How to use this site

 

There are numerous ways you can utilize this site and approach your training. The purpose of having access to a diverse exercise library is to acquaint yourself with a wide range of movements and focus on addressing your own weaknesses, rather than adhering to predetermined repetitions, sets, or intensities. You have the flexibility to design your strength or fitness workouts by selecting individual exercises from each section, or you can explore pre-made workouts available in the Workouts section.

I highly recommend viewing this site first on a desktop before mobile as it will then be easier to figure out where everything is. If you are unsure, feel free to reach out to me on the private facebook coaching group page.

My primary mission is to make training fun, safe, convenient, and a regular part of your life. My secondary mission is to help you improve your mobility, strength, agility, power, and overall potential to enhance your performance in the sport, activity, or hobby you love outside of the gym.

When it comes to exercise programming, you have the flexibility to choose what works best for you. You may decide to start with two training sessions per week. Alternatively, you may prefer to incorporate movement into your daily routine, with some days dedicated to heavy strength training, some to light strength training, and others to mobility work. For those who seek specific workout advice, I recommend aiming for 2-5 strength and fitness workouts per week that challenge you. These can include a mix of heavy strength exercises, light strength exercises, and activities like walking, swimming, or biking. Additionally, try to dedicate a little time each day, even if it’s just 10 minutes, to work on your mobility. If daily mobility practice is a challenge, aim for every other day instead.

If you would like a personalised program created for you, please get in touch with Michelle to organise an online assessment. From your assessment results, you will receive a program specific to needs and goals, with exercises linked to the site. Options for regular coaching calls is also available.

Start Here

Not sure where you’re at or what to work on? Start with this self-assessment and re-assess after 4-6 weeks.

 

You can follow along with the video above and take note of the following points:

1. Squat
Can you get down and balance without lifting your heels? Are you shifting your body to the right or left at the bottom of the squat? Can you get your arms overhead while squatting?

2. Thoracic Extension
Can you keep your lower back flat and lean back a little bit from the upper spine? 

3. Shoulder Flexion
Can you reach your hands to the wall, keeping your lower back flat on the wall? 

4. Shoulder External Rotation
Can you get your hands to the wall, keeping your lower back flat on the wall (90 degrees above horizontal)? 

5. Shoulder Internal Rotation
Can you get your hands to approximately 70 degrees under horizontal? 

6. Ankle Dorsiflexion
Does your knee migrate forward to reach the first joint of your big toe (keeping your heel on the ground and knee moving directly forward over your toes)? 

7. Core Stability
There are many things for me to look at here, but how easy/difficult is this for you? Can you balance? Can you reach your arm and leg out without moving your spine? 

8. Wrist Flexion and Extension
How easy/hard are these movements for you (or even possible)? 

9. Active Shoulder Movement
Can you sit your hips to your heels and lift your straight arm off the ground? 

10. Shoulder Extension
Can you open your chest without getting pain at the front of the shoulder? How far is your butt from your hands? Second vid, can you lift your fists off the ground?

11. Hip Flexion
Can you touch your knee to your chest? 

12. Hamstrings
Can you get your upper thigh bone to at least vertical (with knee slightly bent)? 

13. Hip Extension
How does this feel? How high can you get your hips while keeping your lower back flat? 

14. Quads
Can you touch your heel to your butt? Any pain in your knee or lower back? 

15. Hip External and Internal Rotation
Can you sit in 90/90 with your hands off the ground? How far can you lean forward over your front leg with a straight back? How far can you lean over your back leg (if at all)? 

16. Thoracic Rotation
Can you rotate at least 45 degrees to each side? Any pain? 

17. Neck Flexion, Rotation, Side Flexion
Can you bring your chin to your chest? Can you rotate at least 70 degrees to each side, can you side flex at least 45 degrees to each side?  

18. Push-Up
Can you do a push-up on your knees? Toes? How is your form?

19. Single Leg Squat
Can you do a single leg squat, using your back leg as little as possible? You can try a hover squat 

Feel free to contact me to set up a time for an individualised assessment (different video), assessment interpretation and creation of a program to use this site more efficiently. 

Michelle’s Pre-programmed Workouts

  • Find these under the Workouts tab.*
  • Weekly Online Classes = two 40 minute classes fed to you each week. No brainwork required – just sign in, press play and follow my lead.

*Note that these pre-programmed workouts cannot be accessed for the first week. These are dripped one at a time at the end of each week upon signing up.  Familiarise yourself with the site, do the self-assessment and join in with the weekly classes for the first week.

Week 1

No workouts. Use the first week to get familiar with the site (view on desktop first!) and assess yourself using the video on the Member’s Home page. Say hi on the Facebook group and let me know where you are at and what your goals are!

Week 12 etc....

Free-weight Workouts
(Upper Body Workout #6)
(Core Workout #6)

And then two Free-weight workouts released each week until each respective category reaches 10 weeks.

