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FHP 644 – Gut Health! (How To Improve it With Micronutrients!)

FHP 644 – Gut Health! (How To Improve it With Micronutrients!)

by | Jul 17, 2024 | podcast

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OPEN TRANSCRIPT

Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is a show where I share all my free work, 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. Our body is really all these systems that have to work together for us to see the best results as fast as possible. And too often we don’t pay attention to some of the internal things going on until it’s too late and we have problems and then we’re like, oh no, because of this thing, I can’t see results in this area. But what we have to recognize that is a lot of those things, our gut health, our hormone balance, are all due to how we’re fueling and even how we’re training in some of our lifestyle practices. So that’s why I’m super excited today to dive in with Rebecca into our gut health and what we can do to improve it through micronutrients. So welcome, Rebecca. Thanks for joining me for the first time today.

Rebecca (01:05):
Thank you so much. I’m so excited to talk to you today.

Cori (01:09):
Well, Rebecca is a wealth of knowledge when it comes to our gut microbiome and what we need to do to improve our health of it. Rebecca, I just want to jump right in. Can you talk to us a little bit about how we can improve our nutrition to really see improvements in our gut health and even why our gut health is so important to pay attention to?

Rebecca (01:28):
Love that. Yes. So we want this diverse range of nutrients to give our gut the very, very most fuel for that microbiome. And there are specific vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that have been shown to directly improve our digestion, our microbiome, and to really help rebuild and repair some of the systems that naturally get damaged as we eat and live and work out. And so we really want to stay cognizant of what we’re putting into our body.

Cori (02:06):
It’s basically like thinking of our body as this high performance sports car. And I don’t know why I go to this analogy. I don’t really know that much about cars, but you don’t want to put in that low grade fuel when you need that high quality fuel to be able to function. Otherwise you’re not going to see the best results as fast as possible. And I love that you touched on diversity. So jumping into the diversity, what would be that first micronutrient that you would have people focus on if they really want to improve their gut health?

Rebecca (02:32):
Oh, that’s a great question. So if I had to pick one, I would start with fiber because that is the direct food for the good bacteria in your gut. It regulates your digestive processes, it elimination, you get the most bang for your buck when you focus on fiber first.

Cori (02:55):
And so fiber, it’s one of those common ones that people bring up a lot. They’re like, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. Rebecca, I know about fiber now diving in a little bit more because I think sometimes we don’t consider some of the other vitamins and minerals that might have an impact. And if we’re deficient in one or we have a nutritional gap that can have a greater far reaching impact even than just our gut health. So I noticed you mentioned zinc and vitamin B is two you wanted to touch on today. Can you go into why these are very important for our gut health?

Rebecca (03:27):
Absolutely. So zinc is a major player in the creation of DNA and the growth of cells, building proteins, healing damage tissue, and supporting an overall healthy immune system because your immune system really does start in your gut. And B, vitamins also help regulate digestion. And I feel like those are two that are really slept on because we hear about B vitamins for energy and mood. We don’t hear about them as much for digestion. And that broad range of all of the B vitamins is so key for that.

Cori (04:01):
And it’s key too, thinking about this, you bring up B vitamins for energy, and so someone might even be taking some of those or considering taking some of those because they’re seeing an impact in their energy. And if you’re also seeing something that’s going on with your gut, there’s sort of the double whammy, right? The more we can think about all the overlap between these different micronutrients that we’re including, the more we can fill our nutritional gaps to see better results. So if someone’s like, okay, great, this sounds really good. I want to increase these two micronutrients, what foods can they turn to be able to increase their intake of zinc and vitamin B?

Rebecca (04:34):
I would start with poultry and seafood. And then for our plant-based girlies, I would start with chickpeas. They’re really going to have the higher concentration so you don’t have to eat quite as much volume to get the baseline levels that we’re looking for. And I also like to make the distinction between you might be supplementing B vitamins already, but if you’re not digesting them, your body’s not using them. So it’s just another plug for focusing on our gut health because we can supplement with absolutely everything, but if it’s not being utilized by your body, then it’s just a waste product with everything else.

Cori (05:18):
It really is thinking about those micronutrients not just in isolation, but how they play in, and even the food forms that they do come in and the other things that those food sources might have. Just even like you often see magnesium complimenting zinc in different things, and I know magnesium is really important for our gut. Can you go into why that’s also a key micronutrient?

Rebecca (05:38):
Yes. So there’s at least seven different forms of magnesium. There might be more now, I don’t know, but specifically magnesium citrate for gut health and digestion, that is a vital role in maintaining gut motility, meaning how your food moves through your digestive system. It’s a process called peristalsis. So I don’t want to bore everyone by getting down into the nitty gritty of it, but it’s basically the wavelike contractions of your body that moves the food through your digestive tract. So we don’t want our food to hang in our body for any longer than necessary. We have this super intricate system that is already set up for us that we don’t have to think about, thank goodness. So to give that a boost, we want to focus on magnesium citrate, and it’s really found in leafy green vegetables, nuts, seeds, and again, the diversity of those not only having the same leafy greens every day, but having different forms and different types.

Cori (06:46):
Diversity really is so key because it keeps us wanting to hit our macros, it keeps our meals interesting, and then it really does help us make sure that we’re hitting micros in a way that benefits us fully. And I have to say, you missed an opportunity to be like, you don’t want to go over all the dirty details, but maybe that’s where my brain goes. But also with that, I think it’s really key to highlight how important magnesium is for the clearing of our gut and that motility just because we think so often of fiber only, and if you’re increasing your fiber intake and you’re not necessarily seeing the results that you want, that’s where you might want to dig in further to some of those other micros. Moving on from that vitamin A really key why.

Rebecca (07:29):
So I like to think of vitamin A as the mis congeniality of the vitamins. She is besties with all the others. She’s the friend of the party that’s like, hi, this is my friend. They do this. This is my other friend. She is putting things together in a way to influence our immune system function and regulating certain cell responses. So that is a great one. We hear about vitamin A for our eyes, we don’t hear about it as much for gut health, so I always like to make sure to mention that we do need that one as well.

