Optimal Workout Frequency: How Many Times Per Week Should You Exercise?

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The ideal time for exercise depends on individual goals and preferences. For males, peak testosterone levels occur around 3-4 pm, making it optimal for weight and resistance training, as well as recovery. However, personally prioritizes early morning workouts (5 am, two days a week) due to schedule constraints, emphasizing the importance of consistency.

ACTION ITEMS

  • Consistently work out early in the morning 2 days a week before family/work obligations

  • Male  should aim to train 2-3 hours after waking up or in the late afternoon/evening when testosterone peaks

  • Choose a workout time that avoids last-minute cancellations due to tiredness or other interruptions

  • Avoid late night workouts close to bedtime to maintain sleep quality

  • Leave feedback in the comments about whether the advice was helpful

What is the best time of day to work out? This is a question I get a ton of, and it kind of varies and depends for your goals, right? So someone like myself, I never wanted to work out in the morning, but my current schedule does not allow me to really sacrifice anywhere but five in the morning. So that’s what I’m doing two days a week, very consistently.

But if you’re a male, you should probably be training about two to three hours after you wake up, or later into the evening, around three to 4pm this is typically when our testosterone is at its highest peak, which allows us to obviously get more weight and resistance training, have more endurance while we’re doing the exercise, but also to recover faster and better immediately post exercise. But regardless of who you are, you need to pick a time that’s going to work for you consistently.

Because if you’re somebody who can easily talk yourself out of a workout later in the day because you’re tired and other things come up, then you have to prioritize it early in the morning, and that’s currently what I do. I think you know, once you get into family life, once you’re someone who has a career, has a family, you have to do it when you know nothing else can possibly interrupt. And I don’t recommend doing it at 10pm at night, because that’ll inhibit your sleep quality. So I definitely like to tell people, best time of day to work out is the time, you can consistently do. And for most people, especially with families is early, early morning, before anyone else is, if you found it helpful. Please let me know in the comments. Enjoy. What is the best. 

Streamlined Workout Templates: Simplifying Your Fitness Routine for the New Year

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OUTLINE

  • Introduction to a straightforward three-day workout routine suitable for beginners
  • Day 1 focuses on lower body exercises like squats, lunges, and calf raises
  • Day 2 emphasizes pulling exercises such as deadlifts, back extensions, and pull-ups
  • Day 3 involves pushing exercises like bench presses, chest flies, and push-ups
  • Importance of consistency and simplicity in establishing a workout routine
  • Tips provided for proper form, technique, and balancing muscle groups
  • Addressing shoulder impingement with explanations and recommended exercises
  • Encouragement for readers to start their fitness journey and reach out for further assistance

Hey, everyone! DFoss here, and today I want to discuss a straightforward approach to crafting your own workout routine, perfect for those gearing up for the new year. Let’s keep it simple, shall we?

For three days a week, let’s break it down into lower body, pushing, and pulling exercises. This routine might not be my favorite, but it’s a great starting point for anyone looking to establish a consistent workout regimen. With this template, you’ll be able to target all the essential muscle groups effectively.

Let’s delve into the details. We’re looking at three circuits per workout, each consisting of three exercises. Complete three rounds of each circuit for optimal results. So, if we were to put a number to it, it’s 3-3-3: three days a week, three circuits each day, and three exercises per circuit.

 

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Part 1
Part 2
Day 2: Pull
Day 3: Push

First up, let’s focus on the lower body. Our legs are crucial, and we need to train them bilaterally as well as unilaterally. The primary movements of the legs involve bending at the knees, hinging at the hips, and flexing and extending at the ankle joint. So, incorporate variations of squats, lunges, lateral lunges, and calf raises into your routine.

Moving on to pulling exercises, deadlifts are a key component. They engage numerous back muscles, so they’re best reserved for back day. Supplement deadlifts with back extensions, pull-ups, and single-arm rows to target different areas of the back effectively.

Now, let’s discuss pushing movements. These exercises involve horizontal and overhead pushing motions. Bench presses, chest flies, push-ups, and dips are excellent choices to work the chest, shoulders, and triceps. Don’t forget to include exercises like front raises and lateral raises to specifically target the deltoid muscles.

