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Transform Your ARMS (10 Tips For Toned Arms That Work)

Transform Your ARMS (10 Tips For Toned Arms That Work)

by | Mar 2, 2025 | Blog, Exercises

I’m flattered that I tend to get a ton of compliments on my arms and shoulders. And because people seem to like them, I want to share the10 tips I think have helped me see fabulous arm definition.

And I’ll tell you tip number one is not to include more arm isolation exercises in your routine…Although I will get to 9 of those “fun” workout tweaks after this cold hard most important fact…

Focus on your macros.

Yup. Not what you wanted to hear.

Not fun or sexy. But straight facts.

My arms were never lean and defined no matter how I trained until I adjusted my diet.

Because while our training is key to building muscle, our diet is key for losing fat too.

And muscle showing through isn’t just about having more muscle. It’s about lowering our body fat percentage.

It wasn’t that I started eating super clean either when I adjusted my diet.

Honestly I focused less on forcing clean eating standards on myself and more on balance while hitting my protein.

This allowed me to get consistent, train hard and finally lose the fat covering my hard earned muscles.

So if you’ve been training hard and feel like you have a bit of fluff that’s hiding your hard work, start tracking and focus on hitting a protein minimum.

For fat loss and better results faster, shoot for 40% of your calories coming from protein.

And then don’t fear carbs!

Carbs create that anabolic environment for muscle growth and help you truly push your workouts to create the challenge needed to force muscles to adapt and grow stronger.

Low carb may lead to fast drops on the scale, but long-term it will not help you look more defined and may even lead to you losing muscle as you keep trying to train harder and harder!

Carbs are protein sparring and protect that lean muscle as you lose fat.

The next thing I found took my arm definition to the next level was combining multiple rep ranges in a workout session.

Low rep and heavy weights or high rep and lighter weights?

The answer is both.

Although I will say no weights should ever feel light. Even when you go higher rep, you want to feel “maxed out” with hitting that rep range.

Heck you want even 5lbs to feel like 100 because you truly did a rep amount that challenged you if that’s the weight you’re using.

But by combining rep ranges for different movements for your arms, you can move more quality loads over the course of your workout and recruit more muscle fibers to drive muscle and strength gains faster.

You may even use different rep ranges based on the type of move you’re performing for your arms and upper body in general.

This is why, even though you want to transform your arms, you don’t just want to do arm isolation moves.

That’s why tip number 3 is to combine compound and isolation moves using that diversity of rep ranges.

Compound Burner Sets and 6-12-25 technique are two of my favorite workout designs to see better muscle hypertrophy and definition especially for those stubborn areas.

These two workout designs combine tips 2 and 3, using not only 2-3 rep ranges in a workout but also both compound and isolation moves combined in a series.

With compound burner sets, you’ll do a compound move like a back row for 6-12 reps with heavy loads, then work your biceps to full fatigue after with higher reps of 15-20 with a bicep curl.

With 6-12-25, you may do a bench press for 6 reps, an overhead press for 12 reps then tricep push downs for 25 reps going from more compound to more isolated as the reps go up.

These designs allow you to use heavier loads, a diversity of movements and rep ranges and even work a muscle closer to failure to see better muscle gains.

And with both tip 2 and 3, don’t be afraid to also change up the type of resistance you use and even the ranges of motions and tempos!

Weights are an easy way to create progression and great for muscle growth. BUT especially the more advanced and experienced an exerciser we are, the more we can’t just rely on weights for progression.

It’s why using different rep ranges and different types of movements, including both compound and isolation is so key.

But it’s also why we need to use different types of resistance and ranges of motion to create that challenge and progression.

Bands can be a great way to help improve our muscle gains by creating often more metabolic stress.

They also apply often more resistance in the move when the muscle is strongest and can help you be forced to control that eccentric portion of the lifting, slowing it down.

They can even be combined with dumbbells for a new challenge and progression.

Loading muscles under greater stretch can also help you see better results faster. It’s why at times increasing the range of motion of a move can be key.

Performing your tricep move overhead with a bit of extra stretch at the end can not only help you hit all 3 heads, but it can help you see better gains!

This brings me to tip number 6…Use different postures and positions to hit every aspect of a muscle group.

Varying the types of bicep curls and shoulder presses and tricep exercises, can help you not only progress moves through the same but different, but help you truly see that even development.

Different aspects of muscles are worked by different movements to different extents.

Like if you do want to hit the front of your shoulder, a front raise may be beneficial. While to hit your middle delt, a lateral raise may be better.

And instead of doing 8-12 reps of each at times, you may even combine a front to lateral raise for higher reps in one workout.

Diversity done with strategy can be key!

But mix up even unilateral versus bilateral moves, single arm vs two arm, to help you also address imbalances and make sure you’re developing things evenly.

Then don’t just get caught up in trying to do MORE each and every session. More isn’t better and doing too much becomes wasted effort and volume.

We fatigue over the course of our workouts and the work becomes less quality.

Instead of doing a ton of arm movements in a single session, spread out your volume of exercises over the week.

Instead of one arm day, and 3 bicep curls in that session, hit your arms 2-3 times a week, spreading those moves out.

While it isn’t bad to create a bit more training density on a given day, that frequency for those stubborn areas can really add up!

Increasing training frequency while reducing volume per workout can help you make sure you’re working more often at that true 100% intensity to see results!

To also help you create that quality of work, move more weight over your workouts, create that training density and work a muscle closer to fatigue, all key things for better muscle gains, consider including some rest-pause technique especially in those higher rep ranges with isolation moves.

Rest-pause technique is a great way to make sure you don’t just stop when a move feels hard enough. It forces you to do those few extra reps past failure you didn’t really want to do.

But it also allows you to keep your reps quality reps.

If you’re working in that 15-20 rep range, pick a weight you max out at 15 reps with. Pause for 15-20 seconds when you get to even 13-14 reps then finish all 20. This push is going to take your gains to the next level.

This technique though is also going to cause you to feel very sore often the first few times you use it which is why fewer moves per workout and spreading those moves out to train more frequently can be key!

But use this technique to truly make yourself push past where you’re comfortable.

Too often we think we’ve pushed hard enough and stop when discomfort just starts to happen.

To break down our muscles so they have to rebuild back stronger and grow, especially the more advanced we are though requires us to push that bit extra.

That’s where this technique can come in super handy!

Now, while I’ve focused a ton on the muscle building side of transforming your arms, which is key, definition is about body fat levels as well.

This does come back to your diet. If your nutrition is on point, fluff may hide your hard work in the gym.

However, with dialing in your macros to match the recomp you want to see, focusing on protein and not fearing carbs, you may also want to consider including a bit of cardio post arm workouts if you tend to feel like you’re storing fat there.

This doesn’t mean go run for hours or do intensive HIIT that leaves you slaughtered.

