5 Things I’ve Learned Working over 10 years in the Fitness Industry

Fitness routines are like your wardrobe.

Some elements are timeless and will never be out of style.

And some are trends .

And let me tell you, I’ve seen them all. The workout crazes and fad diets that take over for a short amount of time and burn everyone out. And the tried and true routines that will always be necessary.

Here are the top 5 things I’ve learned after years of being a personal trainer, Orangetheory coach, CrossFit coach, Spartan racer, and overall fitness enthusiast.

And they might not be what you’d expect.

1. Overtraining is sneaky and WILL reverse your progress

“A workout is better than no workout” can be a big fat lie. In his book, Why We Sleep, Dr. Matthew Walker talks not only about the importance of adequate rest but shares real data on how the idea of “powering through” is actually hindering any progress or gains we can make in the gym.

Overtraining can be a number of things. Here are some of the more common symptoms:

• Excess fatigue (that ones a given)

• Poor sleep

• Lack of motivation or enthusiasm

• Overheating or excess sweating

Here are some more uncommon ones:

• Weight gain

• Hormone issues - for me it was working myself to the ground so much I put myself into peri-menopause

• Mood swings and either wanting to cry or being a total butthead

• Getting sick or getting injured

• Plateauing and seeing either no progress or reversing progress

Overtraining combined with not properly fueling caused my body to start shutting down. My hormones were entirely depleted, my hair started to gray, and I was gaining weight. And while all I wanted to do to combat this (and get a mental release) was work out, I knew I needed to make a big change, take a break, change my routine, and get my body back.

Overtraining doesn’t just mean being more tired than usual. learn to recognize the signs your body is giving you. And give it a break and/or change your routine.

2. Rest is not only necessary, it’s where you make your most progress

What does an actual rest day look like? We have all heard of them but what does it mean? A rest day is an intentional day (or 2 or 3) where you do not intentionally do a workout. It is there to help your body recover and repair and take a break from the daily beating you might be giving it in your classes, through your app, or at the gym.

This does not mean you have to be a vegetable. If you want to then great, do that. But rest days are great days instead to get outside, go on a little longer walk with the dog (not an angry walk that you track in your Apple watch), or swap a workout with reading or cooking.

To go back to lesson 1, if you are someone (like me) who finds themselves in a period where you think you might be overtraining, rest means more than one day. When I’m overtrained I sometimes feel tired and feel the usual symptoms. But most of the time I know I’m hitting a wall when I’m see no progress or worse, my progress is reversing. This is a sign that I need to take some time and switch up my routine.

Instead of thinking to myself I must hit x amount of workouts per week. I’ll aim to hit daily movement instead. This alleviates the pressure of a hard workout and instead allows me to focus more on gentle movement. This will also be my time to prioritize meals and sleep for a few weeks because as I’ve learned the hard way that Dr. Matthew Walker finally proved, “a workout is better than no workout” is in fact wrong and if you want to see progress from the workouts you do, it only happens when you rest and let that happen.

3. Cardio is cool but weight training will make you unstoppable

I love cardio. I love running and sprints and breaking a hard sweat. It’s good for you, it’s good for your heart, and it can be fun. But if we want to age well and be able to continue to do this things we like to do, we have to add in some resistance training a few days a week.

This can be bodyweight exercises or low impact workouts like Pilates. Or this can be traditional weight lifting. In my experience, using free weights in some capacity should be part of everyone’s fitness routines. Building muscle and continuing to strengthen it is what increases your metabolism, strengthens bone density (especially in us females and our aging bones), helps shed unwanted body fat, and reduces risk of chronic diseases.

I like to sweat. I really do. But before I break a hard sweat it is my rule that I must do 20-30 minutes minimum of weight training. I promise your future self will thank you.

4. The healthiest people are the NEAT-est

NEAT: Non-Exercise Activity Thermogenesis

NEAT represents the calories you burn from daily physical activities outside of your fitness regimen. These calories can account for 15-30% of your total daily energy (calorie) expenditure.

Now, there is no complete substitute for your actual workouts, but studies have shown individuals with higher levels of NEAT activities are at a lower risk of chronic issues, more physically fit, and are more able to maintain a healthy weight.

Examples of NEAT:

Parking further away

Fidgeting (yes, fidgeting)

Taking regular standing and walking breaks

Cleaning and cooking

Dancing in the shower. It’s science.

Standing or pacing if you’re on a call

5. Consistency over all else. This is a marathon not a sprint.

You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be the fastest. You just have to keep going.

Didn’t work out this week? Good. You get to get after it tomorrow.

Got all your workouts in? Awesome, keep it up.

It’s easy to get down on ourselves and discouraged when we set a high bar that is unrealistic and then feel like a failure when we don’t hit it every single day.

Here’s how I’ve gotten through my lulls and those times I felt like a failure:

We get lost in the day by day and let one bad day throw off an entire week or longer. When it comes to fitness, you have to see this as a long term investment. It’s not about the quick gains. It’s about the daily steps and habits you accumulate and practice over a long period of time that will make you a strong and healthy person.

Instead of looking at a week, take a birds eye view at how consistent you were over an entire month.

If we have a goal of perfection every single day we’re setting ourselves up for failure. But instead, if I can look at my last month and think, okay I was consistent with my workouts more than I was inconsistent then that is a win.

Think big picture and long term. It’s true that we overestimate what we can get done in a week and underestimate what we can get done in a year.

Think of the routine you want to create. And if you miss a day, get right back to it the next. Be able to look back on the last few months and think overall I stayed consistent even with those few off days here and there.

Say goodbye to the always “today I start again” and hello to “today I keep going.”