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In this episode I’m chatting with Heather Nasella, a certified personal trainer and expert homeschooler (she’s been at it for almost a decade!)
Heather Nasella is not just a personal trainer, she is an expert at creating an effective home workout space and strategy for women who either can’t get to a gym or simply prefer the convenience and privacy of home workouts.
She shares how she started working out at home, how she turned that practice into a virtual personal training business, showing other moms how to create the space in their home, and their lives, for life-changing fitness.
Links to Products Mentioned:
- Basic set of Resistance Bands for strength training (Amazon Affilliate link)
- An adjustable barbell/dumbbell weight set (Amazon Affilliate link)
- The Bowflex Select tech adjustable dumbbell upgrade when we decided to create a home gym (Amazon Affiliate link)
Interview Transcript with Heather Nasella, Personal Trainer
The idea, though, that self-care, and a lot of people have a mindset that self-care is selfish, which it’s not, right? So if people start to think that self-care includes activities that are extra, or things you’re doing extra to make, you know, to take care of yourself, this is not extra. This should be basic.
I’m Laurie Mallon, and this is the Results Without Restriction podcast, the show where results have nothing to do with weight and everything to do with setting and reaching health and fitness goals that focus on what we’re achieving and not what we’re losing.
We’ll talk about deprogramming from diet culture and get expert advice on reclaiming your relationship with food and movement. Join me on this journey to get Results Without Restriction.
Welcome, everyone….I am here with Heather Nasella, who is an A-certified personal trainer. She’s a wife, she’s a mom, and she is a homeschooler. And get this, she homeschooled long before COVID was even a thing.And in my eyes, she is the expert on working out at home and creating a home workout space and program. So today, that is exactly what she is going to talk to us about. Welcome, Heather.
Thank you.
We have a lot to work through today because with the last year, I think a lot of us transitioned to working out at home or having to having to work out at home or having to figure out our our fitness situation in a space that wasn’t a gym. And it was a challenge.
And I think a lot of us kind of struggled with that. I know I did, but you were a huge help during that process. So again, thank you.But we’re going to get into that in a little bit about how we transitioned to that. Everybody works out at home situation in a little bit. But first, I kind of want to go back.
Why don’t you tell us a little bit about your fitness journey or your journey and how you became a personal trainer?
Sure. So honestly, I kind of started my like working out at home. It’s been I think I’ve exclusively worked out at home now for about 10 years, maybe just over 10 years.And I had at the time I had had my second child and I had had two babies within two years. And the idea of going to a gym was just not happening. And there are so many reasons why I knew I wasn’t going to get to a gym.
But I knew I needed to do something. I think for me, I just had felt I felt already felt frustrated and stuck and kind of like compiling onto that the idea of having to go to a gym.
It just made me feel like it wasn’t even possible.
And like nothing can make you feel more defeated than when you just think like you have no options. So I knew that trying to find a way to work out at home was probably the only way I was going to get moving. So I actually started out not even so let me back up over the years, I had always struggled with my weight.
And I had kind of done the same thing everybody does. You go all or nothing, you work out hard, you change your diet, you get nowhere, you get frustrated, you stop, you start again.
This had to be different for me because I was already with two babies.I didn’t want the extra stress of trying to figure out what I was eating. Was I working out enough? Was I doing the right program? So honestly, I just kind of started. I had no goal in mind other than to just start moving.
And so that’s exactly what I did. I picked a program and I just said, I’m just going to finish it. Whatever it takes, I’m just going to finish it.And that’s just kind of how I started the whole process at working out at home. I didn’t have a lot of equipment. I started with just body weight exercises, and I just built upon them from there.
Interestingly enough, what actually kind of changed for me in terms of being able to continue to progress working out at home is one of these times I was holding a plank during one of my exercises, and they wanted me to hold it longer. And all I could think of is like, oh my gosh, all I want to do is put my knees down. I’m so done.
I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m tired. I hurt.
And then I asked myself, can I hold it five more seconds? And then when I did, I asked myself again, I’m like, what about five more seconds longer? And I’m telling you that moment kind of changed everything for me. It didn’t matter what I was doing, where I was working out. And I just knew that I just wanted to be proud of myself.
