Hey team!

Last week, I shared not one but TWO strength training WOWs for you to follow this month — so to keep myself on track as I prep for the 30-day spring challenge, I’m giving you a rerun this week, of this great Pilates class from early last year. As a special bonus, I removed the paywall so all subscribers can give it a try. You’ll find it here:

Hope you enjoy! I’ll be back next Sunday with a fantastic bodyweight strength workout.

Finally, just a reminder that registration for my May 30-day strength challenge is now open! Learn more here, including the discount code for paid subscribers, and register here.

xo
Anna

Finally, just a reminder that registration for my spring 30-day strength challenge is now open! Learn more here, including the discount code for paid subscribers, and register here.

If you read my post a couple of weeks ago about ACSM’s new strength training guidelines, you may have noticed that the group recommends training all muscle groups twice a week, which I agree is a good guideline. If this is a recommendation you’d like to follow, using an upper/lower split like this one will require either:

• Combining the two workouts into one longer strength workout (not unreasonable; it should take you less than an hour — I’d skip the warmup on the second workout, and combine the stretches) and doing that single workout twice a week

• OR committing to four shorter strength workouts per week, doing this workout twice and the upper-body workout twice

• OR doing three workouts per week: this one once, the upper-body workout once, and a full-body workout one other time (a Full-Body category is coming soon to the workout index; in the meantime you can command-F “full” on the index!)

If that just doesn’t work for you (totally OK!), you can pick a different strength workout to focus on this month — and if you don’t really care that much about the guidelines and are just psyched to try the upper/lower split, then just use them however you want!

A few reminders if you’re taking the repeated approach and using progressive overload (AKA adding weight as you get more comfortable with the movements):

• For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome.

• Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and close to failure (i.e. you can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.

• Repeat the workouts using the guidelines above.

• Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.

• You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.

• Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew.

• I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.

• A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. This can be hard for home exercisers! I hate sending you out to buy weights — they’re expensive, heavy (heh), and hard to store. But you may get to a point where you just have to go for it and buy your own, or find a gym facility you can use that has heavier dumbbell options. (Those are affiliate links; the only ones I really ever use. They’re for Power Systems, the brand I buy and use at home myself!)

Share

If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:

• Skipping the warmup

• Skipping the cooldown

• Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit

Make it work for you.

Read more

Now, if you read my post a couple of weeks ago about ACSM’s new strength training guidelines, you may have noticed that the group recommends training all muscle groups twice a week, which I agree is a good guideline. If this is a recommendation you’d like to follow, using an upper/lower split like this one will require either:

• Combining the two workouts into one longer strength workout (not unreasonable; it should take you less than an hour — I’d skip the warmup on the second workout, and combine the stretches) and doing that single workout twice a week

• OR committing to four shorter strength workouts per week, doing this workout twice and the lower-body workout twice

• OR doing three strength workouts per week: this one once, the lower body workout once, and a full-body workout one other time (a Full-Body category is coming soon to the workout index; in the meantime you can command-F “full” on the index!)

If that just doesn’t work for you (totally OK!), you can pick a different strength workout to focus on this month — and if you don’t really care that much about the guidelines and are just psyched to try the upper/lower split, then just use them however you want!

A few reminders if you’re taking the repeated approach and using progressive overload (AKA adding weight as you get more comfortable with the movements):

• For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome.

• Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and close to failure (i.e. you can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.

• Repeat the workouts using the guidelines above.

• Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.

• You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.

• Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew.

• I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.

• A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. This can be hard for home exercisers! I hate sending you out to buy weights — they’re expensive, heavy (heh), and hard to store. But you may get to a point where you just have to go for it and buy your own, or find a gym facility you can use that has heavier dumbbell options. (Those are affiliate links; the only ones I really ever use. They’re for Power Systems, the brand I buy and use at home myself!)

Share

If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:

• Skipping the warmup

• Skipping the cooldown

• Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit

Make it work for you.

Finally, just a reminder that registration for my May 30-day strength challenge is now open! Learn more here, including the discount code for paid subscribers, and register here.

Read more

As always, you can skip the warmup, cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit if needed to match the amount of time and energy you have today.

Grab a medium (or medium and heavy, if you have them) set of dumbbells, a mat, and a bench, ottoman, or low step (if you have one!).

Oh, and here’s the Bulgarian split squat video I mentioned, LOL:

Let’s go!

