Alexander Training - personal training in Austin, Texas

Personal training in Austin, Texas and customized strength programs in Austin, Texas.

Kathryn Alexander

My Favorite Fitness Things in North Austin

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My favorite fitness things in North Austin: why you can find what you need for your fitness journey all the way up here.

I lived in Houston for sometime and I found that you pretty quickly develop your little pocket of town and rarely venture out. When I moved to Austin (15 years ago) I was so amazed that downtown was accessible. You can go everywhere or you can park anywhere. Want to go to the lake? Then go. Need to visit a business downtown? Easy.

Fitness in North Austin

It’s becoming a little busier though and I am staying in my north Austin pocket more and more. Much of Austin lends itself to an active lifestyle, but I submit to you my reasons for why I think North Austin is where the fitness scene is.

Kathryn Alexander, personal trainer at Big Tex Gym
PS I’m exhausted here, on the turf at Big Tex Gym.

The Dirdie Birdie

The Dirdie Birdie is the newest indoor scene for mini-golf. This might not be your idea of fitness, but I don’t make the rules. J/k, I do make the rules here. 😉 Located in the Domain, The Dirdie Birdie is the newest putt putt venue in Austin, and with food and A/C, it’s a hit right now. The Austin themed holes will thrill you, so channel John Daly and get your golf on. (Not sponsored, lol).

Check out this Austin Gift Guide (2024) to make your holiday shopping easy!

Balcones District Park

Located at 12017 Amherst Dr, Austin, TX 78759, Balcones Park offers something for the whole family. A new playground, pool, volleyball net, basketball court and walking trails can entertain you for hours. Before you go to swim, check here to make sure it’s open. 

Walnut Creek Metro Park

Walnut Creek Park covers 293 acres and features hiking and biking trails, a pool, dog park, and plenty of nature. There are also picnic tables and creek side views, so pack a snack and hydration and stay a while. Check here for details before you go.

Lululemon & Athleta

Both located in the Domain, Lululemon and Athleta speak to my inner gym babe. I resisted for years, but once I tried them it’s been hard to change. I am tough on gym clothes and these hold up. Also not sponsored, sadly.

Archery Country

Archery Country is my favorite home away from home. It’s a fun athletic hobby that combines physical and mental aptitude. The indoor range, the staff, and the people I meet continue to delight me, 5 years in. Stop by, rent a bow, and hit a target. You’ll love it!  

If you’re looking for some great eats in North Austin, check out these restaurants near the Domain in Austin.

Big Tex Gym

No list of gyms in Austin, Texas, would be complete without Big Tex Gym. You know I’m biased because I work out of Big Tex, but the owners, staff, and members are fantastic. I am incredibly thankful to have such a fun and well equipped gym to bring my clients to. Big Tex has a $5 drop in fee, the best in Austin, so come try it out yourself. 

Iron Forge Gym

Iron Forge Gym is Big Tex’s sister gym. Located in Round Rock, it has an impressive strongman area, a large training floor, and a huge mma/fighting team. The drop in fee is $10, and it has the same great owners and staff as Big Tex. Worth it! Check out more details about and pictures of Iron Forge Gym here.

Me

And finally, me. Because, again, I make the rules here, I put myself on this list. I believe I can help you feel better and get stronger and healthier. I’d love to meet you and talk about helping with your fitness goals! If a free consult interests you, please message me here or click the link below to see all my training programs. 

All training options here

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

My Current Favorite Ab Exercise

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This is one of my favorite ab exercises! I call it my current favorite because I’ve been practicing it myself and with clients. You can’t do everything all the time, so I’ve been rotating this back in again. It is much more challenging than it looks and it is safe and effective. 

The Banded Leg Lift

The banded leg lift is a variation on the leg lift where you are also working your upper body. Leg lifts are usually classified as “lower abs” but the addition of the band tension on your upper body works your entire core. You’ll be working your deep abdominal muscles, the transversus, your lats, serratus, and rectus abdominis (the 6 pack muscles).

favorite ab exercise

How to do the Banded Leg Lift

First secure the band to something sturdy. Be sure it won’t slip off and pop you in the face. Please please. 🙏

From here, grab the band while you lay on your back. Don’t worry about the perfect set up distance. You can adjust in a second.

If you have a partner, have them hold the band while you lay on your back. 

Extend your arms straight, but stop short of locking your elbows out. 

Bring both your legs straight up toward the ceiling. It is ok if your knees are bent due to flexibility, but try to keep them fairly straight. 

With your arms and legs straight up, exhale and press your low back into the ground. At the same time, use your lats ( squeeze your armpits) and think about pressing your ribs into the floor. 

This is your start position. From here, shift your legs until your knees are over the bottom of your behind, not up toward your waistband. 

Now hold your left leg in place and slowly extend your right leg toward the floor. Only extend as far as you can without your low back popping off the floor. Once your right leg is back next to your left, then do a rep with your left leg. 

The hard part here is focusing on keeping your upper body tight and your low back on the floor during the whole movement of your legs. 

You can see in the above video I lose my focus around rep 3 and start moving both legs out of pattern. Ha! Try to focus on pressing your whole back into the ground, and focus a bit better than I did. 🙂

Here are my other favorite non-ab exercises, and killer hamstring strength exercises.

How to Make This Ab Exercise Tougher

You can do this alternating legs, which is where I suggest you start. Once you get the hang of that, you can do both legs together. This movement is harder, and you might have to shorten your range of motion to achieve the goal of not letting your back pop off the ground.

I suggest doing both variations, though. Even if you practice enough that this one is easy, continue to do both. Moving one leg at a time is a very natural movement pattern that is worth continuing to practice, and doing both is a good challenge.

Need more ab work? Here are exercises that will strengthen your whole core that you can incorporate into your next ab workout.

What Is Your Favorite Ab Exercise?

I’d love to know what your favorite ab exercise is! There are so many to choose from! There are a lot of ab exercises you can do at home, such as 5 of my favorites which I outline here. The others will allow you to load your abs a bit more with gym equipment. If you are in Austin and need a gym, check out my favorite Austin gyms right here.

Do you need a simple core workout you can do at home? Try these exercises, which don’t require any equipment.

Need some more core work in your life? Try this back extension machine, which is a fantastic complement to all the ab work from above!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

The Benefits of Working Out Alone

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The benefits of working out alone: training alone can be really fun, and I highly encourage you to exercise alone occasionally. Many people grow up training for team sports and are accustomed to that group training environment. This has so many positives, and can be a surprisingly good time! It can also bond you through shared misery of tough sessions! 

Others find that in adult life past youth sports, having a training partner brings a lot of benefits. This is true, too! 

Sometimes, though, the most peaceful and beneficial way to workout is alone. Here are some reasons to try exercising solo if you never have. 

Benefits of training alone
You gotta take selfies if you’re training alone

Peace and Quiet 

Or not! You get to pick. Working out alone affords you the time to take a break form the world; away from the coworkers, the kids, and your overflowing inbox. You get to pick your music, or choose no music. You get to recharge and spend time without having to be “on” at work or serving others. This is about you! 

Working Out Alone is Meditative

Training done properly is not rocket science, but it is not simple! You should be paying attention to the nuances of form; your grip, hand and foot placement, angles of the body. Correct set up is a procedure in itself. From there, during and after the movement, you should be collecting feedback about the tempo, control, and speed of the rep. This feedback guides the decisions about the next set.

It is truly a misnomer to call meatheads “meatheads”. Again, not rocket science, but if you are paying attention to your training, it does not leave much room for consciously ruminating about your problems. The end result is a peaceful mind and a happily exhausted body.

Awareness of the Body

Since you are more attuned to your body without the distraction of working out with others, you become more aware of how you feel. You can feel illness before it truly sets in, potentially giving you the chance to head it off. I have often seen clients have an “off” day, only to discover that later they come down with a milder illness or realize allergies are about to flare up. 

This isn’t to say you can’t have this benefit while training with others, but training alone heightens your ability to focus on yourself.

You Get to Pick

You get to pick the exercises, the tempo, the intensity. I love this part of it. You can really just scratch the itch for how you want to train that day. I still encourage you to have a program you are following, but training alone allows you to drive the session how you choose.

What is the Best Way to Train: Alone or On a Team?

The bottom line is, the best way to train is the way you’ll get it done. There are benefits to training with a group or a partner, and there are benefits to training alone. Try them both and see which you prefer. 

A third option is to train with a trainer. Many of my clients train with me once or twice a week and once or twice on their own. It’s a nice little hybrid that allows for solo session and regular accountability. If you are looking for an Austin personal trainer or a remote training if you are not in Austin, message me here. I am happy to talk with you and set up a free consult to see if we are a good match to work on your goals!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Full Body Workout You Can Do Inside

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Y’all, it’s 107 degrees in Austin again, so you might want to move your session indoors. This is a full body workout you can do inside to escape the heat.

