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The Yard Strength Training is more than just lifting heavy; it’s about the people who bring energy everyday, inside the gym and out. Stefan, who trains out of our Lower Pac Heights location, has a background in competitive soccer and expertise in bodybuilding and conditioning. As an elite endurance athlete who balances high-mileage weeks with heavy lifting, he is a walking (and running!) testament to the power of sustainable performance and functional longevity.

In our latest sit-down, Stefan breaks down why muscle is our primary longevity organ, the biological impact of sitting at a desk all day, and how a 10,000-step baseline can transform your physical engine. Whether you’re training for a race or just looking to move better between Zoom meetings, Stefan’s focus on fundamentals and consistent movement is sure to help you reach your goals. Get to know the man behind the miles and his philosophy for a high-end physique that is built to last.

In This Article: Key Takeaways

1. Hybrid training program (strength + cardio) builds muscle, improves endurance, and supports long-term performance and longevity.
2. 10,000 steps a day benefits include better recovery, increased fat loss, and improved aerobic fitness—especially important for desk workers.
3. Concurrent training (lifting and running) is an effective body recomposition strategy, helping you build muscle while maintaining a consistent calorie burn.
4. Strength training for longevity and injury prevention: building muscle supports joint health, improves mobility, and enhances overall durability.
5. Best fitness approach for busy professionals: simple habits like walking meetings, daily movement, and posterior chain exercises (like deadlifts) drive sustainable results.

Want to train with Stefan or a Trainer like him? Check out our Trainer Profiles!

Q&A with Stefan

Welcome to The Yard, Stefan! How has your time been with us so far?

I’ve really been enjoying my time at The Yard and the neighborhood. The energy around the gym is great, and there’s a real sense of community. As a coach, that makes a big difference – it pushes you to show up better every day.

You specialize in bodybuilding and sport-specific conditioning. How did your journey into high-performance training lead you to the West Coast and ultimately to The Yard?

I’ve always been into training – I grew up playing competitive soccer, so performance and strength have been part of my life from a young age. Moving to the West Coast elevated that even more. There’s a strong focus here on lifestyle, longevity, and being active outside the gym. The Yard felt like the right fit because it blends all of that – strength, performance, and real-world movement.

Every trainer has a unique lens. How would you describe your personal coaching philosophy when you’re working 1-on-1 with a client in a pod?

I keep it simple – build strong fundamentals and stay consistent. Most people don’t need something complicated. They need a plan that fits their life and something they can stick to. My job is to meet them where they are and push them just enough to keep progressing. In a 1-on-1 setting, it’s about attention to detail – how they move, how they recover, how they show up day to day.

You balance Bodybuilding with Injury Prevention. How do you help clients build a high-end aesthetic without sacrificing their long-term joint health and mobility?

Luckily it’s 2026 and we have more data, and looking at it building muscle is not important just for aesthetics but for longevity and injury prevention. We need stronger muscle to support the joints and to help us move. Muscle is our longevity organ.

As someone who runs 80+ miles a week, lifts 3–4 times, and stays injury-free, I’ve learned that it’s not about doing more – it’s about doing the right things consistently. For my clients, that means focusing on quality movement, controlled volume, and building strength through full ranges of motion. When you train that way, you don’t have to sacrifice joint health to build a high-end physique – you actually improve both at the same time.

We hear the “10k steps” goal everywhere, but from a conditioning standpoint, why is this specifically the magic number for building a foundational engine?

10k isn’t a magic number – it’s just a solid, practical target that gets people moving consistently. Most people with desk jobs don’t move nearly enough throughout the day. Steps are the easiest way to build a base level of activity without adding extra stress. From a conditioning standpoint, it helps build your aerobic system, improves recovery, and most importantly supports fat loss – all without beating up your body.

You’ve mentioned that daily movement is the biggest missing piece for many people with desk jobs in SF. What happens to the body—biologically and mechanically—when we sit at a desk for 8+ hours a day?

