00:00

Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
The number one reason we don’t see results, it’s not that we don’t have a perfect macro ratio. It’s not that our workout routine isn’t hard enough or good enough. It’s not that our plan isn’t good, it’s simply often that we quit before results have a chance to snowball. That’s it. And I say this because we always keep ourselves stuck in this change loop, and it’s because we hit the same hard. So if you think about the pattern, you repeat for some of it’s 30 days, we’ve been able to do a 21 day program, but we hit that 30 day barrier and all of a sudden it’s like, Ugh, results aren’t happening fast enough. Is this really worth it? I feel like I’m working so hard not to see results snowball. I deserve more. For some of us, it’s maybe six weeks or nine weeks, or maybe it’s all of those different things that we hit that stick point.

(01:17):
And sometimes we can push through based on the time of year and sometimes we can’t. And I see it often with clients and I’ve seen it with myself. We hit that slight dead zone where we have been working hard enough for long enough and it feels like it’s just not adding up the way we feel we deserve. And so we hit that hard, we hit that comfort zone boundary. We get zapped by that electrical fence, so to speak, and we turn back to the comfort. We don’t keep pushing through the hard, but nothing changes if nothing changes. And so I wanted to bring this up because I do think we so often keep ourselves stuck because we hit that same hard point. Even if it’s sort of packaged in a different packaging, we hit that same hard point. We quit and that’s why we never see results snowball.

(01:55):
We get to day 30, but then we go back to day one. We never go to day 31 or day 32 or day 33. So I wanted to discuss what I think can help us get over this boundary. What can help us get out of what I see as the change loop? We start a new program, get really excited by the promise. We go all in, do all these different habits. We hit habit overload, which leads to emotional sabotage, which leads to I quit instead of us doubling down on what’s working. And I think it’s because, and this sounds very negative, but we’re not finding the restriction that we can tolerate. Again, sounds very negative, but what I mean by this is everything that we do is not going to be fun to reach a goal. There are downsides to every upside. And the more we own this, the more we own there are struggles, there are habits that we won’t like especially to start because they’re not within our comfort zone.

(02:43):
There’s going to be hard that we push through. The more we’re going to see the results that we deserve, and also realize that some of the downsides aren’t really as hard as we once thought they were or that they were a means to an end. Like tracking. I never like someone to say, tracking is not a lifestyle that I can do forever. And I say that because I think the mindset of, oh, it’s not sustainable, automatically holds us back from truly embracing it and seeing the opportunity in it. So we have to believe that some of the habits we’re going to be implementing are something we’re going to do for the rest of our life, even though they’re not. We don’t do one thing in one form forever and our body needs and goals, our lifestyle is constantly evolving and we’re going to change because of that.

(03:21):
But going into tracking, you need to think, okay, I’m going to do this for the rest of my life. You’re not going to do it in the same form. There’s going to be times you’re more intensive with your tracking. There’s times where you’re going to learn your portions and just keep going with it. There’s times you’re going to do minimums, there’s times you’re not going to track at all. But now a tool in your arsenal to keep you going. And I bring up tracking specifically because I think this is a key component of finding the restriction that you can tolerate. So you might say, well, I can really tolerate tracking Corey. Okay, but hear me out on why this tool, this downside is so valuable. So in terms of restriction, you might have a friend that was like, keto is it? It was perfect. I saw results.

(03:56):
I love it. It’s a lifestyle. And you’re like, Nope, nope, not for me. Nope. Can’t do it. And the thing is, that’s a restriction they can tolerate. They don’t mind cutting out those foods. Those foods might never have been important to them. But the one dilemma with this is that some point there’s going to be some hiccup in that they can’t just restrict those foods or they’re faced with something or maybe they don’t even have that same macro breakdown because of something else they want to include, but they don’t fully know why those restrictions worked for them. They think it’s just the food type, but it’s really underlying things, fundamentals that made it work. Food type and how a diet helps us dial in our macros varies from saying you can’t have these foods to include these foods to focus on these foods to get these different meal timings or only eat at certain times.

(04:41):
These things are always dialing in the fundamentals of calories and macros. So the more we track to see how those restrictions or how those limitations are really impacting our underlying macros, the more we give ourselves the power to adjust and embrace different restrictions at different times. Because I can also tell you what you do in January where you’re super motivated to reach a goal is not what you’re potentially going to do at a different time of year, even if you’re still working towards the same goal. And then as you shift from reaching a goal, you don’t go back to what you were doing, but you don’t keep doing the same habits in the exact same form that got you there. When you reach your weight loss goal, you don’t stay in a calorie deficit, but you can’t just go back. You have to retrain your body to eat more.

(05:18):
You have to embrace new macros. You have to keep some of the lifestyle factors, but they’re going to evolve. If you go into a muscle gaining phase, same thing, you’re going to evolve. Hormone levels change. We get older. Our lifestyle changes, we’re going to evolve. So tracking allows us to really identify why and what is working. So as you’re thinking about what restrictions you might be able to embrace, if you start ke and you’re like, okay, this feels really good, I can do this. Start to track what ratios are you hitting? What foods are you eliminating to do this? And what foods might you not be able to embrace the restriction of for long-term? If you do want to result faster, you might say, I’m not drinking at all, or I’m not doing any cheat days, or I’m cutting out X. And it might feel very sustainable.

(05:55):
You might embrace that restriction, but for how long? And if it’s something you can’t feel that you’ll embrace forever, identify what that’s truly doing to your lifestyle to help you move forward. And I say this because there are times a year where I don’t have cocktails as much as I love them, I will cut them out for a period or I won’t include a cheat day, and maybe I’ll do a little bit more on other days still hitting macros. But then on other days, I will have, or other times of year, I will have a complete cheat day where I won’t log and I won’t care. And I know I’m completely killing my macros and calories and whatever else, but I don’t care because I adjust the rest of the week for that. But I do different things at different times of year because there’s different restrictions I’m willing to embrace based on different goals, based on different lifestyle factors.

(06:33):
And so understanding what we’re truly willing to embrace and how it impacts us is the key component because otherwise we quit. We get to that same hard point. We think we are not getting results the way we want or we want to add something in and we don’t really have a strategy. We don’t have that exit plan. Also even say, and we don’t know what to double down on because we don’t know what’s working. And guys, we all hit that boundary. There’s always a time in our life we’re going to be pushing that comfort zone and you’re going to get zapped by it and your immediate response is going to be, I want to go back. But if you never push that hard, you’re never going to push that comfort zone and you’re never going to see changes really snowball. So often when we think, oh, I need something new.

(07:11):
This isn’t working. It’s really that we’re only measuring success in one way and viewing it as only one outcome when there’s all these other ways that results are snowballing and building. And we might be in a dead zone right now where things don’t feel like they’re adding up. But if we just keep going past the point, we usually want to quit. We’re going to see that success. So I would really encourage you to start tracking to understand what restrictions you are willing to embrace right now and what restrictions you might not embrace long-term and how they impact you. But then also realize when you hit that restriction hard, when you hit that point where you’re pushing it up against that comfort zone, it feels really uncomfortable. Take that step back and assess, why do I want to quit right now? What is truly going on?

(07:49):
And then double down on the things that are working. Again, this is where tracking your food can be so key because you might say, Hey, I’ve been too low a calorie for too long. I need to bump my calories up. I need to take that diet break. Or, Hey, this low carb worked for me, but I’m really missing X food. Let’s see how I can work it in. But by tracking, you have the power to make accurate adjustments versus you go from keto where you’re restricting to then paleo where you’re restricting to then vegetarian, where you’re restricting to then some other carnivore where you’re restricting and you’re doing this restriction, but you don’t know why you’re able to tolerate that restriction for so long or for so short or what actually works. But to some extent, it is just finding the downsides that we are willing to embrace for the upsides and realizing that we’re going to be willing to embrace more at times and make more sacrifices and then not embrace as much at other times.

(08:36):
And that’s okay. But truly knowing what we’re doing is key because that allows us to evolve. It allows us to say, Hey, these other priorities in life are taking precedent. And so this intensive macro tracking that I’ve been doing that’s been really successful for me, Hey, I can’t do it. Okay, instead of doing nothing and instead of feeling like, well, tracking just doesn’t work for me. Say, what minimums can I do? How can I modify this so that the downsides are worth it to keep doing? Because if one downside right now isn’t worth it, it doesn’t mean that this whole plan is not working for you. It just means that other things are taking priority. All stress goes in one bucket. So we might have to alleviate what we’re adding to that bucket so it doesn’t overflow. So instead of tracking as intensively, you set that calorie cap or you set that protein minimum or you say, Hey, I’m going to make a meal plan for myself that I’m going to follow, even though I usually like more diversity in food.

