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Alyssa Olenick, PhD

M.S., CISSN, PH.D. – EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY

Alyssa is an Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. She is known for her high energy and sassy approach to bringing science to your training in a no-nonsense way. Alyssa has helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, or even do both.

Alyssa Olenick, PhD

M.S., CISSN, PH.D. – EXERCISE PHYSIOLOGY

Alyssa is an Exercise Physiologist, sports nutritionist, weight lifter, and ultra runner. She is known for her high energy and sassy approach to bringing science to your training in a no-nonsense way. Alyssa has helped thousands of women crush big lifting goals, cross race finish lines, or even do both.

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Zone 2 cardio is all the rage — and while I’ve

Zone 2 cardio is all the rage — and while I’ve been talking about cardio zones for years — the recent attention it’s gained has sparked a lot of … ehhmmmm — frustration.

WHY is it so hard?
WHY does your heart rate spike so high?
Will you ever get better at it?
Does it even matter?
When should you chill the heck out about it?
And more 😉

NOOWW — now listen I have HEARD you loud and clear in my comment sections and as promised — if you don’t yell at the messenger — I shall deliver the science & help you out. And that’s exactly what I did in this weeks YouTube video / podcast episode.

Comment YOUTUBE below for a link (you must be following me to comment FYI) and I’ll send ya a DM with it! 💪🏻🤘🏻. Do me a favor? If you found it helpful hit that SUBSCRIBE button because we have a lot of goodness coming the next few months to the YouTube and the pod 🎉😎

What’s the MOST-least you can do? // A lot of pe

What’s the MOST-least you can do? // A lot of people (me included) talk about “minimums” and having a bare minimum fall back of what you can do and is feesible for you and your life.

And while I love that — I also love what I call the MOST least you can do. This isn’t cutting back because you’re sandbagging your training. Because you still have goals. But sometimes life DOES happen. And instead of also throwing it all away and doing nothing — I try to do the most least I can do.

This means pushing hard and moving weight and giving my all in every session, but especially the weeks I have to pull back a day. It means my main goals sometimes now are running so I need to plan to get in miles over more days lifting or are lifting so need the lifts more— but KNOW my body needs consistency in both too, to reach my goals.

I’m doing the MOST I can under the circumstances I am facing. Not my bare minimum. But the most least I can do.

But the same rules may apply to you if you’re consistently failing to get in all your workouts or training because of what you think you “should be able to do”. Instead of asking: what can I do? This can still be your “most least”, you can still work really hard and make progress. But it also can factor in your life or things being harder in a season.

Sometimes more > something > nothing. Sometimes we do need to do specific work. But sometimes we need to not set ourself up as a failure on our brain because of an unrealistic expectation we have set.

The last year and a half has been chaos for me. But this approach is why I’m still making progress and moving forward.

I’m not a failure for only lifting 2x/week this past month. Im also not a failure because I “only” lift 3x/week on a normal week. Im fit and strong and capable — because I show up without the drama that im failing otherwise. Im succeeding because im doing my most least. And you can too 💪🏻🫶🏻

🚨HELP— ZONES 2 IS HARD! Yes yes yes I know,

🚨HELP— ZONES 2 IS HARD! Yes yes yes I know, keeping your heart rate down, easy cardio or running feels impooossssible.

So why is it so hard?
What do you do to make it easier?
How can you get better at it?
What to do if your heart rate is always spiking?
When should you worry or care about this?

👉🏻 Giving away a free copy of my zones mini guide to someone who heads to my YouTube to watch, subscribes and comments on this week’s zone 2 video!

All this and more today answered on my YouTube video — comment YOUTUBE below for a link sent directly to your DM inbox! 🚀👇🏻

“How should I lift if I feel I am strong enough” — a DM I just got and an important topic that comes up with resistance training.⁣
When is it enough? Can I stop?

Heres’s the thing-- the things you did to get muscular & strong are going to be the things you must keep doing to maintain this.

Now this isn't me saying we have to train like elite lifters forever. Or sustain what we did in our early lifting infatuation days forever.

