In this episode of Strength Stories with Ryan Jore, Ryan sits down with fellow Granite personal trainer Nicole Jordan, whose journey from banking to barbell is nothing short of inspiring. Nicole shares how her passion for health was sparked after becoming a mom, why she started with nutrition coaching, and how combining that with strength training creates lasting transformation.

Together, they unpack the psychology of programming, why custom workouts make all the difference, and how online coaching empowers clients to take ownership of their health — without burning out or overtraining.

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What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✅ Why starting where you are (not where you wish you were) leads to sustainable progress

✅ How combining training + nutrition builds deeper confidence and better results

✅ Why too many people quit because of just one missed workout

✅ The hidden dangers of overtraining — and how less can often be more

✅ The power of online coaching and how it saves time, builds autonomy, and fosters consistency

✅ Why women don’t need to fear lifting — and how strength training improves mindset and metabolism

✅ The benefit of coaches noticing trends, adjusting workouts, and helping you feel done with your session

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💡 Why It Matters

Many people enter fitness with unrealistic expectations, trying to do too much, too fast. Nicole breaks down how custom, manageable plans and a coaching relationship grounded in trust can help people feel empowered, not overwhelmed.

Whether you’re new to lifting or ready to level up your programming, this conversation is a masterclass in combining mindset, strategy, and practical fitness.

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📲 Connect with the Guest:

Instagram: @nicolejordancoaching

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🎙️ Connect with the Host (Ryan Jore):

Instagram: @RyanJorePT

Website: JoreStrengthTraining.com

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👉 Enjoying the show? Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and leave a review wherever you listen!

👉 Follow for more fitness content: Instagram | Facebook

Ryan Jore 0:15
Hi guys, welcome back to strength stories with joree today we have on fellow granite personal trainer, Nicole Jordan. Nicole, welcome to the show. Thanks. Thanks for having me. Thank you. So just wanted to start with giving people a quick backstory of your fitness background. Kind of get an idea of how you came into being a personal trainer, sure. Well, I actually graduated with a business finance degree, and I was in banking for about 10 years. I did mortgages, so I have a completely different background, but after I had I’ve always worked out. I actually worked out with a trainer in my 20s who really helped me learn

Nicole Jordan 0:50
how to strength train and learn how to eat and put food together. And it changed my life. So it was always kind of in the back of my mind. After I had my kids, I kind of went back to some of those things that he had taught me. I was pretty sick after I hadn’t this was about 11 years ago, and so I just kind of went on this long journey to try to figure out what I needed to do to feel better and lose weight and just start sleeping again and all of these things. After I had my second child, I was really interested in learning about macronutrients and trying to figure out how to get the baby weight off and feel good and start moving again. So I just decided to get my nutrition certification, just because I thought I was already into it and I wanted to learn about it. So I did that, and I kind of started helping some friends, this is, like, six years ago, and kind of dabbling in it. And then I just decided I’m gonna start, you know, coaching. Some people started pro bono, and so I just started with the nutrition. And then what I found after about a year and a half, was that I really wanted to be in control of people’s workouts, because

Unknown Speaker 1:54
it was just kind of a full picture thing. And so I actually started teaching classes at Granite. But in order to do that, I had the option of getting my group fitness certification or my personal trainer certification. So I went for the hard one because, you know, I thought, hey, maybe I’ll use it. And started teaching classes and that just kind of, I really I liked that, but I really enjoyed the one on one interaction, so I decided to kind of add on the training, I don’t know be four years in January, to my coaching, and just kind of package it up and start presenting, kind of like a online coaching, hybrid nutrition coaching package for people. And then it just kind of

Unknown Speaker 2:40
went from there that was so I’ve been doing it for a couple years now, but, yeah, I started with the nutrition and then spiraled into the training, because I saw how important it was to have control over that element, and how

Unknown Speaker 2:53
how great and tangible it was for somebody who was trying to make changes, to have a really structured plan and to have the accountability that comes along with it. I mean, it’s definitely something you definitely something you and I have talked about. I don’t even know how many times, like, can you explain why it’s so important to, like, understand what they’re doing from a strength training side, to also be able to help them with their nutrition? Absolutely. I mean, there, there really are two completely separate different things, or separate things, but they’re so closely tied together, which seems it’s hard to explain, but what you’re really looking at with the strength training is, most of the time, people will