This full body workout focuses on calorie burn and conditioning. You’ll use medium weights but it won’t be heavy work.

full body workout you can do inside

Get Your Burn on Inside

Think of this workout like a steady flow session and rest as you need. There will be 2 parts, or circuits. Do all of the exercises in the first circuit, one time. Rest, and repeat. After you have done that circuit, you’ll begin the second circuit.

For example, you’ll do one set of reverse lunge, one set of bear crawl, one set of breaststroke, then one set of alternating toe touch. That is Circuit 1. Rest. Then repeat that circuit as many times as you’d like before beginning Circuit 2.

Each of the exercises below is a link to a how-to video.

The Exercises, Circuit 1

The Exercises, Circuit 2

Modify, Don’t Miss

I wrote earlier this week about how you can modify but not miss a workout. This is a great example! It’s really not advisable to go train in the heat, so try the above session and let me know how it goes! If you need to move a little more weight than this session allows, check out the best gyms in Austin, and pop in one for a good session.

Would you rather a custom program? If so, I take into account where you will train and what equipment you have. I will not make you do burpees or exercise outside 🙂 Let me know if you’d like to do a free consult to see if we are a good fit!

Related: Check out the best ab exercises here and easy gym mistakes to avoid.

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Modify Don’t Miss; How to Train Around Light Injury

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“Modify, don’t miss.”

–Matt Wenning, record holding powerlifter and coach

I have a client who is training for fighting. She works hard. Her goal in working with me is strength. She’s generally doing two a days, which includes training in boxing, Muay Thai, jiu jitsu and other supplemental lifting.

She’s got a packed schedule!

She texted me this morning before our session that she had rolled her ankle and would need adjustments. I trust her to judge if she needs to cancel, so I told her I’d meet her at the gym. 

On the way, I was planning contingencies and work arounds. How could I stimulate the muscle groups we wanted and train the movements we were training? 

I was unsure how bad her injury was because she’s the type to work through things. No need to pry on the phone, but I couldn’t wait to see in person how she felt and how she was moving. 

She’s got a couple of smokers coming up in the next few weeks, so there’s no time to waste getting her back to 100%. (I’m learning the lingo: smokers are casual exhibition matches. They are non-sanctioned, but fighters want to always show up with their A game.)

Modify don't miss

Don’t Skip

Just don’t skip. If you can do anything – anything – at all, go to the gym. Maintain your rhythm. You’ll feel better for it, and you’ll likely do better in your recovery too. Maintaining the attitude of training and having a positive outlook will be easier when you are in your regular game environment too. 

The caveat is if you need to seek medical attention. I’m not a doctor, but if you have a bone sticking out and/or are bleeding profusely, having chest pain, etc., you should seek medical help.

Focus on What You Can Do

There’s always something you can do. If you need to mobilize your upper body, you can do some seated work. If your lower body is giving you problems, you can also likely do some seated upper body work. If all of this is logistically prohibitive, you can do stretching and some mobility. 

You can even meditate and visualize. Athletes go through the motions of their peak performance long before their actual competition.

Examples of What You Can Do

If you are having low back issues, you can most likely do:

  • Stretching (moderately – excessive stretching isn’t the answer)
  • Lunges
  • Step ups
  • Step downs
  • Belt squats
  • Seated leg extension
  • Seated hamstrings curls
  • Glute work like abduction and adduction, with a machine or band

If you are having upper body issues:

  • Most all of the above low-back issue list
  • Safety bar squat
  • Ab and core work that is not in plank position (crunches, leg lifts)
  • Sled work with a harness

If you are having asymmetrical pain (right shoulder/elbow hurts), you can do: 

If you are having an ankle or foot issue, see the next session for her exact session.

This is just a quick list. Don’t forget all the specialty machines, bands and gadgets out there. You can find work to be done anywhere, but it is notably easier with a full gym. 

The Modifications

In the case of my fighter, she was proactive about taking care of it so the swelling was already going down. She was set for a heavy squat day, so we modified, obviously. No squats, no sled work, and no sandbag throws. 

Her work ended up being: 

In the end, she was able to get a good bit of posterior work with the good mornings, Gluteator and reverse hyper. We had several wins: she got to train adductors in a focused way (we rarely do), we were able to do a new exercise (the seated good mornings), and we spent extra time on the lat pulldowns. All in all, a win. 

What’s Next

She will continue to take care of her ankle with her own heat and cold protocols, and I suggested she look into flossing/wrapping the joint. If this is something you are interested in, google “Donnie Thompson flossing”. 

Show Up!

Remember, modify, don’t miss! Showing up in your training environment is the best thing you can do! Whether it’s your garage, the YMCA, or a hardcore training facility, your training environment will be more conducive to training around injury and bouncing back than anywhere else.

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Love Notes, Volume 1

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Love Notes, Volume 1.

I was on a podcast recently (will link to soon) and I was explaining to the host that I screenshot feedback I get from my clients.

I call them Love Notes because they make me so happy. They range from silly to deep to downright inspiring. 

He asked which are my favorites. I have tons, but here are a few of my favorites.

Abs are crying!

Love notes volume 1

This one made my day! This guy has the most conditioned and strong abs of anyone I’ve ever trained, so a text like this is a win-win.

Dramatic Improvement in Mental Health

Love notes volume 1

This one meant so much to me! This is why I do what I do. I screenshot this one 6 years ago, and I look at it often. It means so much to me. If only everybody knew how much exercise can help!

A Much Lighter One 😂

Love notes volume 1

Hahahaha! Exercise makes you feel invincible. 🙂

All good. Love you. ❤️ ❤️❤️❤️

Loves notes, V1

This one’s my favorite. Love you too, Mom.

More Love Notes

Here’s Volume 2. And here’s more success stories. I love reading people’s stories!

Want to Write Your Own Success Story?

Let me help you! Let’s do a free consult and see if I can get you to where your abs are crying happy tears too! Start here!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

When Will I See Results?

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“When will I see results?” This is a common question I hear, and fair! This client case study illustrates what to do when you are wondering the same.

A client recently asked me if we could change anything in her program to see progress faster. We were about eight weeks in to working with each other. She is athletic and regularly teaches and participates in Pilates classes. She also does a conditioning type class and actively dances salsa and bachata here in Austin.

As you can see, she already has a healthy lifestyle, so her main goals were to increase definition, get a little leaner, and see progress in her abs and glutes. Great goals!

Where Do I Start?

She had never worked on driving up her barbell lifts when we met, so with that in mind, we began by learning how to do the basic movements with ideal form: squat, hinge, push, pull. 

The first big lift that she learned, practiced and increased weight on was the trap bar deadlift. For about a month, we prioritized deadlifting with great form, and continued the other movements as well. Then we added in the barbell squat, and began increasing her weight on the squat as her coordination and strength improved.

So here we are eight weeks in and she is squatting 95 for sets of 5 with amazing form and deadlifting 165 for sets of 3-5. She is a technically sound lifter and her form improves each week. 

She trains consistently, and her strength is increasing. 

Seeing Progress!

At this point, she was beginning to see strength improvements in her daily life. Pilates became easier, the bags of dog food seemed lighter. In fact, she was progressing much faster than most people do in the beginning. 

She was doing fantastic!

Still, she’s an overachiever. Type A personality. She wanted results faster.

The answer wasn’t one she wanted the hear. The answer is, she was doing it. She was on the path. Sometimes it’s just takes longer than we think. Most times it takes longer than we think, and the answer is to keep going. 

Laying the Foundation for Increased Work Capacity

Think about it this way: when you first start working out, you’re not as strong as you will be, and not as conditioned as you will be. In other words, your work capacity is low, or at least, has room to improve. The amount of weight you can move is limited, and the amount of time you can work hard is limited. 

A smart lifting program won’t throw you in the deep in from the beginning, so hopefully you aren’t going all out, you aren’t hitting max weight lifts. What you are doing is learning the exercises, learning to move well with good form, and laying a foundation for more work. 

Sure, you could do more. If your goal in life was to lose 30 pounds THIS MONTH and your life depended on it, you could push harder. In her case, that wasn’t the answer. We wanted her to work hard in a way that contributed to her already active lifestyle, and stay in a favorable position on the risk:reward ratio. 

Thus, our choice was to steadily increase her strength and fitness in a safe and effective way. She has had some days where she worked really hard, and had some soreness carry over into her Pilates practice and dance classes, but she has never been hurt. She’s too active to risk getting hurt. If we take a month or two longer to get where she wants to be, and do so more safely, that’s a better path.

Build Your Strength!

As mentioned above, as you get stronger and fitter and increase your work capacity, you can expend more effort and energy with each training session. You’ll burn more calories and move more weight, and this is how you’ll start to see results. 

This is easy to see if you use Train Heroic, the training app my clients and I use. As you lift and track your session, Train Heroic stores your data. It gives you an end-of-session summary that shows you how many pounds of weight you moved. That number is not the end all be all, but it clearly demonstrates how much work capacity can improve. 

personal trainer Austin
When will I see results?

