The Uncivilized Perspective

How to Order your Exercises

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 17:24:57 GMT

How to structure & order your strength training routine

Intro

People often times do not have solid plans as to what they are doing in the gym. If I asked most people or by observing them, they usually piece together a half ass plan on the way to the gym. It's typical to see someone jump on a piece of cardio equipment first for about 20 minutes. Then head over to the weights section and jump from machine to machine. Maybe throwing in some dumbbells every so often. Making this chaotic, devoid of structure workout until they have sweated enough and justify their time going to the gym. This for numerous reasons is a terrible way to structure your workout. Leaving it up to what might be open and available in the moment and getting as many exercises in an hour until you sweat and feel like you've gotten a good workout in.

Going and working out in the gym requires strategy and structure. As does becoming healthier and more fit requires structure. People don't become financially stable because of chaos and not having a plan. They do it by spending below theirs means, prioritizing certain expenses and experiences over others. Then over time earning more and more money to spend on items they enjoy more of. The same idea goes for working out and workouts. Order needs to be made. Here's how to structure your workouts from a order perspective. The order you should do cardio vs strength, warmup, cool down, etc.

What not to do

As mentioned above, the strategy you can't have is leaving it up to what you feel like doing or what equipment is open at that moment. Preparation must happen prior to driving or arriving at the gym. 5 minutes is all that is needed for this to happen as well. 5 minutes of writing down on a notepad or on your notes app what you are planning to do that day.

Compound Lifts vs Isolated Lifts

Establishing and having a strength routine requires you to have a little knowledge of different exercise types. The main distinction to know is if the exercise is a compound exercise or a isolated exercise. To know the difference you simply need to look at how many joints are being utilized. Compound exercises utilized 2 joints or more. Isolated movements utilized only one joint. Looking at some examples, goblet squats are a compound exercise. It utilizes 2 or more joints during the movement. As you begin to squat down your knees will have to bend and your hips, ankles will have to bend as well. We can conclude this exercise uses more than 2 joints and be classified as a compound movement. If you look at a bicep curl this would be categorized as a isolated movement. The only joint moving is the elbow joint. The elbow is flexing and extending as the bar or dumbbells is being moved. At the same time no other joint bends or extends.

You can use this easy test for every exercise and determine what category it belongs in. However, this is another easy clue you can use as well, it isn't quite as universal as the other rule is. The helpful hint is if an exercise lists a body part in it, then usually it is a isolated exercise. Again as an example, bicep curls. The muscle group is bicep, that is the only muscle doing any moving, hence isolated movement. Another example is calf raises. Calf raises only use one joint and it is the ankle joint to do the moving. Again that is an isolated movement. On the compound side, if you look at deadlifts, there is no muscle group being listed, it is a compound exercise. Don't use this test for every exercise like I said, there are some rules to the exception.

Can I do my Cardio in the same workout?

Another topic for conversation is doing your cardio workout and strength routine in the same workout. This question or conversation does have a lot of nuance to it. I will be speaking a little more generally here and to the broader audience or to most people I encounter in the gym. For most people and most of the time, you don't want to schedule your cardio and strength training on the same day or in the same workout. The reason behind this has to do with duration of working out and getting enough done in that gym time.

Looking at the averages and what is best for most peoples bodies. 2-3 sessions per week is plenty of dedicated gym time. Each sessions roughly coming out to an hour per session as well. This doesn't allocate us enough time to get a proper workout in for either strength or cardio. You'd be kind of half assing both. Simply there wouldn't be enough time to attack either modality with the effort, focus and intensity that should be given. So when permitted, avoid doing both on the same day.

If you are a little more advanced then the average person in the gym and have a little more experience, you can mingle in both. But the beginner you are, I recommend splitting the two up.

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Don't be fooled by hybrid athletes

Thu, 12 Mar 2026 18:15:39 GMT

Don't be fooled by hybrid athletes

Introduction

According to a 2019 Cleveland Clinic survey, 44% of people get health, fitness and diet advice from social media. In 2026 that number is probably in the 50-55% range considering the COVID year. COVID drove most people out of gyms for a period of time, leaving people to the internet & social media for health/fitness advice. Out of the people that get health & fitness advice online, almost all of them have probably seen or come across Hybrid Athletes. For the rest of you who haven't, hybrid athletes are people who workout to maximize numerous extremes in fitness. Their goals might be to run a sub 3 hour marathon and deadlift 450lbs at the same time. That is the ethos of hybrid athletes encapsulated right there. Another example might be running a 10K and competing in a body building competition in the same 3 month period. They aren't trying to maximize all buckets of health as most people should, they take all those buckets to the extreme.

From my perspective, right around COVID is when these people and channels got popular or blew up. I don't know if there is any reason behind it or just a coincidence. My YouTube feed was full of workout videos and content all throughout COVID, then I started to see more and more hybrid athlete content.

A typical hybrid video usually presents a week in the life of an athlete. Six days a week wasn't uncommon, neither was two-a-day workouts as well. In 99% of content with hybrid athletes, the main character was ripped, shredded, jacked. Pick your word for someone that is sub 10% body fat. Never were these people unfit, lacking health or anything in between. They portray the ideal physique for men and women, making it appear to be the path towards looking and feeling your best.

The Worshipping of False Gods

People may be thinking this doesn't sound all that bad. Content that emphasizes men and women that are of the highest fitness level in multiple categories and they aesthetically look good too. Most people won't realize they are watching or getting advice from people that worship the God of fitness. They have built up these personas, ego's, identities that feed off of the physical fitness challenge. Often going where average people rarely go, like training for body building and power lifting competitions at the same time.

Why are these people bad influencers or examples for health and fitness? First, they put and serve physical competition at the top of the hierarchy. A majority of their chosen sacrifices are for physical and/or aesthetic feats. I'm not saying don't set physical goals to aim for. But when your life becomes about these extreme physical feats, your priorities have been mixed up. If you were to adopt this method of health & fitness, serious questions need to be raised.

How much time are you pulling away from your family & friends?

Are you really healthier chasing these goals?

Is your own home in order?

Do you see your kids enough?

Is your sleep hygiene where it needs to be?

Do you need to pursue and spend more time on continuing education for work?

Are you behind on any bills?

Are your finances in the right place to be spending 6-10 hours a week on workouts?

What is your relationship to God? Are you living the life he wants you to?

Those are a few questions to get your mind turning and thinking about the right priorities and if ignoring these other problems in search of this false god is worth it.

What's Realistic for you and the masses

For most people, 2-3 hours a week of structured exercise is all that you need. This doesn't count all the extra activity you can put into your daily habits like parking further away, choosing to take the stares, walking 15 minutes after meals. 2-3 hours a week of focused, intentional exercise whether it be strength training or cardio will make most people healthy and fit. This will give you ample time to improve your cardio respiratory fitness, strength, body composition, etc. Any more dedicated time alone spent working out and you become like the hybrid athletes, worshipping the gods of exercise.

Stop, reflect and ask yourself the tough questions. Are you listening to the right people for health & fitness advice? If not, pick people that don't obsess and worship the wrong idols in life.

Why you don't deserve to reach your fitness goals

Thu, 05 Mar 2026 19:53:33 GMT

Why you don't deserve to reach your fitness goals

Everybody has goals or an idea of where they want to be in the future. People often times like to dream about the life they want throughout the year and then set sail when the time is right, which ironically only seems to be at the beginning of the year. Weather these goals are realistic or not, people think that after a certain period of time and increased effort they deserve to look as good as they pictured in their mind, or deadlift 300lbs, or get off of their chronic disease medications. But, because you have goals and desires and you've made some changes in your life, that doesn't automatically mean you deserve to accomplish them.

Grounded in Reality

On this journey to becoming someone better than you are right now, we must keep at the pinnacle, reality. This might sound cheesy or cliche, but reality has to be at the fore front of progress. People construe reality by assuming that since they know someone who lost 30lbs by walking 10,000 steps per day that is all it should take for them to lose weight. Or maybe you know someone that was never a runner, they picked it up and ran a half marathon for the first time after only 3 months of training. This then becomes an assumption and a picture of reality, that this is all it takes to lose weight or train for a race. Not knowing everything that person went through and all the sacrifices they made to get there or where that person's starting position was.

The first step then on this journey is finding your reality. Asking yourself the tough ego wrenching questions. Have I actually lost any weight in the last 3 months? What changes that I've made have turned into habits? Am I working out too hard or hard enough? Do I need outside help or professional help along this journey? Do I have realistic goals for my age? Are these goals important or should I prioritize other goals? Am I willing to shed a part of me for this outcome? How much cooking do I need to learn on my own to prepare more food at home?