But on workouts where you’ve worked your arms, you’ve mobilized more fatty acids from the surrounding tissues. You then want to make sure these mobilized fatty acids are used.

Doing some compound moves combined like in 6-12-25 and compound burner sets is one way to help yourself do this.

But so is walking or even a more upper body focused form of cardio like battle ropes.

It can be a quick light session of 10-15 minutes even once a week after your arm workouts, but this little bit of cardio right after, especially when you have only those last few percents to shave off, can be that little boost.

And while your workouts are mainly focused on building muscle for metabolic health and to have the muscle you can reveal through your nutrition, that little bit of strategic cardio can help with the fat loss side of recomp!

Because definition is about having muscle but also about losing fat!

And last but not least, be strategic in your training and make sure your arm training isn’t an afterthought!

So often we want to transform an area and do 100 moves for it on like one day with no real strategy or purpose or progression.

This ends up in us working hard without results to show for it.

Design a clear weekly schedule, track your numbers and repeat your workouts for 3 weeks minimum.

Use these tips to include diversity over that week that you repeat to see yourself add reps or weights or even advanced movements over that time.

That progression and build off of the week before is what transforms those arms!

And then over time, adjust the moves or techniques you use to keep honing in on stubborn areas to create that balance!

But failing to plan is planning to fail! We need to track and monitor progress to adjust and adapt over time!

Dial in your diet and your workouts to build your leanest, strongest body ever with my 1:1 Coaching…

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Shhh! Silencing The Inner Critic

Shhh! Silencing The Inner Critic

by | Feb 27, 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. We’re here to talk about silencing that inner critic. I’m super excited to be joined by Alison. I know it can be hard sometimes to silence those doubts, to stop those negative thoughts, but it’s so key that we do learn how to control that mindset if we want to move forward. So Alison, thank you so much for joining me. Let’s jump into talking about why that inner critic is even there.

Allison (00:33):
Hey, yes. So we come by it naturally, which I think can be a nice relief that our brains are kind of wired for this. They’re wired to keep us safe. So if we think back to cave people times, we had to be part of a group in order to stay alive, obviously. I mean, hopefully not worrying about bears chasing us anymore, but we still have that desire to be part of a group. And in modern life though that inner critic turns into this super mean girl, harsh self-judgment instead of helpful self-correction and lucky us as women, we tend to have this even more so because of all of those societal pressures that we face with being able to do it all. And you see those Pinterest perfect parties and all of that reinforcement that we’re just not doing enough.

Cori (01:29):
I am definitely more along the lines of the Pinterest fail images you see, especially if it’s anything party related. But I do think it’s really oddly comforting to know that we have this negativity bias, this judgment bias, and it’s therefore both a positive reason and it can really help us reflect. But there can be that negative side to it because I think the more we recognize something is natural, the more we don’t beat ourselves up for it, but the more we also see the opportunity in learning to use it to our advantage even.

Allison (01:59):
Yes, and that’s exactly the difference between self-compassion and self-criticism is acknowledging that we’re all part of this struggle and we can learn from those moments of setback. We can find ways to find the positive that 1% better and really be able to get out of that failure mindset. Because when we’re criticizing ourselves over and over again, it can be really easy to believe that what’s the point of trying? I’m just a failure. I might as well not even do this. You hear that often enough. What do you think your motivation to actually change is going to be? So by not utilizing this shame as a way to just get stuck, but rather utilizing it as a way to focus on what were some of the circumstances around this failure that led me to behave this way. So for example, I like to think about driving in, you have a really long hard day at work and you’re just ready to get home.

(03:10):
You’ve got a plan. You’re going to get your workout in, make dinner for the family, but you’ve had a super long day and everything just seemed to go wrong. You’re driving home and there’s an awful traffic jam. Your response after having all of that experience is probably going to be much different than if you had a really awesome day at work. And you can look at that traffic jam as like, oh, this is annoying, but whatever, I’ll deal with it. Put on some music rock out versus this always happens to me now. I’m not going to be able to get my workout in. So those circumstances can really be the difference maker in how we respond. And the more we’re aware of, Hey, we’re not a failure. We’re not intrinsically bad because we didn’t do the thing we said we were going to do. There’s a bigger picture there. And so then we can identify, okay, what were the challenges? How can I make just one tiny change now maybe I don’t have time to get my full workout in. Can I do a dance party with my kiddos while we’re making dinner or take the dog for a walk?

Cori (04:16):
We can really shift our perspective, which is everything because how we perceive that event, it shapes how we move forward from it. And a lot of the things that happen prior do shape our perspective of it, but the more we recognize the cycle that we can be in and the impact each of these components can have, the more we can step back and even realize when we’re critiquing ourselves in justifying the critique as, oh, well I’m learning from this. It’s good to be hard on myself to make sure that I’m not just letting things slide and I’m moving forward. But we have to realize there’s a dark side to everything and what can be a strength can also be a weakness. So stepping back to assess these different things and even realizing where your perception of the event is coming from can be so important because that’s what leads to, as you said, finding the 1% that can really make a difference.

Allison (05:05):
Exactly. And so there’s a few ways that we can actually start to recognize how we can make those changes. Because if we’re just aware of it, okay, cool, but we have to move beyond that awareness. And so the first thing is that instead of just continuing to be ourself up for all of these mistakes, think about how you would speak to a friend. I like to think that most of us speak nicely to our friends, otherwise we probably don’t have a whole lot of friends. So if a friend comes to you and is like, man, I suck. I’ve been working really hard and Friday rolled around and we went out. I had two glasses of wine. I’m such a failure. Are you going to say to your friend, yeah, you suck. You’re a loser. You’re never going to be successful. I mean, we laugh at that because of course we would never speak that way to our friends, but we say to ourselves all of the time.

(05:59):
So shifting that a little bit, talk to ourself like we would talk to a friend, yeah, that stinks. You made a couple of bad choices, but was it because you restricted all week or you had a really tough day and you sought that glass of wine was going to make you feel better? Now we can identify, okay, tomorrow I’m going to drink a lot of extra water and make sure that I get right back on track and hit my macros and get my workout in and feel really good and honor my body with some good movement. So instead of beating ourself up for what we intend to do, which can then lead to more setbacks, we get stuck. If Friday night rolls around and we kind of blow it, how many of us have heard that? Well, I already ruined it. Might as well just wait till Monday to use one of a ryms.

(06:51):
We don’t need to slash all four of our tires, we can simply get right back on instead of keeping ourselves stuck in that all or nothing black and white thinking. Because when we look at ourselves that way, we just stay stuck. We always do those same things that we’ve been doing over and over again. Diet starts on Monday, starts let get all the unhealthy food out of the house and then I’m going to be so perfect. We tend to overcorrect even and go into that other extreme, which of course doesn’t lead to real success. It might lead to some short-term changes, but eventually we fall back into those old habits and patterns because it’s not sustainable to be so stink and mean to ourselves and to treat ourselves so unkindly.

