TAKE ACTION
a
M
TAKE ACTION
Lose Fat + Keep Muscle (5 Training Tips That WORK)

Lose Fat + Keep Muscle (5 Training Tips That WORK)

by | Jun 29, 2025 | Blog, Exercises, Workouts

To look your leanest, you want to lose fat while not losing muscle.

Heck if you can even gain a bit of muscle in the fat loss process, even better.

And while this is hard to do, and diet is 100% key, too often the way we design our workouts actually sabotages our fat loss results.

We turn to cardio over strength, favoring the calorie burn.

And that deficit we create from doing more cardio while eating less can yield some fast immediate scale changes.

It is also what leads to us ultimately hitting a plateau, even feeling like we look softer and deciding all the hard work isn’t worth it as we become burned out and restricted and hungry.

Then the scale rebounds and we gain even more fat as the habits we were trying to implement just weren’t sustainable and our body adapts to the amount of cardio we were doing because we couldn’t keep trying to add on more to progress it.

That’s why I wanted to share 5 tips to help you accelerate your fat loss results while preserving your lean muscle mass to help yourself avoid metabolic adaptations and see lasting recomp.

And that starts with prioritizing strength work over cardio.

But then it isn’t enough to just focus on strength work, you want to be strategic and intentional which is why these 5 tips can help.

Because how you design your strength workouts when in a fat loss phase is different than during a muscle building phase.

While at both times you want your workouts focused on maintaining and building muscle, your fueling and therefore energy levels may be different making different training techniques even more beneficial.

It’s why my first tip is especially key to help you push that progression while in a calorie deficit…

#1: Use Rest-Pause Training Technique

To build muscle, you need to challenge yourself to progress and push in each workout. But sometimes we can’t just do a harder variation or more reps or more weight of an exercise.

Especially when we are in a calorie deficit, we can feel a bit depleted and like we aren’t as strong.

That’s where this rest-pause technique can help. It can help us use heavier weights or do a few more reps by implementing a short rest period or PAUSE in a single set.

Basically, where you feel like you’d have to stop, pause for 15-30 seconds and then complete more reps with the same weight and move.

You can then end up moving more weight in your workout while maintaining heavier loads and more advanced exercise variations for more volume.

An example of this could be a lunge. If you can only do 8 reps with the weights you’re using, and you’ve even been stuck at this amount for a bit, you may do your 8 reps. Pause for the 15-30 seconds.

Then do 2-4 more based on what you can do before fully resting.

This way you get out 12 reps with a weight and lunge variation you could only really do 8 reps with.

It helps you push that progression when stuck and even focus on maintaining quality reps instead of getting sloppy just to try to do more.

Then next don’t only focus on progressing moves through adding weight or reps. But also Vary Your Exercise Range Of Motion.

Increasing the range of motion you’re working through can help you improve your mobility and strength.

It can help you even load a muscle under more stretch to see better muscle gains faster.

But you don’t have to just increase the range of motion to load a muscle under stretch or drive growth.

Sometimes you also want to shrink the range of motion and do partial reps or pulses.

This can keep the muscle under tension for longer and even keep you just working the muscle while under stretch.

An example of this may be something like pulse RDLS.

With this move you’re keeping the hamstrings stretched and working in a smaller range of motion.

Combining this even later in a workout after a full range of motion RDL may be just what you need to really work your hamstrings to fatigue.

On the flip side of this, you may do a full range of motion or even extended range of motion abduction exercise to then include pulses at the end range of motion after.

Combining different ranges of motion can help you really fully work muscles while creating progression without just adding loads.

So don’t fear increasing the range of motion but also including partial reps at times strategically to isolate muscles further!

And not only do you want to play around with exercise range of motion, but you may want to adjust exercise order.

Often we think just compound moves to more isolated moves over the course of our workouts.

But sometimes by putting those isolation moves first, we can pre-fatigue an area to actually max out with lighter loads on those compound moves.

This can be key during a fat loss phase when we are a bit more energy depleted.

It’s why tip #3 is to include Pre-Fatigue Moves.

Try putting that leg extension exercise BEFORE your front lunges or squats.

You may be surprised by how much more you feel those quads working then in the compound move and by how heavy a lighter weight than usual feels.

This can really help you especially if you feel slightly stuck at a weight where you can’t do more BUT the weight isn’t fully maxing you out unless you keep adding more reps.

It can be key if you don’t feel those stubborn areas fully getting worked the way you need.

That little bit of fatigue helps you work a muscle closer to failure with the compound lift.

It can be that little gasoline on the fire to accelerate those muscle gains!

So for especially stubborn muscle groups you really want to target and grow, consider at times a little isolation work first in your workout to really feel those areas already working before you go into those compound lifts.

Just be conscious when you do the pre-fatigue work you don’t then compensate in the lift.

This may mean starting a bit lighter than you think with the compound exercise because the areas are already tired going in!

With all of these techniques, it is about maxing what you’re doing. We don’t just want to keep adding more.

While volume is key, too often we just add more to our training, which becomes slightly wasted work as we are too tired by the end of the session to be as intentional and maximize every rep.

So instead of just trying to add in more moves for an area to a single session or do more rounds, consider less work per session but more training frequency for especially stubborn muscle groups over the week.

This is why tip #4 is to Favor Weekly Frequency.

If you have a stubborn area you want to build muscle in, train it 2-3 times a week.

Don’t do 8 moves on one day, spread out your volume over the week.

This can be key during a fat loss phase as we are in an energy deficit so tend to fatigue more quickly.

That move you’re doing right now at the end of a long upper body day for your shoulders may FEEL like it is getting 100% effort, but your 100% at that time is far less than it would be if you did that move second on another day.

This volume spread out means we can do less on a day so we aren’t just going through the motions on the final rounds to get in more work on a single day.

Think about that 4th exercise you’re doing…you’re way more tired for it than the first exercise.

So instead of doing more on a single day, spread that work out.

Give yourself still days to recover between, but allow yourself to be fresher for those moves by not just stacking more into a single session.

If your shoulders are a stubborn muscle group, include 2-3 shoulder days a week.

Make one the more intensive one, with maybe two other days you even include just a single move for your shoulders over adding those two extra moves onto one day.

It will surprise you by how much more you are actually able to do with certain exercises when you aren’t tired trying to cram them in at the end of a session!

This will also allow you to include more diversity of movement for muscle groups over the week to really hit every aspect and see better muscle gains!

And by increasing training frequency over just doing more for a muscle group in a single session, you can often also be more strategic with tip #5…

Stop Skipping Rest.

Our body only rebuilds when it has time to repair and the fuel to do it.

When in a fat loss phase, your gas tank is already low. You need to allow for proper recovery to optimize how you do use the fuel coming in.

So do not skip days off.

But also don’t skip rest during your workouts.

The rest allows you to optimize each set and really maximize your output on reps.

Because the more fatigued you get over your workout, the more you feel like you’re working hard but not able to push progression in the same way.

And cutting out all rest, while it can make you feel like you worked harder in a session because your heart rate gets up, can also turn your strength workouts into more cardio sessions.

While this may feel good, it can also backfire and hinder the muscle gains you’re working hard for.

It can put you into that viscous cardio weight loss cycle.

So include rest and allow yourself to recover to lift heavier. Even just 1-2 minutes between moves or rounds depending on the workout design can be key.

And don’t forget about even the short rest of rest-pause technique to really push yourself.

But this is also why favoring weekly training frequency can be key.

Doing less for one area on a day and even hitting a few large muscle groups in a session can allow you to get in more rest while continuing to work and be efficient with your time. By cycling what is working, another muscle group can rest as you continue to use your gym time efficiently.