Note in the above screenshots:

  • Look how much her volume increased: from 6,850 pounds to 17,740!!
  • This is the same session, from warm up through the exercises and cool down
  • They are about 6 weeks apart
  • She rated them about a 3 on a scale of 1-10 intensity

See how much more work she was able to put in an hour? It’s just densely packed with work!

This is why you will not always see fast progress in the first few weeks. Once you have learned how to work hard safely though, it is GO time!

Focus on this process so that each workout you do will be stronger and more productive than the last. This will add up exponentially, and you’ll get more out of each workout session you do. 

Keep Going!

Resist the urge to jump ship, change your whole plan, or program hop. If you are on a good program, keep giving it your all and do your best day by day. Just keep doing today what you can do today. Set yourself up today to have a productive tomorrow.

Other ways you can optimize your progress:

  • Get enough protein
  • Add in HIIT
  • Make sure your diet is on point (work on eliminating those things you know don’t help you, like extra desserts or Cokes)
  • Sleep well

Where is She Now?

In my clients case, her progress is fantastic. She doesn’t have the training perspective that I have from training hundreds – thousands? – of clients over 18 years to know how well she is doing. I have seen so many people at many stages of their exercise journey – and 8 weeks is a relatively small amount of time to get to where she is.

We are still working together and she is still doing great! We are building her foundation and growing her lifts. Each workout she is able to do more work and lift heavier, yet she feels energized after.  

Her hunger for more and drive to work harder are excellent qualities that are serving her well!

When Will You See Results?

If you are looking to make more progress, but aren’t on a plan, I’d suggest starting there. Only then can you really assess if you are going the direction you want to go. 

If you want to explore 1:1 to see results like my client here, and are able to do in person personal training in Austin, then let’s discuss.

Do you have questions about where to start or what kind of program to be on? Email me. I am happy to help you! Kathryn@kathrynalexander.com.

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How to do Triceps Kickbacks

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Learn how to do triceps kickbacks and build your triceps with this simple exercise you can do nearly anywhere. This exercise demo uses dumbbells, but you could use kettlebells or a band. If you do these well, which you will after reading this, you can use pretty light weights and still make it effective.

What Does the Triceps Kickback Work? 

This answer is pretty simple. 🙂 The triceps kickback works the triceps. The triceps are a group of 3 muscles in your upper arm. They function to extend the elbow, and make up the majority of the muscle mass in your upper arm. 

If your upper arm jiggles, it’s probably unflexed triceps or fat on top. Working triceps can firm up your upper arm. 

Can’t get enough arm work? Try these biceps curls for more!

How to Do the Triceps Kickbacks

Start with a very light weight, like 3-5 pounds. You can always go much heavier; for now, I want you to learn to excel at doing this movement with lighter weight. 

Stand with a weight in each hand, and hinge over. The hinge allows your back to stay straight, and you bend at the hips. Imagine you had a rigid cast on your whole torso so you couldn’t bend your spine forward or backward, and then push your hips behind you. 

From here, press your elbows behind you, which will be up toward the ceiling. 

Your elbows will stay in this position. Think about your upper arm being parallel to the ground here. 

Now, straighten your elbows and squeeze hard at the top. Control the weights down, and repeat. 

Note that as you bring the dumbbells back down, you can bring them to just below your elbow. You don’t have to curl them all the way into a biceps curl with a big bend in your elbow. 

If you notice that the weights feel easier as you go, check your upper arm angle. If your arms are falling back toward the floor, the exercise will become less challenging and feel really easy. Simple remedy: just pull your elbows back up toward the ceiling. 

Add These In Your Program!

Where do you add these in your training program? Try triceps kickbacks on your arm day, or upper body day. I suggest doing them after you’ve done pushups, bench press, or overhead press. Start with 3-4 sets or 8-12 reps. Like I mentioned above, start very very light and get good at them. From there, increase the weight a small amount. Let me know how they go!

Triceps also help with pushups. Add these in your program to help strengthen your triceps, and get your first pushups with this plan.

Need Motivation?

Join my team programs, which my clients do at home or at their own gyms. Follow along and get fit together! Keep at it – you can do this!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How to Overcome Gym Intimidation

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Here are some real steps you can take to overcome gym intimidation. Short term mindset shifts for long term confidence. Gym intimidation is a real thing! From feeling a little like the new kid to full blown fear, I would guess everyone who has set foot in a gym has experience some version of it.

Like any new endeavor, it can be uncomfortable at first. But also like new endeavors that you repeat, it will become less new and less scary. Read on for some ideas to build your confidence and overcome your intimidation in the gym.

How to overcome gym intimidation with Austin personal trainer Kathryn Alexander.
Overcome your gym intimidation with Austin personal trainer Kathryn Alexander.

Just Do It – For Now

First things first: just do it. For now, one foot in front of the other. Do it even while intimidated. I promise it will become more comfortable. Until then, some more concrete action steps.

Have a Plan

Have a plan. That way you don’t have to think wonder or figure everything out while you’re in the gym. It’s ok if the first few trips are a lot of figuring out. After that, you’ll have your routine down. You can branch out from there when it’s time for a new routine. If you get confused or lost, go back to the trails you know.

Here’s how to choose a training plan.

Ask!

Ask! If you can’t figure something out, ask! You won’t be the first or last person who had questions about particular machines. Believe me- people who have put hours and sweat effort into the gym understand more than anyone. They’re so nice to beginners because they have been there. Of course, if someone is in the middle of a set and avoiding eye contact, ask someone else and let them be. But if on the off chance you get someone who isn’t nice, remember it says more about them than you. If a staff member is short with you, find a new gym. Seriously. There are fantastically supportive gyms out there, like Big Tex Gym in Austin, Texas.

Learn Gym Etiquette

Read gym etiquette so you are in the know. It basically boils down to being considerate of others and paying attention to what you’re doing. You can read a full gym etiquette post here. There are always some things specific to your gym, which you’ll figure out. That usually has to do with layout, like if there’s a busy corner you’ll want to use but not monopolize. Things like that that you’ll figure out. 

Remember It Is Worth It!

Remind yourself that it’s worth the short term discomfort! If you’ve been wanting to do this for a long time, you won’t want it less ina a year. In fact, in a year, you’ll wish you had started now. Eyes on the prize, doll. You can do this. 

I guarantee you- other people don’t have it all figured out either. Everybody is learning together. Someone in worse shape, better shape, fatter, leaner, stretchier and tighter than you has done it before. You can do it too! 

Focus On Yourself

Remember most people aren’t paying attention to you. They are either preoccupied with their session, their outfit, their gym crush, or the work meeting they’re trying not to think about. Or, best  case scenario, they are focused on their training! Very few people are out there truly thinking much about strangers. 

Remember Your Strengths

Remind yourself what you’re good at!! I bet you’re great at something! You could teach me a lot about your job and your skills. Just because you don’t live in the gym doesn’t mean anything about your value, or whether you belong at the gym. True story, I learned to snow ski when I was 27. It was horrible. I had to pep talk myself in the side of this snow mountain by reminding myself I AM good at something, dang it. Put me in the gym and let me go  😂

If you want the full blown account of my ski humiliation, read here.

I had a client many years ago who lamented that he had spent so many years just working and not exercising. He wanted to keep up with the strong strong 20-something male trainers. I had to remind my client that they were elite powerlifters, but he had a very fruitful career, thriving marriage and happy adult children. He was doing great at life! He was healthy too, and still working on it. 

Try These Gym Intimidation Tips For Yourself

That’s the list! Those are my best tips. Remember that you belong in the gym too, that you do have skills in life, and make yourself a plan and follow it. 

Message me if I missed anything. I love hearing from people who have figured out how to overcome discomfort!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

What is the Best Training Split?

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What is the best training split to do? There are many options, and luckily, many of them are effective. How do you know which one to choose? Let’s discuss! 

What is a Training Split?

A training split is the breakdown of what you exercise on what days. Common gym training splits include:

  • Push/pull/legs
  • Upper/lower
  • Full body
  • 4 and 5 day splits

There is no one best split, and you should rotate every 6-12 weeks anyway. Let’s look at these options and discuss when to best use them. 

What is the best training split?

Push/Pull/Squat

Push/pull/squat is a great 3 day split. Your push days will include upper body exercises for chest, shoulders and triceps. Pull will include back exercises (lat pulldowns, rows) biceps curls and rear delts. Finally, squat day is obviously when you work legs. You’ll want to do some quad-focused lifts, some hip dominant or posterior work, and glutes and calves. How you distribute those lifts is up to your depending on your goals. I recommend having at least one quad-dominant and one hip dominant exercise on your squat day. 

You can do this split if you’re going to the gym 3 days a week, so obviously one day would be push, one day would be pull and the final day would be squat. If you are going to the gym more than 3 days a week but still enjoy push/pull/squat, you can rotate through. For example, if you train 5 days but are doing this 3 day split, you’ll do push, pull, squat, push, pull, and then begin the next week with squats again. 

