Regardless of what any trainer tells you, there’s one thing that is the single most important factor of your workouts: that you do them! Especially for kids or those aging, more important than following a perfect workout routine is that you engage every muscle and movement pattern for 30+ reps (minimum) 1-2x / week. For kids, this is what ensures balanced growth and development of muscles, bones and joints – and for the aging population it’s as simple as ‘use it or lose it’ so as long as you continue to pass through full ranges of motion with a bit of external loading, you won’t lose that muscle mass—and that’s the single most important factor for healthy aging!

That’s why I’ve put together a single dumbbell workout that hits every major muscle group so that you’ve got no excuse to get it in whether you’re at home, the gym, or somewhere in between—all you need is a weighted object (dumbbell obviously works best) and you’ve got no excuse to not keep your basics going!

I recommend performing 2-4 sets of each exercise. If short on time do them as a superset with a 30-60 second rest between each movement.

Single-Leg Romanian Deadlift into Lunge

6-10 reps (depending on weight) of both movements/side
Pattern: Lower Pull & Lunge

Focus on control through the lower leg, keep the hips square to the ground as you raise your back leg and let your torso tilt down. Focus on lifting the back leg rather than bending at the waist, focusing on targeting the hamstring of the supporting leg rather than how far down the dumbbell goes. Once you come back to standing, we’re going right into a step-back lunge so we can target the glute of that same leg all in one movement.

Dumbbell Row to Curl & Press

6-10 reps (depending on weight) of both movements/side
Pattern: Lower Pull & Lunge

Starting in a hinged position with a flat back, perform a single-arm dumbbell row focusing on driving the elbow back and engaging the lat. Then stand up tall, curl the weight to your shoulder and then press it overhead. If you’ve got a heavy dumbbell, you can treat the curl as a bit more of a swing, and then use the legs to perform a push press to get the DB overhead.

Bonus: If you have two dumbbells, you can do both arms at the same time!

1+ ¼ Cyclist Squats

6-10 reps
(depending on weight) with a controlled tempo

The reason we use a cyclist squat (heals elevated) over a conventional squat is we’ve already targeting the hamstrings and glutes – so in this move we’re trying to get into DEEP knee flexion to ensure longevity and healthy knees while also targeting the quadriceps more specifically. Elevate your heels with whatever you’ve got that’s one to two inches tall!

Plank Drag ThroughPlank Drag Through

10-20 reps
Pattern: Core/Obliques (and scapular strength)

Starting in a tall plank position you’re going to drag the weight across the floor by pulling it (not pushing it) while trying to minimize the movement through your torso. If you’ve got a lot of butt movement going on widen your stance, if it’s too easy bring your feet closer together! This movements not only great for targeting the core and obliques but also helps strengthen our upper back and scapula which helps with mobility and posture as well.

Photography: Bob Garlick

The Anywhere Dumbbell Workout | IMPACT MagazineRegardless of what any trainer tells you, there’s one thing that is the single most important factor of your workouts: that you do them! Especially for kids or those aging, more important than following a perfect workout routine is that you engage every muscle and movement pattern for 30+ reps…IMPACT Magazine · Simon Damborg

When you remove the obligation to try to get your athlete to complete a specific movement, you unlock an infinite number of scaling options, gamifications, or other ways to engage with your athlete. Our goal isn't to get them to perform a specific exercise, our goal is to get them to perform a variety of movement patterns.

This is the simplest breakdown of patterns in a way that covers every muscle in the body. The more experienced you get, the more you can begin to break this down into muscle groups and other details - but to start, learn to understand the major patterns of the body rather than trying to memorize specific exercises.

Not everyone can squat, but almost everyone can perform SOME type of 'Lower push' exercise. If you can walk up stairs, sit on the toilette, or even just bend your knees through any range of motion - then you're able to perform the lower push pattern.

The goal isn't exercise for the sake of exercise, the goal is to accomplish a broad variety of movements and to work just 10% harder than they want to or have before. With this approach, there is an infinite number of ways to engage your athlete in a way that is fun rather than a chore.

The best workout for your athlete is the one that they do. Don't overcomplicate it or set the bar unattainably high. 30 minutes once a week is 1,000x better than nothing, and 30 minutes 2x / week consistently over an extended period is enough to make some major life changes for athletes of any age or ability.

Exposing our body to stress in a controlled environment, whether physical or emotional, is how we adapt and grow as human beings. Teaching regulation to athletes through their physical body is MUCH easier then trying to get inside their heads, but as they learn physical regulation, the emotion regulation follows right behind.

