Meet Naomi. Shes a 40-year-old client of ours, whos a high school science teacher, and mother of 2 kids.
Naomi was an avid exerciser, already doing regular group fitness classes, and bootcamps, but just wasnt seeing the fruits of her labour.
She then started working with us, and so far, after only 6 months, shes:
- 16 pounds lighter
- Wearing clothes that are 4 dress sizes smaller
- Stronger a lot stronger
- More energetic
- Getting tons of compliments from her coworkers.
How did she do all that? Thats exactly what well cover in this article. Well go over things like:
- Naomis goals before she started working with us
- What she was doing before to help her reach her goals
- The exercise strategies we used with Naomi to literally double her strength in certain exercises
- The nutrition strategies that we used
- The real life challenges that we ran into along the way
- The results she achieved
- How her life is different now that shes stronger, fitter and wearing smaller dress sizes
If youd like to hear Naomi tell her own story, you can check out the video below.
Or, if youre jealous of Naomi, and want to get similar results, we have a special program called Fit Over 40. If you want to see whether or not that program is for you, just head on over to our home page, and fill out the application form.
Naomis Life Before, And Her Goals
After Naomi had her second child, she felt great: strong and energetic. Fast forward a few years, and she had noticed that her weight was increasing, and her energy levels and strength were decreasing. She didnt like that trend, so she decided to do something about it.
She started going to group fitness classes and bootcamps a few times per week. And while she was happy that she was being active, and engaging in some kind of physical activity, she just wasnt seeing the fruits of her labour no more muscle tone than before, no weight loss, no strength improvements.
So she decided to start going to the gym a few times on her own, and do her own routine which didnt work. She knew that she wasnt using the equipment properly, but she didnt really know what properly was.
Fast forward a few more years, and covid comes. Now there are lockdowns, and gyms are closed, but Naomi had a few pieces of equipment at home, so she started doing her own, at-home workouts which didnt work (are you noticing a pattern? ). In between lockdowns, when gyms were open, she didnt feel comfortable going in the gym anyways.
Eventually, she has had enough with spinning her wheels (spending lots of time and effort on exercise, but not getting any more toned or losing weight). She had already been reading my newsletters for 3 years, and decided that maybe its time to get some professional help.
After chatting with me over the phone, she mentioned her goal was just toning. She never mentioned weight loss, though that was a nice side effect.
Anyways, after our phone chat, I decided to set her up with her trainer, Davin, who designed her exercise and nutrition programs that led to her incredible transformation.
The Exercise Strategies We Used with Naomi
As Naomis goal was to get toned, Davin had Naomi doing full body resistance training. The goal of strength training for a non-athlete is to make their life outside the gym easier. The goal is also not to spend as much time in the gym as possible, but rather, as little time in the gym as possible.
And thats the reason that at first, Davin chose full body workouts when 1 exercise works 2-3 muscles at the same time, you save a lot of time by not having to do 2-3 different exercises. And you dont lose effectiveness either.
At first, the only equipment that Naomi had were 5 and 8-pound dumbbells. She outgrew those in about 2 weeks, and ended up buying a pair of adjustable dumbbells that went up to 52.5 pounds. Very nice!
After the first phase of full body workouts, Davin moved her on to a 4-day-a-week workout, where one day is lower body, and one day is upper body. Naomi would train with Davin twice per week, and do an additional 2 workouts on her own.
The reason that Davin moved on from full body workouts in phase 1 to dividing it into upper and lower body workouts is because as Naomi got more advanced, the different body parts needed a bit more focus than full body workouts can provide.
In phase 3 (where Davin and Naomi are right now), they went from 4 days per week, to 3 days per week, where the focus was no longer on body parts, but fundamental lifts. So day 1 was upper body (divided into bench press and rows), day 2 was oriented around deadlifts, and day 3 was oriented around squats.
Again, since the purpose of strength training for a non-athlete was to make life outside the gym easier, the goal behind deadlifts was to make it easier to pick stuff up off the ground (groceries, furniture, kids, etc.). After all, if you can deadlift over 100 pounds in training (or in Naomis case, around 160 lbs. as of her last workout), picking up 20 pounds of groceries feels like a feather.
The goal behind squats was to make lower body activities easier, like climbing stairs, and other recreational activities (skiing, walking, etc.).
That was the main focus. In addition to 1-2 major lifts for that day, Davin had Naomi doing accessory work exercises that added strength to other muscles that werent the focus that day. The idea was to not interfere with the progress that the main exercise was making.
As for cardio, at first, there wasnt any and thats by design. The more we dump on a person all at once, the less likely they are to stick with it in the long term. If we want exercise to become a lifelong habit, we have to start with baby steps.
After Davin saw Naomi making great progress, and being consistent with her strength training, he started adding in cardio. The reason that cardio is in quotation marks is because at first, he just asked Naomi to take the stairs more often at work, do a few extra stairs even if it wasnt necessary, and walk like shes angry/in a hurry. None of these are real cardio in the traditional definition of the word. The intensity, duration and frequency were too low at first to actually have cardiovascular benefits.