Upper/Lower Split

An upper/lower body split is fun, conceptually simple, and also flexible. This will allow you to train 2 days, 4 days or even more if you just keep them alternating. Options would be to do upper, lower, rest, repeat. Or, you could do upper, rest, lower, rest, if you’re making it to the gym 3 ish days a week.

You could even do upper, lower, upper, etc, and only rest as you need or as your schedule demands. However, If you’re training 5 days or more, you might benefit from a different program. 

Full Body Every Day

If you only have 3 days a week to lift or less, you’ll see the most progress from doing full body training each time. You’ll see a huge training effect for your time, compared to taking a whole training day for say, just arms and abs for example.

This is also great if athleticism is one of your goals, since the whole body stimulation is more like an athletic endeavor. This split allows for heavy, taxing work, because the rest days are generous. 

4-5 Day Split

Finally, if you are in the gym 4, 5 or more days a week, you could do a split that is even further broken down. This might look like chest/back/legs/arms or chest/back/hip dominant lower body/arms/anterior or quad focused legs.

I mentioned it briefly above in the push/pull/squat section, but its worth noting again that there are a few ways to categorize lower body lifts:

  • anterior or posterior 
  • hip or quad dominant
  • hamstrings & glutes or quads

An easy example of anterior movement would be seated leg extensions for your quads. Hamstrings curls would be posterior. Hip dominant refers a little more to posterior style glute and hamstrings work, such as a Romanian deadlift. An example of quad dominant would be front squats.

Compound lower body lifts like squats, deadlifts and lunges work both quads and hamstrings (anterior and posterior), basically all of the above. There are ways to focus more on one muscle group than the other by putting more emphasis on said group, but there will be involvement from all of your lower body musculature with compound movements.

How Do You Pick a Training Split?

First identify your goals, and how many days a week you would like this program to run. From there, you can choose one of the above programs. Give it a real, honest go for at least 6 weeks.
From there, you can change. Ideally, you will change or adjust every few months anyway, so give it your best. Don’t be afraid you’ll pick the wrong one. Train hard, and it will work well for you! 

Related: how much exercise do you need to do?

Let me know how it goes! I love love love hearing feedback! It helps me learn, and helps me pass on better knowledge too. 

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

10 Best Ab Exercises

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The “10 best ab exercises” might be one of the most googled queries, as achieving visible abs and a flat stomach is one of the most common fitness goals. 

I’m a huge believer that you should love the body you are in, and you get to set your own fitness goals. If you are looking to tighten and tone up your abs, let’s do it! 

Below I will outline what I think are 10 of the best ab exercises, both for home workouts and in the gym. These range from beginner to advanced, so know that you might have to work up to some of them. However, even the “easy” or beginner exercises can benefit even the most advanced lifters. The basics always win!

best ab exercises

Note that this post is about ab work, not core work. Abdominal work here refers to your rectus abdominis, internal and external obliques, transverse abdominis, and hip flexors. This is as opposed to core or trunk work, which includes all of the above muscles, in addition to the muscles of the back as well. 

Best Ab Workout at Home Without Equipment

The great thing about ab work is that a lot of it can be done at home with no equipment. Abdominal work is largely about managing and controlling your movements, and you don’t always need machines and weights for that. Below is an example of one of the best at-home ab workouts.

If you have done Pilates, you’ll see a lot of similarity to the work listed below. 

Try each of these exercises to get a feel for it. From there, you can do these in one big circuit. You would do crunches, then immediately move to a plank. Bonus if you want to do a side plank, then other side, etc., until you have done all the exercises. From there, rest, and repeat the whole circuit 2+ times.

crunch
Plank
toe touch
dead bug
Turkish get up sit up

For example, it would look like (videos above): 

Crunches, 10 reps

Plank, 20 seconds. Right side plank, 20 seconds, left side plank 20 seconds.

Toe touch, 10 each side

Dead bug, 5 each side

Turkish get up sit up part, 5 each side

How to Work Abs at the Gym

The previous work was done at home, at high volume. The following exercises can be done more like traditional strength training, where you can add load and increase the challenge. One crucial factor here is resting between sets, because you are going to aim to go heavier/harder where you can. I suggest doing a set of 5-10, increasing the difficulty for the next set, resting 1-2 minutes, and repeating. 

Hanging leg raise

Slant board crunch

Pallof press

Ab wheel

GHD face up twist. Can be down without weight. In fact, start without weight.

hanging leg raise
slant board crunch
Pallof press
ab wheel
GHD twist

Tips for Abs and a Strong Core

My number one tip for effective ab work is to be deliberate and feel the exercise. Don’t just go through the motions or just get the movement done. Focus on squeezing your muscles and get the most out of each rep. Make each rep a quality rep.

Keep in mind that your diet plays a huge factor in how your abs look. The above exercises will make you core stronger. They won’t necessarily give you a visible 6-pack though, because you must also be lean enough for the muscles to show. In other words, you absolutely can have strong, developed ab muscles that don’t show because you are carrying fat on top. 

To lose that fat and allow your abs to show, be honest with yourself about where you can clean up your diet. Some big factors that can go a long way are eating enough protein, cutting out or reducing sugary drinks and alcohol, and filling up first on your protein and fruits and vegetables before other sides. 

Get other movement in as well. Whether you enjoy walking, cycling, jogging, competitive sports or HIIT, adding in other cardiovascular calorie burning methods will help your abs show too. 

Get on a good, full body training program. If you need a place to start, here are three that several of my clients are doing: Alexander Training programs.

Finally, put all this together: the best ab exercises, done the best way you can, with nutritious foods in the right amounts. You’ll be happy with the results!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How to Use the Hammer Strength Leg Curl

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The Hammer Strength leg curl is a fantastic addition to a lower body strength program. I generally believe that compound movements like squats, deadlifts and the variations, and lunges are going to be the most beneficial for any kind of strength, aesthetic or athletic program. However, hamstrings can usually benefit from assistance work and that’s where this machine excels. 

Like other Hammer Strength brand equipment, this is a plate loading machine. This means it feels good and smooth and is fun to work on. It’s easy to increase your weight from set to set by just adding another plate. 

The Anatomy of Hamstrings

The hamstrings are made of three muscles: the biceps femoris, semimembranosus, and semitoneinosus. This group of muscles crosses the hip joint and the knee joint. They provide knee flexion, hip extension and rotation.

Why Strong Hamstrings Are Important

Hamstrings make up a large percent of the muscle in our lower body, and act on the hip and knee joints, so you can see how healthy hamstrings are largely involved in having a healthy posterior. 

Hamstrings provide strength and power, which is crucial for athletes, first responders and military personnel. Additionally, they’re important for anyone who moves – walking, going up stairs, picking things up all involve hamstrings. 

Hamstrings are crucial for deceleration, so having strong hamstrings can help prevent injury in athletes. Sprinting, turning, cutting, and athletic movements like those rely only the hamstrings heavily.

Finally, importantly to everybody in everyday life, strong musculature around your knee can prevent and improve knee pain. Continue reading to learn how to use the Hammer Strength leg curl, and how to incorporate it into your program.

Hammer strength leg curl

How to Use the Hammer Strength Leg Curl

Start by placing a weight on the machine, which will be on the left side as you are facing it. I suggest starting with a 25 to get a feel for it. 

Adjust the back rest so that your knees bend approximately where the machine “knee joint” rotates as well. You’ll see this pivot point to the right of your right knee when you sit. If you need to sit and try it out, and then stand and adjust, that is fine. Take the time to get a good setup.

Once you are set up well, extend your legs straight and set your feet on top of the foot pads. They will fit behind your ankles.

From here, think about bending your knees and dragging your heels back toward your glutes. 

Control your legs back to the starting position. 

Do a set of 8-12 reps just to feel out the weight. From there, you can adjust up or down, or keep it right there if that’s a good weight.

How Many Sets and Reps Should I Do on the Leg Curl?

As with any strength protocol, you want to work up to a weight that’s not a max but an honest challenge. I hope the first set is light and functions as a warm up. From there, aim to take a couple more sets to work up to a working weight. 

For example: 

Set 1: 25 pounds, 12 easy reps. Rest a minute!

Set 2: 35 pounds, 10 easy to moderate reps. Rest! 

Set 3: 45 pounds, 10 reps, was a good challenge. 

Rest, and stay at this weight for two more working sets. 

How Long Do I Rest Between Sets?

Rest 1-2 minutes. You will probably be doing this after your big, compound lifts like squats and deadlifts. For those heavy sets, you’ll rest up to 3 minutes. On this leg curl, you can rest 1-2. Don’t wait so long that you get cold between sets, but don’t treat it like an endurance protocol, where you rest 0 seconds.

If you are working alone, I suggest timing your rest. Most people don’t rest long enough, and are surprised when their estimated minute rest is 21 seconds or so. 

Related: learn how to do the Bulgarian split squat, which is killer for leg development too! ooh and bear crawls 🙂 And, read about my 5 favorite exercises!

