One of the most common things I hear about from people is that they’re afraid of people judging them at the gym, especially when they’re just getting started. It might be that they’re worried about looking like a weenie, or they might be worried about looking dumb if they’re doing an exercise wrong.

The thing is, almost everyone who goes to the gym is in the same boat that you are; they’re afraid of looking stupid, and they’re terrified of what other people think of them. In fact, they’re spending so much time worrying about themselves that they barely even notice that you’re there, much less what you’re doing. Even if you do something dumb, they either probably won’t notice, or they’ve already done the same thing.

One of the other things that people don’t realize is that the people who are seasoned gym rats are usually the nicest people in the gym. We all remember when they were first starting out and how scared we were. Regardless of where someone is in their journey, we all started from square one. We have all done exercises wrong, we’ve all farted during a set of squats, and we have all been the weakest/fattest person in the gym.

We also all have resting bitch face. If you walk through any gym, you’ll see filled with people who look like they’re waiting in line at the DMV. We instinctually avoid these people because they look like they’ll kill you if you get within 5 feet of them. However, that face has a lot more to do with concentration than it does with mood. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen someone with a full snarl on their face that melts into a smile when you ask them if they can spot you real quick or if they are using a piece of equipment.

I’ll leave you with a story. A few years ago, I was at the gym. A bunch of guys were there who I’m friends with now, but was either meeting for the first time that day or had only met once or twice previously. They were all MUCH stronger than me and in much better shape – 100% the guys who everyone is terrified of in the gym.

We all went through our workouts and chatted. Eventually, I was finishing up in the squat rack. I was about to start my last set of squats and I wanted to get 365lbs for a rep. One of the guys there, Brandon (the strongest one out of the whole group) saw me adding weight to the bar and offered to spot me. In my head, I thought to myself, “I just watched this guy squat 405 for so many reps that I lost count. I’ll probably miss the rep, he’ll pull it off my back, and he’ll do a set of bicep curls with it. FUCK!”

I settled in, and to my surprise, was able to hit the rep a lot easier than I thought, so I decided to try for a second. I struggled a bit with the second rep, but was able to finish the rep. I started to move forward to rack the bar, and Brandon said “Nah man, you’ve got another one in you. I’ve got your back.” I went for the last rep, and despite some struggling, was able to complete the rep. Not bad for someone who struggled to squat that weight for a single rep the prior week.

I racked the weight, and all of a sudden started getting bombarded with high fives and congratulations. To my surprise, the guys were celebrating my PR like we had just won the Super Bowl.

Not everyone who you talk to in the gym will be nice to you. Sometimes, you catch someone on the wrong day, and sometimes, they’re just an asshole. However, the vast majority of people you meet at the gym aren’t judging you, and either are in the same boat as you, or remember when they were, so don’t let the fear of looking like an idiot stop you from getting started, and don’t be afraid of the other people in the gym.

We all know that sleep is important, but we often don’t give it enough respect. Getting enough sleep can provide a ton of benefits, and not getting enough can take a huge toll on our bodies. So what are some of those effects?

Recovery from workouts: When you workout, you are creating small amounts of damage, which your body then repairs. When your body is done repairing the damage, you come back better than ever. However, sleep is a huge part of that recovery process. Giving your body insufficient sleep means that you won’t recover as quickly or as well, which is a massive hindrance to your fitness progress. You also will have less energy during your next workout.

Mood/mental health: Not getting enough sleep sleep has been found to increase levels of stress and depression, especially when lack of sleep is chronic. In addition to this, when we are sleep deprived, we tend to turn to caffeine as our savior. The problem is that caffeine tends to raise increase stress hormones even further. These hormones will also cause your body to start retaining fat and burning muscle if left unchecked, which only makes your fitness journey more difficult.