But the goal at this point wasnt cardiovascular benefits. The goal was compliance. The goal was to get Naomi to experience small successes. When you feel a bit of success, you want more success. If the goal of exercise is to get to a point where its a lifelong habit and not a chore, it needs to feel enjoyable. The way you make it enjoyable is making your client feel successful.
Once Davin saw that she was ready for it, he upped the ante. Now, he was getting Naomi to get on her elliptical once per week for 10-15 minutes, and go up and down stairs in her home 10-16 times (this typically took 7-10 minutes). While thats still not exactly the duration that would provide cardiovascular benefits, its getting close. But again, the goal isnt yet effectiveness. The goal is compliance. First worry about compliance and consistency. Then worry about effectiveness. First, just do it. Then, do it right.
The Nutritional Strategies We Used with Naomi
There are a million diets out there, and therefore, a million ways to lose weight. Its our job to make the complex simple, and condense the mountains of information into the smallest bits relevant to the client in front of us.
And thats what Davin did with Naomi.
At first, Davin started Naomi off with a simple template: half of her plate should be non-starchy vegetables (spinach, broccoli, peppers, tomatoes, etc.), a quarter should be meat, fish or seafood, and the remaining quarter should be starches (potatoes, rice, etc.).
The idea wasnt to give her a specific (and restrictive) meal plan, which doesnt work in the long-term, but a more flexible template that she could use any time.
Right off the bat, Naomi liked this, because it meant that she could eat less calories without getting hungry.
And well that was the only nutritional advice Davin gave her, besides a few minor modifications (Naomi loves coke, so we only had her drinking it on the weekend).
But that wasnt the only behavioral/emotional advice she got. A lot of people have the mentality of I have to finish everything on my plate. We have to reprogram that, so what Davin encouraged Naomi to think about how hungry she was before meals, and how full she was towards the ends of her meals.
A big chunk of long-term behavior change isnt food-focused, but behavior/habit/awareness focused. As I talk about in my article, You Dont Need a Diet You Need a Therapist, giving meal plans and diets is missing the point. Its not asking the deeper question of why are we overeating? The reason isnt nutritional. The reasons are emotional, stress, cravings, planning, and others. And we dont solve emotional and behavioral problems with nutritional solutions. Davin wisely looked under the hood to identify the causes of her eating too much, and addressed those.
One other factor that was very conducive towards Naomi losing 16 pounds (so far) is her husband. He was on board, and ate very similar meals to Naomi, without trying to tempt her. As I say in my article, the single most important factor for body transformation success is your social circle, so its great that Naomi has a good one at home.
Naomis Challenges Along the Way
Before you think that everything was a smooth, straight line downwards (in weight), that wasnt the case. Naomi lives in the real world, and there were some minor bumps along the way.
- There were birthday dinners, which lead to small, short-term weight gains
- Sometimes they serve burgers or pastas at work for lunch, which also led to small bumps in weight
But to her credit, Naomi didnt let a small bump in the road completely derail her efforts. She stayed the course, and kept on chugging along.
Naomis Results
Elegant methods are nice, but bottom-line results are better. Plus, being very goal-oriented, numbers-driven people, my team and I want to see some real changes, rather than a vague I think I feel better. So heres what we saw with Naomi:
- She went down 4 dress sizes (in stores where she was a 10, she was now a 6. In stores where she was an 8, she was now a 4).
- She lost 16 pounds (from 158, to 142 and still making progress).
- Her deadlifts improved a ton from 80 pounds, up to 170 at her latest workout. So her lower back, glutes and hamstrings are more toned.
- Her squats went from 35 pounds up to 115. So her glutes and quads are much stronger now.
- Her bench press went from 40 pounds, to 70.
- Her overhead press went from 25 pounds, to 50 so her arms and shoulders look great now in a strapless dress
How Her Life is Different Now
Numbers are nice, but Naomi didnt start working with us just to score well on a test. She wanted her progress to carry outside the gym.
So hows her life different now that shes 16 pounds lighter, and way stronger? Drastically!
- She can wear clothes that she couldnt before. Like I said 4 dress sizes smaller
- Her pants are fitting her a lot better
- Shes seeing more definition in her arms and shoulders
- Shes getting tons of compliments from her coworkers
- Her food choices are healthier, and shes particularly happy that shes not feeling a sense of restriction shes voluntarily eating healthier. Not because she has to, but because she wants to
- She had to upgrade her home gym. From just a pair of light dumbbells, to some serious heavy artillery dumbbells that go up to 52.5 pounds, a barbell, bumper plates to put on the barbell, and a squat rack.
Its these kinds of success stories that make us love our job, and take great pride in our clients. If youd like to achieve similar results to Naomi, we have a special program called Fit Over 40. If you want to see whether you qualify for that program, just head over to our home page, and fill out the application form.