Does Your Gym Have the Hammer Strength Leg Curl?

If your gym doesn’t, it is worth asking if they can get one. You can see specs for the machine from the Life Fitness Hammer Strength webpage here. If they don’t have one, ask a trainer what machine functions similarly. If you need substitute exercises, ask me too!

Want to work your abs too? Try the 10 best ab exercises.

Want to Chat About Your Training?

I’d love to talk to you about your training! If you’d like to do a consult, please message me here! If you are looking for an Austin personal trainer, I’d love to talk. I have many happy remote clients too.

Happy training!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Why You Should Buy a Grill

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I am here to tell you why you should buy a grill. You probably know by now, I am a big believer in taking care of yourself the best you can. I believe in sourcing high-quality food, knowing how to cook your own food, and being self-reliant. One simple solution to all of those things is to own and use a grill.

Let’s discuss all the reasons why I will peer pressure you, I mean support you, in buying and using a grill.

Grills Make Food Delicious

First and foremost, grilling makes food taste delicious. It almost always comes out better than when prepared inside. Grilling allows you to experiment with seasonings, cooking methods, and different cuts of meat. Universally I find food I prep on the grill comes out impressive. Meats, vegetables, desserts, everything.

buy a grill for homemade jalapeño poppers
buy a grill for homemade jalapeño poppers

Grills Are Easy to Use

Also, importantly, the grill is easy to use. There are endless ways to cook food to your preference, but don’t get overwhelmed. The bottom line is that grilling food is pretty simple. Don’t be intimidated! You can absolutely do it, I promise! 

If it makes you nervous, have someone show you how to start and maintain the heat. It’s perfectly ok to be the helper until you feel comfortable making the whole meal. Just know that it is do-able!

Grilling is Fun! 

Like I mentioned above, there are endless ways to personalize your grilling process, and this makes it so fun! You can experiment with different spices and rubs, high temperatures and searing, or low and slow methods. Or you can stick to your tried and true favorite method.

I love trying all kinds of new things, reading different recipes and planning how to incorporate them, but I will admit it feels pretty good to have one ace-up-your-sleeve method. When I throw a steak on the grill I know how to make it. Come out perfect. Sometimes that’s the best easy no-brainer way to go. 

Cook Outdoors!

Also in the fun category is that grilling outside is so nice! It’s really peaceful to cook out in nature. Yes, you sometimes have to deal with mosquitoes or weather, but barring bees stings, the outdoors is pretty lovely. I thoroughly enjoy cooking food outside. Highly recommend.

steak and veggies

Prepare Protein Easily

Back to the health benefits: grilling makes preparing quality protein very convenient. Protein is vitally important to your health so finding any way to be sure that you and everyone you cook for eats enough protein is worth the effort.

Likewise, you are really able to take charge of your own health and make your own food decisions. I eat a lot of meat, but I am hugely passionate on finding meat that’s been ethically sourced. I do not buy any meat, eggs or dairy from large animal farms. I buy directly from three different ranches, and make sure to get Texas dairy and eggs from pasture raised hens. It’s important, not just for my health, but for the the quality of the animals life. I just really like to know where my meat comes from. 

Save Money With Grilling

Grilling can save you money. Yes, I mean that! No, nobody paid me to say that. But I’ll repeat it if someone wants to! Ha! The truth is, high quality and well prepared meat meals are typically the most expensive things to order out. You’ll still want to budget to buy high-quality meat but cooking it yourself will save $30 easily.

You can also batch cook. High quality meat does take some prep time. It’s not always easy to do at breakfast or on the run during the day. If you put extra on the grill or on your grill and slightly larger for portions, you can plan to have some left over. Voila! Healthy food done with no extra time cost. 

Save Your Kitchen the Mess

Grills are also fantastic for sparing your kitchen a huge mess. Grills require some maintenance, but are typically pretty simple. There’s a quick cleanup process after, they don’t heat up your kitchen (crucial in Austin summers!) and they give you more options beyond a stove top. You can think of them as an expansion of your kitchen. 

Be Prepared During Power Outages

Propane grills are a fantastic resource for when the power goes out. Here in Austin, we have had several events in the past few years where electric energy was unavailable for days at a time. In that case, it makes a huge difference to still be able to prep your own food. I highly recommend a propane grill that has a side burner. This way I can have meat on the grill and a canned vegetables preparing on the side burner. This gives me peace of mind that I can still eat nutritiously and even cook for my neighbors during emergency times.

Grills Make for Fantastic Bonding Experiences

Grills are such a fun bonding experience! Every time I have people over, we end up hanging around the grill. It becomes the centerpiece for an outside get together. My friends and I share what we’ve been cooking and how we’ve been preparing everything. 

Go Buy a Grill!

Did I convince you sufficiently? I hope so! You won’t regret it!

you should buy a grill

How is Your Training?

There’s more to life than great eating, and by that, I mean great training. How is your training going? If you need some direction or structure, I’d be happy to do a free consult to see if we can work together on your goals. Message me on this page and let’s chat!

If you’re ready to jump into a program now, check out these programs my clients are currently doing on Train Heroic.

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

2 Common Lifting Myths Debunked

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Check out these 2 common lifting myths debunked here! I love when we collectively learn more about what works and what doesn’t for fitness and health. It steers us in the right direction and takes us to our goals faster. Below, I cover two important myths and truths to discover about gaining muscle and losing fat.

Myths About Gaining Muscle and Losing Fat

I hope people, and especially women, are moving into the era of asking how to gain muscle instead of how to lose weight. Gaining muscle and strength is one of the most powerful, useful, amazing feelings a person can achieve. You can’t buy it. You can’t be gifted it. You must earn it, and it feels amazing when you do.

Whether your goal is to gain muscle all over or spot increase a.k.a. get a bigger butt, there are some main concepts you should know. Let’s start by debunking two of my least favorite myths.

common lifting myths debunked
I was trying really hard to get “bulky” here.

Myth: You Can Spot Decrease Fat by “x”

This myth is that you can spot decrease fat. Some articles you read will say to do a bunch of sit ups or crunches to decrease abdominal fat. Unfortunately this does not work. I wish this were the case.

As it stands, the research consensus is that short of liposuction or other surgical interventions, you cannot choose to lose fat locally. This means that as you lose fat, you’ll generally see fat loss over your whole body. You don’t get a skinnier face because you talk too much. Unfortunately for me, lol. You don’t lose belly fat because you do a bunch of crunches. Fat loss is not general, not local. You can’t choose where you lose it.

Truth: You Can Build Muscle Where You Choose

On the other hand, building muscle is local. It is specific to the muscles that you are working. You can make your biceps bigger. You can build your glutes. And when you combine your fat loss with the abdominal work you’re doing, you will see abdominal definition. 

Myth: Lifting Weights Makes You Bulky

Bulky has to be my least favorite word. It’s worst than “moist”, by a factor of a thousand. “Bulk” looks pretty hot on some people. Then again, you might not want “bulk” on you and that’s ok. It’s just different in every context, and bulk is typically not mentioned as a compliment, but gaining muscle is. What? It’s confusing, I know.

That’s why this is one of the most important yet common lifting myths to debunk.

I would really like to put this one to rest. The idea that women will get bulky if they lift weights need to be left back in the past, when it wasn’t true then either. 

Related: Read the best workout tips here.

Truth: Building Muscle is Hard; You Won’t Get Surprise Bulky

The process of building muscle, especially to the extent that one looks bulky, is extremely metabolically expensive. This means it won’t happen unless you are lifting in a very challenging manner, AND eating enough to support gaining weight. 

Remember bulk = muscle. When you see ladies with nice shoulder caps, curvy quads, and hamstrings, that is muscle that you are seeing. If you are scared of getting bulky, know that your fear isn’t bulk, it’s just the extent of muscle you want to build isn’t extreme. If you’ve read this far, I guarantee you do want some muscle built to support your aesthetics and ability.

As you build muscle, you’ll reach the leaner and higher phase before you ever start to get big. In that case, you can maintain at the point at which you are happy. I promise you will not wake up one day and suddenly be bulky! 

I hope getting these lifting myths debunked helps you feel good about working hard, and helps you get to your goals faster.

Don’t be scared to lift heavy and build muscle! You’ll love it! 

If you are brand new to lifting, read this article. It’ll give you a place to start.

It’s Your Turn to Move Past The Myths!

If you are looking to start, bump up, or change your lifting routine, I’d love to help! Message me here with your questions or check out online training options.

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How Much Exercise You Need To Do

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Establishing how much exercise you need to do can be a difficult endeavor. Like protein requirements, public health data about exercise is fairly black and white. Cookie cutter. One size fits all.

But we are not all the same size, whether we are talking about physical size, or obligations-on-the-calendar-size, or enjoyment-of-exercise size.

To find what “size” fits you, let’s discuss practical considerations for your training program. We’ll cover: 

  • How much exercise you really need to do and what to do if you don’t have much time 
  • Why you need a plan
  • Whats the best training split to use
  • How to gain muscle, spot increase, aka get a bigger butt, and not get “too bulky”
Austin personal trainer Kathryn Alexander
Austin personal trainer Kathryn Alexander does pushups at the east side track.