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This week, we’ll use a foam roller to explore a handful of Pilates exercises (and some other stretches): It’ll be challenging and fun, and you’ll likely walk away feeling a little taller and more connected and aligned.

The ideal foam roller for most of these is the long, slightly soft kind that doesn’t have the little nubbins on it. If you don’t have a foam roller, or you have a different kind, we’ll still make it work!

And of course, if you were in the mood for something else, you can find the workout index right here:

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I also loved how described one of my conditioning workouts in her excellent post about doing the January strength challenge:

After the first week I realized that “core and conditioning” is sneaky code for cardio (sorry but what else do you call a minute of mountain climbers followed by a minute of skaters followed by a minute of wood chops, Anna?!). At first I was a little mad about this. Was this not a strength training challenge? Shouldn’t I have another day of lifting more weights (the exercise I like most) and not high intensity interval training (the exercise I have historically hated most of all)??

But something weird happened the second time I did the core and conditioning video. I… did not hate it. Instead, I appreciated that it was only 19 minutes. I did it on a day when I otherwise definitely would not have worked out – I was out of town and taking a child to an extensive day of medical appointments. But before we left, I spent 19 minutes sweating it out in our AirBNB and felt… shockingly good. Clearer, less ache-y from sleeping in a weird bed, ready to do a stressful day. Guys, I think endorphins might be real??? I have always been skeptical about this because I am not a person naturally inclined to move. I literally ran two half-marathons in my twenties and never once felt as good as I did after those 19 minutes. (It turns out eating first helps.) If you also hate cardio, I am here to say that there may be a redemption story for us in HIIT workouts. It’s still cardio (gross) but it’s SHORT. Somehow this makes all the difference.

If that doesn’t sell you, I don’t know what will! But of course, if this isn’t your vibe today, you can always check out the index for other options:

Other than your mat, all you need for today’s workout is a set of medium to heavy dumbbells.

Let’s go!

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If you have a resistance band, grab it, but I’ll give you a band-free alternative as well.

And of course, if you were in the mood for something else, you can find the workout index right here:

Read more

A few reminders if you’re taking the repeated approach and using progressive overload (AKA adding weight as you get more comfortable with the movements):

• For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome.

• Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and close to failure (i.e. you can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.

• Repeat the workout at least once or twice more within the week if possible.

• Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.

• You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.

• Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew. (You’re welcome to stick with this one for longer, but because it’s a relatively short workout we aren’t hitting a quite-complete range of movement patterns, so I’d suggest switching things up when the time comes.)

• I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.

• A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. This can be hard for home exercisers! I hate sending you out to buy weights — they’re expensive, heavy (heh), and hard to store. But you may get to a point where you just have to go for it and buy your own, or find a gym facility you can use that has heavier dumbbell options.

Share

If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:

• Skipping the warmup

• Skipping the cooldown

• Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit

Make it work for you. If you’d like to repeat this workout a time or two throughout the week, great.

And finally, just a quick tech note: I mention in this video that I finally invested in a really good quality mic, and of course after I filmed this video I realized I had a setting on the mic slightly messed up. It sounds really good but is mostly just on one “channel” instead of evenly balanced on both sides. I think you’ll get used to it after a few seconds, but I do apologize! As usual, building this plane as I fly it, ha ha. Next week’s workout will have the same issue, but the week after that (and beyond!) will be golden.

ANYWAY! Let’s go!

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As always, you can skip the warmup, cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit if needed to match the amount of time and energy you have today.

Grab a few dumbbell options if you can.

Let’s go!

Read more

Part of the solution here is just to practice: The more you work on this, the stronger your abdominals will get and the easier it will feel. But there are also a few tricks that can help ensure you’re lifting with the intended muscles and keeping your neck in an ideal position to avoid unnecessary pressure and straining.

That’s what today’s Pilates sequence is mostly focused on — tips and tricks to help you with the “Pilates curl,” as well as some really nice upper back and neck release exercises to help with the strain. (And a handful of other Pilates moves that just feel good and help round things out!)