(09:21):
But it’s truly learning how we can embrace that restriction, find the restrictions that work for us that aren’t as painful for us, so we can bust out that change loop double down on things versus hitting that emotional sabotage where we say, I feel like I deserve more results for the effort that I’m putting in, and we end up quitting, right? Where we would truly see results snowball if we just kept pushing that comfort zone, pushing through because I quit truly is what often holds us back. It’s the mindset, not the habits I’ve seen people with, and I will say imperfect plans, all things working against them, doing the minimum see better results than somebody who had all the tools all the time at their disposal. Just because one kept going through it, all started at the wrong time, kept going and doing the minimum at the wrong time, did something over nothing, versus the person that went all in for a period but couldn’t maintain the restrictions because they never learned what really worked for them.

(10:12):
So off of that, guys, I do want to open it up to any questions, comments, or concerns you might have. I know that was a lot all at once, but I wanted to touch on this key mindset component just because I think so often we do just go and search for another macro ratio. We do just go and search for a new better move or a new workout plan instead of realizing that it comes back to that self-assessment and that self-awareness and constantly being willing to evolve knowing that one thing doesn’t work forever. We don’t do one workout program forever yet. So for some reason we started diet and we’re like, this is one thing forever. And again, I think we have to have the attitude of I can do these habits forever going in to help ourselves embrace them and make that change and even potentially go the other direction to correct some of the habits we have currently. But at the same time, we have to realize that the exact mold that we’re in right now is not the mold that we’ll use, the plan that we’ll use forever. So embracing that it is forever, but not forever. We’re not going back, put it that way.

(11:05):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

Cori (00:27):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

Cori (00:28):
Hey guys, it’s Corey and Michelle from Redefining Strength, and today we’re going to talk about 13 tips to rock your macros like a pro. And in listing out all these different options, I have to admit, when we were brain vomiting them out, it came out to a lot more than 13. Don’t know the exact number, but over the years I feel like you accumulate a lot of different hacks to help you hit your macro ratios, make it more sustainable, really create that lifestyle balance. So Michelle, thank you for being here. Super excited to jump in. You want to kick us off with one of your top macro hacks to rock those macro ratios like a pro.

Michelle (01:04):
So I’m going to start with first investing in a digital food scale. It just makes things a lot more simpler when you’re trying to actually figure out the portion sizes and the macros or nutrition content of any of those meals that you mix or that are mixed meals. So simply just weighing your ingredients as you’re cooking and then being able to divide it at the end makes your life a lot simpler.

Cori (01:27):
I love that. And if you are lazy like me and you used to use measuring cups and teaspoons and tablespoons and all those different things, it saves on a lot of dishes because basically you take that bowl, you put it on your scale, and as you add things you just make sure that you tear it each and every time and it allows you to get the exact measurement of each ingredient as you put it in. So you can log into your tracker, you can then enter it to create the recipe or one of my other little hacks I mentioned is creating the meal. So while I do like creating recipes that I make as is a lot because then you can save them, you can save the portion size, it allows you to easily enter them, sometimes even having them as a meal so that you can easily adjust portions of things can be really helpful because when you have meals like a salad that you make, if you make little tweaks of specific things, having it as the meal, you can easily that you take one thing out and then you can put one thing in, sorry, I heard some background noise, got a little distracted.

(02:18):
But you can then easily make sure that you’re adjusting things based on the macros that you have for that day. So if you know that a meal earlier is higher carb, you can lower the carbs in that and make it more of a salad versus more of a burrito bowl. I love that though. Next tip, what were your thoughts?

Michelle (02:36):
So this one I think is huge and I know it sounds boring and it may not be sexy, but plan ahead. And when we say plan ahead, yes, pre log those mills, that’s going to help that Ashley even look at your week, what do you have going on? So if you have a busy day, don’t plan on making a meal that’s going to take a little extra time, time. Make sure you’re going to plan a meal that’s going to be very simple. Have very little prep work and that you can kind of get in and get out because oftentimes that’s really where I see the downfall is people create these really great sounding mills but then they run out of time to actually prepare ’em.

Cori (03:16):
I think planning ahead is one of the most important things, especially starting out because if you think about it, when we’re coming into macros, the reason you feel like you can’t hit them is because you are simply logging what you’ve always done. And if your ratios were naturally hit them, hitting them and your portions were naturally hitting them, you would then see the results that you want. So coming in, you are not hitting the ratios, therefore if you do what you’ve always done, you’re going to get the same result. So planning ahead allows you to see where there might be areas to make some tweaks. And I can tell you I’ve been tracking macros for a decade and maybe even a little bit longer, but I still plan ahead. I still have meals I know will all work together or simple ways I know I can adjust those different things.

(03:54):
But in planning ahead too, it allows you to make that grocery list to make sure that you always have things on hand that you can use to hit it. Planning ahead allows you to map in those meals out so that you have options out if you’re in a pinch, it allows you to really have the flexibility to do things quickly. I think that’s something that comes up a lot too. I don’t have the time and a little time to plan ahead. Saves you a lot of headache, a lot of time later trying to MacGyver things because things aren’t adding up planning ahead, definitely not the sexiest tip, but so important off of that. I mentioned this to you, the five by five meal plan builder is what I call it, but it’s taking five ingredients and then figuring out five different ways to mix and match those things, whether it’s using different sauces, different ones of each, so maybe you don’t use all five and everything, but with doing that you can pick chicken, you can pick a vegetable, you can pick potatoes, rice, some staples that you know always have around and then you can get different sauces, whether it be buffalo chicken or buffalo for the buffalo chicken or teriyaki or whatever else.

(04:56):
And then you can combine those things in different ways, but you have those few staples. How do you go about planning your meals, Michelle?

Michelle (05:04):
So actually very similar to that, I have my go-tos and then I just know that I’m going to kind of create multiple recipes based off of those main proteins and I tend to focus on the protein. I tend to build around whatever the protein’s going to be, so it makes it easier to swap. And as we mentioned, the sauces are a great way to add variety, mix things up so you’re not getting more, but I find that this also really lowers the mental energy that you have to input and things. I think we talk a lot about time, like time and preparing food time and kind of sitting down and pre logging, but there’s also that mental load that you kind carry with you when you’re actually constantly thinking, okay, how am I going to hit my macros? What can I do? And I think this really helps level that down because all of a sudden you have your go-tos that what you’re going to swap and it makes it a lot easier when you’re grocery shopping even because you know need to pick and pick those up and kind of refill those staples.

Cori (06:05):
And I love that you mentioned planning around your protein first because often if we think about that protein portion and then plan the meal around it, we’re going to hit our protein store, not just chopping down a chicken or canned tuna. I saw that joke in the group the other day where it was like, oh, at the end of the night trying to eat the can tuna to make up the protein. I’m like, you don’t have to do that because if you plan each meal to be around that protein, you can make something delicious, but that includes it. Which brings me to another hack that I think is very important. It’s the bulk prepping a protein. If you have a lot of protein already bulk prep, you can throw it into a lot of different things very easily. Even if you really need to eating it on its own but bulk prepping it, you can then even freeze and you have it to really quickly grab and go. I think so often cooking the chicken, cooking the ground beef, cooking something from scratch, that takes a lot of time and if you just have it there to throw in a soup, to throw in a salad, to throw in a wrap, a sandwich, whatever else, it makes things a lot easier and then you can even freeze that to have on hand when you know you’re going to be busier.

Michelle (07:05):
And I’m going to jump on that because I know I’ve shared this quite a few times. While I can do certain types of proteins prepped, I’m not the person that’s going to reheat and keep eating the same protein throughout the week. I just can’t do that. So for me, bulk prepping my protein means taking the workout. So as you mentioned, if I’m going to be prepping and throwing something into a sauce, I’m going to freeze it so that I can pull it out, toss it into a slow cooker and then have that to kind of eat without having to worry about reheating it all the time and feel like I’m eating it the same thing throughout the week and the same even you can do that cooked and this is really where the sauce is. Making things shredded so that you can add more moisture back into it when you’re reheating is really going to be useful.