How Much Do You Need to Exercise?

First things first: how much do you need to exercise? My new clients ask me this all the time and it’s a very logical question. The CDC says adults need 150 minutes a week of moderate intensity aerobic physical activity or 75 minutes of vigorous exercise, and two weekly sessions of “muscle strengthening activities” of moderate or greater intensity. WHO, Harvard Health and The American Heart Association recommend generally the same, with a few more helpful guidelines like “limit the amount of time you spend being sedentary.” 

Not terrible advice. If most people followed these guidelines, they’d probably do fine. But I don’t trust the CDC, WHO, or Harvard Health after their disastrous guidelines these past two years. There are more important things to consider when you first start than what a governing body that doesn’t know your name tells you to do.

Let’s make you a plan that’s better than the one-size-fits-all aimed at billions of people.

If you take more into account than just that blanket goal, you’ll have a great chance of consistency, and therefore long term success. 

Your Current Situation

To begin, let’s consider your current situation.

  • How much time do you have to allocate toward training?
  • What can you currently do? 
  • What are your goals? 
  • What is your family history?

In athletics, it’s called strength & conditioning. Very performance based. For non-athletes, that’s lifting and cardio. Plan to do both.

We should also take into account what kind of exercise you enjoy. I’ve found with my clients that most people have a distinct preference for a strength or conditioning feel. They prefer either a heavy 2 rep deadlift set or a gut checking extended sled push & pull, all day erry day. Take that into consideration. There will be some parts you don’t love, but if you hate it all, chances are you won’t do it. 

How Much Exercise Do You Need to Do?

The CDC says you should do 150 minutes + 2 lifting sessions, but the better question is, “This week, what are you certain you can do?” Can you do a training session on 2 days? 3 days? Plan on that. Start with what fits your life now. Adjust as you go. 

Please consider practicalities: commute time, the extra time to wash/dry your hair, get dressed, redo your makeup if you’d like. Factors those variables in because this program has to work for you. 

You can say you’ll train 7 days this week, but if that’s not reality, I’d rather you say you’ll do 2. Nail it. Plan on 2 sessions, do 2. Get them done by Thursday. Then, you can adjust to more sessions a week. You’ll be much more successful this way than saying you’ll do 6 days, 7 days, or following a structure that a governing body says to follow, and then failing because it doesn’t fit in your life right now. 

There are seasons in life for everything. If you are a new mom, over committed at work, in a busy semester, it’s hard to do 4, 5, 7 days a week. Don’t look at this like a cop out. Your kids will grow up, mama, your semester from hell will end, and the job will change with time. 

Do the best you can, give yourself grace, and adjust as you go. 

Unpopular opinion, but if you only exercise twice a week for the rest of your life, that’s way better than nothing. That’s 100+ training sessions a year. Better than average, although we don’t compare ourselves to average. 

So how many times a week do you need to train? You pick that right now. Make a plan, nail it, and reassess and make another plan. You can always have an end goal in mind and work toward it, but set yourself up for success first. 

What is Your Strategy?

Sometimes all you need is a plan. The structure of having a plan will help you execute on said plan. If you need help with this please let me know. I have seen many many clients succeed in a variety of ways. We can find a way for you too!

Message me here if I can help you or if you have questions.

Related: 10 Surefire Ways to Get Enough Protein In Your Diet

The Garage Squad

Do you need a program that tells you exactly what to do? The Garage Squad is made for the independent lifter who has gym access and wants to follow a program that uses barbells and some machines.

The Garage Squad Training Program by Kathryn Alexander

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

10 Surefire Ways to Get More Protein in Your Diet

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Protein is vitally important to your everyday life, metabolism, building of muscle, growing skin and hair. 

Protein is not always the easiest to get in the right amounts either, because it often requires preparation and refrigeration.

However, it is worth it to prioritize eating enough protein, and this is especially important if you are responsible for other people’s intake too, like your spouse or children’s.

salmon on grill for tasty protein

I just wrote about how much protein you really need to get so read this if you have questions about how you should aim for.

So how do you get enough? There are lots of ways! Try some of these options below! (I saved the best for last!)

1. Change How You View Your Meals

First and foremost, the biggest change you can make, and the most effective in my opinion, is to change how you think of your meal structure. Plan your meal around protein. It must have high quality protein as its base. This means a baked potato or bowl of spaghetti, or even soup, is usually not a meal. 

Soup can have protein in it. Make sure it’s around 30 g. Baked potatoes, spaghetti, veggies, and soup are great sides. You can absolutely have those; but a meal should have a backbone of protein. 

Once you begin thinking this way, you’ll realize it gives you enough structure to make meal planning even easier. 

2. Have a System

I’ve adopted the viewpoint of having protein as the staple of my meal, so it makes planning them easy. I generally eat fairly protein for breakfast and snacks, I cook meat for supper, and eat those leftovers for lunch. 

Eggs or cottage cheese, and fruit, go a long way for me in the morning. I often have a kefir smoothie too. Lunch is already made from yesterday; a no brainer. And finally, I love grilling. I look forward to a new recipe or an old favorite on the grill. If I don’t have the time or inclination to put much effort into it, I simply brown a pound of ground beef or bison, and have fruit as my sides again. 

3. Keep Some Tuna on Hand

Keep a quick stash of tune in your pantry. Tuna is quick, easy and packed with protein. It’s not gourmet, I know. But it’s cheap, easy, and keeps for long periods of time. It’s a fantastic backup for the days  I need a little something to hold me over until dinner, or times we get those unpredictable Austin storms and I don’t want to drive to the store in the rain.

You can mix it with some mayo, cracker, or relish if you’re a total weirdo. 🙂

4. Eggs

Eggs are so versatile! I love eggs because I think they are delicious, easy, and they are high quality protein. Boiling eggs is quick and easy. Scrambling a few in a pan or making them over easy is also pretty simple. I went through a long phase of poaching eggs, which was a little more like an art form that I never quite perfected. It was fun though, remains a staple in my diet. Many people like eggs too, so you can usually find a way to make them that complements your family’s tastes.

5. Protein Powder

Protein powder is a great way to supplement protein in your diet. This is not cheating or taking a shortcut. Make sure you get a high quality protein, and do not let it substitute real food or real meals. Use it as a supplement, not a substitute. 

There are many people out there who get creative with using protein powder to make high protein snacks. If you google “how to make high protein bread” or “how to make high protein pancakes” you’ll find many options! 

You don’t have to bake with it, however. I don’t. If I have a protein shake, I just mix it with water. I like regular bread, in normal amounts, and protein powder as a holdover. However, you can experiment with this if you like to be creative with your baking.

6. Plan Your Protein On The Go

Admittedly, I am a planner. I do this because it’s logistically and financially easier. I do find myself in a pinch sometimes, where I don’t have enough time to get a full meal but I’m starving. In this case, my go-to is beef jerky or Greek yogurt from a convenience store. Many of the newer convenience stores now carry a nice refrigerated section. I keep a box of plastic spoons in my glove compartment at all times, specifically for times like this. 

Related: How Often Should I Workout?

7. Know What Restaurants Are Around You

By now, I hope you start thinking in terms of building your meal around protein first. This will allow you to have your go-to restaurants. BBQ places are abundant in Austin, where I live, and offer great protein options. Most sit down restaurants have a grilled or baked chicken plate. Even Chick-Fil-A has grilled chicken salads. Look around you and see what works for your needs and schedule.

8. Try New Protein Sources!

Try new things! Chicken and steak are pretty common, but don’t forget seafood. Salmon, oysters, and crawfish are full of high quality protein. If you are able to try wild game, bison and venison are great, healthy options too. 

Currently in my fridge/freezer are: frozen crawfish, frozen oysters, venison, beef, bison, chicken, eggs. 

9. Beware of Less Optimal Protein Sources

Peanut butter should not be your protein source. Nuts and seeds have some protein, but have way more fun, making the majority of their calories from fat. This does not make them inherently unhealthy! However, if you eat enough peanut butter or nuts to get enough protein, you’ll be getting literally hundreds of calories you might not want to consume. 

That’s a quick way to tank any weight loss results you are seeking. If you are looking to gain weight, by all means, eat up. Just be aware of what you are taking in, despite what an internet sources says. Even this. 🙂 Read your nutrition labels! 

10. Get a Grill or Smoker

A grill or smoker is a game changer; hands down, this is my number one recommendation for how to make getting enough protein easier. Notice this is not easy, per se. I know. But it is worth the trouble and expense in the long run. 

A grill or smoker makes meat delicious, easy to prepare, and even easy to prepare in bulk. Cook for days at a time! Have a party! 

I love grilling so much, I wrote a whole post about why you should buy a grill. 🙂

Grills also make cleanup a breeze and don’t heat up your kitchen. And look at these grill marks:

ways to get more protein

How do You Get More Protein?