Cori (07:38):
It also creates a lot of the mindsets which only hold us back from moving forward or implementing tools or techniques later. Because if you think about that pattern, maybe you did track all week, you hit specific macros all week, you hit specific calories all week and you cut out all the foods you love. So you then think, oh, well, I fell off on Friday because this is miserable and tracking stinks and I’ll never do tracking again. But it wasn’t the tracking. It maybe wasn’t even the macros or the calories you had. Maybe it was something that you need to adjust, but it was the fact that you chose to cut out all the foods you loved that then made things backfire or not owning the stress of making these changes to make smaller changes to meet yourself where you’re at. So in the end, because this feeling occurs, we then associate the feeling with the tool and we can’t go back to the tool.

(08:23):
So the stress, the guilt, all these different things, if we don’t really assess them, almost make it harder and harder to make the changes. Not to mention you pointed out something so important, we get that all or nothing mindset. It’s either I do the ideal or I don’t. Well, what is ideal? Ideal is something that you can actually do today to be successful with ideal is picking yourself up. When you fall down, you’re not just going to be laying on the ground in the middle of the sidewalk, whereas people step over you, you’re going to get up, stand up. Yet that’s how we sort of treat mishaps with our workout routine. We’re just laying on the sidewalk, letting people step on us.

Allison (09:01):
Yeah, I love that analogy and it makes me laugh because when we really think about that, it’s so silly. I mean, we have so many ways that we can still be successful without having to go to that other extreme of standing up and running down the sidewalk or whatever, to just take that metaphor a little farther. So really when we think about how we are going to, what is self-compassion even and how do I do this? So I think there’s three big components to self-compassion that really help frame that we are all in this together. And I love this because every single one of us, regardless of how much we present to the world as the perfect or the ideal, we all struggle. We all look in the mirror some days and don’t love the way we look or we say something and we’re just like, oh my God, I cannot believe I said that.

(09:59):
We all have that experience. So when we’re able to look at those setbacks and struggles as part of this larger common humanity that we all struggle, then it makes our challenges less unique. And that’s important because when we think that we’re the only person who’s struggling with something, it makes us feel like we’re an outsider. So if we go back to what I talked about at the start of this conversation, that’s going to be a stressful situation for our brain. Oh my God, I’m not part of the ingroup. So when we’re able to look at this from this common humanities standpoint, we’re not defective. We’re not unique in our failures. We’re just like everybody else. But that means that we can acknowledge those that suffering in a way that’s like, okay, well I had a bad day today, but I bet you that my coach had a bad day last week or whatever. So we’re able to really move past that. This is just sucky for me, and I’m the only person who’s ever had to struggle with any of this

Cori (11:02):
And not only move past a little of the self pity, which I’ve thrown plenty of pity parties myself, but in that we see that by being able to see the flaw in something, that means that we’ve already grown. And I bring that up because I’ve been putting out videos for a very long time and made lots of amazing mistakes in that time. But I’ll look back at previous blog posts I’ve written or videos I’ve done and be like, oh my goodness, I put that out that’s really out there in the world. And now I used to get all cringey and be like, should I take it down? And now I’m like, the reason I think that’s so bad is because I’ve gotten better. When we can even pause to reflect and be like, oh, that’s not how I like that situation to go. I wish I hadn’t had those glasses of wine on a Friday night.

(11:46):
That right there is that that you already need to feel proud of because that means that you’ve already grown from it. Recognizing your flaws and being able to say, okay, this is a learning experience is what moves us forward. And I bring this up because I have a hard time saying that word. It feels a little too huggy for me, but finding a way to embrace that, we need to have that. And you can’t just always beat yourself up because that internal language, like what you repeat consistently, you become right. Your actions are going to be in line with the verbiage you’re using with yourself. It’s so important. So for a non hugger, let’s go into a little bit more self-compassion and how we can really build this.

Allison (12:26):
Yes, it was so funny because actually one of the best ways to help yourself feel safe is to give yourself a hug. But you don’t have to do that, Corey. Yeah, you’re so right when you talk about being able to look at those setbacks, because we’ve grown, we’ve learned better, we know better. And now we can look at that as not a failure. I’m not a failure, I’m not doomed. This situation came up and now we can look at it as part of that longer journey. So did I track every single macro and hit everything perfectly? No, but did I track something that’s a win that’s different than maybe the way I used to behave in the past? If I don’t track it, it didn’t happen. Spoiler alert, it does. So being able to respond instead of react is really key as part of this whole idea of being self-compassionate.

(13:26):
And so again, it allows us to take a step back, and some of this may feel a little woo woo or a little huggy, but if you think about all of the years that you have spent doing the same thing of complaining, yelling at yourself, speaking really unkindly and it hasn’t worked, or maybe it’s worked in the short term but not long term, or it doesn’t leave you feeling very well, so let’s try something different. Let’s try looking at a situation almost as an outside observer. So one of the tricks that you can use is you can even just start to be a little more aware of when those thoughts pop up. This seems kind of silly, but you can even give that little inner voice a name, maybe you call it, I don’t know, Sandy, whatever, somebody you don’t like. And it helps you to create that distance, and then you can hear those thoughts and be like, oh yeah, that’s Sandy.

(14:28):
She just wants to make me feel bad about myself again, by being aware of when those thoughts come up and just sort of acknowledging them, even if you don’t have the time to sit down and journal or reflect about it, it just helps to bring that awareness more so to the forefront so that eventually you’re able to, okay, now I know when these thoughts come up every Friday night or every morning when I hit the snooze, instead of getting out of bed and going to the gym, now I have that situation a little bit more in focus and I can think about, okay, if I know that I hit snooze every morning, instead of going the gym, do I need to reevaluate when I work out? Maybe that first thing in the morning workout isn’t the best or ideal for me, or maybe I need to prep a little bit more ahead of time, have a better nighttime routine so that I’m going to bed earlier. So now we have that opportunity to identify those patterns and then wear those tweaks that we can make to improve for next time.

Cori (15:31):
It’s so key that separation between your thoughts and the actions that have to occur. And when you do name something or call it a bad roommate in your head or whatever works for you, you do create just that little bit of pause and distance to be like, okay, this is a thought I’m having, not something I have to become. And off of that too, those thoughts are going to happen. They’re going to pop up. And it’s not that we can always control them from occurring because it’s not only a routine and habit we’ve created for a very long time that we’re trying to break, but we’re human. And on top of that, we can recognize when they’re occurring to even then put in some of the positive as well, which for me, I’m not a hugger, but I do do my own form of I guess a physical fist bump.

(16:15):
And not for self-compassion, no hugging, but the bicep kiss. It’s kind of a little more awkward, but it helps. It keeps me true to what I want. But even thinking about if the negative thoughts are occurring, how can you state a positive too? Think about how many times you’ve had a brag that you then don’t say, but how willing you are to say the negative. We need to shift that mindset and realize that bragging is not being humble. It’s owning something awesome that you did and balancing out all the negative thoughts that you’ve had no problem saying.