Those are the questions to spend time wrestling with and confronting yourself about. Saying or writing down the truth and only the truth then will show you reality.

The Victim Card

The second step is a shedding away of the nonessential. That nonessential is the victim card or victim mind set. This happens often because it quite easier than the other option. It's easier to blame your boss for making you work 50 hours a week and not having time to workout. Or it might be God's fault that he gave you the genes you have and they make it harder to lose weight. Or blame could be placed on your parents for not teaching you good eating habits young. Whatever the situation is, you must reject the victim card at all times. Nothing good comes from playing the victim card and nothing will change either once it's been played.

What to do moving forward

After you have confronted reality and abdicated the victim mentality, sacrifices must be made. These sacrifices are different from person to person. Every individual will have different limits as to what they will sacrifice and what they need too in order to reach their goals. But self sacrifice is necessary and must happen for change to occur. I can't tell you where to start individually, but look to others for this step. Friends or family that have had successful health journeys are good resources. Or hiring a professional like a nutritionist or personal trainer could be beneficial as well. Whatever the case is, be grounded in reality, abdicated victim hood, pick your sacrifices and your health, fitness and life will flourish.

The Right Body Part Split for 90% of Peopl;e

Tue, 24 Feb 2026 17:29:54 GMT

The Right Body Part Split for 90% of People

One area I see massive room for improvement in the gym is, the average person's workout split. Workout splits are, how people divide up their body parts into workouts over the course of the week. Young people gravitate towards doing individual muscles each day of the week. Like chest one day, then back the next, followed up with legs. They might repeat that sequence again and go 6x to the gym each week. Others will do upper/lower body splits 4 -6x per week. If you peaked into a athletic setting you might see splits based on movement patterns, like push, pull, legs or anterior/posterior driven workouts. What I'm trying to emphasize in this blog, is how wrong people get it in the gym and what 90% of people should be doing for their splits.

Purpose of Strength Training

Before we get to the best split to do, I want to bring the focus to the workouts themselves. What are most people trying accomplish? The top answers I see are, to build strength, look better aesthetically, build muscle mass, reverse osteoporosis, improve balance, & coordination, be healthy in general. Those are the most popular answers I get to why people go to the gym. With that, we have to keep in mind what the goals aren't. The goals aren't centered around beating the crap out of yourself every workout. They aren't there to punish yourself either. The workouts aren't individual punishment sessions for what unhealthy thing you did that day. The goals in the gym are exactly what we listed and we need to keep a focus on those when it comes to your split as well.

The Superior Split

For 90 -95% of people going to the gym and trying to improve and progress, Full Body routines are ideal. I know it doesn't sound sexy and the answer most people probably don't want to hear, but here is why this is optimal. First, from a time perspective. Most people don't have 6 hours a week to workout and do individual muscle splits. That just isn't reasonable. So if we do full body splits, you can condense everything you need to into 2 or 3 workouts a week max. In the course of a week you could get in everything you need to in 2 hours.

Next, from the perspective of volume in workouts. More volume and work load doesn't always equate to better workouts or faster progress. There is an upper and lower limit as to how much volume you should being doing in the gym. Full body routines make it a whole hell of a lot easier to keep the volume where it should be. That range is anywhere from 5-15 sets per body part per week. Doing a single body part in a hour long workout makes it easier to do way to much and kill that body part. That isn't the goal and purpose again of going to the gym. The goal is to get stronger every time you go to the gym or improve from a performance perspective.

Finally, full body routines make it way easier to design routines for. You simply pick one exercise per body part or per movement pattern and call it good. This leads to workouts only having 6-10 exercise at most to do per session. And for the average person not knowing where to stick turkish get-ups, hang cleans, burpees, deadlift this eliminates the confusion. Eliminating confusion will also make it easier to stack workouts week after week for years to come. Full Body split help you leave the gym feeling better than when you came and it makes building a relationship to exercise that much easier too.

Homework

If you've never tried a full body routine, try doing 2 or 3 workouts a week. And within those workouts, do one exercise per movement pattern. The six I focus on with clients are squat, hinge, push vertical, pull vertical, push horizontal, pull horizontal. That's it. Try this for a month and track your strength, energy, time in the gym and just wait to see the difference. My experience with people is you will never go back to doing the shitty splits you were using before.

Exercise Snacks

Thu, 19 Feb 2026 15:05:05 GMT

How to intertwine movement into your white collar job

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 40-45% of the people working in the United States work white collar jobs. Meaning they work jobs that are indoors, sedentary, using their intellect as the labor for their work. This shows that more and more people are becoming sedentary on the job and moving or using their body less for work.

The Sedentary Solution

What can people do that work in office settings to acquire more movement or activity? Exercise snacks are the answer. What is an exercise snack precisely? It is similar to a snack of food you might have in the afternoon at work. It is a small bout of exercise just like regular snacks are small food portions to tide you over. Exercise snacks are supposed to be easy, frequent and flexible. You can customize exercise snacks to whatever fitting you want. If you want to go for a walk every 2 hours of work, that's perfect. Or maybe you keep a exercise band at your desk and want to do a few shoulder mobility exercises, that works too. The bottom line is snacks as simply meant for your individual liking and can be morphed around any parameters set forth.

The biggest selling point or positive of exercise snacks are the mood, energy, cognitive enhancement effects. We weren't designed to be sedentary for as long as we are during white collar jobs. Our bodies were meant to be moved constantly with low intensity movements all day long. That is exactly what exercise snacks accomplish. They add low intensity movements to break up your day. If you're feeling tired, lethargic, sleepy, do 5 minutes of snacks. Or if you start to have hip, back pain from sitting too long. Get up and go do a hip or core exercise to alleviate the symptoms.

What Exercise Snacks Are Not

Exercise snacks aren't meant to be something you become a slave to at your desk or in your office. People become slaves to their fitness routines or lifting routines and they often view them as punishment for something they ate or did. Exercise snacks are the exact opposite. They will improve you energy, mood and focus almost instantaneously. They should be viewed as a tool to enhance your productivity, mood and overall day. Like a hammer is a good tool to use with nails and bad one with screws. Exercise snacks help with mood, energy, cognitive alertness and that is it. They are not a weight loss tool or a tool to build a bunch of muscle.

Conclusion

Whatever your health and fitness goals are centered around, exercise snacks can be tailored to your needs. The bottom line is are you noticing deteriments to your day because of being too sedentary? If the answer is yes, then exercise snacks are for you and will improve your life in the short term!

Why you Shouldn't Chase Soreness in the Gym

Tue, 17 Feb 2026 20:13:32 GMT

Why you Shouldn't Chase Muscle Soreness in the Gym

What is Soreness

Muscle soreness, better known as delayed onset muscle soreness(DOMS) is a subtle to loud muscular pain signal. Muscle soreness will manifest itself a day or two after a workout or physical activity. Recovery times can vary significantly depending on how sore someone is and how well they manage sleep, protein intake, stress and overall movement.

How does it work

After mechanical stress placed on the body, tissues have become damaged and need to recover and adapt. The more familiar your body is with a particular movement or workout, generally the less sore you will be. However, the more novel the movement is, the more sore you will be and potentially the longer you will be sore for.

As an example, if you haven't played golf in 4-5 months due to it being the off season, that first time back will be demanding to the muscular system and you will be sore for a few days. On the flip side, in the middle of the summer when you play golf for the 20th time that season, likely your body won't be very sore. All of this falls on the SAID principle or Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demands. If your body isn't adapted and hasn't seen a particular mode of stimulus, it will most likely be sore. The opposite is true if you've done that movement consistently and your body has had adequate time to adapt to it.

How to interpret it

Interpreting soreness is relatively straightforward, empirically speaking. However, psychologically it can be really challenging, especially to do over the long run. Muscle soreness doesn't equate to a better workout or the claim that you're going to build more muscle or strength from that workout. In fact, it has more of the opposite meaning. The more sore you are, generally means the longer it will take you to recover from that workout. That will then limit your ability to workout again with the same amount of intensity to push the weights and overload the body slightly more than the last workout.

In the end, you should look to muscle soreness as a metric for gaging if you did too much. The more sore you are indicates you over reached in your workout. So the next time you go to the gym you can adjust your volume accordingly. The goal isn't to never be sore from a workout, chasing it will be detrimental to progress. You should ideally wake up feeling like you did a workout the previous day, but still have the ability to go workout with the same amount of intensity as the day before.