Did I miss anything? Let me know how you make sure to get enough protein! Stay consistent with your protein intake and training, and you’ll get where you want to be! If you still have questions, let me know. I’m a fantastic problem solver and I have time for you! 🙂

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How to do Bulgarian Split Squats

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Bulgarian split squats (BSS), or rear foot elevated split squats (RFESS) are universally loved* by exercisers and lifters.

*Not really, XOXO

Bulgarian split squats are TOUGH but they are great for so many reasons! 

If you need a solid leg exercise, a change in routine, a new lift or just a challenge, try these! 

You can do it! Don’t be scared off by them. There are ways to modify to make them workable for almost anybody.

This picture is fake news, because nobody smiles while doing Bulgarian split squats:

how to do Bulgarian split squats

What are the Benefits of Bulgarian Split Squats?

There are so many benefits of doing Bulgarian split squats! Here’s a bulleted list, and more info below. 

Bulgarian split squats:

  • Improve balance and coordination 
  • Are effective at building strength and mass
  • Work your legs unilaterally
  • Can be very challenging 
  • Allow you to exercise with less weight 
  • Can be done anywhere 
  • Don’t always load spine 

First and foremost, Bulgarian split squats are effective for building muscular strength and mass. You can often do more than half your squat in the split squat. For example, if you can squat 200 pounds, you can do a split squat holding more than 100. This is a great way to build strength that in turn translates to a stronger squat.

Bulgarian split squats obviously work your legs in an offset way, so even though both legs really are working, they have different roles in the lift. The forward leg should be doing most of the work. This way, you can work your legs in a balanced manner and be sure your strong side isn’t taking over. Building strength unilaterally will spill over to your bilateral lifts like the squat and deadlift. 

Bulgarian split squats are challenging! As mentioned earlier, your body can actually handle a great deal of load in this position, so your ceiling is high. You can continue challenging yourself by adding weight, reps or changes in tempo to progress this lift.

Bulgarian split squats are also extremely versatile. You can do them anywhere! You can do them from a stair if your home has stairs, a park bench if you are getting a lift in outdoors, or from a regular bench at the gym. 

Because they are a combination of balance and load, they can be challenging enough with bodyweight. This also gives you the added benefit of being able to set up anywhere, like previously mentioned. You can hold one dumbbell or kettlebell, or two. You can hold them in a rack position or with straight arms. You can do them with a barbell on your back, too.

Bulgarian split squats don’t load your spine in the way that the barbell lifts do. (Unless you decide to do them with a barbell, which you absolutely can.) This gives you options for a great lower body exercise if your back is giving you issues. 

Finally, you can do them almost anywhere; from stairs, a chair, a park bench if you’re outside. These really are a great option for equipment-free training.

Related: this leg curl is a great assistance exercise for building strong hamstrings and here’s a whole leg and glute home session.

How to do Bulgarian split squats

How to Modify the BSS

Like I touched on briefly above, you can make the BSS tougher or easier by modifying them in many ways. 

To make them most manageable, use a low starting position; try 6 inches. From there, position yourself against a wall or something to give you balance. Start with just a few reps. Switch legs and repeat. Then, immediately rest. Don’t make an assessment of it yet. 🙂 Rest a minute or so, and then do it again. You can add a few reps this time.

Work up to doing 3 sets of 8-12 well. When you are ready to increase the challenge from there, increase the height of the elevated leg to 12-18 inches. Again, practice until you are doing multiple sets of 8-12 well.

From here, you will add weight. It sounds counterintuitive, but holding dumbbells will increase your stability by lowering your center of gravity. Try it with 5-10 pound dumbbells. If that’s still too much balance work, you can hold one dumbbell and stabilize yourself with the other. 

You can see what’s next: increase your weight and build up to challenging, heavy sets. You can get creative with increasing your challenge by continuing to hold heavier weights, decreasing your rest time, doing tempo work (slow on the descent, slow up).

Want an upper body how-to? Check out the Hammer Strength iso-row.

How to Do Bulgarian Split Squats

  • Set up facing away from a sturdy box, chair or bench. 
  • Put one leg behind you, on the box
  • From here, bend both knees to accomplish the split squat
  • Stop before your knee hits the ground
  • Focus on the leg in front to do the work; make sure your whole foot is on the ground
  • Squeeze your glutes, and drive your big toe in the ground as you come up
  • Repeat for as many reps as you are performing
  • Switch legs

Tips

  • You can put your toes on the bench, like I do in the video, or put your foot flat on the bench, with the top of your foot resting on the bench.
  • Situation your feet so that there is lateral stability between them. By this I mean, if you were to look down, your feet are as if you are on railroad tracks and not a tightrope. You might have to hop your front foot out to the side to accomplish this. You’ll feel more stable this way. 
  • You’ll probably find one side is more stable than the other. That is ok! 
Bulgarian split squats incorporated into a superset

Try Them Out!

Add these into your training and see how it goes! Please let me know if you have any questions! Message me here.

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

Grilled Venison Fajitas Recipe

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I want to share this grilled venison fajitas recipe with you because it is delicious and healthy and didn’t take long to prepare at all. 

I believe very strongly in sourcing high quality, healthy foods, and knowing how to cook for yourself and your family. There’s nothing wrong with going out to eat or buying prepared meals, but I think it’s vitally important now to look at where your food is coming from, and know how to prepare it. 

Also, protein is vitally important to the human body, especially if you lift. This is another great way to get enough protein in your diet.

grilled venison fajitas recipe

Related: bookmark this chicken recipe to try, too.

I am lucky that I live in Texas and have lots of friends who hunt. They are happy to share and trade meat. I also buy meat packages from 1915 Farm here in Texas and Stay Classy Meats in Montana. Both are fantastic! (I am not sponsored or affiliated with them).

Ingredients

  • Juice from 1 lime
  • Juice from 1 orange
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2 pounds fajita meat from my friend Therk of HD Motorsports, and processed at Republic Butcher
  • 2 tbsp brown sugar
  • 1 red bell pepper, sliced
  • 1 green bell pepper, sliced
  • 1 onion if you like onions, sliced
  • Tortillas
  • Sour cream
  • Cheese
  • Sliced tomato or pico
  • Avocado sliced

Marinade and Veggie Prep

Mix the citrus juices and olive oil to make a marinade. I marinated the fajita meat 2 hours, but you can marinate up to 10 or so.

Pre-heat the grill. 

While grill is heating, saute the peppers and onion. You can do this in a cast iron on the grill, or on a griddle plate if you have one. 

Remove the meat from the marinade and dry it off. Sprinkle brown sugar on the meat. 

When veggies are done sautéing, in about 10 minutes, remove and keep warm. I like to use the little side burner for this.

Related: check out some other spice options to enhance your meals.

Grill the Venison

Increase the heat on the grill. 

Add the meat and sear approximately 3 minutes per side. 

Let the meat rest 5 minutes after you remove it from heat. When you are ready, load your tortilla with meat and all your fixings: sautéed veggies, sour cream, cheese, tomato/pico, and avocado.

Enjoy! 

After you’ve made your grilled venison fajitas, try some other grilled meats like steaks. I put two different methods of cooking steak head to head: check it out here, “Can Steak on the Stovetop be as Good as on the Grill?”

Training Programs

Back to our regularly scheduled programming, exercise! Try jumping into The Garage Squad, which includes barbell work and some gym machines, or The Home Team, which is work that can be done at home with a few dumbbells. See both The Garage Squad and The Home Team here on Train Heroic!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How to Make Your Training Session Quicker

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Here are some options for how to make your training session quicker, if you need to hurry it up for some reason today.

I hope you are following a training plan. That is hands-down the best way to get results. if you’d like an in-depth post about why a training plan can help you, read here. In short, you’ll see increases in strength, improvements on lifts, and changes in your physique if you follow a plan. 

how to make your training session quicker

Additionally, you will always know what to do. There’s no guessing when you get to the gym. 

However, sometimes you have to make adjustments. Sometimes, traffic gets the best of you and you don’t get to the gym until later than you planned. This is called “living in Austin”. Surprise, Mopac is backed up an extra 40 minutes. 🤗

Sometimes you just get busy for a week or so and need to prioritize the lifts that are really bang for your buck. 

How do you do this without wasting your time in the gym? How do you use your time in the gym without just skipping? There are four main ways I will adjust a training session if I or a client need to get work done in less time.

Options for How to Make Your Training Sessions Faster

As I mentioned, there are several ways to speed up your session if you need to. This will depend on your goals, upcoming events (meets or beach trips), and how long your schedule will be very busy. These are meant to be short term adjustments. If you find you are frequently needing a shorter session, you might want to get on a training plan that addresses that. Here are some ideas on how to do that: link to how to exercise when you are busy: 

But, let’s say you just need to make adjustments today. Here are four ways to do that: 

At the gym, there are a few ways to get a quick workout. You can:

  1. Just do your main lift/s and skip accessory work.
  2. Just do exercises that don’t take as much time to warm up and prepare for
  3. Move quicker through your planned session (don’t adjust anything but pace)
  4. Change the type of exercise you are doing altogether. 