The body just isn’t designed for that. Over time, you get tight hips, weaker glutes, and poor posture. We just have to find ways to build that into our day, even while multitasking in 2026. That can be walking calls, taking meetings on the move, or just getting up more often. Small things done consistently add up and make a big difference in how you feel and perform.

Can you explain why hitting your step goal WHILE strength training can sometimes be more impactful for overall body recomposition?

When you combine both, you’re creating a consistent calorie burn throughout the day without adding more stress to the body. That’s what makes body recomposition more effective – you’re building muscle while staying in a better position to lose fat. Most people focus only on workouts, but it’s what you do the other 23 hours that really moves the needle.

For someone stuck in back-to-back Zoom calls, what are three micro-habits they can start tomorrow to chip away at that 10k goal without leaving the office?

1. Take walking calls whenever possible. Easy way to stack steps without thinking about it.
2. Walking pad – most of my clients are using it, it’s super effective and inexpensive tool.
3. Add a short walk before or after work – it helps you reset and adds up quickly.

It doesn’t have to be complicated. Small habits done daily make a big difference.

For the “Weekend Warriors” who sit all week and go hard on the weekends, what is the #1 strength exercise you recommend to counteract “desk posture”?

It all starts with the posterior chain in this case. Any variation of a deadlift. We want to strengthen the glutes, hamstrings, and lower back – areas that are usually weak from sitting all day. It also reinforces better hip mechanics and posture. Most desk posture issues come from weakness and lack of movement, not just tightness. Building strength in the right areas fixes a lot of that.

If a client is training for a specific goal—like a marathon or a ski season—how does a baseline of 10,000 steps and focusing on strength training improve their actual performance?

Time on your feet, overall volume, and better load management all matter. When your baseline activity is higher, your body can adapt to more stress more efficiently. I’ve seen this firsthand – running multiple marathons over the past year and now preparing for a 100-mile race. Your body adapts when you build that foundation the right way. That’s where steps come in. They build capacity without adding extra fatigue. Pair that with strength training, and you’re improving both your engine and your durability.

What is the one thing you want Yard members to gain by the time they finish the 30-day step challenge?

I want people to realize how much better they feel when they move every day. More energy, better recovery, clearer mind – it all starts with something as simple as getting your steps in. If they can build that habit over 30 days, it’s something they can carry with them long after the challenge is over.

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Closing

Stefan’s approach to hybrid training reflects what The Yard stands for: sustainable performance, real-world strength, and consistency over complexity. By combining lifting, endurance, and daily movement, he shows that you don’t need extremes to see results—you need the right fundamentals, done consistently. Whether you’re chasing a race goal or just trying to offset long days at a desk, his philosophy proves that building a strong, capable body is less about doing more, and more about doing what actually works.

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The Yard Strength Training was established in 2021. It is a reservation-based strength training gym with locations in San Francisco and Mill Valley that offers pod-based training, group classes, and space for independent personal trainers. Each of our workout pods includes your own rack, bench, barbell, and plates—plus access to nearby fan bikes, rowers, and a shared training space equipped with kettlebells, dumbbells, and functional training tools. Interested in joining the squad as an Independent Personal Trainer, Client, or Member? Contact us here.

Stefan Todorovic is a Certified Personal Trainer at The Yard’s Lower Pac Heights location. His approach focuses on sustainable progress, smart programming, and helping clients stay consistent while achieving their goals.. You can contact him at 415fitlab@gmail.com.

At The Yard Strength Training, , we focus on the foundations of strength—proper squat mechanics, core bracing, and consistent programming. But for female athletes, there’s another critical foundation that is often overlooked: women’s hormonal health and the menstrual cycle

We believe peak performance comes from understanding the body you’re training. That’s why we’re partnering with Izzy Fischer, founder of DailyBasis, to explore the connection between women’s health, hormonal balance, and athletic performance—bridging the gap between high-performance strength training and female physiology.

Whether you’re managing training with your menstrual cycle, navigating birth control and performance, or looking to better understand your hormonal rhythm for fitness optimization, this conversation is designed to give you actionable insight to support your body.

Ahead of our April 19th Women’s Strength & Social at Mill Valley, we’ll dive into how cycle syncing, targeted nutrition, and intentional strength training for women can help turn your menstrual cycle into a performance advantage—both in and out of the gym.

