[Naomi]

Hi Jennifer- everyone’s body is going to respond somewhat differently to both Phase 1 and Phase 2 of this program. Different factors include metabolism, current fitness level (exercise endurance), intenisty of workouts and how closely you are following all aspects of the program: strength training, cardio and nutrition.

Phase 1 is designed for muscle building which is a “gaining” process. If you are lifting heavy and your nutrition is on target, weight gain (the good kind) is not unusual.

[Naomi]

Hi Carissa- safety first, absolutely, so what I would recommend is you just go as deep as your body will allow you to and don’t try to go any deeper than what you are ready for or comfortable with. There could be a few factors affecting your range of motion with squats:
1. leg strength – as you get stronger, you can safely go deeper into the squat
2. core strength – being able to stabalize while squatting comes from keeping your core tight and solid first, then leg stability/strength is secondary. While conducting a squat, you need to keep your chest up while leaning slightly forward as you go down and the hips go back while you sink into your heels. If your core isn’t very strong, your chest will cave in, shoulders will round forward and core will collapse, all of which will prevent you from properly conducting a squat.
3. flexibility – you need to have a certain degree of flexibility in your hips, hip flexors and lower back in order to break parallel. If you are tight in any of these areas it could affect your range of motion and may eventually lead to injury
3. practice – as you mentioned, some of it may just be practicing to get your form right. Just make sure you are practicing with proper form lol! 😉

In my opinion, it is perfectly fine if you don’t break parallel in a squat until you are physically capable of going that low. So keep doing squats to the best of your ability and avoid doing anything your body is not yet ready for. You’ll get there!! Hopefully you have access to a second pair of eyes who can help you make sure you are doing squats correcty. If you are a member of Nicole’s website, check out this Fix Your Form video segment, which covers proper squat form 😉

[Naomi]

Hi Jennifer- I would suggest sticking to the foods on the food exchange list. Anything on the food exchange list that is an equivalent to what you want to swap out for is absolutely fine as long as your calories and macros add up at the end of the day.

Of course I encourage you to stick as close to the plan as it is written, but if you’d like to swap out chicken for tilapia for example, that is perfectly fine. Just make sure the portion sizes match up with regard to the totals. In other words, 4oz of chicken is not the same as 4oz of tilapia with regard to calories, fat and protein. Depending on the brand you use, you’ll most likely need to have a larger portion size of tilapia to equal the equivalent calories and protein as the 4oz of chicken. I hope this makes sense! 🙂

[Naomi]

You are so welcome, Jennifer! Have a great weekend and keep up the awesome work!! 😀

[Naomi]

Hi Krista- Nicole wears a size small in the CLASSIC Series with the thicker wristguard. It is much more comfortable than the newer ones or even the ones made for women 😉

[Naomi]

Hi Samantha- absolutely you can do the At-Home Body Weight Calorie Burner 3xs per week for cardio! Good luck, and do the best you can without access to a gym for a week. Hopefully they are doing some great renovations/additions (??) and it will be well worth it! 🙂

Please let us know on the forums if you have any questions about alternative exercises (especially the back workout portion) for doing some of these workouts at home! 😀

[Naomi]

Hi Denise- if your body isn’t use to this much protein than yes! It is completely normal to have these issues. Give yourself some more time to allow your body to adjust to these new intake levels. In the meantime, drink plenty of water to help better move things through your digestive system, and although you said you are following the plan exactly as is (great job, by the way!!) make sure you are getting in about 25g of fiber. If you need to, add some Metamucil or other source of additional fiber 😉

[Naomi]

Hi Valerie- we will take your suggestion into consideration for future challenges, thank you for your input!! 😀

[Naomi]

Hi Deana- that is completely normal, so no need to worry! The first few weeks on this program you will be increasing both your strength and your cardiorespiratory endurance. When you are lifting weights, there is also a cardio element to it — especially on leg day because legs take up half your body so it’s more taxing on the entire body and your cardiorespiratory output.

