Sweat Out; Happiness In!

What's up, Achievers?! Super fun episode for you all today! In the first question, we discuss how to go about loading a barbell with multiple plates without looking silly in the process (2:55) Next, we go over exercises that we like to use on the BOSU ball and whether or not we think that the BOSU ball is an effective tool overall (8:10) Then, we cover whether or not you should be including power exercises to your workout regimen (12:20) Finally, we talk about where you should place kettlebell exercises in your program - the beginning as a power exercise? The middle as a strength/hypertrohpy exercise? The end as a finisher? We go over it all here! (15:28) We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! We go through a lot of information in a short amount of time for this one! In the first question, we talk about why a person's hamstrings might "feel" chronically tight (2:14). Then, we discuss the second part of the question, which is how to go about activating the glutes better (6:28). After that, we discuss some ideas to strength and mobilize your wrists. Here's the YouTube video we reference on wrist warm ups. (10:20) Finally, we talk about foot supination - or rolling to the sides of your feet while squatting. Here's the YouTube video we reference about ankle mobility (15:05). We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! AchieveMentors is our podcast for fitness coaches and aspiring personal trainers. In today's episode, we go over exactly how we onboard our members from the inquiry to the retention process. Now, we currently have a team of about 10 coaches and managers so our process is a much bigger operation. If you're a personal trainer or gym owner operating alone, we hope this doesn't overwhelm you, but rather give you some ideas on how you can optimize your onboarding process! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! Really good episode for you all today that was completely uninterrupted by our little guy! In the first topic, we delve into some recent research about the best frequency to maximize muscle growth as well as our thoughts on research in general (5:06) Next, we talk about some concepts like grease the groove, training to failure, and total volume for how to increase the number of push ups and pull ups you can do (11:54). Finally, we discuss whether or not we think doing deadlifts is safe for your back (17:05). We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! Hope you all had a wonderful weekend! In the first question, we talk about a couple ways to improve stability when you lunge. The key concepts are to reduce range of motion, make the exercise less dynamic, and utilize various forms of assistance (4:59). Next, we delved into how to transition from traditional strength exercises like lunges and dumbbell work, and move to more advanced exercises like barbell work like the powerlifts and olympic lifts (10:28). Lastly, we covered how to progressively overload "the right way". There is no "right way" - just the right way for a specific person at that specific moment in time so we discussed some broad principles here that hopefully you can glean some information from (18:14)! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! We missed Monday's episode due to being in sunny Florida, but we're back! In the first question, we talk about what muscle groups are being worked during a Romanian Deadlift and whether or not the glutes should be playing a significant role or not (2:08). Next, we talked about how to maintain healthy habits while traveling (5:44). Finally, we discussed safe ab and core exercises during pregnancy (18:00). Here is a video on core training that shows you how to execute marching exercises. Also, here is another video we put together on how to approach exercise trimester by trimester! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! It took us a little while to get going because Kendrick has been through a bit of a sleep regression and we were recording this episode pretty early - so bear with us haha! In the first question we answer a question asking if we recommend a mobility program like RomWod or MobilityWod (1:29). We then go over how our personal workouts have been modified and adjusted after we've become parents (5:58). Finally, we discussed if we currently are in any physical pain (17:21). A lot about us in this episode! We were hoping to shed a little light on the way we currently train as well as our previous injury history, because we often think that people think we eat clean 100% of the time and that we workout 7 days a week for 2 hours a day, but honestly we love a moderate approach to health and fitness. We love this approach because it's the most sustainable! So, hopefully our current training schedules and injury history give you some room to be kinder to yourself and to be more patient with yourself as well! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! Hope all you Northeast Achievers are staying warm throughout this cold and somewhat-snowy-depending-on-where-you-live period! In the first question we talk about how to get a recovery workout in and what it entails (3:01). Next, we talk about how to address hips shooting up early during a deadlift. We talk about this YouTube video here (5:55). Finally, we address how we approach determining how many calories you should eat, as well as some other ruminations on the topic (12:22). We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What’s up, Achievers?! Just a reminder that AchieveMentors is a podcast specifically for fitness professionals and aspiring personal trainers! In the first question, we dive into whether or not someone can be a full-time student and start the process of becoming a personal trainer (1:10). Next, we talked about some of the logistics of how we came to open our gym, Achieve Fitness (7:02). Finally, we address how to sell your personal training services as a newer coach at your gym (19:14). We hope you enjoy this new series! You can access the free freview of AchieveMentors here. