Training/How to Start edition

Here's this week's round up of your questions! I figured with the holiday season, New Years, and everything this time of year, I figured I'd answer questions that may be coming up a bit more this time of year.

As always, If you want to submit your question, you can do so here:

How to start? It feels so frustrating...

TLDR: Start where you are, do what you can, and build from there.

Things are obviously going to vary person to person based on their preferences, time limitations, other life factors, etc.

When you're untrained/detrained, you can benefit from starting with 2 days per week of strength training for just 30 min. Then as you build that habit, you can go to 3 days per week for 30 min sessions, then increase the session time up to 3 days per week with 60 min sessions (or more days with shorter sessions depending on what works for your schedule).

For cardio, you can start with a 10 min walk each day or going up the stairs in your house 10 extra times. It doesn't have to be complicated!

These workouts can be at home, at a park, at the gym, or wherever! You can use the equipment or household objects you have and train based on your preferences.

I also do have several beginner training programs in the Paradigm of Perfection + Train app if you're interested too!

Just discovered calisthenics and I'd love to practice that. Any advice on how to start calisthenics training? What are the basics/beginner movements?

I do have 2 beginner calisthenics programs and 1 intermediate calisthenics program in the Paradigm of Perfection + Train app, so those are great places to start. Plus there are skill programs like the pull up program, pistol squat program, and more - so there are options for you depending on your goals if you are looking for a full program!

As with any training, you have to consider the fundamental movement patterns - these are:

1. Push - think vertical push and horizontal push for upper body (ex. dips and pike push up for vertical push and push up for horizontal push)
2. Pull - think vertical pull and horizontal pull for upper body (ex. pull ups for vertical pull and an Australian/inverted row for horizontal pull)
3. Squat - this can be single or double leg
4. Lunge - think single (ex. shrimp squat) or double leg (standard lunge variations)
5. Hip hinge - consider single and double leg here as well
6. Carry - this is easier with weights, but for calisthenics, I'd substitute statics/balances (ex. headstand, handstand, crow, etc.)

By considering these fundamental patterns, you can adapt them to calisthenics for a pretty solid place to start with programming.

As for beginner movements, anything can be progressed/regressed based on your level, but here are some (not all) basics that can be progressed to your level:

1. Push up - can be incline/kneeling all the way to weighted or planche push ups
2. Pull up - can be squat/band assisted all the way to one arm pull ups
3. Dips - can be band/squat assisted all the way up to weighted/Russian/Korean dips
4. Rows - can be an Australian/inverted row all the way to a front lever row
5. Pike push up - can be band assisted on the floor all the way to handstand push ups
6. Squats - can be a sit to stand from a box all the way up to pistol squats or dragon pistol squats
7. L sit - can be tucked or toe assisted all the way to a mana
8. Elbow lever - can be toe assisted or tucked all the way to single arm or a bent arm planche

How to incorporate mobility training with weight training and where to start with that?

This partly depends on preferences as there are multiple ways to do this:

1. Include mobility work in a separate session
2. Include mobility/flexibility work as part of your warm up/cool down
3. Superset your strength work with some mobility work during your rest breaks
4. Include strengthening throughout the full range of motion into your weight training
5. Weighted mobility to assist getting into end ranges - this can be done in any of the above ways

I do have mobility programs and follow along sessions in the Paradigm of Perfection + Train app that use all of these techniques, so feel free to check out the mobility programs if you'd like!

To start, try whichever method seems easiest for you first and see if you like that - if you do, continue at it until you plateau and then you can adjust accordingly!

First time practicing handstands. Any beginner recommendations for training?

First, I feel like I do need to say, I have three beginner handstand programs in the app, so check it out if you're interested!

To start here are things I'd focus on:

1. Full shoulder motion - you need to be able to get your arms overhead fully to do a handstand with a straight line (it also makes it easier cause you can stack joints vs. muscling your way through it)
2. Learning how to fall safely and confidently - if you are afraid of falling, you're not going to feel comfortable enough kicking up, which will hold you back in your training
3. Slowly progress wrist strength/weight bearing tolerance - when you significantly change the amount of weight bearing you're doing through the wrists without proper progression, the wrists can get irritated. Slowly progressing this allows your body to adapt so you can train handstands more long term!
4. Learn to grip the ground and keep body tension - balancing a stick is easier than a cooked piece of spaghetti - balancing with a tight, stacked body line will be easier than a loose body. Gripping the ground helps make those smaller adjustments and helps save your handstand before it becomes bit losses of balance.

I want to lose fat, get stronger, and get more flexible. Where do I start?

Similar to my answer to the first question, start where you are, do what you can, and progress from there.