Cori (07:48):
I love that you brought up to the bulk prepping and freezing stuff because I think that is a great way to add in diversity. Not only can you buy ingredients that are already frozen because then you can use them whatever you need, you can add more diversity to your diet. It’s easier because the fruits and vegetables won’t go bad and they’re generally peaked at the peak of ripeness, so they actually are very micronutrient dense as well. But you can have all those things on hand to easily be able to pull out when you need, but also by bulk prepping some of the stuff, not only is it ready whenever you need it basically, but you can add in more diversity because you can freshly cook something, have that leftover that you freeze and then make something else new if you don’t have a busy week and then have these two different leftovers to even eat later in the week or the next week to add in diversity to any new meals you might add in. So it’s like you can sort of build up your own meal prep that’s frozen based on having those leftovers where you don’t have to eat the same thing day after day after day. Of course if you don’t like reheating meat, you might not want to do it with meat, but you can do it with different things to have those things to add in diversity to later even.

Michelle (08:49):
Yeah, I think there’s really this misconception that if you are prepping it’s because you are very prepared, you’re very organized, you have a plan. For me prepping is because I’m lazy, I’m just going to double whatever I’m going to make. And so I have it for a later use

Cori (09:07):
Off of that. Being lazy, wanting to hit macros. I thought of another hack that I think is a big game changer but very odd and you guys can tell me if this is really weird, but I like to buy the same thing but different variations of it. So in order to make it easier to hit my macros so that I have a little bit more flexibility in my day, I will get three different brands of yogurt. And I say this because you can get different brands that have different macros. There’s the ratio brand that has a lot of protein or I might get a higher fat one that has higher fat but lower protein, but I’ll get different options to be able to hit whatever macros I need for the day and still be able to have my Greek yogurt parfait at the end. I’ll have different options in terms of different nuts, statin and different fruits because amazingly, while it might be small mangoes versus pineapple versus mixed berry all have different macro breakdowns that you can use to your advantage to hit what you need to hit. Just like if you do red potatoes versus sweet potatoes, white rice versus brown rice. Some of these differences can be small, but the more options you have frozen, canned, non-perishable things, even the better off you’re going to be to be able to adjust if something does pop up during your day. Michelle, am I weird? Do you do this too? Is this not that cool a hack or do I just think it’s really cool?

Michelle (10:23):
No, I do do this. So I have right now I actually have three different yogurts in my fridge for that same reason because some are a little bit higher in fat, some are going to be higher in protein, so it really makes it so I can grab what I actually need at the end of the day. And it’s the same with fruit. You have to have variety just so that you can kind of play with your numbers and not feel stuck. And I also think we’re just creatures of habit. We tend to grab the same thing over and over and over again, which is why even having someone with an outside perspective be like, Hey, you can swap that 1% for 2% and all of a sudden you’re getting a little bit more fat intake. And the same thing with even cuts of meat. Meat, there’s a wide variety of what percentage of fat to protein you can actually get based on what type of cut you are getting. So it’s really just kind of taking those things into consideration and being able to change those out fairly easily.

Cori (11:21):
It’s seeing opportunity in all the different options like ground Turkey, you can get leaner ground Turkey or fatty or ground Turkey, ground beef, same thing. And so it’s using those things to your advantage but also recognizing in doing some of this and having those different options, you get different things that you can make. You might make the Greek yogurt parfait one time with fruit and nuts or you might add granola one other time or even in having the different fruit options there, you’re getting a micronutrient diversity by being able to swap those things in very easily and in a way that you don’t also have to reinvent the wheel. I think that’s the thing we can get bored with meals, but we also don’t realize the little changes that add up swapping in sweet potatoes for your red potatoes or even potatoes for your usual rice.

(12:01):
These little things can make the meal feel new and different along with even just a different sauce which you can easily have on hand and they usually have a longer expiration. You can even make some great ones out of Greek yogurt just by the seasonings you add, but you can get a lot of diversity and keep your meals interesting, but without having to work really hard. I know I’m lazy, so if I can do something that’s still a protein vegetable and a star, your carb source that for me is going to be great or starchy vegetable, that’s going to be great. So I’m going to want to say, okay, I can have my chicken and now I have two different vegetables frozen and I have two different carb sources or higher carb sources, the starchy that I can add in and I’m going to then have that same thing and I can add two different sauces and make it two completely different meals and that’s going to be freaking fabulous and a lot of diversity but not a lot of thought and very easy to have planned in. Again, going back to even one of the hacks I mentioned instead of even the recipe where if you do have a complicated recipe, you enter it as that if you’re not going to change it, but a meal that’s simpler if you have all those portions already listed out, you can easily just save the meal, put it in, and then swap one thing and it makes logging so much quicker.

(13:06):
Love that. As I say, jumping onto another topic, and this one was another one that I think is very fun as a way to hit your macros but also add in that diversity and allow your family to be involved too. And it’s creating the build your own family meals. So I was thinking about this as I always loved growing up the taco bar or the build your own salad or the build your own pizza type things. And with this you can have a lot of fun creating very macro friendly meals for yourself, meals that encourage your family to eat even more macro friendly and for their health and maybe they’re not looking to have an aesthetic goal, but also allow them to enjoy the foods they love because you can have a lot of diversity. You could have the tortilla pizza crust versus maybe they use a pizza dough versus you even bake it into a salad for yourself if you really want. Or with the tacos you can add the amount of meat for the amount of protein you want. So I like that build your own meal where you’re not having to prep different meals for everybody, but you can then customize it to what you need easily without even looking like you’re doing something that’s hitting your macros, which could also be good for a party as well, I would think. So how do you work around that family life to make sure you’re not just having to cook bazillion different variations, Michelle?

Michelle (14:17):
Yeah, I actually love this tip because this is one of the things I get often from moms is that they don’t want to be cooking more than one meal. I’m like, you be, this makes it very easy to be able to do that. So this is actually something that I do as well. We’ll do taco night and sometimes depending on what I’m doing, my taco is really just a taco salad or I’m going to beef up my protein and whatever I’m doing. But I do think that keeps it very, very simple. And the other thing is, again, it comes back to if you are pre-planning your, you can plan around your dinner if that is something that’s important to you is to make sure that you are going to have your family dinner and it’s the same meal, start there, make sure that that’s actually logged so that you can adjust the rest of your day to allow you to be able to eat whatever it is that your family is planning to enjoy that night.

Cori (15:13):
That is one of my top hacks and I even sort of take that out to mean anything that I really want that day. So yeah, if you want that family meal, if there’s a specific thing that you guys are eating and you’re like, well, I’m cooking this and it’s not going to be macro friendly work the rest of your day that you can control around it. Same thing goes if I want dessert, if I know I’m going to have a meal out, if I know I’m going to a party, I always plan that in first. And yeah, sometimes you don’t know the exact macros or you don’t know exactly what you’re going to have, but then you can still plan ahead by saying, okay, I know it’s probably not going to be that high in protein or it might be more calories, therefore I’m going to go higher in protein and lower in calories early in the day to account for it.

(15:48):
But you can have an idea of planning around whatever you really want to work in. It’s just again, goes back to that planning ahead. So often, and I know this is really not sexy, but so often we just don’t plan ahead to help ourselves make a change because in making a change, it’s going to be going against a lot of the ways we’ve always perceived things and always done things and it’s going to take ingraining that new perspective. I can tell you even when I go to a different macro breakdown than the one I’ve been doing, even if it’s technically one that should be easier, there’s more carbs and fat, I’m still like, oh gosh, I’m looking at portions in the way that I had been looking at them. So it’s still hard to now hit that new ratio. So off of this jumping into more tips, and I have no idea what number we’re off, but I’m going through the whole brain vomit list that we came up with. I know we sort of brought this up before, but I wanted to touch base back on this again. We talked about having the non-perishable items, the canned tuna, the frozen shrimp, the frozen vegetables. You also mentioned specifically having snacks to hit your macros on hand. Can you go a little bit into more why that’s so important?

Michelle (16:55):
Yeah, so I think a lot of times during the day we plan our meals, right? That’s kind of like how humans function. We think breakfast, lunch, dinner, but we often forget the in-between the snacks, what we’re going to do when that hunger actually hits us. And while it’s great to plan your meals, it’s also important to be ready and plan those snacks. Really where I see either making or breaking people’s macros is actually those snacks. So again, oftentimes we want to make sure that we’re focusing on higher protein options, but really just making sure that you are prepared. I know again, we keep talking about be prepared plan ahead, but keeping things on hand like cottage cheese and fruit nuts, even jerky or deli meat, whatever it is that you like to consume throughout the day, edamame hard-boiled eggs, all those things are going to help you work towards your end of the day.

