's so cozy, because it does definitely feel like a judgment free zone. And I think that that's why it is so inspiring, because I don't have to do anything that you are talking about, but seeing how you do it and how it's not really a big deal, you just do it even though sometimes you don't want to do it. That I think lowers the bar of entry for a lot of people because you are not making such a big deal out of it. And so many fitness influencers are just really in your face. And they also participate a lot in the shame culture. And I feel,
Kris (01:33:21):
Oh, I hate that. I can't. I try my best. And this is something that I have specifically tried to work on over the past few years because I think it's just something that we develop over time. Being in the society that we're in, it's just not even intentionally just accidentally shaming people. And I really hate it. And I'm sure that I have done it to other people without meaning to, and it has been done to me without people meaning to do it. But yeah, I try really hard to think about what I'm saying to other people and to my audience, I guess, and not to do that thing.
Jayd (01:34:09):
Yeah.
Kris (01:34:09):
Yeah. I mean, even just, and I hate to put her on blast, but I was out with Joey and his parents a couple weeks ago, and I love his parents. We have a really good relationship. I actually worked for them for many years, but the first thing his mom said to me, I hadn't seen them for a little bit, was like, oh, you look tired. And I was like, God, Jesus. And literally that morning I was filming for YouTube and I said to the camera, wow, I think I look great. My skin looks so good. And the first thing thing she says to me is, you look tired. I was like, I think I'm just old. You're not used to seeing me old. I'm like, almost 40, bro, please.
Jayd (01:34:57):
She's also, she's from Hong Kong.
Kris (01:34:58):
Right, right.
Jayd (01:35:00):
And I think there's also what I've noticed with a lot of Asian moms, they do tend to make comments like that
Kris (01:35:10):
Because
Jayd (01:35:11):
They feel it's not like a shaming,
Kris (01:35:15):
It's just the culture.
(01:35:18)
But it's also something that I have trained out of my own mom. And my mom is American from rural America, and my dad is Korean, but he's also very American because he was adopted. But my mom used to say things to me, not in a mean way, in more of a concerned way, because my weight fluctuates with the bulking and the cutting, and I've kind of trained her out of making comments about my body. She'll be like, oh, you look so skinny is everything. And I'll just be like, I am on a fitness journey. This is what happens. I lose and I gain weight. So she kind of doesn't really say that stuff to me anymore, and it's pretty nice.
Jayd (01:36:05):
That's good. I'm glad.
Kris (01:36:07):
Yeah.
Jayd (01:36:07):
Yeah.
Kris (01:36:08):
Sometimes you got to clap back a little bit.
Jayd (01:36:12):
What makes you think it's appropriate to make comments on my body?
Kris (01:36:15):
That's what I'm saying.
Jayd (01:36:17):
Yeah. And sometimes, especially from moms, and I think there's a lot of, they're afraid on a primal level, you have to look a certain way so that you can fit into society, so that you can find a man so that you can be safe, and so that you can, you know what I mean? So you can be taken care of, which those things don't really apply anymore, but they can't help it because they're concerned. They want to make sure you're okay. They have to say something.
Kris (01:36:42):
Right. To give my mom credit, when I was younger, in my teenage years, I was very thin and not in an unhealthy way. I didn't have an ED and I was eating, but I was just very thin. And there were definitely times where I accidentally fainted just because I had low blood sugar or whatever. So part of it could be that, but I literally have not been that person for 20 years.
Jayd (01:37:13):
Right. And I'm happy that she's responded to the training.
Kris (01:37:18):
Yeah. Yeah.
Jayd (01:37:20):
Well, thank you so much for sitting down with me and talking to my audience. I really, really wanted them to hear from you some tips on cutting and things to think about while cutting, because you are really at this point for me, you are the go-to of best tips, and could you tell people where they can find you and interact with you
Kris (01:37:47):
To be 100% real with you? I'm basically only on YouTube and my channel is terrible. He may is spelled HIME.
Jayd (01:37:56):
Perfect. I'll put some text on the screen so people can go to
Kris (01:38:00):
It.
Jayd (01:38:00):
And there will be a link in the description to this video when it goes live on YouTube. And it will also be in the show notes for the podcast listeners. Same. I really have pulled back a lot of my social media, and I feel like I'm living my best life right now. I love just being on YouTube,
Kris (01:38:18):
Honestly. Yeah. I straight up deleted most of my other accounts, and besides YouTube, I just kind of am browsing other forms of social media and not really posting anymore.
Jayd (01:38:32):
It feels really nice after
Kris (01:38:34):
It does.
Jayd (01:38:35):
Being a content creator for five years or more to kind of scale back and really just focus. It's been nice.
Kris (01:38:43):
Yeah. I think for me, my content is better.
Jayd (01:38:47):
Me too.
Kris (01:38:47):
Because my attention is less divided.
Jayd (01:38:49):
Exactly. Yeah. So please give Terrible Hime a subscribe. She is posting all about her fat loss journey. She's got six more weeks to go, so go and take a look at her videos and comment and check out her other content as well on the planners and stuff. And it's a really good channel to also just leave on while you are doing stuff because it's just kind of relaxing sort of
Kris (01:39:19):
Content. A lot of people tell me that they put on my videos while they do their cardio.
Jayd (01:39:23):
Hell yeah. That's great. And
Kris (01:39:25):
That's what I do with Jaydigains's videos up, put them on while I'm doing my cardio.
Jayd (01:39:30):
Oh my God. No way. I didn't know that.
Kris (01:39:32):
Yeah. Oh, wow. Well, I saved them. I get the Discord notifications. I'm like, Ooh, new video. I'm going to save that for later.
Jayd (01:39:41):
Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Yeah, I think that's everything. Thank you. Thank you again so much. Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The Coaching Corner podcast. I hope that you found this discussion to be helpful. I always love sitting down and talking to Kris because she has just such a huge amount of knowledge when it comes to fitness building muscle and burning fat. Leave a comment in the comment section below if you're watching this on YouTube, and let me know what you thought about this episode. And if you don't mind, go ahead and give this video if you found it helpful, and subscribe to my channel to always get notified whenever I drop new videos. If you're listening to this podcast, make sure to follow the show so that you get new episodes delivered right to your device. Thank you again so much. I will see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
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Episode 48: Feeling Bloated? Why Bloating Happens and How to Relieve It
Bloating happens to everyone—yes, even the fittest people you know! In this episode, I’m diving into the common causes of bloating, why it’s completely normal, and how you can manage it in a healthy way.
I also tackle the unrealistic beauty standards that make so many people obsess over having a flat belly, even though that’s not a true indicator of health or fitness. Instead of chasing an unrealistic ideal, I’ll help you shift your focus to real health markers like resting heart rate, blood pressure, and strength.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast.
Bloating happens to everyone—yes, even the fittest people you know! In this episode, I’m diving into the common causes of bloating, why it’s completely normal, and how you can manage it in a healthy way.
I also tackle the unrealistic beauty standards that make so many people obsess over having a flat belly, even though that’s not a true indicator of health or fitness. Instead of chasing an unrealistic ideal, I’ll help you shift your focus to real health markers like resting heart rate, blood pressure, and strength.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
🔹 The most common causes of bloating (and how to reduce them)
🔹 Why bloating doesn’t mean you’re unhealthy or doing something wrong
🔹 How social media and beauty standards distort our perception of what’s “normal”
🔹 Simple, effective strategies to relieve bloating, including:
✅ Staying hydrated
✅ Moving your body
✅ Managing fiber intake
✅ Understanding food sensitivities & gut health
🔹 Why a fit body doesn’t have to mean a flat belly—and why that’s okay!
🔗 Resources & Links:
🎯 Tune in next week for more expert tips to help you crush your fitness goals!
-
Jayd (00:00):
Bloating can mean bloating in your belly or in your abdominal area, which can often be experienced when you've eaten too quickly or you eat a really big meal that will make your belly feel more full and your belly will stick out more. But even if you eat a normal amount, if you are a really thin person or if you have a really small waist, it is normal and it is likely that after you eat your belly is probably going to be bigger. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA jaydigains. I've been a personal trainer for about 10 years and I've created this podcast to share with you some of the tips that I share with my own personal training clients. In today's episode, we're going to talk about one of the most common questions that I get from my clients and followers, which is what do I do when I'm feeling bloated?
(01:01)
Now, I had this conversation with my Twitch chat while I was live on my Twitch channel. That's Twitch tv slash jaydigains, which you can follow if you like. And join me while I'm live on Tuesdays when I do a fitness and health stream. Now, feeling bloated is something that happens to everyone regardless of how fit you are or how long you've been working out. So in this episode I talk about what causes bloating and also I give some practical tips for what to do if you feel bloated. Before we get into the episode, if you are watching on YouTube, make sure to give this video a like and subscribe to the channel to keep up with more podcast updates. If you are listening to this podcast episode, make sure to follow the channel so that you always get the latest episodes. Without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(01:51)
I did want to talk about bloating today because that's something that people experience a lot. It's something that my clients ask me about a lot is like, oh, I feel really bloated today. What do I do when I feel bloated? And it's a cause for concern for a lot of people for a couple of different reasons. One, people have this kind of obsession with the way that their bellies look. And so when you are bloated, meaning your body is holding onto a lot of water, or maybe it's holding onto air, right, there's air, or maybe there's just you've eaten a lot of food and there's a lot of bulk of food actually in your digestive system, and so you may experience some bloating in your belly. And this can cause a concern for a lot of people because like I said, people tend to be kind of obsessed with their bellies and what their bellies look like, especially women.
(02:45)
I do want to say sometimes the obsession with the belly and how whether it looks bloated or lean can be an unhealthy fixation. As a millennial, I grew up with Britney Spears and pop history and then all the magazines that really favored having a flat tummy. And the reality though is that a flat tummy is not something that most people experience even healthy and fit people. It's not something that most healthy fit people experience. Most of the time when you look at fitness magazines or even just pop magazines where they have these models who have super flat tummies like Victoria's Secret models, et cetera, the way that their bodies look is not the way that their bodies look in that photo shoot is not the way that their bodies look most of the time. What a Victoria Secret model does in preparation for a photo shoot is not eat any solid foods for a few days being on a liquid diet, and they are also pretty severely dehydrated so that they look a lot more lean than what they actually naturally are.
(04:03)
So I think that we tend to have this unrealistic expectation of what our bellies and our bodies should look like and we are fit. You can be fit and not look like a Victoria's Secret model. In fact, Victoria's Secret models don't even look like Victoria's secret models most of the time. Okay? So that's something that you want to start to confront and maybe deconstruct in terms of your expectations of your body. You know what? There's a lot of different ways that a fit and healthy body looks like you can be fit and healthy with even a higher body fat percentage, and you can be very unhealthy at a very lean body fat percentage. You are not ugly and you are not unfit. If you're feeling bloated or if you feel like your belly looks flabby or if you feel like your belly isn't flat, that doesn't negate your level of fitness.
(04:58)
That doesn't mean that you're not fit if you don't have a flat belly. In fact, most fit people do not have a flat belly. To get a flat belly. You have to be a very low unhealthily, low body fat percentage, especially as a woman. And typically you're going to have to do things that are not healthy in order to achieve that look, which is why even Victoria models, Victoria's Secret models do not look like that most of the time. So you just kind of want to think about adjusting your expectations of what your belly looks like and what it should look like. Try to deconstruct that expectation that it should look flat all the time or at all. That's one thing that you want to kind of keep in mind. Yo five, you say the belly focus is the most popular form of body mafia.
(05:43)
I totally agree. I think that if you are healthy and you have a healthy body fat percentage, you exercise regularly, you eat healthy, you follow the healthy plate model, you're mindful of your calories and your protein intake. If you are living a fit lifestyle, you are a fit person, especially if you look at your health markers like resting heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar, insulin levels. If all of those are healthy, then you are healthy regardless of what your belly looks like. And that type of body dysmorphia is something that I also struggle with and I have to constantly remind myself that I am healthy, I am strong, I look strong, right? Strong in my opinion, is better than skinny. When people are super, super lean, they're not actually their strongest being super, getting super, super lean. For most people, especially if they're stepping on a stage to compete in bodybuilding or in a bodybuilding competition or a physique competition, when they step on the stage is when in terms of their strength levels, they're at their lowest. So the leaner you, you do tend to lose muscle and lose strength.
(06:58)
What we want to do instead, what I encourage my clients to do instead is place more value on your actual health markers and on your actual strength and performance in the gym. Those are the most important things rather than how thick or thin lean or not lean or bloated your belly is. Okay. So that's thing number one for me. Flashback to the clip I made about my actual organs making my belly not flat. Yeah, exactly. So the other thing is especially if you're a woman, the expectation of having a flat belly is so unrealistic because in order to be healthy as a woman, you do need to have a certain level of fat in your system. We as women or as female having female bodies, our bodies need more fat than male bodies and it's normal and healthy to have that little, I call it the fertility pooch, right at the very bottom of your belly.
(08:01)
That's where your uterus is, right? That's where your organs are, and especially if it's around the time of the month where it's that time of the month, you're going to have more inflammation in that area. So your fertility pooch is going to be bigger. That doesn't mean that you're ugly. It doesn't mean that you're not fit. That's literally natural. And I will also challenge that because in another life I was an archeologist and I studied a Bronze Age and early iron age archeology, and I also spent some time studying prehistoric societies too. And in the Mediterranean and prehistoric societies in the Mediterranean and leading way early, way early in human history and also into ancient history, that fertility pooch was celebrated as the ideal feminine body. The ideal feminine body had that fertility pooch. You see this on the Socratic figurines, different figurines that were made around the Mediterranean.
(09:12)
We see these figurines of the female figure that include a little fertility pooch, and that was considered beauty like the goddess, right? So when you look in the mirror, especially if it's around that time of the month and you're feeling more bloated and you got more of that more exaggerated fertility pooch, maybe even reframe it in your mind like hell yeah, that's that goddess body, that's that fertility pooch, that's peak femininity baby. That's a way that I try to reframe it for myself is be like, rather than seeing that standard, rather than feeling like I need to reach that standard of having a flat belly when I have that little fertility pooch, it's like, hell yeah, because I'm a literal woman and that's what it looks like to have a healthy female body and celebrate it. So that's what I wanted to say about the fertility pooch.
(10:09)
But bloating also can mean a lot of other things too. Bloating can mean bloating in your belly or in your abdominal area, which can often be experienced when you've eaten too quickly or you eat a really big meal that will make your belly feel more full and your belly will stick out more. But even if you eat a normal amount, if you are a really thin person or if you have a really small waist, it is normal and it is likely that after you eat your belly is probably going to be bigger. The more that you eat throughout the day, your belly is probably going to get a tiny bit bigger, but that is normal and it is healthy and that's okay. I mean, look at snakes, right? I am a person with a small waist. I've always had that bone structure where my waist is small, which means whenever I eat something, especially if I eat something that is high in carbohydrates or high in sodium, I am like a snake where you can see in the snake's body where the food is, you can literally see it.
(11:21)
It's very noticeable or it's noticeable to me because I have been brainwashed by the flat belly obsession culture, and that's okay, and that's normal, and that's just part of having a body, okay? Now, sometimes you might find that if you eat something that is high in sodium or high in carbohydrates, that will probably also lead to you feeling more bloated. High sodium, high car carbohydrates tend to cause your body overall to retain more water. And so you might experience bloating that's beyond the belly, and also you see less definition in your legs and your shoulders. Your arms, maybe your face will maybe appear a little bit more puffy. And you can see this a lot. If you ever watch boxers or mixed martial arts fights at the weigh-ins, the fighters will look a lot more lean because they're trying to make weight. So leading up to the weigh-ins, the night before the fights, they will be dehydrated.
(12:30)
They will have not eaten solid foods likely because they're trying to get their body weight down as much as possible. And there's a huge difference between how they look in their weigh-ins. And then when you see them the next day at night, their bodies look so different, they're a lot more puffy. They lose a lot of the muscle definition that they might've had at weigh-ins because during that time in between weigh-ins and when they actually fight, fighters will be carb loading to make sure that their bodies have, and also with sodium foods too, they're trying to load up on energy to make sure that their bodies have the energy so that they can have that and use it during the fight. This is Rhonda Rousey's, a perfect example of this. Rhonda Rousey, her weigh-ins. I remember there was one fight, I don't remember exactly which one it was, but you saw it in her weigh-ins before she looked super, super lean, and then the next day when she stepped into the octagon is just like the untrained eye would think that she probably gained 10 pounds of fat or something.
(13:36)
But no, she was bloated because she'd carb bloated and she was hydrated and ate plenty. So that also is something that you can experience based on how you eat and your hydration levels as well. So bloating can sometimes happen and you can see it in the face and in the rest of the body as well. How dare you have organs? You leave my baby out of my food baby out of this, right? I mean, we like to say after you eat junk food or if you go to a restaurant, you eat a lot of food that's really sugary or has a lot of sodium in it. Maybe after a treat meal is when you'll experience the most significant bloating, but it's not just from your treat foods. Eating high fiber foods can also cause bloating, especially if you're not used to eating a lot of fiber.
(14:25)
So that would be whole grains, vegetables, especially your starchy vegetables like sweet potato or potatoes. Those also can cause contribute to water retention and gas buildup too. So it's not necessarily even always a reflection of having a bad diet or treating yourself or cheating on your diet. It can even when you're doing everything. So another thing that also happens, this happens to me every single time when you're traveling, traveling is the worst that I tend to get bloated. If you've been sitting for a long time or you have a change in your routine or you're eating things that you don't normally eat, even changes in the water. Water in different states and in different cities is different. Even that can contribute to bloating. So all of these things can cause bloating either in the abdomen or throughout your entire body, and it's totally normal. Everybody experiences them.
(15:25)
So let's talk about some of the common causes for bloating. It's very normal, it's very natural, but let's take a look at the mechanics of why you get bloated in terms of digestive and dietary causes. One main reason why you might experience bloating is you are swallowing too much air. Now, this can come from eating really fast. You're literally swallowing pockets of air. It can also come from drinking carbonated beverages, alcoholic or soft drinks. Chewing gum is also a pretty common cause of swallowing air because when you're chewing gum, you're actually so gross, it's going to sound so gross, but you're actually getting little bubbles of air caught in your saliva and then swallowing that. So swallowing too much air can cause you to have air buildup. So if you find yourself burping a lot or farting a lot and you're feeling bloated and you know that you have eaten really quickly recently, or you've had a lot of carbonated beverages or you've chewed gum, that could be a cause of your bloating.
(16:31)
High sodium intake, I mentioned that before. Sodium causes your body to retain more water. That's just chemistry. So if you ever have a pile of salt on your plate and you drop a little bit of water onto the plate, the sodium is going to absorb all of that water. And that happens in our bodies too. If you have eaten a lot of sodium, it's going to cause it's going to absorb a lot of the water that's in your system causing you to retain more water. And when you are retaining more water, your body's going to be heavier. It's also going to look puffier, and you're probably going to have a little bit more bloating in your belly. Like I mentioned before, high fiber intake, especially if you're not used to eating high fiber foods. If you have recently eaten something that's high in fiber that can cause gas to build up and bloating, but this is something that does get better over time as your body gets used to eating more and more fiber, you should experience this less.
(17:39)
It's really most prominent when you first start to eat a lot of fiber, which is why I recommend if you are going to be changing up your diet to eat healthier, you want to start eating more fiber, do it very gradually. Gradually increase the amount of fiber that you eat every day. Oh, lactose intolerance and sensitivity. Some people are lactose intolerant and they don't even realize it, or they have a sensitivity which is not exactly intolerance and you're not exactly going to get sick. But when you may notice that when you eat dairy or when you drink milk or you have something that has dairy in it, if you experience a lot of bloating and a lot of gastric distress, that can also cause bloating. I have an allergy to pork and to peanuts, and there was a time in my life where I ate peanut butter every single day.
(18:37)
I didn't realize I was allergic. And then when I found out that I was allergic, I continued to eat peanut butter every day because I loved it so much. And that time in my life I regularly would be super duper sick in my stomach and I had a lot of stomach pain all the time, and I thought that that was just normal. I thought that was just normal. But I'll never forget when I stopped eating peanut butter every day when I finally gave it up and my stomach started to feel better and I was like, whoa. Is this what normal people feel like? Because I wasn't bloated all the time. I didn't have stomach aches all the time, and my allergy to peanuts was mild enough that I could eat it without, I didn't asphyxiate or anything, but it just caused a lot of gastric distress, and I didn't realize how much pain I was in until I stopped eating that food that I was intolerant to.
(19:37)
So whether it's lactose or something else that you might have an intolerance to, you may be eating something that it just doesn't agree with your body. So it's worthwhile getting tested for those things, getting tested for food allergies or lactose intolerance. If you suspect that you have a food sensitivity, you also can do an elimination diet. I would recommend doing this under the guidance of a dietician or a doctor, though I have a couple of friends who've had to do that, figured out that they had cash emoto's and they were sick all the time because they had cash emoto and they were eating all these foods that exacerbated their symptoms. So you might do an elimination diet for a number of reasons, but again, I would recommend seeing a dietician or a doctor and doing your elimination diet under their guidance. And if you have health insurance, check your health insurance because a lot of times you can see a dietician and get coverage for it, full coverage a lot of times for a certain number of sessions per year with a dietician.
(20:42)
So you may not even have to actually pay for it out of pocket to see a dietician. And if you suspect that you have an intolerance, that's what I would recommend you do. You may also have gut imbalances. It's not uncommon for people to experience an overgrowth or an undergrowth of certain types of gut bacteria. I know this is something a lot of people don't like to talk about, but our bodies actually are made up in large part of different species of bacteria and yeast, and there's a certain balance in the ecosystem that our bellies need in order to operate the best. The gut bacteria, the yeast, all of those guys, they do actually help with digestion. They are an essential part of your system. But when you get an overgrowth or you don't have enough of the good guys that can cause gastric distress, that can cause bloating and other symptoms as well.
(21:43)
Where these imbalances come from a lot of times is actually if you've been on antibiotics, antibiotics take out the bad bacteria if you have a bacterial infection, but they also sometimes will take out the good guys too. So if you experience a lot of gastric distress or tummy trouble when you've been on antibiotics, you may need to go on a probiotic or eat probiotic foods like yogurt, pickled foods, kimchi, pickled ginger, my favorite, or actually just take a probiotic supplement again, I would check with your doctor and check with a dietician before making that decision though. And artificial sweeteners, oh man, this is one. This is a big one to watch out for artificial sweeteners like sugar alcohols. So artificial sweeteners are generally kind of, they're safe, they're safe for consumption, but they are a little bit harder for our bodies to digest, and they can ferment in the gut, which the fermentation process causes gas.
(22:51)
So if you have been chewing gum that has a lot of sugar alcohols for its sweetener, you're kind of getting a double whammy there, right? One of my favorite gums, I don't chew anymore because it was giving me a lot of gas. It was making me burp all the time, and my tummy kind of hurt because I had gas. It was like, oh, was it? It's bubble mint. The bubble mint gum. I don't remember which. I don't remember which brand that is, but I can't be trusted with it. I will chew it all day. And it uses sugar alcohol as a sweetener. Sugar alcohols are often used in protein bars as well, and other supplements like that. So just if you're eating a lot of those health foods or fitness foods like protein bars and whatnot, if it is flavored with sugar alcohols and you're also experiencing a lot of gas, that could be why.
(23:44)
So just something to keep an eye on as well. You always want to be in the practice of checking your food labels right before you eat stuff. Sugar alcohol gives you bubble guts. That's very common for people. It was a meme a couple years ago. There was a meme a couple years ago where people were complaining that there were these gummy bears that were giving them upset stomachs, and it was because people were eating a lot of them, and these gummy bears were flavored with sugar alcohol. Do you remember that? That was a couple years ago. If you look up the reviews for sugar-free gummy bears on Amazon, they are full of people talking about how it gave them the runs and messed their tummies up. So yeah, those are things to be mindful of the sugar free stuff. Sometimes you think you're doing something good for your fitness by eating sugar free because you're like, oh, well, I'm not eating unnecessary calories.
(24:39)
If it's sugar, alcohol or some other artificial sweetener, it could be causing bloating and or upset tummy too. So just be mindful of that. So let's talk about effective ways to relieve bloating. Now that we've talked about common causes. In the short term, if your bloating is due to water retention, your body is holding onto a lot of water because you've eaten sodium rich foods or maybe carbohydrate rich foods because carbohydrates are stored in our muscles with water. The way that we can get that to be released by our bodies is to move, get moving, do some kind of activity. You could exercise, you could work out, or you could just get up and get moving. So people in the chat were saying how they go for a walk to help relieve their bloating. So light moving like walking or stretching helps to get your muscles working and burning through the carbohydrates, or it's the carbohydrates are stored as glycogen in your muscles.
(25:36)
So glycogen is stored with water, and when your body goes to use that glycogen as energy, it releases the water as well, and then you will either pee the water out or breathe it out through your breathing exhalation or you'll sweat it out. So getting up and getting moving or doing some kind of an exercise can help to burn through that energy, release that water. Also getting up and moving stimulates digestion because you're moving your torso around instead of staying stuck in one position. So you can help relieve the bloating in terms of the water retention, but also the bulk of the food. You can move that along by getting yourself moving along. And another reason why exercise is really helpful for this too is deep breathing. But you could also just do some deep breathing exercises like maybe do a yoga meditation or a mindfulness meditation.
(26:24)
Do some deep breathing because that also can move your diaphragm around, which will move your torso around and which can aid in digestion. And then you can also do some abdominal massage like rubbing your tummy. They actually have these massages for babies that are experiencing gastric distress because babies like poor things. God bless their little hearts, they don't know how to fart on their own or burp on their own or poop on their own, right? When infants are just newborn, you have to help them with everything. And passing gas is one of those things. So in the parenting circles, there's little exercises that you can do to help the baby to pass gas along, and it comes down to drawing on their tummy in a certain shape and doing different things, moving their legs around.
(27:21)
Well, There was a trend on TikTok where people were doing that to each other. Adults were doing that to each other, and it actually works a lot of those same exercises if you get a friend or a spouse to bicycle your feet and then move you around and do it, it works on adults too. So that could be a fun bonding activity for you and your partner, but you also can Just rub your own tummy. So abdominal massage helps and getting up and moving, all that kind of thing. These are things that you can do. Drinking lots of water can help to pass things along as well.
(27:58)
That's kind of the main thing that I do when I'm feeling bloated. If I have had a treat meal or if I just feel bloated and I'm retaining water or I'm retaining a lot of gas, I just down a bunch of water. You guys have seen my giant water bottle here. This is my gigantic two liter bottle, and I drink out of this all day. I'll probably drink two of these a day, but I'll drink more on the days that I feel super bloated. So drinking liquids, keeping those liquids flowing can help to flush all of that out. Now, long-term strategies to prevent bloating, if it's something that's chronic and it's bothering you and you really don't like it, slow down when you're eating.
(28:38)
Remember, when we eat really quickly or chewing gum, swallowing air will cause your belly to be more bloated. Chew your food for a longer time before you swallow to avoid gulping down all of that air. And remember, our saliva is the first stage of digestion. Our saliva isn't just there to make food wet, right? It actually has enzymes in it that start to pre-B, break down the food before it ever reaches the rest of the digestive tract. So when you take time to break the food down with your teeth and with your saliva, then it has to spend less time in your digestive tract getting broken down versus when you gulp down food without chewing and without letting coating it with saliva properly. It has to spend more time in your gut breaking down, and the more time that it spends in your gut breaking down, the more likely you are to develop gas.
(29:36)
So slow down when you're eating, and then we talked about it a couple of times. Manage your fiber intake. Don't go crazy with it. If you're not used to eating fiber, introduce it very slowly and balance that out with water intake. If you eat a bunch of fiber but you don't drink enough water, you're especially going to feel bloated, so make sure you balance it with enough water in tank. Also, if it's a chronic problem for you and you do drink carbonated drinks, you eat artificial sweeteners or you drink stuff with artificial sweeteners, it may be time for you to start cutting that stuff down. You don't have to get rid of it all together. You don't have to go full cold Turkey. But it is a good idea to start to kind of replace that stuff with other things that are not carbonated or that don't use artificial sweeteners.
(30:25)
If you drink soda all day, which is something that I know a lot of people have a habit of, if you drink soda all day, start to replace some of those sodas with another non-carbonated beverage like water, and if you need to put some kind of a flavoring in the water to help yourself to drink it more, just be careful because the artificial sweeteners can also cause gas too. And then you want to also make sure that you are being mindful of your gut health. Eat plenty of probiotic rich foods like yogurt, keefer, fermented vegetables, anything fermented really is going to help with your gut health and get some good bacteria in there. I eat yogurt every day. That's kind of a mainstay for me. There's also the option of doing probiotic supplement, but again, with supplements, I always am very wary about them because supplements are not a very well-regulated industry.
(31:20)
There's not the standards that there are the same standards for supplements as there are for food. I'm always a little bit, ooh, about supplements. Do it under the guidance of a doctor or a dietician because they will give you the best advice on which ones are best for you and manage stress. Sometimes our hormones can cause bloating as well. I definitely tend to be more bloated when I'm stressed. So managing your stress can also be helpful for if you experience a lot of bloating, if you know that you're stressed, a lot of times these other things can help. But also it's good to practice stress relief practices, which exercise can be one of those deep breathing exercises. Also, one of those. And also like eating healthy, you'll notice a difference when you eat real food and if you're following the healthy plate model, your body and your mind and your gut, they're all interrelated.
(32:14)
So the better you take care of one piece, the better the other pieces get as well. So managing stress can be helpful, and also taking care of yourself can help to relieve stress. So it's like a self-feeding thing. So that's my guidance for if you're experiencing bloating or if you experience bloating a lot. These are some of the common causes. These are some of the things that you can do about it, but also, especially if you're not really uncomfortable, if you're not experiencing physical discomfort, don't sweat it. It's not a big deal. You do not have to have a super flat tummy or be super, super lean all the time in order to be fit. The two are not related fit people. Experience bloating and being super lean is not necessarily fit. But if you experience a lot of bloating and it's uncomfortable for you, or maybe you just want to maybe look a little leaner, maybe you got some photos coming up or something, follow the guidance in terms of how to reduce the bloating that we had that they were talking about earlier.
(33:17)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The Coaching Corner podcast. I hope that you found it helpful. Let me know what you thought in the comments below this video if you're watching on YouTube. And if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the channel or follow. If you're listening to the podcast. If you like more information on me and the services that I offer, check out my website, jaydigains.com. I do offer training plans, meal plans, and I also have a membership site right on my website that you can join to get training tips, nutrition tips, recipes, and more every single month. Just go to jaydigains.com and sign up from the membership on the front page. Thank you again for watching this episode or listening to it, and I will see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
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Episode 47: What to Do When You Don’t Feel Motivated to Work Out
In this episode, I dive into strategies for maintaining workout consistency even when motivation is low. I share personal experiences and client stories to illustrate how progress in fitness can happen regardless of emotional state.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I dive into strategies for maintaining workout consistency even when motivation is low. I share personal experiences and client stories to illustrate how progress in fitness can happen regardless of emotional state.
Key Takeaways:
✅ Start with small, manageable workout goals to build momentum.
✅ Deload workouts when needed to avoid burnout.
✅ Revisit and realign fitness goals to stay on track.
✅ Make workouts more enjoyable with cozy cardio, socializing, or switching up routines.
✅ Practice self-compassion and acceptance—show up and stay disciplined even when motivation dips.
Tune in to discover how to stay consistent and make progress even when motivation feels hard to find!
🔗 Resources & Links:
🎯 Tune in next week for more expert tips to help you crush your fitness goals!
Downloadable Training Plans:
-
Jayd (00:00):
You can go into your workout thinking this is bullshit, and you can be like, I really don't want to do this, and you still show up and do it. You'll get gains from that. So it doesn't really matter how you feel. You can still make significant progress in your fitness even when you're not really feeling it. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA, Jaydigains. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about how to approach your workouts. If you're feeling super low motivation, no matter your level of fitness, whether you have been working out for decades or if you are a brand new beginner to fitness, you're probably going to experience at some point this feeling of, I really don't want to do my workout. This happens to me all the time. I think I probably don't feel like doing my workout most of the time.
(01:00)
Every once in a while I feel like, oh yeah, I'm so excited to get my workout in, but I still show up and I still do the thing, right? Because the gains are important to me and I'm committed and disciplined. So in today's episode, I'm going to go a little bit more into detail about how you can stay consistent even when you're not feeling like doing the thing. I'm going to share some of my own experience and the things that my clients have also learned and sticking to their workout routines even when they're not really feeling super motivated. Now, before we move forward in the episode, make sure to subscribe to this channel if you are watching on YouTube and make sure to like the video. If you're listening to this podcast, make sure that you follow the podcast so that you get notified anytime there's a new episode.
(01:49)
You can also check out my website, Jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-N s.com. If you're interested in learning more about me and the services that I offer, I do offer online personal training, and I also have a ton of downloadable workout plans that you can check out as well as a membership site where I post new content every single week, including meal plans, recipes, workout programs, training tips, nutrition tips, and fat loss tips. You can find all of that on my website, Jaydigains.com. Now, without further ado, let's get into the episode and talk about what to do to help yourself stay consistent even when you're not feeling motivated.
(02:31)
Now, the first thing that you should keep in mind when it comes to your fitness, when it comes to your body, feeling motivated, doesn't really matter. You do not have to feel super, super motivated to make gains. The beautiful thing about our bodies is that they don't care what kind of attitude you have. If you show up and you do the thing or you do part of the thing and get your workouts in or you stay active, your body is going to give you the gains from that. So it's very forgiving. It's not work where you kind of have to show up and have a somewhat good attitude and mask how you feel. You can go into your workout thinking this is bullshit, and you can be like, I really don't want to do this, and you still show up and do it. You'll get gains from that.
(03:16)
So it doesn't really matter how you feel. You can still make significant progress in your fitness even when you're not really feeling it. The other thing to keep in mind is that motivation is just a feeling and just like any other feeling, it's going to come and go and it's going to fluctuate depending on a lot of different factors, how much sleep you've had, the total amount of stress that you have in your everyday life and other factors like your nutrition can also affect your motivation. So there's a lot of things that can affect it. The presence or absence of motivation is really kind of not a big deal when it comes to whether you make gains or not. However, it can make it hard for you to stay consistent, but the most important thing when it comes to making gains, reaching your fat loss goals, your muscle building goals or your strength goals or your athletic performance goals is that you show up and you put the work in regardless of how you feel.