And that’s kind of what has compelled me to continue on that feeling of being proud. I stopped worrying about anything else. And it was that moment that I also realized I wanted to help other women feel that same way.
And that’s when I decided to become a personal trainer. I hadn’t even finished my journey yet. And all I knew is, oh my gosh, I want every woman to feel exactly what I’m feeling right now.Hey, wait a second. Wait, you didn’t finish your journey? Have you already finished your journey? Is there an end to the journey? There’s never an end to the journey. Right.
That’s like a dangling carrot that I think a lot of us kind of fall into the trap of thinking like there’s a before and there’s an after, there’s a beginning and there’s an end. And there’s really just, there’s a then and there’s a now and then there’s like, what’s going to happen? There’s never an end. And I do. I agree. I think everybody kind of thinks that there’s going to be an end.
Your goals shift and change as you go. And it’s a, it’s just changing your lifestyle. Like the whole idea of exercising or becoming fit or gaining muscle, whatever your goal might be, is it’s a lifestyle. It’s how you’re going to live your life forever.
I started out by wanting to lose weight. Like everybody else, I think that’s why we all start. And I don’t remember exactly how far into it it was, but I stopped weighing myself.
I mean, years ago, I didn’t care what the scale said. The only time I saw it was when I went to the doctors. And honestly, I’m like, I don’t care.I really honestly didn’t care because I stood there just like so proud of what I had found out I was capable of doing. Maybe it was lifting a certain weight. Maybe it was walking a certain distance, completing a much harder workout than I thought I was going to be able to do
.It was just this feeling of just being proud. It didn’t matter to me anymore what the number on the scale was. Doesn’t matter what size clothes I wear.
I just feel good. So it was more about the accomplishment, really, than the appearance. Yes, absolutely.It just shifted somewhere along the lines. And that’s why I’m saying it’s never over because I never in a million years would have thought that that’s where I would end up. Everybody thinks they start out, you know, maybe they start out to lose weight.
Once they lose the weight, then they just go back to some different life. But that’s not how it is. Everything is just always changing.
Everything’s a learning process. And you just kind of live and adjust as you go. So one of your transformations, then, was a mindset shift in the reason for your workouts and the purpose of your of your movement was more about giving you this feeling of a kind you started chasing I imagine you started chasing like that high of look what I look what I can do now.
Absolutely. Yes. I mean, now I hike, you know, that I never in a million years would have thought I probably would have ever attempted to do and I do I chase that feeling of accomplishment and it’s something as simple as I walked this morning for 45 minutes or I hiked a mountain.It doesn’t matter what it is.
When I’m done with it, I’m just like, Hey, I just did that. Like, I’m really proud of myself. And it’s definitely that accomplishment feeling.
So we get to the point now you become a personal trainer, and you want to start helping other women have kind of the same mindset shift instead of like focusing on weight, but we’re focusing on what you can achieve.
How do you find that most of your clients, when they come to you, they have they want one thing, how hard is it to convince your clients to kind of focus on on something shift their focus to something different.Sometimes I think that if I was just to come out and tell them they’re not going to listen to me, I know that it’s more along the lines of kind of being their inner voice without them thinking that that’s what’s happening.
So, if they come to me, and they’re like, Oh, I feel really good. I did this, or I finished this workout. I’m like, Hey, that’s great. Congratulations. Like, you should be so proud of yourself, like, for getting that done.
You know, there are lots of people who would love to have completed that same workout, or anything like that, I can kind of become that inner voice, I kind of start giving them that feedback and that encouragement that I eventually hope that they will give to themselves.
So reinforcing that positive messaging and if they hear it enough, they may internalize it and then start to like, say it to themselves and hear your voice like in their head like oh, Heather’s going to be so proud of me because I did that. I have that I actually do have those moments I’m like, Oh, I can’t wait to show Heather my workout and like show her what I did a good job I did this morning.
Let’s talk about what how homeschooling and fitness kind of came together for you because you said you started working out when you’re when your babies were small and you got certified as a trainer. And now tell us about like kind of your homeschooling journey and and how fitness kind of tied into that.
