I’m going to give you a brief overview of how my workouts have changed and evolved over the last 23 years, how I approach movement now and I’m also going to outline exactly how my training looked this past week, but before I do…
I just want to be super clear about something because I want you to get the results that you’re after...if your goal is fat loss, workouts are not going to get you there…plain and simple, so while folks are often curious about my personal training routine, I got in shape and I stay in shape because of my diet and the exact same concept applies to my clients, they get great results because we double down on their nutrition. In fact…
If your #1 goal is to lose fat, here’s how I’d recommend prioritizing your approach…
First and foremost, nutrition…dial in your diet.
Second, sleep.
Third, walking i.e. step counts, aim for 10,000 steps per day or 70,000 over the course of the week as a whole.
Fourth, stress management strategies…if need be.
And finally fifth, workouts or formal exercise.
The reason why nutrition is in the #1 slot is because you simply cannot out-exercise your diet. Sleep is second because it plays such a large role in your nutrition via adherence because if you’re tired all the time, you’re just not going to eat well.
Walking is next because it burns more calories than workouts…I’ve explained this in plenty of podcast episodes and articles before…step counts are also amazing for appetite regulation and stress management and then finally…
Stress management itself because it is like sleep in the sense that if you are perma-stressed without the appropriate tools to manage, you are not going to eat well…so as you can see essentially everything circles back to nutrition in one way or another.
Don’t me wrong, workouts or formal exercise are awesome, there are tons of benefits to be had and they can supplement fat loss to a small degree but, working out is not effective for fat loss in and of itself…I wish that it was because I would have gotten in shape wayyy sooner than I did, but it just isn’t the case!
Okay, now let’s get to the meat of the article…
For the majority of my training career, I have focused on aesthetics or in other words, training for a specific look and that typically played out via lifting weights and focusing on specific muscle groups i.e. chest, back, arms, shoulders and legs.
I’ve also experimented with things like exclusively bodyweight training, I got bit by the cycling bug in my late 20’s and I was obsessed with that for a number of years and it’s still something that I absolutely love. I’ve also dabbled in some running here and there, last year as I’m sure you’re aware I gave CrossFit a go just because I thought that it would be a fun challenge and now…
The way that I’m approaching movement is reasonably different because, my priority is moving in a way so that I can say one simple word…YES…what I do I mean by that?
Whether someone asks me or I just feel like…going for a walk, a run, a gym workout, a yoga session, a bike ride, a hike, a swim, a CrossFit class, doing some calisthenics or Olympic weightlifting…I can say YES…and if I say no, it’s not because I’m unable from a movement, capability and/or function perspective, but because maybe I’d just prefer to do something else that day.
There are plenty of people that if they’re asked to go for a hike, a run or insert whatever activity you’d like…could not say yes even if they wanted to…or if they go traveling for example, tons of folks are limited simply because they’re not conditioned or active enough to adequately explore a city on foot…
Sure you can take taxi’s and Ubers, but walking and potentially mixing in some public transit is an entirely different experience and you can see a city in much different way…there’s so much more depth…not to mention that all of those steps do help to buffer the delicious food that you’re likely digging into too (wink wink)!
So my movement practice now filters through the idea of enhancing my life experience as much as possible and being able to say yes or no from a place of choice, not capability or lack thereof…and of course this includes staying injury and pain-free!
I’m actually really enjoying being more of a generalist these days as opposed to a specialist, for example…I used to be a specialist when it came to weight training and it was great because I found it fun and it was aligned with my goals at the time, but now lifting weights that often just doesn’t appeal to me anymore…
Also, I found that the more that I specialized, the more little tweaks and niggles that I experienced, for example…I’ve worked on building up my barbell back squat plenty of times, I love the barbell squat…however I eventually get to a point where my knees get pretty angry with me even when my form is dialed in.
I also love the barbell bench press and I’ve worked on building that up too and same dealio, I get to a point where my shoulders just don’t like too much of that repetitive loaded pattern…point being, I finally stopped forcing a square peg into a round hole and now I’m much less of a specialist and much more of a generalist. I’m not saying that a generalist approach is necessarily the right approach for you or anyone else, this is just where I’m at right now.
Okay, now let’s get into my routine specifics…but first a quick caveat, the following is how this past week looked, it is not necessarily how every week looks or is going to look aside from one thing…my step counts because walking is a baseline movement must for me…it’s non-negotiable and so everything else is super flexy, howver the walking piece is not…I do it no matter what, if I feel like or not…rain, sleet, snow, you name it…I walk without fail!