Rest doesn’t have to mean just scrolling on your phone. Heck, even get in some extra steps moving around the gym instead.

But don’t demonize rest if you want to push to build muscle.

Remember, muscle is key to metabolic health and ultimately looking leaner as we lose fat.

For amazing workouts you can do anywhere to build strength, muscle and improve your metabolic health to see fabulous recomp, check out Dynamic Strength!

–> LEARN MORE

Why Weight Training Is Important For Results

Why Weight Training Is Important For Results

by | Jun 26, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast. Everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear. You are strong. Now, act like it. Lee asked about doing this title for our talk today, and I’m super excited to be joined by her, but she asked about doing this title and I’m like, heck yes. Let’s talk about muscle strength training, all those different things because we are so much stronger often than we give ourselves credit for, and I want to talk about with her all the things that go into that. So Leigh, thank you so much for joining me. Joining me today, let’s dive into why it can be so hard as women sometimes to own our own strength and all the different things that being strong really entails.

Leigh (00:47):
So I’m super excited to do this topic with you. It’s something I’m super passionate about. So yeah, so it can be a real challenge for women to kind of jump into strength training. It’s just a little bit of changing norms around how society views a woman who lifts weight. For example, I am a product of the early two thousands, so that was when I was in high school, which is low rise jeans. Everybody was doing cardio. And I feel like my generation and older, it’s almost like that cardio culture has been sort of imposed on us as women. So it’s this idea that a woman should be eating the least amount of calories doing cardio bootcamp classes, anything possible to just decrease the amount of space that she takes up because the goal is to be as small and petite as possible. And so really recognizing why it is so difficult to maybe step off the treadmill and go into that male dominated gym, gym where it’s mostly guys there.

(01:57):
It can be really hard. The treadmill may be all we’ve ever really known, the treadmill’s safe, but honestly, weightlifting has really recently become a really widely socially acceptable thing for women to do. And so there’s a lot of popularity in social media, lots of popular sports. Women are becoming more active in sports, and there’s also a lot of traction in the research area around women and women’s health. So I think that that’s a big driver. So women are starting to really understand the importance of strength training and why they need to do it. And so when you know better, you do better. So yeah, it’s a big thing around getting away from cardio and the treadmill, but when we understand the importance of it, I think that’s why we’re starting to see that shift.

Cori (02:49):
And the more we start to value it, we start to push into this uncomfortable territory, the more we’re inspiring other generations to do it as well. I know for me, a big part of what really brought me into weights was I saw my mom growing up lifting weights at a time that wasn’t popular to do so. My mom played tennis, she was very active. She actually went to college and played field hockey. She played these sports at a time where it wasn’t really the popular thing to do, so there weren’t even fully sometimes full female teams for them. And so for me, really exploring this avenue and all that it means to be strong for us, there isn’t one definition of strength, but that empowerment that we can even feel from lifting heavy proving what our body can accomplish, it’s honestly why I called the company redefining strength because for me, I found so much empowerment through the gym, through lifting through feeling stronger because it is conquering something you couldn’t overcome before or thought you might not be able to overcome, even if it’s the discomfort of stepping into that weight room. I think you touch on something super key. We stay in our comfort zone, which is partly that the treadmill might make us feel like we won’t look silly doing those things. We feel comfortable with the form, right? There’s risk involved in lifting weights, but also we fear that judgment or we fear letting go of something we’ve done in the past to reach an aesthetic goal, not realizing that there might be something better. Can we talk a little bit about maybe how to embrace the discomfort of stepping into that weight room?

Leigh (04:21):
Yeah, definitely. And I love that you had such an amazing example from your mom, and I think that’s really important too, thinking what sort of example are we setting for the younger generation? There’s always going to be that next generation coming up, but yeah, so kind of just recognizing that inner strength that we already have. So again, when I first came up with this title for the discussion that we’re having, I was like, this might be a little bit harsh, but I don’t think so. I think it’s something that we really need to recognize that we are already strong, we just have to act like it. So as a female, I completely understand that it is a challenge and it is hard to break that routine, like you were saying, it’s something that we’ve always done. It’s hard to step away from something that maybe worked for us in the past when we were younger, but it’s that imposter syndrome or that feeling that we don’t actually be long and it’s just a matter of time before somebody is like they find us out.

(05:23):
And so really through my own personal and professional experience, I’ve been really fortunate to work with a lot of women. So as a physical therapist, I’ve gotten to work with a lot of strong females in a variety of just awful situations. I always say you’re probably not meeting your physical therapist on your best day, not always, but you’re usually not going to PT for the fun of it. And here at Redefining Strength, getting to work with women through so many of life’s challenges, big and small, and oftentimes here working with women as a personal trainer, I actually get to work with women for much longer. And really what that does is it kind of shines a light on all that women that we overcome day to day life is really hard and it can have some really, really hard moments, but I’ve seen time and time again that women are so resilient and so strong. There’s a lot that’s expected of us as a woman in society, physically and mentally. And I think sometimes we just don’t recognize how strong we are. We balance careers. We have kids, we’re caregivers, we go to school, we have relationships, we take care of a household, and we do the physically demanding jobs that our male counterparts also do.

(06:45):
If we’re a nurse, we’re lifting patients up, or if we have older parents, we’re taking care of this. So the list is literally endless. I could go on and on and on about all the hard things we do, but we’re also expected to do these things and we never expected to skip a beat, even though we may be on our periods where we’re literally growing a human in our bodies, we’re pregnant or our hormones are shifting and we’re still expected to just show up the same way time and time again. And we do that and that is incredibly strong of us, and we’re very critical too. We just don’t recognize our strength. So something that we can do is kind of just reflect on that and realize when we have that self-doubt or when we’re afraid to go and try a new workout plan or something, kind of recognize that you felt that way in the past.

(07:39):
You felt that self-doubt before, and then you did the hard thing, so you felt the feeling and the fear and you did it anyway. So recognizing that you’re entirely capable is very helpful and can be very empowering and just recognizing how strong you are, even physically and mentally, physically, you’re entirely capable because you’ve probably already done 16 hard things that day before you went to go do your workout, or you’ve probably picked up something that was way heavier than the dumbbells sitting there. So yeah, I think it’s a little bit of recognizing our own inner strength, like taking a look at taking a stock of our life and all the hard things we accomplish and how we felt fear, but we still did it. So it’s

Cori (08:32):
Truly that ownership, ownership of all that we are flaws, good parts, everything. And recognizing how we overcame the hard in the past because so often we don’t see that hard is hard. And yes, how you handle the heart of some other area of your life might be different than how you embrace the heart of going in and working out and lifting heavy. But that ability to overcome that ability to push yourself into this discomfort is something you’ve learned. And the more you reflect on those other hard situations, the more you can see the mindsets that went into it, how you shaped the environment, how you got yourself to embrace those things. So it is using that reflection on all the other hard things you’ve done to build the confidence, get in the mindset, and then go conquer. As you know, I love the phrase act as if. How does that really play a part in embracing who we are, taking ownership, stepping into that weight room and then making changes there?

Leigh (09:28):
So just acting as if just by gaining that reflection and that understanding of like, oh, okay, I’ve done this hard thing before. It can really translate to taking up space in the gym. You do belong there. You can lift weights. You’ve done many, many hard things before in the past, mentally and physically. And so it’s a direct translation because how you carry yourself and how you approach the gym is the same thing as approaching a difficult situation with your family or your friends or with your job. So even though it is a workout and exercise, it really can translate very easily from just your day-to-day strength and just how you’ve recognized that

Cori (10:21):
With all this. Someone might be like, okay, I think I’m strong enough. I could step into the weight room, but I’m not sure I want to. I love my runs. Cardio’s always worked for me to maintain my weight, even though maybe now with menopause or different hormonal shifts, I’m seeing some weight gain around my middle. Why should I care about stepping into the weight room building muscle building strength? I don’t want to get bulky. We have these discussions often. So I’d love to really touch on how you answer those questions and address the importance of lifting weights or strength training in general, which sometimes means using different equipment or even progressing body weight.