Unknown Speaker 3:27
they’ll start out a little too fast out the gate. And so what happens is they get injured, or they get discouraged, or they try to go back to something that maybe they did in the past at the level they were doing it in the past, which leads to immediate burnout, frustration, injury, fatigue and or feeling lost. And so the strength training having, having a plan that’s customized for your equipment, your schedule, also figuring out what’s an appropriate expectation for the client based on personal conversations. So you know, if somebody only has a certain amount of time, we’re not going to give them five workouts a week at an hour a piece if they’ve done nothing. So really finding what’s what would be an appropriate stepping stone, and then stepping it through the process. And I mean, I tell most of my clients, we really want you to get away with as as as least possible as you have to do to get the results that you want. So if I have control over it, I can come up with something that’s appropriate, that optimizes their time most efficiently and targets the muscle groups that I think are going to have the biggest return for whatever the goal may be. Usually, my clients have weight loss goals. Some of them don’t, but we want to be

Unknown Speaker 4:42
doing the strength training in a progressive control manner, so we’re not starting with too much, or sometimes starting with too little, and then not progressing

Unknown Speaker 4:52
too quickly, like the same reps for the same sets for six months. It seems like it’s one extremely they want either they go and they’ll do the same thing a.

Unknown Speaker 5:00
Over and over again, or they’ll go bananas and instantly have an injury. It kind of just seems to go one direction. A lot of people base, like their where they’re starting their strength training program, on, on, based on where they want to be, and not where they are right now, exactly as somebody was, like, if you’ve been lifting for three four years, like, Yeah, we’re gonna start with a lot more aggressive point, but you’ve been sitting on the couch for six years, it’s gonna look a little less aggressive initially, at least well. And the hard part is, is is really explaining or get explaining that it’s okay to start slow, and we are such an instant gratification culture, especially with social media and fitness right now, it’s, it’s just insane. What you’re supposed to be doing, how much you’re supposed to be doing. And it’s cool that strength train has come into the spotlight. But what it also does is sets unrealistic expectations for people who want to get started. So it’s like, you know, you’re not just gonna go start dead lifting 200 pounds immediately, like, and you haven’t been doing anything. So the stepping into it and the building up it. I think without a coach, it almost always leads to boredom. Yeah, and so just that, that’s essential. Well, there’s an I did a post about this while back about, like, one of the coolest things about having a coach is knowing when you’re done. Thanks. A lot of people exactly like, they go to the gym, like, Okay, I did my bench, I did this, I did that, and they’re like, Well, what do I do next thing? They never actually feel like they’ve done enough, right? Don’t get that satisfaction like, I completed this work. Who starts? Like, I probably should have done some more algebra. I should have done arms or whatever, right? Like, when someone writes your workout, you’re like, Okay, well, that was the last thing, like I’m done. And knowing that, I think, is very important mentally for people. Well, if you’re confident and what you’re doing exactly, yeah, then you’ll continue doing it. And so if somebody who’s a professional and has experience, can tell you what you need to do, then you’re going to execute it. And most of the time, if you execute something long enough, you will see results. But it’s the fact that someone doesn’t feel confident in the plan they set up for themselves, so they just won’t do it long enough to get the results. They give it a half ass effort for a few weeks, and they’re like, well, it’s not working, and I think it should work. And also, again, also having a coach, a coach can tell you what’s a reasonable timeline on this. Because, right? Yeah, they give it three weeks and like, Well, I haven’t seen any changes. They don’t have anyone to ask to verify. Like, should I have seen changes by now? I don’t know, yeah. So they just assume they’ve messed it up. And they’re like, well, whatever. I’ll just try again in six months, or at New Year’s or whatever, right? Or you couldn’t figure out a move or whatever. So you think, oh, because I can’t do this move, I can’t do this entire workout, and then there’s maybe a really easy substitution, or we can talk through it, or just something small that you need to do exactly. I always tell people, it’s like, every exercise we have in here is replaceable. It’s like, if you can’t do a split squat, we will find a very you know what any exercise it is? There’s always regressions. There’s always progressions. If it’s too easy, we’ll make it harder. If it’s too hard, we’ll make it easier, right? Right? But, yeah, if you don’t, you only you don’t know what you don’t know, right, exactly, but it’s the confidence that that gets people distracted, or people get distracted by another plan to purchase or a different exercise to try and so if they can’t stick with it, there, it’s, it’s really pointless to start. Yeah, when I get I think that is the hugest thing of having buying, because especially with social media now, we see 7000 fitness things being advertised towards today. And of course, you click on one, the algorithm figures it out. It sends you a billion more. So if you’re not fully bought into your first one, then you start, you grab onto the second thing and the third thing, and eventually you have this, like half assed amalgamation of programs that you don’t really know how to combine together and just combining 17 things. So I’m gonna if it does work. You don’t know what’s working when it presumably doesn’t work. You have no idea why, right? Well, and you’re gathering data. So if you’re working with a coach that knows what they’re doing, they’re they’re gathering data on you, and it’s not only about numbers, or you know how much muscle is being gained, or whatever. It’s about how the client is responding, the behavior response to so if you notice somebody’s missing every single fourth workout, then probably what’s going to have to happen is they’re going to need to scale back, and they’re going to be need to told you. Need to tell them it’s okay, and then they can keep moving forward. You can still get results. But like understanding that and getting reading into that mindset is a big part of the coaching relationship. I’ve had people who mentally do better, like saying same thing, like, we’re starting with four workouts week. They’re only getting three, and they almost want to quit. And then as soon as I just like, delete that fourth workout, they get the same three workouts in. But now they feel again, because they feel that sense of completion, right? And now it’s like, okay, now I know I’m doing the right thing, so we can always add on that fourth day later again, once things are ready, but it’s amazing how often people will quit just because of a fourth day that they didn’t need to be doing right, just because they felt well, now I’m failing, so I’m not getting them all in right or, you know, it’s a lot of times when I sit down with a client, I have a question on my initial questionnaire that says, How many workouts do you want? And I do that intentionally, not because I don’t have a plan, but because I want to see what they say. And most of the time the answer is always five or six and that per week. And so I most likely wouldn’t do that unless the client had been training hard like that already. But it’s interesting to say, you know, we could probably get away with three and the relief that people feel at that it’s.