The gold standard metric to use in workouts

Chasing the feeling of being sore should never be your north star or what is guiding you through workouts. Instead, you should use strength to guide you. I've talked about it in numerous other blogs I've written, but strength needs to be your guiding force. It is the most objective measurement in the gym. Did you get stronger, yes or no. It will then show you if you are on the beaten path, unlike soreness, which can be more subjective in nature. To conclude, chase strength in the gym, not the feeling of subjective accomplishment from a workout.

Lifting Weights with the Right Amount of Intensity

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 15:15:27 GMT

Weight Training with the Right Amount of Intensity

Building strength and muscle requires a cascade of events to be executed at a high enough level for progress to occur. Volume, sleep, exercise selection, diet, recovery, frequency, and intensity are a few variables that go into making progress. A variable that is often over looked and done inappropriately is intensity. Intensity has to be done appropriately, otherwise your body won't be able to adapt to the signals being sent. Before we move into what is the perfect amount of intensity, lets define it and talk about how to measure intensity first.

What Intensity is and How We Measure it

Intensity equates to rate of perceived exertion (RPE). In other words, how much effort you are putting into an exercise or a specific set during that exercise. The recommended way to track RPE is on a 0 - 10 scale. Zero being little effort, ten being maximum effort. Rarely, will you meet someone that actually tracks RPE on a regular basis in a normal gym setting. The typical people to track it are high end performance athletes.

Average gym goers have a subconscious tracking system with intensity. Typically, they will keep a mental note of it in their head while they are working out. As an example, their first set will be a warmup at a lower weight. They won't count this set towards their set total for that exercise and the first set will be about half as much effort as the rest of their sets. This is the typical approach people will take take. This isn't wrong by any means, but how much intensity should you use during normal sets?

The Right Amount of Intensity

The perfect amount of intensity for most people is a 6-8 out of 10 on the RPE scale. The reasoning behind it has to do with recovery, soreness and stress. A consistent RPE above an 8 is typically too much for most people. They won't be able to recover as quickly, they stay sore longer and it makes going to the gym seem like a much bigger hassle. On the other side, an RPE below a 6 is typically too low to illicit a stress response from the body and produce an adaptation. So 6-8 is the sweet spot to be in.

But how can you know you're at a 6-8 RPE every set? Isn't a 0-10 rating subjective? Yes, it can be subjective in rating your perceived exertion. But asking yourself this one specific question or doing this one key step will help put you in that 6-8 range 99% of the time. Am I leaving two reps in reserve every set? That means, stopping your exercise with two perfect reps in reserve. It doesn't mean, stopping after you start to lose control or once you begin to compensate. It means stop abruptly when you have two perfect reps in the tank. This is better said than done, most people will think they aren't doing enough and need to push harder and closer to failure. Failure rarely ever needed to illicit our goals. Implementing and improving intensity will be 90% mental, specifically like knowing when to rack the weights and call that set done.

If this is the first time you're hearing about leaving two reps in the tank, I'd challenge you to do this for one whole month and see how your strength progresses. Don't change any other variable about your workout. Just see how much stronger you can get from doing this alone.

How to Interpret the New Food Pyramid

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 15:29:32 GMT

How to Interpret the New Food Pyramid

January 7th, 2026, the government released its updated dietary guidelines. Before the guidelines were released, I had no idea food could be so political. I have seen numerous articles from both sides of the aisle making strong convictions about the pyramid. Seeing all the attention and attraction to the new food pyramid, I thought I'd lay out what is the same and different from the previous pyramid and moving forward what it means for our country's and your personal health.

Old Pyramid vs New

The first change that took place was the HHS deciding to go back to a pyramid versus a plate visual. From 1992-2005 we had the original iteration of the food pyramid that most people would associate "the food pyramid" with. Grains/carbohydrates were the foundation and the biggest category. Fruits and vegetables on top of that. Then there was meat and dairy. Lastly, candy and sugar were at the pinnacle of the pyramid. After 13 years of that food pyramid, in 2005 they split the pyramid vertically. Nothing really changed much. This was to demonstrate that no category was above another. The difference between the categories was actually serving sizes.

In 2011, we had brand new visual and dietary guidelines. The government decided to ditch the pyramid and institute a plate view. This was to demonstrate visually what a healthy meal should look like on a plate. Vegetables occupied the biggest portion, grains came in as the second biggest portion. Fruit and meat split the last 40% of the plate, split evenly. Dairy occupied a serving as well to the side of the plate to symbolize a cup. This was the governments recommendation up until beginning of 2026.

Now, the pyramid is officially back. It has been flipped upside down from the original 1992 pyramid. Meats and dairy occupying the pinnacle. Below that vegetables and fruit take up the next tiers, then grains takes up the bottom. Other numerical recommendations were the doubling of protein intake per day. The recommendation is now 1.2 - 1.6 grams per kilogram of body weight. So, if you weigh 200lbs, you should be eating between 110g and 150g of protein per day. Saturated fats are still recommended to be 10% of caloric intake. That is the same as it was before. The biggest change in this iteration was the move to more protein and more prioritization of protein. Plus the overall encouragement of whole foods in general.

Take away

Now let's talk about what you should do or learn from the new pyramid. First, it is true, you should always strive first to eat whole foods. Never is there a time when processed or man made food is better than what nature has to offer. I don't think that is controversial. I also agree with the recommended protein addition. This doubled the daily recommendation from the previous pyramid. Not only do most people not get optimal protein for health., but protein is the most satiating nutrient. It will fill us faster than any other nutrient, leading to eating overall less quantity of food. Then in return less processed food.

Whether you agree or disagree with the pyramid or the politics behind it. Keep in mind, this alone won't make the country a healthier place. The first food pyramid didn't. MyPlate didn't. This one certainly won't. Now I do agree and align myself with most of this pyramid. But information alone won't get people to take action and change the trajectory of their health. This is no different. In 10 years the United States will still have the same or more heart disease, diabetes, cancer as we do now. So if you don't agree with the pyramid or the administration that implemented it, don't worry we aren't getting healthier from this one recommendation.

On another note, I don't think we should be looking to the government for health advice in the first place. It is true, they set certain recommendations or requirements for public school lunches and other programs. But you still have the sovereignty to eat what you want and make the choices you want. So don't freak out if you disagree or agree. For the country to take a leap forward towards fixing chronic illnesses, personal responsibility will need to be adopted universally. If you're looking to do so, look to the people that have and act out a healthy lifestyle and the people that have common sense when it comes to becoming healthier.

What to do if your strength plateaus?

Thu, 22 Jan 2026 19:23:56 GMT

Top 3 Reasons Your Strength has Plateaued.

Introduction

It is inevitable, if you are trying to get stronger and build muscle, you will plateau. There are dozens of variables that go into building strength, but you should look to these three areas first. If your strength won't budge after these three interventions, then further diagnostics are needed.

Number One

The most detrimental action or habit for building strength is of course inadequate sleep. It sounds too easy, but sleep will reck your gains faster than anything else.

When we workout, that isn't when our tissues grow and build. They get broken down and damaged during exercise or bouts of stress have been placed on them. Once we eat and go to sleep, that is when the growth and adaptation happen. Without the sleep portion, the eating and workouts become useless through the lens of strength and hypertrophy. Ignoring sleep, is ignoring the window of opportunity for it to recover and build on top of what it has.

So yes sleep is the number one obstructor to building strength. You should strive for 8 hours a night of uninterrupted sleep and this has to be done 90% of the time. Not once in a while or when you don't have work the next day. Use common sense as to why your sleep may be suffering as well. Usually sleep is suboptimal because of a sacrifice you aren't making. It could be the time you get into bed, caffeine consumption, lack of a routine bed time, etc.

Number Two

The second most common killer of building strength is overtraining or the wrong amount of volume and intensity on your body. In order to illicit adaptation we must provide a stimulus for our body. That stimulus has to be the right amount. Not too much, not too little. The collective understanding of proper volume usually involves basing it on soreness. People think the amount of soreness will equate to more muscle and strength. That is far from the truth. It is pretty damn hard to build strength and go up in weight if you are continuously sore. And for motivation sake, it makes the gym feel a lot harder to go to.

Here are some questions to ask and look towards to know you are doing the right amount of volume and intensity. Do I feel better at the end of the workout than at the beginning? Is lifting weights carrying over to the rest of my life? How long has it been since I went up in weight and repetitions with the same weight? How is my energy throughout the day outside of exercise?

If lifting weights doesn't make you feel better after workouts or have sustained energy throughout the day. Your volume is likely too much. Bring your volume down until all those statements are true. You feel better at the end of workouts than at the beginning. You have sustained energy throughout the day. You see a little progress with weights and reps going up.