Allison (16:47):
Yeah, I think that goes back to that whole concept of that all or nothing mindset, that if we’re not totally perfect or we haven’t quite reached that goal yet, that it’s not worth celebrating. And that’s where a lot of us end up just stuck and feeling like we’re never making any progress. But when you’re able to identify all of those places along your journey that you have gotten better, maybe you can’t do a full pull up yet, but maybe you’re doing more weight on a lap pull down, that’s growth, that’s progress towards that goal. And you can reframe instead of saying, man, I’m such a lazy person, now we’re able to say, yeah, well, you know what? I made this choice and I’m going to own it. And I know that even though I didn’t get my formal workout in, I’m going to be really intentional today with making sure that I get some extra movement in because it feels good for my body and reminding ourselves that that progress is not linear.

(17:46):
And I think that that’s the other thing that we expect to see this beautiful flat trajectory heading upward, and that’s just not reality at all. We have those ups and those downs. The difference is that when we’re in those downs or those plateaus or whatever, that we look at it and can assess, can assess where have I already been successful? What were some ways that I did improve? And yes, acknowledging that we haven’t quite gotten to that ultimate goal yet, but we’re a heck of a lot closer than we would be if we never started or if we quit when we got to one of those down days.

Cori (18:28):
And I love that you use yet because I think that word is so powerful in setting our expectations in line with what we need to do, and also not limiting ourselves with the idea that we can’t, right? It adds that little shift. I can’t do X yet. It allows for growth. But off of that too, I think it can be really hard to find the line, right? Something that’s also a strength is also a weakness. Having that negativity can be a strength and that you critique things, you analyze things you want to learn from them, but then it steers into a little bit too harsh and inner critic. How can we find that balance and realize that self-compassion doesn’t mean letting yourself off the hook, but again, that even can sometimes be overcorrected the other way.

Allison (19:13):
Yeah. So if you think about when you make an excuse for something like, oh, sorry, I was late traffic. Was it traffic? Or did you just make the choice not to leave? Soon enough? When we make excuses, we’re just dismissing the issue or we’re ignoring it. Well, this is too hard, but we’re not actually able to then move forward. We get stuck. But when we come at something with more of that, so we acknowledge like, yep, I didn’t get that workout in. I’m going to be intentional with movements later on today. And it also encourages more of that learning again, which is how we’re going to grow. So when we make excuses, we’re kind of justifying or rationalizing the behavior. Well, I was really hungry. Dieting is hard, and so I ate the pizza. But there’s no reflection there. Self-compassion means we kind of look at that behavior with more of that curiosity, why did I choose to eat pizza?

(20:21):
Maybe it was because pizza’s fricking delicious and you wanted it, right? Okay, so how can we adjust and is there a way that maybe we could have a slice of pizza with a side salad or maybe we have more of that. I dunno, veggie pizza, I guess some people like that, not me, but give me the real thing or nothing. Anyway. Also, when we’re able to that self-compassion, we can really actually improve our motivation rather than deplete it, because when we are kind to ourself, we feel better. We actually want to continue to feel that way. So think about when you’re rocking things with, whether it’s your health and fitness journey, or simply just in the zone at work, you’re feeling really good. You want to keep that good feeling going, and that’s going to help drive some of that intrinsic motivation to continue to make those choices that are going to help you feel better, that are going to lead you to those goals. But if we don’t actually give ourselves that opportunity to reflect on it, all we do is then say like, well, I’m a loser. I stink. And then we kind of just avoid or never actually get started.

Cori (21:39):
We stop the success snowball, we’ll call it, where the more you do, the more you do and the more successful you feel with things, the more you want to do those things that are making you feel really good. Versus when you do something that you can’t achieve, you set your expectations too high, you focus too much on an ideal over just what you can control, you end up doing a lot less because you’re not in that success mindset. And I love the way you frame that because I think it goes back to agency. A lot of times we give away our own agency, we say, oh, well, in critiquing ourselves, oh, well, I’m just flawed. I’m just this. I’m just that. Or even with letting ourselves off the hook, we say, I deserve this. Right? We’re not looking at our own control and our own choice in the matter. And I think the more we bring it back to, I have to take agency and ownership of this, the more we’re not letting ourselves off the hook when we do show ourselves compassion and grace, but we’re also not letting that critique become something that we’re just sort of writing off as an inherent flaw, so to speak.

Allison (22:40):
Yeah, we’re taking that power back. We actually then can take action instead of looking at all of these things that’s happening to me that’s causing all of these reasons to fail. It’s what is my role here and how can I improve? How can I take some action to move myself forward? And that’s such an empowering thing because instead of just waiting for things to happen to you, you get to choose. You get to decide. I’m like, you can hear my passion because it’s so exciting. You have this choice there. And I think that that’s a huge component. That is part of being a little bit more kind and compassionate to yourself.

Cori (23:22):
We like taking action because action feels good. It makes you feel like you’re doing something towards your goal. And while we do have to pause and think about it, and I know that has to come in into play at points, action is really what drives us forward. And so on that note, what actions can we take today, this week, this next month, to really start to build that self-compassion and be aware of that inner critic when it is trying to speak up a little too loudly?

Allison (23:47):
Yeah. So first awareness, simply noticing when you’re hearing that voice again, maybe it’s just that maybe you do a tick mark on a little sticky note or something like that and you can kind of identify, man, I’m really kind of mean to myself that awareness is important. So that’s the first step is just really being intentional about paying attention to when you hear that inner critic start to talk to you, and then when you have a little more data, a little more distance from it. So a couple of weeks, I would really give yourself that time to pay attention and be mindful of that voice. Then you can start to identify some of those patterns like I was talking about. Are there certain times of the day or certain moments that you hear that inner critic more? And then you can ask yourself, is this something I would say to a friend who is struggling and truly think about what’s the tone of voice?

(24:52):
What are the words that I’m saying to myself? And then you can say, okay, I clearly would not speak this way to a friend, friend. Now we can reframe some of that. Once you’ve got that verbiage down, now you can actually start practicing it. So when you do hear that inner critic saying, when you step on the scale and it’s like the weight’s up, I’m a failure at this, you can hear yourself and you can interrupt that pattern and say, the scale’s not reflecting the number I wanted to see, but it does not define my progress. And it’s only one piece of data in my journey. And when we are able to look at some of those setbacks or those times where we feel our inner critic yelling at us, we can then get curious about the data. What can we learn from it? How can we improve for next time?