Unknown Speaker 10:00
It’s a big deal because, like, I can do this. I can fit this into my life. It doesn’t have to be extreme, and then we can always add more exactly later. You said it’s all about the data where, especially I give those like, say, females with bench press usually need a higher frequency at a certain point. Yeah, we might have to add on that day. But it’s like, if we can keep making gains on once a week or twice a week or so, right? Why would we use that now? Because if you once you’ve been bench and, say, four times a week, you’re probably not going to probably not gonna get results from two but, like, we can always keep adding on more later. Sure why use it as a beginner when you’re benching the bar or whatever? Well, and that’s why custom programming is so important, because it’s like you’re gathering data, you’re testing it, and then you’re seeing the results, and then you’re making an adjustment. If it’s all cookie cutter,

Unknown Speaker 10:41
you don’t have that opportunity, so you’re not going to optimize your training program. No, exactly. And you said you’re throwing in all these random things. You never get a chance to figure out what’s driving stuff up, what’s not right. And like, there’s been, actually had a client recently where, and she said some on, off, back stuff, like, kind of her whole life, and we realized, because we were using just easy back extensions in her warm up, and I gave her new warm up, I’ll send her back. Started feeling worse. It’s like, so we just brought that back in, and her back feels better. It’s like, it’s not even hard. It’s just like, body weight back extensions, which she did this like, 200 pounds. That’s nothing for her, whereas for her that matters. If we were just all over the place, we’d never catch trends like that, right? Sometimes it’s injury, sometimes it’s stress, sometimes it’s whatever, but it’s like, resident, oh, they always feel better when I do this, right? It just might be one random exercise that that person almost needs to have in their programming, right? And you just spot those little things going back to online. Why do you feel that that’s such a beneficial way for people to train? I would say two things top of mind would be cost and time. So you know, if you have online training, that means that you do have somebody writing your workouts for you. They’ve done an assessment for you. Well, usually, in most cases, but an assessment. Know what your what your weakness is, what you need to work on, know the details. But then they can go and write three or four workouts for you that you can go do on your own. And then the trainer doesn’t have to be there. And, you know, some some people tack on in person sessions and stuff, and that’s fine, but ultimately, the base cost and the base time commitment is your own time, and so the flexibility of it is huge. Like, I don’t have to schedule a time to meet with somebody to come in and train. Now, if somebody’s brand new and has never trained before, we would always want them to start out with some in person sessions. But for somebody that has, you know, is either very committed to video form review or has experience most of the time, online trainings are really good fit, as long as they communicate and are giving good videos to their coach. I still like, again, I agree. Like, if I have someone who’s a total beginner, I’d prefer to have at least some in person sessions. But even then, it’s like, again, if they’re willing to do enough video work, we can just the lowest common or, like, the easiest possible variation for each thing, and then just build off, right, right. Again, everything in training is just building off one thing to the next. And it’s like their beginning program might look stupid basic, but it’s like, we can always expand on that as they get more confident. And you’re like, hey, you’ve graduated past this now we can handle that. Yeah, figuring out those progressions for them as they go forward. Well, yeah. And then, you know, it’s as far as online training, it’s it’s just people. I think what I really like about it is that it gives control back to the client, instead of someone just leading you through a workout. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but what happens is they start to understand training, and so they actually are learning about what they need to do.