I do want to say very clearly that you do not have to lift your head and shoulders to get a great Pilates workout. Basically every single exercise that asks you to do it can also be done with your head down! Keep this in mind as you do this sequence, or in any Pilates class you take on your own: If your neck hurts, try again with more core connection, and if it still hurts, do the exercise with your head down. The following adjustments should help if you go that route:

• For the Hundred, you can keep your legs in a tabletop position, or extended to a high diagonal (not a 45-degree angle or lower)

• For single-leg stretch and double leg stretch, think high diagonal as well — legs (and, for DLS, arms) should point more toward the ceiling than to 45 degrees or lower.

• For scissors, you can hold your legs behind your thighs instead of reaching for your calves or ankles.

Hope this one feels good and helps you work toward a more comfortable head lift in your own Pilates practice!

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Update (2:10pm on 2/8): I’ve uploaded the full-length video, just without the graphics and countdown timers. We’ll get that added ASAP! Thanks so much for your patience.

Update (1:40pm on 2/8/26): Hey team! Huge apologies, but I just learned that there was an upload error with this video and it cuts out after only one round of the strength circuit. Fixing it now! But in the meantime, you can always just go back and repeat the circuit manually. —AM

Back in January, I wrote a workout story for The New York Times about bodyweight isometric exercises. I already knew that isometrics — where you hold a muscle contraction in a static position — could be a fun and challenging way to improve strength without requiring any equipment (and that they can lower blood pressure!), but I learned so much more about the benefits through my interviews with Esme Hovekamp, a strength and conditioning coach in NYC, and Keith Baar, PhD, a professor of molecular exercise physiology at the school of medicine at UC Davis Health who has done some really cool research on isometric exercises.

In particular, isometrics can be powerful for those recovering from injuries:

• For one thing, they actually trigger injured tendons to heal: the muscles contract while the tendons lengthen, and the time under tension loads the injured parts of the tendon in addition to the healthy parts (which doesn’t happen during a more dynamic exercise), Baar told me. This loading — known as “creep” — helps signal the cells inside the tendon to rebuild the collagen matrix. An isometric hold also helps lubricate the tissue and improve elasticity, he said.

• And, because these exercises involve activating the muscles with very little movement, they can help calm your nervous system and reassure your brain and body that exercise is safe, Hovekamp told me. (In fact, isometrics are some of the lowest injury-risk exercises because of the relative lack of movement, according to Baar.)

Of course, if you’re dealing with an injury, you should always check with your medical provider about the kind of exercise that would be most appropriate for you.

Isometrics can also be great for beginners, and for those looking to improve their range of motion for challenging movements like squats, split squats, and push-ups: If you can hang out in the deepest part of a squat or the lowest point of a push-up, you’ll feel more confident getting into and out of that position during a more dynamic rep.

So today, we’ll do the workout Hovekamp designed for my NYT article together. I’ll list the exercises below, but there won’t be gifs or written instructions because the Times did that for us! Here’s the gift link to the article one more time if you just want to check out the movement demos and written instrux.

No equipment today, other than a mat.

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February seems like a good time to double down on strength, no?

If you’re new around here, I send a workout video every week, and the first video of every month (aka the strength workout) is meant to be repeated — you can do it once or twice, even three times per week (along with whatever else you’d like to do, including the other videos that come through), and gradually add weight throughout the month. You don’t have to do it this way! But if you want to, a few reminders:

• For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome.

• Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and almost close to failure (i.e. you can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.

• Repeat the workout once or twice more within the week if possible.

• Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.

• You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.

• Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew should you choose — although you can absolutely stick with this one for another few weeks if you like.

• I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.

• A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. This can be hard for home exercisers! I hate sending you out to buy weights — they’re expensive, heavy (heh), and hard to store. But you may get to a point where you just have to go for it and buy your own, or find a gym facility you can use that has heavier dumbbell options.

Share

If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:

• Skipping the warmup

• Skipping the cooldown

• Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit

Make it work for you. If you’d like to repeat this workout a time or two throughout the week, great.

Let’s go!

Read more

Last year, we talked about the “sitting-rising test,” which measures how many supports you need to use to go from sitting on the floor to standing, and which has some interesting associations with longevity. There are a lot of caveats to this research, and I highly recommend popping back to my post from last January for all those details:

But the fact remains that getting up off the floor is a highly useful skill! And can be really, really tricky. A HTM subscriber decided to start working on this maybe a year or two ago, and reached out recently to say that despite great strength gains, she feels she’s actually getting worse at it. If I had to venture a guess, I’d say it’s because this skill requires not just generally good mobility, but highly specific mobility — accessing certain positions and being able to work through challenging movement patterns.

