Amanda Nigg / Farm Fit Momma. Personal Trainer. Nutritional Coach

After losing everything in a devastating fire during COVID lockdown, Amanda Nigg transformed her setback into an international fitness movement. 

Discover how this farm wife turned her unique understanding of rural life into FarmFit Training, a revolutionary approach to fitness that's changing lives across the agricultural community. 

An inspiring story of resilience, innovation, and the power of finding your perfect niche!

5 Key Takeaways:

• Start small: A simple plank challenge can have a big impact.
• Fitness doesn't need to be expensive—use what's around you.
• Water and protein are essential for a healthy body.
• Resilience in farming is both physical and mental.
• You can build a community of like-minded individuals by sharing your journey.

Link: Farm Fit Momma

Paul Povolni, the founder of Voppa Creative, has been a creative leader for over 30 years, with clients around the world. He’s led teams in creating award-winning branding and design as well as equipping his clients to lead with Clarity, Creativity and Culture.

Headsmack Website

Transcript

Paul Povolni (07:11.179)
Hey, welcome to the Headsmack podcast. My name is Paul Povolni and I am excited to have another Misfit with me. Amanda Nigg is a trailblazing founder of FarmFit Training. She's certified by NASM as a personal trainer, nutrition coach, wellness coach, and running coach. Amanda is dedicated to enhancing the physical and mental well -being of the agricultural community.

guided by the philosophy that life is 10 % what happens to us and 90 % how we respond. Amanda is on a mission to build strength and resilience in the agricultural sector. Amanda, welcome. Glad to have you on.

Amanda Nigg (07:50.252)
I'm excited to be here, thank you.

Paul Povolni (07:53.023)
That's quite a niche and quite a sector that you have leaned into. So I want to hear the story of how you ended up there by sharing a little bit about your origin story. How did Amanda get started and how did she end up in health and fitness to do with the farming community?

Amanda Nigg (08:12.824)
Well, I grew up in Western Nebraska, which let's be honest, Nebraska is very agriculture in the Western side of the state. We call it the panhandle, but I guess you can't call it the panhandle because like Texas has a panhandle, so does Oklahoma. It's like, are

Paul Povolni (08:24.725)
Ha ha ha

Amanda Nigg (08:26.796)
But I grew up in Western Nebraska in a small town called Alliance. And it was very so much like you were in the railroad or you were in agriculture. Those were the two biggest industries. So I grew up around agriculture, but I wasn't in agriculture. My dad actually worked for the railroad. My mom worked for UPS. And then I went to college at the University of Wyoming. And so I like, I mean, I loved it. It was a great start to my adventures. But what got me to South Dakota was actually a medical degree.

Paul Povolni (08:57.055)
wow, wow.

Amanda Nigg (08:57.841)
I have a degree in radiation therapy so I do nothing with it obviously.

Paul Povolni (09:04.718)
But what drew you to that? You you said that there's two options where you're from. What drew you to medicine?

Amanda Nigg (09:12.084)
Medicine was always my starting point because like I love the fact of the help. I'm a helper. I'm a fixer So my personality is I love to fix things or solve issues that are not solved and oncology is a field where a lot of people don't understand it and There's so much to it where you can really dive into like different types of cancer like how they like ever I'm gonna say this and somebody's gonna correct me if I'm wrong But like everybody has the cancer bug like we do like certain events will trigger it

active and it doesn't play favorites. It doesn't matter where you came from, doesn't matter your lifestyle, it doesn't matter. Like there could be a guy that can chain smoke every day in his life and never get cancer and then there can be a healthy individual all of sudden going through cancer treatments, you know, and having a stage four cancer. So it just doesn't pick favorites and that was the industry that really drew my attention. My grandpa, who is my role model, he's not with us anymore. He was my light. He actually was diagnosed with

cancer, never smoked a day in his life, but he owned his own plant. you know like again certain events can trigger it to be active and so that's actually what started my quest into oncology is I was like I want to understand this better like I want to understand like how it forms in the body and like how they treat it because like the medical field's always changing and that drew my attention it was like okay I want to understand this a little bit better.

So like when somebody in oncology, I can be that person to like tell them what's happening and be that solution and that problem, not problem, but solution to help them go through it. And when I graduated in oncology, I moved to South Dakota and my first case was a four month old baby and I'm not ready. I, you know, fresh out of college, 25 years old, no kids of my own, not married. And

Paul Povolni (11:00.08)
my...

Amanda Nigg (11:08.138)
was in pediatric oncology and it was just like, mmm.

It was like, all of sudden I'm treating this infant and this family, because it's like you're trying to explain the process to this family and get them to understand what's happening to their child. And it was just like, I couldn't emotionally relate, I guess you could say. So I kind of took a step back from that and actually sold insurance, believe it or not. I sold health insurance. So I sold supplemental insurance door to door, which is the hardest sell you will ever do in your life. Like you got five seconds to make an impression. Like five

Paul Povolni (11:37.214)
Hahaha

Right.

Amanda Nigg (11:41.422)
That's it. And so I loved it. I actually did that for 11 years, live it or not. Well, later in life later in my insurance around my ended up going to business B2B. But I started out door to door and I loved it. I would roll up on farms, you know here I'm a small town girl. So I'd roll up a buck boots. And there's a farmer and a tractor and I'm like, Hey, let me help you. Like I'm Amanda. I'm here just

Paul Povolni (11:46.591)
Wow, door to door or did it move to something else?

Amanda Nigg (12:11.318)
show you some insurance that will protect you. And the reason I loved it so much is because I was still, I'm a fixer, so I was still helping them. You know, I was giving them a solution if they went through like cancer or heart or an accident where the insurance company I worked for at the time called Family Heritage, we give money directly to the individual. So it gave them the opportunity to focus on their health instead of the expenses attached to it. Because like anything in the medical field, like when you go through

big accident or you know cancer that's like a six months to a year process like it's not something that takes right away or even a heart attack and so it allowed these individuals to go get the quality care they wanted instead of the quality care they could afford and so I really flourished in that and that's actually how I met my husband believe it or not on a blind date

Paul Povolni (13:00.627)
All right. You just rolled up at his farm and in your boots and offered him insurance.

Amanda Nigg (13:07.456)
No. Well, that would have been the perfect story.

Paul Povolni (13:12.029)
Yeah, because that's like a Hallmark movie, like, you know.