I get it, I got really dang strong then decided I didn't need to be stronger than that to do the job things I wanted to do. But I made that decision with impressive lifting numbers & a FFMI of 23, not any sooner. And I still train the same way I did to get where I am.

The only good news is gaining is harder than maintaining. Lean into your infatuation, early gym PR chasing stage. Then maintain that progress when life is busy, we get older & life happens with less. Then pivot back again to keep challenging your body with strength across your life!

Train to increase your body’s lean mass — you can even use something like the FFMI (fat free mass index) as an indirect way to see how much muscle you have vs relative body mass. Most of us (well maybe not me and my beefcakes … but im still training for it 😂🤔) can benefit from more quality lean mass / muscle 💪🏻!

Most people — aka 80% of you reading this (well maybe not this following 😉) don’t meet these guidelines for strength. Or 90% or you would benefit in some way from more strength or muscle. Or will 10-50 years from now.

There are endless ways to lift + train if you’re bored with your routine.

But keep training!

Strength is never a weakness.
💪🏻 Doc Lyss

The most optimal thing you can do is to meet physi

The most optimal thing you can do is to meet physical activity guidelines. Truly-- That’s it.⁣
Low levels of physical activity is a “panini of its own” some can say. The thing is — most people know exercise is good for them. We don’t need to drill this into their heads more.

But helping others AND ourselves with grace move more in was that seem practical is where we start!

I share this mostly as we approach the holiday season. It’s okay to feel the need to “do less”, but we don’t want to “do nothing.” The best thing you can do is whatever lets you do what needs done.

If you’re not working out at all and group fitness is the only thing that gets you out the door go do it.

If you’re a runner who knows they need to lift but refuses to touch a weight then by all means do what you can with a band + your body.

If your new to running and sprinting through all your runs is what gets you going then do that.

No ones saying to train irresponsibly. But simply reduce whatever barrier is stopping you from moving more. If that’s a 30 min pre lift mobility routine, an unnecessarily long warmup, or too many accessory sets. Cut it.

Maybe not forever.
Maybe for a season.
Or even a week.

Yes “discipline is important”.
& yes there are more optimal ways to do things.
But these often come secondary to actually … getting started. Doing the thing.

You don’t have to start as a perfectly macro counting 4x/week lifter with an ideal split and perfect understanding of RPE.

You’re allowed to start however you need to + learn along the way.

The most important thing we need to do is simply move.
Make this as easy as possible for you to do if it feels like an impossible task.

You’ve got this 👊🏻♥️

Is your CrossFit metcon, metcon style workout, or

Is your CrossFit metcon, metcon style workout, or cross training …. Cardio or lifting? Can it be both? Is it both?

Let’s break it down — 👇🏻

Our body creates energy for exercise using a variety of energy systems that either use or don’t use oxygen to break down carbs or fat into energy so we can move. Specific workouts or types of exercise typically fall along this spectrum — but it isn’t really turning on / off — as we’re using all energy systems all the time just in varying degrees.

If you’re doing more true CrossFit workouts in nature they are likely going to fall somewhere on the spectrum of being more anaerobic (using less oxygen) or more aerobic (using oxygen). This will depend on the duration of the workout, cardio components in the workout, and lifting components of it. All of theses workouts WILL require an underlying aerobic fitness to help you recover and sustain these intensities within it, and your fitness status and how hard you do these may also impact this too.

But well programmed CrossFit style or metcon using programs will change the goal or intensity or duration or focus of a workout across a week. However, may still neglect true mono-structural (single mode) classic cardio activities that are important for traditional cardio fitness. This doesn’t mean that there is NO cardio benefit, it is likely fine for meeting baseline cardio needs if not exceeding them. But isn’t the same adaptation as say, a few zone 2 workouts each week.

This is due to the way heart rate decouples with oxygen consumption with exercise. So your WHOOP band HR may say you’re at 180 BPM, but you’re exercising at 40% VO2 max. Doesn’t make it bad — anaerobic / muscular endurance style workouts are hard! Just not “strict cardio”.

So you may need to or want to add in some boring old cardio in your routine too to help your running performance, intra WOD recovery, or even work output.