Leigh (11:00):
Yeah, so the fear of getting bulky is a huge thing for women, but it’s definitely not the norm to get that bulky. And I think starting to really pay attention to the benefits that go beyond the aesthetics with weightlifting and with building muscle, especially as we shift into perimenopause and menopause, it becomes super important. So when we start thinking about what happens to our bodies as we age, it just really shines a light on the importance of building muscle. So starting in our thirties, we begin to lose lean body mass at a rate of about 1% a year. So that’s just normal aging. We just start to lose some muscle mass. So as that muscle mass decreases strength and power, so you suddenly realize like, oh man, I can’t jump up onto that curve like I did. I might’ve done in the past. Your balance decreases, so you’re not quite as confident in doing single leg stance, standing on one leg, putting on your pants.

(12:09):
You’re like, oh man, my balance isn’t great. So less muscle mass also means you’re going to expend less energy. So the body requires just less calories to function. And as we all know, life changes across our lifespan. So in our thirties, forties and fifties, life does not look the same as when it did when we were in our teens and twenties, when we were in our twenties. We could work all the time because we didn’t have jobs and we didn’t have families. So that takes away time from our ability to go and exercise. And so all of this kind of compounds and we also have some pretty significant metabolic changes, especially in women that occur in midlife, and that’s intensified by our hormone decline. And that really leads to that unfavorable body composition where you have less muscle mass and you have excessive visceral fat.

(13:02):
So that leads to a myriad of health problems. So you have increased inflammation, which is going to increase your cardiometabolic disease. So things like stroke, heart disease, diabetes, all that risk increases. And even if you step on the scale and you don’t see the scale weight changing, there are still body composition changes happening. So you’re losing muscle and you’re gaining more fat. So these are just those normal things that happen as we age. And if we start to think about the importance of strength training and how can we counteract that, I think it’s actually very encouraging to think of the power that just strength training and building muscle can have on our entire wellbeing. So if we want to get into it, I can kind of break down a little bit of just sort of the basics of the physiology behind lifting weights. I think having that knowledge is very helpful.

(14:07):
So the key with weightlifting is really selecting a weight that is going to be challenging enough to your muscles. So that’s key. And so when you lift heavy weights, this action is going to put microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. And these micro injuries trigger a biological process that initiates repair of those micro tears. And so this creates newer, stronger muscle fibers that replace those damaged ones, and that results in muscle growth over time. So that’s muscle hypertrophy. You’re getting bigger fibers. And so the backbone of strength training is this principle called stress and adaptation. So really what that means is when you lift weights, you’re subjecting your muscles to a form of stress and your body naturally will react to that stress and heal the damage. So that’s going to fortify your muscles, make them stronger and more resistant to the same level of stress.

(15:13):
And this is going to lead to muscle growth and increased strength. So same thing is when you just do mentally hard things, you become more resilient. When you put your muscles and you make them do really hard things, they get stronger and more resilient. So it’s a direct correlation there. And so I don’t know if you can think back to when you first started lifting weights very early on, you get a significant gain in your strength when you just first start lifting weights, and that’s something called neuromuscular adaptation. So really what that is is your nervous system becomes more efficient. It activates motor units. A motor unit is a muscle fiber, and the motor unit just controls all the muscle fiber. So your nervous system gets more efficient at activating motor units. So you kind of notice, oh, I can lift heavier, I can lift more weights pretty early on. And that’s important because that helps you build the strength as you go along. So lifting heavy, it does all that physiological stuff. It also triggers a hormone response where your body releases testosterone and hormone growth, human growth hormone, and that is a key for muscle repair.

(16:30):
So that’s kind of like the science behind building muscle. And so you can kind of see if I put my body under the appropriate stress or I challenge my muscles, I’m challenging myself too by going into the bro gym, I become more resilient and I become stronger over time.

Cori (16:50):
And off of that really hitting on how to build muscles, circling even back to getting bulky. A lot of this is about fueling as well, because if we’re not giving our body adequate fuel to repair and rebuild, we’re not going to build back muscles. So unless you’re giving yourself a ton of extra fuel, it’s very hard as a female to get bulky. It’s not that we can’t, but you have to be very strategic in how you build. And you also have to have specific builds and then work muscles to specific extent. So there’s a lot of strategy that goes into building muscle. And the longer you’ve be training, the harder it actually gets. So if you’re like, gosh, I’ve been training for a really long time and I’m struggling to build muscle, yes, it gets harder. You’ve adapted to more, but you have to focus on that fueling.

(17:28):
And I bring this up too because a lot of times due to the way we’ve dieted in the past, our cardio trends and cardio reliance, I’ll say we’ve created metabolic adaptations, which when we then start to fuel properly dialing in our macros, even though we might have weight we want to lose, we can often see ourselves gaining muscle first because we’re finally fueling to create that progression and allow our muscles to build back. So you can see the scale increase even when you want to lose weight before it then goes down because you’re building that lean muscle because your body is finally able to, which will ultimately help your metabolism. But if you’ve wondered like, Hey, I’m going for weight loss and I’m eating more and I’m trying to trust the process and I feel like I’m building muscle, but I haven’t lost the fat yet, so now I feel like I have a little fluff over my muscle.

(18:11):
That’s partly why. But then recognizing too, when we’re talking about creating that progression in the gym, that means repeating things. And I bring this up because I think I’ve seen, and I want to get your take on this too, Lee, but I’ve seen a big trend in the industry to completely no progression. So I’m not the strict, you have to do something for 12 weeks. I think that there could be a lot of ways to create progression, but if we don’t ever repeat the same workout, if we’re constantly randomly stringing things together, we can never really drive muscle growth because we never have that clear progression of did I do a harder variation? Did I add one more rep? Did I progress the movement by becoming more efficient at doing it with a better mind body connection? So can you talk a little bit about how you design your workouts, both picking weights, but also in terms of progression and repeating workouts and your take on that?

Leigh (18:59):
Yeah, so I mean it does take time and doing the same thing. I mean, if we think about how our body moves, we do kind of like we can squat, we can hinge, we can push, we can press, and that’s just like our muscles moving our bones and we’re putting weight and we’re stressing our muscles. And so having that repeatability and that progression, because we just talked about neuromuscular adaptation in the beginning, you’re actually not building a ton of strength and muscle. You’re just training your nervous system. So you have to train your nervous system, you have to get used to those movements, and then you can progressively add weight. So it is important to train muscle fibers in a similar way for a period of time so that you can slowly add that weight so that you do more micro tears, more repair, and then you can change your workouts a little bit where you’re doing a press in a slightly different variation to hit slightly different muscle fibers, but then you stay there for a little bit of time and you progress the weights because really, I mean there’s no way around it.

(20:10):
The physiology of how to build muscles is these micro tears and repair over time, progressively getting stronger, getting more resilient. It’s not doing chaotic workouts all the time, but it can be boring in the beginning and it can feel repetitive. And I think once you start to see the results and you start to see, oh, putting on I’m adding more weights, you have all these little micro goals that happen in your workouts of like, oh, well my back squat, I did this. Let see if I can do that. So starts to become fun in itself, but really what I like to do for programming workouts is get those main important lifts, those compound movements, the back squat, the deadlift, things like that. And then you can change up the accessory movements so that you start to hit those muscle fibers in different ways, but you’re still doing that. Let’s stay here for a little while. Let’s push the weights over time. Let’s learn the movement and get better over time. So it’s really that adaptation, stress and adaptation is the key for building muscle.