Amanda Nigg (13:15.91)
Yeah, no, one of my clients was a their agriculture family and he set me up on kind of a blind date, as you can say.

was taking over the territory and I had to introduce myself to the existing clients in family heritage. And he was already a client. had the cancer, our cancer policy. And he's like, there's this young, hot single farmer. You need to meet him. And I'm like, I am not looking for a date or anything. And so I ended up introducing myself to him and he tricked me. He tricked me. So he was like, I was in the, was at the time where I was moving from big town

fall South Dakota to a smaller town because I had so many cancer claims that I wanted to be closer to my clients. And I was looking for a trailer and I was like, okay, I need to find a trailer. And I reached out to this young single farmer and I was like, Hey, I'm Amanda. Like I introduced myself. I was telling them that I'm taking over the territory and I was like, yeah, I'm kind of looking for a trailer. And he's like, well, if I help you find a trailer, you have to go on a date with me. I was like, I was like, okay.

Paul Povolni (14:23.536)
wow.

Amanda Nigg (14:26.272)
I'll go on a date with you and every farmer, let's be honest, has a trailer. What farmer does not have a trailer? So yeah, he was just like, I have a trailer and how does next Thursday sound? I was like, crap, okay, I'm gonna go on a date with this farmer. And it was funny too, because I rolled up on our date wearing stiletto heels. Because you have to understand, I was destined for the big city. That's where I wanted to end up.

Paul Povolni (14:32.437)
hahahaha

Amanda Nigg (14:52.608)
And so I remember rolling up in these red stiletto heels and he's just like, I don't know who this girl is, but I got to get an hour. And yeah, after our first date, we had a couple more dates and I was like, yeah, this, guy's going nowhere. I'm like, I'm, I'm here.

Paul Povolni (15:05.619)
Yeah. Yeah. That was, that does sound like a Hallmark movie. The big city girls rolls up to a date with a farm boy in red stiletto heels. So, so that led, so that led you back into the farming space, that you, you know, once was part of like everybody went into those areas and suddenly you found yourself back into that. So, what happened next? Is that when you stepped away from insurance and started,

Amanda Nigg (15:33.614)
No, I kept insurance. So I still did insurance. went on a couple of dates. Well, then we ended up dating. And shortly after I did move in with him, it was quick. You know, when you're later in life, you meet that person. It's just like, makes sense. Like, when you meet that person, everything flows perfectly. And so I remember one of his tests for me was he had me get in this quad track. I think it was like a 500 or 520 quad track.

Paul Povolni (15:48.893)
Right,

Amanda Nigg (16:01.522)
Case a h quad track and he was like I'm going to explain how to drive it because again I didn't grow up in agriculture, but I'm always up for challenge And so he's all the radio explaining how to drive this quad track that had these big Massive rollers on the back of it because I was gonna roll so we so what we do in agriculture. Let me explain this

Paul Povolni (16:08.161)
Yeah.

Paul Povolni (16:19.819)
Quite an audition, wow.

Amanda Nigg (16:23.232)
Yeah, it was quite the addition like in agriculture, we roll solely boonies because we push the rocks down because when you harvest soybeans, you get so close to the ground that

the combine will get caught on rocks. And so you have to almost like lay it super flat to be able to harvest soybeans in the fall. And so he's like, there was a storm coming and he's like, I need help. Like, I know you didn't grow up an ag, but I'm going to throw you into this tractor and you're going to roll soybeans behind me as I'm planting. And I was like, okay, whatever, this can't be too hard. And so I get in this quad track and there's like these buttons all over the place. And he's like, I need you to flick this button,

this button, you know, there's the turtle and rabbit, you know, for speed and he's like, don't go all the way to the rabbit, you know, go in between. And so I'm like, doing all this stuff getting out into the field. Well, luckily the field wasn't too far from the farm.

And I get out there and he's like, okay, now you have to unroll the rollers and fall behind me. And I was like, okay, I got this. He's like, well, I just want to tell you that this is the only field that is actually fence. So don't take out the fence. And I was like, you're putting me in a field where it's fence and the rollers are huge. And I'm like, okay, I got this. Like, I'm going to do this. So I get out there, I get it all unrolled. luckily I didn't take out the fence, you know, and I caught up to him

Paul Povolni (17:33.461)
You

Amanda Nigg (17:47.522)
finish role in this field and we get back to the farm and my husband will say like that's what he knew he's like I gotta put a ring on this girl like she's going nowhere we're gonna get married and so yeah a year later you proposed and two kids later

So insurance, I still sold insurance for the first part of our marriage. Like there's so much to understand. he typically, know, most of our wives, they do do the bookkeeping and that kind of thing. Well, I quickly realized like that's not my thing. Like there's so many codes when you're...

do an accounting work for farming and you have to put them in the right category and that just being stuck in an office was not my type of thing. So I did keep up on insurance, but I did kind of back off to like barely part time because I wanted to be a hands -on mom with our children and be an active, active role on the farm. so like his, always tell everybody like, can put me in any piece of equipment. Like I'm the perfect wheel turner. Like I can drive anything, as soon as things break down, I'm

If I can't Google it or YouTube it, like I'm out. that was kind of like how it started. And then I kept up with insurance up until COVID, 2020. And then I'm sure we'll get into that story, but things kind of changed once COVID hit and kind of put a huge wrench, I guess, in the direction I ended up going.

Paul Povolni (18:55.194)
Hahaha

Paul Povolni (19:17.971)
Yeah. So there's no more turning up at people's houses because you didn't, you didn't do that anymore. And so, yeah, that, changed for a lot of people of what, what you could do, especially people that their job relied on them meeting people and interacting with people and all of that stuff. So did you totally stop insurance at that point? like when did the transition happen into, pursuing, things around mental health and fitness?

Amanda Nigg (19:46.232)
So leading up to COVID, we did build our forever home, which was actually located half a mile south of the farm. So he is the only farmer, I guess, in his family, because his dad died of brain cancer really young. And then his sister lives down in Oklahoma. So for him, he kind of took over the role of farming for his family. And when COVID hit, the day before the national pandemic,

living in our forever home. You know, everybody was getting ready for the lockdown because like the next day, March 20th, you know, we were locked down for two weeks. I remember I was taking at the time I was like the whole year or two years, four years. But I was in the process of moving.

Paul Povolni (20:24.069)
Right. That was the longest two weeks ever.

Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Nigg (20:39.278)
taking my youngest to daycare because I still worked insurance part time. You know, and as we're trying to figure out that transition into like being, you know, you can't talk to anyone like face to face contact wasn't recommended. And so I remember that morning I was getting my youngest ready for daycare. I was really frazzled because I had a couple business meetings that were Zoom that I was going to give them a pitch for insurance, you know, to offer to their employees. And I get to daycare, drop my youngest off at daycare.

and I look at my phone and I had eight calls from my husband. when you get eight calls from somebody, like, ugh,

that gut feeling of something's wrong because you don't call people that many times. And so I remember getting on the phone with my husband and he was like, Hey, the house is on fire. You need to get home. And at this time we are forever home. Yeah. We just built it four years prior. We just built our dream home four years prior. you know, I had everything we wanted all the like, you know, we, poured our heart and soul into building this forever home. And, I remember thinking,

Paul Povolni (21:20.866)
Right,

Paul Povolni (21:30.313)
Is this your forever home?