There is that old saying “You’re only as strong as your weakest link” and for many people, their cardio respiratory endurance might just be their “weakest link” preventing them from going all out with workouts. Give your body time to adjust to the intensity level of these workouts and keep pushing to give it all you’ve got! Your heart rate and lung capacity will catch up soon 😉

[Naomi]

Hi Jennifer- I would still contact your doctor to explain what you are doing with this Challenge in as much detail as possible, and describe what you are feeling and your lack of strength in your abs/core with which particular exercises. Your doctor knows what muscles were affected by your procedures and I really feel that it would be unprofessional and negligent on my part to suggest any exercises that could cause an issue to re-surface. I do understand you feel you may have exaggerated in your wording, however all of us here on the Nicole Wilkins Training Team feel safety is number one. Even with standing exercises, I would need to know more about what muscular areas were impacted by your procedures and the severity of the impact. I would then need to watch you conduct various ab/core exercises so that I could watch your body language while conducting these exercises, somewhat of an ab test to assess how weak your abs/core are. Then I would be able to recommend ab exercise alternatives. I am sorry I couldn’t be of more help, but please reach back out to me after a more in-depth conversation with your doctor or your doctor’s nurse practitioner. You can never be too safe or too careful when it comes to these kinds of issues 😉

[Naomi]

Hi Valerie- Rachel’s suggestion is a great alternative, and I’d like to also suggest simply doing weighted standing calf raises as well! 🙂

[Naomi]

Hi Jennifer- the more you are able to stick with the plan as it is written and organized, the better your chances are of success. I am not exactly following how you are wanting to restucture the workout days, so tell me if I have this right:

So far his week you have already completed Days 1 & 2, then as much of Day 3 (legs) as you could but felt your leg workout wasn’t as good as it could be if you went to the other gym (not Planet Fitness) and you don’t want to continue to short-change yourself on leg day. You did Day 4 (chest) yesterday and are going to do Day 5 (arms) today, then you want to do Day 3 again this weekend and start Monday on Day 4?

I feel the best thing for you to do is what Maureen said, stick with the plan as-is for this week and finish out Day 5 today, then take your full rest days on Saturday and Sunday. For the next three weeks, the rest of Phase 1, if you want/need to get a better leg workout, this is what I suggest:

Day 1 – shoulders/abs
Day 2 – back
Day 3 – chest/abs
Day 4 – arms
Day 5 – full rest/recvery
Day 6 – full rest/recovery
Day 7 – legs/calves (on the weekend, so you can have more time for legs)

* the only issue I see with the revised schedule is that you are doing 4 days back-to-back of upper body, which may cause you to be sore in your upper body, which will make it more dificult to get the most out of your upper body workout with sore muscles.

So your options are to either continue as he plan is orgaized and just not get as much volume/intensity out of your leg workout, or rearrange as suggested above and risk the possibility of major upper body soreness and fatigue, thus not getting as much volume/intensity out of your upper body workouts. Does this make sense?

I hope this helps! Good luck 🙂

[Naomi]

Hi Jennifer- it is recommended to stick with the program as it is laid out for best results. Everyone has different preferences, but what is mentioned in the progam is what Nicole recommends.

[Naomi]

Hi Laura- I would count your snowboarding sessions toward your cardio as long as you’re gettting your heart rate up the equivalent of a cardio session. Have fun!

[Naomi]

Hi Jennifer – if you are having serious pain in your abdomen/core area, it would be best to call your doctor and find out what ab exercises, if any, are safe for you to do given your history and the pain you experience when doing ab exercises. Without knowing what issues may be going on I really can’t recommend any core exercises as alternatives in the event they may exacerbate an underlying issue.

[Naomi]

Hi A D – it is best to save the rest days for full rest.