Number Three

The last major contributor to strength is protein intake. After looking at sleep and volume, look at protein. Protein is the nutrient that your muscles are derived from and what your body uses to repair and build them. Not enough raw materials for your body and it won't be able to rebuild the tissues and adapt. The thing about protein too, is it is hard to eat a lot of it by accident. You have to be conscious of it and seek it out.

The general recommendation for protein is anywhere between 0.7-1.0 gram per pound of weight. If you're needing to improve your protein intake start with one meal at a time. Divide your protein total up between 3 meals a day and then just work on one meal. Then when that's sufficient, go to the next and the next. Until you are eating in that -.7 - 1.0 gram per pound of weight.

Conclusion

Hopefully you found this article helpful and if you notice you're not doing all 3 of these actions, try implementing some of these techniques one at a time. Do not go guns a-blazing into all of them. It will be hard to make numerous sustainable changes to your life all at once.

If none of these fix your plateau, further individual advice is needed. My email is attached if that is you or you have further questions about these techniques.

email: chasewenzl@uncivilized-wellness.com

New Years Resolutions

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 19:39:20 GMT

A Thought on New Year's Resolutions and setting goals

Introduction

We are now two weeks into 2026 and if I had to bet, most people have abdicated their New Year's Resolutions. Some people may have set some rather loftier goals and some more modest. But most probably have relapsed on their goals and thrown in the towel by now. Personally I don't set New Year's resolutions to the degree of I'm going to make a radical shift this year to be fit or I'm going to 2x my income. However, from my perspective as a personal trainer and what I observe behaviorally from clients, I do like some aspects of setting New Year's goals/resolutions.

My thoughts on Traditional New Year's Goals

The traditional New Year's resolutions to me are trash. I'm talking about the one's that aim for the stars when people haven't ever left the ground before. The goals that look like "I want to lose one hundred pounds this year" and they haven't been to the gym or done a diet in 3 years. Those types of New Year's resolutions to me are useless. All talk, no bark. Mostly because those people are setting themselves up for failure. They are trying to create this new person by going zero to one hundred into it. People think that aiming for the stars will shift their foundation as a person. And unfortunately that isn't at all how personal transformation works. You don't get to change the external without a shift from the internal first. This is illustrated well in the gospel of Mark 7:15. Jesus spoke to a crowd, "there is nothing from without a man, that entering into him can defile him: but the things which come out of him: those are they that defile the man." Meaning nothing changes a man from the external unless he first changes his posture internally.

Positives of New Year's Resolutions

What I do like about New Year's Resolution's is the break in action and the ability to stop and reflect on the previous year. Only then to adjust course and set new goal's and aims. People need to take the time to reflect on their progress and reflect on how they are transforming. I think starting a new year is an easy spot and point to do that. Usually people have days if not weeks off to take a step back.

What we can take and apply from New Year's

The major take away from New Year's Resolutions is the break in action. Almost like a timeout during a basketball. In a basketball game, if you're down by 10 points you don't wait to make adjustments till the next day in practice. You call a timeout, sit your team down, maybe chew the teams ass a little bit and then attempt to resolve it. That is the best part of New Year's. It's a free timeout. The 2 minute warning of life.

My next question is why don't we utilize those natural timeouts more often? There are plenty of holiday's that break up the year and give us days off. Plus people average at least two vacations a year. So why not use those timeouts to reflect on this section of life and progress and then use it to recalibrate and move forward? This could look like a period from Easter to Memorial Day weekend. Or the 4th of July to Labor Day. Easy periods with starts and stops to think about your personal, physical transformations. This isn't just applying to fitness like I normally write about. This can go for finances, spiritual goals, education goals, etc. But why not use these timeouts? We don't get to carry them with us to the grave.

A final example and thought pertaining to implementing these new habits. Everyone knows the best way to create good habits is from scratch and an empty slate. That is why we pound certain habits into our kids as they are growing up, so that they learn the advantages of saving money young or whatever habit we deem necessary. Why not use these blank slates in life too, instead of always on New Year's? How about when you move into a new house and you don't have any bad habits established there? That would be a great time to start new actions. Or when taking a week long trip and coming home feeling like you don't have sense of routine anymore. That would be a great time for implementation of new rhythm's.

Summary

Finally, to put a bow on this topic. Here's how you can use your timeouts to make progress going forward.

-conquer and divide

-reflect and reset

-actions and goals

First you must conquer and divide your schedule up. Use natural breaks like holidays, vacations, moving as breaks in the action. Then, reflect on your progress and goals you set. This might be the hardest part, being honest with yourself as to where you were and where you are now. Then you must find goals and actions to take during the next section of life. Rinse and repeat after.

I'm no genius, but hopefully this helps you take that next step into transforming yourself into the person you're supposed to be. If you have more specific health and fitness goals and need help moving forward. My email and phone are always open for advice!

Why tracking Strength is the most important metric in the gym

Thu, 08 Jan 2026 14:47:15 GMT

Why STRENGTH is the best metric to track in your fitness journey

Introduction

For the people reading this, numerous goals could be at the forefront of your mind. This article is and will be intended for almost everyone in the gym. Some people might have a weight loss goal. Others may have a strength or mobility related goal. Some may have very broad and subjective goals, like to be healthier. Whatever that is supposed to mean. Whichever the case, if you are chasing a goal or goals in the gym, you probably track some sort of progress metrics. It might be your body weight once a week. Or body fat percentage every so often. Some people may go off of looks alone in the mirror for their progress. The claims and points I'm going to be making in this article relate to why you should start tracking strength and focus on it.

Progress Metrics

Everyone needs to use metrics to track their health and progress in the gym. Most don't realize or know what to track and why you should track them. Obviously, this article is about tracking strength. But why aren't other metrics good? It's not that other metrics should be demonized in the gym. However, they usually don't reveal the whole puzzle and can be very misleading along the journey. For example, body weight. Yes, you should track your body weight. But it shouldn't be taken no more than twice a month. Body weight only tells you all the mass you have at a given point in time. It won't tell you how much muscle you have or water weight or fat mass. It only tells you overall weight. Another metric is progress pictures. Yes I believe you should take progress pictures. But the same rule apply's. No more than once or twice a month. It is a more subjective measurement and doesn't tell the whole story. Not to mention it can be very psychologically demanding. You could be on the right track, only to look at picture at one point in time and not like the way you look. Too then double your caloric output for no reason what so ever other than you didn't like how you looked at that one point in time.

What Strength will tell you

Now to the meat and potatoes of this article. Why strength should be your most important metric and why everyone should track it. First, strength is objective. You either got stronger or you didn't. No in between. The second reason behind why strength is a great metric, has to do with its mechanism on the body. Strength isn't something you can wake up with the next morning and have done nothing. It must be earned. Not only the 2 hours you may spend in the gym a week. But, every hour of the day. To give some examples, if you sleep poorly, it is almost guaranteed you won't get stronger. Or if you don't eat enough calories or protein, strength won't come. Too much stress at work and in the gym will suppress strength as well.

What I'm getting at, is this. If you do not aim high in all aspects of health and wellness, your strength will not improve. Equating to no muscle building, less muscle retention, less fat loss, etc. Strength is almost the best predictor of health that we have. The weaker you are the less healthier you usually are. Just think back to when you were sick and how strong you felt at that given time.

Conclusion

If you are bought into tracking strength now, here's how you can start tracking it. Either using a pen and paper or you phone. Write down how much weight you used and reps you did every set and every exercise of your workout. Then when you come to the gym next do it all over again and compare. Did I get stronger today? And strength doesn't mean using weights that are 10 pounds more than the previous time. Building strength can literally be doing one rep more with the same weight as last time. Then, when you are doing 5 or 6 more reps increase the weight you are using. Tracking weight is that simple.

Now, I didn't go into detail as to what you should do if you can't get stronger and haven't in over a month. Next weeks blog will be about what's preventing you from getting stronger. But in the meantime if you have questions about strength, don't hesitate to reach out through email. chasewenzl@uncivilized-wellness.com

Winning the Weekends

Tue, 30 Dec 2025 21:06:53 GMT

Winning the Weekend's

Introduction

I'm writing this for the people that struggle with discipline, structure and or routines on the weekends. All while having no problem adhering to routines, structure, and orderliness during the week. This may be for more of a younger crowd that still like to go to bar's on the weekend's. Or maybe it's for people that have business dinners and social events on the weekend's frequently. Whichever category you find yourself in, this is written for you.