(17:49):
Macros and all these things are going to make sure that you’re staying satiated, make sure you’re staying energized throughout the day and really it’s all about making it not as tempting to hit that afternoon sugar rush or that extra drive way up drive when you’re driving on the way and all of a sudden you’re like, Ooh, that looks really good. I’m going to stop in and go pick that up because I’m really hungry. And all of a sudden you’re eating with your eyes and all those kind of can work against you. So we really just want to make sure that we are being aware that we have a pantry or a fridge stock and prepared to also be able to give us the snacks that we tend to eat throughout the day.

Cori (18:30):
And it’s so key because so often life doesn’t really work for us. It doesn’t go the exact way we plan and the more we can make sure that we’re being able to fuel and hit our macros and yeah, maybe it may not be your ideal snack, right? It’s more processed than you usually like or you wanted your meal to make it easier to have something later, but you’re still staying on track and you’re being better than. And I think that’s such a key thing. We don’t think in terms of the 1% improvements over what we’re at right now, the better than we think of the perfect. And there really is no perfect, it’s just those improvements that add up and going off of even having that well stocked pantry, that well stocked fridge so that you have the snacks even knowing go-tos when you go out or if you do have to stop because as much as a fast food restaurant might not be your ideal.

(19:16):
There are lots of macro friendly things that you can get there that will still work in your day. And the more you plan in some things that are around you that you might be drawn towards even the more you’re going to keep yourself on track and make a better decision. Again, it might not be your ideal in terms of food quality, but still staying on track. The success mindset that builds often keeps us more consistent overall. And that’s really what we have to go back to. Am I doing something that keeps me in the same habits, keeps me in the same mindset that moves me forward, or am I doing something that draws me back into those old habits, those old mindsets. So I love having restaurants that I know I can go to quickly here. Things like even places that might just be low calorie enough, even if it’s not perfect and I know it won’t completely blow my macros out of the way.

(19:58):
Macro meals that are perfect for my macros, like things like even Chipotle and Flame Broiler, these different things give you a lot of variety and a lot of options to even slightly customize things, which can be nice, but you can find, again, it might not be your ideal in terms of food quality, but even things at fast food restaurants, grocery stores are great options from getting harbo eggs to grabbing the Greek yogurt, to grabbing cocktail shrimp, to grabbing pre-made chicken, right? There’s so many different options, but it’s again, goes back to planning ahead and being prepared for life to not work with you. Michelle, next tip or thought, sorry, or if you have thoughts on that.

Michelle (20:32):
No, I was just going to say I really like that because I know I mentioned not kind of succumbing to that fast food stop, but you always have to have that plan A and that plan B. And I do think it’s a misconception that all fast food, all those types of foods are always bad. There’s in the last 10 years, dieticians are now being hired by fast food places. They work on trying to make better, there’s good, better, best, and they work on trying to make healthier options for people to actually be able to to consume and kind of enjoy and stay on track. So truthfully, you can pretty much find a healthier option at every single restaurant. Even your favorite restaurants that you tended to go to for your indulgence are probably going to have some better options available.

Cori (21:22):
I will also throw this out sometimes it’s not the healthy option listed on the menu too. And I say this because a lot of times places will have solids and these solids are maybe even not the best option potentially to hit your macros. I can tell you at places like Taco Bell tacos and some of the low calorie tacos they have might be a better option to just help you even be able to work around more easily. So it’s not always being drawn into what might be perceived as the higher food quality option in order to hit your macros and actually find better balance over the day and include more quality foods around those things. Just throwing that out there, as weird as that sounds, and as much as it sounds like it’s encouraging you not to eat those fruits and vegetables, it really is. But you have to understand when something is a perceived healthy thing that’s really not healthy and going to make it a lot harder to get that healthy balance in your day. So off of that, any final tips, hacks that you think are super important that have just made you a macros rockstar?

Michelle (22:24):
Lastly, I know we touched upon this a little bit, but make sure you’re actually using your leftovers. So if you’re going to cook something, try to, I know we brought it up already, but try to actually either use it as lunch again tomorrow or you’re going to reet it and as we talked, you can even make those leftovers into something new. So use what you already have, make sure you’re not reinventing the wheel and it’s going to save you time. And again, that mental energy as well.

Cori (22:54):
And off of that, think in terms of tweaks. You brought that up when you said use the leftovers in different ways, but think in terms of tweaks to meals that you love, things that you already love, a day you’ve previously done where you didn’t hit the macros. Think in terms of tweaks to these different things to help you get closer because that’s really how we create that something sustainable, that lifestyle balance. If you have leftovers and you can use honey mustard sauce versus ranch, great. There’s a little tweak that might add up that might be really close in terms of the macros on those things to be able to hit your macros or think in terms of tweaks to your omelet, okay, I want to reduce fat, can I do one egg instead of two and then add an egg whites for the other thing, or can I change the type of protein I’m adding in otherwise to a lean ground Turkey? But think in terms of tweaks to what you’re doing over massive overhauls. And so even if you haven’t planned ahead today, go back to yesterday where you didn’t plan ahead and where you maybe didn’t hit your macros and say, what are little tweaks I can make to that to now make it easier today and now what are little tweaks I can make today to make it easier for tomorrow? But those tweaks really add up.

Cori (23:55):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone I.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

(00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
It’s your choice. When we want to work towards a new goal, we think, okay, I have to cut things out, or I have to make changes, and we feel and act like these things are being forced on us, but it is ultimately our decision how we enact the dietary changes or the workout practices that we need to use to reach our goals. And yes, will there be sacrifice along the way? 100% change is hard because it’s not what we’ve always done, but every change we make, every habit we implement is our choice. And if we start leaving foods as good or bad or saying we can only have these and we can’t have these, all of a sudden we take away our own agency, our own power, and we stop seeing it as a choice. Instead of we say, Hey, it’s my choice to eat more broccoli.

(01:09):
It’s my choice to eat more vegetables because it hits my macros and I feel really fabulous. But it’s also my choice to include that cupcake at times or to not include that cupcake. And sometimes to reach a goal, you do say, Hey, it’s my choice not to have this for time period, but at some point I make a different decision. I might make a different choice and I might include it. I want you to really assess though what you are choosing to include and the habits and the trajectory they’re putting you on, because the more you recognize you have the choice, the more you can say, I want to include this, or I don’t want to include this. And the more you also start to change your language to, I can’t have, I am not able to do this, or I have to do this to, I want to do this, or I will do this, or It is in my power to make this choice.

(01:51):
You give back your own agency. So I really want you to assess what am I telling myself I can’t, I can’t do, it’s not part of it. It’s something I should feel guilty about versus telling myself, Hey, this is my decision. These are the sacrifices or decisions I’m willing to make to reach my goal. And it’s because I value myself. It’s because I value the changes, and I see that’s all that’s possible, knowing that my lifestyle is going to evolve over time. But really start to assess the choices you are making and the path they’re putting you on, and change how you’re talking to yourself about it so that you don’t just see it as restriction being forced on you, but you see your own agency and the changes you’re making.

(02:28):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the

(02:31):
Place where I share all

(02:32):
My free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

(00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
Let’s talk everything prehab. So first, what is prehab? Prehab is the rehab exercises. We do that mobility, stability, flexibility, work that helps us move and feel our best, but it’s done proactively. So when we’re doing rehab, we’re doing it because we’ve had an injury. We’ve had aches and pains, we have mobility restrictions, we have compensations, we have things now that we are working to reverse. When we’re doing prehab, we are doing these things as preventative care or proactively so ahead of having any issues. And a lot of times what we want to think is that our prehab is from our rehab, so our rehab becomes prehab and that we’re taking anything we’ve done to move and feel our best and we’re keeping it in proactively because you can never stop doing what made you better. But we’re also addressing other things that we know in terms of imbalances from lifestyle postures.

(01:24):
We’re addressing things that we’re going to be working. So prehab is not only the mobility work we do outside of our actual routines, it’s what we want our warmups to be because I think a lot of times we feel like we don’t have time for all the things we need to do to move and feel our best, but if we do prehab work as part of every warmup, we’re going to see great returns from even including potentially less time. Five minutes can go a long way, and the reason why is because if you do that three part prehab process, which I’m going to go over today, you’re going to make sure that you’re moving well in your workouts. You’re going to address the daily postures and mobility restrictions that you create from sitting hunched over a computer so that you can actually get the full range of motion out of your workouts and strengthen through that full range of motion to maintain the mobility work you’ve worked hard for.