Cori (08:11):
I have to admit, I’ve never heard it called the mis congeniality of micros or vitamins, but I love that analogy or that reference just because I do think it goes back to how much everything really does work as a system. And so often when we’re thinking about these different vitamins, we might pick out one or a mineral and we’ll use it in isolation. Then we wonder why we’re not seeing the benefit of it fully because we’re not filling some other nutritional gap or we’re not getting it to work in the way that it should because there’s a missing component. So it really is key that we step back and go back to that diversity of fruits and vegetables and foods that we’re including, which is what foods would be helpful in terms of boosting your vitamin A content.

Rebecca (08:54):
The easiest ones going to be carrots and broccoli, and I feel like those are the ones that the majority of people are already familiar with and try to include in their diet. So I would say just bump that up a notch and pair the carrots and broccoli with the other nutrients as well. We don’t want single ingredient plates, we want the whole rainbow.

Cori (09:15):
It’s thinking about all these different things that we’re going through, and I gave this challenge in a previous live stream. How can you build a recipe with them thinking about the leafy greens, thinking about the poultry, thinking about the carrots, it’s how can you combine these different things to make a delicious meal so that it doesn’t feel like you’re having to cram all these different things in a different points Because a lot of them can overlap, even if it’s not necessarily a ton of something in one meal, it can still be delicious. Exactly. So off of that, some other foods that work pretty well if we’re building out this recipe also include vitamin D. Vitamin D is very popular. We all hear get out of the sun more, but also supplement. Why is vitamin D so important for our gut health?

Rebecca (09:57):
So I feel like by this point, enough people have heard the buzzwords of leaky gut. We’re familiar with that term now, even if it’s not always recognized in certain communities, but so that leaky gut they’re talking about is the mucosal layer of the gut, and we really, really want to keep that intact. It is so important. That is what keeps the good stuff in and keeps the bad stuff from infiltrating throughout the rest of your body. And so to maintain that mucosal barrier, that’s where vitamin D comes in. It helps maintain the physical and functional integrity of it, and there’s a very specific type of cells that it corresponds directly to, and it helps to modulate those tight junctions because again, going back to that phrase of leaky gut, if that barrier is broken and things can slide through, we want to keep that nice and tight. We want our nutrients in our body and we want to keep the bad stuff out. So we really want to maintain that integrity of the gut mucosal barrier.

Cori (11:12):
I also really like that this is about adding something in to improve that, because I think a lot of times when we have IVS, leaky gut, different intolerances, GI disturbances in general, we go to cutting out, oh, I’ve got to look at all these different foods, see what I’m intolerant to, and cut things out instead of saying, Hey, what’s one thing I might even be able to add in as I’m investigating how foods really impact me to see better results? And vitamin D, especially if we’re seeing GI disturbances as we’re going through menopause, can be incredibly important. Now I wanted to circle back. Oh, sorry, did you have, okay, well, I wanted to circle back to you brought up immune function, starting with the gut, and vitamin C is really key to gut health. Can you talk more about that? Because I think it’s something that we don’t often consider vitamin C immune system. Yeah, we go to that, but the impact in the gut I think is very interesting.

Rebecca (12:06):
Yes, I love this as well because we do, we see all the vitamin C things for immune boost and stuff like that, or what’s the brand name on emergency? But vitamin C is actually an antioxidant and it helps protect your cells against the effects of free radicals. So free radicals are kind of the broken down state of certain things in your body and there’s a variety of things, but as things get broken down, they just kind of wreak a little havoc in there. And so the vitamin C just kind of ties them up into a neat little bow and says, exit stage left,

Cori (12:46):
You have the best. I don’t know if they’re technically analogies, I should probably look up the definition of that, but the best way of putting it so that you can really remember what each micronutrient does. So I love that, Rebecca, but even talking about that, if we’re building this recipe, what foods can we include to get more vitamin C?

Rebecca (13:04):
So these are going to be things like citrus, tomatoes, peppers, and again, in that rainbow. So our oranges, our yellows, our reds, all of that highly pigmented color foods

Cori (13:21):
And vitamin C truly is slightly magical and that it helps with I immune function that helps with the gut, that antioxidant, which can help us recover faster. So all these things too, when you’re thinking about trying to fix one problem, even looking at the other things they can impact, you might realize that you have some of those other symptoms. And if you don’t, you might be looking at this whole list and be like, well, Rebecca and Corey, I don’t want to have to worry about all these different things. Find the one vitamin mineral, focus on fiber, focus on one thing that you feel like is going to hit a number of other things you have going on, because a lot of times there is overlap. Now with all of this, one of the things we often go to when we’re trying to improve our gut health or we’ve been told we need besides fiber is fermented foods. Can you talk a little bit about why? But also what if someone doesn’t like fermented foods? I like them. So I’m not saying this from personal experience, but what if someone doesn’t like them because they’re a little bit funky and different?

Rebecca (14:15):
Yes, exactly. There’s a little bit of a wang to it. So fermented foods are a great way to introduce new good bacteria into your microbiome, and the more diverse your bacteria is, the healthier and happier all the systems of your body are, and the better your digestion and overall quality is going to be. So some examples of fermented foods, sauerkraut, kombucha, kimchi, yogurt is a really great one, but it has to specify active cultures on the label. Apple cider. I feel like that’s the one that most people are the most familiar with. And yes, there is a very particular flavor profile that goes with these foods that takes some getting used to. So I always tell people, start slow. One to two, tablespoons is plenty. And then slowly increase from there and note how you feel along the way. And I say that with all of these things.