Yeah, I’ve been homeschooling my two kids for I think this year will be my ninth year homeschooling so that includes like doing kindergarten with my oldest.
And it’s kind of just like with anything else. It’s just kind of evolved. I am so incredibly grateful that I get to stay home with my kids.I feel very blessed that I’ve had so much time with them and I say that as my oldest is going into eighth grade and potentially going to high school.
The following year, I just feel so so grateful that I was able to be there with them. But with that being said, there is something that happened, and I see this all the time and something that I work on as moms homeschooling or not, it doesn’t matter.We have a tendency to just lose ourselves. And I can say with homeschooling that was an extra added thing I had put on my plate. That was that was something that was going on my priority list.
And it was going above, you know, other things, especially for me. So you start to lose yourself. And it’s really hard to get that back.And so that was kind of one of the things that propelled me even to get into the online personal training space. Like I knew I wasn’t going to be able to go out and work at a gym full time. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to be running from here and there meeting people in person all the time.
So taking everything online, knowing that I could help anybody anywhere. And in the process, it was doing something for me. I was creating something that was my own.I was giving myself a name. I was giving myself something that was just all mine and be able to give back to others in the same in the same space, which was great. So I kind of have to balance, you know, making sure I have time set aside for my kids.
I put that on my priority list, but helping others in their fitness journey is also on my priority list. What’s actually great about it is I believe that fitness isn’t just like a one person like I, I work out, I do all the things, but like my kids have noticed over the years, they’re paying attention. And now they’ve even started to ask questions about working out, getting stronger, gaining muscles.
How do I stay healthy? What’s good for, you know, how do I get more flexible? So it kind of becomes like an all family inclusive type of thing. And that’s something that as a homeschooling family who are like, who I’m with my kids that I actually hope to bring to other families as well. That sometimes it’s not just about me helping mom.
Once I can help mom, now mom help family, mom helps the kids. And I think that that’s huge and so important. So yeah, I guess that’s just kind of.So a couple things.
So what I’m hearing you say, so one, there’s a trickle down effect. Whereas, you know, when you’re helping moms who are struggling with, you know, maybe they’re, they’re stay at home moms or maybe they’re like this in this past year homeschooling and doing all these things that they don’t normally do.
And carving out the time for themselves to work out sets an example for the kids, right? So it actually, it helps mom, it helps the family. It’s kind of like a trickle down. The other thing was, you know, you’re in full view of your kids, you’re prioritizing your health and your wellness in addition to caring for the family, but they’re seeing that they’re picking up on, yes, this is something important that we need to, you know, that you’re not telling them, hey, you need to do this.
But they’re seeing you prioritize it and seeing you, you know, take it seriously because of all the benefits that you’ve gotten out of it. And they’re picking up on that. It just becomes part of our daily routine.
I mean, that’s really what it comes down to.
And that honestly, what fitness working out, you know, whatever it is that your that your goals are, it, it really just has to become part of your routine. And that’s exactly what’s happened.And my kids get to see it, you know, which is great. So you’re normalizing, you know, daily activity, mindful movement, gentle nutrition, all these things are not like a show. They’re not a temporary thing.
You’ve embodied them and they’re part of who you are. And then right, they see this every day in and day out because they are home with you day in and day out. So let’s talk about, are there any cons to this, right? So you’re talking about the benefits, you get to be home with your kids, you get to have an online business where you help people.
We’re going to talk in a second about like virtual training and what that looks like, which I think a lot of people in the last year learned really fast about virtual training. Whereas before that, you know, it was kind of this weird thing. And why would you help? Why would you hire a virtual trainer? That doesn’t make any sense.
But now we all get it, don’t we? Yeah. But so what are some of the cons? What are some of the drawbacks of being a homeschooler and working out at home that you found? So when my kids were younger, it was training.
Maybe that’s the best word to say that mom’s busy.
So I’m sorry. While yes, math is important. It’s not important right this second.You know, it was like, it’s not on fire. So don’t interrupt me. So setting those boundaries was a little bit of a challenge.
Absolutely. It took a lot of time of me just explaining like I’m doing this. This is for me.If it’s an emergency, a hundred percent, I’m there for you. But like those can wait. And I think those are great life lessons in itself.Like I always look at everything as lessons. Good and bad things that happen. I just look at them as lessons.And that’s one of the things that I did. It’s like my kids need to learn to wait.
