Blog

By Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT 

Over the last couple of weeks, we have been diving into how to achieve 3 different goals using Evlo:

Goal 1: Feel Better, Get Stronger

Goal 2: Increase Muscle Definition 

Goal 3: Cross Training with Evlo 

Last week, we explored all things “Feel Better, Get Stronger”. Click here to review that post!

Next up: INCREASE MUSCLE DEFINITION. 

If you’ve been an Evlo member for some time now and have noticed a decrease in joint pain and overall stress levels, you might be ready to tackle goal number 2. 

We believe that developing significant muscle definition primarily occurs in the absence of significant stress response and pain within the body. This is because building (and maintaining) muscle tissue is metabolically expensive. If your body and brain do not feel safe and protected, they will have a hard time allocating energy for muscle growth and maintenance. 

This is one of the reasons we emphasize sticking...

By Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT 

Over the next few weeks, we will dive into how to achieve 3 different goals using Evlo:

Goal 1: Feel Better, Get Stronger

Goal 2: Increase Muscle Definition 

Goal 3: Cross Training with Evlo 

First up: FEEL BETTER, GET STRONGER. 

If you are coming to Evlo from a program or lifestyle that has left you feeling worn down and depleted, this is the goal for you!! Joints achy from years of grinding your body into the ground with the “no pain, no gain” mentality? You’re in the right place! Overwhelmed by excess stress in your life and struggling to juggle work, family, fitness, etc.? Keep on reading, friend!! 

Our number one priority for you will be to create space for your body and nervous system to heal and recover while initiating the muscle building process. Continue reading to learn how we recommend doing so! 

Schedule Options 

We begin to create this space of healing with our weekly schedule in the...

By: Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT 

WELCOME TO EVLO!! We are so happy you are here! This is your guide to all things Evlo- where to start and where to go. Let’s dive in! 

Recommended Equipment 

Before starting your Evlo journey, we recommend having a few pieces of equipment on hand! Recommended equipment for each individual class can be found in the description below the class video. 

Example of class description with recommended equipment

Dumbbells 

We use a variety of dumbbells throughout the week of classes including light, medium, and heavy weights. When you first begin Evlo, we recommend starting with the following weight selections: 

Heavy: 8 lbs or less

Moderate: 5 lbs or less

Light: 1-3 lbs 

Resistance bands 

Click here to see an option from Amazon! These types of packs allow you to try out different levels of resistance to fit your individual needs. 

Gliders

Click here for an amazon option! Gliders can easily be...

By: Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT 

Raise your hand if you’ve been in this scenario: 

You have recently become super motivated to “get in shape”. You begin working out constantly and restrict your eating severely. You try to stick with this intense, restrictive schedule for *insert 30, 45, 60 days here*. You tell yourself “I can do anything for 30 days”. However, when that magical day comes at the end of this time period, you not only feel burnt out, but you do not see a tangible change in muscle growth. So you give up until the next bout of motivation kicks in (and the aches and pains calm down)! 

Cut to me raising my hand!! I don’t think I can count the number of times I have gone through this cycle. Enter, Evlo!! 

In this post, I will break down the 4 reasons you might not be seeing the results/muscle growth you desire and ways that Evlo addresses each and every one

1. Time 

It is human nature to want FAST results. Like,...

By: Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT

Today we will answer the frequently asked question: “How can I incorporate (insert running, biking, HIIT, spin, etc) into my Evlo routine??”.

We will take a detailed look at the 6 different tracks we offer, how we coordinate muscle groups, specific suggestions for engaging in other forms of fitness as an Evlo member, and overall ideas to consider when mixing up your Evlo routine. 

Let’s dive in!

Our Programming 

Both the structure of our class tracks as well as our weekly programming is very intentional. Our goal at Evlo is to achieve muscle hypertrophy while avoiding overuse. Members can achieve this goal by following one of 6 track options:

1. 3 days per week without cardio
2. 3 days per week with cardio
3. 4 days per week without cardio
4. 4 days per week with cardio
5. 5 days per week without cardio
6. 5 days per week with cardio

Each track includes AT LEAST two rest days that we do not recommend skipping past! 