(15:16):
Note how you feel along the way. Don’t do 10 different things at one time because then you’re going to be like, well, I don’t know which one actually worked. So again, start slow and let yourself adjust to that flavor a little bit. I also like to compare it to things like coffee or alcohol. No one loved those the first time they tried them. You had to acquire the taste, and I would say let your body acquire the taste. Especially with things like apple cider vinegar, you can mix that into a dressing and hide it, so it’s a little sneakier. You can put things in yogurt, especially if we’re talking about a whole milk yogurt or a Greek yogurt, something like that, that has the act of cultures. There’s so much you can do with that, especially thinking in terms of a recipe. Some of the others are a little stronger. Flavor. Kombucha is actually, hang on again, which I am here for. I love some kombucha. We want to look for the low sugar kind because when it’s high sugar, that can kind of undo some of the good benefits. But yes, I say starch slow and let your body adjust to it just like it did with coffee,

Cori (16:32):
And don’t add 10 different things at once because then you don’t really know what worked or what you actually need. And then you’re stuck sort of doing all of them, or at least reversing out of that, and you potentially overwhelmed yourself with a lot of changes all at once. And amazingly, you might have caused yourself more issues because when we do make dramatic changes to our diet, our gut is going to respond to it. I mean, right?

Rebecca (16:55):
Yes. And very, very quickly. The gut is highly responsive. You can change your entire gut microbiome in a week. That’s how fast the changes take place, especially when introducing new strains of bacteria. At first, your body might be like, hold on, what have you done? But we can convince our body that it was in fact a good thing. If you give it some time, be patient, start slow and include that diversity. And I feel like everyone’s familiar with eating dairy, fruits and veggies. That has been from, oh goodness, what was I going to say? So it’s like that has been, I don’t want to say touted, but that has been broadcasted for decades now, eat your fruits and veggies. Yes. But when we understand the why behind what we’re doing with those fruits and veggies, it has so much more impact.

Cori (17:54):
And going into the why, because as much as I’d like to say we all care about our health because we do, we often look to make changes to our diet, to our workouts because we want to reach an aesthetic. Can you talk a little bit about the importance of gut health for reaching aesthetic goals? Because I think the more we have that other purpose to something, the more motivated we are to make a change.

Rebecca (18:19):
Oh, absolutely. So when we think about gut health, we immediately think of elimination and how that feels in your body. So when we think about aesthetic goals, how much easier would your aesthetic goals be to hit if you didn’t have to worry about constant bloating and gas and all of these icky gut issues that pop up? When we make drastic changes, if we focus on our gut health and really go at it from a place of nourishment, it can have a direct impact on those aesthetic goals and on the health goals, I’m also a huge proponent of if we chase health, aesthetics will follow. A healthy body is a fit body. So if we come at it from that perspective of I’m giving my body what it wants and needs, and we also have a little bit of patience, and let your body adjust to it and listen to those cues from your body, a lot of times people will find that their body whispers what it needs at first and then shouts. So if we can catch it while it’s still whispering, then our outcome is going to be greater.

Cori (19:37):
I like that shift in mindset to focusing on health and the aesthetics will come. Then I think sometimes it can be hard because we come in with one ultimate outcome we want, but the more we do that, the more we celebrate some of the other wins. But it also just speaks to how all the systems are so connected. If you’re eating your fruits and vegetables, you’re improving the quality of your health, but those foods have a higher thermic effect. The whole natural foods over the processed foods, which is going to help you see better fat loss results, it’s going to help you be able to use the nutrients more efficiently and gain that muscle and recover faster. You’re going to be treating your body in a way that all the systems are more efficient because you’re getting your body the fuel it needs. And the more efficient our system, the more balanced our hormones, the more everything’s working together, the better our aesthetic results, the better our health. So it really is so interconnected in terms of closing thoughts for someone like, okay, I’m sold on this. I want to hit all the different things Rebecca told me to hit. What would you recommend the first step be that they take to really start to improve their gut health?

Rebecca (20:37):
Eat the rainbow every color as often as you can. Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet, and you want to introduce as many good bacteria into your gut as possible because it’s not you are what you eat, it’s you are what you digest. And so if something is going on with your digestion where it is less than optimal, then that is a key indicator that we’re not digesting our food properly. So definitely keep an eye on how your gut feels. Notice which foods have a direct impact on your gut. I just spoke with a lady earlier today who said she can’t eat popcorn because every time she’s immediately bloated and feels terrible. So take note of things like that and add in the full rainbow of fruits and veggies and keep your digestion on its toes a little bit. We don’t want to only eat carrots every day. We don’t want to only eat broccoli every day. Let’s find as many sources of those colors as we can.

Cori (21:48):
And just to give a big shout out to what you basically tell people to do, it’s just track, which I’m a huge advocate of, but what gets measured gets managed, and the more you’re tracking not just those macros, but that food diversity, the more we can see is a meal timing impacting us? Is a load at a meal timing impacting us? Are we getting in foods that maybe don’t make us feel so good versus feeling like something’s out of our control or we can’t make a change? So the more we track, the more we can hit that diversity, we can make sure that we’re fueling well and we can eliminate things that don’t make us feel good. Rebecca, thank you so much for joining me today. These tips were incredibly helpful. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack Podcast. Again, this is the place where I share all 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 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.

 

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

Change Your Habits Not Just Your Diet (For Fat Loss)

Change Your Habits Not Just Your Diet (For Fat Loss)

by | Jul 14, 2024 | Blog, Diet

And that’s one of the biggest pitfalls sabotaging our diet and our success…

We go in thinking we’ll do something short term to then go back to the lifestyle we want.

The habits we had before.

But that’s not how things work.

You can’t do one thing to reach your goals then go back to what you were doing before and expect not to lose all of your progress.

If you want lasting results, you have to actually change your habits and build…yes…a new lifestyle.

Yet so often how we approach making changes doesn’t allow us to create new habits.

We do think of it as “going on a diet,” instead of adjusting our diet.

And because we have this short term focus, often we jump to doing more, which means restriction.

It also means overwhelming ourselves with changes we often can’t maintain.

Changes that sometimes stop us from even starting and definitely stop us from sticking with anything long term.

Changes that make us feel like we just don’t have the willpower or self control to ever see results.

And this all is caused by this pressure we feel to hit some ideal over assessing our current lifestyle and habit swaps that would meet us where we are at currently.

By why does this happen?

I think it’s because we have been brainwashed to believe that dieting has to mean restriction.