Cori (21:25):
And let’s talk about light versus heavy weights too, because pushing that progression means going heavier, so to speak. And I sort of use the air quotes around that because there’s always the question, do I do higher reps, lighter weights or lower reps, heavier weights? And I never like to think of the higher reps as lighter weights because if it challenges you, it changes you. But why is it so important that we go heavier? And I know you really touched on this, but I just want to highlight it again because it’s not that the weight won’t match the rep range and it will by nature be lighter if you’re doing more reps. And that can be good still in pushing progression. But it’s key that you have that challenge for specific reasons, right? Just going light won’t do anything if you’re really comfortable with it.

Leigh (22:08):
Yes. So this is a question I get asked a lot and I feel like it’s a reasonable question to ask, especially when you’re new to working out is you just don’t know what weights to pick up. And so to dress like the lightweight high rep, so there is a time and a place for doing high repetition lighter weights, but it’s not necessarily going to get you stronger, bigger muscles. It’s not necessarily going to be the only thing that works. And so the lightweight high rep has essentially been debunked by current research as how to do a lot of strength building and muscle hypertrophy because choosing very lightweights something that’s not challenging to your muscles, it fails to create the metabolic and hormonal environment that’s needed to build muscle. So if you pick up super lightweights, you are just simply not putting enough mechanical tension for bone density.

(23:07):
So when you lift weights, you put stress on your muscles, but you inadvertently also strengthen your bones, which is super important, especially for females as we age to reduce our risk of getting osteopenia, osteoporosis, and fractures. So if you pick up lightweights, you’re really not driving that pathway. And then you also minimally will recruit type two muscle fibers, and that is really important for strength maintenance. You also don’t stimulate that release of testosterone or growth hormone. So those hormones are really essential for repair. You just are not creating that environment and then by picking up lightweights, you really have a significantly less impact on your insulin sensitivity. So just touching back on all the benefits of muscle, the more muscle mass you have, the more insulin sensitive you are. So basically your muscle mass becomes like a metabolic buffer, so to speak. So your muscle is much better at taking up blood glucose, which stabilizes blood sugar levels, reduces your risk of type two diabetes.

(24:18):
So if you’re not lifting heavy, you’re not reaping that benefit and you just really don’t never really build the muscle. So you never really see that shift in that metabolic rate improvement. So the more muscle mass you have, the more calories your body needs. So that’s why you start to see like, oh my gosh, I’m eating so much more food than I ever ate before, but my body’s changing. How is that possible? Well, you’re building muscle, you’re fueling that muscle. Your body doesn’t really create muscle from recycling other things in your body just doesn’t work the way you have to eat the food to make the muscle happen. So yeah, that’s just kind of shines a light on why picking up that two pound dumbbell again and again and again, you’re not getting those results well because of all those things. It’s just not happening.

Cori (25:11):
I love that you hit on again and again and again because a weight might be light compared to the rest of the Dumbo rack, but challenge us for the reps, the move, the whatever, and we have to meet ourselves where we’re at. But if you can do that weight and you have your rep range of eight to 12 reps, if you can do that weight for 12 reps, one, two or all four sets, let’s just say that you have that next week, you got to go up. I even like to have clients if they’re experienced with lifts, if they’ve done it for the first set and the rep range is eight to 12, hey, go up for the next one, go up until you hit eight or even air the more advanced you are on hitting six reps having to pause for a second to complete the eight, then stay there.

(25:52):
That’s called double progression where we’re increasing the reps we’re doing with weights and also increasing the weight with reps. So you want to think that you have those two things to play with. If you can do the top end of the rep range, you don’t want to just stay there because it feels kind of hard. You want to be like, okay, how can I work down to the bottom of that rep range and then earn more reps with that weight before I then progress again? Because if we’re not pushing ourselves something, feeling hard doesn’t mean it actually is driving us forward. And I can tell you the more I focus on a muscle building phase, the more uncomfortable sometimes I am and the more I’m like, I got to do this today. I don’t know if you’ve ever felt that, but that’s definitely my response because it has to challenge you to create that change. And I think that’s the key thing we don’t often hit on and using that diversity of rep range even to our advantage. Correct?

Leigh (26:43):
Yeah. So it is hard. It should feel hard if it’s always feeling easy, it’s not creating that stimulus. And so yeah, the rep ranges and the prescribed reps are there for a reason. One thing that I do really like to implement and talk about is the use of the rate of perceived exertion or reps in reserve. I find that that really helps, especially people who are just sort of starting out and really questioning what’s hard, what do you meet? What’s hard? Finding that use of RPE rate of perceived exertion helps you be more subjective and take some ownership over your weight selection. So subjective, meaning it’s arising from oneself. And so thinking about using RPE as a subjective scale to measure intensity of exercise or effort, so you can really gauge how you feel during a lift or a workout by using RPE, it takes into account factors like breathing, heart rate, muscle fatigue, RPE.

(27:57):
So it typically ranges from zero to 10. So zero is rest and 10 is your max effort. I like to use RPE too with individuals because they can understand their intensity of their workouts and they can also adapt their training intensity based on how the individual is feeling that day. So it takes into account like recovery or stress, things like that. So it helps with autoregulation so that you’re able to be adaptable, reduces risk of injury too, so you’re not just pushing to failure all the time. And so then think about RPE and then you also layer in that reps in reserve. So that is a method used in strength training to kind of gauge intensity based off of how many reps you could leave. So thinking that reps in how many reps left in the tank before your form breaks down. So always key is good form with a lift.

(28:58):
And so if you think about that zero to 10 scale, if something were written like 10 reps at RPE of eight, you would think, okay, well I am going to give pretty heavy effort when I get to that 10 reps, I have two reps left in the tank. That’s a pretty heavy effort. That should feel pretty hard when you get to that eight rep, but you could still do two more repetitions. So you’re formed didn’t quite break down. Then once you start training a little bit more down, you’re talking about further down in that rep range to the six, it starts to get pretty spicy doing six reps at rp, that’s hard effort, but changes based off that rep range. So you would pick lighter weights for 10 repetitions at RPE eight as opposed to six repetitions at RPE eight because you obviously are doing less reps, so you can do heavier weights and have it meet that RPE. So I really like RPE reps and reserve to help people figure out what’s hard, what’s challenging, and that changes over time too. So the longer you train that RPE eight, RPE becomes a different weight for you as you get stronger.

Cori (30:18):
And as you even mentioned, it can be different things on different days. And I want to highlight that because we don’t often give ourselves credit that not every workout is going to be pushing progression by adding weight, going and doing another rep because we might not have slept well. There might be other hormonal factors like if you are in a little bit of a calorie deficit, your expectations have to potentially shift or if you’ve even changed progression and changed the order of moves, which I do want to touch on. And then I have one other final question for you too, but if you change the order, and this is why having that weekly schedule you repeat for a while is so key, especially if you are working to track those numbers. But if you do your back squat on Monday and all of a sudden in the next workout progression it’s on Thursday, you might find you aren’t able to keep the same numbers whether you’ve changed rep ranges or just because of the other moves before it.

(31:05):
And that’s not a bad thing. It’s just always remembering too that what is Max’s effort, what is really pushing that movement can depend too on all the other things around it. Now, off of this one final question for you, Lee, and I have to bring this up because I know it’s a topic that comes up often and I have my opinions on it and I want to hear yours, but soreness. So anytime we’re talking about building muscle, people expect to feel sore. If they don’t feel sore, I didn’t work hard enough. Can you talk about soreness in your opinion and what it really means and all that jazz?