The “3 days...

By: Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT

Recovery is 50% of the equation for muscle hypertrophy and performance improvements within your workouts.

But how do we know if we are properly recovered?

This week’s blog post will serve as a written guide for why recovery matters, what factors expedite or hinder your recovery, how to objectively measure if you are recovered, and what to do with the results of these measures. For the listeners of Dr. Shannon’s Fit Body, Happy Joints, this information will be familiar. Check out Dr. Shannon’s episode on this topic here if you prefer to listen. For those interested in a visual guide, join me below! 

Why recovery matters: 

Exercise is a catabolic process. 

This means that exercise breaks down muscle tissue leading to temporary damage and weakness. This is a NORMAL process and a key factor in muscle hypertrophy. However, we run into trouble when we layer breakdown on top of breakdown (read: overuse). 

Overuse can...

By: Dr. Payton Busker, PT, DPT

Hi y'all! Welcome to the Evlo Fitness blog.

My name is Dr. Payton and I’ll be bringing you a new blog each week spanning topics from why our thoughts and words matter as it relates to fitness to how to better recruit your glutes. For those of you who don’t know me, I am a Doctor of Physical Therapy, fitness professional, and Evlo’s new Head of Content.

Here at Evlo, we are all about building our bodies up, not tearing them down.

Because of this, we find ourselves in a unique space within the fitness industry. So much of the messaging within the fitness industry reads as follows:
 

• No pain, no gain
• If you could just burn more calories in your workouts, you could lose that extra 5 pounds
• If an exercise hurts, that probably means that your body needs it!

At least one or multiple of these probably sounds familiar to you if you’ve been a member of any sort of group fitness or had a personal trainer in the last 20 years....

I stopped wearing a fitness watch years ago and never looked back. I’ve talked about my personal experiences with exercise in the “How to internalize you’ve done enough” podcast, but let’s just say that I was obsessing over exercise and my goals were on how many calories I could burn. This was at the cost of my mental health, sleep, joint health, and sometimes even my performance at work because I was exhausted, overworked, and under-rested. During this time where I was working out a ton and had a focus on burning calories, I actually had very little muscle. It’s hard for me to gain muscle in the first place, but I think I felt and looked frail. It wasn’t effective for me to focus my attention on burning calories. Choosing to no longer wear my fitness watch was a cascade of decisions that ultimately changed how I view exercise and really turned my health around. 

Ditching my fitness watch wasn’t some “magical...

How you train will affect how your body adapts. So today, we’ll look into that a bit. I’ll start by talking about muscle fiber types and how to recruit different types of fibers, then I’ll talk about load to muscles, and lastly, I’ll tie it all together by talking about how different workouts like Pilates, barre, lifting, yoga, and running, will affect your muscles and body composition. 

So let’s start by talking about fiber types. This is important, because your muscles are made up of different types of fibers that are stimulated differently, recover differently, and are of different sizes. You have two primary types within a single muscle: type 1 fibers and type 2 fibers. Within your type 2 fibers, you have several sub-classifications. But for the sake of today’s podcast, we’re going to talk about type 1 fibers or the slow-twitch, type 2a and 2ab, which I’ll lump together to call the intermediate fibers, and type 2b which I'll...

Today we are going to talk about why you won’t see us prioritizing heavy deadlifts and squats every week in Evlo for training the glutes. I know this is going to be a hot topic since deadlifts and squats have been seen as a couple of the “king” exercises for a long long time. But I feel like I have learned a few compelling reasons why to prioritize other exercises to build the glutes over squats and deadlifts. 

In our private FB group and messages that I get from the Evlo members, they talk about how their glutes have developed more than any other program they’ve tried. And it’s not because we are working them MORE, and many of them aren’t even lifting as heavy as they once were with lots of squatting and deadlifts. So how could that be? How could they be working their glutes less, lifting lighter weights, and yet be seeing more muscle development than before? It’s because we are working them SMARTER not HARDER. 

Your glutes, or...