(04:10)
But if you have low motivation, that can make it harder to show up. So these are a few of the strategies that I recommend my clients use and that I use for myself to help me stay consistent and show up even when I'm not really feeling like it. Number one is to start small. I think it's really helpful to think of what's your bare minimum workout that you can do for yourself. Sometimes that can be just as simple as a 10 minute workout where you're going to walk on the treadmill or get on a cardio machine and then do some stretches. Some days that's all you're going to have in the tank. Some days that's all you're going to be able to really think about, especially if you're doing a really high intensity or high volume weightlifting routine or maybe you're doing athletic training and the workout itself is something that takes a lot of energy and you're just kind of like, I don't want to even think about that right now.
(05:04)
Sometimes when you just tell yourself, I'm just going to start small, I'm just going to start with the warmup. I'm going to warm up and see how I feel afterwards, so I'm going to get on the treadmill or I'm going to get on the cardio machine for just five to 10 minutes, and then I'm going to do some dynamic stretches and then maybe some priming exercises, and if I'm still feeling like, you know what? I really just don't have it in me today, then go home. But what often happens when I tell my clients, just do the bare minimum, show up, do the warmup and then see how you feel. Most of the time, once you actually get moving, once your feet are on that machine or once you are doing your stretches, your brain is actually thinking like, okay, I could probably do a little bit more.
(05:49)
The motivation often comes from doing the thing, so don't make the mistake of putting the cart before the horse. The motivation is not what gets you to show up. You show up, you do the thing, and then you get more motivated. So it's kind of like one of those old fashioned water pumps where you would have to take a cup of water with you to the pump, pour the water in, and then be able to actually access the water from the well. Motivation is like that. You kind of have to get started to rev the engine a little bit to prime the pump, and then you might surprise yourself at how motivated you feel after you just start with that really small goal and achievable goal of just doing 10 to 15 minutes of your warmup. Now, another thing that you can do, which is what I tell my clients, is if you need to just deload that workout, if you're feeling really fucked up mentally and you do the warmup and you're still feeling like I am dreading this workout, then that could be a sign that you may be over training or you may be overstressed and your body and your brain need less stress.
(06:58)
So your body and your brain oftentimes read the stress stimulus from your workouts. If you're doing high intensity or high volume, it will read that as the same thing is emotional and mental stress that comes from other areas of your life, and there's only so much stress that your system as a whole can handle before it starts to break down, before you start to lose efficiency. And so your system may be overwhelmed and that's okay. That happens to everyone. So in that case, what you can do is just reduce the overall intensity of your workout, still do the workout, do the exercises that are in your exercise plan, but instead of going to an RPE nine where you're stopping just before muscle failure, maybe you leave two or three reps in the tank and you stop a lot sooner, just think about practicing the motions of the exercises rather than approaching muscle failure.
(07:51)
Or if you're doing strength training, just stop before you get that CNS fatigue starting to set in, right? Deloading is always an option, and there may be seasons of your life where you need to deload almost every workout that's happened for some of my clients. Now, this doesn't mean that you're going to lose all of your gains. It will make your gains slower because you won't be pushing yourself, and when it comes to building muscle and getting stronger, you do need to be able to challenge yourself approach muscle failure and approach form failure in order for your body to get that stimulus that it's time to grow. But if you are encountering a lot of stresses in your life already and your system just can't handle the overload, the progressive overload of stress, and it's very, very, very fine line between stressing your body too much to the point where you become too stressed out or overwhelmed and burned out in those seasons, it's okay to just take a step back, make your workouts less intense.
(08:56)
It's actually going to help you in the long run to reach your goals if you do that versus just stopping showing up for your workouts altogether, which is sometimes what happens for people, they'll feel that low motivation or they'll feel like, I can't really push myself and they just don't work out at all. I would so much rather you show up and deload and do that for a couple of weeks if you need to until you feel like you're mentally and energetically in a better place that you can start to turn the volume up or turn the intensity up because that consistency of showing up is going to, you will get gains from that. You will very likely not lose gains from working out that way, and you'll keep the habit going. And again, showing up and doing the thing will fuel your motivation in the long run, much more than just falling off the wagon completely and not showing up at all.
(09:49)
Now, number two, there's a distinction between having a day where you're just not feeling like it and your motivation for that day is low versus if you notice for yourself a pattern of feeling low motivation over the course of a number of days, a number of weeks, like a long-term, just I don't want to do this. When that happens, it may be a sign that you need to revisit your goals and revisit your why. It may be that your current workout program is no longer in alignment with what is actually important to you. You may actually need to change up what you're doing for your workouts to align with something that is either more important to you or better suited to the season of life that you're in right now. Perfect example for this is last year around the holidays, I was trying to be in a power lifting program and I was making a lot of success, but because of the stress of the holidays and the election and a lot of interpersonal stuff that was going on in my life, I was experiencing a lot of stress, which was making me dread my workouts.
(11:04)
I started really dreading lifting the bar and I started dreading the heavier weights that I was having to put on the bar. Every workout and the progressive overload was becoming too daunting with everything considered going on in my life. And so I approached my coach and we decided to switch up my program to just focus on hypertrophy and muscle gains, which for me is a lot less stressful of a type of programming versus power lifting where you're lifting heavy weights and it can often trigger a fight or flight response, especially when you're getting into those higher weights or doing AMRAP sets as many reps as possible. So we scaled my workouts down in the sense of how intense they were. We scaled up the volume to really focus on muscle gains, and that helped me so much. I felt so much more motivated to show up to my workouts.
(12:02)
I was able to stick to my workout program a lot better than towards the end of the power lifting block. So sometimes that's the call that you have to make. In general, really high intensity blocks like a strength block for power lifting is going to be a lot more stress on your system. You're going to get a lot more central nervous system fatigue from that, and if your system is already fatigued from outside stressors, that something to consider about if you're feeling this low motivation, you may need to switch up your workout program. Now, this doesn't mean that you completely give up on your goals when you have to switch gears like this. When it comes to your fitness, whether you are improving your strength, improving your muscle size or hypertrophy, improving your cardiovascular fitness or in a calorie deficit, prioritizing fat loss, any progress that you make within any program is a net positive for your fitness.
(13:00)
Sometimes though, we need to switch gears and focus on different aspects of our fitness according to what is important to us at that time. So if you've been in a fat loss phase for a while and you've been really focusing on trimming fat, and then that may reach a point where it's not as important to you anymore because maybe you've hit a plateau or maybe your gains have slowed down, maybe you're in a recomp and your body weight isn't going down, although you are seeing gains in the gym and your clothes are fitting more loosely. So if that's the case, you may want to place your focus on why am I showing up for my workouts? It's not so much to burn fat anymore. I want to continue to see myself getting stronger, and when you switch that as your why is like I want to see myself getting stronger, more muscular, you may experience more motivation because that is something that you're seeing active gains in on a week by week basis.
(13:52)
Whereas especially if you're in a recomp, the gains are just slower in terms of your fat loss and you're not necessarily going to see the scale number going down. Keep in mind, I did actually do an entire episode of the Coaching Corner podcast on signs that you are in a recomp phase and ways that you can track your progress even if the scale isn't moving. So make sure to check out that episode. It's episode number 40. You can check that out on the YouTube channel, or you can go to the actual podcast site for episode 40, so revisit your whys and try to reconnect with your goals or maybe shift the importance that you place on different goals to give yourself a little bit of time to focus on some different aspect of your fitness. Now, number three, another thing that I really suggest is to try to make it enjoyable.
(14:40)
Try to make your workouts as enjoyable as possible. A few years ago, there was a trend on TikTok where a lot of specifically women were doing what was called cozy cardio, where they would do their cardio at home and they would have their treadmill in front of their TV, and they would set the lights to be really dim, put their LED lights on to make the lighting really soft and rainbowy, and they would have a yummy beverage as well as their water, and they'd put a favorite show on the TV or a movie and they would do their cardio walking or cycling or whatever. While they have done all of these other things to make the experience more pleasurable, more cozy, and more comfortable, these are all great ideas for ways that you can make your workout experience more enjoyable. But there's a lot of other ways that you can do this too.
(15:31)
If you enjoy being around other people, if you feel like other people give you energy, consider joining a gym or maybe taking a few group fitness classes. You can also find a workout buddy who will show up and do the workout with you. A lot of people find this super motivational, and some people really do enjoy having a home gym so that they can work out in a setting that they're in control of and they can decorate it how they like. Also, if you want to talk to people, but maybe work out from your home gym, streaming your workouts to a social media platform like Twitch or TikTok or Instagram are great ways to connect with other people and socialize while you're working out in your own space. Again, you can switch up your training program, use a different form of exercise and try a different form of exercise.
(16:20)
Something gets that is exciting to you or that you can look forward to take a break from the type of training that maybe you are a little bit bored with. If you don't listen to your own music, maybe start taking some headphones with you to the gym and putting on some music that you really enjoy that gets you pumped or that gets you in the state of mind that you feel really good about. All of these are great ideas for how you can make the experience of working out more enjoyable for yourself. And lastly, I can't really stress enough how important it is to practice self-compassion and acceptance, right? It is okay for you to feel how you feel. How you feel is not wrong. If you feel low motivation about your workouts, this doesn't mean that you're failing. It doesn't mean that you're going to fail or that you're never going to reach your goals.
(17:11)
Remember that our feelings, they come and go. They're often a signal to something that's going on in our lives that we need to be aware of, right? Our feelings are never wrong. They're just an alert system, and if you're feeling the alert system go off that you're not wanting to do your workouts and your system is kind of rejecting this practice, then you need to really reconsider the things that we talked about in the podcast episode of what maybe needs to change, but also keep in mind that sometimes you're just not going to feel like doing it, but show up anyway. Have the discipline to show up anyway, because you may feel better once you start, and some days you're just going to hate it the whole time, and that's okay because your body is still going to give you gains from that.
(18:01)
Thank you so much for watching. If you are on YouTube or listening to this podcast episode, again, my name is Jayd Harrison, AKA, Jaydigains. You can find out more about me and the services that I offer by going to Jaydigains.com. Feel free to join me while I'm live on my Twitch channel, Twitch.tv/Jaydigains. I usually go live on Tuesdays as well as other days throughout the week when I have time. Let me know in the comments below on YouTube what you do to help yourself deal with low motivation. I'd love to hear about the strategies that work for you. I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care of yourself and I'll see you soon.
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Episode 46: 10 Machines to Use In the Gym
In this episode, I dive into the benefits of using resistance training machines in the gym — and why they can be a game-changer for building strength and muscle. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced lifter, machines offer stability, safety, and consistent resistance to help you train smarter and more effectively.
Welcome to The Coaching Corner Podcast with Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains!
In this episode, Jayd dives into the benefits of using resistance training machines in the gym — and why they can be a game-changer for building strength and muscle. Whether you're a beginner or an experienced lifter, machines offer stability, safety, and consistent resistance to help you train smarter and more effectively.
💡 What You’ll Learn:
Why resistance training machines are ideal for muscle building and injury prevention
How to adjust machines to fit your body for maximum comfort and effectiveness
Key machines to target each muscle group, including:
Leg Press – Build powerful legs with controlled range of motion
Hack Squat – Improve quad and glute strength
Leg Extension & Curl – Isolate the quads and hamstrings
Chest Press – Develop upper body pushing strength
Lat Pull Down – Strengthen your back and improve posture
Seated Row – Build back thickness and strength
Shoulder Press – Boost shoulder strength and stability
Pec Deck – Target chest isolation for muscle definition
Hip Abduction/Adduction – Strengthen hip stabilizers
Cable Machine – Versatility for total body training
🏋️ Pro Tip: Adjust the machine settings to fit your body and control the range of motion to maximize gains and reduce injury risk.
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Jayd (00:00):
Whenever you're using a cable machine, you have a lot of control over how much resistance you're giving yourself, and it's a consistent level of resistance through the entire range of motion. So if you are just trying to master the technique of the exercise, you can take the weight down pretty low, and also if you are more advanced, you can take the weight up pretty safely using this machine. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've created this podcast to help you make progress on your fitness journey regardless of whether you are trying to burn fat, build muscle, eat better, or just live a more healthy life. I've been working as a fitness instructor for over 10 years and in each episode I share some of the wisdom that I've accumulated over the time that I've spent with my clients.
(00:56)
If you would like some more information on me or any of the services that I offer, make sure to check out my website, which is Jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-N s.com. I have a membership site where I post recipes, meal plans, training plans, training tips and fat loss tips every single week. And I also go live on my Twitch channel, Twitch tv slash Jaydigains a couple times a week as well. In today's episode, I'm going to be sharing with you some of my favorite pieces of equipment to train with in the gym to build muscle and build strength resistance training Machines are a great tool to use in the gym for a number of reasons. One is that they provide stability and safety and consistent resistance, and this is especially good for people who are just starting out in their fitness journey and aren't quite ready or feel maybe a little bit intimidated by free weights.
(01:50)
Machines are a great place to start, but they're not just for beginners because they offer that consistent resistance. This can be a really great tool for helping you to maximize your gains if you're trying to build muscle, even as an intermediate and advanced exerciser. They're a great tool for helping you to work on specific muscle groups in isolation, which can be great for rehabbing an injured part of your body, but also if you are trying to build muscle, especially if you're trying to compete on a stage, machines can be really helpful for helping you develop your physique. Before we move forward, make sure to hit that like button if you're watching me on YouTube and subscribe to the channel so that you always get notified when I drop a new video. If you're listening to this podcast, make sure that you subscribe to the podcast to always get the latest episode delivered right to your device. Without further ado, let's hop into the episode and talk about some of my favorite machines to work with in the gym.
(02:51)
So number one at the top of the list, one of my favorite machines to work with for resistance training is the leg press machine. Leg press machines come a lot of different sizes, shapes and styles. You have some leg press machines where the weight will be below you and you'll sit in a chair that moves some leg press. Machines will have a platform that moves and the chair stays stationary. My favorite variation of the leg press machine though is the one where you sit in a stationary chair on the bottom and the weight is actually above you. The platform moves and you can attach a lot of weight to this style platform because it loads just like a barbell or Olympic barbell with plates. This is a really great tool for helping you to develop leg strength. The specific muscles that are targeted with the leg press are the quadriceps or quads in the front of your thighs as well as your hamstrings in the back of your thighs and your glutes muscles in your bottom.
(03:44)
Now one of the perks of doing leg press over say a barbell squat is that it's pretty safe on your back. Some people struggle with using the barbell on their back because they have limitations and actual weight bearing exercises and how much their spine can load, so you don't necessarily have to hold all of that weight on your back while you're standing. It's generally pretty safe in comparison to balancing a barbell on your back and like I said, you can load a lot of weight onto it, so if you're in a position where it's not really feasible for you to work with a barbell for whatever reason, whether you have an injury or you're just not really keen on putting a lot of weight on your back, a leg press is a good substitute for that. The nice thing about the leg press is that you are not limited by your upper body strength and your ability to hold a certain amount of weight on your back or in your hands.
(04:38)
If you were going to do a front squat, the way that you would have to worry about if you were holding weight, whether it's dumbbells or barbells, because all of the weight is just being held by the platform itself. I also like using the leg press as an accessory for my power lifting clients on days that they do squats or deadlifts. This is a great finishing exercise to help them to squeeze out some more reps in that range of motion of the squat without necessarily having to hold the barbell. And it also puts your body in a kind of slightly different position from what it would be under the barbell while you're squatting, so it gives you a slightly different stimulus. So that is definitely number one on top of my list of favorite resistance training machines in the gym. Now number two, following closely, the leg press is the hack squat machine, and not all gyms have a hack squat machine, but if your gym does have one, I highly recommend using it.
(05:36)
The usefulness of this machine is very similar to that of the leg press. The main difference though between the leg press and the hack squat is where the weight is loaded. The hack squat usually loads the weight on your shoulders using some kind of a platform with some padding across your shoulders. You are usually also going to perform these from a standing position, but the angle is going to be quite different from the way that you would normally squat if you were holding weight in your hands or holding a barbell across your shoulders. The hack squat allows for a much deeper range of motion, which allows you to get much deeper into the quadriceps than you probably are able to do with a leg press or even doing a regular back squat. Now, if you really don't like to have weight across your shoulders and that's why you're not doing back squats, then the hack squat is probably not the best move for you, but if you want to use it as an accessory to burn out your quads and hit your squat from a different range of motion and get a slightly different stimulus, this is a really great tool.
(06:39)
Now, number three. Next up. Another favorite machine that I really love to work when it's available is the leg extension and the leg curl machine. You might actually see these two movements on the same machine and some gyms actually have them separated out into separate machines, so you have one that's leg extension, one that's leg curl. The benefit of this type of machine is that it really allows you to fully isolate the muscles in the front and the back of your thighs, namely your quadriceps and your hamstrings. So if you're really trying to build muscle there in your thighs, you cannot skip doing leg extensions and leg curls. I like using these as an accessory for my powerlifters and strength training clients, and I also of course like to use it for my clients who are really particularly focused on building muscle and getting really nice sculpted legs.
(07:28)
If you are rehabbing like you have a back injury and you're not able to fully squat, but you still want to work your legs, this is also a really good tool to use because you're not going to be putting any weight on the spine while you train your legs, unlike if you were to do a weighted exercise or the hack squat. Now moving up from the lower body to the upper body. Some of my favorite pieces of equipment to use for building strength in your arms, your chest, in your core are things like the chest press machine. I really love this machine for especially working with beginners who are not yet in a place where they have the coordination or maybe even the mobility to perform safely doing dumbbell chest presses or even the barbell bench press For these people, the chest press machine is a must have.
(08:20)
One of the things that I love about it is that it keeps a really consistent range of motion, a consistent amount of resistance, and you can really bump down the resistance as much as you need to practice the range of motion. Now, it's also really great for intermediate and advanced exercisers as well, especially if they're really trying to target and isolation their chest and their triceps. Performing with the dumbbells or the barbell with a bench requires a lot of stability work for your lower body and in your core, but if you're just trying to grow your chest, your shoulders, and your triceps, you can save a lot of the energy that would go towards your stabilizing muscles in your core and in your lower body and put all of your effort into fatiguing the chest, the shoulders, and the triceps. So it's an awesome machine for hitting the chest and isolation even for intermediate and advanced exercises.
(09:18)
Now, my number five favorite piece of gym equipment is the lat pull down machine. The lat pull down machine is a great option for exercises of all levels. One, it's great for building up your upper body strength and your back strength. Doing this exercise is also great for helping you to fix poor posture because as you're performing a pull down, you have to practice keeping your chest forward and up and pulling your shoulders down while the weight is in motion. Now, if your goal is to eventually be able to perform a pull up, the lap pull down machine is a great way for you to train towards that goal because you can modify how much resistance you're using and get it to the point where you're able to actually pull down close to the amount of your own body weight. And once you reach that point, you can start to phase into doing assisted pull-ups or non assisted pull-ups.
(10:12)
The other thing that I really like about this machine is that there are a lot of different varieties of pull downs that you can perform depending on what muscle group or movement pattern you specifically want to develop. I often have my clients practice wide grip pull downs because this helps them to develop their external rotation in their shoulders, which is something that most people struggle with, especially if you work in front of a computer all day. But if you're trying to grow your lats and grow your biceps, doing a more narrow grip pull down or a parallel grip pull down or even a reverse grip pull down is a great move for really extending the lattisimus doci muscles or the lats and getting a deep contraction there as well. Now related to the pull down machine is another favorite machine of mine, which is the seated row machine.
(11:03)
I love this machine for helping you to train your lats and also master the movement of the row. Rows are one of the fundamental foundational movement patterns to master in the gym for safe body alignment and to help keep you injury free. Many people struggle, however, if they go right to trying to perform this exercise with the weights. Using the seated cable machine is a great way for you to kind of work on mastering the form of where your elbows need to be positioned and where your shoulders need to be positioned as you perform this exercise. Pulling the weight back from a seated position is a much more intuitive way of performing this exercise, which later on will translate over to performing the exercise with weights either from standing or a bench. And of course, whenever you're using a cable machine, you have a lot of control over how much resistance you're giving yourself and it's a consistent level of resistance through the entire range of motion.
(12:04)
So if you are just trying to master the technique of the exercise, you can take the weight down pretty low, and also if you are more advanced, you can take the weight up pretty safely using this machine. Now next up, number seven. Another machine that I really like is the shoulder press machine. This machine is really great for helping you to develop the muscles in your shoulders, namely your deltoids, but also your other shoulder muscles like your external shoulder cuff, rotator muscles like the supraspinatus infraspinatus terrace, minor terrace major, and because you're also doing some elbow extension inflection, this can also hit your triceps as well. Now, the reason why I like this machine versus using dumbbells or a barbell for performing shoulder presses is that it's generally pretty safe and provides a pretty consistent range of motion. The shoulder press can be a really tricky exercise to master with the weights, especially using free weights.
(12:59)
There's a lot of movement that can happen. There's a lot of balancing and coordination that's required for doing this exercise correctly and safely using weights. But when you're using the machine, you have this consistent and stable range of motion that will allow you to learn the movement with very minimal risk of injury. It's also beneficial for intermediate and advanced exercises because it provides a consistent amount of tension through the entire range of motion, which is the main weakness of doing weighted exercises. When we're doing weighted exercises, the amount of resistance or the amount of tension that you're able to put on the muscles actually changes at different points through the range of motion of the exercise. But when you're working with a machine, it's going to give you the same level of resistance through the entire range of motion, so you're going to get maximal gains from using a machine and be able to fatigue the muscles more in order to stimulate muscle growth and strength gains.
(14:00)
Now, number eight, another machine that I really like is the pec deck or the chest fly machine. Now, if you are trying to grow your pecs, this is a must use piece of equipment in the gym. It is really hard to fully isolate the pecs muscles when you are doing an exercise like the barbell bench press because like I said before, there's so much stabilizing that has to happen using your core in your lower body and also the triceps get a lot of work and they're going to limit the amount of weight that you can actually lift when you're using a weight in the chest press exercise. But when you are using the pec deck, you're able to really isolate the PECS through the entire range of motion with this exercise. This machine also allows you to maximally stretch out the pec muscles during the eccentric phase of the exercise in a generally pretty safe way when you're using weights.
(14:57)
The amount of tension put on the muscles varies at different points in the exercise. In general, the longer the lever is that you're holding the weight out with the more tension you're going to put on the muscle. Now when it comes to doing a chest fly, if you're using weights, the weight is going to put more tension on the muscles at the very tail end of the eccentric phase of the exercise, and it's going to have more tension there than you will in the mid to last part of the concentric phase of that exercise. Now, in general, our muscles are actually weakest when they're most stretched out, and so at that point is if we're going to change up how much resistance we have, that would be the point where we probably need a little bit less and then we tend to need a little bit more tension as we get to the muscle being more contracted.
(15:50)
In general, the more contracted the muscle is, the more tension you can put on it, the more weight it can use. So this can be kind of dangerous if you are performing pec flies with the dumbbells because when you get to that last end of the eccentric phase of the exercise, if you're using too much weight, this can very quickly become too much resistance to the point where you may strain or tear your pecs or even your bicep tendon. So you can reduce your risk of injury by instead using the pec deck or the chest fly machine because you're going to be getting a consistent amount of resistance through the entire range of motion. And also when you get to the point where your arms are closing, you're going to not lose any of the resistance. You're going to be able to continue to challenge your muscles even at that tail end of the exercise.
(16:40)
So this machine is generally safer to use for flies versus using the dumbbells, and it's also going to give you more resistance, and that's not to say that the dumbbell peck flies don't have their use. I absolutely use them with my clients, but if there is APEC deck or a trust fly machine in the gym that I'm training my clients in, I'm definitely going to recommend that they use it. Number nine. Another favorite machine that I love when gyms have them, not all gyms do, but if a gym has them, I'm definitely going to be using the hip abduction slash adduction machine. Just like with the leg extension and leg curl machines, a lot of gyms will have this in the same machine. The same machine will be able to do both abduction and abduction, but some gyms also have them as separate machines. This machine allows you to train your hips specifically for the abduction where you're practicing opening your legs up from a seated position.
(17:36)
This allows you to train your gluteus medias and gluteus minimus muscles, which are very important, stabilizing muscles in your bottom. Also, if you want to build a nice butt performing abduction is absolutely essential, so this machine allows you to do that exercise with a pretty heavy amount of resistance. The ad deduction is giving you resistance on the way back in, so starting from your knees being apart in a seated position, you're going to get resistance closing your knees. Now this helps to target your adductor muscles, which are also very important, stabilizing muscles, and also very important to train if you want to develop nice sculpted thighs because the motion here for this piece of equipment is opening and closing the legs. Some gym goers will call this the good girl bad girl machine, call it whatever you want, but if it is available in your gym, I highly recommend using it.
(18:29)
And now number 10, my top piece of equipment, most favorite of them all is the cable machine or the cable crossover machine. The reason I love this piece of equipment is because you can essentially do nearly every single exercise that we've talked about today just with this one piece of equipment. So if you are building a home gym and you have it within your budget to get one of these cable machines, I super recommend it because you'll be able to do so, so much. I have a client who got a cable machine for themselves a couple of months ago, and I did the happiest of Happy Dances when he purchased it because I knew we were going to be able to do so much more exercises for his training. Now that he has this piece of equipment, if you want to do peck flies, you can do that with this piece of equipment.
(19:17)
If you want to do pull downs, you can do that with this piece of equipment, abduction, abduction. You can also do a lot of stabilizing exercises with this piece of equipment. Now, it usually comes with a bunch of different handles, so you can work your muscles in a variety of different ways, and it also allows you to adjust the point of tension from all the way up over your head to the floor, so you can give yourself a lot of variety of stimulus. Of course, just like with other machines, the thing that I love so much about the cable machine is that constant amount of tension that it provides through the entire range of motion for an exercise. There's some muscle groups that are really hard to target and train effectively just by using dumbbells or free weights like the rear dets, the cable crossover machine, and the ability to do exercises like the rear det crossover is just God gamer.
(20:09)
I love this machine so much and I am just crossing my fingers for the day that I can add one to my own personal home gym because I love it so much. Luckily, the gym that I train clients out of has several cable machines, so I get a chance to use them whenever I have an opportunity between my clients, but I definitely use it for my clients all the time. Now, let's talk about how to properly use machines in the gym for maximizing your gains and reducing your risk of injury. Before you use a piece of equipment, make sure to adjust the settings to make sure that it is right for your body. If there's a chair, look for a place where you can pull the pin out and move the chair up or down. Make sure that you adjust the pads as well. Most pieces of equipment have some kind of a pin system where you have to pull the pin out by pulling on a button and then allowing it to move, and then you stick the pin back in.
(21:02)
Just make sure though, before you actually use the piece of equipment that whatever you have adjusted is actually sturdy and settled. Give it a little jiggle before you actually sit down on the machine and use it because the last thing that you want is for it to kind of settle underneath you. Just like with any other form of resistance training, it's really important that you control the entire range of motion while you're performing an exercise. Avoid going too too fast and just kind of slinging your way through the exercises. You want to move at a controlled pace. In general, I like to recommend counting two seconds on the eccentric phase of the exercise and two seconds on the concentric phase. So if you're doing bicep curls, that would be like two seconds up, two seconds down. Now, if you are intermediate and advanced and you want to really maximize your gains, I would recommend moving at a rate of motion where you're going very, very slow on the ecentric range of the exercise.
(22:01)
So about four seconds on the extension and then pause for two seconds, and then one second on the contraction. Going slow on the eccentric phase of the exercise while the muscle is elongating is going to help to increase the time under tension for that muscle, and the eccentric phase tension is really where the muscle growth happens. Whichever speed you're going, make sure that you're moving at a nice controlled slowish pace. Also, don't hesitate to ask if you're not sure how to use a machine or if you're not sure how to adjust the settings on it. Most gym staff and normal gym goers are actually pretty friendly, especially those ones who look really intimidating. Some of the biggest guys in the gym are actually the nicest people. They're usually just kind of big teddy bears and they love to help. So if you are not sure how to adjust a piece of equipment, feel free to just ask somebody. Ask one of the staff members, especially if they're a trainer, if you see a trainer around, they'll know how to use that piece of equipment. But a lot of times the people that you see that are regulars that go there all the time, they're happy to explain or even spot you if you need a little bit of assistance while you're doing the exercise. So there you have it, 10 pieces of equipment that are really great for helping you to build muscle in the gym.
(23:24)
Now, if you are here on YouTube, make sure that you subscribe and stay subscribed because I pretty regularly post exercise tutorial videos here on my YouTube channel demonstrating how to perform different exercises, and in the coming weeks, I actually do have a lot of machine exercise tutorials that are coming your way. So stay subscribed and be on the lookout for those. And if you want a little bit more guidance, don't forget that. I also have downloadable workout plans available on my website, and several of the plans that I have up right now are actually for using in the gym with machines. There's beginner level and intermediate and advanced level programs. So make sure to check out my website, Jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-N s.com, and click on workout plans in the top menu. Also, you can sign up for one of my programs on the A BC Trainer Rise app.
(24:17)
Each program is six months long and includes a four week training program that refreshes every month. You'll get new workouts that include exercise tutorial videos so that you can learn how to perform different exercises and use different pieces of equipment in the gym. If you want to work with me directly, you can sign up for the one-on-one coaching variation of each program. To learn about this, just go to my website, Jaydigains.com or Jaydharrisonfitness.com. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can leave a comment in the comments below. You can also join me while I'm live on my Twitch channel on Tuesdays and other days throughout the week. As I have time, just go to twitch.tv/jaydigains. Thank you so much again for joining me, and if you haven't already, make sure to subscribe to the show so that you always get notified when there's a new episode, new episodes drop on Mondays and Thursdays. Have a wonderful rest of your day. I will see you in the next episode. Take care.
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Episode 45: Trouble Sticking to Your Diet Plan? Try These 3 Strategies
The most common reasons people struggle to stick to their diet plans are things like perfectionism, emotional eating, and time constraints. In this episode, I share some practical tips to overcome these obstacles, including how to track your food intake effectively, planning meals ahead, and meal prepping. I also talk about ways to better manage your macronutrient intake to maximize your protein and reduce excessive carbohydrate and fat consumption.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I'm sharing 3 strategies for sticking to your diet plan.
The most common reasons people struggle to stick to their diet plans are things like perfectionism, emotional eating, and time constraints. In this episode, I share some practical tips to overcome these obstacles, including:
how to track your food intake effectively
planning meals ahead
meal prepping
I also talk about ways to better manage your macronutrient intake to maximize your protein and reduce excessive carbohydrate and fat consumption.
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
Whenever you are tracking or if you're following a meal plan, the goal is not to have you tracking or following a meal plan and being super strict on your diet forever and ever. Usually tracking is something that I recommend my clients do when we are trying to make a change and form new habits, but eventually, eventually the goal should be to transition into a more intuitive style of eating where you are intuitively better able to follow your nutrition plan without having to track or follow a meal plan. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I am Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I'm a health coach and personal trainer and I've created this podcast so that I can share with you some of the tips and wisdom that I've gained over the last 10 years working in the fitness industry. In today's episode, we're going to talk about tips for helping you to stick to your diet plan.
(01:01)
Now, by diet plan, I don't necessarily mean that you are on a diet, meaning a fat loss diet. Diet plan is simply your plan of how you want to eat in order to support your fitness and health goals. Your diet plan could be eating a calorie deficit in order to stimulate fat loss. Your diet plan could also be eating a calorie surplus in order to maximize muscle gains. You might also be on a maintenance diet plan. Your diet plan also might have nothing to do with tracking your calories and focus instead on food groups like trying to follow the healthy plate model or following a meal plan that's created for you. Your diet plan is just simply how you plan to eat in order to reach your health and fitness goals. Now, in today's episode, we are going to be talking specifically about sticking to diet plans that are centered around calories and macronutrients.
(01:55)
Calories are the way that we measure the energy that we get from food and macros is short for macronutrients, which are the main sources of calories that we get from food, namely protein, carbohydrates, and fats. Now, maybe you've gone through the process of figuring out how many calories and what your macronutrient distribution is supposed to be for you to reach your health goals, but what I often find is that many of my clients, especially when they're just in the beginning of their nutrition plan process, they struggle to stick to their diet plan. So today we're going to talk about ways that you can go about sticking to your diet plan so that you actually reach your goals. And before we get into the episode, make sure to like this video if you're watching it on YouTube and subscribe to the channel so that you always get notified when I drop a new video.
(02:46)
If you are listening to this podcast, thank you so much. Make sure that you subscribe to the channel so that you also get notified whenever there's a new episode. If you would like more information on me or the services that I offer, check out my website, Jaydigains.com. That's J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com. I've got workout plans, meal plans, and other downloadable resources that you can use to move along in your fitness journey. If you would like more help, you can join my Gains Club membership, which has exclusive content that I post every single week to help you to eat better, exercise more effectively, and achieve your fat loss goals. Every month I post meal plans, recipes, nutrition tips, fat loss tips and training tips. So check out that you can sign up right from my website, Jaydigains.com. Now without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(03:44)
Now, let's talk about why it is often so difficult for people to consistently reach their calorie and macronutrient goals every day. One problem that a lot of people experience is perfectionism. You have this idea or this expectation that you have to hit your calories and your macronutrient goals exactly just so every single day. Now, this is not only unrealistic, but it's also unnecessary. You do not have to hit your calorie goal 100% perfect to the decimal every single day. In order to make gains and make progress toward your fitness goal and your nutrition goal, instead of having this perfectionist mindset, you want to have a mindset that over the course of a week you want your calorie intake or your macronutrient intake to on average be about the level of calories and macronutrients that are in your goal for your nutrition plan. So say, if your goal is to eat 2000 calories a day, and that's your calorie goal, you might one day eat 2100 calories and then the next day eat 1900 calories and bounce between these two numbers.
(04:59)
Well, by the end of seven days, your average number of calories will be roughly 2000 calories. So roughly you will have reached your goal every day, and this is fine. You do not have to stick directly to the number just on average. You want to reach about the number of calories and the number of grams that are in your goal. And related to perfectionism, I know a lot of people also have this all or nothing mindset, which if you really want to make progress in your fitness, your fat loss, your muscle gains, you have got to work on this mindset because this mindset is going to hold you back. This is the number one reason why people wash out of my training program or they completely just never reach their goals. If you have an all or nothing mindset that says, if I can't do everything all at once perfectly, then I'm going to do nothing that is toxic and that's going to hold you back.
(05:56)
I would rather you abandoner perfectionism, abandon the expectation of all or nothing, and then just do some of what you need to do, right? If you can hit roughly your calorie goals or your macronutrient goals on most days, right? That is enough. Think of the 80 20 rule. If 80% of the time you're roughly doing what's on your plan, then 20% of the time you can afford to fuck around the 20% of the time you can afford to eat over your calorie goal or eat foods that are not necessarily within your plan. Your body is going to reflect what you do most of the time. So if most of the time you're generally more or less reaching your goals, then that's fine, but also remember that we are organic creatures that are stuck in our habits. A lot of times it takes time for us to adopt new habits, and so if you have this all or nothing mindset towards your diet or towards your fitness, you're going to really struggle to implement all of the things all at once that you need to do to reach your ultimate physique goals or your ultimate fitness goal.