With the body composition changes, nutrition is going to be more of a priority. I do have a basic nutrition guide as a resource in the app, which can be a good place to start, but if you need more individualized guidance, I'd also check out KJO coaching (I've personally worked with the KJO team myself) or Marylin, who I haven't worked with, but chatted closely with and she has a good head on her shoulders, knows her stuff, and has helped many people! Overall calorie balance is going to be most important (so you want to be likely around maintenance for the body recomposition of losing fat and getting stronger sustainably over time). Jordan Syatt can also be another free resource.

Strength is going to come with lifting or challenging your body in some way with resistance training (can be calisthenics too!). You're going to want to make sure you're using the appropriate weights/resistance/difficulty of the exercise to build strength, so you want to get close to failure. You can check out this blog post on how to find the right weight for you, but with all the programs in the app, you'll have a set RPE/RIR to help you choose the right weight/difficulty for the exercise!

For mobility training, I'd start with implementing your choice of one of the above ways of adding mobility training into your strength training! I have some free mobility sessions over on my youtube, and even more resources in my app for building strength and mobility! Or if you'd like something more individualized, I do offer one on one individualized training.

4 months postpartum and feel like training is useless cause I'm so sleep deprived and can't recover. Thoughts?

First, you got this. It's hard, but this time will pass and it will get better. All you can ask of yourself is your best with what you have at this moment in time. ❤️

If you can't recover from your training, I'd argue you're probably starting out with something that's too challenging for where you are currently.

Think of your capacity as a bucket: you have life stuff thrown in there that takes up space, your basic needs, your child's basic needs, your training, and possibly work too. Your bucket is only a certain size and when other things are taking up space, training may not be able to take up as much space as it used to while still being able to recover. You can exchange your bucked for a bigger one with proper recovery like sleep, hydration, nutrition, but right now, it may be more realistic to work with what you have and do what you can. So if you can hydrate a little better, or eat a bit "better" (I know it's vague), fantastic, but likely it'll be adjusting your workouts.

It honestly may not even look like your old workouts and that's fine! Chose a level, duration, and frequency you can recover from - even if it's just walking or doing basic bodyweight exercises. Once you're able to recover well and it's easier, then you can progress and build from there. Over time, as your recovery improves/as your able to get more sleep, then you can push even more. But give yourself a little grace with where your at and remember something is always better than nothing! ❤️

I'm 35 and looking to ease back into working out. What's a good balance of workouts I can do?

Generally speaking, again, this is going to vary based on preferences, but starting out with a 2-3 day per week program at 30-60 min per workout (depending on time/preferences) is a good place to start. I'd include an aspect of mobility, strength, and cardio, but you don't need to focus on all of these things at once.

As we're getting older (not that 35 is old by any means, but I can say at 30 myself, your body does change from your 20s 😂), I'd bias strength a bit more if you're female and mobility a bit more if you're male - this is more due to stereotypes with women not wanting to strength train as much (and it's super important for bone health/reducing the risk of osteoporosis as we age) and stereotypically men focus on strength without mobility work. So if you don't fit the stereotype, that's a-okay, just adjust accordingly and don't neglect weaknesses even more!

For cardio, this is more for heart health, so just including some zone 2 work which doesn't have to be crazy intense can be helpful!

I do have a beginner strength fundamentals program that's 3 days per week at 45-60 min per session that can be a good place to start. Combining that with 1-2 sessions of the the 5d/week version of the anti-sitting mobility program can be helpful if. you need a little extra mobility work (or doing the intermediate mobility warm up/cool down follow along would work depending on preferences).

I've lost my motivation to exercise. What should I do? What's the best way to stay motivated?

Motivation is going to come and go, even for experienced trainees. This is where you depend on habit and knowing you'll feel better as you continue to move.

When I'm not feeling as motivated, here are a few things I'll do:

• Come up with a new goal/change my focus. This may be a new skill goal, more bodyweight vs weighted focus or vice versa, adding a different style of movement into my training (ex. more KB, animal flow, etc.)
• Give myself a little grace and know something is better than nothing when moving - I'll start my workout and give myself a minimum of things I need to do and I can do more if I feel like it, but the minimum was met (sometimes I'll get into the groove and feel good and other times I'll stop after the minimum is met)
• Use life stuff to motivate my training - ex if I have a hiking trip coming up and need to improve my cardio for that, I'll think about that when training (this is also something my dad will use most of the time). I personally will typically use a time constraint/need to get this done before something as motivation to just get moving/started and reduce rest breaks. Setting a timer to start or finish my workout is sometimes helpful too.
• Focus on how I'll feel after vs. how I'd feel if I didn't move

Remember, maintaining a habit is easier than creating one and you can't always rely purely on motivation!

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That's it for this week! If you have any questions to clarify my answers or found it super helpful, go ahead and hit that reply button!

Don't forget you can ask your questions below to be featured in an upcoming email!

Best, Laura Kummerle No one is perfect, and that in itself, is perfect!

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