Todd Smith Fitness

Meet TJ — our June Member of the Month at Todd Smith Fitness.
TJ came to us during a medical leave from work. He'd always loved running — every day, religiously — and was looking for something productive to do with the time off.
What started as filling his calendar turned into a complete shift in how he trains.
Today TJ trains three days a week with weights and adds Zone 2 cardio for his heart. His heart rate has dropped. His body composition has changed. He's made the most of a hard moment.
"I do enjoy running, but you guys helped me straighten that issue out." — TJ
The lesson isn't that running is bad. It's that doing one thing every day, hard, isn't always the answer — especially for a body that's recovering. Strength training. Zone 2 for the heart. Three days a week.
Hopefully we see you back out there soon, TJ. We're proud of what you've built.
See how the methodology works: https://www.toddsmithfitness.com/

"I'm too busy" is the most common reason adults give us for not training. So we put together a 30-minute lower body workout for adults 40+.
Coach Richie walks you through it. Jadyn executes. Four exercises, designed to build muscle without grinding your joints:
• Dual plane abduction (warm-up — combines abduction + hip thruster) • Hip flexion hyperextension (glutes + hamstrings) • Seated leg curl (hamstrings) • Leg press with VMO focus + wedge superset (quads)
Four effective moves. 30 minutes or less. No barbell back squats. No Olympic lifts. No injury risk that doesn't make sense for an adult 40+.
40 years coaching adults in Omaha. Three hours a week. Muscle-first.
See how the methodology works: https://www.toddsmithfitness.com/

Send this to a friend who keeps saying they're too busy.

Coach Will on the three things most people get wrong.

Cardio. You don't need to find an extra hour. Come 15 minutes early, stay 15 minutes after, twice a week — there it is.

Food. Half a pound of protein, a cup and a half of rice, a veggie. That's the meal. Stop overcomplicating it.

The gym. It isn't a treadmill in a room. It's the people. The relationships. The reason showing up actually sticks.

Train smart. Eat simple. Show up for the people who show up for you.

Ladies — if you're trying to get in shape, you've probably been told to do these five things.

At Todd Smith Fitness, we focus on science. Not myths.

Here are 5 habits that are actually holding you back:
SIT-UPS — Most women's abs don't fire properly at a neurological level. Burning them out won't fix that. We retrain them with deep-breathing dumbbell pullovers.
ENDLESS RUNNING — Running doesn't make you skinny. Fat loss does. Zone 2 cardio gets you there.
CUTTING CALORIES — Drastic calorie cuts lower your metabolic rate. You can't build muscle on an empty tank.
YOGA + PILATES — You cannot change the origin or insertion of a muscle. What changes how you look isn't "lengthening." It's activating dormant muscles to restore posture and metabolism.
"TONING" — There's no special toning exercise. What you're after is reducing body fat and building muscle mass.
40 years coaching adults in Omaha. The methodology is muscle-first. Quiet, repeatable, and built around your body - not a trend.

The stair climber. The machine everybody loves to hate — and most people use it wrong.
Johnson put together a 20-minute interval protocol that triggers the afterburn effect: your metabolism keeps working for hours after the workout ends. That's how a structured 20 minutes can do more for fat loss than an hour of steady cardio.
Here's the routine:
• 3 min warm-up (level 1–2)
• 5 min steady climb (level 3–4)
• 4 rounds of power intervals: 45 sec at level 8, 15 sec recovery
• 3 min steady climb (level 3–4)
• 3 min final push at level 8
• 2 min cool-down (level 1–2)
Total: 20 minutes. Your legs will be shaking. It's worth it.
At Todd Smith Fitness, we focus on science, not myths. 40 years of coaching adults in Omaha — time-efficient, methodology-driven, built around your body.
See how the methodology works: https://www.toddsmithfitness.com/

This is what training with us actually feels like.
The TSF team isn't a group of strangers coaching in the same building. We pick each other for workouts. We tease each other (with love). We have catchphrases. We argue about the gym playlist. And we treat new people - clients and trainers alike — like family from day one.
This week our newest trainer Jadyn went around with the questions everyone secretly wants to ask:
→ Chris on surviving leg day: "Stick with it. It gets better. The benefits are remarkable."
→ Danny on whether John is actually counting reps when he says "15 more": NO.
→ Anna's secretly-loved exercise: the belt squat.
"Unbelievably painful, but I know what comes in the end." → The toughest trainer in the building? Doctor Richie Briggs, hands down. (Jeff said it. We're just reporting.)
→ TSF playlist now officially includes Earth, Wind & Fire's
September - Cobra's pick.
→ Jadyn's contender for her own catchphrase: "Let's go.
Woo."
This is what forty years of building a team looks like. Welcome, Jadyn.
Drop a "let's go" in the comments to make it official

"Do I have to lift my dumbbells sky-high on side raises to get the benefits?"
No. Most people are doing more damage than good going too high.
Here's why: most of us live in an internally rounded posture — shoulders forward, scapula open. When you raise dumbbells overhead from there, your shoulder pinches. The work goes to the joint, not the deltoid.
The fix → keep the dumbbells just below shoulder height. Stabilize through your upper back. Keep the medial delt under tension the whole way.
Less range. More result.

Read the full philosophy → https://www.toddsmithfitness.com/blog/the-muscle-first-approach-weve-been-coaching-for-forty-years

Send this to the friend whose shoulders are always sore.

We don't do fads. We do what works.
The whole team broke down the 6 golden rules we actually live by:

Eat like an adult — protein + a green, every meal
Move your body — a brisk 20–30 min walk most days
Sleep is non-negotiable — phone down at 9, 8 hours
Hydrate — 20 oz water before caffeine
Manage cortisol — long, low-intensity movement (not more cardio)
Stay consistent, not extreme — no compensation, no skipped meals

Six rules. One muscle-centric lifestyle.

👉 Train smarter with us in Omaha: https://www.toddsmithfitness.com

Comment which one you're starting today.

3 sets or 4? 12 reps or 15? Which is better?
The truth: it doesn't matter.

What matters is what's happening during the rep — whether you're feeling the target muscle through the full range, or just moving the weight.

Honest training philosophy after years of coaching:
I don't follow a program. I chase tension. I chase neurological connection. Every rep. Every set.
We treat fitness like a worksheet — "I did 12 reps, therefore I built muscle." The real question is: did the muscle work? Did you feel it?
That's the difference between training and just lifting.

👉 Train smarter with us in Omaha: https://www.toddsmithfitness.com