If you're working with an athlete who spends a lot of time already doing a specific sport (or movement pattern) then if you remember our goal of ensuring athletes complete a broad range of patterns - then our most effective use of time to ensure a balanced and health athlete is to train the ones they're not already doing.

The goal is long term progression, not short term goals. Don't scare them off by making it too hard. As long as you can get your athlete to do 10% more than they wanted to, or have before - then the workout was a win. Maintain this approach over extended periods of time, and the results will speak for themselves.

My SCHOOLS.FIT web-app of Resources

Check-out the full list of resources, with on demand workout videos, movement demos, workout builders and more coming soon on my web app I'm building specifically for educators, parents, and anyone who works with youth.

SCHOOLS.FITA resource from coach Thor for parents, educators, and anyone who works with youth.Raincity School Resources

notes: my favorite hydration brand and one of the only ones in the world that actually has enough sodium to make a difference! Less salty taste than LMNT and no artifical sweeteners.

In January of 2020, at the age of 12, Jonah was diagnosed with a rare brain tumor. After having it removed and undergoing multiple bouts of chemo, Jonah was left unable to walk. After lots of physiotherapy work with Maria at Kids Physio Group, he was referred to me (Coach Thor) in May of 2022, and we started training together weekly. At this point, he had regained his ability to walk but still lacked a lot of function and proper motor control on the left side of his body. He'd already come so far he was more than ready and willing to put in the work.

We started with basic motor function and re-strengthening work, but with such limited coordination on one side of his body, we quickly moved into utilizing the barbell, and Jonah fell in love. We made some incredible discoveries: heavy lifting (specifically deadlifts) had an amazing effect on his nervous system and his brains ability to regain motor control more consistently on both sides in ways he had never experienced before. I remember the first time we tried to do walking lunges he got so frustrated as he kept falling over and we didn't know if that was something he'd ever be able to do. I'll never forget the smile on his face in the middle of a workout as he realized he was doing walking lunges with a dumbbell in his hand... which is why they had to be in his workout.

Seeing me once a week wasn’t enough for him. He started coming into Raincity 2-3 times per week on his own, completing workouts that I wrote for him focused on squats, deadlifts, and bench press. Focusing on the barbell not only helped stimulate the CNS, but he was hooked on the gains as he went from a 25lb kettle bell to a 150lb barbell deadlift, a 100 pound bench press and a 135lb squat, even while the left side of his body didn’t always want to cooperate. Once in a while, he’d even do a bit of cardio, or join coach Katie for a CrossFit style workout. He took part in the #RaincityOPEN (aka CrossFit Open) with his training partner, Nik. That's is where he really discovered his love/hate relationship with burpees and dumbbell snatches... which is why they had to be in his workout.

By the summer of 2025, Jonah wanted to spend even more time in the gym and had started prepping his resume to work at Raincity during the summer. He was also preparing to be my equipment lead at the Canadian Functional Fitness National Championships. Our team couldn’t have been more excited to have Jonah around more often his shy but friendly demeanor brought nothing but joy to those around him.

At the end of June, this was all put on hold, as he began experiencing debilitating headaches and nausea. Within 48 hours, he was back in the hospital. They had found water on his brain and signs of tumor regrowth. After a couple of days of scans and surgeries, it was confirmed that the tumor was regrowing at the base of his brain stem/cerebellum - and there was nothing they could do.

I feel incredibly fortunate that Jonah was able to come in and see me on July 26 (after another round of surgery), though we were unsure how much time he had left. When I asked how the surgery went, his response was, “Last time I woke up in a hospital I was paralyzed, so this one was a breeze.” He went on to say, “Everyone around me is really sad right now, but that just feels like a waste of time.” Those words will inspire me forever.

On July 30, Jonah passed away in his bed, surrounded by his family.

Read more about Jonah and some of the things we're doing at Raincity Athletics to honor his incredible and inspiring life.

Remembering Jonah Berger | Raincity Athletics Functional Strength & Conditioning in Vancouver, BCRemembering the most inspiring athlete to ever by a part of the Raincity Athletics community.Raincity Athletics · Simon ‘Thor’ Damborg

Raincity Program DetailsCheck-out this workout from the Raincity Programming app.RAINCITY PROGRAMMING App

Don't get me wrong, if you're at risk of heart disease, hypertension, or already have high blood pressure - this post is not for you, but if you train (and sweat) regularly and are otherwise healthy, increasing your salt intake might solve some nagging health issues you had no idea were related.