If you’re unsure about certain exercises or whether they’re suitable for you, especially if you have shoulder impingement issues, I recommend watching my video on the topic before proceeding. It’s essential to prioritize safety and injury prevention.

Remember, the goal is consistency and gradual progression. Mix up your exercises regularly to keep challenging your muscles and avoid plateaus. With dedication and perseverance, you’ll achieve your fitness goals.

Let me know if you found this helpful, and if you need further assistance, don’t hesitate to reach out. Here’s to living healthy and strong!

Understanding Shoulder Impingement: Improving Mobility and Flexibility for Better Overhead Movement

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Outline: DFoss discussed shoulder impingement and its connection to limited mobility and flexibility in the muscles between the shoulder blade and ribcage. He emphasized that when these muscles are tight, it can lead to overcompensation by the biceps and deltoid, making overhead pushing movements difficult. DeVos stressed the importance of prioritizing thoracic extension, rotation, and mobility to address this issue.

Hey what’s up y’all! DFoss here I’m going to talk about shoulder impingement really quickly. The shoulder is a very complex muscle. I’ve done a recent video that talked about learning what your shoulder looks like learn your anatomy, learn your rotator cuff. A very on notice thing, I believe, is that when people have shoulder impingement, it’s typically a result of you having very limited mobility and flexibility through the tissues that connect your ribcage to your scapula.

So when we push over ahead, and we hit a certain point, in which our shoulder blade can no longer separate itself from the ribcage what happens is we extend through the ribcage and when we extend through the ribcage, we go into this hyperextension of the lower back. So we are tricking our brain and our mind and our body usually just ourselves into thinking that we’re getting full range of motion through the shoulder.

But what’s actually happening is your bicep and your deltoid are trying to over compensate for the lack of mobility that happens between or flexibility between your shoulder blade and your ribcage. So you have your lats, your serratus anterior, your obliques, your pectoralis fascia, and your subscapularis all working against you pressing overhead right so we want to be able to push and maintain that amount of contraction in our upper abdomen so that we have full extension overhead.

We want those biceps by our ears. This is a very common thing that we see all the time. And if you can’t get that shoulder to extend without the ribcage following, then you should probably not be doing overhead pushing movements. You need to prioritize thoracic extension, thoracic rotation, mobility and flexibility through these muscles and this group of muscles that prevent you from being able to do so.

Stay tuned for more videos on how you can actually do that what exercises will help you.

10 Years I’ve Learned

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OUTLINE: DFoss emphasized the importance of prioritizing wellness and self-care. He stressed the need for adequate sleep, whole foods, and movement to improve overall health and well-being. DFoss also highlighted the importance of balancing self-care with social events, as neglecting self-care can lead to burnout and decreased performance in other areas of life.

HIGHLIGHTS:

  • Fitness and wellness industry experience and coaching.
  • DFOSS reflects on 10 years in the fitness industry, sharing gratitude and excitement for future work in nutrition coaching and movement optimization.
  • Improving quality of life through healthy habits.
  • Focus on sleep, nutrition, exercise, relationships, and nature to improve energy and well-being.
  • Maintaining a healthy baseline and self-improvement.
  • Maintain a baseline of self-care and wellness to improve overall health and quality of life.

Hey what’s up y’all DFOSS here this year marks 10 years for me in the fitness and wellness industry. I’ve learned so much. I’m so grateful for everyone that’s helped me on this journey, everyone that has paid attention, someone who has trusted me with their own health and allowed me to guide them in the right direction. Hopefully I haven’t put anybody in the wrong direction because we are always learning, we are always challenging our current belief systems and trying to see if there’s a different way. 

And you know now as someone who owns my own business, I am really excited to help people with nutrition coaching supplementation and being able to optimize bloodwork and genetics and day to day habits. movement wise, being able to make people move more efficiently, understand their bodies more and be able to work through you know, old injuries, maybe scar tissue, things that are impeding their mobility, flexibility and increasing pain. 