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So! This week’s mobility sequence is for her, and for you: Even if you aren’t all that concerned about getting up off the floor, this one is amazing for your hips, knees, and ankles, and would be a great support and movement prep for things like heavy squats, lunges, and the like.

Before we get into it, a question for you: I recently had a major “this is why I lift!!!” moment when I carried a 50-pound bucket of salt home from the hardware store with no help. I’d love to know: What cool feats (small or big!) have you been able to achieve that you can chalk up to your movement practice? Brag on yourself! If you’re a paid subscriber, you can leave a comment on this post. If not, you can reply to this Substack note, respond to this email if you’re getting it in your inbox, or DM me on Substack.

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Here’s a little Reel I made about the giant salt bucket fiasco:

Anyway, back to getting-off-the-floor mobility: I didn’t think of this until the very end, but it could be really cool to test your ability to get off the floor before you try the video, and then give it a shot again after you work through it. Report back if you try it!

Also: I did so much nervous throat clearing (not literal, but like, “Ohhh boy, here we go, this is going to suck”) in this video because I am terrible at getting off the floor with no hands, but most of these exercises were way more doable than I expected! Not easy, but manageable. So, sorry for all the silly warnings about how intense it might feel. Ha!

No equipment required for this one, though if you have a strap or very thick band, that’d be great. If you’d like to have a broomstick or PVC pipe or the like nearby for a little extra support during the lunge-adjacent exercises, that’d be great. Or even just a chair or stool to hold onto.

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You’ll need some dumbbells (think medium to heavy) and a mat. You have the option to use an exercise step, or do this workout near a set of stairs, if you’d like to level up your calf raises by adding a deficit. If you like to use a band or a strap for your quad stretch, grab one.

And remember that if this workout isn’t for you, you can always find lots of other choices in the HTM workout index.

Finally, a quick apology that the sound quality on this video isn’t always the best (not terrible but just a little crackly here and there). I absolutely despise buying new equipment but it’s clear that this microphone must be replaced, and soon. Any recommendations welcome!

Okay, enjoy!

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So this month, the supplemental resistance training workouts (to complement the monthly strength workout) will be QUICK! Less than 20 minutes, and of course with the option to skip the warmup, cooldown, or one or two rounds of the strength circuit if needed to make things even shorter — make it work for you.

This week, we’ll focus on upper body with a great sequence that can be done seated if that works better for you, and next week we’ll focus on lower body.

You’ll need some dumbbells (think light to medium) and, if you have one, a resistance band (any kind is fine).

And remember that if this workout isn’t for you, you can always find lots of other choices in the HTM workout index.

Read more

If you’re new here, the first workout of each month is designed to be repeated, with a progressive overload approach (AKA adding weight as you get more comfortable with the movements). A few reminders if you’re interested in trying it that way:

• For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome. The goal is to work close to failure.

• Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and close to failure (i.e. you almost can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.

• Repeat the workout at least once or twice more within the week if possible.

• Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.

• You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.

• Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew.

• I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.

• A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. If you don’t already own weights, I highly recommend the dumbbells from Power Systems: I use them; they’re good; feel free to use that link as another way to support my work here, because I’ll get a tiny kickback from your purchase. (But truly, no pressure!)

Share

If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:

• Skipping the warmup

• Skipping the cooldown

• Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit

Make it work for you. If you’d like to repeat this workout a time or two throughout the week, great.

Read more

Happy limbo week! Or whatever we call this weird, squishy time at the end of the year when many of us feel a little…off, whether it’s because of the lack of routine or just general holiday melancholy. This Sunday is kind of the Sunday-est Sunday of all Sundays!

So let’s keep it simple and supportive with a really great-feeling Pilates sequence from the fall. I put this one together partly to provide a little extra guidance for some of the tricker mat exercises, but it’s a lovely one to pull out when you just want to connect with your body and feel a little better and more grounded. A few simple props are recommended — mostly household items — but not required.

And: As an end-of-year gift to you, I’m taking this one out from behind the paywall so you can enjoy it even if you aren’t a paid subscriber.

Enjoy, hang in, and happy almost new year!