My Salt Journey

During COVID when we were all working from home (and my west facing apartment would get real hot) I started getting weird stomach cramps towards the end of some of my long WFH days. After weeks & months of trying out different things, I initially determined that my afternoon coffee was the culprit. If I cut it out, there was an ~80% less likely chance of evening cramps... but they'd still happen. Eventually I realized that the coffee wasn't the core issue (though I still avoid caffeine after 11AM) but it was actually just increasing the symptoms of my dehydration. I already drink a lot of water (4L/day or more) so I started supplementing salt... eventually I found that adding ~1g/day of supplementation essentially completely eliminated my cramps (though not enough to bring back my afternoon coffees😞).

This sent me down a rabbit hole of research to understand how much salt my body actually needed... and what I found was very interesting.

How Much Salt do you Sweat?

Sweat isn’t just water. It’s a salty cocktail of sodium, chloride, and trace minerals that keep your muscles firing and your nerves talking to each other.

The trickiest part of these calculations? All the conversions🤦. When we talk about consuming salt its in mg (or daily recommended intake) but when we talk about sweating salt its in mmol/L (aka millimoles per liter). Here's a quick reference table:

mmol/L → grams: quick reference

Sweat Sodium (mmol/L)

Sodium (g/L)

Salt, NaCl (g/L)

20

0.46

1.17

40

0.92

2.34

60

1.38

3.51

80

1.84

4.67

100

2.30

5.84

Rule of thumb: 1 mmol/L Na ≈ 23 mg sodium ≈ 58 mg salt. 40 mmol/L ≈ ~1 g sodium per liter.

A 2010 study on endurance athletes found that in just 90 minutes of training, sodium loss could hit 4.2 g. In extreme scenarios (think multi-hour sessions or competitions), daily losses can exceed 10 g of sodium, equivalent to 25 g of table salt (PMC2267797).

Let that sink in. That’s more salt lost in a single day than the government recommends you consume all week.

One of Many Reasons Why the RDA is Outdated

The current Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) for sodium is about 1,500 mg/day, with a “limit” at 2,300 mg/day. Those numbers were developed for the general population, assuming low activity and a primary goal of minimizing hypertension risk without considering what other issues it may cause.

If you're an active healthy individual, these numbers don't apply to you. Many studies show that too little sodium can be just as harmful as too much when you train often. It can cause cramping (like I had), dizziness, lower plasma volume, reduced endurance, and even limiting your muscles ability to contract (and grow).

A 2021 review in Frontiers in Nutrition points out that sodium plays a direct role in maintaining blood volume, nerve function, and thermoregulation during prolonged exercise. This is why water alone isn't enough to keep you hydrated during exercise.

It’s also worth noting that low sodium intake triggers your kidneys to conserve sodium, increasing stress hormones like renin and aldosterone. Both are linked to poorer cardiovascular outcomes in athletes who chronically under-salt (Graudal et al., Am J Hypertens, 2017).

Time to Add Salt to Your Performance

Sodium does three major things during exercise:

1. Regulates fluid balance - helps you retain the water you drink instead of just peeing it out.
2. Supports muscle contraction and nerve signaling - low sodium means slower muscle response.
3. Prevents hyponatremia - that’s when you drink too much water without enough electrolytes and dilute your blood sodium levels.

A 2022 paper in the European Journal of Applied Physiology found that sodium intake during endurance events significantly improved plasma sodium concentration and prevented performance drops from dehydration.

Even moderate sodium intake before or during workouts (roughly 300–600 mg/hour) can maintain hydration and boost endurance, especially in the heat (Sawka et al., 2007).

Below I'll put into context how much salt that is (and how to get it), but first...

When “More Salt” Isn’t the Answer

Now before you start dumping salt on everything, remember that context (always) matters. If you:

• Have hypertension, kidney disease, or heart failure
• Take blood pressure medication
• Live a mostly sedentary lifestyle

...then you should consult with professionals (and get your ass off the couch).

As Dr. James DiNicolantonio (author of The Salt Fix) summarizes:

“We demonized salt while ignoring sugar, but most people’s problems aren’t from sodium overload, they’re from processed food and inactivity.”