We’re also constantly bombarded by all these ideal diets and made to feel less than when we can’t hit someone else’s arbitrary standard of clean.

I see it when clients try to follow some fit-fluencers standard of “clean eating.”

Heck, I kept myself stuck never seeing the body recomp I wanted, constantly losing the weight only to regain it when my motivation and willpower ran out because I was trying to force myself to fit a clean eating mold…

A diet that is so different from our own it seems impossible and even miserable to maintain.

But we see this as what we “should” do…

What we NEED to do to see results.

So we start to try to make all of the changes.

We adjust our meal timings, making ourselves stare at the clock fantasizing about our next meal.

We force feed ourselves bland meals that lead to us feeling like we’ve just got to make it through till we lose the weight….then we can eat tasty things again…

We restrict all of the foods we love till we can’t take it any longer and we go devour that whole pint and ice cream and bag of chips giving ourselves a food baby….

And then we think, “I’ll never see results! I’ll just have to start over Monday!”

Only Monday doesn’t happen for a few more weeks.

Instead we yo-yo back up, not only regaining the weight but often more.

And in the process we often negatively impact our metabolic health.

But honestly…what’s worse than the weight gain, is the mindsets we’ve now created.

Each negative experience…each time we feel MISERABLE doing what we feel we “should,” we become more mentally set against the healthy changes we feel we need.

Think about tracking macros for instance…

So many of us feel tracking is restrictive.

But it’s because of how we’ve used the tool in the past.

When most of us have first tracked our food, we eliminated whole food groups.

We starved ourselves, slashing our calories super low.

We restricted foods we loved.

We made ourselves miserable.

We felt judged and deprived.

So of course, now thinking about tracking to hold yourself accountable or make changes sounds absolutely miserable.

And we think tracking is restrictive.

But the tracker wasn’t judging. It didn’t make us make those changes.

We CHOSE to make those changes and adjustments.

The tracker is now just associated with those feelings which makes it harder to use again.

So now you have to find ways to separate out the tools from the improper implementation in the past.

And this is why one of the most important things you can do for yourself if you want to avoid sabotaging your diet is to…TRACK WHAT YOU’RE CURRENTLY DOING. 

And do this without making changes!

If we want to make changes to our nutrition and see not only the results we deserve but LASTING changes is to truly understand where we are starting from.

Not only does logging without making any changes help us realize that tracking our food isn’t restrictive so that we can regain power to use this tool and shift our mindsets… 

But getting this clear picture of where we are starting from allows us to make habit changes that meet us where we are at. 

Too often we try to just force ourselves into a dieting mold with no thought as to how those habits will fit long term.

And while not every change we will have to make will feel sustainable, especially to start, we do want to do as much as possible to reduce the “pain” of change.

I say “pain” because change can cause mental push back.

And the pain of staying stuck has to outweigh the pain of change.

It’s why when we get that initial motivation to make changes after realizing nothing in our closet fits…

We are willing to make more sacrifices.

However, those sacrifices are often short lived when the motivation fades.

And unfortunately we can’t just manifest motivation whenever we want.

So since we often can’t make the pain of staying stuck greater…We have to find ways to reduce the pain of change.

That means we have to make the habit changes EASIER.

Because what feels easy and comfortable and sustainable is just what we’ve always done.

But too much discomfort in the changes will make us run back to our comfort zone.

It’s why at some point when we try to force all these clean eating standards on ourselves, we often hit the hard we can no longer handle and say FORGET IT and give up.

So instead of repeating this same pattern, track what you’re currently doing.

Get an accurate picture of your lifestyle…

Then make one small swap.

A change that almost feels too easy. From here you can build.

Sure maybe ideally you’d like to be eating lean protein sources and vegetables at every meal.

But if right now you’re having pizza or take out for most meals and vegetables don’t seem to exist in your diet, instead of forcing yourself to choke down salads and steamed broccoli at every meal, just add aside salad with your pizza. 

I know probably someone in the comment section is getting made about this…

But too often we sabotage our success by not building from where we are currently.

If you want to get to your goal, your destination, you need to set your current location in your GPS.

That’s the only way to map out the route and start moving forward.

Same thing goes for your diet changes. 

So stop worrying about ideals.

Stop restricting yourself and making so many dietary changes you can’t maintain them and you’re powering your way through a 21 day or 6 week fix only to fall back into old habits…

And instead get that accurate picture of what your lifestyle is and make one change that feels almost painless.

This will then help you stack more and more habits on to move forward.

Because the more you do, the more you do.

But you have to be able to take that first step and adjust your diet…instead of repeating the same pattern going on a diet only to fall off!

Break out of this yo-yo dieting cycle. Here’s my 3-Step Recipe To LASTING Results!

2 Intense Ab Exercises (Most People Skip)

2 Intense Ab Exercises (Most People Skip)

by | Jul 7, 2024 | Blog, Core, Exercises, Functional Fitness

No you can’t spot reduce the fat around your middle by doing a bazillion crunches or sit ups…

BUT focused ab work can help you get that lean, defined core when your nutrition is dialed in.

Yet too often we skip the core work.

If we add it in, it’s an afterthought.

And too often we think we’ve done even enough core work because we’ve included heavy lifts like squat and deadlift.

And while those moves do benefit your core, they’re working it only in one way…to stabilize.

But our abs power spinal flexion and don’t only resist extension or stabilize.

Not to mention our obliques twist and turn, and laterally flex not to mention help us prevent unwanted rotation.

This means we want to target all of these movement patterns to see the best results.

That’s why I want to share a few of my favorite core moves, specifically two moves focused on your abs, to train these muscles both with flexion and anti-extension exercises to not only help you build a stronger core but a more defined one.

However, first I want to touch on two essentials to core training that will help you see better results faster and are too often IGNORED…

I’ll then also show you how to use my favorite moves while addressing these two key components…

#1: Make sure your abs are ACTUALLY working!

You can’t just rush through moves and let your hip flexors and lower back compensate. 

And you may just write this off, labeling those others weak.

But, if these areas are compensating, THEY are getting the work from the moves you’re including…

Not your abs.