When striving for better health outcomes, most people start with the basics. Adding more exercise to their weekly routines or cutting down on the quantity of food in numerous ways. I would also throw in, usually making these changes to their Monday - Friday routines and schedules. We often associate the Monday - Friday schedule as being the productive and serious part of the week. Letting Friday night through Sunday night to be the unproductive, relaxing, recuperating part of the week. Which I don't deny that that is partially the point of the weekend. But we still need some semblance of order on the weekends. If we arrive at the weekend and are confronted with the abyss and no sign of structure we are asking for problems to occur. Anther way to picture it, is most people deem the weekend's to be for hedonism and the week for self-restraint.

The solution to fixing this problem is simple. Win the weekend's . For some, focusing particularly on your weekend routines and rituals will push you past the plateau and pull yourself out of the current that is pulling you the wrong way. This doesn't mean you have to be boring and never leave the house or count every calorie you consume on the weekend. But it does mean acknowledging where the most damage to your progress is. Acknowledging that in order to get something that you want or need, you have to make some form of a sacrifice to obtain it.

True Damage of the Weekend

To give people an idea of how detrimental the weekends can be. I'm going to list multiple negative habits and put them into perspective. First, going out to the bars on the weekends and staying till close. There are numerous ways this can be a bad habit to have. I'm going to imply that if you stay till close, you're probably gonna have 5 or more drinks. The average beer has 150 calories in it. Multiply that by five and now you've had around 700 or more extra calories that essentially don't help you with anything. On top of that, staying till the bars close indicates you won't get to sleep until around 3am. Essentially what you've done is consume a boat load of extra calories, plus jet lag yourself. Compound this over and over and you will now see why your progress has stalled. Even if you only do this 20 weekends of the year, that would be on the conservative side 14,000 extra calories per year from alcohol alone. Then think about how much sleep you lose. The more lost sleep the less likely to make good food and exercise choices.

Another example about the weekends might be just sleeping in and leaving your day up to whatever you feel like doing. Now I'm all for relaxing more and resting on the weekends. But too much freedom and chaos can lead to destruction of your goals and progress as well. I've written about this topic briefly in other blogs, but we need a certain amount of structure in our lives to keep us on the straight and narrow path. If you have to make a decision about every little thing on the weekend's I promise, you will fail. A decision about what to eat, when to eat, what to do, when to do it. Or even not making decisions before hand at all and leaving it up to your desires at that moment in time. This will lead to bad decisions, drainage of will power and the life you don't want. So create the order that is good and eliminate the pleasure seeking moments you know will arise.

Setting the Order

From person to person this will look different. But everyone needs to establish their weekend routine. It can be things as easy as going to bed at your normal time if you don't have prior events planned. Or something like just hitting your protein goals for the weekend. That alone will make you feel more full. It'll give you a small semblance of structure to adhere to. Leaving less choices up for the moment. And then trickling down to other areas as well. Hitting your protein goal could give you the feeling of satiety and not wanting to drink alcohol when you go out. It could also keep the weekend cravings at bay that so many people give into.

However small the order is for your weekend, set it in place. This structure will become second nature after a couple of months, turning into habits you never have to think twice about. Potentially saving you thousands of extra calories in the mean time. Giving you countless hours of sleep back you never thought you could have on the weekends. And leading you hopefully to more energetic and productive work weeks as well.

Conclusion

No matter your age or your goal, if you struggle with weekends the most, focus on only that for a while. See how much structure you can add to your life during the weekend and wait for the results to come. One last word of wisdom. The goal and lesson from all of this should be to wake up Monday feeling better than going to bed on Friday. If that is the case, you've won the weekend.

Navigating Eating around the Holidays

Fri, 05 Dec 2025 14:33:48 GMT

Navigating Food Around the Holidays

Thanksgiving has come and gone. Now Christmas and the New Year are on the horizon. Most people stuff themselves up to their esophagus with food on Thanksgiving. Then with all the leftovers, do it all over again. Creating a person that is incapacitated by food for the next 2-3 hours. Even the people who have health and fitness goals can't seem to contain themselves from over eating on the holidays. They succumb to all the food and temptation to keep eating past satiety. Only then realizing they just through away all the progress they made in the last two weeks. So how can people navigate the fine line of enjoying the holidays with family and with food traditions, but maintain progress through this season?

Protein

The first item to check off is protein. Thanksgiving obviously has a potent dosage of protein from turkey(24g per 4oz). Most other holidays center around a specific choice of protein as well. For example, Christmas is pretty synonymous with ham, prime rib, even some times turkey too. 4th of July has burgers, brats, ribs centered around it. So no matter the holiday there should be a heavy dose of protein to eat or choose from. Starting your holiday meal with the protein first will make the biggest impact with food quantity on the holidays. Protein is an essential nutrient, it will satiate you quicker and make you feel fuller longer than other sources of food. And it will contribute to recovery from workouts as well. Protein is a win win no matter which protein source you have available on the holidays.

Routines & Order

Next on the list, is routines and order. Most people do some sort of traveling on the holidays either to relatives houses or they will host family and friends at their house. No matter the circumstance, maintaining and keeping your normal routines and structure around the holidays is vital. Why is that the case? Because the opposite is chaos, and throwing yourself into the pit of chaos only leads to bad outcomes. For example, if you go to your relatives house and they have more snacks and candy around the house than you know what to do with, that is a problem. Then, on top of that, abandoning your daily habits will make the problem exponentially worse. You are then thrust into a position of chaos and non structure. Putting your own fruition of desires and wants in that moment to the forefront. Leading to scavenging the pantry and fridge at the first feeling of hunger or boredom. After the seal comes off the lid, then its Armageddon and chaos can't be contained. But, if you approach the day with your normal routine and structure you know what to expect, your body is in its normal rhythms and you don't open yourself up to the possibilities of chaos and personal desires in that moment. Examples are eating breakfast at your normal time. If you normally workout in the morning, then going and doing some sort of a workout. Waking up generally at the same time you normally do. Finding ways to create as much structure as possible to enjoy the food and company of the holidays. But not giving into the hedonism that can lurk as well.

The Time around a Holiday Meal

The third pillar we're going to talk about probably doesn't get talked about as much as the other two might. This pillar is all the meals and time around your holiday meal. Breakfast, snacks, lunch possibly that fit around your big holiday meal. Most people are aware of going off the rails with the Thanksgiving meal itself. But rarely does the snacks and meals around it get the publicity. Beware of meals and foods surrounding holiday meals. Some might say they consume more leading up to and around holiday dinner than at dinner itself. We don't give the attention to the snacks while we're cooking the turkey. Or all the alcohol we're drinking throughout the day while watching football and waiting for the big meal of the day. But this is where most of the damage is done. The bites and sips that add up all day long. Compounded with the meal itself and all of a sudden you've ate 5,000 calories for the day. Oh and by the way this is just one day. This isn't including if you have to do multiple Thanksgivings with both sides of your family. So enjoy the big holiday meal. Eat till satiety, but beware of endless snacks and leaky food consumption.

Conclusion

To wrap things up. The holidays aren't meant to be a food hedonism holiday. Where you get to eat as much as possible and give into whatever your heart desires in that moment. The holidays are meant for celebration, being with family and friends, relaxing for a few extra days. These rules or guidelines laid out here aren't meant to be an end all be all. But they are here to help you enjoy the holidays more and celebrate what they are truly there for. Not the worshipping of the self and what the individual wants to do.

Tips for recovering from jet lag

Thu, 13 Nov 2025 01:56:16 GMT

How to recover from jet lag

Jet lag is a universal experience that people endure whether they are traveling from LA to NYC or from the United States to France. No matter who it is or how many times they do it, jet lag is with you every time. Jet lag can never be avoided, but it can be minimized and your body clock can adjust to your new time zone quicker. We are going to explore what transitions your clock over and how to minimize the effects of jet lag.

Light

The first and maybe most important sensory input for you body and circadian rhythm is light. Light is vital to the body's normal functions and timing mechanisms throughout the day. So when arriving in a new time zone your goal should be or is to go outside and see the sun and be in the sun as long as possible. This also means not wearing sunglasses and depending on the weather, not wearing large layers of clothing and exposing you skin to as much sun as you can too. Not only is light an input into the eyes, but the skin also absorbs and signals the body to what time of day it is too. If you're going somewhere tropical or warm it shouldn't be an issue to expose more of your skin to the sun.

Light is first and most important input for acclimating to the new time zone. This isn't a one and done either. In order to optimize the switch and switch faster. You must get out into the sun frequently and often. With the morning sun being the focal point of getting out into the sun. Morning sunlight signals to your brain the start of the day. This is synonymous with a cortisol dump to start the day and telling the rest of your body it is morning. This signals food will need to be digested for the next 10 hours, the UV index will be higher soon, temperatures are going to rise, melatonin needs to be suppressed. Nailing that morning sunrise and then sunlight in general will jumpstart your experience in your new time zone.