Leigh (31:39):
Yeah, so soreness. So delayed onset muscle soreness, DOMS oftentimes will happen when you do something for the first time. When you’re very early on with working out and you are doing all kinds of new movements, new lifts, you’re probably going to be pretty sore When you change your workouts up and you just do a movement that you haven’t done, you’ll also feel sore. It’ll probably be to a less degree than when you first started working out. However, you do not have to be sore in order to know you had a good workout. In fact, the longer you train and the more muscle you have, the less often you’re going to feel that soreness. So you shouldn’t always be chasing soreness. That’s not the goal of a workout. It’s not always the goal to just beat yourself down with a workout and get the most sort the next day.

(32:37):
It’s inevitable to happen every now and then. It happens less frequently the more trained you are, but anytime you change something, you change the order, you change the rep ranges, especially working at a lot of higher rep ranges. If fueling is off, if you are not properly fueling or if you’re in a cut, something like that, you’ll have more muscle soreness. However, I am a big proponent of we’re not chasing soreness the next day. That’s not always the goal. And so oftentimes people feel like, well, I’m not sore at all. I didn’t get a good workout in. That’s not true. You have to kind of consider all the other factors around the workout to qualify that as a good training session.

Cori (33:20):
Couldn’t agree more. And I come from the no pain, no gain background attitude, and I like being sore as much as the next person. There’s something oddly satisfying at times about it, but if you’re constantly getting sore, it means you’re probably mixing things up too much. It means you’re probably jumping potentially weights or reps too quickly. It means you’re not fueling correctly, recovering correctly. If you’re doing that prehab process that should help with that. So soreness is often actually an indicator that something else is off. It can also be an indicator that we’re potentially doing too much volume or frequency for a muscle loading it really a ton under stretch, which can then lead to more muscle tissue damage and potentially some of that muscle soreness as well. So it’s really assessing is the soreness just, Hey, I switched things up and I pushed really hard this one time and then I’m adapting to it, or is something else off? Now off of that, any closing thoughts for someone being like, okay, I’m sold. I’m going to go build muscle, I’m going to embrace strength training. I’m going to act as if any thoughts for them, Lee?

Leigh (34:17):
Yeah. Yeah. So this is something I get super hyped about is helping a woman understand the importance of strength training and why you can’t just do cardio forever. It’s also really exciting because I kind of can see the future and I’m like, okay, I know you’re going to make some really awesome gains here soon. But honestly, just to kind of wrap things up, I think it’s just taking that moment to reflect on your life as a woman and just thinking about all of the incredibly hard things that you do mentally, physically, how you felt afraid. Probably during those times you felt the fear, but you did it anyway. That’s the same thing, this shrink training, it is not beyond your capabilities, it’s just something new and you just haven’t jumped in and done it. So realizing all the health benefits, health, realizing how this can improve your life, make things easier for you in terms of eating food and fueling and having these body changes, sleeping better, having perimenopause and menopause symptoms reduce. There’s so many benefits. So yeah, it’s my favorite thing to help women realize like, wait a minute, I’m strong. I can go pick up a really heavy weight and I can lift it.

Cori (35:33):
Health benefits, aesthetic benefits, mental benefits. I mean, I don’t know about you, but I’ve seen so much confidence built through what I’ve been able to overcome in the gym and picking up that heavier weight. So can’t say enough about it. Couldn’t agree more. Leigh, thank you so much for joining me today. Guys, have a great rest of your week.

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

7 Things I Wish I Knew About Eating More Protein

7 Things I Wish I Knew About Eating More Protein

by | Jun 22, 2025 | Blog, Diet

Changing your portions is hard. You can’t just eat meals the way you’ve always eaten. That does require some planning ahead to start.

And protein isn’t often the thing we just have lying around or want to snack on.

That’s why these 7 tips can help you start to adjust your macros, increase your protein and all while meeting yourself where you are at to still include meals and foods you enjoy!

Because the more foreign a change feels to start, the more resistant to repeating it we’ll be.

That’s why tip number 1 and where I like to start with increasing protein is simply to add an ounce of the current protein I’m eating.

If I want BBQ chicken and fries for dinner? Instead of feeling like I can’t have a meal I love, I add an extra ounce of chicken.

Small changes made this way lower our resistance to the change in general. And they add up.

Too often we do these massive overhauls over seeing the tweaks we can make.

So at your next meal, take your current protein and add an ounce.

Doing this to multiple meals in a day may surprise you by how much it adds up.

From there, you may find it easier to make bigger changes and even find new recipes that increase your protein intake!

But increasing protein doesn’t mean having to cut out dishes you enjoy!

Small changes to other ingredients in your meals can also help you boost protein.

That’s why tip #2 is to Protein-ify those carbs!

Swap your normal pasta for edamame or lentil pasta. Swap quinoa for rice. Try even buckwheat noodles.

You’ll be amazed by how many options there are to sneak in protein to other components of your dish to boost your amino acid intake, while even getting in other micronutrients.

And you can find swaps that allow you to still enjoy recipes you love, and that your family won’t mind even, while hitting your macros.

Even swapping your normal bread for something like an Ezekiel Bread made from sprouted whole grains and legumes can boost your protein as well as your fiber (win win in my opinion).

And again, you can still enjoy the meal you love to create lasting changes.

You can also sneak in those extra grams while boosting your micros and the flavor of your meals with tip #3…

Use protein sprinkles and seasonings.

No I’m not talking about some fake processed protein powder seasoning…I’m talking about things like nutritional yeast, parmesan cheese and even hemp, flax and chia seeds.

These things are easy to throw in so many dishes and use in different ways. And while small protein increases, they add up.

And they often pack in more micronutrients while adding flavor and diversity to our diet. All of which only help us create lasting changes while improving our health and results.

Nutritional yeast can be great to season your main protein source and add a cheesy flavor while being plant-based.

Parmesan cheese adds that cheesy flavor while adding that bit of salt as well.

And chia, flax and hemp seeds are great to add to smoothies or even salads for a nutty flavor and amazing fiber and healthy fat boost too.

Don’t ignore the value that those grams can have.

And then don’t write off dairy either.

If you’re lactose intolerant, this tip may not be your go-to, but you may also be surprised by how many lactose-free options there now are for you too!

So yes, tip #4 is to boost your protein by using dairy!

Things like too good cottage cheese not only come in lactose-free options, but they pack a protein punch while also helping us keep our gut healthy with probiotics.

Cottage cheese and even things like greek yogurt can be used in both savor dips or dishes but also sweet treats.
The options to use these dairy products, and even have individual serving packs to grab and go, make them a great way to easily bump your protein, especially for snacks.

I know personally I love making dips with them for veggies to snack on or even a sweet cheesecake type dip for fruit.

But use dairy to your advantage as it can often be easily combined with other protein sources as well to increase your intake without boredom!

Which brings me to tip #5: Double up that protein at meals.

By doubling up, I’m not saying to double your current source of protein at a meal and eat 8 ounces instead of 4.

That’s what creates protein fatigue and us hating having to increase our protein.

What I mean by doubling up is focusing on two different protein sources at a meal.

Like take adding in dairy to a dish. Combine that cottage cheese with hardboiled eggs and mustard for a high protein egg salad you can eat with pita chips or as a sandwich.

Or if you’re making an omelet? Add shrimp AND steak.

That even helps you get more protein with 3 different types so you don’t feel like you’re just chowing down on the same boring thing!

Think about ways you can split the amount you need between multiple protein sources to avoid that protein fatigue and allow you to add ounces more easily.

You may be surprised by how hard it felt to eat 4 ounces of the same protein but how easy it is to get 6 ounces at a time when you only have to eat 3 of each!

And then embrace the different forms of protein and cuts of meat you have available to you. 

