Today Jess and Kam talk about periodization as a way to add structure to your exercise goals.

What is periodization? It's the idea of looking at your long term workout plan in blocks of time. So you have, as an example, a year or more as a macrocycle, a month or as long as you're going to do a certain series of workouts (4-12 weeks) as a mesocycle and small adaptations you make to accommodate short term needs as a microcycle.

The mesocycle looks at the big picture. How do we take what you're trying to accomplish as a goal and make a plan to get you there? I know I just said a year as an example, but let's say you're planning for a ski trip in February and it's August presently. Well that's your macrocyle based on time opportunity. We may go further than that for recovery or any de-escalation depending on your needs, but you get the general idea.

When we make a program for a client on our platform, that's inherently a mesocycle. We are planning for a 4-12 week course of 1-5 days a week of workouts. Those workouts will repeat (every day 1 of the week is the same, etc.), and you will try to keep to a regular schedule to accomplish all of the workouts. Why does it ebb and flow for the length of the program? Depends on your goals and realities! Some folks like to keep the cycles short and get new workouts every 4 weeks with a new effort every month, and some people may need longer programs (6, 8 or 12 weeks) to get the most juice from the squeeze before moving on to something new.

And in that program, things happen. You may be traveling and unable to use the same equipment or have to shift your days because of lack of access. You may have a gym that has a piece of equipment go out for repair or replacement and not be able to do certain things. You may get sick or hurt and need a few days to recover, or may not be able to do the exercises in full. Well that's where the microcycle comes in! The small adaptations we make temporarily within the program to accommodate your short-term needs are the crux of it.

So with all of that being said, you should jump into the episode and listen to what Jess and Kam have to say, because there are little insights, tips, tricks and more. And they have a lot of fun chatting about it too.

Today Kam and Jess are talking about the realities that you should be aware of when embarking on a new journey to a different you! That difference canthrough fat loss or muscle gain for any number of reasons - but the most common is usually going to be the old idea of 'wanting to lose weight because of X'. And there's no wrong motivation, outside of the ones that cause us more pain when the dream doesn't come to fruition.

So let's discuss what you need to know about what you're doing to yourself, and why it's so dang hard to get to the goal that you have set for yourself. Our hope is that you can be a little more compassionate to yourself if you're embarking on, or already on the body composition change journey!

Welcome to episode 3 of the 3Wave Fitness podcast, Resilience Pod.

In this episode, Jess and Kam discuss the realities of starting a new workout regimen and some things to consider that may help you get started in a more sustainable way!

This is our first episode in a few months, but we are committed to being more regular with the episode uploads moving forward and are happy to discuss topics that are important to our listeners! So if you have a topic you'd like us to tackle in our upcoming episodes, don't hesitate to reach out to us at 3WaveFitness at gmail dot com.

And we offer many different services online, including bespoke custom fitness programming and well as our @Home program, which is a monthly bodyweight program that releases 3 30min workouts per week for a low price. Email us with questions or look up our website and join today - we'd love to help you.

In this episode Kam and Jess discuss how to hire a fitness professional.

Here are the notes we worked from for this episode:

Certifications, Education & Experience

What are they certified as? Personal Trainer, Kinesiologist, etc. 

What kinds of focus have they maintained their certifications with? How much extended education do they have? 

How long have they been doing this? Reasons to see a newbie, reasons to see a battle axe. 

What is your focus? Why do you want to work with a professional? 

Goal specific

Look for keywords specific to your goals

Set your goals effectively (listen to our last pod or read last month’s post.) 

Their looks don’t translate to your success. 

Look at professional coaches, they tend not to look like the athletes they work with

A person’s aesthetics are not guaranteed to translate to you, even if you do the same things they did. 

They have more time to work out in a gym, or may have way more history working out, or be naturally aspirated to that body type. 

Ask questions, but be prepared with your own answers! 

If you have a good idea of what you are looking for, (even if that’s not specific) then you’re able to feel more secure in asking and filtering answers. 

See past the ads. 

Marketing in this day and age is very Regan-esque in North America. Not a lot of controls around making claims to help any and every person with their specific goals in ways that are unproven or unreliable. 

Lose X weight in Y days / gain X muscle in Y days. We see it all the time. 

Ads are meant to make you feel bad. Lack. You are not good enough. 

Ads are also flashy and meant to evoke a buy now or lose out feeling.

You’re in control. 

The trainer / client relationship can often feel like you’re betrothed to the trainer and their fitness knowledge - but you’re paying for a service, and just like any service you have to be satisfied with what you’re getting. 

You have full bodily autonomy no matter what. There is never a circumstance where you have to do things that you don’t like, don’t trust or don’t want to do. No is a complete sentence. Any exercise should be able to be demonstrated or described without having to manipulate your body. And if someone is going to touch you for any reason, they should be asking permission every time and receiving an answer from you every time. Any time that answer is “no”, then they should move on to another method of explanation or another exercise. 

Your trainer is knowledgeable and we believe will be doing their best to help you achieve the goals that you discuss with them as important. Should this not be the case, then there are other trainers out there that will respect your request and assist you. 

Jess and Kam are back after a 3 year hiatus and some changes in the ranks!

To wade back into the waters of podcasting, Jess and Kam are chatting about the idea of goals and goal setting, and things that can help to create good mental structure and success with those goals!

This conversation is based on the blog post we put up on the website, so for more context and tips, definitely go check that Jan 2025 blog post out!