Food

Next on the levels of importance is food. This again is a key input into the body and how it determines the time of day. Food is meant to be consumed only at certain times. It isn't healthy to eat a meal right before bed. The food may not be digested by the time you fall asleep hence leading your body to still digesting it in your sleep. Keeping you from reaching deep sleep and REM sleep effectively. Another ill advice thing would be to eat in the middle of the night. This is so counter to what your body wants to do while sleeping. It wants to stay cool, calm, relaxed. You're feeding it to then start up the digestive process and heat your body up. That's a recipe for a shorter health and life span.

Shifting your eating schedule to your destination time zone will help with this transition. This can start ahead of time too. You don't have to wait to eat on your new time zone until when you get there. You can start on the plane ride over. Or the day before too. A good recommendation I have is the day of travel switch your meals to the new time zone. So if you are traveling west and they are behind in time. Push breakfast back to when you would eat it in your destination time zone. This can also go for caffeine as well. I know that sounds crazy for some people. But if you delay you caffeine to your new time zone, this can help you stay up longer and time your meals to the new time zone.

Bonus Tips

Light and food timing are going to be the most bang for your buck tools to use. However there are a few extras you can try if you have the tools or want more to do. First, is a pair of blue light blocking glasses. Blue light comes naturally from the sun everyday. However it is only prevalent at certain times. Your brain then uses that signal to organize processes in the body and keep the time of day on its internal clocks. Almost every artificial light from lights bulb or screen uses blue light frequency's specifically. So a pair of blue blockers warn at the right time can help switch your body clock over to your new time zone. As an example I flew to Hawaii recently. On the flight back it was all overnight and we lost 5 hours of time. So the plane was my time to sleep. I didn't sleep well per se, but I used the blue blockers to enhance the darkness and filter the unnatural light at night. This in turn helped me sleep just a little bit more and tell my brain it was nighttime. Now I would focus on natural light and food timing first and then throw this in as a cherry on top.

Another tip or trick to try that your body uses naturally is temperature. In the middle of the day is when it is warmest outside and your body is warmest. At night is when the temperature drops and it is coolest. So if you are trying to sleep on the plane, take some layers off and try to cool your body down for sleep. If you are trying to stay awake and simulate the middle of the day, add layers.

Finally, if you really struggle with jet lag and travel semi frequently, this is the only time I would allow a melatonin supplement. I still don't necessarily recommend it, but I can see how it helps if done sparsely and while traveling 4 or more time zones. Bottom line is you will feel jet lag regardless, but these tips should help your transition to the new time zone. They might become more important too if you're on vacation and want to maximize your time and well being in your new time zone.

Items to save money on and investing it in your health instead

Wed, 05 Nov 2025 18:30:20 GMT

Healths products to stop buying and what to buy instead

The way of life for a personal training is routinely getting told no because of cost. Hiring a personal trainers can range anywhere from $50 a hour to over $100 an hour. I've been a trainer for just shy of 4 years as of this writing. I have heard those words all too often. Now this article isn't to play the victim card or for people to sign up with me. But it is to help and show people where they could be saving money on health products and where to invest it for better health outcomes.

Supplements

First we are going to hit supplements. Now I wrote a previous article on supplements and why I think most are a waste of money. Which you can click here to read. Looking at the broader impacts on health, supplements don't move the needle a whole lot. Buying a $60 jug of protein powder for example isn't going to help and get most people healthier or in better shape. You'd be much better off buying steak and eating that instead. Alternatively, if you have a diagnosed condition from a Dr. and they say you need to supplement with a certain nutrient to improve this diagnoses, then yes the supplement will be the biggest impact on your health. The supplements I'm talking mostly about are the ones most gym bros push or supplement shops push for. Protein powders, pre workouts, BCAAs, collagen, glutamine, even most electrolyte powders aren't dosed properly. Doctors will push hard for supplements for specific reasons. On the flip side as well, if your doctor wants you take more Vitamin-D, then that really means go outside more in the midday sun. Or if they want you to take an iron supplement, beef liver has 82% of the daily recommended intake in one serving. So look hard at all of your supplements and see if there aren't cheaper alternatives nature offers that you could trade them out for.

Wireless Headphones

Next on the list I think will surprise most people. Wireless headphones to me are a gigantic waste of money and I know it isn't a health & wellness item they likely think of. But none the less, people are using discretionary income on them that could be used more appropriately on other products. Back in time I use to be the guy who had to have the $200 wireless Beats by Dre headphones. I've probably had 3 or 4 pairs of them in my life. I have since stopped and now I've chosen to buy and use Apple's $5 wired pairs.

Does that mean I'm insisting that bluetooth headphones are unhealthy? It really depends on what people mean by unhealthy. This study showed potential correlation between thyroid nodule growth and bluetooth headphone usage. This doesn't mean that the sky is falling and that if you've used bluetooth heads you're going to die of cancer tomorrow. But what it does say and mean is we need more time to study this technology and how it effects our biology. Removing wireless headphones from your daily routine won't get you out of bluetooth wavelengths, our phone, laptops, tablets, speakers, keyboards, mouses, etc. are all using it. All I'm going to argue is we shouldn't be cooking our brains with it regularly and having bluetooth technology that close to our brains. Instead you could take a more conservative approach and buy cheaper wired ones, save the money and invest that money in more useful places.

Sunglasses

The last item I put on the list is sunglasses. I know this one may offend people the most. Sunglasses have become and are a major fashion trend and are apart of people's personalities now. But the reason behind this one is simple. Light frequencies and brightness of light are key inputs to the body. The wrong wavelengths and brightness of light can really mess up ones circadian rhythm. If you read this study , you will see how blue light at the wrong time affects melatonin levels in saliva. Improper melatonin levels can lead to poor sleep quantity, and then sleep quality. These perpetuated over time can lead to gaining weight, poor mood, hormonal issues since melatonin is a hormone and more. Also I'll just throw in there too that we already don't spend enough time outside. So why should we block the sun from penetrating our eyes when we are inside most of the time anyway?

So to make your life more in tuned with day and night or dark and light. Ditch the $200 pair of Ray Bans. Embrace the brightness and full spectrum of the sun shining on you. This also isn't me advocating for you to stare at the sun either. That isn't good for you eyes. But what I am advocating for is your eyes to get the full spectrum of the sun as much as possible to help synch your circadian rhythm, help your body with hormonal timing and live the way your body was designed to be lived, which is not covering your eyes outside.

Where you should invest the money instead

To conclude, if you ditch your expensive sunglasses and bluetooth headphones, that could save you $400 by those two things alone. That's not mentioning ditching ridiculous supplements and health products you may have bought off of infomercials. But that $400 could go a lot longer way toward supporting your health. To name some of my top choices of repurposing the money, I would start with buying local food. Finding local farmers to sell you eggs, dairy, meat. If you can't find a farmer around, then try buying food from local farmers markets. It keeps the money more local and the food is going to be of a higher quality. Next, I would spend it on a good pair of nighttime blue light blockers like the study earlier mentioned. I personally recommend Bon Charge for blue blockers. I have nothing but good things to say about them. Lastly, investing in a quality personal trainer would be a great way to improve you strength, health, pain, posture, etc. You don't necessarily have to stick with the trainer for months. But a month of training sessions could go miles for you progress and overall health and fitness. Now there are other things you could obviously cut out of your life. But I think these are the easiest modalities to get rid of and reap the benefits of almost immediately.

Are Supplements that Important

Thu, 09 Oct 2025 19:56:24 GMT

Are Supplements Worth the Money?

The Council for Responsible Nutrition(CRN) surveyed people to estimate how many people take dietary supplements. According to their survey in 2023 74% of adults take supplements. So it is safe to say that most people spend money on supplements and they are apart of most individuals daily or weekly routine. But are they worth the money and do they actually make us healthier or improve our lives?

What are Supplements

A dietary supplement is a manufactured product to help fill in the gaps of dietary intake. Protein powders, protein bars, creatine, magnesium, fish oil, electrolytes, BCAAs, sleep supplements are some of the most mainstream and popular dietary supplements. Their purpose again is to fill in the gaps of what we aren't getting through regular dietary consumption. They are not supposed to be the focal point of our diet and health. They are simply there for added support.

This question is tricky to answer because there are a wide array of different supplements and on top of that different manufacturers. But the first thing you need to understand is that the 1994 Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act categorizes supplements as food and not as drugs or pharmaceuticals. This means that dietary supplements aren't held to the same standard that drugs are. Even more specifically, there isn't a pre-approval process for dietary supplements since they are labeled food. This doesn't mean that the FDA doesn't regulate them, there simply isn't a pre-approval process to test them before they go on the market. If there is a defect in a supplement, it won't be noticed till after it's been on the market and people have bought and consumed it.