Amanda Nigg (21:48.256)
in the back of my head like is he serious like is this really happening and he repeated himself and I was like oh my gosh like it's like our house is really on fire and so again my fix -it personality I'm like I know where the fire extinguishers are in the house like I can put this out and so I remember jetting home and at the time the daycare was 10 miles away from her house so not far and I got home and as I'm pulling down the driveway I see the smoke and I was like

I'm going to run in this house and put out this fire. And so I pulled up to the house and I remember running up to the front door and I hit this. We had massive like cedar pillars in the front of our house. And if you're running full force hitting one of those, like I flew back on my back. Like it just knocked me completely out. And I was like, Nope, I'm going to go around back now. So I remember running around back. And by the time I got to the back of the house, the garage was gone. Like we had a three, three stall.

garage and at that time I just kind of stopped in my tracks and I'm like, if I go in that house, I'm not going to come back out. And then I finally, at the time, my husband and my oldest were home and they actually climbed out the master bedroom window. And so they were in the horse barn that was across the farm, our little farmstead yard. And I could hear them crying. And so I came back to the front and I remember we waited 38 minutes for the fire department, which in rural America,

Paul Povolni (23:17.053)
Wow. Wow.

Amanda Nigg (23:18.03)
that's a lot of time like that's super quick you have to understand like these are all volunteer fire fighters. Like it was eight in the morning. So they were more than likely were already at work, you know, and they had to leave work and get to the fire department load the fire trucks change, you know, get to our house, which was, you know, 15 miles outside of the small town that we live close by. So like 38 minutes, that's amazing time. But for me, like in that 38 minutes, it's just like you're watching your forever.

Paul Povolni (23:46.697)
It's the longest time ever.

Amanda Nigg (23:48.71)
my god, it was so long. And like, I mean, they they started working on the house trying to like stop the fire. And the next thing you know, another fire department showed up from another small town and another one, we ended up having like five local fire departments from small neighboring towns.

come to try to put out this house fire. And finally, I heard this excavator come down the driveway. And it just kind of like sunk in. It's like, my house is completely gone. Like, there's gonna be nothing left. Like they ended up collapsing it on itself because it's March, you know? And so it's cold. There was still snow on the ground. And they were more worried like, hey, we don't want this to spread into the neighboring field, which was our field. And like, we're gonna have to collapse your house, your home on itself.

Paul Povolni (24:06.506)
well.

Paul Povolni (24:35.475)
Wow. Wow. Wasn't that what I said a log home as well?

Amanda Nigg (24:35.848)
to stop. And so yeah. Yeah, so we we had some of it was it was mostly we had cedar post in the front. It was a wraparound deck. I mean, it was a big home like it was

I think like 3800 square feet on one level and then the basement matched it and then we had a loft and it was 18 feet or 18, you know, pitch ceiling. So it was like angled inside with like exposed beams and stuff. So it was kind of like a log home, but it wasn't. But what really got us is we did the spray foam thing.

Paul Povolni (25:10.015)
Yeah,

Amanda Nigg (25:13.568)
And so I guess when you spray foam your home, it kind of acts like an insulator and keeps all the heat in. And so it was one of the hottest fires they ever had to deal with because like it just spread it all in the house. so they collapsed the home on itself. And that next day it was like the national lockdown. you couldn't like we couldn't go shopping. We couldn't get groceries. know, everything was shut down. And so it was just like,

Paul Povolni (25:18.826)
Brian, Brian.

Paul Povolni (25:24.415)
My goodness.

Paul Povolni (25:36.199)
my goodness.

Paul Povolni (25:41.727)
Wow.

Amanda Nigg (25:43.522)
the heck are we gonna do? Like, how do we navigate this? And luckily, we had amazing neighbors that showed up and, you know, would drop stuff out the door and then call us and be like, Hey, I just dropped off a of stuff for you guys. You know, small town America, just great neighbors. But I would have to say like, I've never been mentally so low in my life.

Paul Povolni (25:55.647)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amanda Nigg (26:06.508)
Like it was, it was that moment where it was just like, I didn't know what to do next. I'm homeschooling my children, which I can teach an adult any day, but you tell me to teach it at the time as it was a five year old in his almost eight year old. mean, the math are doing the days. Like it was just like, yeah, I'm like, why can't we go back to the old way it was working? So,

Paul Povolni (26:06.846)
Wow.

Paul Povolni (26:26.349)
The common core and all that stuff.

Amanda Nigg (26:34.464)
You know, I ended up, I couldn't do my career. I couldn't sell insurance. You know, I couldn't, I was homeschooling our children and we're trying to social distance at the time we're living in the shop because we had nowhere to go. So we're back half a mile to the north at the main farm.

And so we're trying to figure out this transition and like, I mean, I just struggled really struggled with my own identity, like what was next. And I remember like for me, I've always been very active, like I've been your competitive. Like if you play any sports, I'm that person that you hate to play against because I'm so competitive. And so like I've always been a fitness. Yeah, I mean, I mean, card games, I'm even competitive. I don't let my kids

Paul Povolni (27:11.339)
Yeah. From UNO to sports, right? Like don't, don't mess with you.

Amanda Nigg (27:21.315)
so like, was just one of those things where like, for me, I just really emotionally was at my lowest point, like I didn't know what to do. My husband

it wasn't nothing really changed for him. Like he was still able to, you know, go back to farming because you know, farming is a very solo job, you know, you're in tractor by yourself. So like, yeah, I'm going into planning season. I mean, it didn't really change too much for him. But like, for me, it just rocked my world. It was like, I was trying to figure out all these next steps. And so I do have an associate's degree in health promotion. And so in I've been that

You know that gained 60 pounds and one pregnancy had two c -sections so like I've always been super physically active because I was diving into my own fitness journey from 2017 and My husband knew that well my gym was in our house And so he would go to our junk pile and bring me these like random pieces of equipment like we're talking old tractor tires like weights from like tractors and he's like here use this because you couldn't get you couldn't get gym equipment like

Paul Povolni (28:30.804)
Yeah,

Amanda Nigg (28:31.226)
It was my job.

Like, cause everybody's stuck at home. So everybody's buying gym equipment. And so he was bringing me these random pieces of equipment to use. And so I started posting it online, believe it or not on social media. was like, you know what? I'm going to do a tire flipping workout and I'm going to post this online. And I had people ask me, they're like, what are you doing? Whose program are you doing? I'm like, well, I'm kind of creating it like mine. And so I started posting these random workouts within in

Paul Povolni (28:56.04)
Yeah.