Have you ever felt like every time you try to increase your protein your fat goes up to?

This is where looking at the opportunity in different cuts of meat can help!

Chicken breast vs chicken thigh has very different macros. Even the type of ground chicken you can get can vary.

Ground beef can be everything from 80% lean to 96% lean.

This is opportunity! You can still include proteins you like whether you vary the cut fully or even combine two different options.

Knowing that different proteins have different ratios of fat to protein, you could combine a fattier cut of steak or chicken with shrimp to overall balance out fat.

Or you may swap your usual ground beef for a lower fat option at times.

The key is you can find different cuts that work for you. Even with seafood.

Want more fat and love fish? Try salmon. But want to lower your fat? Try cod.

See the options in different types of similar proteins by learning more about the different cuts to use that to your advantage.

And that last but not least, tip #7: Eat it early!

I don’t know about you, but I love my dessert. And I’m sorry, ounces of chicken doesn’t count.

I make sure I’ve planned in my favorite carb and fat heavy treat to the end of my day and gotten my protein in early.

What really helps with this too is getting a bigger portion at breakfast or lunch.

Whether it’s starting my day with a greek yogurt parfait and even a coffee protein shake or omelet, I’m getting 30-40 grams in that first meal.

The more you plan to get in more protein earlier, the less behind you feel and the more flexibility you give yourself later.

This allows you to easily include meals you truly want and enjoy, especially if they’re meals with the family that may be out at restaurants or more carb and fat heavy.

This allows you more wiggle room and less stress when you aren’t fully in control of what you’re eating later in the day!

Planning ahead gives us the power to create that lifestyle balance while also reaching our goals.

So don’t leave yourself a chunk of plain protein to have to eat at the end of the day.

Plan it in first!

And use all 7 of these tips to meet yourself where you are at and make sustainable changes that allow you to increase your protein, adjust your portions and reach your goals!

Dial in your diet to match your workouts and build your leanest, strongest body ever with my Metabolic Shred…

–> LEARN MORE

How To Maintain Weight Loss (10 Tips For Long Term Success)

How To Maintain Weight Loss (10 Tips For Long Term Success)

by | Jun 19, 2025 | podcast

Listen:

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Change Requires CHANGE

If you’re feeling stuck and know deep down that you could be doing better, don’t wait any longer. Your life is not going to change until you take action and make a bold move towards your goals. If you’re ready to take control of your life and start moving towards the results you want let us help you achieve your goals. ⬇️

APPLY NOW

Transcript:

Open Transcript:

Cori (00:00):
Welcome to the Redefining Strength Podcast. Everything you need to succeed on your health and fitness journey, even the stuff you don’t want to hear, you lost the weight, you feel amazing. The question is now what? Often we get really good at the weight loss phase of things and then all of a sudden we start to self-sabotage. Let those habits slide. Think about not tracking things that we’ve been tracking. We let a miss workout slip in. All of a sudden we find ourself back at square one, all our old habits back in place and having regain the weight and potentially even more. And then we again find another program. We go back on a diet, we get really good at that dieting down. The question is how do we maintain our results? And this is a difficult thing because what you do to lose the weight is not what you do to maintain it, but you can’t go back to old habits or you’ll get an old result, which is exactly what we want to avoid.

(00:58):
So I want to give you 10 tips to help you maintain those results, and it’s really key when we think about maintenance, to not think about we’re creating one lifestyle in one form forever. Because I do think when we think maintaining, it’s like, oh, so I just do the same thing forever. Well, no, nothing in your lifestyle is ever standing still. So going into the 10 tips, number one, expect fluctuations. Your scale is going to still fluctuate if you’re using your scale as a measurement tool, even your body measurements, if you’re doing that or progress pictures, they’re going to fluctuate. Your body is a living organism. You drink water, you’re going to gain weight. You might see a little bloat with certain foods. You might see more or less definition based on if you’re retaining water or you had a hard workout. Yes, if you had a hard workout and you really worked your triceps, they might not be as defined the next day because there might be muscle tissue damage, so expect fluctuations.

(01:49):
That’s why you have to watch trends over time and it’s why you almost have to set boundaries or bumpers on your bowling alley lane, right? You’re trying to always bowl a strike. Give yourself those bumpers to keep you in line. So give yourself the top end of a range and a bottom end of a range to allow yourself to watch those deviations but not panic at each and every one. And especially when coming out of that deficit, you want to do it slowly to transition into maintenance, and I say transition because you do have to retrain your body to eat more, but as you’re transitioning your calories up potentially from a fat loss phase, your muscles are going to store glycogen and water weight and especially the more muscle you have, the more storage capacity you have, but you’re going to see the weight creep up a little bit because you’re simply not depleted of everything.

(02:32):
So you’re going to have to expect that as you’re transitioning to maintenance, you’re going to see the scale go up a little bit and then you’ll find that balance, and that’s where taking measurements and progress pictures can also come in really handy and doing it very slowly and still tracking through this process, which I can’t highlight enough, is really key because you can see yourself doing the healthy habits that you know will lead to results and then you’ll adjust your macros and the longer you maintain your results, the easier it gets. The exact same thing that made it hard to lose. The fact that your body does not want to change from its setpoint is what makes it easier and easier over time to maintain your new result because your body adapts to fueling in that way to training in that way, and maintaining that weight has that balance and functioning at that balance.

(03:13):
So embrace the fluctuations as your first transitioning to maintenance and starting to maintain, and even over the course of the year, you’re going to be more or less focused on this, which I’ll touch on more a little bit in a bit. But next, don’t restrict the fun stuff as you go to maintaining your goal is to still keep potentially tracking, still keep in that workout routine, but start to add in more of those things that strike that lifestyle balance. Because if we don’t start to loosen the reign strategically, we’ll end up loosening them anyway and we won’t be in control of how we have, and then we’ll start to see that backslide where it’s like, oh, well this doesn’t matter or that doesn’t matter, and all of a sudden it really does matter because we’ve regained all the weight and we’ve lost all the healthy habits that we really worked hard to ingrain the environment that we worked worked hard to create and the mindsets that we worked hard to have.

(03:57):
So you want to loosen the rain strategically. If you’re still tracking, let’s just say you’re doing 40, 30, 30 as your macro ratio. Work in a few foods that you know aren’t as healthy or aren’t as clean. Try to work in a new restaurant or say, Hey, I am actually strategically going to go to a protein minimum and a calorie cap and now work in some of the foods and see that balance, but work in some fun things so that you can start to see how maintaining can be that lifestyle balance. The sooner you can do that, even as you’re maybe at the end of your weight loss phase, the better. Of course when you’re trying to push that new level of leanness, there is some precision involved and that might not be the time to play around with it, so it depends on your goal, but in transitioning, you can’t just stay depleted.

(04:36):
You can’t just stay restrictive. You’ve got to find that balance. And so finding ways to work things in is super key. Little by little overthinking, it has to be perfection or not because that’s where we get into dieting down, losing the result, dieting down, losing the result when we think restriction or perfection. So work in those fun things, work in a cocktail, work in dinners out, include those things, but you have to loosen the reins and that’s where you also have to embrace those little fluctuations from salt or water weight being gained when you go out. Then number three, use mini cycles. So this is what I was sort of touching on before. You’ve got to embrace over the course of the year that you’re going to be more or less dedicated to different things, and maintaining doesn’t mean maintaining one weight the entire time.