Do they actually Work?

The short answer is it depends. It depends on your specific situation you're in and what supplement we are talking about. If you aren't deficient in a vitamin, mineral or nutrient then they probably won't work. You body is getting enough nutrients to support itself. If your body however isn't getting adequate amounts, then yes adding more in of that particular nutrient will help. But this is where it gets tricky. Not all supplements are what they say they are. Again going to back to the Supplement Act of 1994. They aren't tested before being put on the market. So not every supplement gets tested to see if it has what it says it has in it. However most if not all supplements can be found in whole foods or some other natural source. Like Vitamin-D, obviously the UV light from the sun starts the body's process of making it internally. Or protein, chicken breast has 25 grams per serving and will always have 25 grams per serving no matter where you are in the world. So the processing of supplements can make a difference on effectiveness.

Adding more to the conversation. We know as well that consuming these nutrients from whole foods and nature will always be better as well. Our body's have been consuming steak, eggs, chicken, fruits, vegetables, converting UV light to Vitamin-D for years. You can't convince me those sources won't be better 99% for 99% of people out there.

Conclusion

To sum things up and bring it all together. Supplements have their niche and area for helping people out. However, if someone needs to take a certain nutrient or supplement. That does not mean you need to go out and spend $100 a month on them. There is a cost effective and proficient way of going about this. My protocol is to find a way to fill in the gaps first with whole foods and nature itself. So, adding more meat to your diet for more protein. Need more Vitamin-C? Go out and buy more fruit and start eating a couple servings of fruit daily. Maybe your micronutrient consumption is low in general. How about looking at adding in a couple servings a week of organ meets to help with that.

The point is, supplements are man made and a system designed to make money from. Yes, there are some that can be worth it. But more times than not, rearranging your dietary intake, lifestyle and looking to nature can fix and fill those gaps you are missing.

Philosophy of Weight Loss

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 13:17:13 GMT

Philosophy of Weight Loss

According to the CDC, 74% of adults in the United States are overweight. That data or information is from 2020, most likely you could bump that number up a couple points now. Out of that group of people, most want to make changes and do something about it. Those people might be asking, where should they start and what information should they use to get the ball rolling and create a sustainable routine and lifestyle for weight loss? That is going to be the problem we tackle in this article. The philosophy of weight loss, where to start, how fast should you make changes along the way and what good progress looks like.

The categories of what causes weight loss are vast. Sleep contributes to weight loss. Moving your body and working out is a pillar of losing weight. Other internal mechanisms like hormones contribute to it as well, plus overall stress on your body plays a role too. So where should most people start with losing weight and when should they add things, change things and know when they are making enough progress?

Where to Start

The journey of being healthy and losing weight isn't a short immediate path like the show The Biggest Loser made you believe. It is a long gradual, hard journey people must take. So when starting your journey, small steps are the best to take early on. We want habits and systems put in place that will last a life time. Finding a small habit to adopt will lead to big changes in the beginning as well. This could be adding 50g of protein to your daily intake. Or walking for 15 minutes a day after breakfast, lunch and dinner. It could also look like working out at the gym for 1 hour a week at first. Once the first step happens your confidence should increase and give you the motivation to keep adding more and more appropriately to your life. But it can not be stressed enough, a small step is still progress. It might sound cliché, but you can lose 50lbs without losing one pound first.

Adding to your Life

After starting on your health journey and putting one foot on the path towards physical flourishing. You might be asking yourself when should I start adding more to my life. You may feel confident and comfortable with the first step you took and are ready for more. There are a couple different ways to approach this question. First, if you are someone who has tried losing weight for years and can never stay consistent. You want to make sure that the first step you took is a habit or is something that is set in stone and a foundation to build upon. The worst thing you can do is add 50g of protein to your day and then trying to add 20g of fiber in to only not do either of them and be back where you started. So if you are someone that struggles with consistency and discipline. Make sure your last stepping stone is glued in place.

On the other side of the coin, if you are someone who handles change and new things well, you have a couple of options. First, you can simply wait to add something else to your lifestyle until progress stalls for you. So maybe that progress is your body fat percentage not going down. Or the scale plateauing or you waist staying the same size. But you could ride out that first change as long as you still see progress. The other option is to add another change or habit into your life. You could add another day to your workout routine. Add more walks in your week. Work on fiber intake or daily water intake. Whatever it is, you could keep adding to your health journey as long as you don't make regressions with your habits and lifestyle.

Measuring Progress

Lastly we are going to touch on measuring progress. When losing weight or reducing body fat we want to look at a few different metrics. First obviously is how much you weigh. Now this measurement is a marker of progress but it doesn't particularly show us the whole picture. It only tells us our total weight. Not fat mass or fat free mass, but total weight. The other 2 metrics I recommend are body fat percentage and circumference measurements. Circumference measurements can easily be done by yourself at home. Body fat percentage is a little harder. Some scales have a body fat percentage metric on them. However, this can be wildly inaccurate and fluctuate quite a bit depending on water weight and when you've emptied your bladder last. For a more accurate body fat percentage test, use calipers to find your body fat percentage. Almost every big box gym or local gym has calipers available. You can ask a personal trainer to take your measurement for you.

Now to gauge good progress and know if things are still trending in the right direction. Only measure weight, circumference, body fat percentage at the most every other week. Any more frequent than that and the numbers will get into your head. Using these 3 metrics you'll get a clear picture of what is going on with your body. One metric may improve and the others may not. But all we are looking for is one of them to move. If you go a month without any moving even slightly then it is time to add to your journey and make more changes.

What are the most overlooked areas of weight loss

Mon, 22 Sep 2025 14:10:25 GMT

The most overlooked aspects of losing weight

Most people with a goal of weight loss, lose a few pounds at the beginning of their journey. Others keep the momentum going and lose weight for the first few months of their health journey. Some however aren't so fortunate. Their progress may stall after the first 5lbs comes off or after 10-20lbs of weight loss. No matter where you are at on your journey, if you have plateaued on the scale or around the waste line this article will discuss the aspects of weight loss you may be overlooking.

Losing weight isn't calories burned through exercise alone. Most people cling to this idea and typically it's cardio junkies. They think the more calories I burn during the workout the better off I am or the more weight I should lose. This isn't always the case. You need your body to be as healthy as possible to lose weight. You need to give it the environment to lose weight consistently. A scenario to picture is parents to a new born baby. Doesn't matter if you put yourself in the shoes of the mother or father. Both are losing massive amounts of sleep. Both have random and weird schedules while caring for the child. Their eating may not be the best food either because of time restraints, lack of energy or convenience. Nobody would disagree and think that this environment is the ideal environment to consistently lose weight.

Sleep

So what are some of these overlooked areas? First is sleep. Sleep may be the most important pillar of health we have. You can eat crappy food for a while and be fine or eat one meal a day and still be healthy. But go three nights in a row without sleep and you'll have big problems. So yes, shoot for eight uninterrupted hours of sleep every night. Make it a top priority to have a bed time routine everyday. That might look like reading for the last hour before bed. Or it could be taking a warm shower and keeping the lights off for the last hour. There are a lot of things you can do before bed to have a good night sleep. But sleep must be a priority.

Quality of Food

Next overlooked area is quality of food. From my experience a lot of people that want to lose weight run to counting calories first and tracking everything they eat. That isn't necessarily a bad thing, but people often overlook food quality when counting calories. Not to mention the rigidity of lifestyle this puts on someone. The mindset shift while people count is typically one of, "if it fits my calories and macros I can eat it". This misses the point when it comes to the environment you are putting your body in. Even if it is more calories I'd much rather people eat chicken, ribeye, eggs, milk, fruits, vegetables than drink or eat protein shakes. Or I would much rather them eat foods that are going to satisfy them rather than just fit their calorie's. Yes oreo's may fit into your macros but are they good for you? Same apply's for frozen processed meals They may fit your calories but a whole foods home cooked meal is going to be a better environment for your body to be regularly.

Circadian Health

Finally the last overlooked area of weight loss is your circadian rhythm. For those unfamiliar with the term, it is your body's 24 hour clock or cycle. This ties into the first two points we touched on earlier. Your body was meant to do certain things at certain times of day and be in a certain environment. It is not normal to eat a big meal at midnight. Or work grave yard shift jobs for years on end. It's also not normal to be on technology and bright screens right before bed when the sun has already set. Not adhering to your body's normal circadian functions can make weight loss hard. Another way to picture circadian health is routines you put your body in. If you can wake up and go to sleep on a regular schedule and not jet lag yourself this does wonders for your body. It creates rythem within it's 24 hour cycle and this will time up things better. Your sleep will improve because your body knows when it is time for bed and time to be awake and alert. Or your body will know it's time to wake up and move and it can get your body into a state of ready to workout easier. The bottom line is try to create routines that you can do on a daily basis that won't screw up your internal clock.