(07:06)
You have to be okay with just working on one little thing at a time and allowing your progress in implementing that one little thing to be imperfect, right? Imperfect action is better than no action at all. Okay? So let's ditch the all or nothing mindset and adopt instead a growth mindset which says, I just want to do a little bit more than what I was doing yesterday. I'm going to try to do a little bit better today than I did yesterday. 1% better every single day means that one year from now, you'll be 365% better than you are today, okay? So it's enough to just make small changes. You do not have to do all at once, and you also don't have to be perfect. Now, another reason why people tend to struggle in sticking to their diet plan is that their eating is very, very tied to their emotional state and their mental state.
(08:08)
Eating is not just something that we do for fuel and energy and nutrition. Eating is also an emotional thing. It's a social thing. It's integrated into many different aspects of our lives. But one of the most common disordered relationships with food is using food as a way to dissociate from unpleasant, anxious, or uncomfortable feelings that we might be having using food as an escape the same way that someone might use drugs or playing too many video games or doom scrolling on social media. If you're using food to dissociate, to disconnect from how you're feeling or as an escape from how you're feeling, that is not a healthy relationship with food. And for that reason, I would suggest that you work with a coach or a dietician or a therapist to address that relationship and that way that you're using food for emotional regulation. You want to develop other strategies for emotional regulation that don't involve you eating.
(09:15)
Sometimes it's okay to eat comfort foods. I eat comfort foods from time to time, and that's totally within my nutrition plan. I have it structured that way. But if you have an uncontrollable impulse and to regulate yourself primarily through eating, that's a problem. And so you want to work with a therapist. You want to work with a dietician to develop other strategies to help yourself to regulate your nervous system. When you're dysregulated, that doesn't involve food because until you address that, until you work on that, you are going to continue to sabotage your nutrition plan. You're going to continue to break your diet and not follow your plan because your brain's automatic systems are always going to override whatever it is that you have set out to do in the moment when you're just regulated. That is when whatever is automatic for you is going to be strongest.
(10:12)
Your instinctual drives are going to be much stronger. So if you instinctually habitually automatically reach for food to regulate your nervous system, when you're dysregulated, meaning you're anxious, you're upset, you're worried, you're sad, if you primarily use food to regulate yourself and get back to a calm state where you feel safe, where you feel calm, where you feel steady, then you are more likely to continue doing that automatically, and it's going to be very hard for you to break that habit unless you replace food with other regulation techniques. So I would recommend seeing a therapist. I would recommend seeing a dietician or working with a coach so that you can develop those other strategies to regulate your nervous system so that you're not automatically reaching for food to regulate yourself. Now, another reason why people struggle to stick to their diet plan is time constraints.
(11:05)
We are all so busy and we spend the majority of our waking time rushing from place to place, going to work to our hobbies or maybe shuttling kids around to their school and afterschool activities, and then to the grocery store, and then all of these errands. It's really hard for us to make time for food the way that we need to. We find ourselves reaching for convenience foods or ordering takeout from restaurants. We tend to also go for what's more salty or sugary versus what's actually nutritious for us because we're all crunched for time. So now let's take a look at what different strategies you can use to deal with these very common difficulties with following your nutrition plan. Number one is to track your food. It's so hard to make sure that you are actually eating according to your calorie goal every day or your macronutrient goal every day if you're not actually tracking what you eat.
(12:08)
So track what you eat using a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal or some other type of macronutrient tracking app to actually track what you eat, keep an eye on how many total calories and grams of protein, grams of fat, grams of carbohydrates you're eating every day. Now, there was a study a couple years ago that showed with a group of people who were trying to lose weight. They had a control group of people who didn't track what they eat, and then they had another group of people that kept a daily journal or diary of what they ate, and they weren't even really tracking calories at this point. They were just writing down what they were eating. And on the whole, they found that the group that actually wrote down what they were eating and kept track of what they were eating every day lost more weight than the group that didn't track what they were eating every day.
(13:01)
So even if you're not actually tracking your calories, just maintaining some awareness of what you're eating and being mindful and reflecting on what you're putting on your plate and just making sure you're noticing it is huge for helping you to stick to your diet plan. And the reason this works is because we are so busy, because we have so many demands on our time and on our energy and our attention, it's very easy to go an entire day eating, and then at the end of the day, you have no idea what you've eaten, no memory of it at all, or maybe you've forgotten a lot of stuff, or maybe you ate something and you weren't even aware of what you were eating. You were just grabbing something so that you could keep going. This happens to all of us. It happens to me all the time, and that's normal.
(13:49)
So if you find that that's more often the case for yourself, then starting to track what you eat may be very helpful for you to just develop some mindfulness. But then if you find that your mindfulness is only going to take you so far, you track what you eat and you're consistently missing the mark where you're not able to actually stick to your calorie goal or your protein goal or your other macros, in that case, you want to be a little bit more intentional about your tracking. In that case, I would recommend don't track just as you go, just eat something and then just track it. Instead, what I recommend is track what you are going to eat, what you're planning to eat first, plug it into MyFitnessPal or your food journal, then see what the calorie number is, see what the macronutrient distribution is, and then you can make a decision on whether you're going to eat it or not, or you can make a decision on whether you need to maybe reduce your portion or change the portion or maybe substitute that with something else.
(14:52)
So start to practice not only just tracking what you eat, but track intentionally before you eat the thing. That way you have time to actually make adjustments. I had a client a couple of years ago who was consistently just not reaching his goals, and I asked him more about it, how he was tracking when he was tracking, and I found out that he was really just plugging everything in at the end of the day after he had already eaten everything. And I said, my dude, what good is that? Do you really think that that's going to help you to make better choices? And he's like, well, no, I guess not. I keep just doing the same thing and I just see the number every day. I'm like, yeah, exactly. Plug it in before you eat it. Then make adjustments. That's how you'll reach your goal.
(15:41)
And this is a very common mistake that a lot of people make. They think, oh, I'll just plug it all in at the end of the day, or I'll just plug it in after the fact. That's really not going to help you to actually make any changes. And that's the whole point of tracking, right? Especially if you're trying to make a change to your diet. If you're trying to change how you're eating, then be more effective with it and tracking. Become aware of what it is that you're eating before you eat it. Now, personally, I don't love tracking my food. I find it to be tedious. I also really don't like to have to think about what I'm going to eat every day throughout the day. I am the type of person that is very, very busy. I don't want to spend a lot of time thinking about what am I going to eat, and then sitting down with my meal planning app and running the math, I don't have the executive functioning to spare on my day-to-day life in my day-to-day life to be able to do that.
(16:40)
So what I do instead, and what I encourage a lot of my clients to do instead is plan out what you're going to eat ahead of time. You can plan out what you're going to eat at the beginning of the day and just plug it into your app or write it down in your fitness journal. You're going to have this for breakfast, this for lunch, this for dinner, and these are going to be your snacks. Make adjustments as needed to make sure that everything you plan on eating that day fits within your calorie goals or fits within your macro goals. So that's one way to approach it. My way that I typically approach it though is I like to plan a couple of days to an entire week ahead of time. I don't mind repeating a meal. In fact, I really like to repeat a meal.
(17:18)
So what I often will do is eat the same thing for four days and then I'll change it up and I'll eat a different thing for four days, and that way I only have to calculate out the calories and the macronutrients for each day. One time, maybe two times per week. Planning and pre logging your meals before you eat them can help you to stick to your plan. Now, you can stay even more ahead of the game to help you to stick even better to your plan is to go ahead and actually prepare the food that you have planned and pre-GED. This is called meal prep. Meal prep is the practice of preparing your food ahead of when you're going to eat it, either at the beginning of the day or at the beginning of the week or every couple of days. This is my number one strategy that I have found very, very helpful for myself because again, I don't like to spend a lot of time on a day-to-day basis thinking about what am I going to eat?
(18:16)
My preferred way to stick to my nutrition plan is to just grab something out of the refrigerator that I've already cooked and pop it in the microwave to heat it up or pop it in the oven or eat it cold. Okay? I don't want to have to think about it. I've already created these meals, I've already plugged them into my nutrition plan app, and I already know how many calories it is. All I have to do is eat it, right? So that makes it very easy for me to stick to my nutrition plan because I don't have to think about it as much. Other people who really like to cook and who want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen preparing stuff, that's fine. I love that for them. It's just not right for me, and I found that I struggle with sticking to my diet plan when I don't prep ahead.
(19:02)
So prepping ahead is a really great way to ensure that you're sticking to your plan, and in fact, even further is to batch cook. My favorite thing to do is I will make something that is four to six, sometimes even eight servings of an entire meal. So I'll cook all of it at once, cook it all up ahead of time, and then I'll divide it out into separate entree containers like those restaurant to-go containers. This past year I started using the glass containers. I really like those because they don't absorb the smell or the taste of the food, so that's my favorite. You also can cook the meals directly in the glass Pyrex containers, so that's another way that I make it super, super easy for myself. Now, in addition to this, I also take it even further in terms of my planning ahead. I don't want to sit down at the beginning of every single week and calculate out what I'm going to eat and make sure that it fits within my calorie goals and whatnot.
(20:02)
Instead, I actually eat a standing rotation of a couple of weeks of meal plans, and they go for about six weeks, and every six weeks I'm repeating a meal plan. So in one week, one of my lunches slash dinners will be a Turkey stir fry with green beans, and then the other meal prep, batch cook meal that I'll have is Turkey pot pie or chicken pot pie. And then the week after that, I'll do for lunches and dinners as eating, cooking it all ahead of time for four to six days, alternating between lunch and dinner, I'll do shepherd's pie, and then some kind of a pasta casserole, and every six weeks, I just start over with the same plan. Now, this makes it very easy for me because all I have to do is flip to like, oh, I guess we're at week one again.
(21:00)
Let me go back to week one and see what my recipes are, make sure that I have everything that I need in my kitchen or just go to the grocery store. That also saves me time because it keeps my grocery list pretty consistent every six weeks. Now, if this is interesting to you, I do have some meal plans, some four week meal plans that you can download as examples from my website. If you go to my website, Jaydigains.com, J-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com, and you click on meal plans in the top menu, you'll be able to take a look at some of the four week meal plans that I've created. I've got one for high protein, 2000 calorie diet, a vegetarian diet, as well as a 1500 calorie diet, and you can check all of those out on my website and give them a download, give them a try.
(21:44)
These are four week meal plans that you could just alternate every four weeks, every month restart, and then you can swap out recipes for new recipes that you want to fit in. It's a really easy way to stick to your nutrition plan. Now, I do find that protein is the hardest macronutrient for most people to hit the goal of every day. It really does take some planning to make sure that you're eating enough protein every day. For most people, and this is true for people who are vegetarian and vegan diets, as well as omnivore diets, okay? So you do kind of have to be mindful and plan for eating enough protein, and one way that you can do this is anytime you go to eat something, just look it up in your meal tracking app or look up the nutritional info online or look at the food label and just give a quick check to what the protein content is of that food.
(22:44)
Because in order to reach the protein goals that you need in order to build muscle effectively and burn fat, it is kind of high, right? A lot of us have pretty high protein goals, and it's hard to hit those goals unless you're planning for it and being very, very mindful. This is especially true when it comes to snacking, okay? Snacks are where a lot of people miss the opportunity to hit their protein goal for the day, because a lot of times when people reach for snacks, what do they reach for? Chips, cookies, crackers, which are basically carbohydrates. You get enough carbohydrates in other foods that you eat most often, so instead of reaching for a bag of chips or some cookies or crackers, instead, try to fill your refrigerator up or pack your lunch with some snacks that are high protein instead. Okay? Snacks that are high protein are things like Greek yogurt, non-fat or low fat Greek yogurt.
(23:41)
Also, protein shakes are a good snack alternative. You could also do egg whites, make some egg whites for yourself or mix them with whole eggs. Cottage cheese with honey or fruit is another good option, and then some lean meats like Turkey chicken and lean beef. A lot of my clients will snack on deli meat, which is a great source of protein. It's pretty satiating, and especially if you tend to crave salty things like salty snacks, like crackers, the deli meat is going to satisfy that itch while also giving you some protein. Now, if you find yourself struggling in overshooting either your carbohydrates or your fats grams every day, which are very, very common problems that people find with following their nutrition plan, here are a few recommendations when it comes to your carbohydrates. Very, very frequently if you order something from a restaurant or even maybe this is how you cook in your own kitchen, it's very common to have your meal be a ton of carbohydrates like pasta or rice or bread making up the majority or half or more of what is actually the meal, right?
(25:00)
So you kind of have to change how you think about the structure of your meals to not include so much of these high carb foods. Remember, if you're following the healthy plate model, your grains and starches, which are your pasta, rice, bread, et cetera, should really only make up about a quarter of your plate or your bowl if you're having a bowl food, and then most of the meal should be vegetables or vegetables and fruit and protein. But what you see in a lot of restaurants and a lot of cuisine is that they will actually put half of the plate is one of the grains, so that will cause you to overshoot your carbohydrates more often than not, and so you want to make sure that you are following the healthy plate model when it comes to what types of foods or what food groups you're putting on your plate, and in how much.
(25:51)
If you're overshooting your fats, often, there are a few things that you need to be mindful of and maybe start practicing when it comes to your day-to-day, what you put on your plate and what you eat for your snacks. If you're eating high fat meats like sausage, you might want to swap those out for leaner cuts of meat, okay? If you're cooking your meat like ground beef or ground Turkey, an easy way to reduce the fat is to actually drain out the fat into a bowl or a cup after you've cooked everything. Let that cool and then throw that away rather than leaving it in there. I know what many of you're probably saying is that takes away the flavor. It may be taking away some of the flavor from the food, but it will reduce the fat intake and allow you to stick better, stick closer to your calorie and macronutrient goals.
(26:40)
You can put flavor back in through using sauces and spices and mixing the meat with other things, okay? If you are consistently overshooting your fats, then sometimes you got to make those sacrifices. You also will probably want to reduce the amount of oils that you're using. If you use butter to cook things, you might want to use a spritz spray. If you tend to just dump oil in the pan, then again, switching to a spritz and then using a non-stick cooking surface is a great way to reduce the amount of fat that you're taking in. Remember that fat is a very calorie dense macronutrient. One gram of fat is nine calories versus one gram of protein, or one gram of carbohydrates being only four calories. Okay? So it's something that you want to be mindful of how much you're consuming. These are great ways that you can reduce the amount of fat that you're taking in.
(27:35)
Now, I want you to keep in mind that whenever you are tracking or if you're following a meal plan, the goal is not to have you tracking or following a meal plan and being super strict on your diet forever and ever. Usually, tracking is something that I recommend my clients do when we are trying to make a change and form new habits, but eventually, eventually the goal should be to transition into a more intuitive style of eating where you are intuitively better able to follow your nutrition plan without having to track or follow a meal plan. Okay? You want to get to the point where it's settled as a habit following the healthy plate model, and it settled as a habit. You just kind of intuitively know after so much practice of tracking what the calorie intake and what the macronutrient distribution is of the foods that you tend to eat on the regular, once you become more familiar and more practiced with the stuff, eventually you can reach a point where you sort of take your foot off the pedal with the tracking and you can be a little bit more flexible.
(28:40)
This is the place that you want to be. Okay? So I know that tracking can be really boring and tedious, and change is hard. It's stressful on the system, that's for sure, and that's probably another reason why you struggle with it, but give it a good go and one thing at a time. You don't have to change everything at once. Instead, think about one to three things that you can change at a time when it comes to trying to eat according to a new diet. Plan one thing at a time until those things become habits, and then add in another thing, okay? The goal is always to build these things into your life, to the point where you do them intuitively and automatically, okay? That is what's going to allow you to have sustainable success in following your nutrition plan and reaching your fitness goals.
(29:35)
So there you have it. Those are my suggestions for if you are struggling to follow your nutrition, please let me know what you think, and if there's anything that I missed, maybe there's something that you're already doing that has been helpful for you, or maybe there's something that you've struggled with with following your nutrition plan that I haven't mentioned. I would love to hear from you. Leave those things in the comments below. If you're watching this video on YouTube, or you can join me while I'm live on my Twitch channel on Tuesdays and on other days throughout the week, just go to Twitch tv slash Jaydigains and give me a follow or subscribe to support the channel. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, aka Jaydigains. Check out my website, Jaydigains.com if you would like to know more about me and the services that I offer. That's it for today's show. I hope that you enjoyed it and that you found it helpful, and I look forward to seeing you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
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Episode 44: Fix Back Pain With These 5 Types of Exercises
In this episode, I'm sharing 5 ways to alleviate back pain by strengthening your core and improving your posture. Poor posture and weak core muscles can lead to common injuries such as disc problems and muscle strains, especially as you get older. But you can reduce the risk of these things by doing core-strengthening exercises like: spinal stability, spinal flexion & extension, thoracic rotation, and hip extension & glute-strengthening exercises. In addition to exercising the muscles around your spine, it's also important to be aware of your posture throughout the day. Maintaining an active lifestyle can also improve your core strength and posture.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast.
In this episode, I'm sharing 5 ways to alleviate back pain by strengthening your core and improving your posture. Poor posture and weak core muscles can lead to common injuries such as disc problems and muscle strains, especially as you get older. But you can reduce the risk of these things by doing core-strengthening exercises like:
Spinal stability (planks, bird dogs, dead bugs, & balance training)
Spinal flexion & extension (cat-cows, crunches, supermans)
Thoracic rotation (t-spine rotation, woodchops, twist crunches)
Hip extension & glute-strengthening exercises (bridges, kickbacks, hip thrusts)
In addition to exercising the muscles around your spine, it's also important to be aware of your posture throughout the day. Maintaining an active lifestyle can also improve your core strength and posture. For more detailed workout plans and exercise tutorials, check out my website jaydigains.com, and my YouTube channel.
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
It does take time and practice to fix your posture and put yourself in better alignment, but it is so well worth the work continuing to stand or sit with poor posture, especially if you're putting your spine under load by carrying weights can put you at risk of an injured disc or some kind of a muscle or soft tissue strain. These are all super common injuries, especially for people as they get older. So if you have poor posture, now is the time to start working on it. You can improve it, but it takes practice and it takes deliberate exercise.
(00:42)
Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've created this podcast to share some of the tips and wisdom that I've picked up through my 10 years as a fitness coach and personal trainer. In today's episode, we're talking all about how to improve your core strength and improve your posture. Now, this is one of the most important things and one of the first things that you should work on when you are at the beginning of your fitness journey. But even for intermediate and advanced exercises, it's incredibly important to continue to emphasize working on your core strength and improving your posture as you get stronger and fitter. Now, before we get into the episode, make sure to head over to my website jaydigains.com or Jayd harrison fitness.com and sign up for my email list there. You'll get notified anytime there's a new podcast episode, and I'll also send you notifications whenever I post new posts to the Gains Club membership site. You can sign up for the Gains Club membership site right from my website where you'll get exclusive training tips, nutrition tips, recipes, meal plans and training programs, and I update this every single month. Just go to jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com, and without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(01:57)
Maintaining a strong core and good posture is one of the most important and foundational aspects of having a well-rounded physique and a good level of strength. It's essential to maintain strength in the muscles in your torso to keep a healthy back and reduce your risk of injury, as well as your risk of developing chronic pain in your back, neck and shoulders. Weakness or tightness in any of these areas can cause discomfort, tension, chronic pain, and can increase your risk of injury. How many people do you know who throw their backs out as they get older? Just doing simple activities like reaching down to the floor to pick something up when they've dropped it? I know people who have thrown their backs out just by putting their pants on in the morning. It's a very common injury and it often is the result of having a weak core or weak back muscles and poor posture and alignment.
(02:52)
It's also a factor of not having good solid movement patterns and ability to hip pinch and properly safely pick up from the floor. It's also not uncommon for people to injure their backs while exercising. This is especially true for people who are really focused on adding more weight to the bar for their back squats or for their deadlifts, and they keep adding more weight past the point that their core and their upper body strength can really handle and maintain a nice rigid torso. Now, back injuries are no joke. They can put you out of commission for a long period of time. Slipped discs, pulled muscles in the back or misalignments of your spine are all major injuries that affect almost everything that you do every day. Having a healthy back is something that a lot of people kind of take for granted until they get injured.
(03:43)
Now, it is one of the most common ways to get injured, but it is also very preventable. You can greatly reduce your risk of hurting your back by maintaining a strong core like your abdominals, your obliques, your erector spina, and your transverse abdominis, as well as your upper back muscles like your lats, your traps, and your external shoulder rotator muscles. Developing those muscles will allow you to maintain your spine in alignment while you're moving or picking something up from the floor or doing some kind of heavy exercise like loaded squats or deadlifts. So today I'm going to give you a few tips and recommendations for exercises that you can do to strengthen your core and improve your posture. Before we get into the practical tips and exercises that you can do to improve your posture, let's talk about what good posture is. Good posture is the ability to stand with your shoulders right over your hips and your spine.
(04:36)
Maintaining a natural neutral curve, your hip tilt should be neutral, not anterior or posterior. The way that you can tell the difference between a posterior and anterior pelvic tilt is to think of your hips as a bowl of water. For an anterior pelvic tilt, you would be tipping the water out forward in front of you. So for an anterior pelvic tilt, you usually will see someone who looks like they're sticking their butt out. I having a DHD and hypermobility often stand like this. It's a very common way to stand for people with a DHD, so it's something that I have to pay particular attention to because standing like this and lifting like this can lead to lower back strain and also slipped discs. So what we want to practice is a neutral pelvic tilt where the water isn't spilling out forward or back. The posterior pelvic til is probably what you experience when you're sitting at your computer for work where the water would be spilling out behind you and your hips are kind of coming forward.
(05:35)
What we want to see is that neutral pelvic tilt where the water wouldn't be spilling out at all. Now, a great way for you to kind of tell where your pelvic tilt is naturally in your posture is to take video of you standing at the side facing profile and then practice exaggerating, tilting your hips forward and back, thinking of that water splashing back behind you or splashing forward, and you want to do that enough to the point where you feel like holding onto your hips, you're able to get the water level, and once the water is level, then that tells you that you're at a neutral pelvic tilt. Now, if you normally spend most of your time in an anterior pelvic tilt or a posterior pelvic tilt, this might actually feel like you are exaggerating, tilting your hips the other way. It takes time and practice to get your hips to a neutral pelvic tilt most of the time, but it is something that you'll need to be mindful of.
(06:37)
So for assessing your posture, whether it's your pelvic tilt that you're looking at or the alignment of your spine, or whether your shoulders are rounded forward and back, I recommend taking video or picture of you standing from a profile side so that you can see the side of your body. Now, while we want the hips to be right underneath the shoulders, the shoulders themselves should be back and down, and your arm should be at a slight external rotation in the shoulders. Standing like this may feel very unnatural to you if you spend a lot of time with your shoulders rounded forward, your hips tilted and your spine rounded forward or back. It does take time and practice to fix your posture and put yourself in better alignment, but it is so well worth the work continuing to stand or sit with poor posture, especially if you're putting your spine under load by carrying weights, can put you at risk of an injured disc or some kind of a muscle or soft tissue strain.
(07:36)
These are all super common injuries, especially for people as they get older. So if you have poor posture, now is the time to start working on it. You can improve it, but it takes practice and it takes deliberate exercise. So now let's take a look at some of the exercises that you can do to improve your posture and improve your core strength to reduce your risk of injury and chronic pain. Now, the first kind of exercise that you should do to help improve your core strength and your posture is to practice what are called core stability exercises. These are exercises where you're challenged to hold your spine and your torso in alignment in that anatomical stance or in that good posture while your muscles are working under load. So a good example of this would be planks either center planks or side planks where you're holding your body up in a position either on your hands or elbows and then on your toes or on your knees.
(08:27)
The challenge here is to keep your spine in alignment by pressing actively away from the floor and not sinking into your shoulders, and also keeping your hips from sinking down or coming up too much. I recommend holding these positions for anywhere between 15 and 60 seconds. You can do these as part of your priming exercises, the beginning or warmup of your workout, or you can integrate them into other parts of the workout. Another favorite exercise for core stability for me and my clients is the bird dog. The bird dog can be done either as a hold for an extended period of time, like 15 to 30 seconds, or you can also do it for reps for the bird dog. You begin in an all force position and practice alternating lifting your opposite arm and opposite leg in a straight line from your hand through your hips to your foot.
(09:14)
While you're holding this position, the goal is to keep your shoulders and your hips level with the floor. So you'll have to really engage your transverse ados, your abdominals, your erector spina, as well as the muscles in your hips and in your shoulders. Now you can hold this position for 30 seconds or more and then switch to the other side and hold it, or you can practice alternating side to side about two seconds up and two seconds down to each side. I usually recommend my clients do somewhere between eight and 15 reps to both sides. Another favorite exercise for core stability that I have my clients do is called the dead bug. This exercise is a great way to strengthen your abdominals in the front of your torso. This exercise is basically the opposite of the bird dog. It's the same movement, a range of motion.
(09:58)
It's just that you're facing up on the floor with your back on the floor, your hands and your knees up towards the ceiling. From this position, you'll alternate dropping your opposite side leg and opposite side arm to form a straight line before switching to the other side. Now, if it's too much for you to have your leg straight dropping down, you can also perform a modified version of this exercise by keeping your knees bent and just tapping your toes to the floor when you drop your leg. So if you experience any back pain while doing this exercise, know that this is a modification that you can use now for both the bird dog and the dead bug. If you want to take these exercises up a notch, you can add additional resistance by holding some lightweights in your hand. I usually recommend starting with the lightest weight that you have on hand, which could be a three pound, five pound dumbbell on both sides.
(10:46)
Keep it light here because a little bit goes a long way. You can also add a resistance band around your feet to give a little bit more resistance to the legs as you perform this exercise. And the challenge for both of these exercises, the bird dog and the dead bug, is to keep your spine in alignment while your legs and arms are moving. You can use this to develop core stability. I also like to use these exercises for my intermediate and advanced exercises at the beginning of their workouts to help fire up their core so that they can brace better during the heavier or more challenging exercises later in the workout. Now, it's also important to practice developing your spinal mobility, which help to strengthen the muscles in your torso and also improve your flexibility in the different types of movements of the spine. Our spines are incredibly flexible and they have a lot of different movement patterns.
(11:33)
Flexion and extension is the ability of the spine to arch forward and back. Exercises that practice This are things like the cat cow stretch sequence where you're on all fours on the floor and you practice tucking your chin, tucking your hips, and rounding your spine up like a cat. Alternating that with arching your back the other way where you drop your belly button down towards the mat or the floor, lift your eyes and lift your hips. Alternating between spinal flexion and extension is a great way to strengthen your abdominals as well as the erector spin a muscles in your back. It also helps to loosen up tight muscles in your torso that may be limiting your mobility or causing chronic pain. Thoracic rotation is also another really important movement pattern to practice. This will strengthen your obliques in your latus doci muscles as well as your trapezius muscles in your upper back.
(12:23)
Having good thoracic rotation will help to improve your posture, especially in your upper back. It'll also allow you to more safely perform exercises like rows, chest presses, and deadlifts. A great exercise to improve your thoracic rotation include things like what I call the quaded T-spine rotation, where you start on all fours, bring your fingertips to your temples with your elbow bent, and then practice exhaling as you twist to bring your elbow up towards the ceiling. The goal here is to try to stack your shoulders and twist as much as possible, and then inhale to return back to your starting position. I usually recommend that my clients do somewhere between eight and 12 repetitions per side here. Other good exercises for thoracic rotation include seated wood shops using a band or a cable machine, but you can also do just simple seated rotations. Flexion extension and rotation are the key movement patterns to practice for improving your core strength and for improving your posture.
(13:20)
That's why I include a lot of these types of exercises in my beginner level programs when I'm trying to build up core strength for my clients, but I also include them at the beginning of the workout for my intermediate and advanced clients to help them to improve and maintain their spinal strength and mobility. Now, if you tend to have a tight lower back, it likely is due to having poor posture like we talked about before, having a posterior pelvic tilt or an anterior pelvic tilt when you're sitting or standing can often lead to tightness and strain in the lower back. So ways that you can relieve this pain and also practice putting your body in good alignment are things like the pelvic tilts that I talked about before. I actually recommend my clients do pelvic tilts at the beginning of their workouts as part of their priming and warmup, especially if they tend to have problems with lower back pain.
(14:11)
This helps them to not only loosen up tight muscles in their lower back, but it also helps them to become more aware of their pelvic tilt so that when they're doing their heavier exercises later on, they are more likely to be able to control their pelvic tilt and reduce their likelihood of getting injured or straining their backs. The cat cow stretch on all fours is a great way to loosen up the tightness in your lower back if you have lower back pain. But you can also do a standing or laying on the floor knee to chest stretch, which can help loosen up your hip flexors and lower back child's pose is one of the best exercises for loosening up the back if your knees and your ankle mobility allow. Now, in addition to strengthening your core muscles, it's also important to strengthen your glutes. The gluteus maximus muscles are responsible for hip extension, which is in part how you hold your body upright.
(15:07)
So if you have a tendency to struggle in holding your body upright, if you have that forward rounded posture, strengthening your glutes through exercises like bridges, squats, deadlifts, step ups, are all great ways for you to strengthen your glutes and improve your posture over time to take your core stability up a notch, it's really important to also practice balance training exercises, balance training exercises, force your body's muscles to engage, to help keep your body stationary while you're standing on one leg or if you are in some kind of other balancing position. So for this reason, I really like to include balance training exercises during the first block of every program that I write for my clients, and it's also a really important type of exercise for my beginner level programs. Good examples of balance training exercises are literally just standing on one leg. I usually progress my clients from a level one balance where their weight is on one leg and they have their toes of the other leg on the ground, level two, where they practice lifting the toes up just to get comfortable with standing on one leg, and then level three, where they actually lift the knee up high to further challenge their balance.
(16:16)
So just standing in an unstable stance also can help to develop your core stability. Good examples of these would be things like the staggered stance or standing in a high lunge position while you perform some other exercise with weights for your arms. All of these help to reinforce the engagement of your core muscles, their ability to keep your body stationary and in good alignment to improve your posture. So for these reasons, I include these types of exercises in every single beginner level program that I write for my clients, and I also include them in a lot of my intermediate and advanced exercise programs to help reinforce a strong core and solid posture for my clients. Now, keep in mind that I do have a lot of downloadable programs on my website. You can go to jaydigains.com and click on workout plans in the top menu.
(17:05)
Each of these plans includes a guide for how to do the workouts and exercise tutorial videos for each exercise where I demonstrate how to perform the exercise. You can see a lot of my exercise tutorial videos on my YouTube channel as well where I post every week a handful of exercises that you can use to improve your strength or mobility. Many of the exercise tutorial videos that I create though are exclusive to my training programs. You can also sign up for one of my six month programs that are delivered through the A BC Trainer Rise app. This is the app that I use to manage my personal training clients and to deliver ongoing programming for people who subscribe. You can find information for that on my website as well by clicking on training app in the top menu. Now, here are a few more tips for improving your core strength and your posture.
(17:50)
One is try to become more aware of your posture throughout the day. If you have a tendency to round yourself forward while you're working at your computer or standing around, become more aware of how you're standing and start to practice correcting yourself and putting your body back into proper alignment. Whenever you notice that you are rounding forward or that your pelvic tilt is forward or back, just practice resetting your body. The more that you practice resetting your body, the easier it'll be for you to do this without even thinking about it. At the same time, you want to also do this while you're exercising. When you're exercising, always be thinking about how you are holding your body. Are you standing with good alignment? This is another great way to help reinforce the movement pattern of holding yourself with good posture, and it will also further strengthen the muscles that hold your body up in good posture.
(18:43)
Another thing to keep in mind is that the more you sit and the more that you are stationary, the more likely it is that your posture and your core strength will decline. So try to get into the habit of moving regularly, which is good for so many other reasons. In addition to helping your posture, you can set a timer on your phone or on your watch to get you up and moving every hour or every two hours, or you can set for yourself a daily steps goal. Do something that encourages you and reminds you to get up and moving because the more you move, the stronger you will be and the better your posture will be.
(19:21)
Thank you so much for watching. If you are on YouTube or listening to this podcast, don't forget to subscribe to my channel or to follow the podcast wherever you are so that you get notified anytime I drop a new episode. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, aka Jaydigains, and I'm so happy to have had you here. I hope that you found this information helpful, and I look forward to hearing from you. Reach out and let me know what you think of the podcast. You can leave a comment in the video comments below if you're watching on YouTube, or you can come and join me live while I'm live on my Twitch channel, Twitch tv slash JD Gaines on Tuesdays and on other days throughout the week. As I have time, I hope that you have a wonderful rest of your day, wherever you are, and that you're taking good care of yourself. I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, take care.
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Episode 43: How to Strengthen Your Grip for Heavier Deadlifts
In my over 10 years as a fitness coach, I’ve found that grip strength is the number one limiting factor for many exercisers in doing deadlifts. I’ve found a lot of success, however, by having my clients practice a variety of pulling and hanging exercises, which I discuss in the episode.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, we’re talking about how to strengthen your grip to lift heavier weights.
In my over 10 years as a fitness coach, I’ve found that grip strength is the number one limiting factor for many exercisers in doing deadlifts. I’ve found a lot of success, however, by having my clients practice a variety of pulling and hanging exercises, which I discuss in the episode.
This discussion in this episode was recorded while I was live on my Twitch channel for my weekly fitness stream. Make sure to follow or subscribe to me at Twitch.tv/jaydigains so you can participate in future discussions!
I’d also love to have you in the Gains Club membership! Each week I post new content to help you improve your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Click the button below to sign up:
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
If you want to do power lifting, if you want to compete, if you want to get really, really strong, you do want to work on your grip strength and train to the point where you can hold the amount of weight that your legs can push. So what I do with my clients is I on a deadlift day or a back day or a poll day, and sometimes I have 'em. It depends on how bad their grip strength is. I might have them do these types of exercises every day, that specifically target developing grip strength. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've created this podcast so that I can share the tips and wisdom that I've gained over the last 10 years working as a personal trainer and fitness coach. In today's episode, I'm going to share one of the discussions that I had with a chatter on my Twitch channel.
(00:58)
This chatter was asking me about how to perform the hook grip, which is a style of grip for deadlifts, and this grew into a larger discussion on how to strengthen your grip strength. Now, grip strength is, in my experience, one of the main limiting factors for most exercisers when it comes to performing deadlifts and being able to lift as much weight as their legs can handle. So in this episode, I give some tips and exercises that I recommend and I use for my clients to help them to develop their grip strength so that they can lift bigger weights. Before we get into the episode, make sure to like this video and subscribe to the channel. If you're watching on YouTube, this will allow you to get notified anytime I drop a new video. If you're listening to this podcast, make sure that you follow the channel so that you also get notified anytime there's a new episode and it gets delivered right to your device. If you would like more information about me and the services that I offer, you can head to my website. That's jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-I-N-S.com. Check out my membership where I offer exclusive training tips, nutrition tips, recipes, meal plans and training programs with new content added every month. You can sign up right from my website and without further ado, let's get into the episode.
