Are you juggling a demanding career, family responsibilities, and the desire to stay fit? If you’re past your 20s with a low to moderate fitness level, High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) could be your game-changer. This time-efficient workout method delivers maximum health benefits in minimal time, perfect for busy men and women. In this guide, we’ll explore why HIIT is ideal for your lifestyle, how to start safely, sample workouts tailored for beginners, and tips to stay motivated....| Whole Life Challenge
As we age, the desire to live vibrantly—free from aches, limitations, or the fear of falling—becomes a top priority. Enter functional fitness, the game-changing approach to exercise that’s helping people over 40, 50, and beyond move better, stay strong, and age with confidence. Unlike traditional workouts that chase aesthetics, functional fitness focuses on real-world movements to enhance mobility, balance, and strength for everyday life.… The post Stay Strong, Move Better: The Ultima...| Whole Life Challenge
OK, it’s time to put it all together! Only got 10 minutes? That’s all you need! Let’s take the movements you’ve learned this week and put them together into a quick and powerful full body, strength, balance, and stability building workout. Any stage of the progression for each movement will work. This quick, beginner-friendly workout is designed to get you moving, boost your energy, and build functional strength—no gym, no equipment, no stress.… The post Move Your Body in only 1...| Whole Life Challenge
Today we are targeting upper body strength and core stability with the Dumbbell Pull-Through. The dumbbell pull-through will add the critical element of stability to the balance you’ve worked on this week with the handstand and the lunge. This beginner-friendly tutorial will teach you how to properly perform the dumbbell pull-through—a simple but super effective move to target your core, abs, and deep stabilizer muscles.… The post How to Master the Dumbbell Pull-Through: Beginner-Friend...| Whole Life Challenge
We’ll follow up yesterday’s handstand tutorial with a powerful lower body movement—The Lunge. Unlike the squat, the lunge requires much less flexibility and mobility but it equal to the squat in building strength in your legs. It does involve a bit more balance, so be prepared to improve that as well! First, lunges don’t have to feel awkward or painful – so let’s fix that!… The post Master Lunges for Strength and Fitness: Top Tips and Techniques appeared first on Whole Life Chal...| Whole Life Challenge
Coach Leah is back this week with a few more moves for you to work into your workout and practice routines. This week we’ll start by getting upside down with the handstand. Don’t worry if you haven’t done one since you were 8, there is no experience needed! Coach Leah will walk you all the way back to the simplest progression and give you the steps to gain confidence and skill in getting inverted.… The post Go Head Over Heels with the Handstand appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
Sleep and exercise are two pillars of a healthy lifestyle, but what happens when they clash? If you’ve ever tossed and turned all night only to wake up groggy and wonder whether you should still hit the gym, you’re not alone. The question of whether to exercise when you don’t get enough sleep is a common dilemma. On one hand, physical activity can boost energy and mood; on the other, pushing your body when it’s already running on empty might do more harm than good.… The post Running...| Whole Life Challenge
This week we welcome Leah Barto from Brazen Fitness as a fitness contributor to our blog. Leah will be bringing you simple and practical movement tutorials and workouts that you can add to your Whole Life Challenge or your life. Today we’ll put together everything we’ve learned this week into a simple and effective full body workout you can do in your living room.… The post Push, Pull, Sqaut—Full Body Strength and Fitness in 10 Minutes appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
This week we welcome Leah Barto from Brazen fitness as a fitness contributor to our blog. Leah will be bringing you simple and practical movement tutorials and workouts that you can add to your Whole Life Challenge or your life. Today we move on to a slightly more complex movement, building on the push up. But rather than work the front of your body exclusively, this one will hit your back—the renegade row.… The post Build Full Body Strength With the Renegade Row appeared first on Whole L...| Whole Life Challenge
This week we welcome Leah Barto from Brazen fitness as a fitness contributor to our blog. Leah will be bringing you simple and practical movement tutorials and workouts that you can add to your Whole Life Challenge or your life. We started this yesterday with the push up. If the push up is the fundamental movement for the upper body, the squat is the king for the lower body.… The post How To Squat Like Your Health Depends On It appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
This week we welcome Leah Barto from Brazen fitness as a fitness contributor to our blog. Leah will be bringing you simple and practical movement tutorials and workouts that you can add to your Whole Life Challenge or your life. This week we’ll start things off with the fundamental of fundamental movements, the humble but powerful push up. There are a lot of ways to get stronger that don’t require any equipment.… The post The Last Push-Up “How To” You’ll Ever Need appeared first o...| Whole Life Challenge
Until recently, it was relatively easy to dismiss the positive benefits of play for adults. Play, after all, was something that we “outgrew” as we got older, right? But researchers from a number of different scientific disciplines — from neuroscience to psychology — now say that play can be just as important for adults as it is for children. One of the founders of the “play movement” for adults is Dr.… The post Play Time: Are You Missing Out on a Powerful Health Habit? appeared ...| Whole Life Challenge
I’m an introvert. I don’t like fairs, carnivals, airports, or malls. I don’t particularly like loud, overcrowded, sweaty fitness classes, which is ironic considering I’ve taught thousands of them. But despite my personal preference for a low-key vibe, group fitness environments can provide the extra motivation and accountability some people need to thrive. One thing I have learned over and over again, as both a student and a coach, is that when it comes to reaching and staying at your...| Whole Life Challenge
At the beginning of each year, it is easy to be fooled into thinking you need a new workout. New year, new you, and all that jazz. Don’t be fooled by fitness marketing hype. The basics are the basics for a good reason — they work. Let’s face it, squats don’t stop working to make you stronger just because you’ve been doing them for a while.… The post The Golden Mean Training Plan: A Simple Template for Success appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