Eating: Lack of sleep has been found to cause increased hunger, which causes you to eat more. If you are trying to watch your eating, increased hunger makes it more difficult to cut calories. I quite often hear from people who have put on weight recently and can’t figure out why. Quite often, their sleep schedule has been disrupted by something like a new baby, work, or construction going on. They also usually have developed an inexplicable craving for things like ice cream and cookies at the same time. Once they get their sleep schedule back under control, the weight and the cravings tend to recede.

Immune system: Getting sick sucks. Getting sufficient sleep increases your immune system’s ability to fight off sickness, which means that both you’ll get sick less and and recover faster.

Lower risk for health problems: Lack of sleep can increase your risk of heart problems substantially. People getting less than 6 hours of sleep per night have been found to have a 20% greater risk of heart attacks. In addition, heart attack risk has been found to increase 20% during the week after Daylight Savings and it is presumed to be a result of disrupted/decreased sleep schedules from Daylight Savings.

Mental clarity/focus: When you’re running on insufficient sleep, your brain doesn’t work as well as when you are getting enough sleep. It might be things like making simple mistakes at work or school, or it might be things like leaving the stove on or getting into a car accident. Daylight Savings has been linked to a roughly 6% increase in car accidents, and it is thought to be a result of disrupted/decreased sleep schedules from Daylight Savings.

As you can see, sleep plays a massive role in your health. Regardless of whether you are an early bird, night owl, or an average joe, make sure that you are getting enough sleep: the CDC recommends between 7 to 9 hours. It may be boring, but it could save your life.

One of the most under-appreciated but critical components of fitness is nutrition. I have run across more people than I can count who are frustrated because they work their ass off in the gym, but don’t make any progress because they aren’t eating right.

Be aware of what you eat. You don’t have to know to the gram how much protein you’ve had; just make a list of what you eat and how much of it you eat. Include everything, even the handful of chips that you had while you were waiting for your food to finish cooking. Often times, it is the little things like snacks and sauces that can make or break your nutrition.

Read nutrition labels to get a sense of the nutritional and caloric makeup of different foods that you eat. If you have a rough idea of how many calories are in something, it makes a huge difference. You’ll be surprised by some foods as well, and might even find that some foods are healthier than you thought.

Think about what aspects of your diet are probably not what they should be. You probably have a pretty good idea of at least a few things that you should be doing to get better results. It might be the donut that you get every morning, or that you don’t eat enough protein, or that you use cheese like its own food group. Cutting down on these things can often make a huge impact with relatively little effort.

Total daily energy expenditure (TDEE) is the amount of energy that your body uses in a day. You can use a TDEE calculator like this one to get an idea of what your TDEE is. It is not a perfect gauge, but it can help to give you an estimate of how many calories you should consume in a day. You can then adjust accordingly based on your goals.

Make sure you’re getting the right amount of calories. Both overeating and undereating will cause problems for you. We all know that eating too much will hinder fat loss. However, if you don’t eat enough, it can cause your metabolism to slow, which makes it harder for you to burn fat, as well as causing other issues like fatigue and muscle wasting.

Get plenty of protein and be sure that you’re eating foods that are mainly protein, not foods that simply contain protein. A lot of people talk about how they get protein in their diet from things like peanut butter and rice and beans. The problem is that while these things contain protein, they are not an efficient source of protein. Peanut butter contains a lot of fat, and rice and beans contain a lot of carbs, so if you are trying to reach your daily protein intake by eating those things, you are going to get a lot of extra fat and carbs, which will throw off your diet. However, if you get your protein from things like meat and eggs, you are getting a lot more protein with a lot less fat and carbs, so if you are looking for protein,

Make sure you’re getting fats and carbs in your diet as well. Your body uses fats and carbs for it’s normal functions, so if you don’t consume enough of these, you will run into problems. Your body uses carbs as it’s main source of energy. It uses fats for things like storing energy and providing insulation. Fats also act as messengers and are involved in the chemical reactions that help control growth, immune function, and reproduction.