What you feel working in a move is what is BENEFITING from the move.

So whether your hip flexors and lower back are actually weak or whether they are taking over because a move is too advanced and your abs have to rely on these other muscles to keep up because they aren’t strong enough…

You have to address this compensation if you want results.

This may mean changing your form or it may mean regressing the move to build up!

But if you don’t feel your abs, your ab exercises aren’t paying off and you’re wasting time and energy.

#2: If it challenges you, it will change you.

Just like building up any other muscle, you need to progress the moves you’re doing to see results. 

And no, we aren’t trying to bulk out our middles, which is why we may not just focus on heavy loads.

But we need to advance moves to drive that muscle to change which will help us see that definition as it is revealed through proper nutrition.

This also means strategically designing your workouts to include core work you can progress as too often core work is just an afterthought in our training.

We add a move here or there. And we may add a rep or two but don’t really do anything to continue to progress the exercise.

While you can add weight to progress a move, we often want to progress through the same but different, changes in types of loads or loading placements, ranges of motion or even instability as we keep the reps higher, even in that 15-25 rep range often. 

Now I want to share a 2 of my favorite ab exercises to work your abs with spinal flexion AND anti-extension movements.

These moves are especially amazing if you’re looking to target your lower abs.

Yes, your lower abs.

If you’re about to say, “There is no lower ab muscle.”

You’re right. There is no separate lower ab muscle.

But we can target different portions of different muscles to greater extents based on the postures and positions used.

And leg raise type movements, if you can avoid overusing your hip flexors, as well as extended plank positions, have been shown to activate the lower abs, or lower portion of your rectus abdominis to a greater extent.

With both of these moves, I’ll show you how you can make sure your abs are actually working and even progress, or regress, these moves to fit your needs.

The first move is the Reverse Crunch Roll With Overhead Hold.

This lower body crunch variation is a great way to target those lower abs while also helping you prevent your lower back from engaging or relying on your hip flexors over your abs.

The key tweaks this move makes off the basic lower body crunch is the overhead hold and the heels locked back into a roller. 

Both of these help you avoid compensating to better target your abs.

The overhead hold helps you more easily engage your abs without your lower back compensating because it creates tension through your lats to protect your back.

You want to pull down hard on the pole or even edge of a bench you’re holding onto.

This slight move to even flex your lower abs will help you protect your back further.

Then using the roller locked between your lower legs and hamstrings, you’ll be able to engage that posterior chain, especially your hamstrings, to prevent those hip flexors from activating.

With even these two tweaks, you still want to focus on ROLLING one vertebrae at a time up. Curl those knees in toward your elbows FLEXING your spine.

If you don’t have a roller, you can still do this move by just thinking about pulling your heels in toward your butt and hamstrings. That activation will help inhibit your hip flexors to focus on your abs.

But these two tweaks to that basic lower body crunch can help you really make sure you’re focusing on your abs with spinal flexion.

And then to progress this move, you can change tempos.

Or you can even do a straight leg variation, but not only perform a leg lower but an extra LIFT at the top.

This lift at the top as you raise your legs up is what gets that extra spinal flexion. But you have to make sure you’ve built up to this move and you’re not just relying on your hips to lift and lower.

While your hip flexors are working with hip flexion, the raise of your legs back up, you want your abs engaged using that posterior pelvic tilt, or tilt of the hips up toward the ribs to round the back toward the ground.

This protects your back and supports those hips so you aren’t only feeling them working. And that plus part of the movement and lift at the top further work the abs.

To further advance this move and even target your adductors and pelvic floor more, you could hold a med ball between your legs.

Or to even make this move tougher on your abs, you could use an incline bench.

This way you’re working more against gravity to even tuck up!

But the key is to progress only once you’ve mastered that basic variation.

And even as you progress, never think you’re above returning to this move as sometimes changing things up is the progression we need to see results as we can focus even more on really activating our abs with those basics!

The second move is Plank Extensions.

I also call these the Body Saw when done off the forearm over the hands. 

You’re trying to brace your abs so you don’t get sawed in half…just kidding…but seriously!

This move is freaking DECEPTIVELY hard. 

By extending your plank position, your abs and especially your lower abs, have to work very hard to prevent extension of your spine and stabilize.

This takes that basic plank up a notch!

You should NOT feel your lower back engaging or arching. If it arches, you may start to feel yourself even overusing and resting on your hip flexors. 

So to modify this move, start off an incline, such as a bench. 

Focus on engaging your abs as if you’re going to be punched in the gut as you even flex your glutes to walk back. That glute flexion helps protect your back and disengage your hip flexors.

If you can walk back into that extended position, maintaining that brace, lower the incline. 

You can then move to this walk back from your hands on the ground before moving to your forearms. 

These changes in postures can really help you target those abs and progress the move.

Then you can start to implement different tools even instead of adding loads to make the move more challenging for your core.

You can use sliders to slide over walk back (towels work too). 

Or you can even really vary the move by changing the way you’re extending the plank, using a ball to roll out under your forearms instead of the sliders on your feet.

It’s not just weights that can make moves harder and drive progression! Those different postures, tools and even placements can have an impact!

If you’re looking to take your core definition to the next level, use these moves and tips to really work those abs and progress your training.

And yes, dial in that diet to truly reveal your hard work in the gym!

Want amazing workouts you can do anywhere? Check out my Dynamic Strength program:

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7 Mistakes Women Make Trying to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle

7 Mistakes Women Make Trying to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle

by | Jun 30, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

We’ve all fallen for the fads.

The promise of a quick fix to get lean and strong overnight. But real and lasting results take time.

Quick fixes often keep us trapped in a vicious cycle, making it harder and harder to see the results we want.

I say this having made almost all the mistakes myself.

That’s why I want to share the 7 most common mistakes I see my female clients especially making to help you not waste time falling into these traps.

And I want to start with what may be the hardest change in mindset to embrace..

The struggle to take days off when we really want results yesterday…

The struggle to give ourselves permission to take it easy at times…

But this is a HUGE mistake that will sabotage your results every single time…

Mistake #1: Under recovering.