Conclusion

Now these three overlooked avenues won't fix everyone's problems. But it will take a lot of people pretty far down their health journey. If you currently don't do any of these points we talked about, start with one and only work on that till it is a habit. Typically they say a habit takes a month to form. So work on one of these points till it's been a month in a row. Then add the next one do the the same thing. Then the next and so on and so forth. If you have comments about any of them, email me at chase.wenzl@uncivilized-wellness.com. Otherwise hopefully these tips help you break that plateau.

The GLP-1 Takeover

Fri, 05 Sep 2025 15:43:52 GMT

The GLP-1 Takeover

Most people by now are aware or familiar with GLP-1s and their widespread use in society. To give some examples, Ozempic, Mounjaro, Zepbound are all GLP-1s. A majority of people can either name someone they know taking one or they themselves are on one. For the small percentage of people that don't know what a GLP-1 is, it is a peptide taken through an injection once a week to induce weight loss via appetite suppression. Out of all the weight loss drugs that are legal and I have seen in my training career, this drug is by far the most effective one.

Now, my stance on GLP-1's is pretty reasonable. I think in certain circumstances, with the right super vision and guidance, a GLP-1 can be beneficial. But I think we are about to see an explosion over the next 5-10 years of people taking it that don't necessarily need to. What I mean by that is, kids, teenagers, women postpartum, retired athletes, politicians are going to be taking this to lose weight. Again I think this drug has certain uses and certain benefits for the right people. But we should also be aware of unearned wisdom from this drug.

How can it be good for mass amounts of society to take GLP-1s and lose 20-30lbs without doing anything for it? What will the consequences be for not establishing better relationships with food? Or having a healthier lifestyle in general? To think of some side effects of this drug, I would start with how weak it could potentially make the population. Losing weight rapidly with no strength training guarantees that you will lose muscle along the way. So instead of a fat and weak society, we'll be a skinny and weak society. Sure we will solve some health issues but trade them in for others like osteoporosis. Other side effects to mention are perhaps behaviorally. To lose weight or build muscle and strength there has to be self sacrifice. Without it you can't do either of those. What will this drug do to the masses if we never learn self sacrifice. Or don't learn what to sacrifice in order to be fit and healthy?

The reason I decided to write this blog came from a commercial I saw recently on TV. The company running the advertisement was Ro. This ad was focused around GLP-1s through them. It also touted its ease of use, effectiveness, results and the biggest part of all it was pushed by Serena Williams. Serena was the focal point of the ad and she explained how it helped her lose 30lbs while being on it. This is why I wrote this blog. GLP-1s are slowly getting pushed to everyone from all angles now. It feels like it could be the new Subway ad with all the athletes they have promoting Subway.

Now Serena is a retired world class tennis player. She's made millions of dollars in her career and worked out for a living for over 20 years. Why does she need to go on the medication to lose just 20-30lbs? That seems ridiculous to me. You're telling me there is no trainer that couldn't help her lose those 20lbs? Not to mention, but are we also going to take her at her word for doing everything right to lose weight? In my experience everyone that has thought they're doing all the right things is missing something. It might be food related, hormones, sleep, you name it. So, beware of unearned wisdom and beware of how company's, advertisements and celebrities are going to push and make this drug the most mainstream of drugs to take over the next five years.

Signs & Symptoms you are over training

Sat, 30 Aug 2025 15:52:11 GMT

Signs & Symptoms you are over training

People striving to be healthy and fit know they need to move their body on a regular basis. That might mean they, lift weights, walk, run, play recreational sports or a combination of them. But most people don't know when exercise becomes detrimental and they are doing too much.

If you're just getting into a routine of exercise or you've tried to be consistent with exercise for years this article isn't for you. This blog will be directed toward people that never break routines in the gym. These people also may not be able to take a week off when they go on vacation either. They always have to be exercising no matter the situation.

So when is enough enough? What are the signs that you're doing too much exercise? The first major sign is performance. Whether it's the amount of weight you can normally lift while performing an exercise or how fast your minute per mile pace is. When your performance during certain exercise declines, this is your body telling you "we can't adapt to the stress anymore". You need more rest and or less stress on your body to get it to adapt to the stress you're placing on it.

Another sign is your daily energy. Everyone should have a baseline energy level that they are accustomed to during the week. Now this is relative to your individual situation. But everyone has a baseline. If this baseline drops below what you would consider normal that is another sign of overtraining. Essentially your body is always in a state of stress and trying to adapt to it. It can't even get back to baseline because of how much exercise you're giving your body.

The last sign we're going to talk about when it comes to overtraining are reoccurring soft tissue injuries. Now there could be other things going on under the hood to cause injuries. But if you check this box and a box or two from above then you're definitely over training. This sign could range from hamstring pulls to constant tendonitis in certain tendons or constant joint aches. Bottom line is over working your body could be why you're always hurting muscles and joints.

Introductory Blog

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 14:55:22 GMT

Welcome to the Uncivilized Perspective: Rethinking Health and Fitness

Welcome to the very first post on the Uncivilized Perspective blog. I’m glad you’re here.

This blog is here for one main reason: to challenge the way we think about health and fitness . The name Uncivilized Performance & Wellness reflects exactly that.

Why “Uncivilized”?

To me, “uncivilized” means having the courage to keep an open mind and to question the so-called “truths” we’re told by “the experts”. Too often, we accept conventional health advice without asking why. Here, I want to dig deeper, think critically, and explore alternative perspectives backed by curiosity and evidence.

What You Can Expect

On this blog, I’ll share fresh ideas and thought-provoking questions about all things health and wellness.

For example, you’ve probably heard the advice to limit sodium intake to 1.5 grams per day. But what if that guideline doesn’t apply in all situations?

In the summer, when we sweat more and lose sodium, shouldn’t we replace what’s lost?
When we’re more active, sodium helps signal our nervous system—don’t we want enough to support optimal function?

These are the kinds of topics we’ll explore together, questioning mainstream narratives, considering context, and rethinking the “one-size-fits-all” health rules.

A Space for Discussion

This isn’t just a platform for my ideas; it’s a conversation. I welcome your questions, challenges, and even disagreements. If you think I’ve got something wrong, let’s talk about it. That’s how we learn and grow.

Let’s Think Differently About Health

If you’ve made it this far, thank you. I hope this is just the beginning of your journey here. There’s much more to come, and I’m excited to share, learn, and evolve with you.

Stay curious. Stay “uncivilized.”

The Uncivilized Perspective

How to Order your Exercises

How to structure & order your strength training routine

Don't be fooled by hybrid athletes

Don't be fooled by hybrid athletes

Why you don't deserve to reach your fitness goals

Why you don't deserve to reach your fitness goals

The Right Body Part Split for 90% of Peopl;e

The Right Body Part Split for 90% of People

Exercise Snacks

How to intertwine movement into your white collar job

Why you Shouldn't Chase Soreness in the Gym

Why you Shouldn't Chase Muscle Soreness in the Gym

Lifting Weights with the Right Amount of Intensity

Weight Training with the Right Amount of Intensity

How to Interpret the New Food Pyramid

How to Interpret the New Food Pyramid

What to do if your strength plateaus?

Top 3 Reasons Your Strength has Plateaued.

New Years Resolutions

A Thought on New Year's Resolutions and setting goals

Why tracking Strength is the most important metric in the gym

Why STRENGTH is the best metric to track in your fitness journey

Winning the Weekends

Winning the Weekend's

Navigating Eating around the Holidays

Navigating Food Around the Holidays

Tips for recovering from jet lag

How to recover from jet lag ﻿

Items to save money on and investing it in your health instead

Healths products to stop buying and what to buy instead ﻿

Are Supplements that Important

Are Supplements Worth the Money?

Philosophy of Weight Loss

Philosophy of Weight Loss ﻿

What are the most overlooked areas of weight loss

The most overlooked aspects of losing weight ﻿

The GLP-1 Takeover

The GLP-1 Takeover

Signs & Symptoms you are over training

Signs & Symptoms you are over training

Introductory Blog

Welcome to the Uncivilized Perspective: Rethinking Health and Fitness

How to recover from jet lag

Healths products to stop buying and what to buy instead

Philosophy of Weight Loss

The most overlooked aspects of losing weight