(25:43):
And then something that you can also do that I think is really helpful is come up with a self-compassion mantra. It can be as cheesy and as corny as you want it because you’re the only person who’s going to hear it. But that acknowledgement of, I’m a human. I’m struggling. And that’s okay. And what is possible right now? And you can obviously Google, but even thinking about what are the things that I like to hear that help me feel good and help me feel better? And that will really help you start to identify what’s a mantra that’s going to resonate with you? Because if it doesn’t feel good for you, you’re going to be like, that’s dumb. I’m not going to say that to myself. So really thinking about what do you want to hear when you’re struggling and use that as your driver to generate that mantra for yourself.

Cori (26:32):
The mantras always seemed like verbal, hugging to me. I’ll be a hundred percent honest. And then I realized how many of them I had in my own life, and I was like, maybe I am a hugger. Just kidding. No. But it doesn’t have to be something that’s even a positive affirmation, so to speak. It can just be something that makes you pause so that you’re not letting that critic be so negative that you’re seeing the growth opportunity. For me, that’s just the question of why when I really have something happen or I start to criticize myself up and go, why am I critiquing this? Why am I going down this path? Why do I have these feelings? And when I start to do that, instantly I let some of the stress go and I let the emotion go because it becomes just a reflection. And we learn so much more in the reflecting than even in the doing. And the more we embrace that, the more we can grow. So I even feel proud of myself. I’m like, yeah, I’m asking myself why, and I’m pausing in this moment, and that really moves me forward. So just remember, it can be a question even that helps you stop the negativity to reflect on what you can grow from. It doesn’t have to be a verbal hug, so to speak.

Allison (27:38):
Yes. I love that.

Cori (27:40):
So on that note, Alison, any closing thoughts for somebody who’s really struggling with that negativity mindset? Who’s struggling with that? Inner critics often leading to emotional sabotage when they do really feel like they’ve just started to get that momentum going? Any closing thoughts to help them do one thing today?

Allison (27:58):
Yeah, I mean, I think just that reminder that we’re all part of this common humanity and we all have those moments of struggle. And so it’s okay. It’s okay to feel that way and just give yourself even just five minutes to say, okay, yeah, I am struggling right now. This is really hard. I want to improve. I want to do better. Something along those lines. And then really just give yourself that permission to take one action that’s going to help you move forward. And it does not have to be anything crazy. It can be something so little as simply having one more glass of water or going to bed 10 minutes early, something so stupid simple that you can do it and it’s going to just help build that momentum and that snowball effect that you’re talking about.

Cori (28:52):
And I love that you mentioned we’re not alone, even don’t hesitate to reach out in the Facebook group in the forum. Reach out for a little bit of help and motivation and to even see how other people have conquered the challenge. While it’s hard to be vulnerable in that way, not only can we potentially put some positivity out there and brag about something we’ve accomplished as we ask for that help, but we’ll see we’re not alone and we’ll come up with a lot of extra tools that might really resonate with us. Be us verbal hugger or not. Allison, thank you so much for joining me today. This was fabulous. I’d love to hear how you guys are all going to start using these tools and techniques to show yourself a little bit more of self-compassion this week.

 

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

7 Tips to Burn Fat (WHILE BUILDING MUSCLE!)

7 Tips to Burn Fat (WHILE BUILDING MUSCLE!)

by | Feb 23, 2025 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

You want to build muscle and lose fat? Great!

Here are 7 steps to adjust your diet and workouts to focus on body recomposition…

Step 1: Determine your primary goal.

Yes, you can achieve changes in both your muscle mass and fat mass at the same time. And this ideally should be where your focus is if you want to look and feel your best.

But this is a slow process.

So stop searching for a fad diet or quick fix.

However, as much as we can do both at the same time, we need a singular primary focus.

Do you want to lose fat while retaining and building muscle? Or do you want to build muscle while not putting on fat or even losing it?

Distinguishing between the two is key to help you see the best results and strategically outline your calorie intake and macros.

To determine which is right for you…

If you are basically at your desired weight and near the leanness level you want? Then you want to focus on building muscle while losing fat.

However, if you have more weight to lose and want to look lean and defined while adding muscle to stay functionally fit as you get older, you may start with focusing on fat loss while building muscle.

The difference seems small but determining your primary focus will impact your calorie intake, the macros you use, and even how you include cardio in your routine.

But before you can make changes, you need to understand where you’re starting from to adjust off of.

Step 2: Start tracking.

If you’re already tracking, YAY!

You can jump to step 4 and 5 to adjust your protein and calories off of your current intake, although circle back to step 3 for your workouts.

If you aren’t yet tracking, you need to spend 7-14 days logging your current intake.

Not only is this eye opening as to the other changes we can make that will pay off but it also helps us get used to the habit of tracking.

Logging our food is a new habit for many of us and one we may even mentally be resistant to. It’s not exactly the most fun task ever.

But what gets measured gets managed.

We can also start to see the act of tracking not as restriction or judgement but just DATA off of which we can adjust.

The more we know our current lifestyle, the more we can evolve it vs trying to fit ourselves into a diet and exercise mold.

Because if we want recomp, we need to create habits we can be truly consistent with. And macros are going to matter.

But we need changes based off of what we are doing currently.

So just track. Get your average calories for a week or two. Look at your average protein, carbs and fats.

Understand the make up of your food and even how you feel with your current meals schedule and diet!

Step 3: Don’t go through the motions with your strength training.

Diet is key for fat loss, but your workouts are essential for building muscle.

No matter your primary focus, strength work should be your priority.

Too often we prioritize cardio or even turn our strength workouts into cardio sessions when we want to lean down.

While these can make us feel worked or burn more calories on our fitness trackers so that we feel like we’re working hard toward our goals, they can actually hinder our progress.

Stop cutting out rest between sets and instead focus on really maximizing and pushing with each rep you do.

Too little rest doesn’t allow you to truly challenge yourself with progression in moves and you’ll find your 100% intensity dips over the rounds.

Instead you want to feel ready to push the discomfort each round to the point you would have liked to stop a couple of reps before you did or used the weight right below what you used.

You need the rest you planned in not necessarily because you’re out of breath but because you’ve pushed your muscles and want to go just as heavy the next round or even heavier.

And if you’re always hitting the top of the rep range you’ve outlined, go heavier.

The more advanced you are, the longer you’ve been training, the harder it is to build muscle.

You’ve simply adapted to more.

So you need to push progression in different ways. Don’t get into a rut doing the same moves over and over and over again or only progress exercises in one way.

Use different training techniques and workout designs, vary postures and positions. Combine tools and change up tempos.

Combine compound and isolation moves in your routine.

Use isolation moves specifically for those stubborn areas to work muscles closer to failure and create more volume leading to better gains!

Step 4: Center your meals on protein.

After tracking your baseline, you now want to start by adjusting your protein.

If you want to lose fat as you gain muscle, your goal will be 40%-45% of your calories coming from protein.

Not only can this start to create that deficit because of the energy expended to digest protein, but it will also help protect your lean muscle as you do potentially create more of a deficit to lose fat as you progress.