Amanda Nigg (29:02.288)
of 2020 I was like you know what I'm not certified at this time I got online found this planking challenge because we know planking works to the whole body like it it not only aligns your body it helps your circulatory system boost your mood in 30 seconds 30 seconds so I did this

Paul Povolni (29:19.413)
So explain to those that might be listening that don't know what planking is.

Amanda Nigg (29:24.078)
So when you get down on your elbows and you're extended out and you're engaging not only your core, your legs, your back, your upper body, you're holding your body weight in a position where you're holding it

30 seconds, 45 seconds. And the reason why it's a full body movement is because you're engaging so many muscle groups at the same time. so planking is one of the movements, it's one of those old movements that a lot of people forget to do that works your whole entire body. And I talked about a few of the benefits, it helps your circulatory system because you're holding this movement and you're engaging all your muscles all at once. And so it helps the flow of your blood

your body and help aligns your back because you're holding this position engaging your core.

Paul Povolni (30:14.559)
Yeah. So, so it's basically like you're trying to keep a straight line. You're kind of like doing it like a, like a pushup position that most people are familiar with, except you're on your elbows and your body is as straight as possible. And then you're on your toes. Right. And so you just try and hold that straight line while you're on your elbows and on your toes, facing the ground position. Right. Okay.

Amanda Nigg (30:37.39)
Yep, and you don't want to move. that's why it's one of those movements where you're locked into that position and you're holding it. So you're holding all your muscles tight at the same time. And that's why it really works your whole entire body because you're engaging so many muscle groups in just that one movement. it's not... Well, the Plank Challenge actually built up. So it started at like 20 seconds and then at day 30, it went up to five minutes.

Paul Povolni (30:57.055)
How long do you hold it for?

Paul Povolni (31:06.537)
Whoa, wow, okay.

Amanda Nigg (31:07.246)
Yeah, so I put it like I said, I put this thinking challenge together and I actually challenged a bunch of farmers to join me. I was like, I'm gonna just throw this out there and see if anybody wants to join me. I don't even know. I had 800. I had 800 plus I don't even know the count of farmers across the world. I mean, we had people in Australia join UK. It just went

viral. Everybody was planking on like tractors, buys it. I like it was, but it opened my eyes like it's like, okay, everybody is bridging that gap between consumer and producer because agriculture is the industry that a lot of people don't understand. Let's be honest, like, they like, especially when people go to the grocery store, they instantly blame the farmers for the increase of food prices when it's not us. Like we're still getting paid the same. It's your middleman that are making all the money. And it's like, no, and

Paul Povolni (31:36.612)
That's awesome, wow.

Amanda Nigg (32:03.008)
for example, a lot of people don't understand that. And so again, it was just one of those things where it is giving the people a space to work on themselves. And it really opened my eyes into that where it's like, okay, everybody on social media is doing a great job bridging that gap between consumer and producer, you know, agriculture, and then what you buy in the grocery store, but nobody's really tackling the physical and mental health and bridging that gap.

Because like, agriculture as a whole as an industry that's vastly improving daily. Like, I mean, they have, it or not, Paul, they have self run tractors that drive themselves like on a little remote control like a video game. Like, maybe we don't have that. I wish we did. That would be cool. But, you know, a lot of the manual labor side of things in agriculture.

Paul Povolni (32:46.569)
Yeah, wow.

Amanda Nigg (32:57.386)
is getting replaced by technology, which is a great thing. It shows that our industry is vastly improving. It's like not only just vastly improving, but we're advancing when it comes to technology practices, you know, and keeping up with the times and keeping ahead of it, you know, with Soya Health and all of that. Where like back in the day, you used to have to pick up, hey, Belle, sorry, my dog's barking.

But we used to have to pick up hay bales and throw them on the back of the tractor. Well, now, now we have a machine that will pick them up and do it like you don't physically do it. So the physical mental side of things of agriculture was going downhill. And that's really where it opened my eyes. It was like, okay, nobody's approaching this. Like nobody's talking about, you know, working on yourself, you know, physically and how it impacts your mental health as well. Like if you

Paul Povolni (33:25.204)
Right, right.

Yeah,

Paul Povolni (33:48.907)
Yeah, I find it fascinating that, and I think that for somebody listening to this, it is a little bit of a head smack moment for them is when you think of niching and you you, you found this niche of health and fitness for farmers and most people will think, Oh my goodness, that's just so niche. Like who's going to want to do that? Like how are you going to find enough people to make a living or, or make any impact? said 800 people from around the world signed up for.

your first offer. so, you know, be, be mindful of, you know, when you're niching is, you know, it might be a lot bigger than you think. if you lean into something that you're super passionate about. so I want to encourage somebody in that is, is when, you're looking at niching, you know, you might, you might be staying away from a niche that is actually has enough people in it that you can serve well and so passionately.

give it a shot and kind of put it out there and see if it's a valid offer. And so that's amazing that you found that. so, you did this plank challenge and, you know, what happened after that? What kind of led you to the next steps with the interest that you had

Amanda Nigg (35:03.82)
Well, I loved it so much because like, again, it was kind of my realm, you know, again, fix it personality. And agriculture is the industry I live in, you know, I understand it because like, at the time I was buried into it, and like, I really understand it. And so I started doing a couple more, I did two more free challenges. So these were free challenges online that I did, because at the time I wasn't certified, so I couldn't charge someone. And I decided I turned to my husband, and I remember telling him about my ideal of like, hey, I want

to a certified coach and I want to tailor programs to people in the agriculture community. like, know, agriculture is bigger than you think. Like when we're talking agriculture, we're not just talking farm wives and farmers, we're talking people that work at John Deere, Case IH, Caterpillar. We're talking about the ones that work for industries that are within agriculture. And that's really big. Like it's a big industry. You know, we were truly the backbone of the world.

Paul Povolni (35:49.502)
Right.

Paul Povolni (35:58.751)
Right.

Amanda Nigg (36:02.922)
in any country because if you don't have a food system, you don't have farmers, you don't, I mean there's not gonna be food in the grocery stores. There's not gonna be those, what is it, amenities is what maybe I wanna put there that we take for granted. Nowadays we can go to grocery store and get avocados and avocados.

Paul Povolni (36:18.825)
Yeah. Right.

Amanda Nigg (36:26.39)
like a grown in California or Mexico, you know, so it's just like, it was really cool and opening my eyes in that aspect. And so then I, I knew I wanted to be online because you know, small town America, like I was like, I can't get enough clientele to make this a flourishing business. And so I started doing this entrepreneurship of learning how to run a business online. And during that time, I went back and got certified as a personal trainer and nutrition coach. And I was like,

I'm going to start there and see where this takes me. And so then I remember the first day I opened the doors, February 5th of 2021. So this is less than 10 months after our house burned down. Less than 10 months after our house burned

Paul Povolni (37:07.679)
Wow. Wow.