You can only train as hard as you can recover from.

End of story.

But so often we label this as “over training” instead of under recovering. 

And I feel this leads to us actually sabotaging our own success.

I’ve even seen a trend recently pushing people away from training hard. 

A fear of cortisol levels rising because of working out intensely.

But exercise is a GOOD stressor. 

It’s a stressor you not only want but NEED if you want to build muscle, be stronger and ultimately look leaner. 

We WANT to challenge ourselves with intensity and loads.

But we can only do so in a way that actually allows us to push if our recovery is on point. 

So we do need to cycle the intensity of our training.

We do need to vary how muscles are worked and even what muscles are targeted in sessions. 

However, too often we only focus on the workouts, not all that we are doing, or not doing, between our sessions to help ourselves recover.

Instead of not pushing in your training, figure out ways you can go at that 100% intensity and truly maximize each session through how you’re fueling and recovering between workouts. 

Focus on that quality of your sleep with a bedtime routine to wind down.

Focus on hydrating properly so your muscles can get the nutrients they need and repair. 

And focus on making sure you aren’t depriving your muscles of the fuel they need to repair and rebuild.

Which is the next mistake I wanted to cover as it is very easy to fall for those diets with labels that lead to us not properly fueling to see results….

But jumping on that restrictive diet with a label train leads to us not only NOT truly seeing the body recomp we want happen, but ultimately sabotages our long-term success.

This mistake is what can lead to us feeling like our metabolism is broken and that we just have to accept the middle age spread.

We need to stop jumping into these diet programs that just completely restrict whole macros or food groups. 

While yes, based on health concerns or activity level or goals, we may adjust our macros or the types of foods we include to move and feel our best…

We need to stop just DEMONIZING foods or macros because they may not be right for someone else. 

Because this can lead to us not only sabotaging our fat loss or muscle building results,

but also lead to us creating hormonal imbalances that can impact our health.

Thyroid issues, adrenal fatigue, constant inflammation, low energy…

We blame our training too often for some of these things or even our genetics.

But often it is our diet. 

We’ve cut out micronutrient diversity by eliminating whole foods groups.

Or we’ve even restricted a macro to the extent our body can’t handle based on our goals and activity level. 

If you’re super active and want to lose fat and gain muscle?

Cutting your carbs super low even if you’ve heard it is better for a women in menopause may sabotage your results. 

It may lead to you losing muscle and actually gaining fat as you see your thyroid health impacted and your energy and motivation to train severely decline.

Fear fats will make you fat?

That fear of healthy fats may be why you’re seeing chronic inflammation and constantly sore and not recovering from your sessions as well as you’d like. H

So stop just demonizing foods and realize that each of us may need different dietary preferences or macros to match our needs and goals even as our bodies change over time!

But eat to FUEL your body as you push hard in those sessions to see results and ultimately improve not only your functional strength but your cardiovascular conditioning. 

This brings me to mistake number 3, which I find we often make because we’ve been scared away from pushing “too hard” in our training, especially as we get older. 

But we NEED to challenge ourselves if we want to create change, ESPECIALLY the older we get and even as we go through menopause….

Our body doesn’t respond the same way it used to when we were younger.

That doesn’t mean we’re doomed. Or that we can’t build our leanest, strongest body ever. 

It just means we can’t fear intensity in our training.

So stop skipping those SPRINTS! 

Honestly this is a huge mistake not including sprint work often enough.

This doesn’t mean you should now start to do a bazillion sprints daily…

There is such a thing as too much of even a good thing.

But sprint work, and different sprint intervals should be included weekly. 

So much love is given to Zone 2 training, and enough can’t be said about building that aerobic foundation…

But too often we fall in love with one form of training, one piece of equipment, one move and neglect other essential components that would make our systems more successful.

You want that diversity in your programming over the course of the week. 

So include that short and killer sprint work!

Note I said SHORT and killer. Just because you have an hour to train doesn’t mean you always need to use it! 

Too often we just focus on training longer, on doing more, over designing with a purpose.

Sprint work shouldn’t be stretched out into a long workout.

It’s generally a quick session, and often no longer than 30 minutes at LONGEST. 

And honestly, the things that should impact the length of your sessions most aren’t even the length of the sprints themselves, but the rest between or the prehab work you include before and after!

Sprints really should be between 8-20 seconds, 30 seconds at longest. 

Depending on what you’re working on you may do a work to rest set up of 2:1 up to 1:12 work to rest as intervals based on how much you’re working on true explosive speed.

And this variety of options can be used to your advantage.

Two amazing sprint protocols for women that are focused on body recomp while improving their cardiovascular health are…

20 seconds on, 10 seconds off or even 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off for 4-8 rounds. 

The different work to rest intervals will help you target different energy systems over the week!

However, going back again to the biggest mistake I see people making, under recovering…

The harder you train, the more you need to make sure you’re truly getting your body what it needs. 

So don’t make the mistake of NOT EATING ENOUGH to lose fat and gain muscle! 

I know this was a mistake I made multiple times over the years.

Eating less to try to see faster results on the scale is a hard mindset to shift.

But as much as a calorie deficit is needed to lose fat, eating less will NOT yield better results faster and is often why we get stuck on that yo-yo dieting cycle never actually seeing the definition we want. 

It’s what leads to metabolic adaptations and hormonal imbalances, especially as we restrict whole food groups or macronutrients.

If you want to see your hard work in the gym paying off, you need to fuel well. 

And often that means eating more to ultimately lose fat and look leaner!

When you want to lose fat, you want to create a very small calorie deficit of only 100-200 calories off of what you’re eating to maintain your weight. 

More than that and you do cause your body to find ways to conserve energy.

Our workouts can suffer, we can stop fidgeting or moving as much naturally. 

Our body will even adjust other bodily processes to account for the reduction in energy coming in.

That’s why we don’t want to cut calories too low.

And if we’re training hard, we need to make sure we’re getting our body the fuel it needs to repair and rebuild. 

Muscle requires more energy to be maintained.

So if you want to retain your lean muscle and even build more, you’ve got to eat enough to support the process to do that. 