And the more of a deficit we are in, the greater our protein demands become to protect our lean muscle mass.

Especially as we get older and are less able to utilize protein as efficiently and struggle more to build and retain lean muscle mass because our hormone levels aren’t as optimal, high protein is key!

But more protein isn’t always the answer as much as I’m a huge protein advocate.

If you want to build muscle as you lose fat, your protein will be lower than when you’re in a deficit.

It may be in that 30-40% range.

You may start toward the top of that range and drop it as you increase your calories from your current maintenance.

In that surplus 30-35% of our calories coming from protein can be more than enough.

As much as protein is key so are carbs.

Carbs provide immediate fuel for our workouts to push harder and create that progression for growth and are also protein sparring.

Carbs help us utilize protein more efficiently and create that anabolic environment for growth.

Because we aren’t depleted and are getting more than enough calories to support all bodily functions and tissue repair, our protein requirements are lower than when we are in a deficit.

But no matter your primary focus, first adjust your protein intake. Then if muscle building is your primary focus, pay attention to those carbs, keeping them above 30% of your calories.

Step 5: Set your calories.

Take a couple of weeks to settle in with your new protein intake.

If you’re maintaining your weight at this calorie intake and seeing inches either increase in areas you want to build muscle or be lost in areas you want to lose fat, don’t change your calories just yet.

The macros alone have had an impact.

But then create that small deficit or surplus.

Too often we cut our calories super low which backfires in muscle being lost or we add a huge increase and ultimately just gain more fat.

If you want to lose fat while gaining muscle, drop your calories by 100 to start. While you can go as big as 500 calories into a deficit, that 500 calorie drop is EXTREME.

If you do that, do that strategically as a mini cut for a very short time or you are going to fight against your body recomp goals.

If you want to build muscle while losing fat, add 100 calories, although if you are super active, 300-400 can be more aggressive.

The more you make small changes and allow your body to adjust, the better your results will be.

Make the 100 calorie change then maintain that for a few weeks before adjusting further.

This checkpoint or end date every 2-3 weeks can help you trust the process but also adjust as your body’s needs will shift or even you adjust workouts.

As you build muscle, you may find you need to eat more to continue progressing and what once was a small deficit has even become “too big,” but more on this in Step 7.

Step 6: Adjust your cardio.

Plain and simple, strength workouts are the priority.

Focus on building strength and muscle in your training and you’ll see results.

But that doesn’t mean cardio isn’t valuable for your health and can’t be used strategically to help expedite results.

It also doesn’t mean you can’t include it if you love your long rides or runs BUT you need to know the cost of everything to even adjust your nutrition to match.

Too often we turn to cardio to burn more calories which fights against our body composition goals. So if you don’t enjoy the cardio but think you need to do it to lose fat, you don’t.

When it comes to optimizing your cardio for body recomp, walking should be your main form of cardio.

It isn’t catabolic, allows you to recover for future sessions to lift heavy and build muscle, helps you keep your metabolic rate higher and can actually be a stress reliever to maintain better hormonal balance.

If you do it post workout, it can even help you better utilize the mobilized fatty acids from the areas around what you worked.

So if you have a stubborn area, like belly fat you really fighting, you may include your walks on workouts where you worked your core more intensively. While we can’t spot reduce an area with a bazillion crunches, we do mobilize more fatty acids from areas around the muscles we worked.

Walking just helps you then utilize them!

But focus your cardio on walking for that aerobic base and body recomp.

Very short sprint sessions can also be included to help with recovery and even promote optimal conditioning. Be conscious though that you aren’t creating too great a calorie deficit while including these or use them strategically when building muscle as your main focus.

And if you’re focused on building muscle, consider sprints that are short with 3-5 times the rest especially over more 20 on, 10 off type interval training protocols you may use when fat loss is the main focus.

Step 7: Ditch the scale.

Body recomp means often not seeing the scale change quickly or even seeing the opposite of what we think should be happening happen.

If you’ve used the scale in the past as your only measure of progress, it has probably prevented you from implementing these habits in the way that you needed.

Because the scale may not change and recomp can be happening.

The scale may increase, and you may be seeing true fat loss and muscle gains. And then you may even need to be eating more.

But if you were only judging based on the scale, when seeing “no progress” or “backward progress,” you may cut calories lower, even doing the opposite of what you actually need.

So if you’re serious about recomp, while you can still track on the scale, focus on measurements and progress photos. Those will tell you far more. And for 5 signs you’re burning fat not muscle, I’ve linked to another video in the video description!

Because how we track progress is key to us maintaining the habits we need long enough to truly see results snowball.

Remember body recomp is a slow process. Focus on your consistency in those habit change and give results time to build!

Ready to build your leanest, strongest body ever with a custom program and clear mentorship in what you need?

Shameless plug for my 1:1 Coaching!

–> Schedule A Consultation

Why Have I Failed?

Why Have I Failed?

by | Feb 20, 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. Why have you failed? Often we think that our failures are the opposite of us succeeding, but that’s just not the case. And if you really think about some of the people you idolize, your role models, the great people out there, they have probably failed more times than you ever have. And the more I failed, the more I realized how valuable a learning experience it really is, because we can ultimately see things as an obstacle or an opportunity. Success really is struggle and failures are a part of that success. And it’s not fun. It’s not something we often want to own, but the more we can really see that we only hold ourselves back when we don’t see the opportunity in those failures, the more we can constantly learn and grow and truly move forward faster.

(00:53):
Again, all those people that we idolize often have failed even more times than they technically succeeded. It’s just that they’ve succeeded so greatly because of those failures. And I was trying to think of a way to explain how we can change our perception of failure. And I saw a video that Ashley had sent me when she was dog sitting, kiwi and sushi, and she had zoomed in on Kiwi scratching at the glass on the door and Kiwi scratching the glass, whining to come into the room, whining, whining, whining. I’m like, oh gosh, she’s going to scratch up the glass. What are you doing, Ashley? And then Ashley zooms out, and here is Kiwi standing at the glass when the door is wide open because it’s a sliding door, it’s wide open. She and sushi could have just gone around, but hey, she’s just standing there with no clue as to what’s going on, watching Kiwi scratch at it and Kiwi scratching as if she can’t get in.

(01:40):
She’s putting this roadblock in her own way when she could go around the door. And finally Ashley persuaded them to come in. But I think this is almost how we often look at failure. We see it as the door being closed on us. We can’t go around it when really the door is wide open. We could go around, we’re putting this roadblock that we see as immovable in our own way, and sometimes we need an outside perspective to help us around. Sometimes we just need to pause and step back. But the more we don’t see failures as the end, something that we can’t come back from, something that we can’t grow from, the more we can really help ourselves move forward. So I would urge you, if you’re looking at a door that you feel like isn’t open to go through, really assess what is this door telling you?

