*If you’re under 25 and have no kids, you can probably ignore this message!

I’m an ex division 1 college wrestler and endurance athlete. I know what it’s like to train to the extremes and push my body to the limits.

Looking back, many times we over did it. But we were younger and the demands of life weren’t as much, so we got away with it.

When you become a parent and take on a career, the stressors of life (whether good or bad) add up. As you strive to maintain a healthy lifestyle you need to take this into consideration when tackling a disciplined training regimen.

You can’t kill yourself during workouts. I get it. It took me many years to rewire my brain around this. Working out, even though it’s a great stress relief, it’s still a biological stressor to the body. You don’t get better results by pushing it even harder every workout, you get better results by focusing on moderate intensities and activities, honing in on what you eat, sleeping better and recovering smarter.

There is a time and place, trust me. We love to do random workouts and “take it there.” But overall, as we keep polishing up our training protocols and styles, here are a few things we discovered:

➡️ Don’t chase red.
Again, there’s a time and place for this. Sometimes you have to, especially if you’re training for a performance. But even elite athletes know not to go high days more than once or twice a week. Middle aged parents just trying to stay super healthy, why would we do more than them? In general, I even believe that one super high intensity day even just two times per month is enough. I find much better results and optimal fat burn staying in the blue, green, and yellow zones during my workouts. Check out how we do it and GET FREE WORKOUTS HERE.

⬅️Train harder with your nutrition.
Training, especially resistance training, redefines your body, builds lean muscle for an athletic physique, and changes your body composition. But nutrition is what optimizes these results. If you put more attention and intention on eating right, you’ll accelerate your results and notice more changes from your workouts, regardless of how many “hard” workouts you do. Listen to our Basic Nutrition Principles Here.

➡️ Recover better.
I only do three one hour workouts each week. Some weeks, maybe I add in a fourth. All other days are low intensity, recovery days. For example, I jog a mile or two and then sit in our infrared sauna. I do not lift more on off days and I do not to crazy strenuous workouts. Over doing it will get you the opposite results—-you’ll store fat, get weaker, and your muscles won’t build the same. Results happen in the recovery phase. It’s a basic scientific principle.

Look, don’t stress out if you find yourself doing crazy intense workouts. You can back off and control the pace and intensity to ensure you aren’t over doing it.

The main message is stop thinking you HAVE to do that to get results. It’s a lie that the fitness industry either intentionally or unintentionally spreads. Don’t follow trends of the high intensify-all-the-time philosophy. Notice what happens to people who do that. They get hurt more often. Their energy suffers. And so do their results.

You can maximize by minimizing. You can gain by backing off.

I’m not saying don’t push yourself. Challenging yourself is different than straining yourself and chasing fatigue. The art of training is to figure out how to monitor it and manage it.

As always, don’t take my word for it. Try it for yourself today. And it may just be an absolute game-changer for you and everyone in your life.

INAM

God bless,
Coach Theo