We want to decrease those we want to improve our ability to understand why we’re in pain. We want to improve our ability to move efficiently and do the things we love to do and day to day life. And so what I’ve learned in these 10 years more than anything, the research continues to show. And anecdotally it’s something you cannot deny you have to sleep better and more. You have to eat real Whole Foods. You have to move your body and check in with your body and non stop constantly. Progress those things you have to have healthy relationships and maintain those to keep positive vibes around you. And you have to get outside. You have to ground yourself, you have to get around nature, you have to absorb vitamin D. Outside of those things. 

 

There is nothing that’s going to improve your life and your ability to wake up and feel energized in the morning. Go to sleep, wake up and feel rested. More than those things once we get to a certain level. Of course, we can always find other things that push the needle just a little bit more. But those things are the major key points and I just want everyone to learn to focus on those things. And I always say if you have a pyramid the peak of your pyramid is when you’re at the peak of self improvement when you’re at the peak of spending time on yourself and self reflection. And movement and eating well. 

The last few months of every year we’re all at that bottom base of the pyramid, right? We’re all focused on families and social events and all of these other things we usually fall down to a lower level of self care and checking in and if you maintain that base, that pyramid that baseline of your health is getting outside grounding vitamin D movement every day, eating real clean Whole Foods and not going off the deep end you know enjoy yourself at 20 and obviously checking in and enjoying those social events and not making those social events and times with the people you love. hectic and more anxious and tense because you don’t feel like your best self because you haven’t been doing those other things. 

So always maintain that baseline at the bottom of the pyramid and build off of that and know which seasons of the year in which years of your life. You’re going to take a step back or a step down. And then when you can push the needle again, I’m at that point where Julian’s in daycare. Amy and I are getting settled. And I feel like now I can start to push that baseline again. Right, I can take that next step on the pyramid and make sure that I’m adding in those extra layers of wellness adding in those little things that helped me recover better adding in that ability to go for an extra run or do an extra workout. So with that all being said, I hope you guys continue to check in with yourselves. Improve yourselves, stabilize that baseline and then take steps towards improving yourself and improving what that baseline is to you. Right. As we know more we should do better, so much love. Live Limitless Peace!

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Upgrade Your Workouts: Introducing NT Loops for Superior Results

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Here are the things you will learn from this topic:

  1. Super bands replacement
  2. NT loops benefits
  3. Versatile workout equipment
  4. Comfortable exercise bands
  5. NT loops review
  6. Fitness equipment upgrade
  7. Door anchor resistance bands
  8. Washing exercise bands
  9. Nick Tumminello fitness products
  10. Minis NT loops

Are you guys working out with regular super bands? You guys need to upgrade? You need to get yourself some NT loops. All right a couple of reasons you need to number one, Nick Tumminello is an OG in the fitness industry – great guy, great friend of mine, go support him and buy yourself some empty loops number two, they’re great badass product. They’re very versatile. You can use them in so many different situations you can add them to so many other traditional exercises. And you can throw out your old Super bands when you’re doing anything that would require you to put the band around your body, around your shoulders around your hips. They’re going to feel much more comfortable and they’re going to provide a greater result. Number three, you can watch these things.

 

All right, you can just use them get them all sweaty and gross. Doesn’t matter. Toss them in the washer, they’re good. And lastly, they have an anchor for the door. They have a traditional door anchor, you can put it over the top of the door on the side so you can use all different levels to assist. Like I said, you can provide a greater resistance to a lot of traditional exercises by just adding the empty mood and setting it up properly. If you are going to use it for that purpose, you can carabiner it but don’t use the door anchor carabiner to the actual band itself. Make sure that you have a nice secure carabiner or hook to set it to. And as I mentioned before, go support women.  Head over to ntloop.com and grab some bands they also have the minis love these much more comfortable like your traditional booty band instead of the latex versions. So go check them out.