Figure out what your goal and stick with it. If you want to shed a few pounds, stick to that and don’t try eat and train like you’re trying to trying to add 10lbs of muscle. If you’re trying to get stronger/add muscle, you’re going to put on some extra fat too – that’s a part of the process. If you eat like you’re getting ready for swimsuit season, you’re going to have a very difficult time getting bigger and stronger.

Finally, remember that the best plan is the one that you’ll stick to. I have worked with tons of people who try out diet plans that are made up of foods they hate, so they never follow the plan. I also know a ton of people who try to be absolutely 100% perfect with their nutrition by skipping dessert at parties, and they end up burning out after a while. If you have a slice of cake at someone’s birthday party, you aren’t going to ruin all of your progress. If you follow your plan most of the time, you should be in good shape, so don’t be afraid to live a little.

As we established in the previous post, stretching is important. So what stretches should you do?

If you’re going to do one stretch every day, I recommend making it this sequence. You start by lying down on your back and tucking a stretch strap (I recommend this one) underneath the arch of your foot. You then use the strap to pull your foot towards your face. You should feel this stretch in the middle of your hamstrings. Hold for 60 seconds.

Once 60 seconds is up, bring your leg out to the side and use the strap to pull your foot away from your body (like in the bottom left picture). You should feel this stretch in the area that runs between your knee and your groin. Hold for 30 seconds.

Once 30 seconds is up, bring your leg out to the other side and use the strap to pull your foot across your body (like in the bottom right picture). You should feel this stretch in your glutes and lower back. Hold for 30 seconds.

This stretch will help loosen up your glutes, which will help relieve and prevent lower back pain. I hold this stretch for about 60 seconds per leg.

With this stretch, be sure to keep your lower back and chest upright. It is common for people to lean their torso backwards too far, which causes their lower back to arch. Your hips should be the only thing that comes forward. I hold this stretch for about 30-45 seconds per side.

While in the same position from the hip flexor stretch, start leaning over to the side. Make sure that you are just leaning to the side, not forward. This will stretch your psoas, which you will feel in your lower back where the psoas connects. I hold this stretch for about 30 seconds per side.

This stretch is a good beginner quad stretch. If your knees bother you when you do it, you can tuck a towel or sweatshirt behind your knees to help ease the strain on them a little bit. You should feel this stretch in your quads and hip flexors. Hold for 60 seconds.

Once you can do the beginner quad stretch easily, you can try this stretch to better stretch your quads. Be sure to lean back so that your butt is touching your ankle to better target your quads. Hold for 30 seconds per leg.

Sit with legs spread out in a V shape. Sit up tall (don’t slouch forward or backward) and then lean over and try to touch your left hand to your right foot. You should feel this in your lower back. Hold for 30 seconds per side.

Sit on the ground and put the soles of your feet together. Use your hands to pull your feet closer to you and use your elbows to push your knees down towards the floor. Hold for 30-45 seconds. This will help loosen your hips, which in turn helps with knee pain and mobility issues.

This stretch will help loosen up your upper back to relieve/prevent neck pain after a long day of sitting or doing back exercises. Hold for 30 seconds per side.

This stretch will help loosen up your chest and shoulders to fix your posture after a long day of sitting or doing chest exercises. Hold for 30 seconds per side and be sure to adjust the height of your hand placement so that you stretch both your chest and shoulders.

This stretch will help counteract the tension from walking/running and from doing calf raises. Hold for 30 seconds each side.

There you have it; my daily stretch routine that I use for both myself and my clients. I encourage people to stretch every day because if you work hard, you make progress, and if you slack off, you lose that progress that you fought so hard to make. If you make enough progress, aches and pains will start to disappear. However, if you stop stretching for too long, those aches and pains will be back like they never left.