Oh, and of course a tiny reminder to register for my 30-day winter strength challenge! Lots of info about it here, and link to register here.

xo
Anna

That’s why it’s so great to get parenting information from both Now What and her incredible books, How to Raise Kids Who Aren’t Assholes and Hello, Cruel World! (Hint: These books would make great Christmas gifts!) You know her reporting will bring you the most evidence-based — but also the most reasonable, helpful, humane — guidance out there.

I was so delighted when Melinda asked if I could cook up a workout for her newsletter readers last month. It was right around Thanksgiving, and my mind immediately went to my favorite concept for busy times, the bare minimum (or phoning it in). I’m sharing our conversation below and the workout above. This one is free to all HTM subscribers — enjoy!

From Melinda’s post:

I’m psyched to be doing something a little different this week: I’m sharing a short video workout designed specifically for Now What readers by the wonderful and brilliant Anna Maltby. It’s a workout you can do in as little as six minutes with nothing more than a floor to lie on — heck, you can even do it in your pajamas — and it focuses on back, core, and glute strength, as well as scapular stability and thoracic rotation, all of which support the back and posture.

If you don’t know Anna, she is a health journalist, certified personal trainer, and mat Pilates instructor, and she writes the fantastic anti-diet fitness newsletter How to Move, which I adore. I’ve known Anna for years; she’s highly knowledgeable and whip smart, so I was thrilled when she agreed to do a short Q&A with me, too. Among other things, I asked her to bust some exercise myths that fuel unnecessary stress and guilt in busy parents.

I hope you enjoy our conversation and her workout — maybe you can squeeze it in before the kids wake up or during a cooking break this week. May it give you a few minutes of peace!

Anna, we used to work together all the time when you were an editor. Can you talk a bit about why you made the transition to the work you’re doing today, and what you’ve learned about parents’ bodies (especially moms’ bodies) that’s been illuminating for you?

I miss so many things about my old life as a magazine editor — the collaboration, the constant supply of free sunscreen and cupcakes from publicists, wearing clothes that aren’t leggings, working with wonderful writers like you! But the industry has changed a ton, and the turmoil really started to get to me: I’ve had so many magazine jobs, and it felt like no matter where I was working, a day would come when we’d all be rounded up into a conference room (or Zoom call) and find out something terrible was happening to the publication.

I became a certified personal trainer 10 years ago for a job as a fitness editor at a magazine, and around the time I took a buyout from my last staff job back in 2021, I was completing my training as a mat Pilates instructor. I was so burned out (both from the chaos of the industry and from a year of pandemic parenting a baby and a toddler) that I wondered if, instead of job hunting, I could make my way as a freelancer and actually teach Pilates and train clients. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since! It’s a mix of training/teaching, editorial consulting for brands (places like Nike and Hinge Health), freelance writing, mostly for The New York Times, and since last summer, writing my newsletter. I do everything through an evidence-based, highly function-focused (I call it “body neutral” but it basically means non-aesthetics–focused) lens, and I have some specialty training in the perinatal period and the pelvic floor.

I love this work a lot, and I’m also really grateful that being self-employed gives me more flexibility to show up for my kids and spend time on activism. I’m super involved in our school’s PTA and mutual aid work, for one thing. I never really saw myself as a PTA mom, and now I both see how problematic our cultural eyerolling about “PTA moms” is — this excellent piece is REQUIRED READING on that front — and understand that PTA work at schools that aren’t wealthy and majority white has so little to do with galas and craft fairs and so much to do with community building, mutual aid, and advocacy around immigration, housing, and things like, ahem, SNAP benefits. And I have been running a fundraiser project called Pilates for Abortion Funds for three years now: It’s a monthly Zoom mat class for which the admission cost is a donation to an abortion fund, and we’ve raised more than $45,000 all told.

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In my work as a trainer, I’ve been lucky enough to work with quite a few moms (including throughout the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum experiences), and I think what’s been most illuminating is that — as cliche as it might sound — our bodies are all so different! (I’m not even talking about appearance, although this obviously applies there too.) I really try to focus on the individual in front of me, and I’m often surprised by what their strengths and limitations are. You can tell certain things by looking at someone’s posture, for example, but you don’t necessarily know how they’re going to move until they start doing it. We all have our own movement experience, history with trauma and injury, lifestyle factors, genetics, etc. And when it comes to pregnancy and postpartum, the same is true: Everyone is so, so different. I think it’s safe to say that staying active can help make a pregnancy more comfortable and potentially make postpartum recovery easier, but I’ve had clients that I fear are going to have a long recovery road because of certain issues they’ve had during pregnancy, and then they’re perfectly fine postpartum. And of course there are folks I think are going to have a total breeze of a time, and then they end up struggling more than I expect. It’s helpful to me as a mom with a body too: I can remind myself that just because someone else can move or lift a certain way doesn’t mean I’m supposed to. I have my own body and my own journey, and that’s just how it works! We’re all different. (Honestly, as a trainer, this is a super fun element of my work: My clients really keep me guessing and learning. It’s never boring!)