(02:19)
I know it's not back poll day, but I'm wondering if you can show how to do a proper hook grip. Just learning over here, if you don't mind. I don't think I am the best person to demonstrate a proper hook grip because I do not lift with a hook grip. You know, who could actually teach you how to do a hook grip would be Ben Rice and he streams pretty frequently. He is a much, much better source. I don't think I could really demonstrate it so well because I don't like it. I don't do it and I probably don't do it. Well, I can't stand it when I deadlift. I do a mixed grip. I do over under when I'm doing heavy. If I'm just muscle building and I'm not doing heavy, I just use straps. I tried in the past and I was like, fuck that.
(03:05)
No, never, never, never. No. Why do I want to squish my thumb? Why? I couldn't even tell you what the benefits are. People say it helps them to retain better grip on the bar. That's not my experience though. Even with mixed grips, your deadlifts are really struggling and it's not the back. Is it your grip strength then for certain? Because if it's your grip strength, it's always a good idea to work on your grip strength no matter what, regardless of what grip you use on deadlift. Grip strength is the number one limiting factor for most people that I train when it comes to working their deadlifts up. I'd say grip strength and core strength. So it's usually overall it's the upper body that is the limiting factor for most people's deadlifts, whether that's not having the core strength to be able to keep your torso rigid while you are bearing a lot of weight, or it's the actual strength of the arms and being able to hold the amount of weight that your legs need to get the stimulus that they need to grow and get stronger.
(04:14)
So if you do struggle with the bars just rolling open, right? There's a couple of things that you can do. Hook grip is not one of the things that I suggest because I hate it personally, but I'm also like I don't use it myself. So I couldn't really give a whole lot of guidance on that. But basically it's just embrace the pain is kind of the answer. Also, because I'm very small, I am a five three duet, so I am not a dude. I don't have really big hands. So that probably has to do with why hook grip is especially terrible for me. If I was using a girl bar like the little 35 pound Bella bars, I might be able to do it more comfortably. But with an Olympic barbell, it's just a pain city. But if you want to do power lifting, if you want to compete, if you want to get really, really strong, you do want to work on your grip strength and train to the point where you can hold the amount of weight that your legs can push.
(05:19)
So what I do with my clients is on a deadlift day or a back day or a pull day, and sometimes I have 'em, it depends on how bad their grip strength is. I might have them do these types of exercises every day that specifically target developing grip strength. So to develop grip strength, you can do exercises where basically you're just holding weight at your sides. Farmer carries are like the perfect example of this. I like to actually warm my clients up with farmer carries. What else are they called? They're called farmer carries. Farmer walks. They have a couple of different names, but essentially what you're doing is you're holding at your sides and you're maintaining a tall posture as you walk. You're just walking while holding weights, a grocery carry, if you will. And the challenge is to just keep holding the weights as long as you can or whatever interval of time.
(06:14)
With my clients, I'll usually give them a distance point, like walk with this weight to that point, turn around and come back. Or you can set a timer and say, I'm going to walk continuously with this weight for 45 seconds to a minute or more. You could warm up with that or you could add that as an accessory on other training days. Other carrying exercises would be things like Romanian deadlifts or rose, sorry, not rose. Well, yeah, rose actually too. But lunges like reverse lunges, forward lunges, walking lunges, those are other exercises where you're just basically holding the weights at your side for extra resistance. Of course, like rows actually doing rows, standing rows or rows with the dumbbells. Another really great way to train up your grip strength and just your upper body strength and your back strength. A lot of kettlebell exercises are awesome for developing grip strength and coordination.
(07:13)
So kettlebell swings and kettlebell swing variations are all really good for developing your grip strength. Hanging just dead hangs, dead hangs. If you have a pull-up bar or a TRX strap where basically you're doing any kind of a hanging exercise can help you with your grip strength as well. If you have access to an assisted pullup machine, that's also helpful. But you can also use super bands to help you as in an assisted pullup. So any kind of hanging or pulling up exercises aren't pulling exercises in general. The thing is, if you had to be careful how much you fatigue your grip before you actually do your deadlift sets, specifically if you're trying to lift as much as you can in your deadlifts. So I would say do what you need to do just to warm up. Warm up intensity. Do as many of your deadlift sets as you can without any aid if you have a lot of sets.
(08:07)
My program right now is based on the JU juggernaut training systems program, so I have a lot of sets. I have 10 sets of deadlifts that I have to do on my deadlift day, so I do as many of my sets as I can with no straps. But then for my amra set, my last set, I'll just go ahead and use straps for that. So that's another approach that you can do is just do as many of your deadlift sets and reps as you can with no aid and then finish your workout with straps just so that your legs can get the stimulus they need without your hands limiting them. And then as accessories, after you've done all of your deadlifts or on a separate day when you're recovered, do all of these other types of grip training exercises and do it to fatigue, do it to muscle failure where you can't hold the weight any longer.
(08:56)
And over time, that will get your grip strength up to the point where you can handle more weight before your grip fails with your deadlifts, you would end each workout with a farmer's walk distance until I can't hold the weight, but the other day I did, so almost three days later my forms are still struggling though I hear they're supposed to recover quicker the first time you do it or whenever you progress the exercise, you're going to have soreness. You are going to have that delayed onset muscle soreness. It's always going to be worse whenever you add something new or you do something for the first time, it should get better over time, but some people are always sore. Don't get me wrong, some people are always sore no matter what, but it should get better over time. But anytime you add something new, just know that you're going to probably have some delayed onset muscle soreness with that, especially the assist for the last set.
(09:48)
Yeah, I mean, honestly, how many days a week are you working out? If you're working out like four days a week, just do some grip strength exercises in every single workout, even if it's not a pull day, and that can gradually bring your strength up over time, but it is going to take a while. Don't get me wrong, especially considering how much your legs might need in terms of weight to get challenged, it may take a long time for your grip strength to be there. This is especially the case for my female clients. A lot of my female clients are very, very strong in their lower bodies when they first start working with me and forever. Women just generally have more muscle, more percentage of their muscle is focused on the lower body just by nature versus the upper body. And so it just takes a really long time to catch the upper body up to the point where you can hold what you need to hold for your legs to get challenged.
(10:41)
So you want to play. It's a delicate balance between doing what you need to do, lifting only what you can actually carry so that you catch your grip strength up and balancing that out with using AIDS so that you can get the stimulus that your muscles need in order to actually get stronger and grow. But yeah, that's what I do with my clients. That's kind of my approach to it. Thank you so much for watching this episode of The Coaching Corner podcast. Again, I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. If you have any questions or comments, make sure to leave them in the comments below this video if you're watching on YouTube. Also note that you can join me while I'm live on my Twitch channel. Just make sure to give me a follow on Twitch. That's Twitch.tv/jaydigains. Follow the channel so you get notified when I go live and you can join me and ask questions or share your progress. I love to hear from you guys. I'll see you in the next episode. In the meantime, make sure you prioritize your self-care, drink some water, eat some veggies, eat some protein, and I will see you soon.
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Episode 42: What to Consider Before Bulking
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I talk about what to expect when you enter into a bulk phase in your fitness. Bulk phases are periods of time when you focus on building muscle by eating a calorie surplus (i.e., more than their maintenance level of calories). In combination with an exercise plan focused on hypertrophy, bulk periods can maximize muscle growth within a relatively short period of time (as opposed to eating a maintenance or deficit amount of calories every day). Many people, however, are reluctant to try doing a bulk phase out of fear that it will undo the progress that they’ve made in their fat loss journey. In this episode, I give some tips for bulking in a way that minimizes fat storage, allowing you to put as much of the extra energy you’re eating toward muscle gains as possible.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I talk about what to expect when you enter into a bulk phase in your fitness.
Bulk phases are periods of time when you focus on building muscle by eating a calorie surplus (i.e., more than their maintenance level of calories). In combination with an exercise plan focused on hypertrophy, bulk periods can maximize muscle growth within a relatively short period of time (as opposed to eating a maintenance or deficit amount of calories every day).
Many people, however, are reluctant to try doing a bulk phase out of fear that it will undo the progress that they’ve made in their fat loss journey. In this episode, I give some tips for bulking in a way that minimizes fat storage, allowing you to put as much of the extra energy you’re eating toward muscle gains as possible.
This discussion in this episode was recorded while I was live on my Twitch channel for my weekly fitness stream. Make sure to follow or subscribe to me at Twitch.tv/jaydigains so you can participate in future discussions!
I’d also love to have you in the Gains Club! Each week I post new content to help you improve your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Click the button below to sign up:
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
When we do a clean bulk, you really should only be eating about 20% above your maintenance level of calories. If you are eating 20% above your maintenance level of calories and your workouts are effective, you're following a consistent training routine. You're training towards muscle failure, getting really close to muscle failure. You're eating enough protein. If you stay at just 20% above your maintenance level of calories, that will ensure that the majority of the weight gain that you see is actually muscle gains versus fat storage. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I've created this podcast to share with you some of the tips and wisdom that I picked up along the way during my over 10 years as a personal trainer and fitness coach. In today's episode, I'm going to share with you a discussion that I had with my Twitch chat when I was live on my Twitch channel.
(01:01)
One of the chatters was asking whether she should consider going into a bulk phase. Now, I thought that this discussion was a really great follow-up to one of the previous episodes of the Coaching Quarter podcast where I talked about the signs that you should look for if your body is in a recomp. And in that episode, I do explain the difference between a recomp phase versus a bulking phase and a cutting phase. So in this episode, we're going to be talking about what to expect when you're in a bulking phase. Now bulking phase means that you're specifically focusing on building muscle, and in this episode I share some tips for how to go about doing a bulk eating a calorie surplus to prioritize building muscle while minimizing the amount of fat that your body gains while you're in this phase. So I hope that you enjoy this discussion and that you find it helpful for your own fitness journey.
(01:53)
Now, before we get into the episode, make sure that you subscribe to this channel if you're watching this episode on YouTube, and make sure to hit the button for the video. If you're listening to this podcast, make sure that you follow the show so that you get notified anytime I drop a new episode. If you would like some more information on me and the services that I offer, make sure to head over to my website. That's jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-S .com. I do have a membership site that you can sign up for to get training tips, nutrition tips, recipe collections, meal plans and training programs, and I drop new content in that every single week. You can also join my email list by going to my website. Now, without further ado, let's get into the episode and talk about what to expect when you're in a bulk phase and how to minimize fat gains while you're in your bulk.
(02:50)
You want to consider bulking your body weight to increase strength, but you're unsure if you should. As you're concerned, it'll undo the balance of your diet. Yes, things to think about. I think this is worth talking about because I did want to kind of do a little series of discussions on different phases of your diet, of different phases of your fitness to go through. A couple episodes ago on the Coaching Corner podcast, I talked about what to expect when your body is recomp, when you are in a recomp phase where your body's doing both building muscle and burning fat ways to measure your progress if you don't see the scale moving because that's super common and I do touch on in that episode like how many gym goers will separate out their fitness journey is into blocks or I should say phases where for an extended period of time for a couple of weeks to a couple of months, they'll alternate between bulking and cutting and bulking and cutting are kind of two opposite phases.
(03:57)
One is mainly focused on prioritizing building muscle, and the cutting phase is where you're prioritizing burning fat. The trick with doing either doing a bulk or a cut is to try not to lose the progress that you've made in the other phase. So when you alternate between bulking and cutting, usually you start with bulking. So you start by prioritizing building muscle, and there's a good way to do this and there's a bad way to do this. The good way to do this would be what people might call a clean bulk, which is just a responsible bulk where you're eating a calorie surplus to prioritize building muscle because building muscle is a very calorie expensive activity for your body. So eating a surplus helps your body to have all the energy that it needs to make gains faster versus if you are eating a deficit or if you're at maintenance, you may still build muscle, but it's extremely slow.
(05:05)
It's a lot slower than it would be if you're eating calorie surplus. So when you're eating a calorie surplus, your body has the energy that it needs to actually build muscle as fast as it can. But the trick here is to not eat above so much of a surplus that you start putting on a lot of fat. And when you go into a cut face, when you're cutting calories and you're eating calorie deficit, the trick there is to eat enough of a deficit that your body burns fat but you don't lose muscle or you minimize the amount of muscle that you lose because when you're in a calorie deficit, your body, when your body is in a catabolic state, it's just breaking down tissue fat muscle, lean tissue and fat to get the energy that it needs. So that's the trick, right? And that's why a lot of people kind of opt for a recomp somewhere in the middle where your calories stay close to your maintenance level and you could still build muscle and burn fat while you're eating pretty close to your maintenance level of calories.
(06:13)
It's just really slow. So that's kind of the intro to what's the difference between these three types of diet phases. But let's take a look at the precise numbers that are recommended for these phases. For the baseline maintenance level of calories that you should eat for your body to just stay the same or to recomp where you're slowly making muscle gains, slowly making fat loss gains. Your maintenance level of calories is something you kind of have to figure out by trial and error, but you can get an estimate of what your maintenance level calories is by using an online calculator to see what your total daily energy expenditure is. TDEE, and you can do that by going to tde e.net. Oh, the one that I use is TDE calculator.net. Yeah, this is the one that I use. I don't use that other one. I don't know if it's that good.
(07:14)
This is the one that I use for my clients and for myself. So a total daily energy expenditure calculator gives you a rough estimate of how many calories, somebody of your height, your gender weight activity level should be able to eat without gaining or losing weight. Let's actually use, you want to use yourself in chat, Amanda, do you want me to use yours so we can kind of get an estimate of what your maintenance calories would be? Sure. Okay, so let's fill it out together. All right, so Ms. Amanda, oh yes. And be honest when you fill it out, Ms. Amanda, or I'm sorry, I'm assuming you're sex, I'm sorry. Most people who are named Amanda are female. Female or male, sorry, I'm sorry for assuming your gender. Just type it in. Chat. The gender, age, weight heights, and here are the activity level options.
(08:14)
Sedentary, like if you have an office job and then you come home and you watch Netflix or play video games, light exercises, one to two days a week of exercise. Maybe you go on a couple walks throughout the week, moderate exercises, exercising three to five days a week, nothing too crazy. Heavy exercise would be very active and you're working out really hard. Athletic or athlete would be you train two times a day. So female, give me age and weight as well. And height. Let's see. So you have an office job, but you gym four days and box two days. So I'm going to say that that's probably either moderate or heavy. We'll say moderate. Okay, and 27 a baby. And then weight and height two 10, wait, two 10 and height six and half, wait six and half inch. So like six one, we can estimate six one.
(09:18)
We don't necessarily need to put in body fat percentages as optional for the calculation. So let's hit calculate. Alright, so now keep in mind that this is just an estimated number. So someone of your size, your height, weight, gender, activity level should in general be able to eat 2,800 ish calories a day as your maintenance level of calories. Now does that mean that that's your body's actual maintenance level of calories? Can you actually eat 2,800 calories a day and not gain or lose weight? That is a different question entirely. In order to answer that, you have to test this number over the course of a week to a couple of weeks to figure out what your actual maintenance level of calories is. But this is kind of a good estimation. So you want to write down what the estimation is and kind of save that number.
(10:18)
So I put you down as moderate exercise here. If it was heavy exercise, that would mean that you're probably going to need more calories. So if it's heavy exercise meaning working out what was that five to six times a week and being pretty active, then it would be closer to about 3000 calories a day. Now to figure out your body, you got to test that number. You can use a calorie tracking app or a food journal, I don't know where mine is a food journal where you basically track what you eat every day and you aim to eat 2,800 calories and then see how your body responds. You weigh yourself at the beginning of the week, do that for a week and you can weigh yourself every day and see how your body weight trends. If your weight goes up, then that means that 2,800 is not actually your maintenance level of calories.
(11:13)
That means that that is actually above your maintenance calories because you're gaining weight with that number. So then you would adjust, adjust the amount of calories that you eat every day, bringing it down. So you go from 2,800 to aiming for 2,600 or 2,500, do that for a week or two weeks, weigh yourself before and after and then see how your weight trends. If it continues to go up, then that means that that's still too high, that's still higher than what your actual maintenance calories is. So you keep adjusting it to the point where your body weight kind of just stays the same or it comes back down and then it just plateaus where it plateaus. That's your maintenance level of calories. So you might have to adjust a couple of times and you might find that your actual maintenance calories is like 2200, 2300 or something like that.
(12:01)
If your weight goes down, if you eat 2,800 and your weight goes down, then that means that that's actually a calorie deficit, so you need to try to eat more calories. So you add a hundred to 250 calories, do that another week. If your weight continues to go down, keep adding more on a week by week basis until your weight stabilizes and at that point you'll know whatever you're eating at that point is your maintenance calories. So that's kind of like how you can find your maintenance calories if you're not already tracking but you're already tracking and you said that you're eating about 2,400 calories usually and you're maintaining between 2 0 5 and two 10 usually eating about 2,400. So how long have you been maintaining? So that's another question you want to think about. If in my mind maintaining is when that weight kind of stays fluctuating at about the same level for two, three weeks, at least three years, and you've been eating 2,400 for three years and it's been staying about that level. Your last bulk, you went from one 90 to 2 0 5 in 2021. I see.
(13:17)
So for three years, oh my god, 2021 was over three years ago. That's crazy to think about. Just a reminder of where we are. Happy 2025 everybody. Okay, cool. Alright, so let's go back to your original question. You want to consider bulking your body weight to increase your strength, but you're unsure if you should as you're concerned, it'll undo the balance of my diet plus I think I'm teetering on the high side. So we already know that you're maintaining, right? You're maintaining where you're at. My question would be how has your body fat percentage and the amount of muscle tissue that you have changed over the last three years, so you're gyming four days a week and you're boxing, are you seeing progressive gains in your lifts? Are you able to progressively add more reps and add more weight over time? Are you sticking to a consistent routine where you can see that progress or are you doing something different every time that you go to the gym or every week you are able to add more reps and more weight over time?
(14:27)
Yeah, like bench press. Yeah, so the thing is, it is a good idea, especially if you're considering bulking. If you're considering building muscle or changing your body composition in any way, it's a good idea to stick to a specific lifting routine for a couple of weeks at a time. Six to 12 weeks is generally what I recommend, and the reason for that is you do the same routine, you do the same four day routine every week. The reason for that is that that gives you some control points for data to know whether you're actually getting stronger. If you keep the routine the same on a week by week basis on your push day, say you do bench press and then you do chest flies and then you do tricep, kickbacks, et cetera, and you keep that order of exercises, you should every time you train, be able to do more reps or more weight on most of the exercises.
(15:29)
If you're seeing that happening, then that tells you that you're building muscle because you're getting stronger. If you're not tracking your actual body fat percentage, seeing your performance gains go up is a good way for you to know that even though your weight is maintaining more of your body is muscle versus fat and that's gains, right? So you went from being able to curl 12.5 kilos to 15 and went from benching 17.5 kilos to 20 kilos with a max of 22.5, but that's only barely eight reps. If I push it over what period of time? Because we want to get a little bit more scientific about between this date and that date right over the last eight weeks or over the last three months. If you're not on an actually blocked progressed program, that's the first thing that I would you think it took six months to reach that?
(16:26)
Okay. Okay, good. But that is one thing that I would say before you go on this next book, get on some kind of a progressed training schedule. That way you can make sure that as you see the scale either not change or go up, you're able to see measurably, oh, I'm able to do more weight or I'm able to do more reps on these exercises and stick to that routine for six to 12 weeks. That is a good way for you to judge the effect of your bulk as you change how you're eating. So that's a good way for you to make sure that you're not throwing everything out of whack and that you're not just building fat.
(17:11)
That is the concern. When you're in a calorie surplus, a certain amount of it is likely going to go to fat storage. It's hard to avoid a little bit of fat gains, but when we do a clean bulk or a bulk the right way, you really should only be eating about 20% above your maintenance level of calories. If you are eating 20% above your maintenance level of calories and your workouts are effective, you're following a consistent training routine. You're training towards muscle failure, getting really close to muscle failure, you're eating enough protein. If you stay at just 20% above your maintenance level of calories, that will ensure that the majority of the weight gain that you see is actually muscle gains versus fat storage. So it sounds like 2,400 is probably your maintenance level of calories. So you could do a gradual increase up to what is 120% of 2400 0 2800, the number that we calculated, 28 80 would be a clean bulk level for you at 20% above your maintenance level of calories.
(18:27)
So you could try that. Is my weight so far fine for my height as in healthy? I don't put a lot of emphasis on weight to height ratio. Here's the thing, BMI, that comparison of your height to your weight is not a good indicator of health. The only thing that it is helpful for if you have a lot of body fat as you lose that body fat, then as BMI gets lower, then yeah, that can be a good indicator of improved health. If your body fat is also correlated with other actual good markers of health. So if the concern is health, right? If the concern is health, I would not necessarily use body weight as the number one indicator of am I a healthy, am I healthy or not I healthy or not is much better answered by looking at your heart rate like your resting heart rate levels is your resting heart rate level at a healthy level for normal healthy resting heart rate that's between 60 and a hundred beats per minute.
(19:41)
What are your cholesterol levels? Are your cholesterol levels healthy? Are your blood pressure levels healthy? If we're thinking about body fat rather than BMI, I'm more interested in the waist to hip ratio, like how much belly fat you have a waist to hip ratio for a woman, it's better to have 0.85 or less If you divide your waist by your hip circumference. Those are much better indicators of health than body weight because as you build muscle, as you become more and more of a muscle, mommy, your BMI is going to go up and it may even go to the point where it says you're overweight or you're obese. Even one of my good buddies Uber cruiser, I don't know if he's here in the chat right now, he is humongous. It's all muscle. It's all muscle. He is strong as fuck. He is an ex competitive MMA fighter.
(20:46)
Now he does power lifting and he's a big, very strong dude, very healthy body fat percentage as well. But BMI has categorized him as obese, so that's why I don't really give a fuck much about body weight. It's more how much of your body weight is muscle versus fat. And then in terms of health, what are your other body measurements? What are the actual indicators of health, blood sugar levels or insulin levels, you know what I mean? Your waist to hip ratio is 0.75. Girl, you're fine. You are more than fine, you're good, you're Gucci, you don't have to worry, you're fine. Don't worry about BMI. BMI is not for muscle mommies. BMI does not apply. If you're a muscle mommy, your body is going to have more muscle and you may even look like you shouldn't weigh what you weigh because, because because muscle's so dense, right?
(21:44)
Muscle is heavy but dense so it takes up less space than fat. So I wouldn't worry about your weight. Now if you want to be more muscular in order to build strength, building muscle is going to allow you to have more strength because more muscle means that you have more horsepower to work with. So you could bulk and I wouldn't worry about it making you unhealthy as long as you keep it healthy at the healthy levels, right? 20% above your maintenance level of calories do that. You could do that for as long as you want. You're going to see less negative impact by doing a lean bulk for a long period of time than you will see if you are in a calorie deficit for a long period of time. Our bodies do not like to be at calorie deficits. People do. People do not do well when they're cutting for a really long time, but bulking you can do forever really as long as you are keeping your protein high, you're working hard in the gym.
(22:47)
As hard as you need to build muscle and your sleep is okay and as long as your other health indicators are good, you're Gucci. I want to worry about it. Go for it. Cholesterol and blood's fine. Blood sugar isn't high. Yeah, you're good. I wouldn't worry about it. Your waist to hip ratio is good. Yeah, I think shoot for the stars, I think you're going to be fine. I wouldn't worry about gaining a bunch of fat and fucking up losing any fat loss progress that you've made after having the babies. Especially if you are staying pretty. Oh, your body fat is already super low. Yeah, your body fat is incredibly low for a woman, we don't really like to go below 15%. Yeah, so you definitely post-pregnancy is at 20. Yeah, that's normal. That's normal. So is the worry here that you're going to bulk and you're going to lose that fat loss progress?
(23:44)
Honestly, I don't think you should worry about that because especially after being at 2,400 calories, you can maintain at 2,400 calories. You've done that for three years, you know can do that. So I don't think that you should worry about losing all of your progress by going into a slight surplus because especially if you're keeping it at no more than 20% above your calories, that most of that is going to go to muscle anyway. Now, if you wanted to keep it super, super lean, if you wanted to be super, super lean, it will be super, super slow, but you could keep it at 10% of a surplus. The closer you stay to maintenance, the slower your gains are going to be, but you're a lot less likely to put on fat. So if you think it's going to fuck with your head, seeing your body fat increase, which the higher you go, there's more likelihood that some of that gain is going to be fat and that's just something you kind of have to make peace with that you're going to look a little fluffier than you did a couple months ago, but most people are able who are successful and successfully bulking and then doing a shortcut to kind of get their body fat percentage down and really improve their physique.
(25:00)
The ones who are most successful are the ones who are able to stick it out in that uncomfortable place where you're like, I'm looking a little thick and juicy right now. You kind of have to prepare yourself mentally that you're not going to be as lean as you are now. You're going to see less muscle definition as you build muscle because some of that body fat is going to come up. It's kind of inevitable.
(25:31)
It's hard to not put any fat on when you bulk and you have to be okay with that. You have to make peace with that. If you can stick it out and you can be like, it's okay, I'm a little fluffy now, but I'm going to trim off that fat later when I transition into a cut, then you are going to see a massive transformation if you can stick it out, right? You are maintaining with this five to six hours of sleep, so I hope I'll get more sleep as I'm breaking up with my boyfriend who is sort of adding stress. Let's go fucking gains across the board, girl. Yeah, I love this idea. Can you have 16% body fat while also being 2 25? I don't know. I don't know. Because the thing is I don't know how fast your body is going to build muscle, so as you go up in muscle, it's not going to be linear progress.
(26:27)
Just like fat loss isn't a linear process either. So the main thing to look for is am I progressing? Is my performance progressing? Am I doing more reps? Am I doing more weight over time? That tells you that you are building muscle and then are you seeing the scale either maintain like you're not gaining any weight or it's just gaining very gradually? We don't want to see any huge jumps because the faster that you gain weight, the more likely that some of that weight gain is going to be fat. So nice and slow, slow and steady, but again, 10 to 20% above your maintenance calories should be just right, especially if you're sleeping well and you're training like you need to in the gym. Don't worry so much about the weight, it's more, well, what you want to do. Your primary goal of bulking, right is to get stronger, is to be able to lift more and be stronger.
(27:31)
So I wouldn't get so hung up and focused on what exactly your body weight needs to be. The goal is to gain X amount of muscle, X amount of pounds so that you can lift more so that you can get heavier lifts. Oh, your core is visible at this weight. You wouldn't want that to go. That's going to be hard because it's another thing you have to prepare yourself for because you will lose belly definition and it is hard to watch that go. It is hard to watch that go, but if you do the 10% bulk where you're just eating what, 2,400 cal, I'm sorry, you're at 2,400 calories, so if you go at a smaller bulk and you eat 2,600 calories, I mean you might be able to hold on to some of that muscle definition. It's just you have to decide in your mind what's more important.
(28:27)
Is it more important to get more gains faster so that you can get stronger faster? Is that worth losing temporarily losing some core definition, some definition of your abs or is it more important to you to maintain your body fat percentage while you very, very slowly gain muscle and get stronger? So what do you want more immediately? I think if it were me, if I were your trainer and I'm not your trainer, but if I were your trainer and I was pacing you, I'd say let's just do a 10% increase. Let's go super, super slow and then let's do that for just four weeks. Okay, let's work for four weeks at 10% above your maintenance level and then we'll reassess. That will give you time to see some gains and also assess how much it is worth for you to lose some core definition because you might even at 10%, you still might lose some maybe, but it might give you some time to kind of unlatch from that idea.
(29:42)
That's a ramp up, right? You got four weeks to eat a very small surplus and prepare yourself emotionally for getting another 10% to your surplus and just be prepared that some of that definition is going to go away and do that for four weeks. The second four weeks would be that, that 20% above maintenance, do that for four weeks and then reassess. If you hate it and you're like, I can't see my ass anymore, I fucking hate this shit, it's not worth it. I know that I'm getting stronger and my lifts are going up and I feel amazing in the gym, but I want to see my abs dammit. Then cut back down to 10%. Again, you can go very slow with this very gradually change what you're doing and it will not take away your gains. You're not going to immediately lose your ab definition and you're not immediately going to, you know what I mean?
(30:36)
So why don't you give yourself sort of a ramp up like a little baby bulk, give yourself a little baby bulk period and then if you like the pace that you're gaining, if you like the pace at which you're able to add more reps and add more weight and you are also happy with your body fat percentage, then you could just keep going with that for a while, but nothing is going to change overnight. You got plenty of time to adjust mentally. I think in terms of body fat percentage right now you're doing, you're really low, you're really, really low would in terms of health, you have a lot of body fat that you could gain and still be healthy and still be fit and athletic. If I'm maxing at one 20 pounds, is there any point increasing strength while compromising core visibility? Well, the compromising core visibility would be a temporary thing, and that's something you have to know going into your bulk as well.
(31:35)
It's temporary because what most people do is in the short term sacrifice muscle definition in order to get strong faster and maximize muscle gains. And then once they have reached a certain amount of gains, either a certain amount of weight that they wanted to gain in muscle or they've reached a point where they're lifting as much as they want to lift, then they will transition back towards maintenance and then into a cut phase. And a lot of times if they're really trying for strength, that will be a very, very, very small deficit of 20% below maintenance and at 20% below maintenance athletes are able to still build muscle and burn fat at the same time. And you're more on the athletic side too with where you are in terms of your performance and in terms of your activity levels. So that would be a point where you kind of are putting it for the future if you can be like, this is a temporary thing and I will trim that fat off in the future, but most people do not stay super, super chiseled all the time.
(32:44)
Most people, when you're super ripped, that is a small portion of the year because if you stay like that, you really are kind of capping yourself at how much you can gain in terms of your strength. When you stay super, super lean, it's just really hard to gain muscle when you're eating a super low level of calories. If you want to make a dramatic change to your body, then you'll have to kind of make more dramatic changes to your diet. The muscle definition will come back once you go into your cut phase and you trim off. The goal of your cut phase would be to maintain as much of the weight that you've gained in muscle and not lose the muscle, but just trim the fat, but you will be heavier because your body will just be more dense. Your body fat percentage at that point is the thing that you want to look at in the future, you will be heavier but also have that definition come back and at that point you'll be able to lift more and you'll be stronger.
(33:49)
The body fat percentage is a percentage of the weight, so regardless of whether you are 120 pounds or you are 220 pounds, what matters is how much of that weight is body fat and how much of that weight is muscle. So if you gain 15 pounds of muscle and your body fat percentage stays the same, you'll still have the same muscle definition that you like, it's you'll see more muscle, there will be more muscle there. Yeah, so no, you can get the muscle definition. Again, it's just that if you are bulking at 20% or if you're doing a dirty bulk, which is the other kind of bulk that a lot of people will do, a dirty bulk is when you're just YOLO and you just eat whatever you want. Maybe not even necessarily tracking calories, but you're definitely eating a surplus. It's just that you're not being careful, you're not tracking your calories, you're just eating whatever.
(34:44)
If you yolo bulk or dirty bulk, then it is more likely that you'll gain weight and a higher percentage of the weight that you gain will be fat. If you clean bulk or lean bulk, keeping it between 10 and 20% above your maintenance level of calories, then that's how you can make sure that the majority of the weight that you are taking on is muscle so that you can keep as much of that muscle definition and you can see your abs more versus just gaining a bunch of weight, so dirty bulk to 300 pounds, then no, don't do that because that will fuck up your diet. That will fuck up your progress. Don't do that. And also like to get there. I dirty bulking also, a lot of times people will be eating food that's just really bad for them, lots of saturated fat and so when people dirty bulk, they also end up having issues with their blood pressure or their cholesterol levels or their insulin levels, you know what I mean?
(35:43)
So I do not recommend dirty bulking when I administer bulks with my clients. I keep it to 20% above maintenance level of calories no more. And then we have our treat days. We do factor in vacations and treat days where it's like you go a little bit higher or yolo, go on vacation, enjoy it. Your body's going to reflect what you do most of the time. At what weight should you stop bulking completely. That is a personal question that's for you to answer, but I will say most people have a limit to how much muscle they can build naturally, and we call that genetic potential. So everybody has a genetic potential limit of how much muscle you can build without having to go on steroids. And when you reach that point where no matter what you do, you've changed your workouts, you're trading towards muscle failure, you're eating as much as you need to eat and the scale isn't moving and you're also just struggling to add more weight, add more reps, that would be the natural stopping point.
(36:59)
Most people never, ever reach their potential. I don't recommend steroids. It'll fuck you up. It'll fuck you up. Don't even think about steroids. I do not recommend it. I have friends who do it. It will fuck you up. That's my recommendation. I do not recommend steroids, so I don't think you even have to worry about a stopping point. I will say though, the way that a lot of people kind of approach their bulk in terms of when are they going to stop, there's a couple of different approaches. One is you can bulk indefinitely until you reach your genetic potential and then you're like, I've done it. I am the ultimate muscle mommy. I'm an Amazon warrior princess, and just enjoy it. So that be, that will take years, decades to reach that point. Another way that some people approach it, like my friend Krista and her husband Joey, were terrible.
(37:54)
She stops her bulk when she feels like, okay, now I'm just a little lot fluffier than what I can handle mentally. I need to start trimming off some fat. It is getting to the point where I really, really hate. I really hate what I see in the mirror. This is way too fluffy. I don't like this. Let's do a shortcut phase. And then some people will set a limit in terms of how many pounds or kilograms they want, and then they'll stop their bulk once they reach that amount of weight. You could do either of those options, any of those options, but again, just know that your body is not going to change overnight. You're not going to see any huge drastic change. So if you are hating what's happening or if you feel like you're not making enough progress or if you feel like you're losing more definition than you want to live with, then you can always switch gears, switch tacks, and kind of take it down a notch.
(38:51)
You can't bulk more than 15 pounds at a time. Okay? If you know that about yourself, then that's your goal, then that's your goal. Just bulk up to 15 pounds. Do it in a really controlled way, very careful and slowly. And then once you get to that 15 pounds, I would recommend planning to transition out of your bulk to a period of maintenance where you're eating your maintenance level of calories. Keep in mind that as you build muscle though, your maintenance level of calories is also probably going to go up. You're probably going to need to eat more than 2,400 calories once you reach your bulk goal. Also, as you are trying to get to 15 pounds, you may reach a point where because you've built more muscle, you may need to increase the amount of calories that you're eating in order to continue building towards 15 pounds.