Steps To Increase Your Salt Intake

• Add electrolytes for long sessions: if you train more than 60-90 minutes or in the heat, add 500-1,000 mg sodium/hour.
• Salt your food to taste: simple but effective. If you crave salt, that’s your body talking.
• Pair sodium with carbs post-training to replenish glycogen and fluid faster.
• Hydrate smarter: plain water is fine for short workouts, but over-hydration without salt can lead to the dangerous drop in blood sodium called exercise-associated hyponatremia.

Preferred Methods of Salt Intake

Biosteel is just one of many ready to drink hydration drinks on the market, but it's definitely not the most cost effective way to get what you need.

At Raincity Athletics we have a fridge stocked full of different hydration drinks (as well as proteins and others). Here's a quick and simple breakdown of the most popular ones to show you why I now just utilize capsules (the bottom one).

Popular Hydration & Electrolyte Options in Canada (2025)

Product

Sodium (mg)

Potassium (mg)

Magnesium (mg)

Calcium (mg)

Cost / Serving

Link

Liquid I.V.

500

370

0

0

≈ $1.15

liquid-iv.ca

BioSteel Sports Drink

230

250

25

50

≈ $3.33

biosteel.com

Vega Sport Hydrator

240

400

100

0

≈ $0.85

myvega.ca

LMNT Recharge

1,000

200

60

0

≈ $2.00

drinklmnt.com

SaltStick Capsules

215

63

11

22

≈ $0.38

amazon.ca

*Values based on 2025 Canadian product labels. Rounded to nearest 5 mg. Prices approximate and vary by retailer.

If you're looking for something to sip on during exercise, any of these options will work and you can go by preferred tase (or cost). But when it comes to adding 1g+ of supplementation a day without breaking the bank - capsules are the only way to go.

The Bottom Line

If you are a health and active individual, it's time to stop fearing salt.

The RDA was made for the average office worker, not the athlete. For most of us in the gym, on the bike, or getting ready for Hyrox, a little (or a lot) more sodium might actually keep us healthier, stronger, and performing better.

As always, be smart, talk to your doctor if you’ve got heart or kidney issues, and listen to your body. Otherwise... don’t fear the salt shaker. It might just be the missing link between feeling flat and firing on all cylinders.

296 ‒ Foot health: preventing common injuries, enhancing strength and mobility, & picking footwearView show notes here: https://bit.ly/43Ff0ZxBecome a member to receive exclusive content: https://peterattiamd.com/subscribe/Sign up to receive Peter’s email…YouTube

From my top recommended podcast

Recommended Podcast: Peter Attia ‘The Drive’Anyone who knows anything in the health and wellness space is listening to everything coming out of this podcast…The Bifrost by Coach Thor · Simon aka Coach Thor

In a time where almost anything, from online reviews to personal identities can be replicated or faked, the importance of maintaining and surrounding ourselves with genuine, trustworthy relationships has never been more crucial.

Over the next couple of years, it will be vital to be part of a community that genuinely prioritizes your well-being, and where you can be confident that your best interests are in mind—something that, realistically, is only achieved by small, and even more so local businesses.

As we all know by now—Loblaws doesn’t care about you, your health, your happiness, or your wellbeing in any capacity, and I hate to break it to ya—neither does Netflix, Anytime Fitness, Facebook, or anything in between. This became painfully apparent during the pandemic; while major corporations maximized their profits, good local businesses focused on ensuring their clients felt safe and supported in a time when they needed it more than ever. While corporate giants saw record profits, small businesses took on more debt to ensure they could continue to provide a safe space for their communities. Not only that, but knowing how much local businesses were suffering we ran additional campaigns to help support local restaurants (like our neighbors To Dine For), to help ensure they’d survive the pandemic - even when we weren’t sure if Raincity was going to.

To the big corporations, you are a number that they want to squeeze as much capital out of as possible. Of course, a small business needs to create capital as well—but for us to do that, we interact with you daily, we collect feedback, we put our clients first, and we mold our services to what our community needs. That’s the power and importance of small businesses, and that is what will be CRUCIAL for our health (both physical and mental) over the coming years.

Still waiting for my invite to Anytime Fitness’ Ice Cream Crawl #RaincityIceCream

Supporting Local is a Two-Way Street

Over the past four years, my Disney+ subscription has doubled - and we get notified of these increases via a no-reply email address… Imagine if your local shop tried to pull that off?

I’ve had a lot of conversations over the years of owning multiple small businesses where clients bring up how long they’ve supported Raincity via paying for a membership. Obviously, this is an integral part of our business and I greatly appreciate anyone who chooses to spend their hard-earned $$ with us; but I am also confident in the product we sell.