They can see that I’m doing something that’s important to me .I’m not complaining about it. Like it’s something that’s part of my daily schedule. And I’m saying like, oh, I’m sorry. You’re just going to have to wait. And that did take time. So that’s definitely one of the cons is that in a perfect world, I’m going to go work out and everybody’s happy and nobody bothers you.
That’s not reality. They’re going to ask a million questions until they start to see, oh, okay, I’ll just wait till mom’s done.
So I definitely say that’s one of the cons.So when you talk about, you know, taking the time to do a workout in the beginning, did you have like, do you have a workout room? Do you have a workout space? Do you have like a certain area?
You’re laughing. Okay. I am laughing. Oh my gosh. In a perfect world, I’d have a workout room that I could just shut the door, put on my music and everything. And I would have access to everything I wanted.
So that’s not the case. It’s still not the case. When I first started working out at home and I’ve lived in the same house, so it’s still the same space.I would say my workout area if I was lucky. So if my husband wasn’t working out at the same time as me was maybe six by 10 feet, tiny little living room, I could push the couch out of the way, but like just didn’t provide me with a lot of space. I had to just make it work.
Do you have a lot of workouts that require a lot of space? Like what you found? Like, did you really need a lot of room? It’s nice to have, but did you actually need it? No, you don’t need a lot of space at all. You don’t even need a lot of equipment. It’s just a matter of making the commitment and doing what you have to do to make it work.
If you’re going to let yourself, you can’t let yourself stop because you don’t have the perfect equipment because nothing’s ever going to be perfect. If there’s anything I’ve ever learned, nothing’s ever going to be perfect. So yeah, no, I didn’t have a lot of space.I still don’t. I’ve managed to sometimes I go down in the basement and work out and I’m pretty sure that space is even smaller.
The only difference is that I can work out earlier and kind of be jumping or making more noise and not wake everybody up.That’s really the only difference. So let’s talk about the requirements of a workout space. So basically, in terms of room, you just really need to be able to lay out a mat where you could do your planks.
So lengthwise, only as tall as you are, really. That works. And honestly, I would probably just make sure you can either lay down in both directions or at least lay down and put your arms out without hitting anything.
Because you want to be safe. You don’t want to be trying to like work out in a space that, you know, it could be dangerous. That’s not good.
Yeah, we don’t want to see any of you on America’s Funniest Home Videos with your disaster video of how you, you know, we’re doing your pushups and you knocked over a lamp. Like, please, please, please, please. Yes.
OK, so space wise, lay down, put your arms out really as much as you need. And like you just said, a place where you can kind of bounce around and jump and you won’t wake up like the whole family. So maybe like, you know, like first floor basement, you know, even outside, like if you live somewhere, not in Georgia.
But if you live somewhere where you can be outside, too, I imagine you could do some stuff outside. Absolutely. Yeah.I mean, and in working with people like there are some people who live in apartments, like jumping isn’t something that they’re going to be doing. Because what’s worse than like I can design this great workout, but like do they really want to be fighting with their neighbors every day? Probably not.
You know, so it does come into just knowing what you have that you can do, being OK with it and then finding ways to make it work.But yeah, definitely being able to get outside. And I’m going to say this. And I know a lot of people are just thinking like I would never do that.But like if you don’t have an outdoor space, you can go to a park and do something.
And I know a lot of people are like, oh, but people will be looking at me and like, yeah, they might be looking at you. But in all honesty, what they’re probably thinking is like, oh, my gosh, that’s awesome. I’m so proud of her for doing that. And if they’re judging you, like they have way more issues than to worry about what you’re doing. I do see people working out at the park, even though I live in like somewhere, it’s really hot.
And I’m always like, first of all, I can’t believe you’re out here doing this because it’s so hot. But I’m always like, that’s awesome because you’re getting it done. And I’m only and then I’m like, oh, I should probably go work out.
