Nerd Fitness

This past year, I became a complete beginner again. …it didn’t go how I expected. I’ve been a coach for over 15 years. It’s my passion, and why I was hired at Nerd Fitness back in 2018. But my role at Nerd Fitness has grown. These days, I’m not just responsible for our coaching. I’m also responsible for making sure the right people out in the world – the folks we were built to help – can actually find us. As it turns out, that’s its own huge, complicated, overwhelming problem. I had

Eight months ago, Faye joined our coaching program. What she told us on day one is something we hear a lot: “I hate exercise. I want to have a better attitude about it so that I’ll actually do it instead of dreading doing it. I want to learn some general principles about exercise so I can teach my kids how to be healthy with exercise. It’d be great if I could look awesome, but honestly, I just want to be healthy.” A lot of the people we work with are in a s

Squats. Rows. Deadlifts. Presses. There’s a reason why these are the foundation of any good strength program.[1] But if you’re goal is to be capable outside of the gym, there’s another category of movement that’s often overlooked. These are the movements that help you build qualities other than absolute strength: power, mobility, and work capacity. So you can break into a game of tag with your kiddos or help your friend move that awkward piece of furniture without worryin

I just got an awesome video question from a reader named Dale – and it got me so fired up, I had to share it with you. Dale’s been working out at planet fitness for the last couple of years, but in the last 6-weeks, she’s made it her mission to start learning how to strength train. (HECK YES!!!) She’s watching Youtube videos and trying to figure the whole thing out. Here was her question: I want to know how to transition to the other things that I’m intimidated by

After 4+ years of work, Steve’s new book, How to Try Again, is on bookshelves everywhere! In case you’re new to this email list, Steve is the nerd who started Nerd Fitness in 2009, and stepped back from NF to spend the last few years writing it!) I was lucky enough to be a small part of Steve’s writing process. I got to jam with him about behavior change, provide feedback on his opening chapters, and heck, one of my stories even made it into Chapter 3! So obviously, my opinion is COM

Have you ever caught yourself thinking, “I need it to work this time“? Maybe you’re trying to start a workout routine again. Maybe you want to take better care of yourself and finally eat in a way that feels good. Maybe it’s something else entirely. Whatever it is – if you’ve tried before and it didn’t go how you hoped, a quiet desperation can creep in. “I’m so tired of trying and getting nowhere.” “Will this ever work for me?&#

When someone joins our coaching program, we ask them to rank three things in order of importance so their coach knows where to start: Fitness Nutrition Mindset Almost everyone ranks them in exactly that order. Fitness first. Nutrition second. Mindset a distant third. (And that makes sense! They came here to move better and eat better. That’s the tangible change.) But here’s what’s interesting: When I look back through eight years of success stories, the physical wins are ther

Tell me if this pattern sounds familiar. One of my clients (let’s call him Elliot) would go hard every three months. Aggressive diet. New workout plan. The full deal. And it would work…for a few weeks. Then life would do what life does – motivation would fade, work would get stressful, there’d be a sick kid to take care of, a vacation – and the whole thing would unravel. Three months later, the cycle would start all over again. Only this time, everything felt a litt

When someone comes to me with an injury (or one of those nagging aches that’s been hanging around for weeks and they can’t figure out why) I run the same diagnostic almost every time. It’s simple. You can run it on yourself. And it’ll teach you what to look for to dodge future issues. The 3-part diagnostic I’m looking for a recent spike in any of these three: Volume – how much of the thing you’re doing Intensity – how hard the thing is Novelty &#8

I got this question from a reader last week, and it echoes a lot of questions I’ve received over the years: “I hate weight lifting and no matter what strategy I tried, I just can’t make it stick. Standing or sitting, lifting dumbbells for more than a few minutes just bores me to death. Walking truly has been easier to do because I can do it while I do other stuff I need to do that day; work meetings, reading work emails, doing my game dailies. It is the act of just standing th