Amanda Nigg (37:09.678)
I opened the doors to FarmFit training and I remember just that feeling of like, is anybody gonna trust me? Like, is anybody gonna even apply? I had 60 applications in 45 minutes and I only found 25 clients. So only 25 clients at a time, because like they were one -on -one. But I remember my mentor at the time, she was like, don't be shocked if you get one or two clients in your first six months. Like you have to build up.

Paul Povolni (37:21.778)
Wow. Wow.

Paul Povolni (37:35.354)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,

Amanda Nigg (37:37.656)
that I had a full roster within three days was insane.

Paul Povolni (37:42.025)
That's amazing.

Amanda Nigg (37:43.182)
And I loved it. And it wasn't just women to like I did have a lot of women that applied at first, you know, I get it a lot of men are not going to hire a female coach. But now I would say I'm split down the middle. Like I'm 5050. I have men clientele and women clientele across the world. I'm actually international, which is really cool. So um, yeah, open the doors and then the rest is history. Like it just, love it. I am. Oh,

Paul Povolni (38:01.087)
Wow. Wow.

Paul Povolni (38:09.503)
Yeah, well, was that?

Amanda Nigg (38:12.47)
I said I thank God every day for opportunity.

Paul Povolni (38:14.515)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and what I love about your story too, is, the fact that you started using the things around you, you know, when it came to the fitness, I mean, it was basically CrossFit, right? You know, with, you know, you know, flipping tires, you know, lifting random things, challenging muscles in new ways, because it wasn't perfect gym equipment and all of that. And so I think, I think that's amazing that, you know, instead of saying until I have

Amanda Nigg (38:28.621)
No.

Paul Povolni (38:43.941)
X amount of tools or X amount of resources, unless I had this, I really can't do that is you kind of may do with what you had at the time and made it work. And I think for a lot of entrepreneurs and business owners, you know, we can sometimes get stuck in this place of until I have this tool, until I have that tool, until I have that equipment, until I had that person, until I have that thing, I can't do anything at all. And so you took what you had.

around you and made it work and it became a part of your thing because that also encouraged other farmers that might not have access to gym equipment, that might not have access to all the tools that other trainers might offer, but you have a way of helping them with the things that they have around, right? Is that still part of what you're doing or has it migrated to something else

Amanda Nigg (39:34.606)
No, 100%. It's still our motto. like, when I was getting certified, I read this case study and I'll never forget it. In this case study, they took 100 people, you 50, 50, they split them right down the middle. And they gave this first group of 50 people, they gave them four movements, simple movements, like we're talking deadlift, know, squats, like nothing, not a fancy movement. Because I know there's so many fancy, like wall pilates is out there. And I'm like, what the heck is wall pilates? Like, what are we doing here?

Paul Povolni (40:01.239)
Yeah,

Amanda Nigg (40:04.974)
basic movements and they're like, this first group, they're going to have them workout 15 to 25 minutes. They're going to go four rounds.

doing these four simple movements. And then they took this next group in the study, they took this next group of individuals and they're like, okay, you have to do the same four movements, but now we're going to go for time, 45 minutes to an hour. And they over the course of the three month period, the group that had the best progress is the one that actually had the shorter amount of time, believe it or not, because they did progressive overload. And what that means is they challenged their muscles with heavier weights.

So once they got comfortable doing 10 reps, for example, let's just say like bicep curls. They were doing 15 pound bicep, 15 pound weights with bicep curls.

they would increase their weight and challenge their muscles to grow. So what happens when you lift weight or do resistant training is you create these like, and I always do use this analogy. So your muscles are like this. And when you lift weights, you create this micro tear in your muscles. And that's actually what helps build and repair your muscles, especially when you couple it with a high protein diet. And so they notice that they put on more muscle mass while muscle

fat faster. You know, our muscle skeleton is actually our biggest organ in our entire body. And so they were able to build muscle, shred fat faster, gain energy compared to this group that worked out 45 minutes to an hour. And so I took that methodology and I applied it to firm fit training where you don't need a lot of equipment. Like you can use anything around your farm. And just like you said, a farm yard is like a crossfit haven. It just takes a little bit space.

Paul Povolni (41:49.865)
Right, right.

Amanda Nigg (41:51.406)
And so like, that's one of the things I still talk about is like, hey, if you're up and like, I had a gal, for example, one of my first clients, she was one part of my OGs, she's still with me to this day, crazy. Like, I was the original 2518 of them are still with me to this day. So she was she lived up in the middle of quad. I don't even know Canada, like, you know, Canada is massive. And closest town to her was an hour and a half.

Paul Povolni (42:02.313)
Wow. Wow.

Paul Povolni (42:07.325)
that's amazing.

Amanda Nigg (42:21.102)
And so when she applied for my program, she didn't have any weights. You know, she was just like, I need to do something. So she actually grabbed buckets of oats and used them as weights for this. my one -on -one coaching was 12 weeks and how we adjusted the weight is we would add water to them. And then she put them on the cattle scale, get the measurements. So we knew how much it weighed. I'm not, I'm not making this up. Her name's Jana. Yeah. then. Well.

Paul Povolni (42:30.281)
Wow. Wow.

Paul Povolni (42:43.804)
Yeah. This is awesome. So it's not lifting chickens and then you're lifting sheep and eventually you're lifting a cow, right? This is

Amanda Nigg (42:51.854)
No, but yeah, she would like feed them to the chicken. She would feed the oats to the chickens, you know, you know after it kind of got spoiled but

Paul Povolni (42:58.471)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Amanda Nigg (43:01.896)
Yeah, her transformation was huge because again, she coupled nutrition with resistance training. And so like anybody that's out there looking for a fitness program, make sure it has both of those components. Like you're doing a resistant training program with nutrition and understanding nutrition and how to feel your body. It was just the coolest.

Paul Povolni (43:04.555)
That's amazing.

Paul Povolni (43:23.221)
So with the weights, you were saying that it's a matter of doing heavier things. Less times is better than doing lighter things. A lot of times. Is that what you were saying? Okay. Okay.

Amanda Nigg (43:36.91)
because you have to challenge your muscles. like if you're like, if for example, Paul, if I approached you with a 25 minute workout.

wouldn't you instantly pick up a heavier weight? You're like, I'm gonna give this hell for 25 minutes, you know, and then you go through your first set and be like, could go heavier or like, let's say you started super heavy and you're like, okay, maybe I need to drop down because I don't I'm not gonna make those next three rounds. Again, you're still challenging your muscles. Like if somebody approached you with a 45 minute workout, you're like, I'm gonna go light because there's no way I'm going to make that 45 minute mark, you know. And so a lot of times a lot of individuals don't understand that like,

hey, in order to build muscle, you have to challenge them. You have to create those micro tears. And the only way to do that is to lift heavy. And a lot of women are like, well, I don't want to lift heavy because I don't want to look like a man. Well, that's one of the biggest myths. don't have our chemical make up is totally different from a man. Like there's no way I'm going to look. Don't get me wrong. There's some women on social media where you see them and you're like, I don't want to fight her. Like, yeah.