(39:45)
So you may have to adjust your calories six, seven weeks in because your maintenance level of calories goes up, your maintenance level of calories goes up and down according to how much muscle you have. So keep that in mind. If you are seeing your bulk is slowing down and you're sticking to your calories, but you're not seeing gains like you were initially, it's likely because now your body is spending more calories, so you need to bump up your calories again. When you go to find your maintenance level of calories at the end of your bulk, just gradually reduce 100 to 250 calories at a time for one week and see how your body weight responds and just do that until your body weight stays the same. But I say, go for it. If you were my client, I'd say, yeah, go for it. I think you got this. But just make sure that you get on a program and keep the consistent routine for six to 12 weeks or however long it is that you are in your bulk, because that will tell you as your weight goes up, whether that weight is muscle and strength. As you can see, you're able to do more reps and more weight over time.
(40:59)
Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of the Coaching Corner podcast. I hope that you found this episode's discussion to be helpful in thinking about how you are going to go about the next phase in your personal fitness journey, whether you're going to be bulking cutting, or if you're aiming for a recomp or maintenance phase. If you have any questions, feel free to leave them in the comments below. If you're watching this on YouTube, you can also sign up for my membership site and leave your questions and comments in the posts. You can also ask your questions live when I'm live on my Twitch channel on Tuesdays and other times throughout the week. As I have time, just go to Twitch.tv/jaydigains to give me a follow or a subscribe if you'd like to support the channel. And that's it for today's episode. I hope that you have a good rest of your day. I'll see you in the next one. Take care.
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Episode 41: What to Eat Before You Work Out
What you eat before exercising significantly impacts your performance and energy levels during your workouts. On the one hand, eating the wrong thing before you train (or too close to the start of your workout) can leave you feeling sluggish and nauseated while you exercise. On the other hand, not eating at all can lead to low energy, underperformance, and even dizziness or increased risk of passing out (not good 🙅♀️). In this podcast episode, I give some guidelines on what to eat before you train.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, we’re talking all about how to fuel your gains before you train.
What you eat before exercising significantly impacts your performance and energy levels during your workouts. On the one hand, eating the wrong thing before you train (or too close to the start of your workout) can leave you feeling sluggish and nauseated while you exercise. On the other hand, not eating at all can lead to low energy, underperformance, and even dizziness or increased risk of passing out (not good 🙅♀️).
In this podcast episode, I give some guidelines on what to eat before you train. When deciding what to eat before your workouts, you need to consider the timing of your meal relative to your workout:
If you are eating 2 hours or more before a workout, eat a normal meal following the healthy plate model. This should include a balanced mix of vegetables, lean protein, and whole grains.
For meals within the two-hour to 30-minute window before a workout, prioritize easily digestible carbohydrates and a moderate amount of lean protein (10-25 grams).
If you’re eating within the 30-minute window before your workout, keep it to easily digestible carbohydrates (like fruit or gummy snacks) and avoid fat and too much protein
Also be sure to drink plenty of water before your workouts to give your body the hydration it needs to perform its best.
Click below to see the collection of pre-workout snacks that I created for my Gains Club members. You can download a PDF of the recipe collection to keep in your kitchen whenever you need a quick and nutritious pre-workout snack:
I’d love to have you in the Gains Club membership! Each week I post new content to help you improve your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Click here to sign up.
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(00:00):
If you have been following me for a while, you'll know that one of the things that I argue is that getting in shape or getting healthy is just as much about what you eat as it is about how you train and how you exercise. One of the questions that a lot of my clients have, my personal training clients is what to eat before they work out. So in today's podcast, I'm going to be sharing some tips for you on what to eat before you work out. Eating the right things before your workout can help you to stay energized for your workout and perform your best. Eating the wrong thing before you out though can cause some major issues like upset stomach or cramps at the same time. It's generally not best to work out on an empty stomach. So let's talk about how to fuel your body before you work out.
(00:54)
Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. My name is Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains, and in this podcast I share tips and guidance for how to make progress in your fitness journey. And before we get into it, if you are watching this on YouTube, make sure that you like this video and leave a comment if you have any questions or things that you think of during the course of the episode. If you are listening to this podcast, thank you. Make sure that you also subscribe so that you always get notified whenever there's a new episode. Without further ado, let's talk about it. What should you eat before you train, before we talk about what you should eat before you train, we really need to talk about time period, right? So when you're going to be eating plays a key role in what you should eat before you work out.
(01:40)
So if you are planning on eating two hours or more before you work out, then you should just eat like you normally do following the healthy plate model. As a reminder, the healthy plate model is a model of healthy eating that was issued shortly after the 2015 guidelines for Americans on healthy Eating, and this is a good depiction of what you should aim to see on your plate whenever you go to cook or order some food for yourself on half of the plate, you want to have one to two servings of vegetables, or you can have one serving of vegetables and one serving of fruit on the other side of the plate. You want to aim for a good source of lean protein. That's protein sources that are low in saturated fat. These are things like tofu and Tempe if you're vegetarian or things like chicken breast or white meat and low fat cuts of beef and pork and other animal sources of protein.
(02:36)
And then on the last remaining quarter of your plate, you should have either a starchy vegetable like potatoes or corn or you can have a grains based food. That's something made with grains like wheat. So you could have whole grain bread or pasta, rice. Generally speaking, you want the majority of the time if you're eating grains, you want this to be a source of whole grains. So if you are eating two hours before you train or more just eat like you normally do and follow the healthy plate model. This will ensure that you have the nutrients that your body needs to feel its best and the energy, the clean energy that your body needs to perform its best during your workouts. Now if you are eating within that two hour window before, you're going to be working out up to about 30 minutes before you work out.
(03:27)
So two hours to 30 minutes before your training session, you want to really prioritize a good source of carbohydrates and a little bit of protein. Carbohydrates are your body's number one source of fuel and energy and they're the primary source of energy, especially when you are working out. You don't want to eat something that's too complex for your body to break down so that it isn't able to access the energy while you're training. So simple to digest carbohydrates are things like fruits and whole grains. This will allow you to have a steady supply of energy that your body needs while you're training. So for example, you could have a banana or another type of piece of fruit. You could go for some oatmeal or whole grain toast or some rice cakes. All of these are really good sources of easy to digest natural sugars, which will give your body the energy that it needs while you're training within that two hour to 30 minute window.
(04:25)
You also want to prioritize getting in a good source of protein, but you don't want to eat too too much because again, you want to make sure that it's something that your body's going to easily be able to digest. You don't want to fill up too much before you train, even if all you're going to be doing is resistance training or strength training, you want to make sure that you're not having too much bulky food in your belly. That blood flow is going to be redirected to your stomach, that could be going to your muscles, right? So we want to keep it light. So I say between 10 and 25 grams of some sort of lean protein is good. This does a couple of things. One, protein is a source of energy for your muscles while you're training. Although carbohydrates does make up the majority of the energy that your body burns for your workouts, but the protein is also a piece of that.
(05:13)
Eating enough protein before your workout will also give your body enough of a jumpstart on muscle protein synthesis, which is the process by which your body builds muscle while you're training. Your body is going to be breaking some muscle down, especially if you're doing resistance training for muscle building and accumulating micro tears in the muscles. That is part of the process of how we get strong. That's how we need to train. But giving your body the protein that it needs can give it a little bit of a boost so that you keep that energy up and your body can go ahead and start making repairs on those micro tears and start getting you stronger faster. So good examples of 10 to 25 grams of lean protein snacks that you could have before your workout in that two hour to 30 minute window. Our Greek yogurt, Greek yogurt is a fantastic source of protein.
(06:01)
You could also do hard-boiled egg. Just make sure that you're being careful about your calories because egg yolk itself has a lot of fat and that therefore has a lot of calories. You could do also a protein shake or a protein bar and cottage cheese is another really good source. I know a lot of bodybuilders also like to have a little can of tuna before they train. Again, make sure that you're not going for something that is too high a source of saturated fat, a lot of protein that comes from animals. If there's fat with that like cream or actual animal fat with it, that is going to be hard for your body to break down and digest and it's going to make you feel really heavy. So you want to be careful about how much fat you're consuming and if you are consuming a type of dietary fat before you're training, really try to aim for unsaturated fats rather than saturated fats.
(06:49)
The saturated fats are the ones that come from animal products mainly that are solid at room temperature. So again, if you're doing the egg yolks, you want to be careful about how many of those egg yolks you're having. You could do boiled egg whites with a mixture of one or two egg yolks if you really need a lot of protein. That's what I typically recommend for people who are eating eggs, just so that you don't need to eat the yolk of every egg that you eat, if that makes sense. Now, if it is within that two hour window even, I mean I even push it out further that if you're eating one to two hours before you're going to work out, then you should also maybe shoot for a small source of healthy fats for sustained energy, especially if you're going to be doing a really long workout.
(07:32)
The longer that you train, the longer that you work out, your body is probably going to burn through a lot of the carbohydrates that you give it during this window. If you are working out for more than an hour, a lot of those sugars are probably going to get burned. But having a source of healthy fats is a much harder to digest source of energy for your body, but your body will tap into that energy source towards the end of your workout so that you don't have so much of a dip in energy. Maybe you've noticed when you work out sometimes that you're really energized at the beginning and then you hit a halfway point where you're just like, oh crap, I don't have any energy anymore. It's likely at that point that your body has burned through a lot of the sugars or the carbohydrates that you ate before the workout and then your body has to switch gears and start looking for energy elsewhere.
(08:18)
If you want to avoid having such a huge dip, you can have a good source of healthy fats in that one to two hour window before you train. Good source of that would be like peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, something like that. You can also do a trail mix that has a mixture of nuts and seeds and fruit, so you get some carbohydrates in there as well. Avocado is a really good source of healthy fats as well. If you want to do avocado on some whole grain toast, that is a really good pre-workout snack that will give you sustained energy as well as some carbohydrates, easy to digest carbohydrates and whole grain as well. Anything is going to have a little bit of protein in it as well. So pro tips, that's what you want to shoot for. Also, don't forget that it's not just about the food that you take in before you would train, right?
(09:08)
It's also important that you're drinking enough water. Hydration is so important for just keeping your body healthy, but especially keeping your body feeling good and performing well during your workouts. Drinking enough water is going to give your muscles the hydration that they need to function best. It's also going to help you with temperature regulation, which is going to be really important, especially if you're going to be doing anything cardio wise where your core temperature is likely to go up, your body is going to need that ability to regulate its temperature. So drinking plenty of water in that case is especially important, especially if you're going to be sweating too. If you are going to be doing a particularly long workout more than an hour, or if it's going to be really intense, I would recommend drinking some kind of a sports drink. Or you could also opt for coconut water, something that's going to have some electrolytes in it to help your body to retain water and stay hydrated through the course of that workout.
(10:01)
Now, if you are eating within that 30 minute window right before you're going to train, which to be honest, that's a lot of times when I have to have my pre-workout snack because I'm busy and sometimes I forget to eat throughout the day thanks to a DHD. So I know that going into a workout if I don't have any fuel in me, or if it's been a long time since I last ate, I'm going to need something to help me power through. So when it's between 30 and 60 minutes before a workout, especially in that 30 minute window, it's really important to focus on easy to digest sugars for your body. So generally speaking, you want to do something that's a piece of fruit, but some people will actually just go ahead and have candy, which is not ideal. Of course. We don't really like refined sugars.
(10:48)
We want to reduce our intake of refined sugars, but in a pinch, if you have not had anything to eat all day, then having a little piece of candy right before your workout can give you just a little bit of an energy boost to get you going, but you don't really want to depend on this as something that you do normally. Ideally, make sure that you're eating plenty of time before your workout, and if you're going to have something that has easy to digest sugars, opt for a piece of fruit instead, or a piece of bread, something that has more easy to digest carbohydrates. You also don't really want to eat something that has a ton of protein and fat in it, even if it's healthy fat because it takes our body a lot longer to digest protein and fat than it does carbohydrates. And as a result, if you are doing, especially if you're doing cardio or something that has you moving a lot or getting your heart rate up, if you have food in your stomach that is harder to digest, you're going to feel really, really heavy.
(11:51)
You're also more likely to experience abdominal cramps while you're training if you have fat or protein in your belly and you've just eaten that right before you train. So if it is right before your workout, I really would focus on something that's a good source of carbohydrates and a very, very, if you're going to have any kind of protein or fat, I would make it a very small amount. Don't overdo it because you'll be feeling really heavy at the least. And the worst case scenario is that it will make you feel nauseous and make you feel sick, which I've done this from time to time. It's not a fun time, okay? Don't make your workout harder than it needs to be, but the further out away from your workout, one to two hours you get, and then more than that, then you can actually handle eating more, right?
(12:36)
So just think as you get closer to your workout, you want to make things as simple as possible. You want simple, simple energy the closer that it gets to your workout, but as it gets further out one to two hours, then you can have a little bit more complexity. If it's more than two hours, just go ahead and eat a meal following the healthy plate model. Now, when you are thinking about what you're going to eat before you train, make sure to avoid these errors. One, you don't want to eat too much fiber or too much fat as we talked about before, having too much fat will make it harder for your body to digest. You'll feel really heavy. Same thing goes with too much fiber. So something that's really concentrated fiber, especially if you don't normally eat a lot of fiber, be careful about that because that can cause some digestive discomfort, which can make you feel sick and even nauseous.
(13:25)
So you want to be very careful about how much fiber you're eating before you train. Also, avoid the mistake of just skipping the snack entirely. Honestly, I would rather my clients come to the workout even 15 minutes late with some fuel in their system versus starting the workout on an empty stomach because if they start the workout on an empty stomach, they're likely not to have the energy to actually complete their workout, and they're probably going to be feeling really sick by the end of it. So it is good to just get something in, even if it's like I said, just like a piece of candy, just to give your system a little quick boost of sugar. Again, you don't want that to be a normal thing that you do, so preferably like a piece of fruit or a piece of bread or something. If you're running late, you've got to get to your workout, but you need to put something on your stomach.
(14:12)
Keep it simple and follow those recommendations. Just don't do too much protein or fat. And then of course, this goes without saying, try to avoid overeating before you work out. If you eat too much food before you train, you are going to have a bad time. And I think we all probably know somebody who has a story about getting sick at the end of their workout or in the middle of their workout. So that's no fun. And we want the gym to be a fun place. So don't give yourself that drama. As a reminder, it's all about balance and timing here and just being really conscious about what your body is going to get from the food that you give it. Remember, carbohydrates are your body's preferred source of fuel. So that's usually what we're going to be prioritizing in a pre-workout snack or a pre-workout meal.
(14:59)
Protein as well is important to have in your system either before you train or after you train. That way your body gets a jumpstart on muscle protein synthesis, repairing those muscle tears that happen as a normal course of working out. And then if you're going to be doing something super, super long, getting a good source of healthy fats can help you to sustain energy. As long as you are eating it far enough out from the beginning of your workout, you should be fine. Now, keep in mind that this podcast does have a post associated with it in the Gaines Club membership on my website. So go to Jaydigains.com, J-A-Y-D-I-G-A-N s.com, and you can join the membership and get access to the recipe collections that I post every single week. This recipe collection is called What to Eat Before You Work Out. It has example recipes, a downloadable PDF that you can print off and keep in your kitchen, as well as a little bit more detail about the things that we're talking about in this podcast episode.
(16:00)
So make sure to check out my website, sign up for the Gaines Club, and you get access to this and so much more content that I post every single week. So that is the episode for today. I hope that you found it helpful. I would love to hear what questions you have in response to this podcast episode. If you're watching this on YouTube, leave those questions and comments in the comments below this video. Also, make sure to like and subscribe to my channel so that you get notified every single time that I post a video throughout the week. If you're listening on your podcast app, make sure to subscribe to this channel so that the new episodes get delivered right to your device. And if you would like to hang out with me when I'm live throughout the week on my Twitch channel, go to Twitch tv slash jd games.
(16:43)
I go live on Tuesdays and then a couple other times throughout the week. As I have time, you can come hang out, ask your fitness questions while I train or hang out with me while I play video games. Now, I hope that you have a good rest of your day. Wherever you are, make sure to take care of yourself and prioritize yourself, care whether that is going to the gym, drinking water, eating good food, or just letting yourself rest when your body needs to rest. You are important. You matter what you feel and what you need matters. So make sure that you prioritize that. I will see you in the next episode. Take care.
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Episode 40: What to Do if the Scale Stops Moving (9 Signs You’re In a Recomp)
In this episode, I give some tips for navigating a stage of your fitness journey called the “recomp.” A recomp is a period of time when your body both burns fat and builds muscle, changing your body composition. During a recomp, the scale may not show significant changes, which can be mentally challenging for those who are used to tracking progress through weight loss.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I give some tips for navigating a stage of your fitness journey called the “recomp.”
A recomp is a period of time when your body both burns fat and builds muscle, changing your body composition. During a recomp, the scale may not show significant changes, which can be mentally challenging for those who are used to tracking progress through weight loss.
It can be easy to assume that you have stopped making progress. But in this episode, I outline nine signs of progress to look for while you’re in a recomp, such as changes in body measurements, clothing fit, muscle definition, stable or fluctuating scale numbers, increased energy, improved workout recovery, visible progress in photos, reduced body fat percentage, and better health markers like resting heart rate and cholesterol levels.
If you’re struggling to see your progress while in a recomp, I also give some tips for keeping yourself motivated in your fitness journey while the scale doesn’t move.
For additional support, consider joining the Gains Club membership on my website! I post new content every week for improving your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Check out jaydigains.com to sign up.
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Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
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Jayd (00:00):
If the scale isn't moving or if it's just kind of fluctuating a little bit up and then a little bit down, that is a really good sign that your body is where we want it. It's doing both burning fat and building muscle at the same time. Hey there. Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast. I'm Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. Today we're going to be talking about what it feels like and looks like when your body is in what we call a recomp. So a recomp is short for repositioning, and it's that tricky time in your fitness journey where you're doing both building muscle and burning fat at the same time, and so progress can often feel really slow, and if you have been on a really long fat loss journey where you have lost a lot of weight, this period of your fitness journey can feel really hard, especially because up until now you have probably used the scale as the primary way of measuring and tracking your progress.
(01:07)
But when your body is in a recomp, when you're repositioning your body building muscle and burning fat at the same time, you might notice that the scale doesn't move very much and sometimes it may actually go up. And what I found over the last couple of years is that this is just really hard on the mental for many of my clients, especially if they've already lost a lot of weight or if the weight loss was their primary goal when they first started their fitness journey. So today what I'm going to do is share with you nine signs that your body is in a recomp, and then I'm also going to share some tips for how to overcome the mental block that often comes with being in a recomp stage. Now, keep in mind that this podcast episode has a post that goes along with it that has a lot more detail, as well as a guided worksheet that you can download and use to journal to help yourself overcome any mental hurdles that you might have as a result of being in a recomp. And you can find that on my membership site. Just go to jaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com. Without further ado, let's take a look at nine signs that your body is in a recomp.
(02:27)
The number one thing that you'll likely notice if your body is in a recomp, changes in your body measurements. Now, the scale itself, when you step on the scale in the morning and you weigh your actual body weight may not change very much, but it's your body measurements that will really tell you whether your body is burning fat and building muscle. So when you're in this stage of your fitness journey, it's really important to make sure that you are taking your measurements regularly, especially the measurement of your waist and your hips. Waist to hip ratio is at this stage, a much better indicator of progress in terms of fat loss than stepping on the scale. So as you lose belly fat, you should over time see the number of inches or the number of centimeters of your waist go down. Now, ideally, if you want to shoot for a specific goal when it comes to the measurement of your hips and your waist, generally speaking, what we see as a healthy waist to hip ratio is 0.85 or below for women and 0.9 or below for men.
(03:35)
So that's a good goal to shoot for when it comes to your measurements. While your body is in a recomp, you may also notice that your clothing fits differently. You may see that your pants are fitting a little bit looser or maybe you need to change how you buckle your belt in the morning. These are all good signs that your body is repositioning even if the scale isn't moving. Another thing that you might notice if you're in a recomp is that you have an increased amount of muscle definition. You might be able to actually see your muscles better and notice them more than you did before. I tend to see this more often in the shoulders and the arms as well as in the legs. Those are the two areas that you're more likely to see more muscle definition happening. If you are really hyper-focused on your midsection or the abs, then just know that that's going to take a while for you to see visible abs.
(04:28)
You have to have a pretty low body fat percentage for you to see visible abs, especially as a woman. But take a look at your arms and your legs. Those will tell you whether you're recomp. You'll see muscle definition come much faster in those areas. You may also begin to see veins and muscle striations that maybe weren't there before. This is also another good sign that you're building muscle and burning fat. Number three, another sign that your body is in a recomp is that when you step on the scale day to day, you see a stable or slightly fluctuating number. And I know that this is kind of hard for a lot of people mentally to see the scale not moving, but that's actually a really good sign if the scale isn't moving or if it's just kind of fluctuating a little bit up and then a little bit down.
(05:15)
That is a really good sign that your body is where we want it. It's doing both burning fat and building muscle at the same time. Remember that as you burn fat, of course your body is going to weigh less because you're carrying less bulk. At the same time though, when you're building muscle, muscle is pretty heavy, but it's much denser, it takes up a lot less space than body fat. So one pound of muscle is much smaller, takes up a lot less space than one pound of fat. So while you're in a recomp and you're doing both at the same time, that's why you're probably noticing that the scale isn't changing much, but your measurements are changing, your clothing is fitting much looser. So really try not to get hung up on the number on the scale. In fact, if you see that the scale is stable or fluctuating slightly, my recommendation for people who have a really hard time with seeing the number on the scale every day not changing is to just put the scale in the closet for a while.
(06:17)
If you are seeing these results, that means that you are doing what you need to be doing on a day-to-day basis. You're working out the way that you should, you're eating the way that you should, so don't change anything about what you're actually doing in the gym or how you're eating, but just put the scale away. You don't need it at this point to measure your progress. You just need to keep doing what you're doing, right? So if it's really bothering you to look at the scale, then don't bother with it. That's what I would recommend and that's what I tell my clients. Now. Some people feel really relieved to hear that and just like fuck that thing and put it away, but more often than not, I find that people really struggle to let go of the scale and let go of the reading it every day because they become just so hung up on seeing that those numbers go down and it's almost like an addiction.
(07:09)
They're addicted to seeing those numbers go down all the time. And if that's the case, you really have to work on changing your mindset. You really have to focus on seeing yourself and your body differently, and the goal is different from what it used to be. And we'll talk more about that when we talk about what to do if you're struggling with a recomp in a little bit. Another really good sign that your body is recomp is that you have more energy and you're recovering better from your workouts. You may see less soreness in your muscles after you're working out, and then you also may have more energy throughout the day within your workouts. You might feel really strong and really energized and then you don't feel quite as tired when you're done with your workouts. This shows us that you have the right amount of energy in your body through what you're eating to build muscle effectively.
(07:58)
Remember that when we're in really steep calorie deficits, when you're not actually getting as much energy through your food as your body needs, it's very common to feel really, really tired and have a hard time recovering from the gym. But if you are seeing your measurements going down and you have more energy and you're performing well and recovering well from your workouts, that's a really good sign that you're in that sweet spot where your body is doing both building muscle and burning fat. Number six, if you are in a recomp, you will likely notice changes in your progress photos on a week by week basis. It is really important to take progress photos. I know it's not everybody's favorite strategy, but it can be so helpful, especially when you are in this state of a recomp where you're having trouble seeing your progress, looking at your photos side by side on a week by week basis, especially over the course of six to 12 weeks, you should be able to see noticeable differences from where you started a few weeks ago to where you are now.
(09:01)
And that can be really helpful to look at, especially when you're not seeing the scale move and you're feeling like, am I making any progress? When you look at your progress photos, you should notice that there's more visible separation between your muscles. You should look leaner and have more muscle definition. If that's what you're seeing when you look at your progress photos, that's a great sign that you are right where you need to be in your recomp. Number seven, I think it's a really great idea if you have access to a way to measure your body fat percentage. This can be a really great way to track your progress. If you see that the scale isn't moving, you can use body fat calibers. You can do a DEXA scan. The place where I work has something called a fit 3D scan. All of these are ways for you to track and see what your body fat percentage is.
(09:50)
Now they all have a standard rate of error, so they're not going to be 100% accurate. But if you take these tests fairly regularly under the same conditions every time, like take it at the same time of day, maybe not have food beforehand, probably do it in the morning, you should see a pretty consistent trend towards the body fat going down when you do these types of scans. So body fat percentage, looking at that and seeing that go down, even if the scale isn't going down, is a great way for you to know, Hey, I'm in the right place. I'm burning fat. When you do these scans, you should also see that you are either maintaining your lean muscle mass or your lean muscle mass percentage is increasing. These are all really good signs that you're where you need to be in your recomp. And number eight, another sign that your body is in a recomp is that you just feel like you move better in your cardio.
(10:43)
Just like with your strength workouts or in your muscle building workouts, you might notice that you have more energy, that you're able to recover better, that you're able to work out for longer and that it just doesn't feel quite as hard. You may also notice that activities of daily living that maybe were difficult for you a few months ago, like hiking or going for long walks or cardiovascular exercise like hi, doesn't feel quite as hard as it used to. This is another really good sign that you're in a recomp. And number nine, if your health markers are also improving, this is a good sign that you are making progress good health markers to look at is your resting heart rate. In general, as we get healthier and fitter, our heart becomes more efficient at pumping oxygen to our muscles. Our heart has to work really, really hard when we're overweight and we have a lot of fat because there's a lot of area to deliver blood to.
(11:40)
But as you burn fat and build muscle and become leaner, then your heart doesn't have to work quite as hard. At the same time, your heart gets stronger through exercise. So if you see your resting heart rate go down over the course of a couple of weeks or months, that is a good sign that you're making progress in your fitness and in your recomp. Other markers to look for is blood sugar levels and cholesterol. These should also improve, and if you do see them improving that, that lets you know that you are making progress. Now, I do want to say that a recomp is for many people the goal. Many people like to do both building muscle and burning fat at the same time because most people have the goal of looking toned and what it means to be toned is having a lean body that looks strong and that lean strong look many people refer to as toned is a result of building muscle and burning fat.
(12:37)
Professional bodybuilders a lot of times will go through different blocks of their training and their nutrition focus where they will be specifically focused on burning fat, and that would be called a cut face where they're trying to cut calories and cut fat versus being in a bulk where they're specifically focused on building muscle, they're eating a calorie surplus and working out to build muscle. So a lot of times people will kind of alternate between periods of bulking and cutting, and that can be very helpful if you don't really want to worry about tracking too carefully. If you want to be more relaxed with your diet and just focus on getting enough protein, if you're really trying to build muscle and maximize muscle gains, being in a bulk is a really efficient way to do that. But when we are eating calorie surplus, it's not uncommon for your body to put on a little bit of fat in addition to the muscle that you build.
(13:34)
And so what often happens after an extended period of being in a bulk and building muscle, people will transition into a cut phase where the goal is to retain as much of the muscle that they've built during the bulk while burning fat. So they will transition slowly and gradually into a calorie deficit where they're eating fewer calories than what their body spends. And the goal is to now try to trim off that layer of fat without losing muscle. It's very hard to do this, especially if you are in a very significant cut where you're eating a really low number of calories. If you're eating a really low number of calories, then you're likely going to burn off some of that muscle that you've built. So what a lot of people do, instead of alternating between bulking and cutting, is they will aim to do what's called a recomp.
(14:27)
And a recomp is when you're doing both at the same time, building muscle and burning fat. Now, being in a recomp means that you're going to make slower progress on both sides. Your muscle gains will be slower, your fat loss will be slower, but it is a lot more sustainable for most people because you don't have to be in too much of a calorie deficit where you feel like you're depriving yourself, and you also don't have to worry as much about your body gaining fat like you would in a bulk. So people will often aim for being in a recomp, but they'll aim for their recomp period to be for an extended period of time, like six months to a year or even more so a recomp is a slow way to make progress on both fat loss and muscle gains, but it is at the same time a very sustainable way to make progress.
(15:25)
You're more likely to actually keep the gains that you make from a recomp phase, then you are from cutting and bulking and alternating between those two. What I found with my clients is that bulking and cutting alternating between bulking and cutting just does not work for them on a mental health side of things. I have a few clients that as soon as we say that we're going into a fat loss phase or a cut phase, it just messes with their head. It's really hard for them to be in that mindset, and that's okay. That's not an uncommon problem to struggle with. And so for that reason, I actually do recommend for most of my clients to just really spend most of their time thinking of what they're working towards is a recomp. Now, if they really have a specific goal like competition that they want to work towards, whether it's a power lifting competition or a competition of strength, or if they want to compete on stage for bodybuilding, that is where you do need to get more strict and focused on how you are planning your dieting around your workouts.
(16:36)
But for the average person who just wants to look better, I honestly think that a recomp aiming for a recomp is really the way to go. It is slow, yes, but I mean it's sustainable and it is less difficult on the brain. So I really like recomp periods, and I really think that it's a great way for you to kind of maintain an equilibrium in your life without having to really focusing on cutting fat and being in a cut, which means that you really, really got to focus on tracking your calories and making sure that you're on it with that. And now if you have been in a really long-term fat loss journey where maybe you've lost 50 to a hundred or even more pounds, then eventually you are going to reach a point where your body is going to have to be in a recomp.
(17:29)
You're likely going to reach that point where your weight kind of tapers and just kind of stays the same or fluctuates very, very little amount, and that can be really hard to adjust to when you have been using the scale as the main measure of your progress for so long. That is where I find that people struggle when they are in a recomp phase. It's usually the people who have had to lose a lot of weight and who are really attached to seeing the scale number go down. But I mean, if you think about it, you were eventually going to reach this point at some point, right? You can't just keep seeing the scale go down, down, down, down, down forever. You knew that there was a finite point that that was going to have to end, right? Unless you wanted to just wither away to nothing, right?
(18:22)
It's normal to have several points in your fitness journey, especially if you were on a big long-term fat loss journey where you recomp and plateau while your body is building muscle and burning fat at the same time, and then you go through another phase where it's like a big drop, and then there's another little plateau where you're comping for a while. I actually think that that is a very sustainable and healthy way to approach a long-term fat loss goal. And just going into it, you need to know that you're going to have these periods where the scale doesn't move, but that doesn't mean that you're not making progress. That is a normal part of the long-term fat loss gain. But if you're struggling with fat, if you're really having a hard time with seeing yourself as making progress when you have these signs that your body is recomp, here are a couple of things that I recommend.
(19:12)
Number one, really try to shift your focus from the scale to performance wins. Try to rethink what you think of as progress or signs of progress, right? You are making progress, you are burning fat and you are building muscle, especially if those nine things that we talked about earlier are happening for you. But you need to kind of take your mind off of the scale as the primary measure of your progress, and instead, focus on the things that are actually going to change more frequently on a day-to-day or week by week basis, and that's your performance gains. Being able to do more repetitions of an exercise with the same weight, or being able to add more weight onto an exercise over time, or just being able to do an exercise that was challenging for you. Those are the things that are going to change a lot more quickly than the number on the scale and even the amount of body fat you have and the amount of muscle that you have.
(20:18)
Those are very, very slow things to progress. But what you can see definitive changes on a week by week basis or from workout to workout is how you move and how much you can lift or how much you can do a different exercise or how long you can do an exercise. So really focus on those performance wins. I think it's probably a good idea to get onto a specific training program that has a very specific or a couple of training goals where maybe you're trying to increase your one rep max, or maybe you're trying to increase how many reps you can do of a specific exercise and train towards that over the course of a couple of weeks and really focus on that performance goal because the body fat is going to go down, the muscle is going to go up over the course of you just following that program and continuing to eat the way that you're eating.
(21:13)
That's going to happen just by default. It's already happening, right? If you have those nine markers. But what you can do to motivate yourself as really focus on that goal a couple weeks out of being able to do a pull up or being able to do X number of pushups or being able to lift X amount of weight. Number two, make sure that you are using those progress photos and taking your measurements, because sometimes you're not going to see the progress that you're making by looking in the mirror every day because we see ourselves in the mirror every day. It's really easy to miss those small changes that happen on a day by day basis. But when you take regular progress photos, it's a lot easier to see those changes and they seem a lot more drastic. So weekly progress photos is a great approach.
(22:01)
Also, taking weekly measurements where you're taking a tape measure and actually measuring your waist, your hips, your thighs, your biceps, your chest, getting those measurements and tracking those changes over time is a great way to motivate yourself as you're in your recomp stage. Number three, educate yourself on how body composition changes and how it works. The more you learn about how your body burns fat and builds muscle, the more at ease you will be in your mind As you are in this recomp stage, you'll be able to actually understand and appreciate the changes that your body is exhibiting as you build muscle and burn fat. You'll also have a lot more patience for seeing the scale not move. So learn more read up on what happens in the body, what the different mechanisms of burning fat and building muscle are. Also talking to other people who've been on this journey and have similar things happening to them can be extremely helpful in terms of educating yourself on what's normal.
(23:10)
So talking to other people, connecting with other people who are also in a recomp or who also have been on a fitness journey for a while and have been through recomp stages. That can be very, very helpful and comforting you and putting your mind at ease. So just try to learn more about what's going on in your body. Again, I have a post that goes with this podcast in the Gains Club membership site where I go a lot more into detail about what actually happens in your body when you burn fat and when you build muscle. So that's a good resource. Being in the Gains Club is also a great way to learn more about fat loss and what happens in your body when you build muscle. There's also training tips and other things in there, as well as recipes and meal plans to help you along, but learn as much as you can.
(23:57)
That's so important. Number four, try in your mind to reframe your scale fluctuations as normal, and this will be a lot easier when you do educate yourself on how your body burns fat and builds muscle. This as an opportunity to develop a mantra of, it's okay, it's normal, it's okay. It's normal. When you see the scale fluctuating or when you see it staying the same, even try to reframe it as That's good. This is a good thing because when you see the scale not moving, that's one of those key indicators that your body is burning fat and building muscle at the same time. So try to reframe it for yourself and say to yourself consciously, when you see that number change or when you see it staying about the same or fluctuating very small throughout the course of a week, start to actually say to yourself, that's good.
(24:51)
That's normal. That's what I should be seeing right now. Change how you talk to yourself about the number that you see on the scale. Number three, it can be really, really helpful for you to give for yourself three non-scale goals to achieve on a week by week basis to focus your mind on so that you can spend less of your mental energy focused on the scale. So three non-scale wins per week could be like by the end of the week, I want to feel like I'm stronger or using one of those performance goals. I want to be able to do this exercise for this amount of weight, or I showed up and I did my workouts, or I did some cardio this week and it felt really good, or I have improved energy. And really mark those down in your mind. Or if you use a fitness journal, put it in your fitness journal as wins because they are wins.