Mastering Your Body: The Importance of Learning Your Anatomy

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Here are the 10 things you will learn on this topic:

  1. Anatomy Education
  2. Understanding your body
  3. Muscle and Joint Knowledge
  4. Preventing Injuries through Anatomy
  5. Comprehensive Anatomy Understanding
  6. Importance of Anatomy in Fitness
  7. Injury Prevention Tips
  8. Muscle and Joint Function
  9. Anatomy & Exercise Plateau
  10. Anatomical Knowledge for Better Workouts

All right. Learn your anatomy. If there’s one thing that you need to do to get a better understanding of your body, why even getting injured? Why the exercises that you’re doing are hitting plateaus. It’s learning your body, learn your anatomy, understand the 600 muscles understand all of the joints, ligaments, tendons, the bones.

If you have an understanding a comprehensive understanding of what your body actually looks like underneath the skin, I promise you everything you’ve been doing in the gym, all the chronic injuries you’ve been dealing with will make so much more sense. It’s very simple. You have iPhones, you have computers, laptops, iPads, you have Siri, you have chat, eat GPT just ask you can just ask, Hey, show me a picture of the rotator cuff. Most people don’t even understand what the rotator cuff is the rotator cuff is actually for muscles and tendons that encapsulate your shoulder joint to keep your glenohumeral joint which is your humerus and your glenoid fossa together so that your humerus your long arm bone can actually move around in the shoulder joint.

But people don’t understand it. They don’t see anything under the skin. And then they go I think I tore my rotator cuff. That’s like saying I tore my leg. Well what muscle in your leg? Is it even above the knee below the knee is one of the anterior or posterior compartment muscles. There’s so much that people don’t have an understanding of and if they only knew how easy it is to just open their phone, look at an anatomy anatomical picture like so and learn a little bit about what their body looks like under their skin. They would have a much better understanding of why they’re dealing with these aches and pains why the certain exercise or movement that they’re trying to do feels limited why the injury that they had in a car crash when they were 14 is now affecting their ability to squat and get down and pick up their grandson or walk up the stairs. If you can just take one thing away from this video and wait for me to learn your anatomy. I took anatomy in high school and I thought I knew it and I took basically five years of anatomy in college is just nonstop learn

4 Parts of Exercise: Understanding the Four Portions for Better Performance and Injury Prevention

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Every exercise you've ever done is broken up into four portions. Those four portions are your starting position, your transitional pattern, your secondary position, and your secondary transitional pattern.

  1. Exercise portions breakdown
  2. Understanding exercise patterns
  3. Foundational body understanding
  4. Building exercise mastery
  5. Overcoming exercise plateaus
  6. Chronic injury prevention
  7. Exercise position isolation
  8. Concentric eccentric isometric
  9. Improving exercise performance
  10. Integrating exercise portions

And basically all I’ve been trying to tell you with all of these three p’s and three eyes videos, concentric eccentric isometric, is that you need to build foundational understanding of your body and the movements that you’re trying to get better at and master.

Break them down into the positions into the patterns, understand what you’re isolating, how you can focus on a position, or maybe even a concentric pattern, and then understanding how you can isolate any of those portions of that movement and slowly build them up to create the entire piece. Getting that understanding will help you get better at every single movement in the gym.

It’ll help you understand how to move beyond the plateaus that you’re hitting. It’ll let you understand why you’ve been getting injured so much chronically because you haven’t taken time to slow down and break down what you’re doing in each and every exercise. So if you can take one thing away, just understand those four, break them down. Learn them get better at each one, and then piece it all together. that’s when you get to integrate. that’s when you’ll perform better for longer, lower your chances of injury and ultimately find your fit right. If anybody you know needs this information, tag on share of things fall in love you guys. 

 

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Isometric, Eccentric, and Concentric

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Alright, squad, I want to follow up on the ideologies. I've been talking about the 3P's and the 3I’s and tell you how you take a more well known concept like concentric, eccentric or isometric and apply them to your lifts and understand how they're really the same ideologies

If I were taking a basic barbell deadlift, and I wanted to isolate the concentric pattern of that for my hamstrings and my glutes.

Once again, I’m isolating one pattern of a deadlift to focus only on the concentric portion of the deadlift. So you could argue that this would be an opportunity to put more load on the bar because we’re not going to worry about the eccentric ones.

Isometric

So what I’m doing here, my concentric loading pattern, isolate that.