For a couple hundred dollars a month, we’ve provided not only awesome workout classes, but a local community, lifelong friendships, and likely a higher level of health and fitness than you ever thought you’d achieve - so aren’t we supporting each other?

Unlike the corporate giants, small businesses don’t have the opportunity to profit off you (aka your data) outside of the services you pay us for. And since we typically operate in competitive, location-based industries, we don’t have monopolies that allow us to set our own prices knowing you can’t go anywhere else. You can be confident we’ll never send you a price increase notice from a no-reply email address.

Lastly, it’s a two-way street because local businesses actually care about you, not just how much capital we can generate from you. We’re on the ground and face-to-face with our clients and community; we get joy out of seeing your results and your enjoyment of our products. We do what we do because we love it, and because we love what it allows us to provide to our local clients and community. But in a world where capital is king, this model isn’t sustainable without a little extra help. Thus, the goal of this post is not merely a call to action; it's an invitation to actively participate in nurturing our local communities (and the small businesses that create/support them) so they can thrive as we head into a time where our mental and physical well-being are going to need them more than ever.

HOW TO Show Support for Your Favorite Local Business

Over the coming weeks, we’ll be expanding on each of these ideas, with easy, direct, and actionable things that you can do that won’t cost you a penny but will have a huge benefit for the growth and sustainability of our favorite local businesses. We’re going to link to ways you can directly do these things with Raincity - but we’re sure your favorite local shop has similar options. If you’re a local shop looking to improve your accessibility and communication with your community, feel free to contact us - we’re happy to help :)

Ok we said ‘free’ ways - this one might cost you a little bit, but chances are you already own some gear, so just take an extra second to try to wear that gear more :)

• Local businesses don’t have the advertising budget of the big kids—so getting our logos out there as much as possible is CRUCIAL.
• The likelihood of someone asking you about it and following through to look us up is 10x higher if they see a logo on a friend, as opposed to a billboard.
• Even if people don’t ask you about it, visibility is key—and the more times they see it, eventually, they’ll be curious enough to see what we’re all about - especially if they see what awesome people there are ;)

This one's super simple and massive—again, without the advertising budget, you’ll rarely get spammed with ads from a local business—so every time you like or share something from us is massive.

• Engagement is everything—sitting on your phone doomscrolling? Pop over to your favorite local business account and make sure you’ve liked everything on their feed and even throw down a few comments or tag some friends.
• Regardless of the latest algorithm - they all know that you’re more inclined to be hooked onto something that your friend is already/also interested in - so your comments or shares on a small business post will almost do more for them than if they paid for ads.
• This helps not only drive engagement but LOCAL engagement from your friends and followers, who are much more likely to become clients.

This is always a hard one, we get it - you found your dream community that’s a nice break from your regular circle of friends or work colleagues, and you don’t want to have to go on a waitlist to get into classes. There’s a reason why the big studios (aka Barry’s, Ride, etc) have aggressive (12-24 hour) cancellation policies with no refunds; because they know that their number 1 priority is a full class.

• You can talk about how much you love something, but just like you weren’t hooked until you tried it out - your friends will be the same. Bring them in to try out a class or a sample of whatever product your favorite local shop has.
• There’s no amount of money you can spend at a local business that will match if you refer a handful of friends, who hopefully also become lifelong customers.
• Is there a reason your friends don’t want to join? Well then….

This is probably the most underappreciated one—as we’ve discussed, one of the biggest reasons to support local is because they actually care about you and your feedback.

• Provide constant and constructive feedback, no matter how big or small. It doesn’t mean that things will change because of your comment, but we’re always listening, and if something comes up enough times, we begin to plan changes around it.
• Local businesses provide a local experience - they’re not told what to do by someone in another country which is why they’re able to tailor their product to the needs of their local community - so make sure they what those needs are!

More Info…

Questions?

• Email info@raincityathletics.ca
• Or checkout our FAQ: www.rncty.ca/faq

Feedback?

• Our members can utilize our anonymous feedback form ANYTIME: www.rncty.ca/feedback
  (password the same as RAthletes wifi posted in the gym)

Want to try us out?

• Whether you know someone at Raincity or not - schedule your free trial today: www.rncty.ca/join

Want to bring a friend?

• Have them register for a free trial FB class, or just email info and we’ll help you get them setup! www.rncty.ca/free-class