Day 1: I did a bunch of mobility, specifically a lot of the knees over toes guy stuff, I’m really enjoying that at the moment and a simple google search will let you know what that is. I also went for a little swim and did 12,000 steps in total.
Day 2: A little bit of mobility/stretching, I then went for a 3.25km run on the local track, I know that because I logged it on Strava…after that I went to the gym and did some more mobility and bodyweight squatting stuff and by the end of the day I logged 20,000 steps…this was a particularly active day!
Day 3: I sprinkled little bits of mobility and stretching in throughout a full work day, so randomly I took like 2-3 minutes to hang out in the bottom of the squat, stretch my hamstrings and open up my shoulders…stuff like that.
I also did a calisthenics or bodyweight workout that included some handstands, butterfly pullups, muscle-ups, toes to bar as well as a bit of triceps and biceps work. I hit 15,000 steps on this day.
Day 4: I did a 4km run around the city, I sprinkled in some mobility and stretching throughout the day between periods of work and as always I went for a nice big walk...all in all, I totalled 16,000 steps for day 4.
Day 5: I did a stretching and mobility session in the morning for about 15 minutes and then I worked on my handstands as well as some more knees over toes stuff and heel up bodyweight squats. I also went for a quick swim in the late afternoon and I tallied up 15,000 steps.
The weekend will likely look very similar in the sense that I’m absolutely still going to hit my step counts (they’re non-negotiable) and I’ll surely do some mobility and stretching over the weekend. Perhaps I’ll lift weights or do some bodyweight exercise or maybe I won’t…I might go for a cheeky run if I feel like it, or maybe not…
I’m working on building the habit of stepping away from a super set plan and instead, just checking in with myself and my body as far as how everything is feeling each day and just going from there…and I’ll mention it again, this does not include steps…I always walk no matter what!
Now, if you’re someone who struggles to show up via your movement practice, I would not recommend my ‘go with the flow’ approach simply because you haven’t built that ‘showing up’ muscle yet.
On the other hand if movement has become an engrained habit and essentially part of who you are, then you may want to step away from a more rigid workout schedule if you’d like because you don’t have to concern yourself with whether you’re going to move or not.
The easiest way to think about this is whether you move your body or your body moves you, what do I mean by that? I have quite a few clients that initially come to me that are living a fairly sedentary lifestyle and so they’re getting say 2-5000 steps per day, they don’t workout, they don’t play any sports or just move much at all in general…they’re sedentary and so when they start, it can feel somewhat strange to begin walking say 8-10,000 steps per day, however…
They then get to a point where that 8-10,000 steps per day becomes the new norm and if they don’t get that movement in, they actually feel off or like something is missing and so there is a fundamental shift that happens where a sedentary person needs to apply effort and awareness to get moving, but then their body essentially comes alive and begins to move them in the sense that it starts to feel strange if they don’t move…it’s really cool!
Also, if you’re someone who doesn’t like lifting weights, going to the gym, formal exercise…call it whatever you want…you don’t have to do it! We can be incredibly healthy via just walking every day.
We can be super healthy if our main movement practice is gardening…or carpentry…or continuous projects around the house…the key isn’t necessarily what movement practice you choose, but rather just that you move…
Now how fit do you actually need to be to live a great life…?
Generally speaking, I think that virtually everyone should be able to…
Carry a couple of bags of decently heavy groceries, lift a suitcase up over your head to place it in the storage bin on a plane, go up 5-10 flights of stairs with relative ease when an elevator goes down, get down to the floor and back up effortlessly (think playing with a toddler), put socks on and tie shoes without needing to sit down…just basic day to day activities that pop up while living your life.
You don’t need to be able to squat or deadlift 300 lbs…I mean that’s cool, but it’s by no means required. Relative strength is much more important than absolute strength in my opinion, meaning…if you can do say 5-10 perfect push-ups where you touch your chest to the ground and maintain a straight line from your heel, to your hip, to your shoulder…your pushing strength is solid!
If you can do a single full range of motion dead hang pull-up, you’re in rare company! If you can do 10 perfect bodyweight ass to grass squats, you have plenty of mobility and strength in your legs! Point being, you don’t have to sleep in the gym to live a vibrant, healthy and strong life…
I’m sure that you’ve heard the adage ‘sitting is the new smoking’ and I would modify that a little bit to say that ‘stillness is the new smoking’…you can sit, just make sure that you don’t live a still or in other words sedentary lifestyle…that’s the big picture key in regards to any movement practice!