Whoa, drop the bar. Now. I continue to do that add more weight. And once again, I’m working in isolating only that pattern or portion of a deadlift. Now let’s think about something more like a squat. If I wanted to apply a e centric load and I wanted to isolate eccentric load, in part of a squatting pattern, what I would do

what I would do is focus on tempo on the eccentric portion of that so as I’m slowly going down, I might count to five.

Good, come back up normal tempo, once again isolating the eccentric portion. I can add more weight 12345.

Concentric

Good. Now let’s say ILe What would I do then? I would isolate that position. Okay. So any isometric movement means that the muscles are under tension, but the joint is not moving. So are the joints multiple involved in the movement pattern are not moving. So an isometric squat? I’m holding at the bottom

in order to isolate that position, in a squat, right, the same thing can be done and applied to tons of other movements. If I were to take a bicep curl, for example.

I want to isolate at 90 degrees that’s when I have the most tension on the bicep.

I am isolating a position.

Now to do a full rep. Right? If I want to work on the isometric and the eccentric.

All I’m doing is integrating each pattern the concentric and the eccentric together.

Concentric, eccentric, concentric, eccentric, concentric, eccentric. Now I’m integrating those together, right? And then you can innovate from there. Right? I can throw one up, one down, one up.

Eccentric

One down. I can isolate isometrically one position while I integrate both the concentric and eccentric loading patterns of the other.

Oh, and then I switch. Okay, so this is how concentric eccentric and isometric can really fall into weavin right with the ideas that I’ve been talking to you about, which are the three P’s position, pattern performance, and the three eyes which are isolate, integrate, and then innovate.

They can be applied to your normal lifting, and everyday workouts. So I hope this makes sense. Gives you a better framework on how your body works, how you integrate exercise and how you program your own workouts.

Make sure to look out for more videos on these topics. And always follow like comment. Thank you!

 

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The Concept of 3 I’s – Innovate

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Achieving fitness goals requires consistent and efficient movement performance to avoid injuries. Understanding the three P's (Positions, Patterns, and Performance) and three I's (Isolation, Integration, and Innovation) is crucial. Mastering movements involves isolating positions, integrating them into patterns, and performing them effortlessly.

Control of breath is key to assessing nervous system efficiency and readiness for progression. Whether it’s sports or exercises, improving breath control and body alignment is essential. The ultimate goal is to perform movements with ease, innovate freely, and achieve fitness mastery. Prioritize understanding the bigger picture for sustainable progress.

Serious talk. Everybody in the world is just striving to look better and feel better. What that means is you need to be able to perform the moves that you are doing consistently.

Well enough and efficiently enough to the point where you don’t get injured. Because if you get injured, you can no longer be consistent. If you can’t be consistent, you can no longer gain aesthetic, well being right so if we want to look better and feel better, we have to be able to perform the movements that we’re doing are trying to do efficiently. Okay. Now, why do we need to be able to understand the three P’s and the three eyes because it allows us to take our goals and just break them down very logically and strategically.

If I want to do a pull up? Well, I know that I have to start in one position, pull myself up to the top and then go back down nice and slow and controlled to the starting position again, when which I’m hanging so if you can’t have you definitely can’t pull yourself up. If you can’t stay at the top, then you’re probably not able to do that either. So what we need to do is just isolate the positions that you find in any movement and then you need to get better at those positions and eventually integrate some sort of transition in there some sort of pattern that is getting you from one point in the exercise to another position in the exercise of one position to another and then all of a sudden you get so good at performing those things. 

That you’re able to just take those and add them all together. Okay. And this is huge, especially in bodyweight mastery, doing these bear crawl movements, right, and these crab positions and these tripod reaches, and he’s loaded beast in these front kick through this. And all of a sudden being able to do a scorpion kick, good and back into bear crawl. So it’s possible to understand your body so well that you can just integrate and integrate all of these positions and patterns together. And ultimately, to know if you should move on to the next step. In any of these concepts. If you’re doing a position like holding yourself up at the top of the the pull up bar, you need to be able to do that for an adequate amount of time while maintaining good breathing because your breathing capability basically dictates your efficiency at which you’re using oxygen and your muscles. Right? How efficiently and how calm Can you keep your nervous system while you’re doing all of these things? That should tell you whether or not you can move on to the next step.