Stretching is a low-hanging fruit that most of us can get with ease. You can do it with little to no equipment, and you can get a good stretch in about 10 minutes. I can recommend some stretches that have helped me and the people who I have worked with, but the biggest obstacle to stretching is that stretching isn’t fun. It’s uncomfortable, and it takes some effort if done properly. However, stretching regularly can also have a huge impact (for the better!) on your life. Proper and regular stretching can have effects like greatly reducing/eliminating pain and stiffness, reduced risk of injury, improving posture, and helping your form with certain exercises, which allows you to lift more weight.

I have had a ton of clients come to me and talk about various injuries and joint problems, only to discover that stretching regularly fixed their problems. I’m not saying that this is always the case; however, I have yet to run across someone who did not benefit greatly from stretching more. The reason why so many people mix up injuries and joint problems with tight muscles is that they feel almost exactly the same. For instance, one of the things that almost everyone I talk to mentions is knee pain when they squat or do lunges. While this can be can be a sign of bad knees, it is more commonly a sign of tight leg muscles like your hamstrings or quads. When these muscles are tight, it can cause your kneecap to get pulled up against the bones around it, and produce a grinding feeling.

Stretching also helps with muscle soreness, both as a result of exercise and in general. When you use your muscles, they contract (tighten) in order to pull your bones in the direction that you want to move. The problem is, after extended use like a hard leg workout, a jog, or a workday filled with sitting, your muscles stay partially contracted, aka muscle tightness. When your muscles are tight, they hurt. It might be a sharp pain when you move a certain way, or it might be a dull pain, like when you try to go down the stairs after leg day. In both cases, stretching will almost certainly help ease the pain.

Avoiding injuries is an important aspect of fitness, and one of the best ways that you can do that is to stretch tight muscles. Take a rubber band and stretch it out just enough to feel a bit of tension on it. Pluck it like a guitar string. Now, stretch it out as tight as it will go, and pluck it again. Which scenario do you think is more likely to break the rubber band? Your muscles work in much the same way; if they are tight, they are more likely to break, which is how you get injured.

Injuries can also happen as a result of poor form when exercising, and having tight muscles often causes poor form because your muscles aren’t loose enough to allow you to move in certain ways. Let’s use squatting as an example. In the below pictures, we see an improper squat that increases the risk of injury, and a proper squat that reduces the risk of injury.

The problems that the first squatter has are all typically caused by either weak muscles, tight muscles, or both. Getting into the proper squat requires loose hamstrings, glutes, and quads (at minimum).

Fixing your exercise mechanics doesn’t just reduce your risk of injury; it also helps you lift more weight. Using proper form allows you to move in a more efficient way, so you can get more results with the same amount of effort. You might not think that it makes a big difference; however, I used to squat with form that resembled the first picture. I took some time to fix my form, and went from struggling to squat 405 lbs for a single rep to being able to squat it for 10 reps.

Stretching isn’t fun. There is no question about it. However, if you do it consistently, it makes a huge difference to your life for the better. Here at Bored Man Gets Paid, that’s what we’re all about.

Cardio is simultaneously the most over-used and under-used aspect of working out. If you walk into most gyms, you’ll probably see a bunch of people slogging away on a treadmill for a few hours, and a bunch of other people who think that cardio means lifting weights faster. For most people, the sweet-spot is somewhere in the middle. Doing too much cardio can cause problems like joint problems, fatigue, muscle loss, and decreased metabolism. Too little cardio can lead to increased risk of cardiovascular and respiratory problems, as well as hampering your fat loss and strength training.

So what’s the point of cardio?

First off, it helps improve your cardiovascular (heart and blood) and respiratory (lungs) systems. This makes you less likely to have health issues like strokes, lung cancer, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. Yay!

It also helps you to increase your overall conditioning, which in turn helps with things like improving other areas of your workout and making the daily tasks in your life easier. Perhaps the best part though is being able to establish dominance over your coworkers by taking the stairs without sounding like you’re going into cardiac arrest.

Just like with weight training, there are a lot of different ways to do cardio. We will get into each of these, and explore how to do them, when to do them, and why to do them.