Mobility routines complete. Create and play with your own or cycle to Week 1 again!

Bodyweight workouts complete. Create and play with your own or cycle to Week 1 again!

Main Lifts workouts complete. As above!

Creating Your own Workouts

The purpose of this extensive exercise library is to provide you, as an individual, with the knowledge and resources to learn a wide range of exercises and design your own workouts. Your workouts can be tailored to fit your schedule and preferences, typically lasting between 20 to 40 minutes, depending on the time available and the number of exercises you include in your routine. A solid workout could consist of 6 exercises with 3 sets per exercise. However, if that feels overwhelming at the beginning, you can start with 3 exercises and 3 sets, or 5 exercises with 2 sets. It’s up to you to decide whether you want to perform these exercises in a circuit or divide them into 2-3 super-sets. Here are some examples of different ways to structure your exercise programming:

As a (very) general rule, aim for

2-5 strength or fitness workouts per week that challenge you.

20-40 min duration.

4-6 exercises @ 3 sets per exercise.

Daily mobility practice, 10 minutes minimum.

Mix your workouts with moderate/heavy strength, light weight strength and prehab work.

Basically there is no right or wrong way to train as long as you keep within some general guidelines. These are:

Keep your sessions at or under 60 minutes.

Your reps and sets ratio is an inverse relationship. For example, you can chose to do 3 reps for 5 sets, or 6 reps for 4 sets, or 10 reps for 3 sets. 

Choosing how heavy per number of reps. When choosing a weight resistance per number of repetitions, follow the guidelines in the table below. For example; if you are going for a 3 rep maximal effort on your deadlift (95%), this will be the maximum load you can safely lift with excellent form for 3 reps. Example 2; if you are going for an intensity around 70-75%, chose a weight that will be the maximum load you can safely lift with excellent form for 10-12 reps. If you are not sure how many reps you want to lift, you can refer to the right hand column and first pick a training goal.

For experienced lifters, do speed work and max effort work 72 hours apart, as these are both essential max efforts. Speed work can be a main lift (deadlift, squat, bench, pull-up, military press) using a weight between 40-70% of your 1RM and lifting it as fast as possible for a very low amount of reps. For example; Speed Deadlifts can done with less than or equal to 70% and only for singles or doubles (1-2 reps). The intensity is raised by using short rests between sets, usually around 30 seconds when doing 6-10 total lifts.

If you are new to exercise, ease into it. See how 2 strength workouts per week feel instead of 6 workouts per week.

Give yourself a couple of days between sessions to recover. For example, schedule your strength sessions on Monday and Friday, or Tuesday and Saturday, or Wednesday and Sunday. Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness (DOMS) is a real thing and more intense for those unaccustomed to exercise or with sudden increases in volume or intensity of exercise. It is normal! DOMS peaks two days after an intense workout. Know the difference between muscle soreness versus joint pain. A little bit of muscle soreness a day or two after exercise is a good thing, joint pain is not.

If your lower back, knees, hips or shoulders hurt with any of the exercises, stop immediately and seek professional instruction that can be tailored for you. You may either need form correction or you may need to choose a different exercise altogether.

If you are a seasoned athlete or experienced lifter, separate your heavy strength sessions (submaximal) by at least a day. For example, heavy strength sessions on Monday, Wednesday and Friday with two days off over the weekend with mobility and active recovery. Another example would be, heavy strength sessions on Tuesday and Sunday with a speed / power day on Friday and mobility / prehabilitation days on Wednesday and Thursday.

Plan to do what you know you can stick to. Start basic and conservatively and once you are itching for more, you can bump up your training volume and intensity.

Don’t overtrain. You don’t need to do more than 3 heavy strength sessions per week, but you can do a bit of light movement every day. You can also stretch and do some mobility work every day. If you are tired and not motivated, you may need a rest. Aim to leave each workout feeling like you have more energy, lighter and moving better.

Walk more, take the stairs, sit less on your butt during the day, take regular mini breaks at the computer and do one set of an exercise.

Have a realistic expectation of progressive overload. If you just started lifting, and you are lifting with good technique, you can expect considerable gains in the first year of training. The longer you have trained, the less kilograms you can expect to increase on your big lifts such as your deadlift, squat and military press. Strength gains are not linear. Not every workout will show an increase in strength. You have good, average and poorer days in the gym. Mentally understand that it is all part of the process. Don’t push yourself too hard and allow enough rest.

Sleep well, eat well, train well.

Keep stretching and joint mobility work separate to training, not before training. Stretching and mobility work will sedate your nervous system, so is best kept separate or after training (apart from a dynamic mobility warm up).

If you get stuck and would like a personalised program, feel free to get in touch with Michelle for an online assessment.

Always warm-up before jumping into a workout. Click on Warm-Up in the menu tab to access a typical warm up of mine.

Find what you are looking for in the menu bar at the top of this page.