(05:16):
You have to even set different goals. I’ll set a muscle building phase where I know I might get a little fluffy, but I’m going to add muscle or I’ll set a fat loss phase where I want to look extra great for this vacation, so I’ll do a little mini cut, but set those little mini cycles because they also give you a focus to keep wanting to move forward, but while allowing you to shift those habits to meet where you’re at during the holidays, say, Hey, during the holidays I want a better lifestyle balance. This is not the time I’m going to drive for fat loss. I’m going to maybe even embrace just maintaining my result right now with including more fun foods. But think about mini cycles based on the time of year and the schedule that you have, the mindsets that you have, the things you want to do, and then set goals that compliment.

(05:54):
Don’t set your mini cut fat loss phase during Christmas. If you really like Christmas cookies say, Hey, I’m going to do this in January after maybe enjoying a few cookies extra, but I’ll set actually a muscle building phase to even set myself up better for that fat loss phase. Now, this is an excuse to just forget all the healthy habits that you have, but it’s managing your expectations to be in line with what you also need, which ultimately creates a better maintenance for me. For the longest time I wouldn’t track during the holidays and I realized that was actually sabotaging me, even though I could get away with it during the summer because I was using the excuse, oh, I don’t need to track. I did it for this period and didn’t track and was fine to really eat whatever I wanted and not do any of the things that I should.

(06:33):
So now during the holidays I do track with just minimums that I hit to keep me in line, and that ended up turning into more intensive tracking, which actually felt really good while still working in a balance. So things will shift, but recognize even the excuses you’re making and how you can create that balance to maintain within a range while allowing yourself some flexibility. Then number four, chase performance goals. You need to have a focus. If we don’t have direction, we’re driving around aimlessly and that’s often where we end up lost or potentially just going back to where we started, if you don’t know where you’re going, you’re going to go home. And so that’s where we see ourselves regaining the weight. So set performance goals. That might mean lifting more in the gym. It might mean testing out a new workout program. It might even mean saying, Hey, how can I get away with doing 15 minutes and see if I can maintain my results so it doesn’t just have to directly be lifting more or doing a race, even though those can be great options.

(07:23):
It can even be how can I meet myself where I’m at seeing performance improvements or maintaining my results with testing out this new thing where I have an end date and I think that’s the key point. I have a focus. I have an end date. I’m going to commit and test and be consistent and track my progress in this area towards that, where I’ll even go on a slight deviation from the performance goals and say, maybe it’s that you’re working in new recipes or new meals out, and that’s your focus of how you can create that balance, but you need that outside goal. And I do like performance goals because I think it puts the emphasis on doing the healthy habits that still fuel us and also even really in building muscle, which preserves our metabolic health as well, and it can be really fun to see what you can conquer and overcome.

(08:02):
Then number five, track strategically, especially when you’re first coming out of the fat loss phase, I would tell you please try to track just as intensively as you did, and I know we can be a little burned out if we’ve been dieting for longer on all the healthy habits that we’ve been doing because even things we know we should do or weren’t. That bad effort at some point becomes greater just because we mentally fatigue or our life has shifted, but track strategically and really be intensive about it being like, Hey, now I can work in more fun things, but I’m going to log everything. Or if you’re like, Hey, I really need this balance and the effort has become a little too much, how can I go to more minimalist ratios maybe or bump calories or do different things that allow you to still measure because what you measure you can manage, but it gives you that tracking and that data but in a way that allows you to keep going with it.

(08:47):
So assess your mindsets at the end when you are transitioning to maintenance, but give yourself that data. Something we so often don’t do, and that’s why we think eating more or changing our habits resulted in us regaining the weight when it’s really not that. It’s really that we weren’t tracking anything and we didn’t realize how much everything went off. So track strategically and then as you maintain for longer, you may take time where you don’t track, but then maybe you do log a few things to get some new meal prep in line and really reassess your portions if you feel like you’re gained a little bit weight that you don’t want to gain or you track really intensively for a mini cut or you track even intensively for a muscle building phase because you want to be very strategic. So it’s allowing that tracking to evolve and how you do it to meet yourself where you’re at, but knowing that that is a tool that you should always return to just to keep yourself in line with those little bumpers that you’ve set for yourself.

(09:32):
Number six, motivational fade. You’re not always going to be motivated. Own it when you feel the effort of the habits you’re doing becoming greater than they feel worth, really assess what’s shifted in your life and how you can meet yourself where you’re at because too often we don’t go to doing the minimum to keep moving forward and maintenance is still moving forward. We don’t do the minimum to keep something in there. Instead we just say, oh, well I deserve this, and that’s where the self-sabotage creeps in and we don’t track anything versus seeing even just tracking calories as still being something that keeps the boundaries on it. So make sure that you recognize motivation will fade and meet yourself where you’re at, especially during maintenance. We got to set even that clear direction because we don’t have direction. We get even more unmotivated often. Then number seven, embrace your minimums.

(10:13):
I’ve been talking about this one a lot, but it’s so key. Finding the least amount you can do in order to maintain your results at times is really important. I know there are certain times a year where I’m really busy. I’m like, okay, I’m going to do three days a week and I’m going to design for this and I’m going to just track my protein and make sure I’m not going over my calories. I’m not going to worry about food quality at all, which might sound horrible, but I know that’s the minimum I need to do to maintain, and ultimately often when I do that and give myself grace and permission before that time even comes to start doing that, I want to do more because I feel successful. I don’t feel restricted, I don’t feel pushed into something. I don’t feel like the effort isn’t worth it.

(10:50):
So often proactively even backing off or recognizing that you can back off allows us to do more because we don’t feel so pressured or pushed or overwhelmed by the idea of trying to maintain something. So recognize what can be minimums for you to keep you moving forward even during those toughest of tough times as a good thing and the more you embrace it as a good thing versus, oh, I’m not being perfect, the more you’re going to do them and the more you’re actually going to do more, which ultimately will lead to better results. Number eight, don’t diet on holidays or vacations. So you know what I will tell people sometimes when they’re on a fall loss phase, Hey, you got to find this balance if you want results at X speed, I’ll be very honest about that. If you want results yesterday and you’re going on vacation, that might look very different than what you do when you’re on vacation and maintenance because you get more flexibility the more you’re at that set point and they could choose a different balance if they want to go a little bit slower, but it’s owning our decisions and choices with that and then recognizing that especially in maintenance, that’s not necessarily the time to restrict.

(11:46):
I mean, if you want to set your fat loss goal over the holidays, great, that’s you, do you? But remember that you’re also sticking to all these healthy habits so that you can have more times where you go on vacation and you just enjoy. Maybe you have different boundaries that you set for yourself or you enjoy the holidays, and this isn’t an excuse to enjoy every day because we could make the excuse that every day is legendary, but then no day is legendary. So just recognize that you do do these other healthy habits to have times where you might not do what you should, and that’s a okay, that’s the whole point of consistency long-term. Then always have a day after plan, so the more you’re maintaining, the more you’re going to find that you do have that weekend day where you do something or that holiday or that vacation.

(12:27):
The key isn’t restricting on those days, and I would even argue during a fat loss phase, the key isn’t restricting on those days or not having the occasional day. You don’t do what you should. It’s always the day after because if you really think about it, even if you give yourself 65 days a year, there’s 300 some odd other days that often we aren’t optimizing to see results. We come back from vacation, we don’t have stuff in the refrigerator, we don’t have meal prep, and all of a sudden that day that we came back becomes the day after and becomes the next week we’re starting. So we really want to make sure that whatever happens if we have a day off plan, we have that day after plan because that gets us right back in line and often makes that other day not only really enjoyable, but keeps us moving forward towards our goals.

(13:09):
So have that day after plan and know that as you’re trying to learn what works for you, you might hit on some things that don’t feel guilty. Just assess, Hey, why didn’t this work for me to get me back on track? Or what do I need to get back on track? That might mean doing a mini cut around vacations. It might mean not doing it and doing the exact opposite and going to minimum so you don’t feel restricted, but it’s assessing what you need to get back to doing the habits that will ultimately move you forward. Because the more time we have off of them, the more we fall back into an old pattern that we probably don’t want. One day is just a deviation, but 2, 3, 4 becomes that pattern becomes a slipping back into old habits and routines. Last thing, tip number 10, keep it fresh.