Do Your Main Lift/s and Skip Accessory Work

This is my favorite way to train if I need to hurry it up. This allows you to hit your main lift, which is presumably the lift you are focusing on improving and working on. In this situation, the pace of your session doesn’t change. You just end it sooner.

Begin with your regular warm up. Do not skimp on or rush the warm up. Remember, you’re still going to get your heavy, compound lift so you need to be prepared. No matter what, do not sacrifice your warm up. You’ll lift better if you warm up well neurologically and physically, and you are at lower risk of injury. 

Progress on your feeler sets or warm up sets as you would if you had all the time in the world. Let’s use the deadlift as an example. If my current program aims for me to do 3×3 @ 225 (that is, 3 sets of 3 reps at 225 pounds), then I would start with 95 pounds. I would do 3 – 5 reps. From there, I increase the weight each set until I get to 225. Then I begin my work sets. For example, I might progress like: 

1×5 @ 95

1×5 @ 135

1×3 @ 185

1×1 @ 205

3×3 @ 225.

Between my feeler sets, which are 95 – 205 pounds, I’ll rest a minute or 2. Not long. Between my work sets, I’ll rest 2-3 minutes. 

In total, this puts my warm up around 10 minutes, feeler sets around 8 minutes, and work sets 9-10 minutes. From here, I would finish with 2 sets of the back extension or reverse hyper and then head out. Boom – around 30 minutes for a big lift, which was safe and uncompromised. 

Do Exercises That Don’t Take as Much Prep Time

If you have half an hour but want to get more than one exercise in, an option is to do exercises that don’t take as much time to warm up to prepare for. In this case, you skip exercises like heavy compound movements that require a good bit of warm up, prep, and feeler sets. This would be a day where you skip your deadlifts. 

You would begin with a warm up, which you always do. Then you would do exercises that you can jump right into, or only take a couple sets to get into. An example is the push pull squat style of workout.

Let’s choose a pushup (push), dumbbell row (pull) and squat. After your general warm up of some squats, lunges, and light presses, you’d begin. 

Start with pushups and get a moderate amount. Move right into the dumbbell row with a light/moderate weight. Then squat. For this first round, I would suggest a light to moderate weight, such as the one you just rowed. From there, you can decide to bump up the next round or not. 

If you do want a bump up, then you do a few more reps on the pushup, heavier weight on the row and heavier weight on the squat. Rest as you need between rounds, and repeat. 

This is a fun one to push conditioning goals, whereas the previously mentioned deadlift session still works strength in a quick amount of time. 

Moving Faster Through Planned Session

Another option to move quicker through your session is to keep the same exercises, but skip the heaviest/hardest sets so you can move faster. Let’s go back to my deadlift day. Let’s imagine I planned to deadlift, then superset lunges and overhead presses, then superset hamstring curls and bent over rows. 

Normally, I would take my time on the deadlift session and work up to my challenging working sets. Using the number from the first example, where my goal was 225 for 3×3, today, I might just do sets of 5 all the way up to 185. This would look like: 

1×5 @ 95

1×5 @ 135

2×5 @ 185

Note that you always respect your heavy lifts. Even if it’s not as heavy for you, you always treat it like it is. Getting some good volume at lower weights, while still doing my best with form, is a good way to get good work in safely. 

This deadlift progression would shave off the last 10 minutes of the heaviest lifts, because you’re not having to rest quite as much. 

From here, you would go to the first superset and work through it. Back and forth, back and forth. Lunges and presses done. Move quickly to the curls and rows. Since you’re moving quicker and resting less, you might not go as heavy as you would have on the last set, but that’s ok. You’ll feel the work begin done! You can choose to do just two sets here if you’d like. And, boom, you’re out. Lots of work done quickly. 

Change the Type of Exercise You Are Doing

The last option if you are strapped for time is to change the type of exercise you are doing altogether. If you are going to be worried about rushing or running late to the point you do not get good exercise, then just turn it into a conditioning session.

Great options are to get on the treadmill and get some incline work in at a steady pace, or set up a circuit of sled pushes and pulls. Bonus options are the rower, ski erg, and battle ropes if you have access to these. 

In this situation I’d still recommend a light warm up of treadmill work, or squats and lunges to get your heart rate up. Then get into your work. 

This is a great option to get quality work in, and reserve your big lifts for a day when you have the time to give them the attention you want. 

Modify, Don’t Miss

Matt Wenning says, “Modify, don’t miss.” This is great advice. Modify according to make a rushed session fit your time frame. Let me know how this works for you, or if you have ways to work around busy times. I’d love to hear!

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.

How Much Protein Do You Really Need to Eat

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Protein is absolutely vital to thousands of functions of the human body. Proteins are involved in hormonal messaging, structural components, enzymatic reactions and more. Our skin, muscles, hair and nails are built from protein. In short, the human body needs protein. 

On a much more macro level, you’ve most certainly heard that you need to take in more protein if you lift, exercise or are trying to build muscle mass.

So how much protein do you need to eat? The answer is that there is not just one right answer, and finding the answer is unnecessarily complicated. 

ounces of protein

What Do the Governmental Organizations Say About Protein?

If you google “how much protein do I need?” you’ll find a bunch of little non answers. You’ll find an estimation of how many ounces a day you should eat, but of what? Cottage cheese? Beef? Different protein sources have different amounts of protein per ounce. 

how much protein is recommended

You’ll find an answer that says 10-35% of your total calories should come from protein. But how many calories should you eat? How many calories should you base that off of? Also, that’s a huge variance. 10-35%? 10%? Eh, why not 3.5 times that? Sure! This source from health.gov can be found here.

Another recommendation from the FDA says adults should get 50 grams a day. Fifty grams a day. Sounds hiiiighly personalized, haha. I am 140 pounds and I lift 3 days a week. Does this also apply to my friend who is a 110 pound runner? Or a 250 pound strongman? Sounds fishy to me. 

This was accessed here. This article states this info is current as of 2/25/2021.

Here the Recommended Dietary Allows (RDA) is considered 0.80 g of protein per kg bodyweight per day. This is a more concrete number than 50 for everyone, or 10% – 35%. But – its still low.

The Current Dietary Guidelines on Protein Consumption

The most current dietary guidelines, published in a U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services report acknowledges that older adults take in less protein than they need and are at a greater risk of muscle loss. According to this report, 50% of women and 30% of men over 71 already eat less than the already low recommendations.

protein intake

When analyzing “what we eat in America”, the report says that most men ages 19-30 eat just under 8 ounces of protein foods a day, and similar aged women, just over 5 ounces. They graded the overall eating style on a Healthy Eating Index Score (scale of 0-100) and graded Americans a 56.  

protein intake

Fifty six on a scale of 0-100 is pretty terrible when we are talking about our health. 

Why then are we not encouraging increased protein intake? Why is this considered a max level?

The above information was accessed 5/9 from dietaryguidelines.gov.

A Better Protein Recommendation

The above numbers are dangerously low, and are considered by many to be inadequate to build or maintain muscle mass in amounts that will reduce age related sarcopenia and losses of strength. 

According to these researchers published in the peer reviewed Journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition and Metabolism, a better number for maintaining muscle mass and function is 1.2 – 1.6 g of high quality protein per kg body weight, per day. 

These authors find no evidence of negative effects on bone health or kidney health from higher protein diets. Instead, they find the upside of eating enough protein is optimal health, increased satiety, and even loss of fat mass, which in itself is associated with many healthy outcomes. Accessed 5/9/2023 here.

Similarly, Dr. Gabrielle Lyon, a functional medicine physician, recommends adequate protein intake for health, wellness, and graceful aging. She also cites 1.2 – 1.6 g/kg as an adequate goal, and in this post, she recommends aiming for 30 grams of protein per meal. 

How much Protein Works For You?

How much protein works for you? Some people recommend even higher for active athletes and lifters. In the end, I recommend Dr. Lyon’s method, which is a simple starting point. Aim for a solid base of 30 g protein per meal, and adjust as you see fit. 

Commit to this method for a few weeks and see how you feel. You might not see results in a day or two. Pay attention to:

  • How your exercise feels
  • How your recovery feels
  • Soreness levels
  • Sleep differences
  • Changes in appetite
  • Changes in energy levels and motivation

Make adjustments as you need. 

In Conclusion – Scientific Standard for Protein Intake

Protein intake is hotly contested and often dogmatically argued over. As we have seen the past few years, sometimes science changes fast. Sometimes science doesn’t change, maybe when it should. The truth is, “science” is often filtered. True science tells the truth.

Experiment to find what works for you, what makes you feel good, and what fuels your performance. 

About the author

Kathryn Alexander is a strength coach and personal trainer in Austin, Texas. She loves hiking, college football, and the feel of a perfectly knurled barbell. Read more about Kathryn here.