And it’s a trigger for me. So I’m like, oh, I should probably go do that. A hundred percent.Yes. I see people all the time. And if they’re doing something and I’m always like, that’s awesome.I just want to go over and be like, oh, my gosh, that’s so awesome. High five, total stranger. And they’re like, OK, you’re weird.
You’re in Massachusetts. So you can’t just like talk to strangers like you can here. So yeah, you can’t do that.So space wise, but even like equipment or anything like that, like what do we what do we need to get started? I would say for most people, if you are just starting an exercise program at home and then your goal is just to kind of start moving and get fit and put your health and fitness at the top of your priority list. I would honestly say you don’t need any equipment. You could just use your body weight.You can get out and go walk, try jogging.
If you have, you know, if you happen to have a treadmill, that’s fine. You can do that, too.But you really don’t need anything. That’s a really great way to get started. And if you’re not sure if you have a treadmill, it might be under some clothes.Exactly. Yes. If you see if you see something in your house and it’s loaded with like clothes and like random stuff, put those up and see if there might be a treadmill underneath there.
That is so very true. But there’s so much you can do with body weight alone. Like it’s amazing because honestly, like the consistency, what’s more important is the consistency.
It’s doing the workout consistently during the week that is so much more important than what you’re using or what you’re doing because you can have all of the best equipment in the world. It does absolutely nothing if you don’t use it.
And if you don’t use it consistently.I think when I was starting out, I just got like a twenty twenty dollar pack of resistance bands from Amazon. And one thing that I found helpful to have in the space was a door because those bands have the little the ball thing that you can like put in the door. It’s kind of like hooks in so that you can you can do some pull exercises, which unfortunately are like one thing you really can’t do.
Body weight, you can’t do any pull exercises, but these bands can get get a doorway. You can do some rows, you can do some pull downs. So that’s that’s one helpful thing.
Yeah, it was like twenty dollars max. Of course, they went way up during covid. But I think now you can probably get a get a set pretty cheap. Yeah, dumbbells are my favorite.
Like if anybody was going to ask me, you know, if I had a preference, I would pick dumbbells and I would just pick two different sets. I’d probably do like a four to five pound set and then maybe an eight to ten pound set.Those are what I would suggest for anybody. But I also know dumbbells were almost impossible to get during covid as well. And in terms of resistance bands, I agree that was that’s my biggest thing.
Resistance bands can be great. I do find enough. A lot of people don’t use a high enough resistance than what they need.They think just the motion itself, but it really needs to be you need to make sure you have some like higher resistance and agree adore a way to anchor it because you will be missing out on some important strength training moves without having a way to anchor it. Like you said, and do some pull anchor.
That’s the word I was looking for.I gotcha. Thank you. OK, so we have some work out bands are good for starting out maybe like a yoga mat or a little like towel, even it doesn’t have to be a fancy like expensive mat.Just something that if you’re laying on the ground or you’re doing some something, you’re not, you know, going to hurt yourself on the floor. Right. Because when you get to a certain age, like laying on the floor is just not comfortable.
I don’t want to talk about the age that that is, but it just is. OK, I’m there. I get it.You know. OK, so dumbbells. Dumbbells are good.A couple like lighter sets. So if you’re just getting started, you said four to six or eight and eight to ten. And then you can always, you know, bump up, get more.
I know that when COVID hit, I went on Amazon and I got one of those like it’s a dumbbell. It’s two dumbbells that you can attach to make one barbell. It was like a really and I waited for for like months to get it to come over from China.
It was hilarious. It was like a joke that it took so long. But that was really helpful to have that to have that like one piece of equipment, just some kind of resistance training, like because I couldn’t get to the gym.
So and really weight training was what was the biggest thing about going to the gym for me.
So I knew that that was really important that I had some kind of and I did use bands at first, but then I upgraded. We’re going to be here a while, so I’m going to need to upgrade this situation a little bit.
Then when we decided we were just going to go all in and make our bonus room a fitness room, I got the Bowflex adjustable, which I love, love, love so much. They are like this is an investment. So we said we knew we were not going to be renewing our gym membership.
So we said, let’s take the money we normally would spend on that. We’ll buy some equipment. We’ll make this a home situation.But you don’t need that. That’s really what Heather is saying. So nice to have as a you know, that’s the one good thing that I get to do as a trainer is I can play around with reps and weights and sets.