Unknown Speaker 13:33
Because maybe they can’t coach forever, and maybe at some point they’re going to need to write their own workouts or whatever. You know, maybe they won’t do it perfectly, but at least they’re inputting their data. They’re reading through the workouts. They’re understanding sets, reps, how much weight Am I plugging in. They’re not just blindly letting somebody else fall or, you know, do it. And not that that’s what every in person session looks like, but sometimes it can, and that’s

Unknown Speaker 13:56
I think, that just leads to more ownership and then that people stick with it. I think there’s a lot of benefit to

Unknown Speaker 14:03
participating in it. More they said there is definitely a confidence of, like, wow. Like, I loaded my own bar, I did this, or I just did the seat on this machine, and just those, again, things that may seem so special to like, an advanced gym person, but realize, like, how huge of a step that is for them. Well, yeah, you really don’t realize until you get, you know, we kind of lose sight of it because we’re constantly talking about this and doing this and at the gym. But when you get somebody that’s new to it, and they’re like, you know, I did that by myself, or I figured out that machine, and you’re like, you know, that is really cool, that they felt empowered to do that. And I really want people to feel empowered, you know, if they need me, that’s great, but the point is to help somebody learn how to take care of their body. What I find, too, is like, you end up with a lot of your like, long term clients who, like, said, could reasonably train themselves, but they still keep hamster because they still prefer to have someone else do it like they can do it in a pinch. Of them, sure. That’s why I like something. We train other coaches and things like that too. Like, I.

Unknown Speaker 15:00
Think of like, Paul. I mean, good lord, the guy’s like, a national level bodybuilder. He knows how to train. Yeah, he’d still rather have someone else handle those decisions so that it’s not always something he has to decide. Or even just, like, things that you’d avoid. Like, I say, like, I hate step ups with a passion. If I’m programing for myself, I’m never, ever doing step ups. But if I have a coach and like, Hey, you really suck at these, we should do them. I’m going to do them. I think that’s true for a lot of people. Oh, oh, absolutely. And you just it’s something to delegate in this crazy world, you know, like, we all have a lot of responsibility, jobs, kids, all sorts of stuff. So, you know, if you can delegate something to somebody who’s going to hold you accountable and make sure you’re doing it right, I think it’s a pretty good resource. I mean, you know, amounts with standing like I’m always fine with trading time for money or trading money for time. Like, I’d always rather have my time back, right? And that is one thing the online training gets you. Like, yes, there is a cost, but it’s like you don’t have to research your own workouts, you don’t have to write your own program, you don’t have to do all these other things, and you have someone to bounce all these things off of, so you get so much of your time back. It’s like, I’m never fixing anything electrical my house. Like, I know I could go on YouTube and figure it out the same way. Someone who is training. I’d rather spend $300 and have my afternoon back. Like, right? Well, and you know, it’s, it’s one of those things, like, it’s, it’s your health, it’s really important. So having somebody who knows what they’re doing helping you is, it’s essential. Kind of matters. Yeah. What would you look at as far as, and we’ve kind of sketched this issue. But like, like, potential red flags for someone who with online training, like, where some things where you tell someone, like, I’m not sure that this is for you or for you yet, maybe,