(02:19):
What is it telling you about what you’ve done currently that might be not allowing you to seemingly move forward on this one path? What is this teaching you as to what might actually work? Because I think a lot of times in our failures we think, okay, this doesn’t work. But then the opposite might be true. If that doesn’t work, what’s the opposite action I could have taken that could really move me forward? And I found this quote that I thought was really good that I wanted to share with you guys. The best inventors often arrive at amazing ideas precisely because their original plans failed. Think about how many times you’ve had a great day, a great experience you’ve made, even a recipe that tasted better and you actually made a mistake when you were doing that thing. I can tell you I’ve had so many instances like the things didn’t work out exactly as I planned and the day ended up being better or the restaurant experience ended up being better or the recipe ended up being better.

(03:09):
Cooking not quite as much, but there’s always those situations where you do something even accidentally wrong and you don’t realize till after and things turn out better because those mistakes that we have happen, those setbacks are truly, and I keep saying this, but learning experiences, they are opportunities to step back and assess, Hey, what did I do and why did or didn’t it work? I actually thought it was really interesting, a story by the founder, Spanx. She had her dad ask her every single day, what did you fail at today? And actually be disappointed if she didn’t come up with something. And I think that’s such a great way to frame failures in our own head because those experiences we demonize, we feel bad for because we don’t like looking like we messed up or we’re not perfect, but we’re not perfect. And so often, again, if you think about the people you idolize, they have failed the most, struggled the most.

(03:58):
And so the more we can see that in ourselves and step back and treat ourselves like a friend, when we do struggle, the better off we’re going to be. So because success is struggle and it can be hard to step back, I think it’s really key that we have a few questions sort of in our repertoire to ask ourselves when we do hit those hard points. And so I was thinking about what is failure? How failing isn’t failure unless we actually give up and looking at those situations to assess them. So some questions I like to ask myself are, why did that happen? Why did the actual thing happen? Was it that I actually didn’t implement the plan? Was it that I didn’t implement the plan and it didn’t match my priorities right? Now, is this something that really is against a non-negotiable I have in my life or a value that I have in my life?

(04:40):
Or did I not fully embrace it to actually go all in? Because I think a lot of times too, we’ll be making changes. We’ll be saying we’re tracking our macros and we’re tracking our food, but we’re not actually shifting our portions to hit our new macros. And so we say macro tracking didn’t work, but when we stepped back, we assess, oh, I was tracking and that felt hard alone, but I didn’t change my portion. So of course if I didn’t adjust my portions, I’m not going to see results. So why did that happen? Really dive into even the mindsets behind the actual actions to see where your resistance might have been to fully implementing and then think, are there triggers I can note to avoid it happening again, especially with patterns, we tend to repeat. We come home from work after a long day, we’re stressed, we go to the cabinet, we grab out 20 Oreos, and before we even know we’re sitting on the couch with all of them gone, maybe that’s just me.

(05:28):
But have you ever done something like that where you just repeat this pattern almost unconsciously, and before you know it, you’re feeling guilty about it because you’ve done it. Shifting your environment or noting a trigger earlier in the day can really help you. Where if you know, Hey, on stressful days like this, if I just go straight home, I’m going to repeat that pattern. How can I change that? Maybe I’m going to go for a walk instead. Or hey, I usually go in the front door, put my bag down in this way and go straight to the cabinet. I’m actually going to go in through the garage, which will make me have to go upstairs first or something that changes. The environment changes exactly. The routine that you follow can be that little mental reminder so that we don’t just fall back into that pattern.

(06:06):
So note triggers even in reflection. So often right away, we can’t catch yourself in the act of something, but right after it happens, as soon as we really see that a pattern has repeated, we’ve failed how to step back, step back and say, okay, what can I learn from this that also reframes the event in your head to not feel so guilty about it or not see it so negatively, but step back and then say, what other ways can I notice this might be happening before it happens to catch myself? Because that’s where you start to get a little more proactive. You change things even saying, Hey, I just know that this week is going to be a stressful week, so I’m going to change my behaviors before it even gets stressful. And so maybe you out of stress wouldn’t have repeated that pattern, but you don’t even have to worry about it because you notice that, hey, this is going to be a stressful week.

(06:48):
I know what stress, I can repeat this pattern, so I’m going to completely change everything and even make something fun out of this to help reduce some stress in a different way. And then really think, what can I learn to move forward from it? Again, seeing everything as learning experience, failures are just learning with frustration. And the more we value them for that, the more we can move forward. So what can I really learn from this? Don’t beat yourself up. You’re going to learn the most from this experience because you don’t want to repeat it. So often we breeze past the learning experiences and good things because it worked out. We don’t reflect, which we should also do more of, but it isn’t as painful. And if we just sort of push failures aside and never learn from them, we are way more bound to repeat them and we don’t want to repeat them.

(07:27):
And then also in trying to do potentially exactly the opposite, we hold ourselves back from seeing the opportunity in what we were already doing. We can make ourselves feel broken, guilty, and only mentally sabotage ourselves more. So really seek that learning experience from everything and see it as a positive. Because again, a lot of times the feelings we associate with events are what can hold us back even more. If you see going to the cabinet, repeating that cycle where you had even one Oreo and then you slash the other three tires because you got that flat, right? And then you go eat all the other Oreos, and that’s like sitting by the side of the road flat tire, instead of fixing it, you slash the other three, you don’t want to do that, right? But in doing that, you could feel guilty or you could say, Hey, what can I learn from this?

(08:04):
And even in stepping back and releasing that emotion, it’s going to make it way easier to not repeat it because there’s not that guilt involved. So think of this as also seeing the opportunity and in a positive way that you can disassociate some of those feelings, feeling of guilt, especially to beat ourselves up, which will make you more and more open to moving forward faster and faster, which will help you see results faster and faster. And then what did this teach me about myself? Not only recognizing the environment, the patterns, but I think we need to dive a lot deeper a lot of times because there’s often an underlying emotion and underlying belief or boundaries set for ourselves. If we don’t question deeper, we’re bound to repeat the same mistake in a different way. I call it the circle of hard. Often we hit the hard, right?

(08:48):
We go this direction towards our goals and we hit an edge of the circle and then we say, oh, this is too hard, or this doesn’t work. And we go back and then we basically go a different direction. But because there’s a circle of heart around us, we’re sort of always hitting the same hard, it’s just labeled in a different way. That’s why we might do keto and feel like, oh, well, it’s low carb, that doesn’t work for me. So then we do another diet that restricts something else, but we’re really repeating the same pattern of restriction and we haven’t really assessed, okay, why does restriction do this to me? What are my non-negotiables? What are my values? What are my priorities? How can I work with my lifestyle to really make a change? And so we basically hit the same hard just going in the circle, keeping ourselves constantly stuck within these boundaries.