(25:53)
Your increased energy is a win, your increased performance and how good you feel in the gym and outside of the gym, that's a win. So check that off every week. Whatever those non-scale wins are for you, check them off every week. And I do actually recommend keeping a journal. I think a journal is really important, especially if you're struggling mentally with your fitness journey. And I would say every week try to say, these are and write down, these are my three non-scale wins for the week, and do that every week until it becomes second nature where you really start focusing on those things rather than on the number that you see on the scale. Number six, if you are struggling mentally with the numbers that you see on the scale, that's when I really think you need to break up with the scale, and I think you need to put it away for while because the attachment to it is not helpful for you and it's hurting you probably.
(26:50)
It's not uncommon for some of my clients to become so despondent as a result of not seeing the scale change. It's easy to fall into this spiral where you fall off the plan altogether because you feel like you're not making progress, even though your body is showing signs that you are making progress. The signs that we talked about before, if that's the case, I mean, I'm serious about it, some people really have a hard time putting the scale away, but you need to really think about whether this tool is actually helping you to make progress. Our goal is to become healthier, become fitter, become a better version of yourself, and we use many tools to help us along the way in that journey. And maybe at some point in the past, that number on the scale was a major motivator for you, and it helped you to show up and keep showing up.
(27:53)
But once that tool loses its efficacy, once that tool is no longer helpful for you, then you need to let it go and use other tools that are better and a better measurement and a better motivator for you to keep showing up. If it starts to work against you and make it so that you don't want to show up for your workouts and you don't want to do anything, then that's a major problem. That's a major red flag for me. So I really would recommend for you to just put it away, put it in the closet, don't step on it for a couple of weeks. Let it go. If you really have trouble with it, if you feel like it's a compulsion or an addiction, then throw that shit away. I'm serious. Give it away. Give it to your trainer and say, can you hold onto this for a couple of weeks so that I don't step on it so that I'm not tempted?
(28:47)
You need to treat it as something to stay away from if it's hurting you and you're totally normal for feeling this way. It is very, very common for people to feel this way, but it is okay to let it go. I'm telling you right now, it's okay to let it go. And if you want to mail me your scale, you can send it to my PO box and I'll hold onto it for you for a couple of weeks or a couple of months, and I'll send it back to you. Okay? If you don't have anybody else in your fitness journey to keep you accountable, I'll take it. Okay? Anything to get you back on track and anything to help you to feel ready to show up for your workouts and feel good about your fitness journey again. Okay? Now, like I said before, I do really recommend that you keep some kind of a journal while you are on your fitness journey.
(29:39)
This is important for tracking progress. It's also important for helping to take data of how you're feeling and the different strategies that you try and how effective they are. But you can also use your fitness journal or journaling in general to help you to work through mindset blocks, like the type that we normally see with recomp. So what I've put together is a little guide for you that you can use in your daily journaling or weekly journaling to help you work through changing your mindset around the scale and around your recomp so that you can focus on the things that actually are an indicator of your progress and let go of the scale. So you can find that in the Gains Club membership site in the post that I mentioned before. You can download the journaling guide and use it for your own journaling practice.
(30:43)
Just go to jaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com. Don't forget that my name is spelled JAYD, not JADE. Or you can just look for the links that are in the description of this video if you're watching on YouTube, or you can look at the episode notes below. So that's it for the podcast for today. I hope that you found it helpful. Please leave a comment in the comment section if you are watching this on YouTube, and let me know what you think, what your experiences have been with Recomp your Body, and also let me know what strategies you found helpful along your journey. If you want to find more content, again, head to my membership site, jaydigains.com. You can also hang out with me when I'm live on my Twitch channel, Twitch.tv/jaydigains. I go live on Tuesdays and then a couple other times through the week when I have time between clients or other things.
(31:38)
Please let me know if you have any questions or if you want any help. I am accepting online personal training clients, so if you're interested in working with me directly, go to my website, jaydigains.com, click on programs, and you'll find information on the different programs that I offer coaching in. Thank you so much for watching or listening. Wherever you are, don't forget to subscribe to my channel so that you don't miss a video. And if you're listening to the podcast, make sure that you subscribe or follow wherever it is that you're listening, and I will see you next time.
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Episode 39: Should You Go On a Cleanse?
To burn fat and get healthy, the most important thing to do is to nourish your body through consistent, healthy eating habits. Short term extreme diets often lead to temporary weight loss due to water loss and dehydration, which can ultimately harm your metabolism and overall health. Instead of taking drastic measures like not eating for a week, I advocate for making gradual, sustainable changes to daily food choices to support long-term fat loss and health goals. The key is to balance enjoyable foods within a generally healthy diet, avoiding the mentality of deprivation.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I talk about whether or not going on a cleanse or detox might be right for your body.
To burn fat and get healthy, the most important thing to do is to nourish your body through consistent, healthy eating habits. Short term extreme diets often lead to temporary weight loss due to water loss and dehydration, which can ultimately harm your metabolism and overall health. Instead of taking drastic measures like not eating for a week, I advocate for making gradual, sustainable changes to daily food choices to support long-term fat loss and health goals. The key is to balance enjoyable foods within a generally healthy diet, avoiding the mentality of deprivation.
For additional support, consider joining the Gains Club membership on my website! I post new content every week for improving your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Check out jaydigains.com to sign up.
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
We're going to learn how to actually nourish our bodies in a way that we're not going to be focusing on depriving ourselves or starving ourselves. We're going to learn how to nourish ourselves. And when you learn how to nourish yourself, you will reach your goals. Recently I heard a community member talking about how they were going on a cleanse, and I was asking them, why are you going on a cleanse? And they're like, oh, I just need to clear out my system. And you dig a little deeper and it basically comes down to fat loss. And it's like my brother in Christ going on a cleanse is not going to solve your fat loss problem. You want to burn fat. If you're really unhappy with your body and you feel like you have more body fat than you would like a cleanse, a detox, even like an extreme diet is not going to solve that problem.
(00:59)
What's going to solve the problem is getting into a consistent routine where you are consistently eating the way that your body needs to support the body fat percentage that you want to see cleansing. Going on a juice cleanse where you don't eat and you just drink juice for a week. It's going to give you the illusion of having lost weight or burned fat because you're going to be probably dehydrated. You're not going to have the bulk of the food in your belly, and you're also going to probably not be as bloated, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're actually burning fat. You'll probably lose a lot of water weight, but you're not necessarily going to lose fat when you go on a cleanse or a detox. If you really want to get a jumpstart on your fat loss, the best thing that you can do is start making little changes to the food choices that you make every day.
(01:55)
Because here's the thing, a lot of times people will go on these cleanses, they'll go on these detoxes, they'll feel like, I mean, the scale will show, oh, I lost 15 pounds in a week or two weeks, or whatever. So they get this illusion that they've burned fat because their body weighs less. But really what that is, is their body has released a lot of water weight because they're not eating the sodium rich foods that they normally do. Their body's probably way less because they don't have the actual bulk of the food in them. It doesn't mean that they've actually burned much fat at all. And what often happens is when they go off of their cleanse and they go right back to their normal eating pattern, all of that weight comes right back, or worse, it comes back and then some. So what a lot of times people get into is this horrible cycle where they go on and off, on and off, detoxes, cleanses, fad diets are super low calorie restriction and they get this illusion that it's working and then all of the weight comes back and they're like, oh, I need to do that again.
(02:56)
And so they do it again. And so what this does over time is it just wrecks your metabolism because you're not giving your body a consistent amount of energy in a consistent amount of food. And so your body is like, this is an unpredictable environment. Slow everything down. We're not going to burn as many calories. And so a lot of times people just end up where after they've gone on a cleanse and their body has adapted to this very low amount of calories, when they go back to eating how they normally do, their body's like, oh shit, let's use all that and store it. And well, let's put that away because we don't know when the next time this person's going to not give us food again for a week. And so that's how you end up accumulating fat as a result of going on and off cleanses on and off fat diets or extreme diets. So it's going to hurt you in the long run. And if you have been going on and off cleanses or detoxes or diets and you've struggled with your weight or you've struggled and your weight seems to be like, now I can't eat anything or I'll start gaining fat. That's why. Okay? So you have to break that cycle.
(04:07)
It's not going to be healthy in the long run for you either. Starvation is not necessary. It's not necessary for you to go without eating food for a week and only having juices. That is not what your body needs in order for you to achieve the body that you want. It's also probably going to fuck up your stomach. Let's be honest, people who go on juice cleanses, they got the shits, they got the runs for most of the time it's miserable. And again, because you've got the runs, you're dehydrated a lot of the time. And so it also can kind of give you sort of this perception. You look like you've burned fat. It's just because you're dehydrated, your body's dried out, so you're going to feel like you look thinner or leaner, but it's an illusion. It's not real. It's not the actual result that you're after.
(04:55)
So if you do want to burn fat and you're serious about it, then what you need to think about doing is giving your body or giving your diet like what you eat every day, a makeover. You need to think about little bit by little bit changing your food habits to support your goals, knowing in the back of your mind that your body fat is stored energy. When you take in more energy than what your body spends, your body is going to store that as fat. For the most part. That's what's going to happen when you eat what energy, more calories than what your body spends. So generally, the recommendations for burning fat one is you got to get your body to a place where it can in a healthy way, burn fat. You got to get your body to a place where you can get into that calorie deficit where you're eating less calories than what your body spends in a way that's healthy.
(05:43)
If you have wrecked your metabolism to the point where you can barely eat more than a thousand calories a day without your body starting to take on fat, you're in a pretty seriously bad place. If you're eating 1200 calories and you are a five, seven, dude, 220 pounds or something like that, and all you can need is 1200 calories and you're exercising as well, that's a good sign that your metabolism is fucked. Now, that's not permanent. It can be fixed, but you need to address that first. You need to get your metabolism up. You need to get your daily calorie intake increased before you cut calories again to put your body in a calorie deficit. So for that, I would recommend the process of going on a reverse diet. What you need to do is slowly increase your calories over the course of several weeks, if not a month or more, and get yourself to the point where you can eat a number of calories that's closer to what someone of your size should be eating by standard recommendations just for maintenance.
(06:42)
And by maintenance we mean that your body's not storing fat or burning fat, it's just staying the same. Once you gradually increase your daily calories and you're able to eat that suggested maintenance level of calories, then we can go on a calorie deficit or go on a cut, go on a diet, but it's not going to be something super extreme where you're only drinking juice for a week. In order to get your body to burn half a pound of fat a week, you just need to be in a 500 calorie deficit a day. Okay? If you look at a frigging granola bar, okay, a granola bar is 250 calories in general. So you could just not eat a granola bar. And then what's something else that's like 250 calories? Oh, you just like if you have olive oil or use oil in your cooking or butter, just use one less tablespoon right of oil, one less tablespoon of oil or butter in your cooking.
(07:43)
There you go. Don't eat that granola bar and reduce your olive oil or your butter by one tablespoon or two tablespoons. Use less easy way to reduce those calories. And now you put yourself in a calorie deficit. If what you normally do is you have that tablespoon of olive oil, just omit it, do something else, or spritz, just spritz with a spritzer. It doesn't take you sacrificing food altogether to get your body into a place where it's burning fat effectively. It's not healthy. These cleansers are not healthy. They mess up your stomach and you don't need to deprive yourself in order to reach your goals. And I think that's another huge misconception, and I think that that's why the cleanses and the detoxes, they are so popular. People have this idea that in order to reach their goal, they have to really deprive themselves. And this idea is probably why these things don't work and why people have trouble sticking to a diet because they're so focused on deprivation. I can't have this, I can't have that, I can't have this, I can't have that. And that type of mentality really just makes you want the thing more.
(08:55)
If you say, I'm not going to eat carbs, I'm not going to eat any sugar, I think that that's a really good challenge to do on the short term, but as a lifestyle saying, I'm never going to eat sugar again. I'm never going to eat carbs again, that usually just makes you want to eat them more, right? And then also when you do break down and you do decide to have a cookie, there's so much shame that comes with that. For a lot of people, they end up on this shame spiral. They end up just burning out or just throwing the whole thing away. You don't have to do it that way. It can be so much easier. I promise you, it does not have to be that hard. Diet culture is the bane of my existence, right? Diet culture is, I mean, there's all kinds of things that go into diet culture, but basically like detoxes and cleanses, they're just repackaged extreme diets, which have been around forever, and an extreme diet is one that has you really forcing yourself to consume a very small amount of calories or forcing you to cut out a huge chunk of what you normally would eat.
(10:08)
And you don't have to do that. You don't have to do that. And actually, my clients have found so much more success in the approach that I use in Healthy Diet Makeover where we don't necessarily think about, let's deprive ourselves, let's cut this out, cut that out. I actually focus my clients on Let's eat more of this thing that's good for you. Let's add more of these low calorie foods. Let's replace Or sometimes give yourself a substitution instead. You can still eat sweetss, you can still treat yourself. You can still enjoy the foods that you love and reach your fat loss goals. It's not an all or nothing kind of thing. You can have both. It's just a matter of learning how to balance. It is the key. Learning how to balance those, treat foods within the context of a generally healthy diet that generally gives you the amount of calories that you need to support the body weight that you want to be, or the body fat percentage that you want to be.
(11:12)
Remember, our bodies reflect what we do most of the time. So if we can establish good, healthy habits where most of the time we're eating the right foods that have the right amount of calories, you can still enjoy foods that you love to eat, you can still treat yourself. It doesn't have to be this all or nothing like, I'm going to never eat sugar again, or I'm going to stop eating food altogether and just do a juice cleanse. You don't have to do that. It doesn't have to be that hard. If you have gone on and off those cleanses, on and off, those detoxes, it's okay. I don't judge you. I'm not annoyed with you. I'm annoyed at the industry for pushing that on you and making you feel like that's the only answer. I'm sad for you that you've suffered because detoxes are hard.
(12:05)
They're really hard on your body, they're hard on your mental health, and it doesn't have to be that way. It hurts me that you felt like you had to resort to that, and you don't know any better. We were not our generation. I'm a millennial. We were not raised with the best education on food. We were not raised with a good, solid understanding of how to eat in a healthy way. If you're my age, you were probably raised with the food guide pyramid and the original food guide pyramid of 1992. The bottom of the pyramid was like six to 12 servings of a grain product like pasta, bread, rice, okay? They were recommending six to 12 servings of that per day. That was the food guide pyramid in the us. And lo and behold, 10 to 15 years of teaching that to little elementary school and middle school students, high school students, as the healthy way to eat.
(13:01)
Now we have a massive problem where people over consume grains products or high carb foods, and we have a diabetes epidemic. We have a heart disease epidemic. We've not been taught how to eat healthy, and I think that that is, it's tragic, but thank God for the internet. We're here. If you're listening to this or if you're watching this, you're in a good place. We're going to learn how to actually nourish our bodies in a way that we're not going to be focusing on depriving ourselves or starving ourselves. We're going to learn how to nourish ourselves. And when you learn how to nourish yourself, you will reach your goals because the food that your body needs is in general about the amount of calories that it needs to support the weight that you want to be. So it's not too late. You can totally do this. It's just a matter of getting educated. Let's learn how to eat right.
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Episode 38: 9 Tips to Relieve Tight Muscles
Muscle tightness is a common issue that can be caused by various factors like exercise, stress, poor posture, and inactivity. In this podcast, I discuss effective strategies to relieve muscle tightness.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I give 9 tips for relieving tight, stiff muscles.
Muscle tightness is a common issue that can be caused by various factors like exercise, stress, poor posture, and inactivity. In this podcast, I discuss effective strategies to relieve muscle tightness. Key recommendations include prioritizing a proper warm-up with moderate-intensity cardio and dynamic stretches, using self-myofascial release techniques like foam rolling and lacrosse balls, staying hydrated, maintaining a nutritious diet, incorporating movement throughout the day, ensuring adequate rest and sleep, and utilizing heat or cold therapy. Additionally, seeking professional help for massage or assisted stretching and addressing the root causes of muscle tightness (such as poor posture or exercise technique) are also super important.
For additional support, consider joining the Gains Club membership on my website! I post new content every week for improving your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Check out jaydigains.com to sign up.
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
Muscle tightness. It doesn't have to slow you down, it doesn't have to hold you back, and it's not something that you just have to push through and deal with, right? If you're experiencing tightness in your muscles chronically, then that's just a sign that there's something that needs to be addressed. Welcome in. My name is Jayd Harrison, AKA Jaydigains. I am a personal trainer and health coach, and today we're going to be talking about what to do if you have tight muscles. Now, regardless of whether you exercise or not, tight muscles is probably something you've experienced in your life, and it's probably something that you're going to experience at some point in the future in your life, right? If you have muscles, they're probably going to get tight, and there's a lot of different reasons why our muscles get tight. They can get tight as a response to exercise.
(00:53)
When you work your muscles and you challenge them sometimes as a reaction to getting challenged as part of the recovery process, they will tighten up. Sometimes we get tight muscles because we are stressed out. I know I definitely have experienced that sometimes you experience tightness from not exercising enough, from not getting up and getting moving. If you spend a lot of time sitting still or laying down and not moving very much, you likely have some tightness in your muscles if you have poor posture or poor movement patterns, bad alignment, that also can make tight muscles worse. It also can lead to tight muscles. It's something that we're all going to experience from time to time, and it is a normal part of just being alive. It's also especially a normal, normal part of exercising. So what we're going to talk about today is what to do if you have tight muscles.(01:50)
There are a couple different things that you can do, and we're going to go through all of them, and I am going to show a little bit of demonstration on some of the exercises that you can do to help loosen up your tight muscles. There is a post that goes with this podcast topic called How to Relieve Tight Muscles. It is available on my website, jaydigains.com. In the membership site, if you scroll down to the training tips, you'll see the post called How to Relieve Tight Muscles. Click on that, and there's a written description of everything that we're going to talk about today. In the episode, there's also links to YouTube video tutorials of how to do different exercises, how to foam roll, how to stretch, and many other links that you can use to take this topic a little bit further. So go to jaydigains.com or Jaydharrisonfitness.com and sign up for the membership.(02:43)
Okay, so let's talk about how to relieve tight muscles. First of all, before I move forward for the Twitch chat, I want to ask you guys, what muscle group or area of your body do you find most often you have tightness in? Is there an area of your body that you just kind of, it's a recurring thing. More often than not, you have tightness, upper traps. Oh, yeah, yeah. Now do you think that that's from exercise or from stress or from both or from sleeping? Weird. What do you think it's from these days? Exercise used to be from sleep. Okay, so your upper traps are tight from exercise, you think. Are you doing a lot of farmer caries or rows or deadlifts? Are you hunching your shoulders when you train? Because tightness can also come from sometimes doing an exercise with weird posture used to, you don't have as much of a problem anymore.(03:39)
Probably getting better with your form. Yeah. Okay. Well, the traps is a super common area for people to experience tightness, and it can be from your exercise, it can be from sleeping weird, like sleeping with your head crooked, a little weird. It can also be from sitting in front of a computer with your shoulders hunched and rolled forward. When we're stressed, we tend to scrunch up our shoulders like this subconsciously. So that's a super, super common area for people to get really, really tight is the upper traps. That's that neck and upper shoulder area. Another area that people tend to experience a lot of tightness is the hips, especially the hip flexors. That's the muscle along the front of your hips here that takes your knee up like this. And that's a lot of that is because we sit in chairs or we spend a lot of our days seated.(04:31)
Another really common area for tightness to occur is your hamstrings in the back of your thighs for the same reason, because we spend a lot of our days seated in a chair with your knees bent, and so that just keeps the hamstrings in a shortened position. And then another area, a lot of people experience tightnesses. The calves, oh my gosh, almost everybody I ever train has tight calves, and that is, again, likely do to sitting all day. If you do a lot of walking though or running, you probably have tight calves. Or if you do a sport like boxing where you're on your toes a lot and you're having to really keep your heel off the ground if you sprint, that can also cause tight calves. And the problem with having tightness, usually we're seeing tightness mainly in the back of the body. And the problem with that, you might not necessarily know that you have tightness in the muscles, but you may experience pain somewhere along that chain.(05:32)
You may have trouble turning your head side to side without pain or crooking your head side to side. You may experience some pain if you go to reach for your toes or maybe you can't even reach for your toes and you don't realize it's because you have so much tightness in the posterior chain. That's the backside of your body. Also, if you have plantar fasciitis, which is that pain that a lot of people experience in the arch of their foot or on the bottom of their feet, that more often than not is caused by tightness somewhere in the backside of your body. It can originate in your hamstrings in the back of your thighs. If you have some trigger points or some tightness in your hamstrings, that tightness tends to kind of accumulate and pull on the entire posterior chain all the way down the legs.(06:20)
And so you may feel the pain in your foot, but the actual problem and source of the pain may be the tightness in the hamstrings. Other things that you might experience if you have tightness is pain in your joints when you are exercising. For example, another really common problem, if you have tight hip flexors, you might also have tight quadriceps. And for a lot of people, after they warm up and they start to squat, if they've never had knee problems, they may still experience some pain, especially in the top of the knee when they first start to warm up their squats. More often than not, what I found is that is because their quadriceps are tight or their hip flexors are tight, and that tightness in the hip flexor is kind of migrating down and causing the quadricep to pull on the knee. So whenever you go down into your squat, because the quadriceps are so tight, they're pulling on the knee.(07:16)
So you may feel sometimes pain in the joint shoulder. Pain is also a really good example of this. A really common problem for a lot of lifters is having a tight bicep tendon and you know, have a tight bicep tendon. If you feel it's really tight and you open up your arm like this straight out, and that tightness in the bicep tendon can be felt as shoulder pain when you go to do something like bench press, right? So tightness is a major problem for a lot of people when it comes to training. And if you ignore it and you just push through the pain, which I never recommend that you do, but if you just push through the pain, you can end up pulling a muscle and straining it or greatly injuring either your muscles or your joints. You never want to be feeling pain while you're exercising.(08:07)
It's okay to feel like the muscles are burning, of course, but you don't want to feel sharp pain. So please, if you notice anything like that while you're exercising, stop what you're doing and troubleshoot. Try to figure out what's going on. Figuring out whether it's muscle tightness is usually my first go-to. So here's what we can do. If you have muscle tightness, it's causing pain, or you can just feel the tightness in your muscles. Number one, this will help to relieve some tension. It will also help to prevent your muscles from being super tight at the beginning of your workout, is to prioritize a proper warmup. Number one, warm up properly. I always recommend doing five to 10 minutes of some kind of moderate intensity. Usually steady state cardiovascular exercise. This can be something as simple as hopping on a treadmill and walking at a moderate pace for five to 10 minutes.(08:58)
Okay, this does a couple of things. It raises your core temperature. You don't want to be exercising with cold muscles. It also helps to get the synovial fluid in your joints more viscous so that they can lubricate and protect your joints from injury. Also, as your core temperature raises and you're using your muscles, it's getting some blood flow to those muscles, which is going to help to loosen them up and make them more limber. Getting up and moving before you actually train is a great way to relieve tight muscles and to prevent them from being tight during your workout and afterwards. Also, after you do five to 10 minutes of moderate intensity cardio, you should also take some time to stretch your muscles. I don't necessarily mean to do static stretches. Static stretches, I usually prefer for people to do at the end of their workout because static stretching where you're holding the stretch for 20 to 60 seconds can cool you down.(09:49)
You don't want to cool down during your warmup, right? So what I recommend number two is making sure to do dynamic stretches. Dynamic stretches at the beginning of your workout, after you do your cardiovascular warmup, will help to loosen up your muscles if you have any moderate tightness. Doing things like opening up your arms open and close shoulder circles, leg swings, forward and back, side to side torso twists. Going at a controlled pace and just bringing the joints through their full range of motion is a great way to help loosen up tight muscles. Now, when you're doing this, when you're doing your dynamic stretches at the beginning of your workout, you may find that you're able to loosen up muscles that were tight before and they might feel better, but there may be some muscles that are a little stubborn and they need a little bit more attention to loosen up For those, what I do recommend is taking a moment to do some static stretches, slow the stretches down and get a little bit deeper into it.(10:47)
Just try not to spend more than two to three minutes doing any kind of static stretching at the beginning of your workout, because again, that can cool your heart rate down. That can bring down your core temperature, and we want to make sure that your body stays primed to train. Now, if you've done that, if you've done a warmup, done static stretching, you've done dynamic stretching, and then you've done static stretching in a muscle is still really, really tight. Another thing that you can do is called myofascial release, self myofascial release. Myofascial release is often the way that we often do this is foam rolling. Foam rolling is probably the most popular way to do myofascial release. And what this involves is putting pressure on the muscles. It's kind of like doing a massage on the muscles where you use a foam roller. You put whatever type muscle you have, say your quadriceps, and you're going to set your body on top of the foam roller so that the foam roller is underneath the muscle that is tight.(11:46)
And you're going to just let your body weight sit on the foam roller and move your body over the foam roller over the affected muscle. And putting this pressure on the muscle and rolling it forward and back or side to side can help to loosen up tight muscles that are a little bit stubborn after you've tried doing cardio and doing the stretching. You can also use other types of tools like lacrosse balls. I think the lacrosse ball works really well for those really small, hard to reach or very deep muscles in your back or in your chest. I think I have one actually, hold on. Lemme, here we go. So this is a lacrosse ball. They're really, really cheap, and I use this a lot of times on my, I tend to have a tight chest and bicep tendon area, so this kind of affects me in my bench pressing and in my shoulder pressing.(12:37)
So lacrosse ball, you push it across the muscle that's tight and oh my God, my pec is really tight right now, so I can feel that. And what you do is you just roll it over the muscle that's tight and you'll feel a sensation of tightness. It's not a comfortable feeling. Myofascial release foam rolling. It does kind of hurt, but it's not the type of hurt when you're going to get injured, right? It's very different from that sharp pain that you might feel in your joints. It's more of the discomfort of someone squeezing a muscle that's tight. But if you do that, you foam roll or you use a lacrosse ball, put some pressure on a tight muscle for between 30 to 60 seconds at a time, either pushing it down and holding it there for 30 to 60 seconds or foam rolling around it or rolling the lacrosse ball around it.(13:27)
That should help to loosen up tight muscles. The idea of the self myofascial release is that it helps to break up adhesions in the muscles. It also helps to promote the muscles to elongate. So the way that our muscles work is according to the sliding filament theory, our muscles kind of work like this when they contract the filaments slide over each other, and that's how the muscle gets shortened, right? So my bicep right now is super long. It's elongated, and if I want to contract it now, it's shortened, right? And that's because the filaments are sliding over each other. So sometimes the muscles when they're tight, they kind of get stuck in the middle like this where they're not able, or parts of the muscle are not able to fully elongate. And so sometimes when you put pressure on top of that, it helps to stimulate release so that the muscle can fully elongate.(14:24)
That's the idea. Now, it's not really certain whether it actually you're able to actually perform release of the fascia. There's a little bit of debate on whether you can foam roll or lacrosse ball your way to actually loosen up the fascia of the muscles. But anecdotally, everybody that I've worked with who's had tight muscles, knee pain while they're squatting shoulder pain while they're benching, and then it's because of tight muscles and we've used some kind of a foam roller or a lacrosse ball to actually put pressure on those muscles, it helps. It does help. We're just not really sure exactly why it helps, but it does help. So that is a number three thing that you can do to help yourself get through and relieve tight muscles. Now in the post, in my membership site on this topic, I have two videos in the post on how to foam roll for the different parts of your body.(15:26)
There's a separate video. There's one that will guide you through foam rolling your legs, and it's a short little routine for foam rolling over your quadriceps, your glutes, your hamstrings, your calves, and then there's a separate video for foam rolling your upper body, your back, your shoulders, the front of your shoulders, et cetera. So if you want a little bit of guidance, head over to jaydigains.com and go to the training tips section and you'll see how to relieve tight muscles. So number four, another thing that you can do to help give yourself some relief from tight muscles is to stay hydrated and properly feed yourself. When we are not hydrated, when we don't have enough water in our bodies, that can cause muscle spasms, that can cause muscle tightness and that tightness can be so stubborn, it doesn't matter if you've warmed up, it doesn't matter if you've stretched, it doesn't matter if you foam rolled, if you are not hydrated, you're going to have some stubborn tightness in your muscles.(16:21)
So that's a really, I mean, honestly, I maybe should have put that as number one. Number one is stay hydrated, right? Because it is just so important for so many things. Remember, our body is mostly made of water, and if you're not drinking enough water, you're going to have problems across the board. But among those problems is you're more likely to have tightness in your muscles. So make sure that you are drinking enough water every day and to know whether or not you're drinking enough water. Check your pee when you go to the bathroom. If your pee is really dark, then that means that you are not hydrated enough. Your pee should be see-through a little bit colored right, not completely clear, but on the clearer side, right? So check the toilet to make sure that you are hydrated enough and make sure also that you're nourishing your body with the right kinds of foods.(17:08)
We talk about the healthy plate model all the time because it really is one of the easiest ways that you can give yourself the nutrition that your body needs to perform its best and to feel its best. Make sure that you're nourishing your body with the right kinds of foods. Foods like vegetables and fruit, and then whole grain products like whole wheat, bread, oats, et cetera. These things are anti-inflammatory. They will help to reduce inflammation in your body, which often correlates with or causes tightness in the muscles. So if you can get a maximum amount of vegetables into your diet, you are going to reduce greatly reduce the amount of tightness that you feel in your muscles. Also, don't forget that vegetables and fruit are hydrating, right? They have a lot of water in them, so eating plenty of vegetables and fruit, especially fresh vegetables and fruit, will also help you with hydration.(18:09)
You also want to make sure that you prioritize magnesium rich foods like spinach, nuts and bananas because those can help to promote relaxation in the muscles. Make sure that you're also drinking plenty of electrolytes as well. If you tend to work out really, really hard, or if you work out for longer than an hour, it's probably not going to be enough to just drink water. You want to make sure that you're also getting in plenty of electrolytes. If you're eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, you're likely getting the electrolytes that you need for your body without having to add anything or drinking a sports drink. But you could also try a sports drink like Pedialyte or drink coconut water. Okay? So just keep an eye on your electrolytes. And then number five, move throughout the day. CNN, I think it was 2019, they posted this study and they labeled this when they published these findings.(19:03)
They said, sitting is the new smoking. And they were talking about a study that showed that if you spend the majority of your day seated, even if you work out, even if you work out, you're still at a huge risk of developing health problems. So even if you out a couple of times a week, it's not really going to help you with muscle tightness and soreness. If you spend the rest of your time seated or sedentary, it really is best for you to try to get up and moving as much as you possibly can. Remember, our bodies are built for movement, so they look and they feel their best when we get plenty of movement. And this doesn't have to be really hard exercise. It can be something as simple as getting up and taking a lap around the office or getting up and just tidying up your space a little bit for three to five minutes at a time.(19:56)
Just getting up and getting moving little bit by little bit throughout the day and puncturing your day with little tiny activity breaks will help to loosen up your muscles and keep them from getting too tight. This is especially true after you've worked out. Okay, so number six, and I know some of you're going to be like, oh, when I say this, but you really need to prioritize recovery with rest and sleep, which you might be thinking like, wait, didn't you just tell me to keep moving? Yes, but you got to prioritize your sleep. A lot of us, and I'm guilty of this too, stay up way too late way later than you should, than we should, and then we still have to wake up early for work or something. It is so important to get plenty of sleep, as much sleep as your body needs, especially if you train really hard.(20:48)
Remember, you do not build any muscle in the gym. We don't build muscle in the gym during your workouts. You're actually breaking muscle down. You're causing damage to your body. It is when you are sleeping, if you're getting good sleep, that your body actually repairs the damage tissue damage to tissue and makes it stronger. So if you are not sleeping enough, then you are not going to be yielding the gains that you've been working for. Also, if you don't sleep enough, if you don't rest enough, you're going to feel like shit. You're likely going to have a lot more tightness in your muscles than you would if you actually prioritized getting enough sleep. I know this is really hard because some people can't help it. Some people are bad sleepers. This is something that hurts my clients who are going through perimenopause. Oh my gosh, this is, honestly, I think this is probably the worst part of perimenopause because I got out of the clients that I've taught that I am teaching, who are my clients who are going through it right now?(21:52)
That is the one symptom of perimenopause that I think everybody will say no. That is the worst part of it. Worse than the heat flashes, hot flashes worse than the acne. That sometimes happens, worse than the mood swings is it's the fucking sleep. Because without enough sleep, you could go crazy, dude, and it just affects everything. When you don't sleep enough, it makes you want to snack more, right? Because your body's like, I need energy. So it's harder to stick to a fat loss diet when you're not sleeping enough. You're likely to, of course, in the topic of today's discussion, you're going to have more tightness in your muscles, probably more aches and pains, more inflammation if you're not sleeping enough. So it is something that we want to prioritize. Now, in terms of how to solve it, if you're going through perimenopause or if you have an issue with sleep, talk to your doctor.(22:50)
There are sleep studies that you can do. Sometimes people have issues where they can't actually breathe when they're sleeping. They need to get a CPA machine. Young people, it's not just an old person's problem, and it's not just an unfit person's problem. One of my very, very good friends, who is the most muscular person I know, who's the fittest person that I know has to sleep with a CPAP machine, right? So sleep apnea, perimenopause, drinking, too much caffeine. I'm definitely guilty of that. If you're not sleeping well, try to really prioritize figuring out why, pinpoint the problem and prioritize solving it. And if it's something like you're drinking too much caffeine, or maybe you're eating too close to bedtime, or maybe you need to take medicine, maybe you need to talk to your doctor, of course, before taking any kind of supplement like melatonin, but prioritize that.(23:43)
Talk to your doctor about it. Go to a sleep study. So getting enough sleep is really, really key for many reasons. But especially if you have type muscles. And then also, this is one of my favorite tips. Number seven, try heat or cold therapy. Whenever I train my muscles really, really hard, I have a few muscles that I just know are going to get really tight because of old injuries. If you have an old injury, it's likely that that muscle is going to always kind of pop up and give you some problems for a long time. So one of the things that I do after I've done a really hard leg day or deadlifts, I know that my hip flexor is probably going to get really, really tight on my right side. So when I go to bed while I'm reading and winding down, I put a heating pad on that muscle and I have it there for 20 to 30 minutes, and that helps to loosen the muscle up.(24:42)
So heat like a heating pad or taking a hot bath is a great way to help the blood flow kind of circulate through your body, which can help to flush out the cellular waste from those processes that are happening to repair the muscle tissue. And the cold therapy can help as well. If you're just like, oh my God, these muscles are aching. They're not only tight, but they're just like they're aching. Cold can help reduce inflammation. So you can alternate between heat and cold therapy. A cold compress, hot compress is a great way to kind of help loosen up your muscles. More often than not. I find that the heat helps to loosen the muscles if they're tight. The cold is more, if you are, it's kind of throbbing and it's kind of painful if it's painful because you want to reduce the inflammation. Number eight is you can get a massage or try assisted stretching.(25:40)
The area that I live in, Raleigh, North Carolina has a ton of chiropractor offices and physical therapy offices that offer a huge variety of services, including massage assisted stretching. And I do have one client who she has a lot of stress in her life, and so she goes once, sometimes even twice a week to a chiropractor who helps her to stretch because she's also hypermobile hypermobile, meaning that she is very, very flexible and it's hard for her alone by herself to stretch many of the muscles in her body to the point where they need to be stretched in order to get relief for tightness. So massage or assisted stretching is a really good option if you're having trouble consistently with tight muscles and none of these other things are helping. So the main thing here is you want to address the root cause. Like I said before, if you have tightness in one area of your body, you want to make sure that you are starting to become aware and thinking about what might be causing that tightness.(26:49)
Because if you chronically tight, say in your hamstrings and you stretch, you foam roll, you do all the things, and it's just this chronic problem that keeps occurring and happening, then you might want to take a look at what might be causing that thing. Again, tightness in the hamstrings is a lot of times caused by spending too much time seated. And so if you can identify that as the cause, then you can actually give yourself something to help reduce that tightness by getting up and getting moving throughout the day, spending less time seated. Sometimes chronic tightness in your muscles may be due to having poor posture or poor alignment, and you may be making it worse by exercising with poor alignment or poor posture. And this problem can just compound again and again over time. So you want to address the root cause. Make sure that you are taking a video of yourself when you're exercising, especially if you're doing an exercise that you feel tightness or pain or discomfort while you're doing that exercise.(27:53)
Because if you do feel that and it's something that's chronically happening, there may be something off with your technique. There likely is something off with your technique, your posture, your alignment, or your movement patterns. So you want to take video of that and analyze it according to what the standards of good technique are. And again, I have published to my membership site technique tips and guides for troubleshooting different movement patterns like troubleshooting your bench press, troubleshooting your Romanian, deadlift, your squat. So take video of yourself, analyze your movement patterns against what these recommendations are for how to do these exercises correctly so that you can kind of diagnose what is going wrong and fix it in your technique. And if you need help, seek help, right? That's why personal trainers exist. That's why I'm here. You can always post a video of your exercise. If you're not sure and you need some feedback, you can post it to My Discord if you're one of my Twitch subscribers or a member on my website, or if you're one of my clients, you can post to the Technique Reviews channel and I'll take a look at it on Technique Tuesdays and give you some feedback.(29:04)
So try to address what the root cause is, especially if it's something that's like recurring for you. So muscle tightness, it doesn't have to slow you down, it doesn't have to hold you back, and it's not something that you just have to push through and deal with. If you're experiencing tightness in your muscles chronically, then that's just a sign that there's something that needs to be addressed. I hope that these tips help you to think about addressing any tightness in your muscles that you may be feeling. And if you have any questions or if you're experiencing something like this and you want my take on it, please feel free to reach out. You can chat in the chat while I'm streaming on Twitch, or you can again join my membership, leave comments on the posts or ask your questions in my Coaching Corner Discord server. So I'm here to help. And yeah, with that's it. That's the podcast episode for today. Thanks guys for joining me. Appreciate you. Let me know what questions you have. I will talk to you again soon.