Unknown Speaker 16:29
usually, if somebody has a lot of like, initial fears, like, I don’t like this part of the gym floor. I’m uncomfortable with this, I don’t know like as expressing something initially, immediately about discomfort. I would definitely suggest doing some in person sessions. First, knee injuries, I like to meet with people in person and at least go through just basic movement patterns and make sure they’re moving well, other kinds of, like, back injuries and stuff like that. A lot of injuries. Yeah, I would say we really need to, like, at least, because you probably have to make more, you might be making more changes in the moment, versus, like, something they’re going to stick with for a while, exactly like if somebody is or, you know, even sometimes, someone will be confident, and they’ll start out, and the videos will come in, and I’ll be like, You need to come in, because we just want to make sure you’re moving well. We don’t want to build off of, off of these bad this is not good. So we need to, we know, back up. And it’s finding, usually it’s just a couple. It doesn’t need to go completely in person, but you can tack on, which is great, super fun. Some in person sessions, make sure you’re moving well, and then continue on with the online training. So I think the hybrid option is great too. But yeah, red flags would be in injuries and then just obvious lack of confidence on the floor. Yeah, that’s it. My big one is always like, the accountability factor. Like some people I don’t like if, if they don’t have someone there meeting them each time, I feel like they’re not gonna get their workouts, sure. Yeah, it’s again, I feel at this point, most injuries, I feel like I can work around from a virtual degree. But it’s like, if the people who aren’t gonna show up, unless they’re someone, they’re waiting for them, like, that’s the hardest one for me. Like some people, you just, they just keep, you know, all red X’s each week, you’re like, okay, like they need someone there. Otherwise they’re never gonna make it happen, sure. But, I mean, how would you know that until they use they Yeah, exactly.

Unknown Speaker 18:25
Are you not gonna show up?

Unknown Speaker 18:28
How serious are? Yeah, there are trainers who do, like, the one to 10, like, How committed are, yeah, yeah. I was like, the idea that, but I don’t always know, like, except for like, most people like, Well, I’m a nine, I’m a 10. It’s like, are you though? Like, well, and sometimes they don’t know until they try to get into it.

Unknown Speaker 18:42
That’s true. One of the last questions I had is, why do you feel that some women, and thankfully, this is becoming a much more thing, but why are someone still afraid to strength train?

Unknown Speaker 18:51
Oh, well, there’s the canned response of that they’re afraid they’re gonna look like a man. Yeah. And I mean, anybody that’s looking at anything how many managed clients do you have?

Unknown Speaker 19:03
Only the ones that are actually men,

Unknown Speaker 19:08
that that would be one. I don’t get that very often anymore. No, it’s, I really don’t

Unknown Speaker 19:15
the only,

Unknown Speaker 19:17
yeah,

Unknown Speaker 19:18
like, compared to 10 years ago, it is noticeably smaller. It’s also sometimes have, it’s like, certain, very certain lifts, and we’ll see, like, I don’t really it’s like, yeah, overall, I feel like most women now realize that it’s maybe just because it’s been beaten into our heads by TV and all other forms of media now, like, fine people get it. Yeah, I don’t think there’s fear of I think that the strength training has been recognized as something that needs to be done, and now it’s kind of cool. But what hasn’t probably changed as much is letting go of some of the other things that they’re doing, maybe endless hour, you know, hours of cardio and things like that, not that you can’t do that. That has benefits also. And everyone should, you know, do that too. But it’s just, it’s, it almost becomes too overwhelming, because.