(02:08):
Sometimes less is more, and when you do it consistently, that little bit is able to build and snowball versus one long mobility workout each week where you’re not doing anything else the rest of the week because you can’t out prehab work your daily postures and positions. And when you go into your workouts, you want to move your best. If you’ve thought, oh, I squat and I have hip pain, oh, I do leg lowers that AB exercise and I feel my lower back. When you’re doing these things, you’re not using the correct muscles and you’re just perpetuating the overload and injury. And if you’re thinking, well, I have great form, the one issue with that is that the more advanced an exercises you are, the more you can mimic proper form because you know what it should look like and the more you’re actually going to compensate and overload areas.

(02:46):
I tell you this because this whole prehab process was originally born out of me getting injured after competing in my first power lifting competition. I was actually Massachusetts, Rhode Island State Powerlift champion, so I was lifting more than I’d ever lifted and then I got injured and it’s because I was mimicking proper form and wasn’t using muscles correctly. And amazingly enough, once I started implementing this prehab process, I am now able to lift more than I was at that point. Crazy, right? So prehab isn’t just about preventing aches and pains, it’s about getting more out of our workouts. This prehab process will help you actually lift more, activate the right muscles, see better muscle hypertrophy. So if you’re looking to lose fat and build muscle, you want to do this well as well as also helping you age functionally well and stay functionally fit. So talking about the prehab process, what is it?

(03:32):
So this is going to be every warmup. It’s going to be part of every mobility workout. It’s going to address flexibility, mobility, and stability. Because if all three things are not addressed, we’re going to still have issues because just stretching a muscle and becoming more flexible. If you don’t have stability, you won’t actually realize the flexibility or you won’t be able to strengthen through the range of motion. If the joints aren’t mobile, it doesn’t matter how flexible muscles are because the joints won’t move through the flow range of motion. So everything has to work together. So the prehab process, foam rolling, stretching and activation, and if you’re thinking, well I do stretching or I do foam rolling and I’m not seeing that great results, it’s because that’s one component. Systems work together. Doing this three part prehab process in that order is what makes it work so well.

(04:13):
Foam rolling is self myofascia release. You’re taking a ball or one of the tools that I have here and the smaller and harder the ball, the more it’s going to dig in. You might’ve seen something like the rumble roar, which allows for the knobs to dig in versus something that’s a little bit softer and doesn’t have any of the knobs to dig in, or even something that’s like this foam roller here, which is even softer. So the softer the tool, the larger the ball, the less it’s going to dig in, which can be really great to start because if you tense against it, you’re not going to see the same benefit. So even if you’re foam rolling on the ground and you’re doing your upper back and that’s too much, you can go against the wall. You, there’s an area that’s harder to dig into.

(04:51):
You can even use something like the bench to be able to foam roll out your hamstring versus using say the roller on the ground. And you might be thinking, why do I want to foam roll? And the reason you want to foam roll is because foam rolling is relaxing and overactive or tight muscle, and so I say overactive and tight because when you’re foam rolling, things like your hamstrings might not actually be short and tight. They might feel tight and be overactive, meaning that they want to compensate for all their muscles or take over for other muscles, but you don’t necessarily need to stretch them more. So foam rolling is that first part in that prehab process in that it relaxes overactive muscles, it inhibits that neuromuscular drive, so you’re not as likely to then recruit the muscle during a movement when it wants to take over for another muscle.

(05:36):
And it can help with joint range of motion, that flexibility, because what you want to think is that before you go stretch something like a shoelace, let’s just say before you stretch a shoelace, you don’t want to nod in it because if you stretch it, then that’s just going to get tighter. Same thing goes for the muscle. You want to make sure that you’re using foam rolling to relax those muscles to help then mobilize the joints, activate the correct muscles, making sure that you actually are able to stretch in a proper way. So foam rolling is that first step. It has been shown to have some mild benefits for recovery, helping with delayed onset muscle soreness or doms, but you’re using it as that first step in your warmup because you want to make sure that you’re relaxing any muscles that might be tight from your daily postures and positions.

(06:17):
Muscles that have tended to be overused and take over. The effects of foam rolling are short-lived, so about 15 minutes after you foam roll, you’re not necessarily going to feel as relaxed as when you first had it done. Just like with a massage, you feel really good coming out and then after a while things start to tighten back up. That’s why it’s key. Use this as the first step and if you’ve been foam rolling a ton and not fully seeing the benefits add up, it’s because you’re then still a overusing muscles not only in your workouts but in everyday life, but you’re also then not capitalizing on the relaxation this provides to then mobilize joints and create that stability. So foam rolling is the first part, and again, if you’re foam rolling and you’re on this roller and you’re rolling out your hamstring and you’re like, oh, I can’t dig in as much, you can use a ball up on the bench, but you also have to think, oh, if I’m tensing against this and you’re going like this, you are not helping the muscle relax and release itself because through a process called autogenic inhibition, when you foam roll and you hold on that spot, you got to actually hold on it.

(07:13):
That’s going to help the muscle relax and release, but you’ve got to be able to relax as you hold. So if you’re doing something where you’re on the ground and you’re rolling out your lat even, so you might be here and that might be too much pressure. So if that’s too much pressure, maybe you take a ball against the wall, you can go up against the wall, you can put the ball there. That can be really beneficial as well. But you want to find something where you can relax into the pressure as you hold. And then not only are you holding on the spot, but then you want to think about how can I move and utilize this muscle because this is sort of a dynamic release and this can be very beneficial when you’re not going to necessarily need to activate a muscle or in the case of your pecs where a muscle might be short and tight, but then it’s also potentially underactive in some movements.

(08:06):
You want to use this dynamic release even overstretching potentially, and it can be very beneficial and that just means that you’re going to move the joints around it or the joints impacted by the muscle through a range of motion. So if you are working on say your hamstring, you could be on the bench and I’ll set this up here, but you could be on the bench and then you could actually extend your knee. And so by extending your knee, you’re tensing relaxing the muscle as you extend out and then relax back down. That can help the muscle relax and release itself as well. But foam rolling is that first step in this preh process. Once you foam rolled, you then want to stretch and again, there is nuance to everything. You can hold on the tight spot as you foam roll to help the muscle relax and release.

(08:51):
You can also use that dynamic movement to help the muscle relax and release depending on the muscle and where the tight spot is and you want to find a few tight spots in terms of how long you hold guys with foam rolling. 30 seconds is usually the minimum. I like up to one minute, but over one minute you’re not necessarily going to see any more benefits. Pick one or two spots and when you’re designing this pre-high process, what you foam roll won’t necessarily be what you activate generally won’t be what you activate, but you might even find that you formula a couple of muscles that are then impacted by the stretching that you’re doing, but you’re not necessarily doing every muscle and every component of the warmup. So after you formula, you want to stretch. Now there are different types of stretching. There’s dynamic and static, which we generally think of.

(09:31):
And static is when you’re holding that stretch dynamic is when you’re moving that joint through a range of motion. In warmups, I generally like to use the dynamic stretching just because that’s going to warm up your body and it’s going to start to work through a range of motion. So things like the dynamic squat stretch are great because you want to think about what movement patterns you’re doing in your workout. So you’re doing squats that day. A dynamic squat stretch is going to help you warm up all the joints involved in that. And after you’ve say rolled out your hips, maybe your TFL something or even your calves, if you have tight calves, lack of ankle mobility after you’ve rolled out those tight muscles, then you’re starting to stretch through the range of motion to warm your body up again, improve the joint range of motion for the movements you’re going to do.

(10:14):
So you always want to think about what aches and pains have I had in the past? What restrictions compensations have I had in the past? What are my daily postures to address those? So again, if you’re hunch over a computer, you’re sitting at a chair, your hips, you’re going to be tight. So foam rolling your hips to then do that dynamic stretch will help you then go into your workout. But you also want to consider what muscles am I working in my workout and what movement patterns am I going to do to make sure that you’re warming those up and mobilizing through them. So when you go into your workout, you’re able to strengthen through the fullest range of motion and use the correct muscles. So with stretching, you generally want to think dynamic before your workout. However, if you have had injuries, aches and pains, you have areas that you know are super tight, your hips really are limited or your ankle mobility is really poopy and you’re working on it, you can use static stretching.