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One of the key aims of my work is to use science to reduce pressure on parents and the guilt they are inclined to feel. What is an exercise myth (or set of myths) that you like to bust that often fuels unnecessary stress or guilt?

There’s plenty of pseudoscience out there about exercise that we could debunk (like weighted vests, LOL), but I think the big thing for parents and exercise is not necessarily the weird wacky optimization nonsense, it’s just TIME. We know we need to exercise — if we are women over the age of, I don’t know, 30, we know we need to be strength training to prepare for our future perimenopause journey — but we are so, so busy and it feels impossible to find the time to exercise “enough.” And we definitely feel guilty and stressed about that! I understand the value of things like the guidelines from the American Heart Association and CDC about getting 150 minutes of moderate exercise plus two strength training sessions in per week, but frankly, that’s a ton of time if you’re someone with caregiving responsibilities, a job, a commute, a home to take care of, etc. Or take the 10,000 steps thing (which has sort of been debunked, actually) — it would take most people an hour and a half or two hours of walking to get to 10,000 steps! Who has the time? I felt really proud of myself the other day for making time for a 40-minute walk at lunch, and then I immediately felt sort of bummed and guilty when I looked at my phone’s step count and saw that I’d only gotten about 6,000 steps. So silly: That’s a really great amount of steps, and way more than I would have gotten without the walk.

I do like to encourage parents to prioritize exercise to the extent that they can, because it can support everything else we need to do: Exercise helps us sleep better. It helps us manage stress. It helps reduce aches and pains. It helps give us energy. We need all of that stuff so much to help us deal with life. And in fact, sometimes exercising even when you don’t actually think you have the energy for it can create a positive feedback loop: We find energy we didn’t realize we had. We sleep better that night. We feel better the next day and have the energy to exercise again. (With a caveat that this may not be the case if you’re someone with a chronic illness and need to take special care with your energy levels.) After that not-10,000-step walk the other day, I got so much focused work done. I even got a great idea for a newsletter story and basically wrote the whole thing by recording a voice memo to myself on my phone, while walking.

If you aren’t in a season where you can get anywhere close to 150 minutes or thousands of steps, it’s okay! You haven’t failed. Do what you can, even if it’s just a truly tiny amount of exercise. A five-minute workout is still a workout. I like to encourage people to think about the long game: Maybe you aren’t able to hit your movement goals right now, but if you can do the bare minimum just to keep yourself moving a little, just to feel a tiny bit better in your body, and just to maintain the habit, you’re doing great. And it’ll be a lot easier to add on if and when a season arrives that allows for more movement.

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Can you talk a bit about the exercises you’ve chosen today and what muscles or parts of the body they support — and why these are so important to take care of?

I send a workout video to my newsletter subscribers every week, and usually it’s focused on strength training: We have a monthly strength workout that’s meant to be repeated and used with a progressive overload approach (aka gradually increasing the amount of weight, the challenge level of the exercises, etc.); I also send split-training workouts sometimes that help you dial in to specific body areas or movement patterns; sometimes there’s a cardio and conditioning workout; and of course plenty of Pilates and mobility workouts designed to support your strength training and keep you feeling really good. But as we approach the holidays — and sick season! — I’m often thinking about, again, that concept of the “bare minimum.” Not just for my subscribers and clients but for myself, too! We might not have time for a big workout, or we might be traveling and away from our usual gear, so what’s the absolute least we can do to take care of ourselves and hopefully feel decent in our bodies during this stressful time?

So this workout is what I call a “bare minimum workout”: If I’m totally swamped or away from home, I will pull these exercises out and do one to three sets, just to get the kinks out, check in with my mind-body connection, and feel okay if not great. A big motivator for my own exercise routine is that I deal with super annoying back pain if I’m not active, so these moves focus on back strength, core strength, scapular stability, glute strength, and thoracic rotation: all things that really help support our posture and make our backs feel as good as possible. (It’s very similar to this workout I ran last winter, except I swapped in a new exercise in lieu of Russian twists, which I always get complaints about from people with tricky hip flexors!)