So as someone who’s out of breath right now, I’m trying to talk while doing all of these movements.

It takes a lot. Now think of someone on the court right? If they’re driving to the hoop in basketball, and someone steps in front of them. They have to be able to move nuanced ly into a different position with a different pattern and find themselves not getting hurt.

And in order to do so, logically, they have to be under control of their breath because that dictates the state of their nervous system and whether or not they’re going to make a good decision or a bad decision.

This is ultimately how your body compensates with everything. You want to get better at any exercise. You have to get better at isolating the positions you start and transition through. And you have to get better at the patterns in which you do so. And the way to know if you can continuously do that and perform it for a long period of time is whether or not you have good control of your breath during that.

If you want to get better at the bike, right? Well, lo and behold, you’re able to do it for a longer without breathing as hard you just one. You’re getting better. That’s it. The same thing applies for exercises and isolating movements and muscle groups and whatever it is. You have to get better at breathing you have to get better at knowing how your body should be aligned.

And then ultimately, you can perform these things under stress without getting stressed out thinking through it logically. Being able to do so without getting injured.

That’s it. You got to take a step back and look at the bigger picture.

 And your three eyes are almost the same. You got to isolate these positions, integrate them together to get patterns and then you got to get better at performing them over and over and over and over again. To the point where it’s you could do it in your sleep right without breathing heavy with your eyes closed without someone telling you you’re doing it wrong or you got to move this hip out to the left a centimeter or push into the ground a little bit more tuck your hips, whatever it is, and all of a sudden you get to innovate and you get to just move your body freely and do whatever you want. That’s the ultimate goal.

The Concept of 3 I’s – Integrate

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Learn to Integrate Positions and Make Patterns: Bear Crawl Position + Under Switch Pattern Into Crab Walk Postion = INTEGRATION

The concept revolves around calisthenics and bodyweight movement. It emphasizes isolating positions found in everyday crawling patterns, such as bear crawls. By focusing on mastering isolated positions, like driving the knee and tapping, or transitioning between bear crawl and crab positions, one can achieve better control and efficiency. The approach aims to eliminate the need for regression in movements and encourages a systematic breakdown into starting, transitional, and secondary positions. The ultimate goal is to gain immense control over the body, allowing for innovation and improvement in performance. Watch the next video for insights on evaluating performance and initiating innovation.

Because this is a concept that is founded in the world of calisthenics and bodyweight movement, I want to start off with the idea of isolating a position that we find in a every day crawling pattern.

And so if we do bear crawls, if you’re familiar with me, you definitely know bear crawls. Right? You’re isolating a position to get better at it. So if you want to do a play, and you want to get better at bear crawls, they don’t necessarily translate. So why don’t we get better at holding this isolated position? Right, and then we can possibly integrate some moves into that we can drive the knee and tap, drive the knee and tap bone back and forth. Maybe we move hand and foot and we feel back and forth.

Bear crawl movement

 Maybe we just isolate one side, so we get better at it and then ultimately, you can add other moves, I can isolate a crab position, and I can touch and such and such but then I want to translate a transition into a bear crawl. Well, I’m going to integrate the bear crawl position and the crab position by doing other patterns. That gets me there. And I can do both sides to go back and forth. Right. And so ultimately, we gain this immense control of our body because we don’t necessarily have to regress a movement we have to break down like anything. Any movement in the world in the body in space is broken down into a starting position. A transitional movement into a secondary position and a transitional movement back into that starting position.

Now there’s different nuances within there, but those four main parts, get better at those. Stop having to regret some try these crazy different things to get you there. Just understand that there are positions that you can isolate, there are positions patterns that you can isolate, and multiple positions together is integration of to make a pattern. And now you take those patterns and you get better at performing and performing and performing them to the point where your efficiency is so set like subconsciously done. Now you can innovate on top of that. Make sure to watch the next video to really start to understand why and how you can know if your performance is good enough to begin innovation.

The Concept of 3 I's - Integrate Video