(10:58):
So you might have heard that static stretches can reduce your power output or reduce your strength and your workouts, and while there can have some impact, most of us a aren’t doing necessarily power lifting or competing, so having maximal output is not as essential. However, at the same time, we never want suboptimal if we can help it. We have to note that these studies done on those static stretching we’re of the agonist muscles. So when you’re going into a workout where you’re going to work your quads, you might not want to necessarily then stretch your quads. However you want to think, how can I work the opposing muscle group or stretch the opposing muscle group to make sure that I’m able to then better activate the muscles? I really want to target, if you say I wanted to really target your glutes, even in a workout, you might think, okay, I am going to actually do a static stretch for my hip because in doing this static stretch, right, this static stretcher right here, what I’m also doing is engaging my glute to drive that hip into extension.

(11:54):
We think about stretching as stretching a muscle only, but even when you’re doing a dynamic or a static stretch, you want to think about the opposing muscle that is driving the stretch over just stretching, especially if you’re hypermobile. So if you have, you can extend your elbows pass the point. If you can lock out your knees extra. If you’re hypermobile, you are going to tend to rest on structure. And also a lot of times the muscles that are tight are inhibiting the other muscle that we want to activate. So we want to start that activation process in our stretching. So whether you’re doing more of a dynamic sort of hip stretch or you’re doing a static one, you want to think about squeezing that glute to drive the hip into extension because this starts the activation process. It helps stretch out the muscle on the opposing side of the joint and it’s going to help you really warm up your body.

(12:39):
So it’s key. The nuance of, again, dynamic stretches can be great in the warmup because they’re warming up, they’re mobilizing the joints, they’re moving the joint through the range of motion. However, static stretches could still be included. You just want to be conscious that you are not doing a static stretch for the muscles. You really plan to work as the pry movers in your workout. Okay, after doing the stretching, you want to think activation. Okay, so you notice that there’s a ton of different tools here I had for the foam rolling that you can use. As I mentioned, the softer the object the less it’s going to dig in, so that can be really key to start with. But there’s also different things you can use for stretching as well. If you can’t say reach your foot guys, there’s always ways to modify, and I’m going to do this incorrectly, but if you want to put your foot through the band, there we go.

(13:24):
My brain can work today. And then you want to pull this way, right? You can sort of stretch your hip and quad this way by pulling. So there’s always ways to modify whether you’re laying on your side to the stretch, you’re doing a standing variation, maybe you’re even holding onto a wall and you’re pulling your foot up or looping something around. So you want to think about how you can use different tools to make sure that you’re addressing what you need and modifying based on your level and your mobility. Because if you’re going to force something that you can’t do, you’re going to cause injuries, aches, and pains. Now off of that, again, we’re always thinking about previous aches and pains that rehab becomes prehab. We’re thinking about daily postures and positions. So if we’re hunched over a computer, we want to address that in our warmup, and then we also want to think about the movement patterns and muscles we want to train that day.

(14:08):
So we’ve done our foam rolling to relax overactive muscles. We’ve done our stretching to mobilize joints, get warmed up, improve the flexibility of muscles as well, and we’ve even started the activation process. The last component is that focus activation, and I find this is so often what we ignore, but if you don’t establish a mind body connection before you go into workouts, we’ll tend to revert back to natural recruitment patterns. And natural recruitment patterns are movement patterns. We’ve trained, these are not the ones that we have from being a baby because we’ve done so many things, so many daily postures that now have sort of changed things. Injuries change things, surgeries change things, childbirth, which is a trauma to the body. It’s a beautiful one, but a trauma to the body. Those change things guys, and that changes the way we want to activate muscles and utilize muscles.

(14:54):
If you’ve noticed in your squat that you shift to one side, you are overusing specific muscles and you’re even creating an imbalance. So the prehab work you do, you might be relaxing a muscle on one side and activating a muscle on another side, and you might be addressing muscles differently. So this whole process can be used in so many different ways. But the last component is activation, and in this through a process called reciprocal inhibition, you are continuing to stretch out muscles. You’re also creating not only the mobility and flexibility, but this is where you really get into that stability, which you started with the stretching by focusing on the opposing muscle driving the stretch, but you’re focusing on building that stability. Things like bands can be a great tool to use to really help you activate, but you’re not focused with this on going heavier, okay?

(15:41):
You always need to create progression, but the point of this is the MINDBODY connection, this is where I want you to take pride in. Hey, I can lay on the ground and I can do my body weight glute bridge, and I can make my butt cheek shake just by activating the muscles through that my body connection. That’s your focus right here, because you’re not trying to fatigue things. If you go into your workouts tired and that muscle’s already tired, you’re going to start to compensate and use other muscles to try and keep up with the weights, loads, variations that you’re trying to do. What you want to think about with this is how can I establish my mind body connection so I’m very aware of that muscle so that when I go into the compound movements, I can have that better neural drive, that better communication with that muscle.

(16:19):
I can feel it working to know that I am truly recruiting the correct muscles during those movements because this helps that little establish that. It helps it in an environment where you’re doing isolated moves. So you don’t want to think this is the time to be doing complicated movement squats, even lunges. This is the time to do the glute bridges. It’s to do the silly looking little donkey kicks where you’re kicking back. It’s to do the different things like if you are working on scapular health and you’re working on that shoulder stability using the foam roller against the wall to do the serus anterior work where you’re rolling out and you’re rolling up to work on that scapular elevation, that protraction that control of the shoulder blades because you’ve spent so much time seated at a computer, it’s the time to establish that my body connection through more isolated movements with lower loads for higher reps, and you’re just trying to get that little bit of pump and burn to the muscle, not fully fatigue it, but this activation will help you then create that stability and mobility of joints to go into your workouts.

(17:16):
Now, it’s key with all three of these steps that when you go into your workout, you then strengthen through the full range of motion. If you’ve just been working on your hip mobility and then you go squat like this and you don’t even squat to the bench that you’re going to, you are only strengthening through a limited range of motion and you’re not going to see all that mobility maintained. If you’re going and constantly sitting hunch over your computer and never addressing that and you’re sitting for long hours, you’re not going to see all this mobility work maintained. But that’s why doing it in part of your warmup or your warmup consistently throughout the week is so key over just one day and then making sure that your workouts address strengthening through the fullest range of motion, but proper recruitment patterns. What do you feel working?

(17:53):
If you have an imbalance, if you shift to one side in your squat, if you find that your shoulders move differently in movements, going and doing a bilateral move where you’re locked in and you can’t allow each side to move independently, not addressing that in your prehab work, you’re going to see overloaded injury occur. So you need to make sure that you’re thinking, okay, I might have an imbalance and I have to address that in an imbalanced way. Again, that might mean activating one butt cheek and not the other because one is stronger and one is weaker. It might mean doing foam rolling on one side but not the other. You’re going to have to address things independently, and this is where getting your movements assessed is super, super important. But that is the prehab process, and as unsexy as it is, as much as sometimes when you’re short on time, the last thing you want to do is that even if you take one thing and you’re like, okay, I spent time hunch over the computer, I’m going to roll out my chest to open that up, then I’m going to do the world’s greatest stretch, so I address everything.

(18:42):
There are a lot of great sort of movements that are full body stretches where you step outside your hand, you drop your elbow down, you rotate towards the front leg, and again, you’re even thinking activation here, how can I engage my back to pull my chest open? How can I squeeze my butt cheek to drive that leg straight? How can I focus on my foot’s connection to the ground so that I’m not rocking open and creating space? Right? Then you’re sitting back and as you’re hinging, you’re not just leaning forward, you’re thinking about how can I push my butt back to truly stretch my hamstrings, bracing my abs? You’re focusing on all these things, right? And that’s going to warm up your body. So all you did was a foam rolling for your chest. You did the world’s greatest stretch and maybe you do a loo bridge, and then you’ve addressed different things that you’re going to need for your workout, and it’s three moves.

(19:20):
And while that might not seem like a lot, those things pay off and that consistency done daily will really help. But you need to address the fact that you are doing specific postures positions during everyday life that then can impact what you can strengthen through in your workouts. And guys, if you’re seeing neck aches and pains, shoulder aches and pains, feeling like you’re not getting the most out of your workout, because again, even activation starts to drive that muscle hypertrophy, and if you want to even see better hypertrophy, you’ve got to be able to work through a full range of motion because we’ve seen great results from lifting and weighting down moves when the muscles are stretched. So if you want to really truly stretch a muscle, you’ve got to be able to work through the full range of motion. So make sure that you’re doing this prior to your workouts to move the best in your workouts as much as it can be tempting to skip the stuff when you’re short on time, and then anytime you can throughout the day, because this is about just also getting up and moving more. Add in a foam rolling, move against the wall, add in that chest stretch when you walk through the doorway, add in a little glute squeeze when you’re waiting in line of the grocery store, but adding a few of these different things just to focus on how you can also help yourself move better. Because we can’t simply just out mobility work, daily postures and positions. We can’t out mobility work, not training through a full range of motion in our workouts, as key as this is and as much as it really pays off.