Paul Povolni (44:23.369)
Yeah,

Paul Povolni (44:37.419)
Right, but they've really, really worked hard to get to that place. Yeah, they didn't get there by mistake.

Amanda Nigg (44:45.278)
Yeah, there's something else going on there. But but again, like, when you pick up heavier weights, you know, you get

Paul Povolni (44:47.241)
Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Nigg (44:53.144)
For women, get leaner, smaller, tighter, and you start to see that tone look that we're all after. And for men, again, your chemical makeup's a lot different. When you're pushing heavier weights, you're building that muscle. So you're starting to shred fat, see that muscle definition, get those arms. A lot of men want those chiseled arm and then man chest. So there's a lot of beautiful things that come from that. And so I took those two mythologies, minimum equipment again, and I'm showing individuals, hey,

you don't need to have this huge massive setup gem. It just takes a little creativity and thinking outside the box and you can achieve any result you want as long as you're disciplined and you're consistent.

Paul Povolni (45:36.799)
Yeah. Well, kind of like the, shared about the planking. What are some other things that somebody could start today that could start towards that, that health and feeling better. said, you know, the planking was like a full body, you know, activity. What, are some other things that you've started people off with, especially somebody that might not have been doing that, that is new to this. what, what are some recommendations that you

Amanda Nigg (45:50.646)
Yeah, thank you.

Amanda Nigg (46:05.127)
I would always tell everybody to pay attention to water, for example.

Water is another thing like for a lot of people don't realize like even a slight to deep deep earths like 2 % dehydration will affect your memory your thinking your cognitive skills like everything so like I Always have every single kind that comes into firm fit training I have them drink a gallon of water which seems like a lot of water I get it, but I'm five one a buck 25 and I get a gallon in so you can do it So I always tell them hey do gallon of water

Paul Povolni (46:33.823)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amanda Nigg (46:38.608)
You know replace it with your soda because soda is so packed of like preservatives and sugar You know if you're someone that's addicted to it You know aim for your gallon of water first and then maybe have a popper You know coke or whatever your your guilty pleasure is and in that aspect and then also protein Like focus it like eat protein first because like in today's society if you look at it Everything's focused around food like if you go to an event. There's always food

Like you can go to a farming event, for example, in my case, and there's always vendors all over the place, you know, selling food or a family gathering. Guess what? Food's there. It's just our society. Like food is, fast food change restaurants are all over the place. And so when you go to eat your meal or let's say you're gonna eat lunch or dinner,

Focus on eating your protein first before you eat your carbohydrates and carbs are like your breads You know your pastas your vegetables any of that stuff just by making sure you're getting enough protein in a day Will really change your body as well and I can use an example. So I my stepdad's a pilot and I actually have been working with this nutrition finally, you know four years of launching my program he finally came to me but

Paul Povolni (47:56.019)
Yeah.

Amanda Nigg (47:58.43)
He was he was, you know, he flies all over Colorado. So he's based out of Denver, Colorado. And he works for a company called Great Aviation, and they fly all over the place. And so he was I was talking to him about some high protein snacks to grab to help him, you know, like tuna packs and, you know, hard boiled eggs great to get because he's at like different hotels in the morning. Because when they get to a destination, have to stay at our hotel. We were going through all of that. And when I was talking to him

I'm like you're supposed to be eating one gram per body weight

protein a day. You know, and he's a big dude, like my stepdad's like 200 pounds. And we kind of calculated what he was eating in protein. And he was like, I'm not even close to what I supposed to be eating in protein. And so once we hone that in, and got him like at least 270 grams of protein a day, he's like the first week completely sucked. He was like, I was grumpy, I was not having it. But he's like, he called me one day after church and he

Paul Povolni (48:45.577)
Wow.

Paul Povolni (48:59.05)
Hahaha.

Amanda Nigg (49:02.72)
my energy's up, I feel like my normal self again. He's like, I've noticed like my skin's starting to get clearer, like I just feel complete. And so a lot of clients that come into farm good training don't realize how much they under eat when it comes to protein.

Paul Povolni (49:19.027)
Interesting.

Amanda Nigg (49:19.052)
And that's one of those eye opening things is like when you start to calculate it and start to track it, you're like, I eat protein all day. And it's like, okay, like let's track it and see where you're actually at. And then when they find out like, wait a minute, I'm not even close to half of what I'm supposed to be eating in protein. And so, is that me? so I always tell them, you know, make sure that, you know, you know, something simple you could do is like a plank that we talked about, you know, a gallon of water a day and

Paul Povolni (49:35.644)
Wow.

Amanda Nigg (49:49.096)
always eat protein first and make sure you have protein with every meal. So if you're go grab a snack, like let's say you're gonna have chips, like I'm all about, you know, instead of subtract, add, is the method I go about because like as soon as you tell someone they can't have a certain type of food, what do they crave? That certain type of food. That's all they think about. Like you told me I couldn't have chocolate, I'm gonna crave chocolate. So instead of like taking it out of your diet, just couple it with protein.

Paul Povolni (50:08.063)
That's all I think about Ryan.

Yeah,

Amanda Nigg (50:18.934)
And then next thing you know, you're going to start to make healthier choices because you're going to start to look at nutrition differently. Because at the end of the day, we're all emotionally attached to food, even if we like to admit it or not. And so just to get that attachment away and start to view food as fuel, it changes your thinking and your mindset around

Paul Povolni (50:41.235)
Yeah. Well, and so it sounds like most people are actually under nourished or under eating. and, and they don't even realize it, you know, like you mentioned your, your stepfather, thought that he was eating fine, but he was not eating enough protein. Do you think that, and you know, with, with your, also your agriculture background is that we are not getting the amount of nutrition that we think we

Even though we think we're eating a lot or we're eating well because we're not eating the right things. Is that correct?

Amanda Nigg (51:15.586)
Yeah, well, I would say so because like a lot of times like you when you go to fast food restaurants, what's the first thing we gravitate towards french fries, know, or something like that. And we're not thinking about the type of foods that we could be eating. Especially when it comes to like protein, like I'll be the first to met I always thought I was eating enough protein. And then once I started diving into it, it's like, wait a minute, I'm not actually feeling my body correctly.

You know, and a lot of people don't understand the science behind nutrition either. And that's one of the things that we really educate on is like, when you join for training, I'm going to actually explain what protein is, what it does to your body, like what are good sources of protein. Same with carbohydrates. Like they're simple and complex carbohydrates. Like let me break them down and explain the difference between the two. Or when you get into fats, you know, a lot of people avoid fats because they're like, I'm going to gain fat because I'm eating fat. And it's like,

Paul Povolni (52:10.101)
Right, because FAT -free was such a big thing. Everybody kept talking about FAT -free everything.