(13:49):
You get bored with doing the same thing and I actually like doing the same meal prep for a very set amount of time, and all of a sudden it’ll be like one day I wake up and I’m like, all right, I’m sick of this. I don’t want to do this anymore even though I did it for the last few months. Right? So fresh can mean a lot of different things. It doesn’t mean you have to include diversity every single day, but don’t be afraid to evolve things even as you’re maintaining. Shift your macro ratios, even if you’re seeing results on one, just to give yourself different meal prep type stuff. Try different meal prep companies. Try different recipes. Try different ways of planning, try different workouts even if something’s working, it’s not bad over time to adjust to just test because we do kind of like shiny and new.

(14:27):
We’re always hoping for a magic pill or quicker fix, so don’t be afraid to keep things fresh as you’re maintaining. Again, the worst thing we can do for ourselves is think that with maintaining, we’re doing one thing for the rest of our life because we’re not. Your body, your lifestyle, your needs, your goals are going to shift even as you’re maintaining and you might want to gain a little muscle, you might want to lose a little fat, you might want to train for this race. You might have the schedule that makes it not as easy to train in the way that you were adjust and adapt, and the more you do that, the better you’re going to see your results really be maintained longterm. Remember, it’s not a set it and forget a thing. Life is constantly about improving and growing. Give yourself the opportunity to really maintain your results through constantly meeting yourself where you’re at.

 

*Note: This transcript is autogenerated there may be some unintended errors.

Unlock More Pushups With 3 Tips

Unlock More Pushups With 3 Tips

by | Jun 15, 2025 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Push Ups

Push-ups aren’t just hard. They’re deceptively hard.

Because what looks like a simple bodyweight upper body move…Is actually a moving plank.

It’s why mastering the full push up isn’t just about upper body strength – it’s about creating full body tension.

It’s a mind-body connection challenge!

So if push-ups have felt frustrating, painful, or even impossible —

I want to walk you through exactly how to build up to that strong, picture perfect push up from your toes with not only the best modification to use but 3 key form cues.

These tips will help you build up to multiple reps in a row without dropping to your knees, compromising form or guessing at what’s actually working.

So what’s the best way to modify the push up to regress to progress?

Stop dropping to your knees…Use an incline!

That’s right. The best modification isn’t off your knees.

It isn’t partial reps. It isn’t powering through fugly reps hoping they get better as you get stronger…

It’s using an incline that meets you where you are at – whether that’s off a wall, counter, bench or barbell in a rig.

An incline works best because you’re not changing the movement – it’s still that full plank off your toes.

You’re just adjusting the resistance.

An incline allows you to scale the difficulty without changing the form.

This allows you to learn to set up in that full plank position and create tension through your core in the right way as you build up strength.

You learn to drive back through your heels.

You learn to flex your quads and use that posterior pelvic tilt, or tuck of your pelvis toward your ribs, to brace your core.

You learn to maintain this core engagement as you have to power the press using your chest shoulders and triceps with proper scapular control.

You learn the form you’ll need even as you lower the incline closer to the floor.

And this is what makes this modification better than the knee push up, where you only learn to engage down to your knees.

Everything moving together is what makes the push up hard and a mind-body connection challenge over just a strength one.

The incline allows you to slowly master that control.

And as you get stronger, you lower that incline.

The wall becomes a countertop. The countertop becomes a bench or the edge of a couch. The bench becomes the floor.

You’re building strength with real push-ups and you can make sure your form is solid before you lower down further.

But with using the incline you have to be conscious to not just add more reps at the incline you’re doing.

Instead lower it if you can do more than 5.

Because too often when we do modified moves, we just make ourselves better at the modification by adding more reps.

While this builds strength endurance, it can also keep us stuck just getting stronger at the modification.

So if you can do 5 reps, lower the incline just a bit!

Better to even do 1 rep at a harder variation and have to rest to do more than 5 in a row at an easier one if you want to master that first full one off the ground!

And as you progress that incline, you need to focus not just on making your push ups look pretty, mimicking proper from – you’ve got to actually make sure you feel the correct muscles working.

That’s why I wanted to share 3 key push up cues to help you focus on having the most powerful and efficient movement possible.

Too often we forget that strength isn’t just brute force but about efficiency. Can we use the correct muscles to the correct extents at the correct times…

Here are 3 cues to make sure you do exactly that…

Cue #1: Drive through your heels.

Even though the push up is an upper body move – your lower body can’t be disengaged.

Driving back through your heels to flex your feet creates that tension all the way up your legs and through your core.

It actually reduces the pressure on your upper body to press, making your body move efficiently move as one unit.

Remember, you’re not just pressing. You’re planking.

This cue is so powerful to focus on as the tension it creates fixes a ton of common form problems.

Struggle with your hips sagging? Worming up from the floor? Butt too high in the air?

All of that starts to clean up when you drive back through your heels.

Cue #2: Grip the ground.

Have you ever really noticed what you’re hands are doing during a push up?

Too often we don’t pay attention to the pressure we’re applying down into the ground.

But your hands aren’t just passive in this movement – they’re your foundation.

You want to push that ground away to properly press and that starts with spreading your fingers wide to grip the ground with your entire hand.

This simple change and focus does two major things:

It protects your shoulders and elbows by allowing you to better engage your back and helps you avoid that elbow flare that can lead to more strain.
It activates your chest for a more efficient press and less overuse of smaller muscle groups.

A little bonus cue to create a more powerful press and better engage your pecs is to imagine trying to drag your hands together on the floor as you push up.

This focus on adducting without moving also helps you avoid rocking out on your hands which further protects your wrists and elbows while working your chest more.

So if you’ve ever struggled with elbow, neck or shoulder pain as you do more push up work, this cue is a game-changer.

And Cue #3: Engage your back.

Yes — your back.

Proper back engagement leads to proper shoulder blade movement, which in turn supports and protects your shoulders.

So your backs…It matters more than you think.

Here’s what proper scapular movement looks like in a push up so you can better use your chest, shoulders and triceps without overloading your neck shoulders or elbows…

As you lower down, engage your upper back to pull your shoulder blades toward your spine, retracting them.

As you press back up, push the ground away, pulling your shoulder blades apart or protracting them.

You’re not trying to lock them in place. You’re guiding them through the movement.

No pinching, no shrugging, no leading jutting your head forward.

Just your back engaged to stabilize your shoulders as your shoulder blades move.

This cue alone can make you feel like your upper body instantly got stronger!

And combining all three cues and the incline modification? Well that’s magic.

Here’s your cue checklist next time you do a push up.

Set up off an incline you can control and drive back through your heels to feel tension through your entire core. Grip the ground or bench or bar as you unshrug your shoulders engaging your back.

As you lower feel your shoulder blades come together.

As you push the ground away (yup that tension through your hands) and drive back through your heels, feel your shoulder blades come back apart.

And then repeat.

Test out a lower incline.

If you can only control the lower down, stop at the bottom and reset and know that’s where you max out for now.

Remember sometimes even a single rep done well at a lower incline can be better than more reps done with a higher one.

It’s not just about doing more. It’s about making our practice more perfect.

Quality reps lead to improvements. We don’t want to ingrain bad habits.

Regress to progress and use that incline as a way to build up.

So stop grinding through sloppy reps. Start training with intention.

And guess what? That picture-perfect push-up may be closer than you think!

Ready to conquer those push ups?

–> Take my 30-Day Push Up Challenge