And the more muscle you then keep on, the more you then may find your calorie requirements increasing.

This is why you want to be conscious not to just cut your calories lower and lower, even if you do hit a weight loss plateau. 

It’s also why you need to focus not just on calories but also on this essential macro everyone always wants to avoid prioritizing…

PROTEIN. Yup.

This is a big mistake we often make…Not prioritizing protein. 

And while many of us hate being told we should eat more protein…

We should.

Especially if you’re a woman.

Especially if you’re feeling like your age is causing you to struggle to lose fat and gain muscle. 

Especially if you train hard and “eat well” and aren’t seeing the results you want. 

High protein diets are the only ones shown to help you build and retain lean muscle in a deficit and avoid gaining fat in a calorie surplus. 

This gives you more wiggle room on your calorie intake and can help you make sure your hard work in the gym pays off.

And because we don’t use protein as efficiently as we get older, we need to make sure we’re getting bigger portions of protein in every meal to stimulate the same muscle building response.

So as much as you may hate being reminded of this tip, it’s a big mistake if you keep running from making this change in your diet. 

And yes…It can be a challenge to start.

But instead of just saying it isn’t possible to eat more protein,

take one meal and your current protein source and just add one ounce. BOOM! More protein!

And if you’re still thinking “But I’m not a body builder. I don’t want to get bulky.”

Protein won’t make you bulky.

It can actually be key for seeing better fat loss because it raises your metabolic rate, aka requires more calories, to digest protein. 

Which brings me to mistake number 6…and something too often also feared for making us bulky…

Heavy weights!

We need to stop fearing and avoiding low rep, heavy weight lifting. 

And on top of this, which is mistake number 7, we also need to stop turning to doing more cardio when we want to lose fat. 

This prioritization of steady state cardio or even only high rep, lighter load weight work is what can hold us back from truly gaining muscle or even losing fat.

Metabolic health, especially as we get older is key.

And while we may see a higher calorie burn on our fitness trackers from cardio workout, strength workouts may be more essential for our metabolism and body recomp goals. 

Not to mention strength workouts can improve our cardiovascular health.

Workouts really don’t have to be only cardio or strength.

They can work a variety of energy systems while helping us build muscle. 

But we can’t fear those heavy weights that challenge us for lower rep work. 

Because the more we build that strength, the more we can lift to see better muscle gains and even then improve our strength endurance for any cardio endurance sports we do love!

But heavy weights are what help us truly challenge ourselves so our muscles are forced to repair and rebuild stronger.

And no, your age isn’t an excuse to skip those heavy weights. You honestly need them even more.

Use it or lose it!

We need to keep pushing ourselves to optimize our results. 

So if you’ve been struggling to see the results you want, assess if you’re making one of these mistakes and focus on even a small habit adjustment you can make this week to start correcting your course!

Dial in your diet and your workouts to build your leanest, strongest body at any and every age!

If you’re looking for that custom program and coaching to help, check out my 1:1 Private Coaching.

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3x The Effectiveness of Your Workouts (10 Tips)

3x The Effectiveness of Your Workouts (10 Tips)

by | Jun 23, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Workouts

Guess what 1 of these 10 tips isn’t…

DO MORE!

Because too often in doing more we make our workouts less effective.

We waste time and energy.

And then we blame a lack of time for our lack of progress or our ability to stick with our plan.

We even start to get frustrated with our lack of results for all the effort we put in.

And this is because we’re constantly just doing more.

Which is why I think this first rule is so key….

#1: Design With Purpose.

Everything in your workouts should be done with a strategic reason behind it that drives you forward.

We only add reps or sets because that volume or training density is needed.

We change up tempos or types of moves or where we hold the weights because it targets what we need to work in the way we need to work those muscles.

We aren’t just including supposedly best moves.

We’re including moves that match OUR needs and goals and current fitness level and progressing and evolving those over time as our needs and goals change.

And if your goal is weight loss especially, you don’t just want to have the purpose of your sessions to be “burn more calories…

Which is why rule number 2 is

#2: Set A PERFORMANCE Focus.

While yes, working out does help us burn more calories and can be a way to create that calorie deficit for weight loss, seeing our workouts only as important for the calorie burn undervalues them.

It is also what leads to use often just doing more or workout harder only to end up frustrated when results don’t happen faster.

We end up wasting more time and effort.

And we often then give up when we aren’t seeing quicker changes on the scale.

But true body recomp, losing fat as you gain or retain muscle, is a SLOW process.

To help yourself stay consistent, it is key you also set performance goals for your sessions.

This allows you to measure success in other ways to keep implementing the habits you need to reach your goals.

It also helps you design your workouts to have progression and build.

So even if your ultimate goal is to lose weight, consider setting a goal for your workouts to also lift more weight on your deadlift or master that push up from your toes.

This will keep you pushing hard in your sessions to see those results snowball and allow you to design everything with a clear focus that is even more trackable to adjust!

Then just because you have the time, doesn’t always mean you need to use it.

Third Rule…Don’t just let workouts fill the time allotted.

Whether you have 30 minutes to train or an hour, you can design a workout to work for that time.

But just because you have the hour doesn’t mean you’ll always need to use it based on your goals or current fitness level.

The intensity you want to train at and what you want to work on should dictate how long the session is…not just how long you have.

If you’re wanting to include sprint work, you may only need 20 minutes, especially if working on more speed or power.

You don’t want to do wasted volume training at a lower intensity just to do more and fill the hour.

And if you do really want to fill the hour, maybe you do so by adding in mobility work.

However, you may need an hour if you’re planning to work on 1 rep max lifts.

Having only 30 minutes to train wouldn’t be ideal for this as you need long rest periods and more time to really hit the volume you need.

Design for the time you have to make your schedule work and see results, but also don’t just use the time because you have it!

Don’t waste your time…especially if you’ve ever used the excuse “I don’t have enough time!” as a reason to skip your session!

And to help you get the most out of each session, you need to focus on pushing that progression.

You need to find ways to challenge yourself.