& when it comes to most group fitness classes — they’re usually mostly under loaded “lifting” cardio.

This is exactly what we have for you in TLM with weekly metcon, aerobic conditioning & zone 2 cardio options to blend across the week, WITH progressive lifting too 💪🏻🎉.

Zone 2 cardio is all the rage — and while I’ve

Zone 2 cardio is all the rage — and while I’ve been talking about cardio zones for years — the recent attention it’s gained has sparked a lot of … ehhmmmm — frustration.

WHY is it so hard?
WHY does your heart rate spike so high?
Will you ever get better at it?
Does it even matter?
When should you chill the heck out about it?
And more 😉

NOOWW — now listen I have HEARD you loud and clear in my comment sections and as promised — if you don’t yell at the messenger — I shall deliver the science & help you out. And that’s exactly what I did in this weeks YouTube video / podcast episode.

Comment YOUTUBE below for a link (you must be following me to comment FYI) and I’ll send ya a DM with it! 💪🏻🤘🏻. Do me a favor? If you found it helpful hit that SUBSCRIBE button because we have a lot of goodness coming the next few months to the YouTube and the pod 🎉😎

What’s the MOST-least you can do? // A lot of pe

What’s the MOST-least you can do? // A lot of people (me included) talk about “minimums” and having a bare minimum fall back of what you can do and is feesible for you and your life.

And while I love that — I also love what I call the MOST least you can do. This isn’t cutting back because you’re sandbagging your training. Because you still have goals. But sometimes life DOES happen. And instead of also throwing it all away and doing nothing — I try to do the most least I can do.

This means pushing hard and moving weight and giving my all in every session, but especially the weeks I have to pull back a day. It means my main goals sometimes now are running so I need to plan to get in miles over more days lifting or are lifting so need the lifts more— but KNOW my body needs consistency in both too, to reach my goals.

I’m doing the MOST I can under the circumstances I am facing. Not my bare minimum. But the most least I can do.

But the same rules may apply to you if you’re consistently failing to get in all your workouts or training because of what you think you “should be able to do”. Instead of asking: what can I do? This can still be your “most least”, you can still work really hard and make progress. But it also can factor in your life or things being harder in a season.

Sometimes more > something > nothing. Sometimes we do need to do specific work. But sometimes we need to not set ourself up as a failure on our brain because of an unrealistic expectation we have set.

The last year and a half has been chaos for me. But this approach is why I’m still making progress and moving forward.

I’m not a failure for only lifting 2x/week this past month. Im also not a failure because I “only” lift 3x/week on a normal week. Im fit and strong and capable — because I show up without the drama that im failing otherwise. Im succeeding because im doing my most least. And you can too 💪🏻🫶🏻

🚨HELP— ZONES 2 IS HARD! Yes yes yes I know,

🚨HELP— ZONES 2 IS HARD! Yes yes yes I know, keeping your heart rate down, easy cardio or running feels impooossssible.

So why is it so hard?
What do you do to make it easier?
How can you get better at it?
What to do if your heart rate is always spiking?
When should you worry or care about this?

👉🏻 Giving away a free copy of my zones mini guide to someone who heads to my YouTube to watch, subscribes and comments on this week’s zone 2 video!

All this and more today answered on my YouTube video — comment YOUTUBE below for a link sent directly to your DM inbox! 🚀👇🏻

“How should I lift if I feel I am strong enough” — a DM I just got and an important topic that comes up with resistance training.⁣
When is it enough? Can I stop?

Heres’s the thing-- the things you did to get muscular & strong are going to be the things you must keep doing to maintain this.

Now this isn't me saying we have to train like elite lifters forever. Or sustain what we did in our early lifting infatuation days forever.

I get it, I got really dang strong then decided I didn't need to be stronger than that to do the job things I wanted to do. But I made that decision with impressive lifting numbers & a FFMI of 23, not any sooner. And I still train the same way I did to get where I am.

The only good news is gaining is harder than maintaining. Lean into your infatuation, early gym PR chasing stage. Then maintain that progress when life is busy, we get older & life happens with less. Then pivot back again to keep challenging your body with strength across your life!

