Today marks a new chapter in the Liftsum story. New website, new posts, new features. I couldn’t be more excited to bring this to life, and I’m even more excited about the opportunity to help all of you lead better lives through fitness and health.

For this first post in the new Liftsum feed, I’m going to be breaking down the Five Fitness Fundamentals that I use to create my fitness routines. These are the five basic areas of fitness that Liftsum will cover going forward. Think of them as the five pillars to your health and wellbeing. Each post from now until eternity will revolve around one of these five concepts. In this first edition, I just want go give a quick overview of each Fundamental, and one action item that you can do today to improve that area. These are roughly in order of importance, but they all play into each other. Later, I’ll draw a fun picture with pillars or circles to illustrate these five topics, but for now, enjoy my Google images copy/paste.

Also, be sure to read until the end because I’ve got a special surprise you won’t want to miss…

Fundamental #1: Sleep

Literally every animal on the face of the earth needs to sleep. Some in the day, some at night, some upside down, and some while they are swimming (that one is wild, no clue how fish sleep). The point is that if you think you’re special and only need four hours of sleep, you’re lying to yourself, straight up. Think of it this way: How important must sleep be if every animal on planet earth decides that it’s in their best interest to be completely incapacitated for a third of their lives.

7 hours is the minimum you should get on a nightly basis. I get that kids and other stuff happens, but by and large this should be your minimum, while shooting for 8 hours as a goal.

How to get 8 hours of sleep tonight? You have two options. Go to bed earlier or sleep in. Crazy advice, right? For real though this is the first step to leveling up your sleep. Get into a consistent routine, and allowing yourself enough time to get those 8 hours.

However I will tell you that your body naturally will wake up at a similar time every day. And that is very normal and healthy. Waking up at 10am one day, 5am the next, 7 the day after, and 11 the day after that is NOT normal.

So you can do what you like, but I would suggest going to bed an hour earlier tonight and see what happens.

Fundamental #2: Stress

Stress is easy in this day and age. Open phone = stress. This plays a major role in people feeling burnt out and not wanted to take steps to improve their health. So for me, I make a concerted effort to reduce stress when I can.

Here’s how: Step one - stop stressing. This is easier said than done but ultimately stress is just your interpretation of reality. So if you see threats, you’ll be stressed. If you decide that thing isn’t a threat, you stop stressing. Personally, I put a huge premium on this.

Reducing stress is extremely important for your health and wellbeing. Your sleep, blood pressure, hormones, energy and ability to build muscle are all affected by stress. You need some stress, but not the kind that makes you feel like crap.

How to reduce stress right now: Box breathing

Breathe in for a 4 count through your nose, hold for 4, out for 4, hold for 4. Repeat.

Fundamental #3: Nutrition

You could do bicep curls for a million years, but if you didn’t give your body the building material to create new muscle, your biceps would still be small.

I view nutrition as a response to our environment rather than a choice. Let me explain. If you have cookies on the counter, when you are hungry, you grab a cookie. If you have bananas on the counter, and you’re hungry, you eat a banana.

If you only surrounded yourself with healthy food, you would only eat healthy food. Not a crazy concept. But this is what I mean by a nutritional environment. One thing I work to do in my personal nutrition is have healthy snacks and food on hand, and reduce the amount of unhealthy foods I have around. That way I’m basically forced to do what’s good for me. side note: buying healthy food actually can be cheaper than junk food. try it if you don’t believe me

How to improve your nutrition today: Stop buying Oreos.

Seriously. Swap cookies or whatever your guilty pleasure food is for fruit. It’s still sweet, but it has so much more nutritional value, plus it will show you that you don’t need willpower every day to eat healthy. You only need it at the checkout counter.

Fundamental #4: Strength Training

This is more like 4a, with the next section as 4b (bet you can’t guess what that is). The importance of strength training for EVERYONE cannot be understated. If you are a person reading this, you should be lifting weights regularly.

Muscle is a metabolic organ, and plays a major role in your body composition (ie - body fat) because it requires calories to grow, gives your body a place to put sugar, and increases the amount of calories you burn on a daily basis. Start thinking of muscle the same way you think of the heart or brain, an essential organ.

Additionally, sarcopenia is the age-related atrophy of muscle, and it opens up so many risks later in life. Building muscle isn’t just for looks, it’s to make sure you don’t fall and break something.

Oh, and muscle looks good too.

How to build more muscle today: Go lift. 

I know I’m probably blowing your mind here, but the biggest factor in my fitness journey has literally just been choosing to go lift. That is the biggest hurtle, the choice to do it. Once that choice is made, the rest falls into place.

Fundamental #5: Cardio

The 4b of the Fitness Fundamentals is cardio - heart health. The heart is one of your most important organs, if not THE most important. And good news for you, it’s pretty straightforward to improve it's health. Bad news is that you probably think you need to be an ultramarathoner to have a healthy heart. Good news again, it’s super simple to train your heart.

Wow. That was a roller coaster.

Okay, here’s all I think about when I’m thinking cardio - how much time am I spending in a heart rate zone.

My goals are the basic goals that any hospital or clinic would prescribe because they are realistic and rock solid:

150 minutes a week in Zone 2
and/or
75 minutes a week in Zone 3-4

Zone 2 is like a brisk walk where you should be able to breathe out of your nose. Zone 3-4 is like a jog/run, where you maybe can breathe through your nose, but probably will need to use your mouth.

That’s the easiest way to describe it without a heart rate monitor.

How to hit these goals: 15 minute warm-up before a lift, 15 minute cooldown after a lift, 5 times a week. That hits my 150 minutes of Zone 2, and warms me up for a lift. Two birds, one stone. Now if you don’t lift 5 times a week, you can take a 15 mintue walk in the morning, and a 15 minute walk in the evening. Or walk to get lunch, and walk back. Just walk somewhere, how about that.

And now what you’ve all been waiting for…

I’m sure the suspense has been killing you. And if you scrolled right to this point, shame on you. Go back and read the stuff so you can get healthy.

Okay for real, the surprise:

I’m thrilled to announce that Liftsum 2.0 means new features.

How does a newsletter have features you ask? Well this one does, and they are epic.

Liftsum More

Because I know that for many of you reading this, you’re looking for more than simplified fitness tips. You want to take action. And you want to do that with a group of folks who share tips and tricks on a daily basis. That’s what Liftsum More is for.

For less than the cost of your latte (5 bucks) you’ll get access to every paid Liftsum post. In these posts, I’ll dive into detail on training protocols, supplementation regimens, and nutritional tips and tricks. Downloadable PDFs, workouts, pictures, recipes, etc. All included in paid posts on a weekly basis.

BUT WAIT THERE’S even MORE

Liftsum More members will also get access to our private Liftsum Telegram chat where we’ll talk about all things training, supplements, gear, and anything else fitness and training related. I’ll also be dropping simple workouts in the chat every once and a while.

So if you’re looking for More…

COMING SOON…

In the next edition of Liftsum, I’ll break down my favorite training routines for each common goal, and how I execute my own training program. AND THERE WILL BE ANOTHER SWEET SURPRISE