One thing I love about this sequence is that it requires basically NOTHING other than a floor you feel comfortable lying on, although you could absolutely do this on a bed if you don’t have a mat and the floor is dirty. You don’t even need to change your clothes — pajamas, jeans, a dress, whatever you have on is fine.

And truly, do as little or as much of this video as works for the amount of time and energy you have. Do one round and you’ll be moving for about 6 minutes. If you do the whole thing it’ll take about 20 minutes (plus an optional little feel-good stretch at the end). Remember: This isn’t about optimization or about worrying about some lofty amount of time — it’s about giving your body a little time and attention so you can get after all the other stuff you need to do.

I hope it feels great!

Thank you, Melinda! And just before we go, a reminder to register for my 30-day winter strength challenge! Lots of info about it here, and link to register here.

xo
Anna

No equipment needed, so this is a great one to do on the go.

Of course, if you’re looking for something different, the HTM Workout Index is at your service! Tons of strength, Pilates, and other workouts here if you prefer:

And finally, a reminder to register for the 30-Day Winter Strength Challenge, which starts on January 4! More info here. It’s $99, or $49 for paid subscribers — discount code right after the paywall, or just on the next line if you’re already paying ;-) (You are the best!)

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A few other reminders if you’re taking the repeated approach and using progressive overload (AKA adding weight as you get more comfortable with the movements):

• For your first workout or two, take it a little easy. Don’t immediately jump to the heaviest weight you can stand to move. Ease your way in to hopefully avoid destroying yourself with soreness and feeling the need to take a super-long break before you go back for another workout (or even feeling discouraged entirely). THEN start to push. Nudge just slightly out of your comfort zone each time. Grunting, cursing, and heavy breathing all very welcome. The goal is to work close to failure.

• Record the weights you used, if you’re comfortable (if recording body-related numbers is not good for you, skip this part). You should be trying to use a weight that gets you very fatigued and almost close to failure (i.e. you can’t do another rep) by the end of the minute-long set.

• Repeat the workout at least once or twice more within the week if possible.

• Do this for four-ish weeks (or more!), adding weight to the extent possible for each exercise that uses weight. Keep recording your weights (again, if this feels like a wise move for you) so you can see your progress! You can also mark progress on things like number of reps, longer working time (if you started off needing to take a break before the end of the set, etc.), or positioning (moving toward a more advanced version of the exercise), if applicable.

• You can do the other WOWs that come through over the next couple of weeks as a way to mix things up and supplement your training, if you have time.

• Then you’ll get another strength-training–focused workout next month, and the cycle begins anew.

• I’m typically a big fan of offering up the option to skip the warmup or cooldown, or one or two rounds of the circuit. However, if you’re doing this in a progressive overload setup, I’d like to encourage you to keep the warmup and cooldown to make sure you’re taking good care of your body. If you can only do one or two circuits the first week, see if you’re able to add a second or third circuit in subsequent weeks.

• A note on weights: If you’re going to go for true strength training, you need some heavy weights. If you don’t already own weights, I highly recommend the dumbbells from Power Systems: I use them; they’re good; feel free to use that link as another way to support my work here, because I’ll get a tiny kickback from your purchase. (But truly, no pressure!)

• One more thing: I stick to dumbbells here on How to Move to make the workouts accessible to as many people as possible. But if you’re interested in slamming bars (I love this for you), I’d suggest checking out Casey Johnston’s program LIFTOFF: Couch to Barbell.

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If you aren’t interested in progressive overload–focused strength training (or not yet), you are very welcome to just follow this video like a regular one-off workout! And you can do the whole thing, or if you have less time or energy than that, you can trim things down by:

• Skipping the warmup

• Skipping the cooldown

• Skipping one or two of the three rounds of the resistance-training circuit

Make it work for you. If you’d like to repeat this workout a time or two throughout the week, great.

And finally, a reminder to register for the 30-Day Winter Strength Challenge! (More information about it here.) It starts on January 4, and it’s $99, or $49 for paid subscribers — discount code right after the paywall, or just on the next line if you’re already paying ;-) (I love you!)

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