Train to increase your body’s lean mass — you can even use something like the FFMI (fat free mass index) as an indirect way to see how much muscle you have vs relative body mass. Most of us (well maybe not me and my beefcakes … but im still training for it 😂🤔) can benefit from more quality lean mass / muscle 💪🏻!

Most people — aka 80% of you reading this (well maybe not this following 😉) don’t meet these guidelines for strength. Or 90% or you would benefit in some way from more strength or muscle. Or will 10-50 years from now.

There are endless ways to lift + train if you’re bored with your routine.

But keep training!

Strength is never a weakness.
💪🏻 Doc Lyss

The most optimal thing you can do is to meet physi

The most optimal thing you can do is to meet physical activity guidelines. Truly-- That’s it.⁣
Low levels of physical activity is a “panini of its own” some can say. The thing is — most people know exercise is good for them. We don’t need to drill this into their heads more.

But helping others AND ourselves with grace move more in was that seem practical is where we start!

I share this mostly as we approach the holiday season. It’s okay to feel the need to “do less”, but we don’t want to “do nothing.” The best thing you can do is whatever lets you do what needs done.

If you’re not working out at all and group fitness is the only thing that gets you out the door go do it.

If you’re a runner who knows they need to lift but refuses to touch a weight then by all means do what you can with a band + your body.

If your new to running and sprinting through all your runs is what gets you going then do that.

No ones saying to train irresponsibly. But simply reduce whatever barrier is stopping you from moving more. If that’s a 30 min pre lift mobility routine, an unnecessarily long warmup, or too many accessory sets. Cut it.

Maybe not forever.
Maybe for a season.
Or even a week.

Yes “discipline is important”.
& yes there are more optimal ways to do things.
But these often come secondary to actually … getting started. Doing the thing.

You don’t have to start as a perfectly macro counting 4x/week lifter with an ideal split and perfect understanding of RPE.

You’re allowed to start however you need to + learn along the way.

The most important thing we need to do is simply move.
Make this as easy as possible for you to do if it feels like an impossible task.

You’ve got this 👊🏻♥️

Is your CrossFit metcon, metcon style workout, or

Is your CrossFit metcon, metcon style workout, or cross training …. Cardio or lifting? Can it be both? Is it both?

Let’s break it down — 👇🏻

Our body creates energy for exercise using a variety of energy systems that either use or don’t use oxygen to break down carbs or fat into energy so we can move. Specific workouts or types of exercise typically fall along this spectrum — but it isn’t really turning on / off — as we’re using all energy systems all the time just in varying degrees.

If you’re doing more true CrossFit workouts in nature they are likely going to fall somewhere on the spectrum of being more anaerobic (using less oxygen) or more aerobic (using oxygen). This will depend on the duration of the workout, cardio components in the workout, and lifting components of it. All of theses workouts WILL require an underlying aerobic fitness to help you recover and sustain these intensities within it, and your fitness status and how hard you do these may also impact this too.

But well programmed CrossFit style or metcon using programs will change the goal or intensity or duration or focus of a workout across a week. However, may still neglect true mono-structural (single mode) classic cardio activities that are important for traditional cardio fitness. This doesn’t mean that there is NO cardio benefit, it is likely fine for meeting baseline cardio needs if not exceeding them. But isn’t the same adaptation as say, a few zone 2 workouts each week.

This is due to the way heart rate decouples with oxygen consumption with exercise. So your WHOOP band HR may say you’re at 180 BPM, but you’re exercising at 40% VO2 max. Doesn’t make it bad — anaerobic / muscular endurance style workouts are hard! Just not “strict cardio”.

So you may need to or want to add in some boring old cardio in your routine too to help your running performance, intra WOD recovery, or even work output.

& when it comes to most group fitness classes — they’re usually mostly under loaded “lifting” cardio.

This is exactly what we have for you in TLM with weekly metcon, aerobic conditioning & zone 2 cardio options to blend across the week, WITH progressive lifting too 💪🏻🎉.

Live It Up With Me On The ‘Gram

@doclyssfitness

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