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Episode 37: Not Ready to Join a Gym? Build These Healthy Habits!
In this episode, I'm sharing tips for how to improve your health and get in shape without even stepping foot in the gym. Living a fit lifestyle is all about building healthy habits, one by one into your life. Start with simple, manageable habits that are easy to add, like drinking more water to ensure proper hydration, using a journal or app to become more aware of your eating habits, or increasing your daily activity by setting step or movement goals. If you want to start working out at home, focus on building core strength and doing stretches to improve your posture and flexibility. These foundational habits will make it easier to transition to more structured workouts and dietary plans in the future.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I'm sharing tips for how to improve your health and get in shape without even stepping foot in the gym.
Living a fit lifestyle is all about building healthy habits, one by one into your life. Start with simple, manageable habits that are easy to add, like drinking more water to ensure proper hydration, using a journal or app to become more aware of your eating habits, or increasing your daily activity by setting step or movement goals. If you want to start working out at home, focus on building core strength and doing stretches to improve your posture and flexibility.
These foundational habits will make it easier to transition to more structured workouts and dietary plans in the future.
For additional support, consider joining the Gains Club membership on my website! I post new content every week for improving your health and fitness--including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Check out jaydigains.com to sign up.
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Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd Harrison (00:00):
If you want to start improving your health, if you want to start getting in shape, but you're not quite ready to go to the gym, or if you're feeling overwhelmed and you just want somewhere easy to start, those are the easy things that you can start practicing. Now, it can be really overwhelming looking at someone who has been working out for a really long time or who has been living a healthy lifestyle for a long time, and there's so many little bits and pieces, but you have to remember that people who've been doing it for decades like me, we have had decades to add and refine our habits. It's healthy habits that are going to carry you. Everybody has to start somewhere. So if you are interested in getting fit, getting in shape, getting healthy, however it is that you word it, but you're not ready to do all the things, what I would recommend is start small and build easy to get into habits into your life first.
(01:14)
Because the thing is those little habits will carry momentum and they will help you to add in the other pieces later in a way that's much easier and easier on your body. Frankly, easy things that you can start to build into your life to help you to get into shape before you ever step into the gym would be things like one, start drinking more water. Tons of people are chronically dehydrated if you drink a lot of soda, if you drink a lot of coffee or some other type of beverage and you don't drink a lot of water. And when you go to the bathroom, look at the color of your pee, which I know that sounds gross, but it really is a good indicator of your hydration levels. Ideally, what you want to see, the color that indicates good hydration is like a light, like a diluted lemonade type color clear with a little bit of color is pretty good.(02:14)
If your urine is really dark, then that's a good sign that you're not hydrated enough. So setting a goal for yourself to drink more water is a good place to start. That's an easy thing. Doesn't really require a whole lot of changing up your routine or your schedule. It really can just be as simple as getting a water bottle for yourself, filling it up at the beginning of the day and carry it around with you. Get into the habit of carrying some water with you everywhere you go or to work or whatnot. And then if you need to, if you're like you carry it with you but you're not actually drinking it, then start to set a little timer on your watch or a reminder on your phone. There's apps that send you reminders of to hydrate, so set it as a reminder if you need to or get a journal.(03:06)
A lot of people find it super, super helpful to use a journal for tracking when they're trying to add new habits into their life. Writing it down and committing to reminding yourself every day today, I'm going to drink X amount of water, and if you give me a number, right? Give me a number lady. Tell me how much a good standard rule of thumb is. Just say, eight ounces of glasses of water a day. That's 64 ounces. Am I right? Is that the right math? 64, 64 ounces of water. So either you drink eight glasses or you get a big water bottle and you just drink through it over the course of the day. They even make water bottles that have little notches on the side that tell you you want the water level to be here at 3:00 PM and here at 5:00 PM. So it's kind of like is a visual trigger.(03:58)
Use whatever habit triggers you need to kind of start building the habit because it's not just about drinking more water, getting active, exercising, eating more vegetables. You also have to learn the habit of learning new habits. You have to kind of get into a system that works for you and your brain for how to add something new to your routine. And there's lots of different habit trackers out there and journals and apps and strategies. You got to find something that works for you and keep it very simple. And also in the beginning, you want to pick your easy to master habits first. It's just like in a video game. In a video game, when you start a new game, they start you with very, very simple tasks. You're level one and they're slowly teaching you how to play the game. They're slowly teaching you the logic system.(04:55)
And then later when you get into the mid game and then the end game, you're like, it's easy for you to pick up new skills because you understand how the game works. So at the same time that you're trying to build healthy habits into your life, get really good at figuring out what works for you and your body when you want to add a new habit to your life. For me personally, I find manually writing shit down very, very helpful. I have a journal that allows me to block my time, like an appointments. I use an appointments book that's also a journal so that I can see what I'm doing every hour of the day throughout the week. And that helps me to, and then I also, if I have something that I'm adding, like this week, I'm going to make sure that I'm posting to my membership site what specifically I want to post.(05:45)
So I put a little reminder at the top of the day for each day, and I can remember, okay, when I get in front of my computer, this is the first thing I need to get done. So writing things down works really well for me. And then if this doesn't work, then I get more aggressive and I start setting timers on my phone, recurring daily timers for what time I want to do the new thing. And I do that until it becomes second nature. And that's the goal is when you're adding new habits, you want to get to the point where it's second nature. You don't have to write it down anymore. You don't have to have the reminders. It's just part of your routine. And once it's part of your routine, then it's time to add in a new habit, right? So one habit at a time.(06:28)
So drinking water is a really good one to start with. Another good one to start with. Before you ever step foot in the gym, start to become aware of what you're eating even before you change what you're eating. Start to practice awareness of what you're eating, practice awareness of what you're putting on your plate or what you're ordering by tracking what you eat using food journal or using a calorie tracking app like MyFitnessPal or a macros counting app. There's a lot of different apps out there. Find one that works for you and just start to take note of what your eating habits are because the habit of tracking what you eat is a habit that will allow you to make changes later on that you need to make. So before you make any changes, become aware of what you're eating first, track it. Just get in the practice of tracking it.(07:23)
You may find that tracking what you eat and stopping and being reflective of what you're putting on your plate or what you're ordering might actually facilitate you making better choices because you're having to think about it and you also know that you're going to have to write it down. So a lot of people find that they're able to actually make better, start eating better and make better food choices just through the act of tracking, even if they don't have an actual goal in mind that they're pursuing with their tracking before they even have a calorie goal or a protein goal. Just tracking alone a lot of can be very helpful. And then again, it is a habit that you're going to build later, build on later when you do set goals when you eat for a specific amount of calories and that kind of thing.(08:13)
So those two things are super helpful. And then number three, before you ever step in the gym, a thing that you can start to do to improve your health is to just build activity into your life. Just get moving more and more. Think about ways that you can move more. We're a sitting culture, right? We spend hours and hours and hours a day seated doing work and then watching Netflix or playing video games. So try to look for ways that you can spend less time sitting still and more time moving. Set a rule for yourself or a goal for yourself every day. A daily movement goal that can be a certain number of steps, like figure out how many steps you're walking. Now, your smartphone a lot of times will automatically track your steps. If you have your smartphone on you most of the day, it will track your steps.(09:11)
But if you wear a Fitbit or an Apple Watch or something else, or even an old school pedometer, figure out how many steps you're taking a day. If you're walking 3000 to 4,000 steps a day, that's kind of like a bare minimum for just baseline activity. So take, if you're not getting 3000 to 4,000 steps a day, I would set a goal of trying to get 3000 to 4,000 steps a day. Progress it up gradually. If you are already averaging 3000 to 4,000 steps a day, then set a new goal for yourself. Try to get 5,000 or 6,000 or 7,000 all the way up to, you could go all the way up to 10,000, but 10,000 is kind of an arbitrary number. I know a lot of people throw that out as like, you should be getting 10,000 steps a day. No, you shouldn't. That's an arbitrary number.(09:58)
It was made up for marketing, right? Just figure out what 3000 to 4,000 is the minimum. I like to shoot for 6,000 to 7,000 personally. So you could do a steps goal. You could also just set a minutes goal. You want to get up and moving a total by the end of the week, 150 minutes, and you can break that up into 30 minutes five times a week. Or if you want to go daily, that would be, what, 18 minutes or something like that. So set a daily movement goal for yourself. That's another thing that you can do to help your body to get healthier and to improve your heart health, your cardio health in particular without ever stepping foot in the gym and having to worry about, oh, what should I do for my workouts? I have been working my butt off over the last year because I have been developing a membership called the Gaines Club, and it is on my website, and this is me officially launching it.(10:58)
So on my membership site, on my website, I have an area where I post every week a new meal plan that you can follow if you are not sure how to eat healthy and you need a place to start. I get a new meal plan with new recipes every week as well as every month I'm posting workouts of the month that give you something that you can follow for when you go to the gym or if you're working out at home. I also have weekly post training tips, nutrition tips, recipes, fat loss tips. So that is all now live on my website and I'm really excited to share it with you guys. You can go to my website, jaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com to see more about the membership. And then if you do want to start actually exercising, you can start without ever having to go to a gym.(11:47)
In fact, I recommend the first thing you should try to do is build core strength. That's strengthen the abdominals in the front of your torso, your obliques, transverse abdominis, all the way around your torso and your erectus. Spin A in your back, build up your back and your core strength because that's going to help with your posture, relieve back pain. And that's kind of the foundation of all other exercise. It's hard for you to stay safe doing other types of exercise if you don't have good core strength. Having good core strength is what allows you to keep your back straight when you're squatting, when you're lifting, when you're doing anything. And I mean, how often do you know of somebody who throws their back out? People who throw their backs out just like reaching down to the floor. A lot of times that happens because they have poor core strength and they have poor posture, and so they're putting the spine under load in a not ideal position.(12:43)
So when you train your core strength, and you can do this very easily, just pick one or two exercises and do 10 to 20 repetitions for two or three rounds. Make it easy. Make it like you can do that in under 10 minutes. That can be like five minutes honestly. So build core strength, you can do that at home. Just do some crunches. Hold a plank for 15 to 30 seconds, do some twist crunches, reverse crunches where you keep your head on the floor and you bring your knees towards your chest. All of these are good examples of exercises for your core, and so seriously, powerful foundation. And again, when you get into the habit of doing these every day of doing some core training every day, that is going to make it a lot easier for you to later on, add more onto your workout habit.(13:37)
So make your workout habit initially focused on, let me just build some core strength and do some stretching because it's going to feel good. You're probably stressed. You probably hold a lot of tension in your shoulders and in your hamstrings and in your back. So stretching is another good thing that you can start with and you can do at home. You don't have to do it at a gym. Stretching also has the benefit of allowing you to familiarize yourself with your muscles. If you go to my YouTube channel and you follow along with my exercise tutorial videos, and I'm trying to release a couple of those every week and have them link to a program if you want to do a full program. But when I introduce a stretch or an exercise, I usually will tell you, this is the muscle that this exercise is for.(14:26)
This is where you should feel it. Stretching is a great way for you to learn your muscles without putting yourself at risk of injury as much of a risk of injury because you're not actually putting the muscles under load, you're stretching them. And then later on, when you're ready to add in workouts, you'll already have some familiarity with your muscles and it'll be easier for you to do exercises correctly or with good technique, which will keep your body safe. So stretching helps you to learn your muscles, helps you to relax. You'll just feel better after you stretch and you do some breathing, but it will build onto when you're ready to actually step foot in the gym. So those are my tips for if you want to start improving your health. If you want to start getting in shape, but you're not quite ready to go to the gym, or if you're feeling overwhelmed and you just want somewhere easy to start, those are the easy things that you can start practicing.(15:27)
Now, you don't need any special equipment. You don't need a gym membership. All you need is a water bottle and a notebook or an app if you want to track your food in an app. But that's pretty hands off and those things are important. That's a solid foundation that you'll be able to build on when you're ready to move on. It will improve your heart health, it will improve your fitness levels, and it will also just make it so much easier when you're ready to actually work out. It will also make it so much easier when you're ready to actually go onto a planned diet. I don't necessarily mean going on a diet where you're eating less, but you have an eating plan and you're eating according to a plan. If you already have the habit of knowing how to track your food, it's so much easier to follow a plan after that.
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Episode 36: What to Do If You Hate Cardio
In this episode, I'm sharing tips for people who hate to do cardio. It's important to maintaining health of your cardiovascular system (i.e., the heart and lungs) because it helps prevent common illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure. Doing cardio as part of your workout routine is a great way to improve your cardiovascular system. For people who are trying to burn fat, it can be a great way to burn extra calories. In the episode I share a few options for people who find steady state cardio to be boring, including cozy cardio, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and circuit training.
Hey there! 👋 I'm Jayd Harrison (Jaydigains), personal trainer and host of the Coaching Corner podcast. In this episode, I'm sharing tips for people who hate to do cardio.
It's important to maintaining health of your cardiovascular system (i.e., the heart and lungs) because it helps prevent common illnesses like heart disease and high blood pressure. Doing cardio as part of your workout routine is a great way to improve your cardiovascular system. For people who are trying to burn fat, it can be a great way to burn extra calories. In the episode I share a few options for people who find steady state cardio to be boring, including cozy cardio, high-intensity interval training (HIIT), and circuit training.
Also, check out the the Gains Club membership on my website for more details and tips for improving your health and fitness. I post new content every week, including meal plans, workout routines, fat loss tips, recipes, and more. Check out jaydigains.com to sign up.
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
Legion Athletics Supplements: Use code Jaydigains to get 20% off for new customers - Double loyalty points for returning customers)
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Jayd (00:00):
We do want to be challenging our cardiovascular system. That's our heart, our heart and our lungs. The system that gets oxygen to our muscles and delivers blood throughout our body. The cardiovascular system is one of the most important systems to train and to keep healthy because heart attacks, heart disease. These are some of the most common illnesses in the developed world. It's very common to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol. So maintaining your heart health is really important. So doing cardio is something that you really should be incorporating into your workout plan as a baseline regardless of whether you're trying to burn fat or not, just to keep you healthy.
(00:51)
So there's a topic that came up recently in one of my coaching calls with one of my clients. So I have this client who hates cardio, hates it, never wants to do cardio, and they are in a fat loss phase. And while I do like to say that when it comes to fat loss, the most important thing is to manage what you eat. Being in a calorie deficit is the number one way to get your body burning. Fat Exercise is supplementary to that. It can help you to burn more calories, but if you're not being mindful of how many calories are going in to your system, you're likely going to struggle to burn fat. So this client is in a fat loss phase. They are already tracking what they eat. They're already pretty much eating according to their daily calorie goal, and they're also doing muscle building resistance training three to four times a week, which is also very, very helpful because as you burn fat when you're in a calorie deficit, your body breaks down fat.(02:02)
It also breaks down muscle. So building muscle can be very helpful for boosting your metabolism, keeping your daily calorie burn high. Also, building muscle is a calorie expensive activity, so it gets your body burning more calories anyway. And then also the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns overall. So you combat the loss of muscle mass. That naturally happens when you're in a fat loss phase, when you're eating a calorie deficit. But you also can increase the amount of calories your body is burning by doing muscle building. So he's already doing that. So the last piece is cardio, which already as a baseline we do want to be challenging our cardiovascular system. That's our heart, right? Our heart and our lungs are the system that gets oxygen to our muscles and delivers blood throughout our body. The cardiovascular system is one of the most important systems to train and to keep healthy because heart attacks, heart disease.(03:01)
These are some of the most common illnesses in the developed world. It's very common to have high blood pressure, high cholesterol. So maintaining your heart health is really important. So doing cardio is something that you really should be incorporating into your workout plan as a baseline, regardless of whether you're trying to burn fat or not, just to keep you healthy. There's lots of different ways that you can do cardio. The whole idea of cardio is that you're supposed to get your heart rate up and keep it up for an extended period of time. That's the only requirement for an exercise or an activity to count as cardio. Your heart rate has to get up and it has to stay up more or less for an extended period of time. Extended can be five minutes, 10 minutes as much as 30, 40, 50, or 60 minutes. I wouldn't really recommend doing more than 60 minutes of cardio because it's going to be hard for your body to recover from that.(04:01)
So that's kind of like the cap, but really anything that gets your heart rate up counts. Now, when I say cardio, what most people think about is steady state cardio, which is running. It's any exercise or activity that usually uses your big muscles, the muscles in your legs, in a repetitive motion that stays consistent for an extended period of time where you're doing the same motion again and again and again and again and again for an extended period of time. So running is an example of that. You're just, you're pushing your leg forward, you're moving your weight forward. Step, step, step, step, step. That's a repetitive motion. Using your big muscles and your legs, that would be steady state walking can also be considered steady state cardio. If you're walking fast enough or if you're on a treadmill and the treadmill is an incline, if you're moving in a way that gets your heart rate up where you feel it like you're having to breathe heavier or faster, if you can still talk, but maybe you can't sing, that's kind of what you're going for.(05:05)
Walking can do that as well. Swimming also counts as steady state cardio, but typically the cardio machines that you see at your local gym, those are all great machines for doing steady state cardio stationary bikes or Pelotons rowing machine. I just got a rowing machine and I love it. Ellipticals or cross trainers. What are other cardio machines? Let me think. Stair climbers, oh, that's a brutal one though. That's a real hard one. Assault bikes or echo bikes. Those are bikes that where you have to pump your arms while you're also pumping your legs and there's a fan. So all of these, if it's a repetitive motion that you're doing at the same rate for an extended period of time, that steady state, and that's what a lot of people do for cardio and that works for them. They just put on music in their headphones or maybe listen to a podcast or an audiobook and they just do 20 to 30 minutes walking on the treadmill or cycling or rowing, and that works for a lot of people.(06:08)
They enjoy that. The girlies of TikTok about a year ago had a trend in the fitness space. They had a trend that was called cozy cardio, which I'm a big fan of. Cozy cardio is when you set up whatever the space is that you're going to be doing, your walking or your rowing or your elliptical, whatever you're doing your cardio in, you make the space really cozy. So girlies, were making their turning all the lights off and only putting the LED colored lights on, putting on a movie or a TV show on the tv, having a yummy beverage, some iced coffee and some water, and just making it a very comfy atmosphere so that it's like, yeah, I'm exercising, but this is also my self-care time. I've seen girlies put a diffuser with some essential oils that it smells nice. So cozy cardio is a great thing.(07:01)
If you find steady state cardio to be boring or intimidating, make it cozy for yourself, especially if you're doing it at home. I have been working my butt off over the last year because I have been developing a membership called the Gaines Club, and it is on my website, and this is me officially launching it. So on my membership site, on my website, I have an area where I post every week a new meal plan that you can follow if you are not sure how to eat healthy and you need a place to start. I get a new meal plan with new recipes every week as well as every month I'm posting workouts of the month that give you something that you can follow for when you go to the gym or if you're working out at home. I also have weekly posted training tips, nutrition tips, recipes, fat loss tips.(07:49)
So that is all now live on my website and I'm really excited to share it with you guys. You can go to my website, jjaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com to see more about the membership. But there's other things that you can also do if you find study state cardio to be boring. What I recommended to this client was shake it up a little bit, especially since he has a good baseline level of cardio fitness. I encouraged him to start incorporating what are called high intensity interval training intervals, high intensity intervals where you take your steady state and you alternate between periods of time intervals where you're going really fast or you're using a lot of resistance, and then longer periods where you're going at a slow or moderate pace or using less resistance. So hi training is what it's usually called, HIIT, high intensity interval training where you can use your phone.(08:47)
There's lots of apps. You can find a timer on your phone, a circuit training timer. I use the Tabata Timer Pro. I've used it for years. I like it. I know how it works. You don't have to use the one that I use, but that's the one that I use. I also, for my clients that I program for, when I designed workouts for them, they actually can just press play and the training app that I use will guide them through their intervals. So you can use any of those high intensity interval training. A really good place to start is a good split would be, say you're going to go fast or heavy for 15 to 20 seconds. It's like a sprint, right? If you're on the rowing machine, you're going to do 15 to 20 seconds where you're going really, really, really, really fast. And then one to two minutes, you'll slow down and you'll do more moderate intensity.(09:39)
And then once that one to two minutes is up, then you'll do another 15 to 20 seconds going fast, and then you do moderate. So what this does is that it gets your heart rate from the moderate intensity zone into the high intensity zone, and according to the American Heart Association, each minute of this type of exercise where your heart is fluctuating between high intensity and moderate intensity, each minute counts as two minutes of steady state. So it counts twice. So say you do high intensity interval training on the bike for 10 minutes, that is the equivalent of 20 minutes going at the same moderate, steady state pace. So if you, it's torture to sit on the bike for 20 minutes, then just do high intensity interval training for 10 minutes, alternating between periods of going fast and then going at a moderate pace and then going fast and a moderate pace because you'll be able to step off of the bike sooner.(10:39)
Now, it's harder, right? It's high intensity, but that's a way to make it more interesting. Another way that you can make it more interesting for yourself is, especially if you're in a fat loss phase, you're not super, super hyperfocused on building muscle or super, super hyperfocused on developing strength. You can incorporate your steady state cardio into your strength training session or into your resistance training. So a workout pattern that I often use for my clients who are really trying to burn some fat is that during their rest periods, I'll have them walk on the treadmill or I'll have them on the rowing machine or on the elliptical. And so they have an active rest period when they return, they'll do that for two minutes, 1, 2, 3 minutes depending on what the workout plan is for that day. They do their strength exercise and then instead of sitting down and resting, they hop on the treadmill or they hop on whatever cardio machine and they go at a moderate intensity and they keep their heart rate up.(11:44)
And then once that one, two or three minutes is up of the cardio, then I might give them 15 to 30 seconds to bring their heart rate back down, and then they'll do their next set of their resistance training. So you could do a set of squats, hop on the treadmill and another set of squats, hop on the treadmill, and then move on to your chest pressing. If you're doing a total body day, chest presses, hop on the treadmill, chest presses, hop on the treadmill. So say you have in a workout, say you've got 15 sets, five different exercises for three sets each. If you're doing a minute to three minutes of steady state cardio during each of your rest periods easily, that's 15 to 30 to 45 minutes of steady state cardio that you've also done alongside your strength training. So that's a way that you can kind of work it in, turn it into circuits, turn it into strength and cardio circuits.(12:47)
Now, if you are really, really focused on building muscle, you don't want to do this, right? If your goal is to maximize your muscle gains, then you do want to stick to a traditional strength training pattern of doing a set of squats and then actually resting and letting your body fully rest. You mean pace around, of course, pace around stay standing, but you don't want to keep your heart rate up in the moderate intensity zone because that's going to limit your recovery, which is going to limit the amount that you can challenge your muscles in each given set, right? So if you're trying, it's tricky to say, I hate to say this because at the same time, this is also a good way for you to maximize lactic acid buildup in your muscles during your strength sets. And lactic acid does have a hypertrophic effect on the muscles.(13:46)
So I could also see an argument for doing this for muscle building, but you are burning a lot of calories doing it this way. And again, you're not going to be fully recovered going into each set. So you could test this out on yourself, actually measure your muscles, and then do this pattern of training for a couple of weeks and see what the effect is. See if your muscles grow and if it's any different from how it normally is when you actually take full rest periods without staying active, but turning your rest periods into an active recovery where you're on some kind of a cardio machine, that's another way that you can sneak in your cardio without having to spend 20 to 30 minutes just endlessly on this bike, and it's just super boring. So that's another way that you can get your cardio in that's less boring.(14:36)
And then finally, the last recommendation that I have for making your cardio more interesting is to do actual circuits. You don't even need a treadmill or a rowing machine or some kind of a cardio machine to do cardio. Remember, as long as you're getting your heart rate up into that moderate intensity zone where you can still talk, but you have to take breaths more often, but you can't sing right, as long as you can get your heart rate up into that, it does not matter what you're doing. It counts as cardio. So what I often have people do if they find themselves really bored with cardio is they'll do circuits where I'll give them anything between two and five exercises that they will just rotate between. So they'll do 25 seconds of squats, and then they rest for 10 seconds, and then they'll go do 25 seconds of pushups, and then they rest for 10 seconds, and then they go do 25 seconds of jumping jacks, and then they rest for 10 seconds.(15:38)
That's one example. And you repeat, rinse and repeat for a couple of rounds and then change the exercises. You can play with the interval time according to your personal fitness level. 25 seconds on 10 seconds of rest is pretty, that's pretty hard. But if you look at the amount of time that it takes to do a muscle building set of between 10 and 20 reps of an exercise, it does usually average out to about 25 seconds. So you'll probably get a decent muscle burn going on. So you could build some muscle doing it this way, but I've also had coaches put me through circuits where I do an exercise for an entire minute and then I rest for 30 seconds, and then entire minute you can play with it. You can also, instead of if you don't want to use a timer, then you can just set a number of reps and say, I'm going to do between 10 and 20 squats, and then I'm going to do between 10 and 20 pushups, and then I'm going to do between 10 and 20 jumping jacks, right?(16:37)
You can do it that way as well. The main thing is that you keep moving. The benefit of circuit training is that you will build a little bit of muscle at the same time that you're burning calories and you're getting your heart rate up. So it's kind of a win-win. Again, though, at a certain level, there is a limit to how much muscle you can build, and you're maybe not necessarily going, there's a limit to how much strength you're going to build from training this way. So just remember that. And when you're doing this, the goal is cardio, right? So if your goal is to burn some calories to improve your heart health, then this is a great way to train. But if what's most important to you is growing big muscles, then again, you probably want to stick to the traditional way of training where you kind of rest alternate between periods where you push your muscles to fatigue, where you feel the burn, and then you rest for 30 seconds to two minutes, and then you do another set.(17:31)
But for cardio, for getting your heart rate up, these are all great ways that you can do it without it being so boring. So those are my tips for cardio, and I want to know what you guys are doing for cardio. What are you doing for your heart health? And do any of the tips that I've just given jump out at you as an option that you're interested in taking? Because I am going to be posting this to my podcast, but I'm also going to be posting this to my Gains Club membership page on my website. And I'll actually have this written out in detail with some exercise tutorials, a guide on how to program a timer for hi training or for circuit training. And then I'll also have some downloadable workout guides to kind of as a starter for you. So you can find all of that on my website.(18:25)
Just go to jaydigains.com or jaydharrisonfitness.com. If you are one of my personal training clients, you already have these types of cardio in your workout program. So all of my clients are automatically subscribed to certain workout libraries. And if you go to your program page in the ABC Trainerize App, if you click on the little kettlebell button that's at the bottom of the app, that's your program page, and scroll all the way down, you'll be able to see the different workout libraries that you can do as an add-on to your normal program. So if you want to try out one of these different styles of cardio for yourself, that's in your workout plan already. So go ahead and head to your ABC Trainerize App app if you're one of my clients, and scroll down and see that. So that's the podcast for today. Thanks for listening. Thanks for joining. You guys are so good.
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Episode 35: Struggling with Motivation?
Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast! I'm Jayd Harrison (@Jaydigains), a personal trainer and wellness coach. I created this podcast to share helpful tips to help you make gains in your fitness journey 💪
It’s normal to struggle with motivation to work out. In this episode, I talk all about how to handle periods of low motivation in your fitness journey. Many people start their fitness journey with the aim of losing weight or achieving a specific physique, but this mindset often leads to unsustainable habits and yo-yo dieting. I advocate for building a fitness lifestyle that includes consistent healthy habits (like daily physical activity, eating vegetables, and consuming enough protein). These foundational habits not only help in achieving initial fitness goals but also in maintaining them over the long term.
I also highlight the importance of adapting your fitness routine to stay engaged and to avoid burnout. This includes setting micro-goals, changing workout routines, and focusing on skill development.
Ultimately, the key to sustained fitness is patience, consistency, and viewing it as a lifelong journey rather than a temporary fix.
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Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
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Jayd Harrison (00:09):
I want you to think about fitness as not just a means to an end. A lot of people get involved in fitness because they want to lose weight, and so they think, oh, I'm just going to go to the gym for a short period of time and then when I reach my goal weight or when I reach my goal physique, then I'll stop. And that is a mindset a lot of people have when they first start and it's good enough to get the foot in the door to kind of get you started on your journey. But what you'll find as you go further and further along in this journey is that's not going to really sustain the body that you're looking for. It may be great to achieve that fat loss goal, but what a lot of people struggle with, and I think it's because of this mentality, is actually sustaining that, reaching that body weight goal and keeping it right.