It happened again. I came home from coaching my son’s rec soccer game, ran up the stairs, and felt it instantly. My back seized and locked up. And then that sinking feeling hit right away: “Not again. I was doing so well.” And I was doing well. This was about 2 years without a major flare-up, roughly 4x longer than my average through most of my 30s. If you’ve followed me for a while, you know I’ve dealt with low back pain for over 20 years thanks to congenital spina

There’s so much noise in the fitness industry. So many “Don’t do that” or “You’re doing it wrong if…” So much fear-mongering and finger-pointing. And honestly, it frustrates the heck out of me. It’s overhyped, overblown, and not all that helpful. Especially for those of us who just want the strength, energy, and health to pour into everything else we’ve got going on. One year ago today, I took over writing this newsletter from Steve wit

​I’ve gotten a bunch of really great questions recently, and I noticed a theme. ​ ​A lot of them have this undercurrent of “am I doing this wrong?” I get it! There’s so much conflicting information out there on the internet, and it gets a lot more clicks to talk about how “You’re ruining your gains if you…” That’s why we’re here. To help you sort the helpful advice from the overblown hyperbole so you’re not constantly second gues

Do you remember how you ran and played as a kid? ​ ​Whether it was storming castle walls, avoiding lava pits, or cartwheeling down the sidewalk, we weren’t worried about sets, reps, or time-under-tension. We were just having fun in the moment. ​ When was the last time working out felt like that for you? ​ For those of us that love strength training, exercise DOES feel this way. We love getting in the gym and crunching numbers and focusing on technique. It can be totally absorbing and fun.

Most people go their entire lives never learning how to fall. Everyone takes a tumble at some point. Whether it’s a patch of ice, a trail root, a misstep off a curb, or just an unlucky moment, falls happen to all of us. And for a lot of people, especially as they age, a single fall can be genuinely life-altering. Hip fractures alone carry a staggering mortality rate in older adults. Roughly 20-30% don’t survive the following year, not from the fall itself, but from the cascade of com

Ever wonder how to adjust your training when you’re sick? Or what to do if you haven’t worked out in a few weeks and are ready to get back into it? How about after you’ve just had a terrible night of sleep? These situations come up all the time in our coaching program, so today, I want to walk you through the 50/50 Rule: my go-to strategy for helping people train safely and effectively when life throws you a curveball. Let’s break it down. The 50/50 Rule Here’s the

I got a message from a reader, Sabrina, this week – and she pointed out a pattern I think a lot of us know well. “I allow myself to say sliding into bad habits is alright. After all, I’ve had a bad day. Well, my bad days have a tendency to become hard weeks and then months. It doesn’t take much for me to backpedal.” I know I’ve been there. Here’s how we work through it. Know the difference between an off-day and a repeated pattern. Missing a workout

I got a question from a reader named Rick this week: If this sounds familiar, you’re definitely not alone. When people join Nerd Fitness Coaching, over 70% tell us they struggle with stress eating, emotional eating, or nighttime snacking. I recorded a short video explaining why simply “trying to stop snacking” usually backfires – and what tends to work better. ​WATCH: STRUGGLING WITH NIGHTTIME SNACKING? TRY THIS INSTEAD​ If you’d rather read than watch, here&#8217

One of the most popular workouts we’ve ever published at Nerd Fitness is our Beginner Bodyweight Workout. (Even though Steve filmed ​the original video​ with his shorts inside out and backwards. True story!) But after a few weeks or months, you may wonder: “Cool, this works. But what should I do next? Do I just keep doing the same thing?” Good news: you have lots of options! If the workout is starting to feel easier, here are five ways to level it up. Note: these tips work for

Here are four simple cues you can use to move better and feel great in your workouts. If you’ve had a nagging feeling of: “I’m not sure if this is sketchy, am I doing this right? ” …then this is for you! Let’s dig in. ​WATCH: 4 CUES TO HELP YOU MOVE BETTER​ CUE #1: “Maintain balance across your foot” This helps you avoid your knees collapsing inward, especially on squats and lunges. Focus on maintaining even pressure between your heel, base of you