In This Article: Key Takeaways

1. Women’s health requires female-specific nutrition—not generic supplements
Most traditional supplements are designed for a male-default model and fail to account for women’s changing hormonal and nutritional needs across the menstrual cycle. Supporting female physiology requires targeted nutrition that adapts across phases, not one-size-fits-all formulas.

2. Understanding the menstrual cycle improves strength, recovery, and performance
Learning how hormones affect energy, strength, and recovery allows female athletes to train smarter—not harder. Aligning training with the menstrual cycle leads to better adaptation, reduced burnout, and more consistent strength gains over time.

3. Cycle syncing is about optimizing training, not doing less
Cycle syncing helps women match training intensity to hormonal phases—pushing harder when the body is primed for performance and prioritizing recovery when needed. This approach supports sustainable fitness, injury prevention, and long-term progress.

4. Different phases require different training and nutrition strategies

• Follicular phase (days ~1–14): Best for heavy lifting, PRs, and high-intensity training when estrogen is rising
• Luteal phase (days ~15–28): Better suited for moderate intensity, technique work, mobility, and recovery
• Key nutrients like iron, magnesium, B vitamins, vitamin D, and zinc support performance and recovery across the cycle.

5. Women’s hormonal health should be treated as performance data, not limitation
Your menstrual cycle provides real-time feedback on energy, recovery, and readiness. When women learn to interpret this “internal data,” they can optimize training, nutrition, and hormonal health, leading to better performance and a healthier long-term relationship with fitness.

Q&A with Izzy

1. DailyBasis is built around bridging a real gap in women’s health. What was missing in the wellness space that led you to create this?

Most supplements weren’t designed for female biology. They were built for a general population, which, historically, has meant male-default. What we kept seeing was that women were doing everything right: eating well, training hard, taking their vitamins. And still feeling off. Depleted. Like their body wasn’t keeping up.

When we dug into the research, the answer wasn’t complicated: women have changing nutritional needs across the menstrual cycle, and there was nothing on the market designed to actually meet them. Everything was either a generic multivitamin or a symptom-specific quick fix. We wanted to build the foundation: something that works at the root, not just the surface.

2. At The Yard, strength is our foundation. How does understanding the hormonal cycle actually make someone a stronger athlete?

It makes you a smarter one, which over time makes you a stronger one. When you understand how your hormonal environment shifts across the month, you stop fighting your body and start working with it. You’re not “off” during certain phases, your body has different priorities, different energy availability, different recovery needs. Training that accounts for that leads to better adaptation, less burnout, and more consistent progress. Awareness is the first step, but it’s what you do with that awareness that changes your performance.

3. A lot of women feel pressure to train at 100% every single day. How does cycle syncing help athletes optimize without burning out?

The all-or-nothing approach tends to catch up with people. The body isn’t a machine that performs identically every day and for women, that’s especially true. Cycle syncing isn’t about doing less. It’s about doing the right things at the right times. When you align your training intensity with your hormonal phases, you’re actually able to push harder during the phases your body is primed for it, and recover smarter in the phases it needs that. The result is more consistent progress and a more sustainable relationship with training.

4. Which phase is best for heavy lifting — the squats, the bench, the big lifts — and how should women fuel those days?

The follicular phase: roughly days 1 through 14, leading up to ovulation is when most women feel their strongest. Estrogen is rising, energy is high, and the body is primed for performance. This is the window to push your PRs. Fueling for this phase means prioritizing protein for muscle synthesis, iron to support the replenishment period after menstruation, and B vitamins for sustained energy. The Replenish formula in our Cycle Routine was designed specifically around this phase: rebuilding what the body loses during menstruation and supporting the high-output weeks that follow.

5. For the luteal phase, when energy dips and motivation is harder to find — how should training adjust to still see progress?