(20:35):
Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the

(20:47):
Podcast to leave a rating

(20:48):
Review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life of someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript

00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with somebody you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in.

(00:28):
Age is just the number. Fitness is about ability. So I’m not here to deny that there are changes that happen with getting older, but I am here to help you define how you get older because that is something that we can control. We can’t change that number going up unless we do something dramatic and not so positive. But we can define how we feel at any and every age, and we can focus on controlling what we can control. There are challenges at every phase of life. There are things at every phase of life that we are doing that are moving us forward and that will ultimately add up and hold us back. So the sooner we recognize how our practices are impacting us, the better we can really make our whole life now, but also help ourselves move better as we get older. So I do want to talk about defining how you age versus denying that changes are occurring.

(01:20):
And I wanted to go into what’s actually happening with specific things we often blame on age and what you can do to really control what you can control and move forward. Because I think so often too, we blame things on age and it’s not truly that number. We’ll say, oh, I’m 70 now, I can’t do this, or I’m 60 now, I can’t do this. Or, oh, I’m 80 now. I can’t do this. I’ve had people say the same thing at 30 even, but we say X age and now I can’t do this. When really it’s like, okay, well what have I done previously in my life that might not make this right for me now? But it’s not because of that number, it’s because of improper dieting practices, improper workout practices, and I do say improper because it’s something that either A, does not meet us where we’re at right now, or B, potentially did work but wasn’t really done in a way that set us up for long-term success.

(02:04):
It was a fad diet. It was a quick fix. It was a means to an end right then to try and out exercise or out diet time. And ultimately what that really did was lead to a lot of buildup that we’re just now recognizing, I call it the leaky ceiling effect. We don’t realize that there’s a pipe leaking into the ceiling until it finally collapses, but it’s been going on for a while and that’s why it finally collapses. But then we blame the collapse on, oh, it’s this age or this one thing, but really it’s the accumulation over time that we just didn’t address that now is adding up. So talking about this, I wanted to go over a few things where I feel like people let themselves go or blame age especially, and we stopped doing what made us better. But growth is always possible, and I bring this up too because sure, what you had in your twenties might not look the same as what you have in your seventies.

(02:50):
Things do change at the same time. You can be 70 and fabulous just like you were 20 and fabulous. We can always move forward from where we’re at. There can always be growth. And the second we don’t keep striving for growth is the second that we start to lose all the progress we’ve had and we go backwards and we see all the negative things that we don’t want, whether it’s more aches and pains, not being as functionally fit, not looking the way we want. So again, we’re not denying the changes happen with age, we’re just defining how we age. So first I wanted to talk about muscle gains. Does it get harder to gain muscle as we get older? Yes, but not as much as we blame on our age. A lot of times it is harder to gain muscle because we’ve done a lot of weight loss practices that have impacted our muscle mass retention and our metabolic rate.

(03:33):
We have trained for longer. So as we get more advanced and more experienced, we’re able to handle more progression, more loads. So it does become harder to then build off of that because we have to create a greater stimulus for muscle growth to continue to see growth also, because a lot of times we’ve done more dieting down than really trying to build, we have a lot of cardio practices, a lot of dietary practices that work for fat loss but are the opposite of what we need to do to gain muscle. And so what happens is we’re stuck in these practices and we don’t then evolve because what worked to reach one goal is not what’s going to work to reach the next. So as we get older, again, going back to we’re not denying aging, we are less able to build muscle as efficiently because we aren’t as able to use protein as efficiently to build muscle.

(04:17):
We potentially have trained for longer. So we have to create a greater stimulus for muscle growth. Our recovery potentially is a little bit slower. Also on top of this, a lot of times we do have more aches and pains and we don’t have that optimal hormonal environment for growth, especially going through menopause and even into post menopause where the hormones might have settled. We don’t have the same optimal environment we did when we were younger where we could look at a weight and potentially gain a little bit muscle. It’s why when those studies are done on young men, it’s very different than what we might need as we get older. But this just means that we have to address what our body needs. Now knowing that you aren’t able to protein as efficiently, knowing that you might have to create a stimulus for muscle growth in different ways, knowing that you don’t have this optimal hormonal environment that you once did, you just have to plan for it.

(04:58):
Increasing your protein helps you get the same muscle building response. You just have to eat more of it. Knowing that you have to create progression in different ways instead of just adding loads or if you can’t add loads using different training techniques to still take muscles to failure, to still challenge yourself because that creates the change. Knowing that you don’t have the same hormonal environment aren’t recovering in the same way. You’ve got to change potentially your training volume or your training frequency or how you’re really creating that fatigue and even the recovery that you’re doing. Because a lot of times when we’re younger, I got away with not warming up. But you can’t do that now, and part of why you’re even seeing the ramifications of that now, which you’re blaming on age are because you just didn’t do it before. So the earlier you can catch that, the better.

(05:35):
But again, none of these things limit us from seeing growth. We can still gain muscle. We just have to address what is actually realistic for our body right now. And the thing is too is if you are getting older and you’re just starting back, you can have those newbie gains. But if you’re in a more advanced exerciser who’s been training consistently, you’re not, and what you might’ve gotten away with when you were younger, when you had the optimal hormonal environment of doing more steady state cardio now might not work. So you might have to adjust and address that. I do also want to touch on cortisol because I’ve heard it demonized a lot, especially when it comes to high intensity interval training and just tough training in general. You can only train as hard as you can recover from end of story, but too often we then turn to saying, oh, I have to do less of my workouts.

(06:17):
No, you have to do better in your recovery. You have to stop undereating. You have to make sure you’re getting the protein that you need. You have to focus on your sleep, you have to focus on your hydration, you need to do these other things so you can train just as hard because it’s user to lose it. Going off of this, I want to talk a little bit even about meal timing because I think that’s another thing we don’t address is that what we did to lose fat or maybe even the meal timing we did at one phase does not necessarily work when we move to another. If it’s harder to build muscle, you might have to change the carb timing that you have. You might have to change how many carbs you eat. You might have to change the meal timings that you have or fasting you used to work, but now it doesn’t because you have to increase the food that you get to make sure that you’re building in retain lean muscle because it’s harder to maintain it.

(06:54):
So you have to assess all the systems and how they’re working together off of this injuries. I know it can feel like we get older and now we’re just getting injured more often. A, our body gets wear and tear. Over the years things have happened. You do have degeneration. As we get older, our body is breaking down. That is the aging process. However, we just say, well, I’m this age now. I can’t do these things. So many injuries happen because we stop using the movement pattern. We stop working on the mobility, we stop building stability and strength through it. We can’t stop jumping. We can’t stop the power work. We can’t stop lifting heavy because when we stop doing these things, we are instantly going to see decline in all the things in our body that allow us to do those things. So injuries and what we often say, oh, I’m this age, I can’t do these things.

(07:36):
Yes, we have to meet ourselves where we’re at. We have to address our fitness level. And injuries are one of those things that often have built up over time. We’ve had imbalances, we have other previous injuries that we rehabbed and stopped doing what made us better. But we have these compensations that over time lead to overload and injury. And often the more advanced we are, the more experienced we are, the more we hide these compensations because we know how to mimic proper form. And in trying to mimic proper form, we overuse muscle groups, we overuse areas, or we try and do a movement variation we haven’t earned or in trying to progress week over week, we push past, we let ego get in the way instead of backing you off and taking things back to basics. And in that we create that injury. But I can tell you so often when we even blame as, oh, a deadlift hurt my back, I see people all the time getting more injured lifting or picking a pencil up off the ground or sitting down to something or getting up off the couch and they really do getting injured in the gym.

(08:24):
But getting into the gym is so key because it’s a perfect opportunity to train those movements that you need for everyday life unless you don’t plan on squatting down to a toilet, unless you don’t plan on getting up and down off the ground, you need to train to be able to lunge, squat, twist, turn, all these different things. So see your workouts as a chance to avoid more injuries and really retrain those movement patterns. So with injuries and with aging, seeing that wear and tear, you do have to address anything that you have previously. You have to really address any wear and tear you have. But that doesn’t mean stopping to use things. It means meeting your body where it’s at. It means including the prehab work. It means adjusting movement variations to work around. Maybe that barbell deadlift isn’t right for you anymore, but you can do kettlebell deadlift or a single leg deadlift to be able to work on that balance.

