Category Archives: Fitness & Exercise

Is it too late to start strength training at 70? (No. Here’s what happens when you do.)

Fitness & Exercise

No, it isn’t too late. People in their 70s, 80s, and 90s get meaningfully stronger when they start strength training, and beginners tend to see the biggest response to training. You also need far less than you’d guess: 30 to 60 minutes of lifting spread across a week is a great starting point. Here’s the science, three ways to begin, and a client who started at 57 and is still going at 77. A reader wrote me […]

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How to Start a Workout When You Really Don’t Feel Like It (The Bridge Task Method)

Fitness & Exercise

If you can’t get yourself to start a workout after a long day, the problem might not be the workout itself. It’s the gear shift from “couch” to “go.” A bridge task is a small, neutral action (not fun, not hard, just…meh) that you put in between the two so the jump is smaller. Below is the 5-step version one of our coaching clients uses with her own students, plus a free worksheet to map your own. […]

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Does Soreness Mean a Good Workout? No. Here’s What It Actually Tells You

Fitness & Exercise

Soreness is not an indicator of a good workout, and not being sore doesn’t mean your workout didn’t count. That day-after ache (DOMS) mostly tells you that you did something new, not something effective. Progress is more reliably measured in your training log: more weight, more reps, more control over time, sore or not. Rachael (a reader and all-around amazing person) sent me a question about this so well-organized it came with multiple choice answers. 😃 Is severe soreness […]

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How Fast Do You Actually Lose Strength? Slower Than You Think

Fitness & Exercise

You lose strength much more slowly than you probably think. A few days off changes basically nothing, measurable losses take roughly two to four weeks depending on the quality (muscle endurance fades first, maximal strength last). Muscle memory makes rebuilding faster than building the first time, and maintaining takes a fraction of the training that building did. Here’s the timeline, and how it can inform your training. Has this question ever crossed your mind: How fast do […]

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Why You Keep Falling Off Your Fitness Routine (and the 2-Minute Plan That Fixes It)

Fitness & Exercise

Expecting yourself to stick to the same fitness routine, no matter what, is why it fails. Because the only predictable thing about life is that it’s unpredictable. A kid gets sick. Sleep falls apart. The to-do list explodes. You can’t know which one is coming or when, but you can know something is, and you can build your routine to expect it. That’s the whole trick: take two minutes and decide, in advance, exactly what you’ll do […]

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Overwhelmed by Fitness Advice? You Need an Action Plan, Not a Perfect Plan

Fitness & Exercise

Quick Summary There is no “perfect” workout plan. Nobody can know what perfect looks like in advance. If you’re too afraid to start and make a mistake, it will keep you stuck at the starting line. Build an action plan instead: 1 or 2 small actions this week, and everything else blocked out for now. Action is what teaches you. Three weeks of imperfect reps will tell you more about what fits your life than three months […]

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How to Hold Yourself Accountable Without Beating Yourself Up

Fitness & Exercise

Quick Summary The drill sergeant version of accountability (“why did you skip that? do you even want this?”) questions YOU instead of helping you. If being hard on yourself worked, it would have worked by now. Real accountability is built on two things: forward momentum (get the next available win, then look ahead) and honest feedback (a neutral observer reading the evidence, not a judge handing out punishment). You can run it on yourself: win first, plan […]

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Bored With Your Workout? Try a New Level, Not a New Program

Fitness & Exercise

Quick Summary When a program gets boring, reaching for a new one feels like a fresh start. It’s also why you feel like you keep starting over and never getting anywhere. New is fun, and the fun matters; it’s a big part of what keeps people moving. The catch is that most goals need repetition: you get better at the things you practice again and again. So keep the program’s frame the same, and give one exercise […]

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A 30-Day Beginner Fitness Plan That Won’t Overwhelm You (One Quest at a Time)

Fitness & Exercise

Quick Summary Trying to overhaul everything at once is why getting healthier feels overwhelming before you’ve even started. You don’t need a bigger plan. You need the next quest. The next 30 days, mapped: start with a short walk today (Quest #0), make a 30-box Adventure Log (Quest #0.5), and spend Week 1 on daily movement snacks. A new quest arrives each week after that. Track it on paper, expect some hits and some misses (totally normal), […]

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Can’t get back into working out? It’s not a motivation problem.

Fitness & Exercise

Recently, I asked you: where are you feeling most stuck with your fitness right now? Hundreds of you wrote back. Thoughtful, honest answers. Thank you. I’m working my way through all of them. And one theme jumped out at me IMMEDIATELY. I know what to do. I can’t get myself to start. One reader, let’s call her Supergirl, said it this way: “I know what I should be doing, but for whatever reason, I can’t motivate myself […]

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