Unknown Speaker 20:00
Now they think they need to do so many things, and how are we gonna do all of this? That’s probably where we’re at. That’s probably where the problem lies now is picking which it comes back to the same thing. You’re talking about the people who are already and who wanna do five six days a week, people are convinced they can’t get it done on such a small schedule. Sure. Like, well, I’ll just add to this, and it’s like, no. Like, so I always tell people like, when they’re joining my class, like, if you’re gonna do three times a week in my class, if you’re already doing so. If you’re already doing something else, we need to at least cut back some of that, at least temporarily, until we see how you respond. Yeah, because you 99% chance you don’t need all of what you’re currently doing. Sure. Yeah. So I think there’s some confusion there, but I think most women have grabbed onto the idea of strength training. Whether the translation between adding muscle and what that really means is there yet, no, maybe not, but I think we’re, we’re on our way. That is actually one of my favorite things in Joan too, is just getting people to reduce the amount of fitness they’re doing and actually get better results. It’s crazy how often you’ll see some do it. We’re like, there’s, they’ve just been plateaued forever. It’s like, let’s actually cut back a workout. And that seems insane. And it’s, it’s honestly hard for a lot of people to relinquish that. And then also, it’s like, Oh, hey, your bench. Is moving and deadlifts are moving, or whatever the lift is, and or they just feel better in general, or they actually have time to handle their nutrition now, or whatever, sure. Yeah, what’s happening in the background? Yeah, where’s that time being allocated? Or recovery or reducing stress? Yeah, that kind of like, Go, just go for a damn walk. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So to wrap up, I had a couple of semi rapid fire questions.

Unknown Speaker 21:26
None of these are like knowledge questions.

Unknown Speaker 21:29
What muscles are work? No, I’m scared

Unknown Speaker 21:34
eccentrically. No,

Unknown Speaker 21:38
what? What is your favorite lift to train in the gym and why? So you

Unknown Speaker 21:43
don’t have to be smart. I like bench press. I think I like, I like training people on that, which is cool, yeah, I don’t know. I It’s not a be like, I can’t explain it. He’s like, Well, you know, deadlift. I think bench and deadlift were something I struggled with, so it’s something that’s easy for me to to

Unknown Speaker 22:02
try to help someone through, because I needed a lot of help with it. Yeah, and that even goes again, way back when you’re talking about, like, people being confident. One of my favorite things is when I like, if I’m busy helping someone in my class and I watch someone else, like having to help someone else with, you know, whatever, a deadlift or something like that, because then they learn it so much better when you I think against why? I think usually the lifts that we were the worst at are the ones we become the best coaches at. Yeah, because we just had to delve so much deeper into to understand them absolutely. And it just makes it easier to coach Absolutely. So on the opposite side, then, what is your least favorite lift to train?

Unknown Speaker 22:36
Chin up.

Unknown Speaker 22:38
Not your thing. It’s hard. It’s hard. It’s, it’s a, it’s kind of a fitness trend right now for women to want to get chin ups. Hey, it was a fucking great trend.

Unknown Speaker 22:49
Do not, kibosh, it’s great. I love it. But it’s, it’s hard when you have a lot of when you have someone in a weight loss phase and they’re trying to gain strength and and just trying to focus on so many things at once.

Unknown Speaker 23:03
It’s challenging. I will say, yeah, the strength output part of it can be hard when you’re weightless phase. But I always tell people that I like chin ups and push ups as a weight loss goal, because they should help each other out. Like, obviously, if you lose 25 pounds, you just don’t have as much lift up to the bar, whereas you’re like, your bench might tank during a weight loss phase. Yeah, just part of what it is. But we all know you love China. I know it’s kind of my thing.

Unknown Speaker 23:25
So last question, what is your favorite snack that is not calorie friendly puppy chow, boom,

Unknown Speaker 23:33
child of the 90s.

Unknown Speaker 23:35
What about you? Yeah,

Unknown Speaker 23:38
I don’t call it a snack. I would just say pizza. Yeah, pizza, yeah, pizza and literally any dessert, basically, yeah,

Unknown Speaker 23:46
awesome. Thank you for coming on. Thanks for having me. Thanks. You guys see you next week