(09:08):
But you need to find ways to meet yourself where you’re at. And this goes for injuries at any age. And I will tell you the younger you are and the more you can do the prehab and keeping that rehab as prehab even after, because you can never stop doing what made you better, the better off you’re going to be. But injuries occur because of cumulation and overload, not just because of age. Yes, again, not denying aging. There is wear and tear, there is slower recovery, but there’s so much we can do in terms of the prehab work in terms of using our strength moves to strengthen through the full range of motion. Instead of going heavier and doing a half squat, go a little bit lighter, sit your butt down to even a lower box than you usually go to help with that security maybe in that range of motion, but try and increase that range of motion to strengthen through it.

(09:46):
Get moving more even outside of your workouts so that you’re not constantly sitting because I think that’s another thing we do. We sit more, we just become more inactive and we sit in these postures for hours on end and then we don’t move, and then we wonder why our body doesn’t move in specific ways. Well, we’ve spent all this time hunched over, so then we go into a workout, we get injured doing an overhead press where we’re requiring our body to do thoracic extension. We don’t have that. So addressing our daily postures and how those have added up over the years is so important. And then regress progress and even pay attention to your nutrition. What is your nutrition looking like in terms of your recovery? Are you getting enough protein to help yourself repair and rebuild? Are you even increasing potentially your collagen intake to help with those connected tissues?

(10:24):
Staying strong, focus on what you can control to make yourself move and feel better. Focus on even the omega threes to help reduce inflammation, but know that injuries are an accumulation of things over the years. And yes, wear and tear happens, but so often what we blame on age is just improper workout practices, training practices, adding up, and we can do so much about them to move better. And if we don’t do anything, we’re going to lose even more movement and we’re going to potentially hold ourselves back from being functionally fit all our final day on this planet. Now going into metabolism, our metabolism does slow down as we get older, and it actually slows down a lot earlier on than we give it credit for, yet we blame it when we’re in potentially our thirties, forties and fifties. But really what’s happening here is hormonal changes, improper dieting practices, adding up and lifestyle factors.

(11:10):
We become more and more inactive and we stay more and more inactive for longer. And that’s why these things happen. We potentially lose more muscle, especially with dieting practices. We’re trying to lose weight faster on the scale and all these things hurt our metabolism. Not to mention part of your metabolic rate is just your daily activity, fidgeting, moving, all those different things. And we move a lot less. We become a lot less active, especially when we’re even doing some of those extreme dieting practices where we’re starving ourself and our bodies like, holy moly, I have to learn how to conserve energy to function off of what you’re giving me. So we then fidget less, move less. We downregulate functions to function better off of what we’re getting, but we do all these practices and it’s not our age. It’s all these practices and lifestyle factors adding up.

(11:52):
So in way that it’s our age, it’s that we’ve allotted to happen for years on end. That’s what causes our metabolism to potentially adapt and change. However, it’s not broken at any point. You can change it, and that’s a great part. You can retrain your body to eat more. You can building muscle, which will help it. You can start by even just moving more. And this is not working out intensely. This is just getting up from your desk a little bit more to fidget, to walk around to do those different things. But all these things can help your metabolism. So often what we blame on age really is just all those other lifestyle factors. It does not slow down enough to say that your X age and now your metabolism is slow and you can’t eat more and you can’t do these different things. Honestly, if you’re feeling like your metabolism is slow and you’re trying to lose weight, you might be undereating.

(12:32):
That might be the first thing you even need to address. And yes, are you going to see the scale increase? Potentially yes, but you’ve got to retrain your body to eat more so you can build the muscles so that you can see that metabolic rate improve so that the hormones and all the bodily functions regulate back to what they should be at. And then you’re going to see that metabolic rate increase, but it’s not broken. It’s adapted, but you can reverse those adaptations at any and every age, starting earlier and implementing proper dieting practice as soon as you can can really help and training practices as well. But even focusing on building that lean muscle will help your fat loss and help your metabolic grade. Now I want to go into skin. So this is probably the thing that you have the least amount of control on as you get older.

(13:10):
At the same time, I’m a control freak. And so often we just write ourselves off or we feel like we can’t do improvements, but we can. So our skin does change with age. Our genetics really impact it. If we’ve lost weight faster, we might see more loose skin add up, but our fueling has an impact and so does our training. So if you’re not eating high protein, if you’re not focusing on that strength work, you’re not doing everything that you can to really improve your skin elasticity and even tighten up any loose skin that you have. And a lot of times it just takes more time. It is slower to adjust than even the scale changing or the fat loss results we see takes time for everything to tighten up. That’s a very scientific way of explaining it, but focus on building muscle. Give things time.

(13:50):
Focus on your protein, focus on your hydration, focus on your micronutrients. This is where that can all impact your skin health. And this is even a time where despite not being deficient in anything, despite you being very conscious of your quality fueling, sometimes we have nutritional gaps and they can actually increase as we get older because we aren’t able to utilize things as efficiently. And also our appetite does downregulate as we get older. So we have to be conscious of that and realize that even though we feel full, we might not be fueling enough or eating enough to help our metabolic rate to building muscle or even to get our skin and our body all the things that it needs. And this is where supplements can come into play and things like collagen have been shown to be potentially more beneficial as we get older.

(14:30):
But you want to pay attention to controlling what you can control. And this is where you do want to track and dive into those micros a little bit more, get into more of the nitty gritty details. But so often we just say, oh, I’m getting older and my skin isn’t going to be as healthy. It isn’t going to bounce back the way it did. And no, it’s not. We’re not denying aging, but we’re defining how we age and this is why we’re going to control what we can’t control with those things. The last thing I to touch on, and it goes back to muscle building, but workouts in general and the feeling of I can’t train as hard or I need to take it easier or I shouldn’t lift as heavy. We do recover at a different pace. The hormone environment is not as optimal to be able to push as hard sometimes and what our fitness level is now, how active we have been, all impact what we can do in our workouts, but you can always meet yourself at where you’re at to move forward.

(15:13):
So if you’ve been out with injury, if you’ve had to go back to basics, if you had to take out the intensity, you can still go back and doing that power work, doing that explosive work. All those things are so important because they improve our MINDBODY connection. And it’s not one size fits all, not every move and every form is going to be right for every person, but you want to think about how you can build back as closely to everything as possible because that means you’re controlling the movement pattern. The more powerful you are, the more you’re able to jump and explode, the more your landing mechanics are correct and the better your mind body connection. So no, you might not add in a ton of high impact because of joint issues, but the more you can build back that explosive power and that ability to control and decelerate movement, the better off you’re going to be.

(15:51):
Because if you want to go out and hike, if you want to go out and do things in everyday life, you’re going to have other forces acting on you. And the last thing you want to do is have something sort of shove you and not be able to decelerate from the impact or control the impact. And that’s where we end up getting injured and falling and fracturing things. So you want to think, how can I train hard in my workouts? I mentioned the fear of cortisol levels rising, but we need that challenge, that stress in our workouts. We cannot demonize that stress in our workouts. No, we don’t want to just do hours and hours of high intensity interval training. It’s why the techniques have to be utilized strategically. We want to design for the time we have. We want to design with our goal in mind.

(16:24):
We don’t want to just do more, but we need to focus on our recovery. We need to think, use it or lose it. There are no bad moves. What moves can I control? What moves can I earn? What moves match my needs and goals based on even my mobility restrictions and compensations? Right now, we need to think what techniques match what I need right now? But we can’t demonize hard. We can’t demonize challenge. We need those things. We then just need to focus on how we can recover better to be able to train harder. So in summary, as you get older, things are going to change, but by just saying, I’m too old. What are you really doing? You’re just writing yourself off. The second you say, I’m too old. You are too old for it because you’re not allowing yourself growth. You’re not allowing yourself opportunity to improve.

(17:06):
Because the thing is, if you are not doing something to move forward, you’re going backwards. And what do you really want out of life? I always want to strive to improve, to see what else is possible for myself, because I know in that growth, I’m going to feel and move the best that I can know. It might not look like exactly what I envisioned, but it’s going to be better than the alternative. And I think that’s something key that we focus on. So stop blaming your age instead. We’re not denying aging. We’re defining how we age. What are you keeping in? How are you pushing yourself forward? How are you proving that age is just a number and fitness and health and wellness and being fabulous at every age is really something that you can define. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hacks Podcast.

(17:49):
Again, this is the place where I share all my free work, workout, nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life with someone.

*Please Note: this transcript is auto-generated and there may be some errors in the transcript