The luteal phase (roughly days 15 through 28) gets a bad reputation, but it’s not a phase to write off. It’s a phase to train differently. Your body is doing real work: it’s managing inflammation, shifting progesterone levels, and preparing for the next cycle. Strength training can absolutely continue, but you might find moderate intensity and more recovery time serves you better than chasing PRs. Mobility work, technique-focused sessions, and accessory movements are all productive here. And on the nutrition side, this is when magnesium, B6, and anti-inflammatory botanicals do meaningful work, which is exactly what our Balance formula is built around.

6. For a woman training 3–4 times a week, what are the non-negotiable nutrients to support her through the cycle?

Iron is foundational: particularly in the first half of the cycle, when menstruation creates real depletion. B vitamins for energy metabolism. Magnesium for muscle recovery and mood stability. Vitamin D3 for immune function and bone health. Folate. Zinc. And a healthy gut microbiome, because digestion and hormone metabolism are more connected than most people realize.

The challenge isn’t just knowing what to take, it’s finding them in doses and forms that your body can actually absorb. That’s where a lot of supplements fall short. The Cycle Routine was formulated to address that specifically: meaningful doses, bioavailable forms, designed with OB/GYNs and registered dietitians.

7. You’re sampling Your Cycle Routine product at the event. How does cycle-aligned, plant-based nutrition support things like birth control transitions or working to re-establish a natural rhythm?

When someone comes off hormonal birth control or is working to support a more regular cycle, the foundation matters more than ever. The body often needs time to recalibrate, and nutritional gaps can make that harder: irregular cycles, energy fluctuations, mood shifts. What we’ve designed supports the body’s foundational needs during that process: replenishing key nutrients, supporting gut health, and giving your body the building blocks it needs to find its rhythm. It’s not a quick fix,  nothing meaningful is. But a strong nutritional foundation makes the process easier, and more consistent.

8. Electrolytes come up constantly in fitness. How does DailyBasis think about hydration in the context of hormonal health?

Hydration needs actually shift across the cycle. During the luteal phase, progesterone affects fluid retention and electrolyte balance in ways that a standard electrolyte drink wasn’t designed for. The Cycle Routine includes minerals that support hydration and fluid balance as part of the broader formula — it’s not positioned as a standalone electrolyte product, but it’s built with the understanding that hydration isn’t one-size-fits-all either.

9. What’s the one thing you hope women leave with after the event on the 19th?

That their cycle is data, not a liability. Every phase is telling you something about what your body needs. Once you start reading it that way, the whole relationship with training, nutrition, and energy shifts. You stop managing symptoms and start working with a system that’s actually on your side.

10. Why does it matter that women have spaces to talk openly about things like birth control and cycle health?

Because silence creates gaps: in research, in product development, and in how women understand their own bodies. For a long time, women were told that their cycle was too complex, too variable, too inconvenient to factor in. The conversations happening at events like this one are part of changing that. When women can talk openly about what they’re experiencing, they’re better equipped to advocate for themselves — with their doctors, their coaches, and their own health decisions. That’s the whole point.

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Closing

Women’s hormonal health isn’t a constraint—it’s a framework for better training. When athletes learn to align strength work, recovery, and nutrition with their menstrual cycle, they unlock a more sustainable and effective path to performance. The goal isn’t to push through every phase the same way, but to train with intention, using the body’s natural rhythms as a guide for long-term strength, resilience, and progress.

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The Yard Strength Training was established in 2021. It is a reservation-based strength training gym with locations in San Francisco and Mill Valley that offers pod-based training, group classes, and space for independent personal trainers. Each of our workout pods includes your own rack, bench, barbell, and plates—plus access to nearby fan bikes, rowers, and a shared training space equipped with kettlebells, dumbbells, and functional training tools. Interested in joining the squad as an Independent Personal Trainer, Client, or Member? Contact us here.

DailyBasis is a women’s health and nutrition company designed to support the body through every phase of the menstrual cycle. Built on the understanding that women’s nutritional needs shift hormonally, DailyBasis creates cycle-aligned formulas that help fill key nutrient gaps, support energy, recovery, and hormonal balance. The goal is simple: move beyond one-size-fits-all supplements and give women a smarter, more personalized foundation for training, health, and everyday performance.