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! A super practical episode for you all today that we think will help a lot of you out! In the first question, we talk about what to do and how to address your chest "dumping forward" when you squat down. We reference this ankle mobility video, this core stability video, and this t-spine mobility video (6:45). Then, we addressed why your quads might cramp up during an L-Sit hold (10:09). Finally, we delved into how to address shoulder pain while bench pressing (14:10). We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we’d love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you’d like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! A super practical episode for you all today that has more tangible advice. In the first question, we talked about the different between forward and reverse lunges, which one we prefer and why (4:22). Then, we covered the ideal spinal position for both loaded and unloaded squats (8:30). Next, we discussed some knee-friendly cardiovascular exercises that are more low-impact (11:21). Finally, we delved into a listener who tends to pronate when they squat/deadlift/hip thrust/etc. We talk about pronation and if it's "bad" and how to address it! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we'd love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you'd like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! Just a reminder that AchieveMentors is a podcast specifically for fitness professionals and aspiring personal trainers! This was a fun one! The first question, we went a little deep and talked about what we would've done differently earlier on in our careers (1:45). Next, we dicuss how we approach starting a mobile PT business in 2019 (9:49). Finally, we discuss why big box gyms don't want their members to show up along with some more gym owner advice (21:37)! We hope you enjoy this new series! If you're interested in learning more about our educational offering for fitness professionals, check out: www.achievementors.com. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! Episode 102! In question one, we tackle how to train with osteoporosis (1:08). Next, we talk about how to get into an optimal conventional deadlift stance (6:28). Finally, we delve into how we coach breathing and bracing for squatting and deadlifting based upon the context of the situation. (18:07). We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we'd love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you'd like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers?! We've got a very specific topic for today's episode and it's all about how to create and put together your own strengtht training program. Here are a couple of notes: Joint-By-Joint Approach Neck - Stability Shoulder - Mobility Scapular - Stability T-Spine - Mobility Lower Back - Stability Hip - Mobility Knee - Stability Ankle - Mobility Foot - Stability As you can see, the body is a series of stacked joints that seem to alternate in "need". You can shape your warm-ups to follow these needs and tendencies to create a more effective warm up. Of course, there are a ton of exceptions to this theory; however, it's a great starting point! Here's the general flow of our workouts: Warm Up/Movement Prep: 10-15 minutes Power Development: 5 minutes Strength: 25-40 minutes Conditioning: 5-10 minutes Total: 45-70 minutes A starting point to organize your strength workouts is to have three supersets. You want to incorporate these patterns: Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Single Leg, Core. A1) Your "main" lift A2) Mobility/Stability drill to enhance or support A1 B1) An exercise you can still "load up" over time but not quite as challenging and as technical as an A1 lift B2) same as B1 C1+C2) Both C1 and C2 are reserved for much "easier" exercises that either target "weak links" or promote hypertophy in a given area or for injury prevention purposes. Here are two youtube episodes that have a beginner and intermediate workout for a "real-life" example! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we'd love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you'd like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren What's up, Achievers?! We've got a very specific topic for today's episode and it's all about how to create and put together your own strengtht training program. Here are a couple of notes: Joint-By-Joint Approach Neck - Stability Shoulder - Mobility Scapular - Stability T-Spine - Mobility Lower Back - Stability Hip - Mobility Knee - Stability Ankle - Mobility Foot - Stability As you can see, the body is a series of stacked joints that seem to alternate in "need". You can shape your warm-ups to follow these needs and tendencies to create a more effective warm up. Of course, there are a ton of exceptions to this theory; however, it's a great starting point! Here's the general flow of our workouts: Warm Up/Movement Prep: 10-15 minutes Power Development: 5 minutes Strength: 25-40 minutes Conditioning: 5-10 minutes Total: 45-70 minutes A starting point to organize your strength workouts is to have three supersets. You want to incorporate these patterns: Squat, Hinge, Push, Pull, Single Leg, Core. A1) Your "main" lift A2) Mobility/Stability drill to enhance or support A1 B1) An exercise you can still "load up" over time but not quite as challenging and as technical as an A1 lift B2) same as B1 C1+C2) Both C1 and C2 are reserved for much "easier" exercises that either target "weak links" or promote hypertophy in a given area or for injury prevention purposes. Here are two youtube episodes that have a beginner and intermediate workout for a "real-life" example! We hope you enjoyed this episode! If you did, we'd love you forever if you left a rating and review on iTunes - it seriously helps us out a lot! Please DM us @achievefitnessboston on Instagram if you have any questions you'd like us to answer. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren

What's up, Achievers! We decided to make a separate show dedicated to specifically those who are personal trainers, fitness coaches, and aspiring fitness professionals. This episode covers some of our most commonly asked questions from aspiring coaches like our recommended baseline certifications to obtain a CPT, our recommended specialty certifications, and other "prerequisites" in order to get your feet wet and make the jump to become a personal trainer. We hope you enjoy this new series! If you're interested in learning more about our educational offering for fitness professionals, check out: www.achievementors.com. Until next time, Peace, Love, and Muscles! Jason and Lauren