And that’s what’s really fun about it is that just because, you know, you might have, we’ll say 10 pounds and I have you doing. I don’t know. Let’s say I have you doing a bicep curl and you’re just like, well, I can’t do 10 to 12 reps.
Like I can play around with that. We can do less and we can slowly build upon that. And so like you’re getting to progress.You’re getting to see where you started and where you go. So I think a lot of times people think that like it has to be like this exact perfect way of doing it. And it doesn’t. You can really kind of play around with with a little bit of everything just to make it work for you.
So you’re saying be flexible. You just have the mindset that it’s probably not going to be exactly as you picture it.But it’s still going to be effective. It’s still going to be beneficial. Yes.
OK, so we talked about, you know, the equipment for for at home workouts. And now let’s talk about actually putting together a home workout program. So what are the different components with they’re thinking, oh, my home workout program is just going to be me lifting weights.And that sounds boring and, you know, lame. And I don’t I’m not going to have the motivation to do that.
But what else goes into creating a well-rounded fitness home workout program? And yeah, so this can be very individual, I think, for each client.
So for me, it’s it’s really important that I take the client’s goal and their past exercise experience. Right. Like if I have somebody who’s like, oh, my God, I hate lifting weights.
I never want to lift a dumbbell. I’m not going to lie. Like I’m probably going to try to get them there, but that’s not where I’m going to start them because they already told me that they hate it.Why would I have them start on something that they hate? So when it comes to designing a program for a client, it really comes down to and this is kind of what I mentioned before. It’s like you being able to do something consistent. And a lot of times that has to be something at least sort of you enjoy some part of it.
And then so I’m trying to think to when putting all these components together, I do talk to my clients. I explain to them the benefits of resistance training. I explain the benefits of cardio
.I explain the difference between a steady state where maybe you’re walking and I explain the difference between high intensity and what they can both bring to the table.
I 100 percent will explain the importance of stretching. You know, the one thing that nobody wants to do at the end of a workout.But if you want to keep going and you want to keep moving for the rest of your life, I’m going to tell you to stretch a lot. And nobody wants to nobody wants to do the cool down. Nobody wants to to stretch because it’s boring.It hurts. Yeah. Pro tip.If it hurts, it probably means you’re either doing it wrong or you’re trying to stretch too far or you really need it. Yes, exactly.
Absolutely.But again, if you’re in pain, you’re definitely not doing it right. So don’t do that. Whatever you’re doing.There’s a little bit different discomfort. And then there’s pain. If it’s pain, please stop.But if it’s discomfort, it probably means you need it and or you might be doing a little bit too much. So back off.
Right.I think it’s important to explain the benefits of everything to each of my clients, like I said, in terms of like strength training and cardio. And I think a lot of us, I feel like a lot of us probably have read a lot lately, but for a while and especially when I was younger, it was like cardio, cardio, cardio. And it took me a while to I remember even like going back and my husband still brings it up way back when we first started dating.
And he was like, well, you should be lifting weights. And I’m thinking like, well, I don’t want to get big and bulky. You know, this was like 20, 20 years ago, maybe.
And I’ve since obviously learned. And I think, you know, again, it’s out there like the benefits of strength training. And that’s something that I tried to really explain to my clients, incorporate it and let them feel and see the difference.And I think that that’s huge, too. Yeah, I think the whole like the fear around for women around, I lift one weight and I’m going to be Arnold Schwarzenegger. Right.
Or I’m going to be like, you’re not going to be jacked. And it’s like, do you have any idea how hard they work? Like that’s their full time job lifting, like incredibly. It’s not going to it’s not going to happen after a set of 12 pound bicep curls.I guarantee you, you will not look manly if that’s something you’re trying to avoid. So talking about all the different components of your program so you can work out, you can do your cardio at home.
And cardio is really just, you know, I think when people think cardio, it’s like, oh, I have to go run around the block or I have to run a place.
Cardio is anything that gets your heart rate up consistently. So cardio has lots of different forms and it doesn’t necessarily have to be, you know, jogging in place or, you know, anything like that. So and then resistance training, you know, you have your bands, you have body weight.
