You've waited patiently for the payoff. Like a teenage boy watching an entire full length movie on Skinamax back in the 90s waiting patiently for just for a glimpse of cleavage... Now is the moment you've been waiting for: my take on the 25 new Tonal moves. [cigarette in mouth] Hold on to your butts: (Name the movie for bonus points.) The Scoreboard 🔥 Must-try: Suitcase Bulgarian Split Squat, Suitcase Split Squat, Kickstand RDL, Bodyweight Good Morning 👍 Solid adds: Barbell Back Squat,...
4 days ago • 9 min read
If you haven't seen the BIG news... Tonal dropped 25 new exercises last week. The "hero" of the new moves pack is the Barbell Back Squat, which people have been requesting since I first started with Tonal many years ago. Here's the official post from Jenna of Tonal's Content & Performance Team posted on Reddit. Credit where credit is due. This is a great update, Tonal users are celebrating across the board, and my clients are pumped. In the post, Jenna walks through a rigorous 5-part process...
11 days ago • 5 min read
Read Time: ~3 minutes I made a reel recently comparing the Tonal spotter to a half-drunk frat boy eyeing the girl on the stair-stepper in short shorts. Like the frat boy, it barely pays attention to what you're doing. Then it kicks in, if you're lucky. And only if you know to engage it by coming to a complete stop. Then, the second you get the rep up, it vanishes again like a fart in the wind. No human spotter in a gym works that way. They don't wait for the bar to stop moving before stepping...
about 2 months ago • 3 min read
6:47 PM. My son is mid-meltdown. He's overtired, doesn't want his bottle, and needs a diaper change. Dishes from dinner are still stacked in the sink. I've got 3 client check-ins I haven't answered and an Instagram post I promised myself I'd finish tonight. I haven't called my dad in two days and a tornado just touched down on the South Side of Chicago with 100mph winds. And I have dozens of unanswered text messages. Welcome to being a dad. A husband. A business owner. A son. A friend. And,...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Read Time: 2 min 🦵 Fix Your Resisted Step Up (Before Your Knee Does It For You) Do you have knee pain or are you wobbling like a drunken frat boy at a kegger during the Resisted Step Up on Tonal? (I was always at the math lab or the library so I wouldn't know what that's like. 📚🤓) Two quick fixes. Plus a bonus most people miss entirely. ✅ Fix 1: Your setup. Drop your balance foot back into a split stance, then lean your torso forward. This loads your hamstring and glute before you drive up,...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
There are some exercises that are objectively better on Tonal than in a gym. Take the Barbell Hip Thrust. In a normal gym, this move mostly hits your glutes in the shortened, contracted position at the top. There is very little resistance on your glutes in the lengthened position at the bottom of the movement. That's it. That's the exercise. But on Tonal, you can do it with Chains Mode one week to build strength in that shortened position... Then switch to Eccentric Mode the next week to load...
2 months ago • 2 min read
⏱️ Read time: 7 min Back in January, I was up in Breckenridge snowboarding with a few buddies. I had a little Rabbit Hole Dareringer from a flask on the mountain, then an Old Fashioned or two with dinner. (My buddy, who's from Louisville, swears real bourbon only comes from Kentucky.) Four drinks total by the end of the day. Four drinks. The same number as Torrey Pines. But Torrey Pines left me hungover, skipping a workout, and writing an entire email about how I overate by 3,800 calories in...
2 months ago • 9 min read
"Can you actually build muscle on Tonal? I mean, the same way you can build muscle in a gym?" This was a question I got from a prospect over the phone yesterday. I told him exactly what he wanted to hear: no. "You cannot build muscle on Tonal the same way you can in the gym." He was ready to sound the alarm and start a parade. 🥳 Finally, someone had said it. All his fears realized, his dreams dashed, but his excuses now had validity. He was triumphantly right! 🏆 It wasn't his fault he didn't...
2 months ago • 2 min read
⏱️ Read time: 7 min If you didn't read last weeks email... I talked about how my "pretty good" weekend cost me 3,800 calories. 👉🏻 Read the full article here. Here's a few high-level take-aways for those C students in the class that missed it: Alcohol isn't the bomb. It's the fuse. Tracking 5 perfect days a week is still a C- grade. A "pretty good" untracked weekend can quietly cost you 3,800+ calories. Tracking the ugly days is worth 10x more than tracking the perfect ones. I had a few...
3 months ago • 6 min read
I've coached thousands of clients on Tonal. Funny enough, the question I get most isn't about programming, progressive overload, technique, or even nutrition. It's "Coach, which accessories should I actually buy?" Fair question, because some of these are genuine game-changers, some are nice-to-haves, and some will collect dust next to your ThighMaster. So I ranked every single one, S tier to F tier, so you can spend your money where it matters. Quick key: S = game-changer A = excellent B =...
3 months ago • 5 min read