Functional Training for a Life You Love Living - Jacked Nerds Issue #010

👋 Welcome Back, Jacked Nerds!

And a hearty hello to the 265 new folks who joined us this week. Stoked to have you here 🥳. I hope everyone’s had a fantastic week.

Last week, we laid down the foundation: a simple system to support fat loss and long-term health through nutrition, strength, and movement that fits around real life. The response from y’all was 🔥 — a lot of you resonated with the motto of “training for life, not for Instagram”.

Most of you aren’t trying to become an influencer. You’re not prepping for a bodybuilding show. You’re not getting paid to train for hours every day.

You're trying to get stronger, move better, and feel more capable, in a body that’s got a few decades on it, with a life that includes kids, work, and probably a lot of sleep debt (you and me both, my friend).

So this week, we’re talking about functional training: the kind that helps you carry all your groceries in one trip, squat down to play with your kids, or get up off the floor without your knees sounding like bubble wrap.

The kind that might make you THE go-to guy when your friends need furnitures move, for better or for worse 😂.

In today's issue, you'll find:

• 🏋️ Training for Real Life

• 🧠 Why This Matters More As Life Progresses

• 🏡 Functional Training at Home

  • 🔗 Functional Training with Light Dumbbells and Re …

• 🤓 My Favourite Nerdy Thing of the Week

• 🫘 My Recipe of the Week - Protein Black Bean Brow …

• 📣 Share with a Friend!

• 🧠 Final Thoughts

🏋️ Training for Real Life

Let’s start here: a lot of workout programs you see online are built for aesthetics or performance. And while there’s nothing wrong with looking good or chasing personal records, that’s not the game most of us are playing.

If you're a busy professional, a new parent, or someone entering your 30s, 40s, or beyond, your body has different needs. Training for beach photos is nice. Training for real life needs is nicer.

That means developing strength, stability, and mobility that helps you move through your day with less pain and more ease.

In other words, functional training.

When done right, functional training improves:

• Balance and core stability

• Joint strength and mobility

• Coordination and injury prevention

• Your ability to carry, lift, twist, squat, push, and pull. Without pain

🧠 Why This Matters More As Life Progresses

In our 20s, we could get away with bad posture, poor movement patterns, and skipping warm-ups. Our body was forgiving, mainly because we haven’t accumulated too much “mobility debt” yet. We were just fresh out of school, we haven’t started families yet, we were out and about with our friends a lot more: weeknight dinners at a new restaurant, league sports, the random poker nights at someone’s house.

In our 30s and 40s? Not so much, especially if you’ve been doing an office job like I have for a while. There’s so much sitting.

A tweak here, a strained back there, and suddenly getting off the couch feels like a boss battle. Sometime you pull a muscle if you sneeze wrong!

It’s aging, yes. But really it’s just a natural progression of life and all of its glorious milestones. Over time, life just puts stress on your body.

If you’ve got young kids, you know what I mean. It’s constant bending, lifting, catching, twisting. That’s real functional stress.

Despite all that, I’d very much like to do more of it — being able to effortlessly pick my girls is one of the greatest joys of being their dad.

This is why it all matters. This is exactly why training needs to evolve as we progress through life. It needs to build resilience, not just burn calories.

Muscle is your armour.

Mobility is your movement license.

And functional training is how you keep both for the long haul.

🏡 Functional Training at Home

Linked below, you’ll find beginner-friendly, simple, and scalable workouts you can do at home, on a yoga mat, in your living room, while your kids build a Lego Millennium Falcon beside you.

The program focuses on compound, functional movements that mimic real-life demands. Each workout should take 30 minutes or less.

While you could do a similar program with just bodyweight, I’ve designed this one with minimal equipment: light dumbbells and resistance bands.

Why? Because if you stay consistent with strength training, you’re going to outgrow bodyweight-only exercises pretty quickly. Dumbbells and resistance bands allow for better load management, more movement variety, and smoother progression over time.

So if you prefer to work out at home instead of a commercial gym, a few light dumbbells (up to 10-15lbs for women, up to 45lbs for men) and a set of resistance bands are a great investment to start. You can always add more equipment or heavier weights as you get stronger.

🔗 Functional Training with Light Dumbbells and Resistance Bands.

🫵 Your Action Step of the Week:

Check out the program above and choose your adventure:

Option 1: Two-Day Full Body
Great if you're short on time but want full-body strength and movement benefits in just two sessions per week.

Option 2: Three-Day Push / Pull / Legs
Perfect if you like shorter sessions and want a bit more structure and variety.

Whichever path you choose, the key is to show up consistently. Focus on movement quality, not speed or perfection. If you do this for a few weeks, you’ll notice a difference.

🤓 My Favourite Nerdy Thing of the Week

I’m a big Marvel and Lego nerd, so my jaw instantly dropped when I saw this on my IG feed. Some people have some serious talent 🙇.

sunprobricks

66K followers

View more on Instagram

And here’s the original scene from The Avengers (2012) for those of us who want to relive the glory days of the MCU.

🫘 My Recipe of the Week - Protein Black Bean Brownie Bites

I finally got around to testing out a high-protein low-fat black bean brownie bite recipe:

• 48g 100% Gold Standard whey protein powder (I used milk chocolate flavour)

• 2 large eggs

• 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder

• 343g canned black bean (drained and washed)

• 3 tbsp stevia

• 20g Hershey semi sweet chocolate chips

This recipe makes 12 servings, each is 7.3g protein, 9.2g carbs, 2g fat and 2.5g fibre for only 70 calories.

As you can see from the photo, it turned out pretty good!

BUT it was a bit dry. I think a few improvements would make this more moist:

• Reduce the baking time - I baked it for 20 mins at 325F. Will try 15 mins next time.

• Adding a bit more liquid - some applesauce or pumpkin puree, and/or vanilla extract (which I forgot to add to this first test) might do the trick.

• And yes, I know, I can always add more fat, like butter or coconut oil or another egg. But I wanted to see if I can achieve my desired outcome without them.

🍞 Anyone here a baker who can help me troubleshoot? Send me a note and let me know!

📣 Share with a Friend!

I hope you’re getting real value from this newsletter!

If you are, it would mean a lot if you shared it with a friend, family member, or anyone you think could benefit from the frameworks and tips I share here.

Thanks so much for being part of this — I appreciate you! 🙏

My mission: 10,000 like-minded legends in the Jacked Nerds crew by end of year.
Help me get there 💪

🧠 Final Thoughts

This kind of training pays off not just in how you feel after a workout, but in every part of your life.

Functional training will give you a strong back, a mobile spine, and knees that don’t yell at you when you get off the floor.

Functional training will allow you to be able to carry your kid upstairs without tweaking your back.

This is what it means to train functionally.

To train for life, not for likes.

Catch y’all in the next one! ✌️ 
Dave Chen
(aka your Jacked Nerd guide)