Amanda Nigg (52:14.903)
Yeah.

And it's like, well, when you actually understand fats, like there's three different types of fats. There's trans fats, saturated fats and unsaturated fats. Let's explain the science and what they are so you will actually understand. And when people are armed with that knowledge, they actually start to make better choices for themselves naturally. And again, it's all about that education. And so like when someone comes into the program, I know they're not going to be with me for life. know, going to be, do have 18 that have been with me since the get go, but I want them to

how to feel their body correctly and to really understand what they're putting in their body and what it does their body. And so we really like to educate the science behind it and really give them that knowledge to the point where they could be like a personal trainer because they understand it and they understand how to feel their body. And so we actually do something called macronutrients. Have you heard of that before? Okay, so the word.

Paul Povolni (53:09.641)
I've heard the term, but I'm not familiar with it. So go ahead and explain

Amanda Nigg (53:13.834)
The word macro means large, so you're focusing on the nutritional value of foods in large amounts. So it's actually a nutrition theory. It's not a diet.

Because a lot of times when we hear that word diet we think of restrictive right when you hear somebody on a diet You're like, they're cutting out food like they can't have and that's just the notation even though the word diet means Nutrition profile, right? It's talking about all the food that you're putting in your body And so I always tell everybody when they start the program like macronutrients. It's not a diet We're talking about a nutritional theory. So we're focusing on Protein carbs and fats in large amounts to feel our

And to really be able to function at its ultimate best and that doesn't mean taking foods away Like that means, know again looking at it as a different perspective Like you can still have Oreos like you can still have ice cream. had ice cream last night You know and it still fit into my nutrition so you can still enjoy food But you're looking at that nutritional values of like hey, what am I gonna gain from eating this food? You know, and so you start to detach yourself emotionally from food and

to start looking at it as like, hey, how am going to feel my body today? Like can make pork chops, can make a steak, I can make, you know, and so you start to think that way. And so a lot of times like fitness programs, especially nutritional coaches out there will give you this cookie cutter program, right? Let's be honest. They'll give you like this meal guide and be like, you're eating chicken rice for the next six weeks. Well, what if you don't like chicken rice? like that would be a torture diet. And then two is what is that teaching

Paul Povolni (54:42.907)
Right, Right, right. Yeah, yeah.

Amanda Nigg (54:52.28)
At the end of the day, you're like, okay, I ate what they told me to eat and I lost all this weight and built all this muscle

But I still don't know anything about nutrition. And so how we approach nutrition is I give you meals. So I give you high protein meals. Like I have a recipe library of over 500 plus recipes, a thousand, I'm probably up to a thousand now that you have access to that you can cook a meal for your whole family that is high protein that everybody's going to love kid friendly because I have two very picky little boys, you know, that are going to feel you. And then you're going to hit your numbers.

But you're not making a separate meal for yourself. And so it's more of a sustainable approach because instead of like saying I have to eat this certain way and the rest of the family is eating something else, no, I'm taking the whole family on a healthy course and we're all eating healthy, high protein, you know.

high fiber meals and filling ourselves and I'm hitting my weight loss goals and it's filling my whole family and so it just it becomes fun because then you start to eat differently and you're like I just have to make this one meal and it's gonna work for everyone.

Paul Povolni (55:56.233)
Right, right.

Paul Povolni (56:01.619)
Yeah. Now, you know, with your background in oncology as well, where you kind of started off things, have you tied that into nutrition and the things that we're putting into a body as well? Or have you, separated that because you're more on the other side of fitness where it's to do with working out and, and behavior and all that as well, or, are you tying those two together?

Amanda Nigg (56:25.474)
But a lot of the stuff that I learned in oncology.

especially the nutrition side of things does carry into what I'm doing today. Because like when you have cancer, for example, they encourage you not to have sugar, because sugar kind of feels feels cancer. And so it believe it or not little nuggets of it do carry over not a lot. you know, I've worked with nutritionist, when people went through cancer, especially when I was doing my clinical rotations, and I did peek at it, and it's a very blind diet, I'll be honest, they kind of take everything out of it. But still some

that knowledge from like how to fill our bodies like at the end day, like if we think about it, we all started as cavemen cave women, you know, we all were the meat, meat type carnivores. Like I mean, don't get me wrong, like I see a ton of people doing the carnivore diet and stuff like that.

I mean, I'm not against it, but at the end of the day, you do need carbs. Carbs are like your gas tank. Like if you think of it this way, when you put diesel in a, like a gas car, it's going to run sluggish. It's not going to run right. But when you put gasoline, the right type of gasoline in a car, it's going to run smooth, great, ultimately. So you do need carbs, but there's a, it balances out. Like everybody's unique. You know, our bodies are unique. How the type of, like the balance between protein, carbs and fats. They're all

for every single person. And so when you start to feel yourself correctly, it's just like this whole physical shift, but also mental shift. Like you start to mentally start to notice that you're unstoppable. You you start to push your own boundaries. And that's the cool side of mental health is because that's why I went and got certified. So I did get certified and it's called through NASM, National Academy of Sports Medicine. I got certified as a wellness coach and a

Amanda Nigg (58:15.488)
wellness coaches like stress management, nutrition, environmental mental changes. And so that certification goes more into like the science behind what, you know, fueling ourselves and that physical exertion and how you really create this longevity for yourself. And one of the posts I did recently, I don't know if you saw a poll is I said, you know, I talked about like, if you go to a doctor and they instantly

Paul Povolni (58:35.615)
Yeah,

Amanda Nigg (58:45.402)
subscribe you pills before asking about your nutrition and exercise, then you have a pill pusher, a dealer basically and not a doctor. And I got a lot of feedback from that post because a lot of people are like, you're right, like, you know, everybody should start with their nutrition and exercise. Like you can cure so many things. Like I've had so many clients go through farm food training that were dependent on antidepressant pills, you know.

Paul Povolni (58:55.028)
Yeah,

Paul Povolni (59:06.697)
Yeah,

Amanda Nigg (59:15.312)
And the next thing you know it halfway through the program, they're off it. Because again, they're feeling their body, they're changing their chemical profile, they're creating muscles, they're doing something for them. They're taking charge of their life. And it kind of goes back to that. saying, do you want to be the 80 year old in a wheelchair when you go to the nursing home? Or do you want to be that 80 year old that's dependent? There's that really cool rail floating around about this guy lifting weights because he wanted to lift his daughter.

the star. Yeah, it's just the coolest thing you know, like that commercial hands down best whoever made that commercial. Best commercial because it puts it into perspective. You know, thinking like, wait a minute, like I want to be him like I want to be

Paul Povolni (59:45.299)
Yeah, I've seen that. Yeah, yeah,

Amanda Nigg (01:00:00.596)
active in life. want to be that person that ages, know, like fine wine and be able to do whatever I want and have that flexibility when I'm older, instead of being bounded to a wheelchair or nursing home, I want that longevity aspect.