What I am going to tell you is going to send the fitness world into a frenzy. I’m sure this one statement will put a bounty on my head and I will be blacklisted from any and every gym and corporate meeting from coast to coast. But, my priority is you and it’s time you hear the truth. Are you sitting down?… The post The Single Biggest Truth About the “Right” Way to Exercise appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
As a CrossFit coach and athlete, I can find it difficult to go slow. Most of my workouts have some sort of time element to them. I’m trying to go as fast as I can, beat the clock, and do more work. Even if you don’t do CrossFit, you may feel the daily pressure to do more and do it faster.… The post 5 Unexpected Ways Walking Can Make You Happier and Healthier appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
I am inundated with health and fitness advice daily. I’m sure you are, too, and just like you, I need to apply a careful filter to what I pay attention to and what I ignore. One of the things I am less and less inclined to pay attention to is the advice of someone much younger than me. The reason is quite simple — a thirty-year-old just doesn’t know what it’s like to try to stay active in their forties.… The post The 4 Principles of Healthy and Effective Exercise After 40 appeared f...| Whole Life Challenge
If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. — African Proverb Let me ask you something: Would you rather trudge through a workout on your own? Or would you like to meet up with a friend and knock it out together? 5 Benefits of a Partner Workout You’ll push harder. You’re less likely to quit. … The post Double Your Fun: 5 Partner Workout Strategies + 10 Workouts appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
Today we’re going to work on a series of pistol squat variations, one of which is likely perfect for you. The pistol squat is also sometimes called the single-leg or one-leg squat. This video will walk you through the progressions to the full pistol squat. But even if you can’t do a full pistol squat or never intend to, you can still get a lot of benefit from training its different variations.… The post Pistol Squat Variations for All Strength and Mobility Levels appeared first on Whole...| Whole Life Challenge
Today, we’re going through progressions and regressions of a single-leg squat known as the “skater squat” or “shrimp squat.” This version of a one-leg squat is easier on your knees than the pistol and requires less flexibility, as well. So it’s a great way to build up your strength and balance. That said, it’s harder than a regular lunge, so it’s common to need to modify this movement when you first start training it.… The post Skater Squat: A Bodyweight Exercise for Balance...| Whole Life Challenge
For those of you just getting started with kettlebells, here is a simple sequence you can dive into immediately. It’s easy to scale this up or down for your fitness and strength levels, and the technique involved in these movements is perfect for kettlebell beginners who need to practice the basics. The exercises are: Deadlift into front rack position Halo Goblet squat For details on these movements, watch the video above.… The post A Simple But Powerful Workout for Kettlebell Beginners a...| Whole Life Challenge
Training and diet aren’t rocket science. Any website or article that tries to tell you otherwise is just trying to sell you something. Inside all of us is a very perceptive brain, often called the lizard brain. The lizard brain is a throwback to our ancestors and is often associated with visceral feelings. You know that time you got a bad “vibe” from that one guy and he turned out to be a criminal?… The post Get Fit by Trusting Your Gut: 5 Questions You Need to Ask appeared first on W...| Whole Life Challenge
The idea of “cardio” has a bit of a stigma. Cardio, by definition, is currently out-of-style and because of the tough-guy mentality that pervades many of the training systems in today’s fitness industry, classic cardio for weight loss and conditioning has become taboo. Well, I’m here to tell you, there’s a workout out there that not only keeps us old timers who love our cardio and our cardio machines happy, but will also give the “hard as nails” group something to chew on.… Th...| Whole Life Challenge
This video will walk you through a simple sequence to learn the kettlebell swing. If you’re just getting started with the swing, these movements are great tools to help you along your way to being able to safely and effectively perform the full kettlebell swing. Each move builds upon the next until you are doing the complete exercise. In the video, you’ll see me perform each part of the sequence and I’ll explain how to do it in detail.… The post The Kettlebell Swing for Beginners: A S...| Whole Life Challenge
When it comes to training information, there has never been a better time to be alive. All the best authors and greatest minds are right there at your fingertips. Books, research papers, blog posts, and even forum posts directly from these authorities make learning easy. But the information is often pitched at one demographic — the twenty- to thirty-year-old male looking to be (pick one) jacked, super strong, or ripped.… The post The 3 Steps to Training Smarter as You Pass 50 appeared fir...| Whole Life Challenge
The push-up is a classic staple of bodyweight training and a great total body exercise for developing strength. But when most new trainees think of push-ups, it just brings back bad memories of trying to perform them in gym class in high school. The push-up, out of all the exercises I have beginner clients perform, is the one that creates the most dread.… The post How to Get Your First 10 Push-ups appeared first on Whole Life Challenge.| Whole Life Challenge
If you want to achieve ideal body composition — for most of us, lean, strong, and athletic — there are certain paths to follow. Keep in mind, they’re not necessarily those laid out by the mainstream media (especially as targeted to women). In no particular order, here’s some of the misinformation you’ve been subjected to: Eat fewer calories Run/bike/elliptical more Stay in the low-intensity, long-duration “fat burning zone” Don’t eat fat Target your abs Insert (miracle berry, ...| Whole Life Challenge
Running is one of those things that most people either love or hate. Usually, the two camps are divided by one factor — skill. The group of people who love running tend to have run earlier in life and picked up some skill at it. Like with many things, those who develop a particular physical skill early will often have a seemingly “natural” ability at it later, even if they don’t perform that task often.… The post The Walk/Run Program 2.0: Run for 60 Minutes Straight in 13 Weeks appe...| Whole Life Challenge