(01:05)
You see a lot of people who lose a bunch of weight and then they gain it all back and then they lose a bunch of weight and then they gain it all back. They yo-yo diet or they, yo-yo go to the gym. They stop once they kind of achieve what they wanted and then they stop and then everything comes back. Your body is a reflection of your lifestyle. So if you want to achieve a toned physique, that's the language a lot of people are using these days, a toned physique or if you want to maintain a certain body fat percentage, it is something that you have to maintain. It's not something that you can just achieve once and then you're done. When you carry that sort of like, oh, I'm just going to do this until I achieve my goal physique. When you treat it like that, it's very difficult to hold on to motivation.(01:51)
Your motivation is like, oh, I had this end goal in mind and that can help you, like I said, to get started. But the value that you place on that end goal result and also your belief in yourself that you can achieve that end goal result is something that's going to fluctuate over time. Some days it's going to be more important to you than others, and it's not realistic for you to think that right now when you first get started, you may be really passionate and really excited and it may be really, really important to you, but maybe two months in down the road you're not going to have that same fire because it's hard to maintain that excitement for such a long time. And then also sometimes those physique goals they take much longer to achieve. They might take a year, they might take two years, and you kind of have to make peace with the fact that it's going to take a year or two years in order to be able to stick with it for that long.(02:50)
You have to sort of develop a different mindset and approach towards fitness where it's not just this short-term means to an end, but instead it becomes a compilation of habits that you build into your life that promote what you want your body to look like. Remember, your body is a reflection of your lifestyle. It's a reflection of what you do most of the time. So over the course of the time that I spend with my clients, what I try to work on is helping them to build out their fitness lifestyle that will sustain them even on days or weeks or long stretches of time where they don't feel very motivated, where they're like, they don't really want to work out, they're just like they're not excited about it and that happens to everybody. Everybody hits that wall of motivation where you're just like, I don't want to do this anymore.(03:44)
It happens to everybody. It doesn't mean that you're doing something wrong and it doesn't mean that it's time to stop. It happens to everybody. It's just like work. You don't always want to go to work, but most people who work, you have to work so that you can keep a roof over your head and buy groceries. You know what I mean? If you want to sustain your physique goals, you're going to have to kind of have this mindset of my physique is a reflection of my lifestyle, and so I need to build my lifestyle in a way that I can sustain over the long term so that I can over the long term make progress towards my goals. So just first of all, you want to make peace with the fact that it's going to take longer than just a month or two months or even three months.(04:29)
Usually the people that I work with, the goals for their bodies that they want to achieve, it takes a year or two years sometimes to build up to that because it's not just showing up for your workouts. It's not just eating a calorie deficit or learning how to eat healthy. It's learning how to do these things and do them for a longer enough period of time that it takes effect and that it takes sustainable effect, that it's going to stick. Not only you're going to achieve that physique, but it's going to stick for a much longer period of time. And so what you want to do is think about your fitness journey as all of these little habits that you build into your life to promote overall a baseline of wellness first, a baseline of health and wellness and then other stuff that you do on top of that, which is like bonus.(05:22)
Because a lot of times when people first start their journey and they have a huge fat loss goal or they've never worked out before, just establishing a baseline of wellness, just getting healthy habits built into their life will in and of itself start to change your body. Your body will start to change, your physique will start to change, your dress size will start to go down, your weight will start to go down just by incorporating healthy habits like moving every day, eating vegetables every day, increasing the amount of protein you eat, drinking more water, sleeping as much as you need to. These things alone by themselves will be enough to push you towards that physique change that you want to see. And they are the necessary foundation for achieving that physique and maintaining it. And then the workouts and how hard you work out, what exercises you do when you out.(06:15)
All of that is in addition to that baseline level of wellness. Now, that baseline level of wellness, those parts of your lifestyle, like getting active every day, eating vegetables, eating protein, these are things that you should have in your life at all times. There is going to be periods of your fitness journey where you're going to be on a cut or you're going to be on a diet where you're specifically trying to burn fat or you're in a bulk and you're specifically trying to build muscle or get stronger. Regardless of what phase of your fitness journey you're in, you should be getting active every day doing something active, get a certain number of steps. You can set a steps goal of 5,000 to 7,000 or even 10,000 steps a day, or you do something active like gardening, walking your dog, playing with your kids, something that gets you active for at least 10 to 30 minutes a day.(07:08)
That should be in your lifestyle regardless of where you are on your fitness journey. That should be part of your daily habits and your weekly habits. Eating vegetables, regardless of your diet goals, you should be doing that every day, ideally at every meal because regardless of whether you're trying to build muscle or burn fat or do both, your body needs the nutrients and the fiber from plant foods. Eating enough protein also very important. So those are the things that I like to focus on first when I first start working with a new client is establishing that baseline level of wellness, wellness habits because one that's going to help you to get started, start building muscle, start burning fat, start improving your heart health. These things will actually help you to do that and they will sustain you as you add in more difficult types of workouts where you're really challenging the muscles, where you're really challenging your heart health.(08:04)
I want you to think of it as it, it's a journey. You're starting on a journey and it's a journey that's going to last you for the rest of your life. Because when it comes to our bodies, when it comes to strength, when it comes to coordination, when it comes to balance, when it comes to cardiovascular health, when it comes to our body, the rule of thumb is use it or lose it. So getting in shape is not this short-term fix means to an end to get to your dream physique. Your fitness is a journey. It's your overall lifestyle and habits that you consciously add to your life to help your body to function and look its best. And it takes time to build those habits. It takes time to build those habits. So you got to be patient with it. And sometimes our bodies and our brains and our systems can be resistant to adding new habits even if they're good for us.(09:04)
Because I would venture to say every single person living on earth has some kind of trauma, has some kind of maladaptive coping mechanisms like maybe they smoke, maybe they bite their fingernails, maybe they comfort eat, maybe they eat their feelings, maybe they self neglect. There's so many maladaptive coping mechanisms that you can just pick up from just the drama of life. And our bodies and our brains are resistant to making changes, especially if you don't feel safe in your current living situation. If you're stressed out all the time, then your body is going to be more resistant to making changes. It's like you're trying to paint a massive canvas. Your lifestyle is a massive canvas. It takes layers upon layers upon layers of paint to make a beautiful picture, and you got to paint parts of it and then you got to let it dry.(10:04)
You got to step away, let it dry. And then sometimes you make mistakes and you have to go in and you have to redo something. That's the sort of mindset you want to have towards your fitness is you are painting a massive canvas, you're building a lifestyle that's going to sustain you. And then all of these habits are things that you're going to stick with if you want to stay healthy for the rest of your life. It's normal for people to sometimes enter this with this short-term goal in mind and then maybe they achieve their goal and then they're like, what next? Then they don't want to do it anymore. They fall off the wagon, they stop working out, they stop eating healthy because they achieved their goal and then they end up gaining all the weight back or getting, losing all of their strength.(10:44)
And I don't want that to happen to you. So I want you to kind of think of this as a long-term journey. It's good to set little micro goals along the way of things that you want to work on, things that you want to achieve when you achieve a goal, just think of it, this is a milestone in your overall journey. It's not the finish line. So your fat loss goal, whether you want to lose 50 pounds, a hundred pounds or whatever, think of it as a milestone rather than the finish line. And there's going to be other pieces of your fitness journey that are going to be part of that journey. And that journey is something is going to be for the rest of your life. So you want to pick stuff you want that you could see yourself doing for the rest of your life, things that you enjoy.(11:26)
There's no need forcing yourself to do types of exercise that you hate or sometimes you just get bored. Sometimes you just get bored of your workout routine and that happens to everybody. And when that happens, if you feel like you're not motivated, you don't want to do it anymore, you find it boring, you're just like, then maybe it's time to change what your activity routine is. So you still want to be active, you still need to get active every day, but maybe change the way that you exercise. Try a different block of training. If you want to continue doing resistance training with weights and you've been doing bodybuilding style training or maybe you've been doing a body part split upper body, lower body, upper body, lower body and you're bored with that, try a different split. Try total body every day or try a bro split where you're just going to work chest one day and then you're going to work shoulders and then you're going to work biceps and triceps and then you're going to work legs switch something up in your workout program if you reach this point where you're just feeling like I'm not motivated.(12:25)
And that's sort of what I wanted to address today because I've seen happen to a lot of my clients and it seems to have happened to a lot of my clients at the exact same time. And I don't know if it's the time of the year, I don't know if this is a time of year where people just kind of get anxious and maybe it's like, I don't know, anticipating the season's changing or something. But it's normal to reach a point in your fitness journey where you're just like, I don't want to do it. I'm just struggling to get my workouts in. And when that happens, first of all, you want to step back and you want to look at what is actually, what's my mindset towards my fitness right now? Is it just a means to an end or am I viewing it as this personal journey that I'm on?(13:07)
And that's going to have different story arcs and different branches to it, different stretches of it, which are going to focus on different things. So how do you view your fitness? What's your relationship with your fitness? How are you envisioning it? If you are viewing your workouts and if you're viewing your fitness with that short-term goal in mind of like, oh, it's just a means to an end, then yeah, you're probably going to struggle to stay motivated in your workouts and you're probably not going to want to do them if they're just a means to an end, if they're just something that you have to check off because you have to, then yeah, you're going to struggle to do them. The other thing to think about beyond your macro vision of your fitness is it might be time to change up your workout program. You may be bored with what you've been doing.(13:52)
It may be time that you change up your split or you try a different type of activity going from doing power lifting to maybe more Olympic lifting. Try Olympic lifting and mastering new skills or switch to more like stabilization and balance challenge training, changing up the focus of your program, not just the split, but the focus and say, I'm going to focus on these movements for a while and I'm going to develop these movements for myself or these different skills. Learning a new skill, that's one way that you can kind of shake up your program and give you something new to look forward to. Sometimes we lose our motivation because we don't really have a milestone goal in mind. And this happens a lot. I would say this happens the most to my clients who are pursuing fat loss. They are the ones who tend to lose the motivation to work out the most, and I think it's because they're so hyper-focused on that number on the scale and what it reads every day when they weigh in. And that number can change for so many reasons beyond what your body fat percentage is because we can gain as much as 15. I've even seen people gain 20 pounds in one day from just eating a lot of salty, sugary food because your body will retain water, which will make you heavy depending on how much salt and how much sugar you eat.(15:18)
Your body can retain and lose water as much as 15 to 20 pounds in one day. Or even just like if you've pooped, right? If you've pooped or peed, that adds weight to the scale. And people, they put so much importance on the number that's on the scale that when it changes, it has this huge effect on their emotional state and on their level of motivation. And that's why I personally don't really like to use the scale very much unless I'm specifically in a very focused cut phase with a client. Because if you're in a cut phase and you're focusing on that, it's just going to fuck with your head, and you have to know that going into it, it's going to be very hard on your brain emotionally for most people that I've worked with. If you're weighing yourself in every day and you're trying to lose fat, the number is not always going to go the direction that you want it to go.(16:17)
It's not always going to read progress the way that you're looking for. And you got to know that going into it, which is why I don't like to do fat loss phases for a very long period of time because it just weighs on people for a long period of time. So if you have been really focused on fat loss for a long time, six to 12 weeks or more, and that is been your main focus, it may be time to switch up the focus of your fitness and do a stretch a block or however it is a chunk of time where you're focusing on something else. You're focusing on developing a skill, you're focusing on building strength and a certain movement pattern, or you're learning to work with a different type of equipment. I think that that would be a great way to kind of shake things up and make it so that you look forward to your workouts again.(17:09)
But also don't forget that when you're in a fat loss phase, in a calorie deficit, you're naturally just going to have less energy, which is going to make your workouts harder, and it's also going to make recovering from your workouts harder. So if you're already feeling badly about yourself because of what you see on the scale, and then you're also tired and then you're tired, so you don't feel like you can perform very well during your workouts, or at least doing the workout just feels really like, Ugh, everything just feels hard. And then after the workout, you're really fricking tired and you're experiencing other symptoms of just being tired and being in a calorie deficit. Yeah, a fucking course, you're going to lose motivation.(17:56)
And I think that it's easy to get on a shame spiral about it too, and be like, oh, well, I've lost my motivation. I don't want to work out anymore. What's wrong with me? And that's where a lot of my clients get into trouble is they reflect on, oh, I don't have a lot of motivation. And then they start flogging themselves basically like, oh, I should, what do I feel like this? And then they start shaming themselves or feeling that way, and it's like, no, your system feels exactly like it should. It makes so much sense that you would feel depressed, that you would feel tired and fatigued and not motivated to do your workouts. Your system is suppressed. It's been suppressed for a longer period of time, and this also is just even way worse if you have anything else going on in your life, if you have difficult relationships going on and you're dealing with a difficult relationship or multiple difficult relationships, some kind of work stress, right?(18:48)
If you're dealing with having to move or if there's other stresses in your life, then of course you're going to feel that and it's going to weigh in on your motivation to do your workouts. I wanted to address that because there's a couple of things that you can do if you're experiencing just low motivation towards your workouts. One, think about the macro vision of your fitness. How do you view fitness and how does it fit into your life? And you may need to reframe that. You may need to build a different vision and a different idea of how fitness works into your life as not just so much a means to an end, but more a lifestyle that you built for yourself to care better for your body, to take better care of your body, which I think is the ideal. You may need to switch up how you're training, you may need to choose a different focus, choose a different workout split, and just to give yourself something else to focus on, you may be bored.(19:50)
If you have been in a fat loss phase for a long time, you may need to take a break from that or continue in your calorie deficit and just change the focus of your workouts instead of focusing so much on what number is on the scale. Focus on really mastering and cleaning up your squat technique or learning how to work out with kettlebells or learning how to do a martial arts skill. Focus on the actual skill development side of things because that's going to keep you motivated to show up and do your workouts right? If you're just relying on the number on the scale to motivate you, that's not going to work. It's just not going to work. It's not going to keep you motivated for very long because it fluctuates and how you feel about it is going to fluctuate over time. And at the end of the day, there is a certain amount of this where you just have to have the discipline to show up regardless of whether you feel like it or not.(20:41)
Some days you're just not going to feel like it, and that's going to be a lot of the time. But you have have the discipline to show up anyway, and that's why, again, I think we need to focus on habits and building those habits. And that's also another reason why I think it's a good idea to make sure that when you're doing this, when you're starting to build a workout routine, try to keep your workouts on the same days at the same time every week. Because what's going to happen is when you have those days where you have low motivation, you're more likely to show up to your workout because it's just part of what you do. It's just part of your schedule, and you'll feel off and feel weird if you get off of your schedule. And then it will be a lot easier to get back onto your schedule because you have that designated time on the same days and the same time every week.(21:30)
And there's going to be a lot of times where the pure momentum of this is what I have scheduled is going to be what gets you through the door. And there's nothing wrong with you if that's the case. If you're experiencing that low motivation and you're like, the only reason I showed up today is because this is what was on the schedule and this is just what I do on Tuesdays, you don't necessarily have to be super, super motivated to get a good workout in or to achieve your fitness goals. You don't have to be super motivated or want to do it all the time in order for it to benefit you. So that's my thoughts on motivation. I hope that you find it helpful. I wanted to talk about it because I have a couple of clients who are struggling with it right now, and sometimes you need to change things up. Sometimes you need to reframe your fitness, sometimes you need to just suck it up and show up. And that's true of lots of things in life because sometimes when you do just show up, even if you don't feel like it, once you get started, you're actually like, Hmm, this is actually not so bad. It's not so bad. I'm glad I did this right.(22:43)
You will feel better once you actually get started. And if you absolutely have to then go into the workout and just go with the idea of, I'm going to just take it easy today. I would rather you show up to your workout and sandbag and stay consistent on your workout routine, then show up. Or I would rather you show up and sandbag than have you not show up at all and not do anything for your health. Even if you're like, I just can't lift today. I can't make it to the gym. Go for a walk. Do something for your health every single day. Do something active. Move your body in some way. I would so much rather you do that than just not do anything at all. That's what I would like to see from my clients, and that's what I would like to see from my followers, and that's the rule of thumb that I follow for myself personally.
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Episode 34: New Downloadable Workout Plans
Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast! I'm Jayd Harrison (@Jaydigains), a personal trainer and wellness coach. I created this podcast to share helpful tips to help you make gains in your fitness journey 💪
In this episode, I talk about my new initiative to make workout programs more accessible to beginners. Starting in January, my website now features downloadable PDF workout plans designed for those who find traditional gym routines and spreadsheets overwhelming. These plans include step-by-step instructions, video demonstrations, and optional tracking sheets.
The programs cater to various fitness levels, from complete beginners to those seeking more intermediate challenges.
Additionally, I offer a 28-day "Ready, Set, Fit" program with daily 10-15 minute workouts to help build foundational strength and flexibility.
For those wanting more personalized guidance, I also offer options for using my programs on the ABC Trainerize app and one-on-one coaching.
Get started today!
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Jayd Harrison (00:00):
Something I've been wanting to do for a long time. I want to be able to deliver my programs to people in a way that real people who aren't gym people who are overwhelmed by spreadsheets can follow along with a workout and get what they need without necessarily having to hire me as their online personal training coach. So starting in January, I am going to be opening up a little shop on my website where people can download PDF versions of some very short little workout plans. Now, right now it's mainly focused for beginners, and I just put up three intermediate programs that are more for intermediate. I mean intermediate, beginner ish people. So if you're brand new to training and looking at a big spreadsheet is like what's going on? And you want something that's more like a step-by-step kind of thing. I've been developing that over the last couple of months, actually this whole year.
(01:09)
I've been working this whole year on that, and I'm really excited to be able to offer that. I'll give you guys a little sneak preview if I can. So this is what I've created for beginners that I'm going to be launching this month. And this is a preview of one of the workouts. Each of the beginner level programs is just three days. So it's just three workouts and you get your first workout here, and it works very similar to the way that my Trainerize app programs work. You've got the workout instructions here, and then the different parts of the workout are listed here. So you've got your warmup, just like in my app with this PDF, we're looking at the Google Doc right now, but the PDF version as well, if you're like, Hmm, what is that? You click on each of these little pictures here has a YouTube video that goes with it.(02:01)
And basically the same videos that I use for my personal training clients, you'll have access to by clicking on the different parts of the workout. We've also got the dynamic stretches exercise after your cardio warmup, so you follow along with this. You'll likely memorize it like all of my clients do. Really, really quickly. The last little part of the warmup is imprinting and core bracing, which is a really important piece. And then you just go down the line following the directions for your core stability for this is for a beginner. You've got dead bugs that tells you what the exercise is, how many reps to do, and a little bit more detail. And then if you're like, I don't know how to do that exercise, well click on it and then you get a little video demo and I have the sound turned off, but I'd walk you through it and I use little arrows to show you where you should feel the exercise.(02:58)
There's a little preview and then a little step-by-step guidance of how to set up and do the exercise. That's what I use for my clients, and this will be available to everybody to download from my website. So you've got your course stability and then you've got glutes and legs and also included in these, and it's separate. I wanted to make it so that if you're just a beginner and you don't want to do all the things one little thing at a time, just give me something to follow. You can just follow this. You don't need to record anything, but if you want to record something, I've also included in the PDFs for this, basically a workout tracking sheet. The same thing that I use, it's like the same sheet as in my fitness tracker journals. You get a tracking sheet basically so that if you want to, you can record what you do as you work through the workout, how many reps you do, et cetera.(04:00)
That's an option, but it's an option. You don't have to do it. So I wanted to make this minimal, right? I wanted to make it super minimal, minimally approachable for brand new baby beginners. Some of the times the videos will show you different levels of the different exercises because many of these exercises have, if you're just beginning, do this version of the exercise. But if you want a little bit more challenge, do this version of the exercise. All of that is in the videos and you just kind of like, you can check, you can print this off and you can little check mark with your pencil as you go along. And then little cool down stretches at the end of every video because stretching is just as important. And then there's also, when you download this, there's an introduction to the whole program and a step-by-step of how to do your workouts.(04:49)
I'm very excited about this because like I said, I want to make my workout programs approachable as approachable as possible for beginners. And sometimes with when we're talking about intermediate and advanced training programs like we did today for beginners, it can be really overwhelming. And then the last thing I want a beginner to experience when they're interacting with my content is be like, this is too complicated or That sounds way too hard, or I'm going to hurt myself. So I created these workout plans for those people who are like, I want to exercise. I want to know how many reps to do, what exercises I should do, how many sets, and I don't want to hurt myself, but I also don't want to get super overwhelmed with too much information. So there's three workouts for each workout plan. And actually I did go ahead and put them up on my website.(05:44)
You go to my website and you click on workout plans, you'll be able to see them. So if you are trying to get in shape in 2025 and you want a little bit of guidance, I've put together the workouts that I give my beginner clients into this series of workout programs. So you can check them out. If you are like, maybe you don't want to do a three day program, if you're the type of person where you're like, I need to do something every single day, I would recommend the ready, set fit program. This is a 28 day month long program that features mini workouts of 10 to 15 minutes every single day. There's 28 workouts in this program. Each of them is very short, and the goal of that is to help you to learn your muscles stretch and build some foundational strength. And when you purchase it, you'll get the full guide, right?(06:43)
There will be the introduction and each day of the workouts, day one, day two, day three, and it's just like what I showed you before where you can click on the exercise logo and you watch a video for how to do the exercise. You also have a little workout tracking sheet if you want to use that to track your workouts. I have used this program on many of my clients that I see in person because many people find that doing something every single day helps them to stay more accountable and on track versus, oh, I just have three workouts to do. I got to figure out where to schedule them. And so it's like, because it's not something that they're doing in their everyday routine, it's a lot harder to get that habit to stick. So if you're concerned about your exercise habits sticking, this is a great one to go with and it's just 10 to 15 minutes a day.(07:35)
And then you're also encouraged to do something else in addition to the little baby workouts, like go for a walk or hop on a cardio machine or something like that. So that's for people who are like, I need to do something every day. And these workouts are very beginner friendly, very, very beginner friendly. The exercises in them are very gentle on the body. They're really, really scaled down so that if you've never exercised before, you will be able to improve your flexibility, your balance, you'll be able to build some strength without it being super high risk of injury. If that's something that you're concerned about, this is a great program for that. And then I have three other programs that are no four other programs that are basically beginner level three day programs. So there's only three workouts, but they're a little bit longer. Well, they're a lot bit longer.(08:27)
The workouts in these programs are like 45 minutes, so longer than the little 10 to 15 minute baby workouts. But the goal is to help you to build muscle and their total body as well. So each workout, you're going to hit arms, legs, and core. And if you're only able to do once a week, that's fine, because each workout is total body. You'll build strength through your whole body, even if you're only able to do one of these workouts a week. I've had many clients that that's all they've been able to do in the beginning and they're still able to make progress. But if you're like, you know what? I got time for two, then you do two of them. And if you can do all three, you can maybe work your way up to the point where you're able to do three days a week, then awesome.(09:11)
But you will have these workouts as soon as you download them. They're years forever. So you can continue to rinse and repeat. However I have built in there, if you do this workout program for four to six weeks, it is suggested that you swap it out and do a different workout plan. So I will be adding more continuing workout plans to this workout library over time and hopefully have some continuing plans up by the time those of you who are viewing these programs are ready for a new block of training. Or you could order some resistance bands and try the beginner bands program. And I do have the list of equipment that's suggested for each of the programs that use equipment. And then if you wanted to sign up to actually use my training app and you're like, the PDFs are great, but I actually want to use the app.(10:06)
I have links for where the larger programs are where you can subscribe to them. Each of the programs is six months ago. And then if you actually want me to help you through the program, if you want me to guide you through the program, there's also for each of these programs, a one-on-one coaching option. So you got lots of options. If you want to just keep it simple, just download A PDF, then just go with the PDF download here. If you want to use the app on your phone, you can scroll down and sign up for the six month program. If you want my help, you want to work directly with me to do the program. And I'll also customize the workouts. If we have some customization that needs to go on, you can sign up for the one-on-one coaching. So that exists for all of these.(10:54)
So that's what I've been building over the last year, and that's why I haven't been able to stream as much. And that's why I haven't been posting as much to my YouTube channel or posting the social media because I've been trying to build out this program or these programs for you guys, so that moving into 2025 and continuing years, I will be able to provide the resources that you guys will need in order to start your finished journey and continue to make progress in your finished journey. And like I said, I'm going to be adding a lot more programs to this library. So that's what I've been working on. That's why I haven't been around because I've been putting that together for you guys. So now that all of that is taken care of, the plan is that I'm going to be more present and moving forward, I'm just going to be able to stream a lot more and post to social media more and be more interactive. But I'm really excited.
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Episode 33: How to Start Your Fitness Journey
Welcome to the Coaching Corner podcast! I'm Jayd Harrison (@Jaydigains), a personal trainer and wellness coach. I created this podcast to share helpful tips to help you make gains in your fitness journey 💪
In this episode, I offer tips for beginners who are starting their fitness journey and for those looking to regain their former fitness levels.
The key to starting (or restarting) your fitness journey is to keep it simple—especially in the beginning. Start by increasing your daily activity, especially if you have a sedentary lifestyle. Set a daily movement goal, such as 10,000 daily steps or 150 weekly exercise minutes. It’s also important to focus on building core strength and stability with activities like Pilates, yoga, and balance training. Flexibility and mobility work are crucial for safe and effective workouts as you get stronger.
Links:
Sponsors/Affiliate Links:
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Jayd Harrison (00:09):
Let's talk about how to get started on your fitness journey. This is an episode that is specifically for people who are beginners to fitness or people who maybe used to be in shape. Maybe you were like a college athlete or maybe you did track in high school. One common thing that I find a lot of my clients say when they first start working with me is like I used to be in such good shape back in the day, back when I was in high school, back when I was in college, and it's just really, really hard for me to stay in shape. Now. It's hard for me to keep weight gain from happening, and it's hard for me to look strong and feel strong. And it is true when you get older, there's a lot of things working against you as an adult. You're generally less active than when you were younger.
(00:56)
Kids in high school, kids in college, they have much more active lifestyles usually than what most adults do, especially if you have an office job or if you work from home and a home office. So with that smaller amount of activity that you get, because you're usually busy and doing activities that need you to be seeded or sedentary, your body's just going to burn less energy. And it's super important to keep in mind that your body fat is just stored energy. That's your body's energy stored, your battery packs. And so when you're not burning a lot of energy, a lot of times energy that you take in through the food that you eat gets stored right? It gets stored in your belly, it gets stored in your extremities as well. So if you're thinking about getting started and you're just like, I don't know what to do to start this journey, these are my tips.(01:47)
This is the journey that I take my clients on when they come to work with me as a personal trainer or as their coach. The first thing that we want to do is recognize what your body is reading in terms of your overall energy use. If you are sedentary, meaning you spend most of your days sitting still or seated at your computer or whatever, and you spend most of your free time also seated or in front of your phone, then your body probably doesn't burn very much energy. So the first thing that you want to do as you're trying to build up your fitness and get back in shape is you want to get your body using more energy, which means that you're going to have to move more. And so this means that you want to prioritize building the habit of everyday movement. That's number one.(02:41)
So the first thing that I have my clients do when they first come to work with me is set a daily or a weekly movement goal. Now this is a goal that just prioritizes you getting up out of your chair and moving. There's a couple of different things that you can do here. One is you can set a daily steps if you like to walk, if you want to incentivize yourself to get up and go for walks or walk more park far away from your work and walk further or take the stairs more. These are all good ways to get more activity and to get steps in. And a good daily steps goal to set is I usually stay between 7,000 and 10,000 steps. 7,000 is a really good number to shoot for. It's pretty feasible. You have to make a little bit more effort to get to it.(03:27)
Now, for some people, 7,000 steps is really, really hard. If you wear a step tracker or a fitness device like an Apple Watch or a Fitbit or something, the first thing you want to do is figure out how many steps you're taking a day. What is your activity level right now? How many steps are you taking right now? And then you want to gradually increase that over time. So getting more active is going to do a couple of different things. One, it's going to get your muscles being used, right? You'll probably gain a little bit of strength from just getting up and getting moving when your muscles aren't used to getting much movement. This will also help you to burn more calories. Movement requires energy, so your body's going to burn energy to get you moving. And also if you're challenging your muscles, they're not used to moving, you may feel a little bit sore the first time you go for a walk or the first time that you push yourself to move more because your body is not used to that level of activity.(04:28)
So you'll probably also build some muscle which will also help you to burn more energy. And remember, your body fat is stored energy, so the more energy that we get your body moving, get your body using the better here. So setting a daily steps goal is one way to do that. Another way to do that is to set just kind of a general weekly movement goal of a certain number of minutes. So the American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes total of exercise time per week, and you can break that time up however you like. You can break it up in 10 minute intervals, go on several 10 minute walks a day or do some other activity. You don't necessarily have to walk anything that gets you up and moving in some way counts here. So that includes going for a walk, but it also includes things like going swimming or getting up and cleaning your house, tidying up your house where you're up and moving, anything that gets your heart rate going, gets your heart a little bit more elevated where you're breathing a little bit heavier, maybe you break a little bit of a sweat every minute doing that, whatever that activity is, that counts towards your weekly movement goal.(05:39)
So different ways that my clients like to use kind of check off their weekly activity is they go for bike rides. They sometimes will take dance classes like Zumba or an exercise class at their local gym. Usually exercise classes are pretty cardio focused, but anything that gets them up and moving counts here and they just try to get that 150 movement goal. Sometimes people need to break that up into like what does that mean on a daily basis? Well, you can get 150 minutes total by just doing five times a week for 30 minutes. So on five days a week you get up and you do some kind of movement for 30 minutes. That's a good place to start. And you don't have to do just 150 minutes total. You can do more, but that's like the minimum. So figure out something that you can do, whether it's getting your daily steps, goal setting that if that motivates you to get up and moving, then use that.(06:34)
Or if you want to try other things like other types of activities, then use the weekly number of minutes goal. And again, anything that gets you up in moving counts. I also have clients who garden, they garden or they do yard work or housework, some who play with their kids or take their dog out to play. So anything that gets you up and moving counts here. So you can use your imagination and you don't have to do the same thing all the time. You can try different activities just as long as by the end of the week you've done 150 minutes total of something that gets you up and moving. This alone will help you to improve your heart health, your cardiovascular health, and build a little bit of muscle because again, anything that's more than what you were doing before is going to move the needle.(07:26)
Now this is important because when you inevitably reached a point later on in your fitness journey when maybe you're more advanced and you're used to working out pretty intense intensely several days a week, there are going to be times where you're just not going to be able to get your workouts in. There are going to be times where you may not be able to show up. Maybe you get sick or maybe you're going through a bout of a mental health challenge or maybe someone in your family gets sick and you're not able to show up for your workouts and stick to your workout routine. You can always fall back on your daily or your weekly activity goal and maintain that as a bare minimum. You could always fall back on that. If you do, it's a lot easier to get back into your workout routine from a baseline level activity versus what happens to a lot of people where they just stop all activity altogether, they hit a bump in the road and they just stop all exercise and activity.(08:26)
If you try to maintain a base level of activity, whether that's his daily steps goal or the weekly minutes, you will have a much easier time getting back into your workout routine, and it will also help you to maintain a certain level of cardiovascular fitness and muscular strength to get back into your routine. So activity is number one, and a lot of times what I tell my clients when they have one of those weeks off and they feel really worried about losing all their gains, like, oh, I missed my workouts this week. The first thing I ask them is like, okay, well did you get any other kind of activity in? And a lot of times what they'll tell me is, well, yeah, I rode my bike and I went on a hike and I did yoga. And I'm like, well, then I'm happy. I'm happy as your trainer.(09:15)
I'm really happy with how that week went. It's okay. You didn't do the program, but you were taking care of your body. And that is the most important thing that I want you to keep in mind when it comes to starting your fitness journey. The number one goal that I teach, the philosophy behind my training and my philosophy of fitness is the goal here is that you're taking good care of yourself. We're learning how to take good care of our bodies, and sometimes that just means getting up and moving. Sometimes we can't push ourselves for whatever reason, but just getting up and getting moving is still taking care of yourself. And for me as a coach, when I hear my clients are still taking care of themselves, they're still getting active, they might not be doing the workouts that I prescribed, but they're still active, that is a win for me.(10:05)
And that's something that I celebrate for my clients and I try to get them to celebrate as well. It's like, maybe I didn't get my workouts in, but I stayed moving. You deserve a pat on your back if that's the kind of week that you've had. So I want to make sure I make that super clear. The baseline is activity. Activity comes first and you can always fall back on activity. Now let's talk about how to actually build a workout routine. You do not necessarily have to sign up for a gym membership if you want to start working out. In fact, there's a lot of things that you can do with no equipment at home to start laying the foundation for your fitness. The number one thing that you want to focus on when you are just starting to out is building up your core strength and stability.(10:47)
If you spend the majority of your days seated or sedentary, it's likely that your core strength, and by core I mean the muscles in your torso, so your abs, your obliques, your erector, spinney, all of those muscles that hold your posture upright, they're likely weak and you know that they're weak. If you look at your posture and your posture is like this and you have a really hard time holding yourself up straight. So that needs to be the primary focus of any workouts that you do when you're first starting your workout journey. So in my beginner level, level one programs that I create for my clients, we spend a lot of time doing exercises that force you to keep your torso muscles fired up and rigid. So this can be exercises like learning how to do Pilates imprinting, which I think is a really good skill to master.(11:41)
First Pilates imprinting is where you're laying face up on the mat and you're engaging your abs and your deep, your pelvic floor muscles and pushing your lower back against the mat down into the floor. It doesn't look like much, but it is a challenge, especially for people who aren't used to doing any exercise. And you want to learn how to hold that engagement while you do other exercises, and you can add on movement to this where you force yourself to keep that imprint while your legs are moving. So things like single leg drops with your knees bent, and then you can make it even more complicated by turning it into a dead bug by adding in arm movement. You can also do this type of exercise in a quaded position, like a tabletop position where you're just holding your body while you're trying to do some kind of a balance movement like sticking your leg back for a bird dog or something like that.(12:35)
Planks are a great way to challenge your core stability side, planks and variations of that. So a good beginning workout series for beginners will include a lot of those types of exercises that really focus on getting you engaged, getting your brain connected to your abs and your other core muscles, and teaching you how to hold your torso rigid. Because when you go to do other exercises that are a little bit more complicated, that squats, deadlifts, pushups, you need to be able to perform those exercises to do them safely. You need to be able to hold your core in nice and tense without any movement in your spine. So those kinds of exercises will help. So prioritize building core strength. And if that's all you do for your workouts, that's fine. You can do just like a daily little 10 or 15 minute mini workout where you just do a few exercises to strengthen your abs.(13:33)
That is a great way to start. And that's actually the focus of my ready set fit program. My ready, set fit program is a program of daily tiny little mini workouts that are like 10 to 15 minutes long. And their focus is a lot on building core strength because that's assuming you sit every day and you sit all day. That's that's probably the thing that you need to work on the most. And then you also want to start to work on balance. Balance training or stability training is very similar to core training where you practice standing and progressively more unstable positions. And this does the same thing for your legs, muscles as it does for your core muscles. Doing the stability work for your core. It helps connect your brain to your muscles so you start to learn what it feels like for those muscles to work.(14:23)
And it also is teaching you how to hold your body under tension in space, in alignment with good posture. So you can do stagger stance type exercises, single leg standing exercises, and then add more challenge by making your arms move in a certain way. Or you can step and then step into a single leg balance. So I have my beginning clients do a lot of those types of exercises as well. And really between core exercises and balance exercises, that's a really great way to start, and you could just practice that for a couple of weeks in the beginning of your fitness journey and make significant gains. And that's why I also like to recommend people if they're interested in starting a fitness journey. Doing yoga or Pilates is a great way to start because those styles of training are very heavily focused on building core strength and stability as well as flexibility, which is the other thing that you want to work on as a beginner.(15:25)
You want to learn what it feels like to stretch your muscles as well as work them. And a lot of people who spend the most of their day seated have poor flexibility. And when you have poor flexibility, it means that you're going to have a harder time moving through the exercises that are going to help you to build muscle like squats and dead lifts and stuff. Poor flexibility is going to impact your ability to do those and to do them safely. Tight muscles can pull at your joints and cause pain, like we talked about earlier today at the beginning of stream, having tight quadriceps is one of the main reasons why people experience knee pain when they're working out. And so I give a few tips for how to address that and to loosen up the quadriceps. So practicing flexibility, just stretching, static stretching, dynamic stretching, foam rolling are great ways to work on your mobility, and that should be your focus as a beginner.(16:22)
Build up your cardiovascular fitness by getting moving more, and then just start connecting your brain to your muscles with some stability work, some flexibility work, and some core stability work. And then you can build on from there. But that is what I would recommend that you focus on starting. And if you try these types of exercises, you'll probably notice that it's not hard in the sense of you feel like you're dying by the end of the workout, but it is challenging. This type of training is challenging, but it's challenging in a way that I find is very easy for beginners to do or anybody at any level. Stability work, balancing work and just stretching can still be quite challenging, especially if you're sedentary. So you still might break a sweat from this kind of exercise and burn more calories, but you have a very low risk of injury, which is something that a lot of beginners are really worried about when they start working out.(17:25)
It's like, I'm afraid that I'm going to hurt myself by doing it wrong. There's pretty low risk of injury with stabilization exercises, especially if you are following a program that starts very, very simple and then progresses very gradually. And for my clients, when I first start working with them, I keep everything super duper simple, and then we progress very gradually to more complicated stuff as they get stronger or as they need more challenge. So you want to keep it simple, simple, simple, simple. When you're getting started, build up your confidence, build up your strength, because remember when you haven't been moving much just a little bit, it's going to go a long way. I.
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Get started on your fitness journey with this series of daily mini workouts!
This program features 28 daily 10-15 minute workouts featuring gentle, beginner-friendly exercises using no equipment. Build strength, improve your flexibility & balance, and set a solid foundation of movement as your first step to fitness.