StansellFit

StansellFit This is the home page of Atlanta-based personal trainer, Bo Stansell. I have a decade of experience in the strength and conditioning and fitness community.

Ran my first marathon. It was just as terrible as I thought it would be. But I’m also glad I did it.Most likely due to t...
03/02/2026

Ran my first marathon. It was just as terrible as I thought it would be. But I’m also glad I did it.

Most likely due to the fading affect bias, I am already forgetting the misery and wondering when my next one is going to be 😂. Maybe one with slightly fewer hills.

Big thanks to for making sure I didn’t die after the race and also to .r and .ryan for making the last couple days a pleasant distraction.

Now after a little downtime, I gotta figure out what my next race is gonna be 🤔.

This is a subtle but important part of any great and lasting change. You must believe you are the type of person who CAN...
02/27/2026

This is a subtle but important part of any great and lasting change. You must believe you are the type of person who CAN change.

If you’re working out but never truly see yourself as someone who works out, it won’t stick.

If you try to meal prep but never see yourself as the type of person who has their nutrition locked down, it won’t stick.

The change in identity spurs action and the action reinforces that identity. You need both.

I’m not saying there aren’t amazing content creators and influencers out there. But it’s not a bad idea to take a look a...
02/26/2026

I’m not saying there aren’t amazing content creators and influencers out there. But it’s not a bad idea to take a look at someone’s incentives.

The constant need to come up with new s**t to say can be problematic coupled with limited knowledge.

Professionals in the same space don’t necessarily rely on content for their jobs. They’re coaches, trainers, therapists, whatever. That’s their job. When content BECOMES the job, the incentive or ability to stay truthful loosens.

02/25/2026

Social media has always been a double edged sword for me. Great for my business by letting people know I exist and what I do. But it has hijacked our brains and made aspects of our life completely performative.

There is perhaps no greater evidence of that than the sheer number of people filming themselves working out. If you are in the fitness space, I get it. Content is part of the game. But surely not everyone filming themselves is doing it for that reason? Some people just seem like they’re doing a live stream of their life like the Truman Show.

Will there ever be a point where we all collectively are like “what the heck are we doing, man?”

I realize the irony of posting this to social media. But hey, at least I’m in the comfort of my own home where I can’t embarrass myself too badly.

Anyway, would love to hear your thoughts!

One of my least favorite requests from clients is to “switch things up”. Not because I’m not interested in my client’s p...
02/25/2026

One of my least favorite requests from clients is to “switch things up”. Not because I’m not interested in my client’s preferences, but because constantly switching exercises often takes them in the opposite direction of their goals.

I’m not against switching exercises. I just think there needs to be a good reason for it.

These are those reasons.

02/24/2026

If you’re the kind of person that absolutely hates exercising, find a community.

Seriously.

Nothing will improve your consistency like being around other people that cheer you on, hold you accountable, and that you’re genuinely happy to see.

Fitness classes, run clubs, meeting folks that work out at the same time as you can even work!

Nothing brings people together quite like shared misery and purpose.

I’ve recently been going to a run club and it’s so much more fun than running alone. also has some fantastic classes if you want to fitness with friends.

Bottom line. If you don’t love working out, see if joining others helps!

P.S. Sorry for my face. I was running 🏃‍♂️.

02/23/2026

As much as we would love to be able to keep lifting with reckless abandon for the rest of our lives, things DO change as you get older.

Here are some of the changes I’ve made over the last 15 years or so of training.

I see way too many folks trying to dip their toe in when building strength or muscle for the first time. It really doesn...
02/20/2026

I see way too many folks trying to dip their toe in when building strength or muscle for the first time. It really doesn’t work very well.

If you want to see great results, you need to COMMIT. Doesn’t have to be forever, but you do need focused intensity to get your body to respond. That doesn’t happen by just lifting light weights and missing every other session.

Set aside the time (and money if you hire a trainer) and do the work. You’ll thank yourself a year later.

Maturing as a trainee and coach is realizing that the relationship between technique and injury is tenuous.This is a GRE...
02/13/2026

Maturing as a trainee and coach is realizing that the relationship between technique and injury is tenuous.

This is a GREAT thing because it allows us to not be so rigid in our thinking about what strength exercises are supposed to look like. We don’t have to put the fear of God in anyone that deviates even the slightest bit from our standard and it gives us far more flexibility when training people with different anthropometry and constraints.

Technique still matters. But not for the reasons most people claim it does.

There are several reasons someone might not be feeling an exercise where they’re supposed to: their technique is off, th...
02/08/2026

There are several reasons someone might not be feeling an exercise where they’re supposed to: their technique is off, they are too far away from failure, the load is TOO heavy, a non-target muscle is too weak for the target muscle to get a proper stimulus, etc. Rather than immediately jumping to the exercise itself being a bad pick, make sure you’re doing it right and with the proper stimulus (reps and weight). If you’ve checked all of these things off, then you can look at switching exercises. If you’re thorough here, it will keep you from constantly switching movements and allow you to zero in on the best movements for each muscle growth for you.

There are caveats here. You need to assume that the exercise is supposed to target the muscles you want to target. Bicep curl for biceps, leg extensions for quads, etc. If you’re straight up picking an exercise that doesn’t work the muscles you’re trying to work, no adjustment can fix that.

If you have questions about specific exercises, happy to answer them.

One of the surest ways to increase injury risk is to progress too quickly, because even if the muscles are fully capable...
02/05/2026

One of the surest ways to increase injury risk is to progress too quickly, because even if the muscles are fully capable of producing enough force, your connective tissue may not have adapted yet. And even if it HAS adapted, your working capacity on any given day isn’t always up to the task.

Slowing progression is one of the simplest ways to reduce injury risk and allow adaptation to keep pace with training stress.

Here are three strategies for slowing progression.

For clarification, RIR, or Reps In Reserve, refers to how many more reps you could have done. If you did a set of 7 but you could have done 8 reps, that’s an RIR of 1. RPE is commonly used as the inverse of RIR. Meaning if RIR is 1, RPE is 9.

These subjective measures may be difficult for new lifters as they have pushed enough to know where failure is. So it may still be useful to take SOME sets to failure for more precise calibration.

Feel free to drop any questions in the comments or a DM.

This is an excerpt from my most recent substack article, which you can find via the link in my bio. It’s the first link under Train With Me.

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