exercise for fat loss

New some new workout ideas?

Your future called ... and it's SO proud of how strong you are.




That's from all the progressively overloading workouts AND sleep / nourishment / rest you've been giving it. ;-)



Now maybe this is a reality for you right now. You know you're progressing with your workouts and have an awesome plan for the rest that you're implementing or starting to implement. Or maybe you're on the waitlist for TRANSFORM: Body + Mind and will have soooo much confidence and clarity around all of this very soon. But if you're not yet strength training or you've been kind of bopping around and counting group exercise or Peleton-with-weights classes as strength training, this email is for you in particular.



Progressive overloading is the way we strength train when we have fat loss, muscle-building, or "toning up" goals. Once we've reached all of the goals and just want to maintain our strength and body composition, we have more flexibility to be able to bop around to various workouts because it doesn't take as much of a stimulus to maintain as it does to achieve those goals. It takes consistency to maintain! But there is more flexibility to the approach.



I'm going to assume for the rest of this email that you have fat loss, muscle-building, or "toning up" goals. Here's how to approach the strength training part of the puzzle if that's the case:

  • Have a solid, 1-week plan that targets all major muscle groups in the various ways they need to be targeted and in the various planes of motion and angles -- you'll likely need help with this, it's coming below ;-)

  • Use a resistance, reps, and sets that make at least the last few reps of each exercise feel HARD to complete. That's important. Write that down. What exercise? How much weight? How many reps? How many sets?

  • Repeat the same workouts week after week for 8-16 or so weeks before changing it up to a different set of workouts BUT, make it spicier over time. Meaning, add resistance as you can, reps, or even sets over time.



In case you need a week's worth of workouts to get you started, you can use some of mine! This is a 4-day a week plan and covers all the major muscle groups. Because someone will ask ;-) core is sneakily baked into ALL of my programming so I gotcha covered there too. Do them on any 4 days a week that you'd like, just avoid doing similar muscle groups on back-to-back days (like don't do upper 1 today and upper 2 tomorrow. Not enough rest there for recovery + progress).


Upper Body 1

Lower Body 1

Upper Body 2

Lower Body 2


If you plan to sign up for the January round of TRANSFORM: Body + Mind, keep an eye out. I will be offering an EARLY Black Friday deal -- early access to the whole course! Enrollment will open and close before Black Friday (I don't want to be in launch mode on actual Black Friday -- I'll be decorating the house with the fam and making our traditional Christmas loops). You will then have a full progressively overloading workout routine in there as well as optional meal plans, fun recipe collections, and other resources in case you hate cooking or are always on the run, cycle synching, menopause, pregnancy, postpartum, men / andropause, and breastfeeding considerations. Those are just some of the resources. It's really a whole COURSE and that's the true magic of it. ;-) You can check out more details right here.

Hope you enjoy those workouts!!


XO,
Tara

Cardio vs. Resistance Training? Who wins?

Walks or squats?
The answer might surprise you.



If you are looking to get into a new workout routine - or any workout routine - you might be like so many other women that are unsure about where to start.


Walking is good, right?
Weight-lifting is en vogue these days.
What about the HIIT stuff I'm hearing so much about?
Just TELL me what to do, Tara! ;-)


Ok I gotcha.


Check out my latest Workshop Wednesday video - one of my shorter ones clocking in at 9 minutes - where I break it all down for you. My answer might surprise you.


The biggest takeaway here is that establishing a habit of exercising is THE most important first step. So choose something you can actually find enjoyment in and do that everyday for 5 minutes (or even 1 minute!) until it feels like it's part of your routine - the same way brushing your teeth twice a day stays in your schedule no matter how busy you are.

In good health,

Tara

P.S. If you’re on a health / fat loss journey, you may be interested in getting a weekly dose of health-inspired videos, tips, recipes, and hand-holding. And, you may love getting all of this delivered straight to your inbox…for FREE? I mean, right?!? ;-) If you’re ready for your own transformation and would like me to help you every step of the way, hop on over to my email list so I know where to send you my best resources. When you sign up right here, you’ll also get my FREE 3-Day Meal Plan for Losing Body Fat RIGHT AWAY. Let’s do this!