Which means you’re not always just doing the top reps listed!

This 4th rule is really about pushing that comfort zone and not just stopping at the top amount of reps assigned because…well it’s the top of the rep range listed.

Especially if you’re advanced exerciser, you may even really want to push that lower end of the rep range in your programming.

You may even find you want to error on hitting 7 reps to then STICK at that weight until you can do 10-12 reps with it before then again increasing.

But if you want better results, even if a weight feels hard for the top end of the rep range, GO UP as long as you can maintain form.

Do fewer reps with that heavier load to challenge yourself and add reps the next week to progress!

And then remember that adding weights, or even reps, aren’t the only ways to advance your workouts and drive those results.

Rule 5…Create Progression Through The Same But Different.

I think progression through the use of different movement variations is too often undervalued and underutilized.

The smallest of small tweaks is sometimes all we need to see results and bust through a plateau.

Because changes in movements can activate muscles to different extents, putting a different emphasis on what is working while challenge our mind-body connection in new ways.

Slight changes in our posture or position with an exercise can have an impact.

Like the chin up or underhand grip vs. the pull up or overhand grip.

The underhand grip emphasizes more bicep and requires less scapular control while the overhand grip emphasizes the back more, requiring more control of those shoulder blades to engage the lats.

Both can and should be used based on what you need!

Diversity when used strategically can be used to our advantage – it just needs to be included with purpose.

And we need to be intentional with those moves we use.

We can’t just seek to zone out and be mindless with our workouts if we want better results.

We can’t just try to get through or rush through the workout.

We need to truly focus on what we feel working and push ourselves…which is uncomfortable.

That’s why this next rule is…Is to be intentional and present.

This is something I harp on probably to an annoying extent with clients and one of the issues I have with follow along workouts.

With those workouts, people just try to keep up. Or do what the instructor is doing.

They aren’t focused on what they feel working or what they need to do.

They’re often just going through the motions, thinking even that doing a harder move is better.

But every move is earned.
And doing a harder move isn’t better if we aren’t working the correct muscles.

Honestly it can be worse, leading to overload and injury.

It can mean we’re doing a ton of moves that aren’t fully paying off!

If you want to get the most out of your workouts, you want to feel the correct muscles working. You want to be focused to truly push your boundaries and challenge yourself!

Because just going through the motions may mean we’re spending time training, but not maximizing that effort!

Because where our attention goes, our energy flows.

And this is even why rule #7 is to…

Pay Attention To Workout Order

This rule honestly means a few different things…

It means putting exercises in specific orders based on your goals, prioritizing lifts first that you want to be freshest for so you can lift heavier, while honing in on muscles with more isolated moves as you fatigue…

It means being strategic in how you include strength vs. cardio sessions, prioritizing what you value and want to be freshest for first…

Like if you’re training for a race, cardio should be done first.

However, if body recomp is your goal, strength work should be done first with cardio implemented strategically after or even on other days.

And even order how you split up what muscles you work and the moves you include should be considered for over the course of your weekly schedule.

For example, putting heavy barbell deadlifts earlier in your week may be key, especially if you’ve ever struggled with back pain as you want that move after you’ve had rest days and are fresh instead of later in your week when muscles may be tired.

You may even notice that by changing order of moves, you feel different things working!

Ever been sore from a previous workout, where maybe you did more core work, to only then realize how much your core is engaging during push ups later that week?

That exercise order has an impact!

But no matter what order you choose to include moves in…

There’s one thing you can’t skip to start EVERY single session.

And that’s your warm up.

But if you want to get more out of your training, a warm up isn’t just about “getting warm.”

It’s about actually MOBILIZING those joints and prepping your body for work.

Your warm up should be about addressing previous injuries, movement compensations and even daily postures that may impact your workout as you also warm up your body.

You want to make yourself get benefit out of that very first rep of your training session vs. feeling like it takes you a few rounds to get into things.

A proper warm up helps you make sure you’re able to strengthen through a full range of motion and engage the correct muscles so you don’t compensate, which can lead to injury.

So focus your warm ups on foam rolling to relax overactive and tight muscles…

Dynamic stretching to mobilize joints and improve your flexibility…

And then activation to establish that mind-body connection to get underactive muscles working and improve your stability.

You’ll be amazed at how much that warm up you want to skip now really pays off so you get more out of your workouts and aren’t being sidelined with injuries or feeling like you’re recovery is super slow!

Which actually leads me to the final 2 essential rules…and something that can be mentally hard to embrace when we equate feeling worked and working harder to better results faster…

But no pain, no gain is not the best attitude to have!

Rule #9…Soreness can’t be the goal and Rule #10…Low intensity sessions are essential!

We can only train as hard as we can recover from.

And if every session is leaving us feeling destroyed…

We will start to see our performance and results go backward as we aren’t giving our body the recovery it needs to rebuild
And…
We may end up burned out and injured struggling to find the motivation to get back into things

Basically we’ll be working hard to see lackluster results.

And I mentioned soreness because too often we seek to be sore and use that as a judgement of working hard enough.

But soreness doesn’t mean our workouts are moving us forward.

We can be sore because of the types of moves we include or even because we did NEW moves.

Soreness is even an indication that we aren’t creating clear progression but just randomly stringing things together that aren’t building or even that our recovery in between sessions, such as our fueling isn’t on point.

Not being sore isn’t a bad thing.

It may even be a good sign you’re progressing at an appropriate pace.

However, because of building and even moves like the deadlift that cause more muscle tissue damage, you may get sore at times even with proper recovery.

This though is why lower intensity sessions can be key.

They mentally help you recharge and allow you to move in a non-stressful way that can even enhance recovery.

So don’t skip the yoga or the mobility work or even that casual walk because it doesn’t feel as worth it…because it may be the key to getting more out of your other sessions!

SUMMARY:

The more purposeful and intentional we are with our training, the better and faster the results we will see.

Don’t just go through the motions or string together random free workouts that look hard.

Stay focused on your needs and goals and create a plan to move forward!

Want amazing workouts to help you rock those results?

Check out my Dynamic Strength program!