Paul Povolni (01:00:16.307)
Right. Right. So for, for folks that are, yeah, for folks that are listening to this, what's the biggest, head smack that you want to give them that is a misunderstanding of, whether it's mental health and wellness, physical, or nutritional, what's, what's the big head smack you want to leave them with?

Amanda Nigg (01:00:37.934)
start today. Honestly, like, it doesn't have to be perfect. Just like when I started, I launched farm fit training, like I didn't have all the tools, like I didn't have these fancy pieces of equipment. I didn't have, you know, I went and figured it out. I think the biggest head start I want to leave them today is it doesn't have to be perfect. Just take that first step and you know, doing those three simple things that we talked about, you know, water, protein, every meal, you know,

You know, give your your longest investment. Like, you know, we invest so much time into our business, our family, you know, for it. In our case, we invest a lot into our land that we farm. You know, don't forget, like, hey, if you're not around later in life to see all those investments that you're putting in, like now's the time to start investing yourself and taking that 15 to 25 minutes to just start. You know, it doesn't have to be pretty. Maybe your squats are going to look horrible and you can't even get close to the ground.

Again, just start.

Paul Povolni (01:01:39.795)
Yeah. are three, you mentioned the plank. What are two other exercises that somebody can start today on their fitness journey? Squats?

Amanda Nigg (01:01:45.326)
squats. Squats are super simple. mean, anybody like if you think about it, I'm gonna let my dog in. Sorry, this is probably normal. He's gonna keep barking. So squats. You can do. I have a black lab dog. Everybody sorry. Probably. I'm a fart.

Paul Povolni (01:02:04.779)
That's okay. You're on a farm. I was expecting some, some animal sounds to pop up at some point.

Amanda Nigg (01:02:11.054)
You can do squats squats or something super simple and like you can do it anytime You know if you're just sitting there at your desk like let's say you're I'm at my desk a lot because my business You know is online so I'm doing a lot of stuff like that sometimes I'll push my chair away and just do ten squats, you

something simple like that. Another movement walking. I know some fitness coaches don't talk like say walking is not exercise. But if you're 300 pounds, you know, again, body weight, any body weight movement is is considered, you know, calisthenic movement is a is a workout, you know, so instead of, you know, taking the elevator, if you're in office, you know, take the stairs, be that 1%, you know, be

Paul Povolni (01:02:47.999)
Yeah,

Paul Povolni (01:02:55.349)
Yeah. Well, and if you're drinking a gallon of water, you're going to do a lot of walking too, right? So yeah.

Amanda Nigg (01:03:00.78)
to the bathroom. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,

Paul Povolni (01:03:09.405)
Yeah.

Amanda Nigg (01:03:26.022)
women, but also men, there's a lot of men out there that don't have correct form when it comes to push ups. And so I love being able to teach them how to do a proper push up, because it's cool because once they learn it, they're like, wow, I was doing push ups like totally wrong, like

Paul Povolni (01:03:39.721)
Yeah, so what is the right way to do a push

Amanda Nigg (01:03:42.466)
Well, I do a tricep pushup because for women, we don't have a stronger chest muscles compared to men.

And so for me, it's easier to do a more of a tricep type pushup where you tuck your elbows in and you have your arms even with your chest and then you just push up against and that for us women again our upper body strength like Majority of our strength is actually in our legs. So like if you ever leg wrestle a woman get ready like

But for men, a lot of your upper body strength is in your arms. So you can go with a little wider stance, like a 45 degree angle, and do a pushup. And that's, it'll work more of your back, your chest muscles, you know, it'll work not only your arms. So for women, I would recommend like a tricep pushup, especially when they get going, because again, they're gonna notice, you know, and don't be afraid to start at your knees, you know, as long as you engage your core.

You squeeze not only your glutes, your legs, you know, and when we're talking about engaging your core, think of someone like almost punching you in the stomach, how you get really tight, you know, with anticipation, like you're like, you squeeze all your muscles. That's what it's supposed to feel like when you engage your core is like someone's about ready to knock in your stomach and you're like, squeeze all those muscles. So if you maintain that, I mean, a push -up would be a great calisthenic workout that anybody can do anywhere.

Paul Povolni (01:05:13.323)
So you mentioned doing a push up instead of being on your toes and straight, you mentioned being on your knees and doing it like that for somebody just starting out is an option.

Amanda Nigg (01:05:21.302)
Yep. like you basically put your knees together. you put your knees like in. So a push up.

you're in plank form. We talked about plank form in this video. So before you do that, you just drop your knees. Again, you're still engaging your back. Your back is aligned. You're still in a straight line, but your knees are on the ground. And then some women will cross their feet. I don't recommend it. Just to hold your feet tight together, because then you'll be engaging your leg muscles properly. And you want to be at least a like a 45 angle.

And so then when you go down, make sure you get your chest all the way to the ground, all the way to the ground. A lot of people don't get their chest completely to the ground and they count that as a pushup. I'm like, no, you gotta get all the way to the ground and then just push back

Paul Povolni (01:06:07.775)
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Amanda, this has been amazing and congrats on launching this in a short time and then having such international success with it. That's really amazing. And so if people want to learn more about this, what's the best way to get ahold of

Amanda Nigg (01:06:24.366)
I'm actually FarmFit Mama. So it's FarmFit and then it's M -O -M -M -A on social. I changed my handle to that believe it or not in 2020. I was abandoned for a while. So they can find me on every social media platform and then we do have a website which we do have if they're interested in macros we have a macro calculator on my website that they can check out and then we also have a survey they can go through and that's just farmfitmama .com as well.

Paul Povolni (01:06:34.355)
All right.

Paul Povolni (01:06:53.041)
Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Amanda. This has been wonderful. And hopefully somebody has been encouraged not only in starting their business lean if they need to, with just lifting not chickens and goats, but lifting things around around you. Just use the tools that you have around you for whatever you're launching. Don't feel that you have to have everything in place before you can launch something. You know, sometimes you can just do stuff bare bones. And that's amazing. And also when it comes to your niche.

You know, you'd be surprised, you know, for this, for Amanda, it was simply farmers and fitness. And for some people, they would have been like, well, it might not be enough, but surprisingly, there was enough in that space. And so I want to encourage you guys with that. And then also with your fitness and with your health, definitely reach out to Amanda at farmfitmama .com and see how you guys might be able to connect and

She might be able to help you with your fitness journey as well. Thank you, Amanda. This has been fun.

Amanda Nigg (01:07:51.714)
Yeah, thank you.