[Naomi]

Hi Rebekah- good for your for trying something new and getting out of your comfort zone! That is a great achievement itself! Breanna is right, the most important thing is hitting your macronutrient ratio goals. This is a process, so you can’t expect to go from not eating this volume or frequency of food to all the sudden eating this volume and frequency of food. Give yourself a little time to adjust mentally and physically, and pretty soon you might find yourself eating all this food and still hungry, lol! 😉

[Naomi]

Hi there- rice and pasta don’t weigh the same and have different macronutrient profiles per serving, so in order to hit your approriate macros you’ll need to have the portion indicated – depending on if you want to have rice or pasta – as indicated in the nutrition plan. Make sure you are food journaling in MyFitnessPal every day and staying within 5g of the target macros 😉

[Naomi]

Hi Rachel- back exercises are some of the hadest to find alternatives for because of the pulling up and pulling down movements. I will try to give you the nest home alternatives I can, but you may need to run to Walmart or Target or a sporting goods store to get a few things, if you don’t have bands, etc. There are some movements that just can’t be repelcated with dumbbells and have the same muscle activation effect:

Pullup – there really is no sub for a pull-up, if you can get an at-home pull-up bar that would be ideal.
Close Grip Cable High Row – You can substitute this exercise using bands or TRX system and just attach the bands or TRX to a secure ancor point.
Wide Grip Pulldown – Two options here would be:
1. bands that have handles attached, just simulate the movement of a lat pull-down.
2. lay flat on a bench or the floor (on your chest, face down) and holding about 2-5lb plate weights, simulate the lat pull down movement.
* neither of these substitutions will allow you to use a heavy weight, but it is replecating the same muscle movement as a lat pull down and working the same muscles, just not working them in the same way a heavy lat pull down would 😉
One Arm Dumbbell Row – this one you can do as-is 😀
Straight Arm Cable Pulldown – this you could substitute with a bench pull over with a dumbbell

I hope this is helpful! Good luck 🙂

[Naomi]

Hi Rebekah- the goal is to stick with a weight that you can do between 8-12 reps as outlined in the exercise protocol. Five is too low, and 1 rep is not really a “set” — its a 1 rep maximum movement. A “set” is a set of multiple reps. For the rest of the challenge I would advise sticking with a weight that you can get at least 8 reps and at most 12 reps.

[Naomi]

Just follow the meal plan as close as you are possibly able to given your schedule. If you need to do your weight training followed by cardio all in one session, drink your protein shake after your cardio.

[Naomi]

Hi Nicola- the post-workout protein shake is timed after your strength-training workout to help aid in recover and muscle building from heavy lifting, bot cardio. Cardio is designed to burn calories while heavy lifting is designed to build muscle. In order for your muscles to build, they need protein and amino acids to build from, which is where the post-workout protein shake coes in. You can wait about 30-45 min post workout if you feel like you need to, but definitey consume the protein shake after your weight lifting workout and not cardio. I hope this helps! 🙂

[Naomi]

Hi Leteia- in your particular case I think it’s fine to switch the order of the meals so that you have the protein pancakes pre-workout, then the pasta/turkey meal after 🙂

[Naomi]

Hi Julie- if you go to each individual exercise in the program and click on the name of the exercise, it will take you to a video tutorial of how the exercise should be conducted. Here the video clip for the reverse grip bent over barbell rows.

[Naomi]

Hi Nicole- yes, you can do the seated hamstring curl in place of the lying hamstring curl. As far as the exercise ball tuck, this is a phenomenal exercise that causes your hamstrings, glutes and lower back to fire and engage (also incorporating stability) in a way that I have not been able to replecate with any other exercise. I am a little surprised your gym doesn’t have an exercise ball, as they are not very expensive, extremely common and functional for a multitude of exercises. I would recommend going to Walmart, Target or a sporting goods store sich as Dick’s or Academy Sports and purchasing one, if you would like to do that. I have brought home gym equipment, such as my own personal bands and jump rope, to gyms before to use with my workout. Maybe you can bring your exercise ball to the gym and just let someone know you’re bringing it in so that you can incorporate exercises with the exercise ball for your workout. Good luck! 🙂

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