(09:24):
So really assess what did I learn about myself and my own patterns and my own handling of different things, my own routines, my own mindsets? Because the more you do that internal reflection and really ask why, the more you’re going to assess what you need and truly need to move forward. And sometimes it’s that habits you’ve been doing just now don’t fit your lifestyle. And the more you assess, okay, well, where is my mind right now? What am I evaluating? What am I prioritizing? The more you can even evolve those habits to match really where you’re at right now because something doesn’t work for us forever, even over the course of a year. So I want you to ask those questions and especially the last question, because I think everything is really an opportunity to learn more about ourselves to then tweak. Because habits in one form don’t fit us and fit us forever.

(10:07):
Routines and patterns will shift. We are constantly evolving. We just want to control the direction that we are changing in, and we can better do that by pausing to reflect. Reflection is all about taking ownership, and the more we take ownership, the more we can shift our perspective, how we view the events, see opportunity or obstacle in the failures, because people who succeed the most, those people we idolize, didn’t not fail. They just always saw the opportunity or the learning experience and everything to eventually move forward. So I really want you to think, why have I failed? And then do those assessments. Think about any event that you’ve sort of even tried to hide from and go back and learn from it.

 

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

The Weakest Muscle in Your Upper Body (Your SERRATUS ANTERIOR)

The Weakest Muscle in Your Upper Body (Your SERRATUS ANTERIOR)

by | Feb 17, 2025 | Blog, Exercises, Foam Rolling, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Stretches, Warm Up

When we create upper body workouts, we map in exercises for our chest, shoulders, back, biceps, triceps…

But we too often don’t include moves for this essential muscle…

The Serratus Anterior.

And while no, this muscle isn’t going to be one we target with super heavy lifts during our sessions, it is a key muscle we strengthen and activate if we want to be able to press or pull more without shoulder injury and see the muscle gains we want from our training.

Honestly this muscle needs far more love than it gets, especially if we have had previous shoulder, neck or even upper back aches and pains.

That’s why I want to break down the important role this muscle plays in our shoulder and scapular health as well as how to make sure your serratus anterior is working so we can see better strength and muscle gains.

Then I’ll go over 3 key moves to activate and strengthen your serratus anterior as well as a few bonus prehab tips to help you get more out of your upper body training in general!

First, why is the Serratus Anterior so important?

The serratus anterior is often called the boxer’s muscle as it is key to a powerful punch and its main function is protraction of the shoulder blades or that movement of the shoulder blades forward around your rib cage.

Not only does this muscle control the movement of our shoulder blade to protract as we press horizontally like in a bench press or punch, but also to upwardly rotate as we press overhead.

This upward rotation of the shoulder blade allows us to use our back correctly to support our shoulders and power the press overhead. Limited movement can lead to us really struggling to press vertically up.

Our shoulder blades can also limit our ability to press overhead and lead to neck, shoulder and upper back aches and pains by being anteriorly tipped.

This is when our shoulder blades don’t sit correctly on our rib cage and the bottom slightly sticks out as the top of the shoulder blade is tilted forward.

This is another function of the serratus anterior – to stabilize the shoulder blade so it does sit correctly and can even posteriorly tilt slightly as we press overhead.

This proper positioning of our shoulder blades due to our serratus anterior being strong is essential for us to be able to lift more and avoid upper back, neck and shoulder injuries, even rotator cuff issues.

And too often, we ignore this muscle and even BLAME our rotator cuff for our shoulder pain instead.

This can lead to us doing a ton of work for our rotator cuff which only makes issues worse through further working an overworked or even restricted muscle because it isn’t allowed to work correctly due to limited scapular movement!

And on top of the role it plays in our shoulder blade movement, the serratus anterior also impacts our breathing mechanics and can enhance our physique when developed creating that nice definition around our rib cage!

Next I want to dive into really locating this muscle to feel it working and even address some common issues we can encounter when trying to strengthen it.

It isn’t uncommon with many basic serratus anterior exercises to feel our upper traps, levator scapulae and even pec minor start to want to work when our serratus anterior is weak.

So where is the Serratus Anterior to be exact and how can I tell when other muscles are taking over?

The serratus anterior is the muscle on the sides of your ribs just under your armpit.

Place your opposite hand on your ribs under your armpit then reach the hand on the same side out as if punching or pressing. Feel that muscle engage.

This is what you want to feel working in the 3 Serratus Anterior Activation Exercises I’ll go over next.

All too often though when this muscle is weak, we start to feel the area at the base of our neck, top of our shoulder blade toward our spine or even our chest into the front of our shoulder working instead.

These areas are us feeling our upper traps, levator scapulae, pec minor and even anterior delt starting to work more to compensate for our serratus anterior being weak.

Our upper traps and levator scapula elevate our shoulder blade or lift it up.

We see this happen with a shrugging motion.

And often we tend to shrug extra when pressing to try to lift heavier and compensate for other areas of weakness.

We can also see our chest, specifically our pec minor muscle, and the front of our shoulder feel like they are working extra to stabilize our shoulder when our shoulder blade isn’t sitting properly on our rib cage.

The pec minor works to protract our shoulder blades so will work extra if the serratus anterior isn’t pulling its weight.

The pec minor also will anteriorly tip the shoulder blades when the serratus anterior isn’t strong enough to fight against it and keep alignment. This is why we can see those neck, shoulder and upper back aches and pains popping up.

This is also why we’re often told to do extra rowing or pulling exercises to balance out our posture and strong chest muscles.

And while strengthening our back can be key, especially if we spend a ton of time seated, hunched over our devices, the extra back work may not be paying off if we keep ignoring our serratus anterior!

That’s why I wanted to share 3 activation moves to help!

3 Serratus Anterior Exercises:

The first is a move great for almost every fitness level, the Roller Serratus Anterior Shoulder Extensions.

This move can be done as a unilateral, or one sided exercise, or with both sides at the same time.

To do this move, I love using a roller against a wall, but you can also use sliders or a towel, especially for the one-sided variation.

Place the roller right below your wrists with your palms facing in. You want to be slightly angled in toward the wall to apply more pressure.

Really push into the roller to even feel your serratus anterior slightly engage from a little movement of your shoulder blades away from your spine.

Then roll up on the wall, reaching overhead. Feel your the bottom of your shoulder blades open out to the sides of your back as you feel around your rib cage work to reach up. Don’t just shrug your shoulders.

While you don’t want to force your shoulders down to limit the movement of your shoulder blades, you want to make sure your shoulders aren’t just moving and you aren’t just shrugging.

The roll up is coming from your shoulder blades moving first.

Really push hard into the wall as you extend up, then pull the roller back down to about shoulder height and repeat.

If you have shoulder pain or limited mobility on one side, performing a single arm variation is best.

Note if you start to feel that base of your neck area or even your chest and front of shoulder working too much to walk in a bit closer to the wall or not extend up as high to start.

Another option to work on this overhead serratus strengthening is a Downward Dog Scapular Press. This can help you focus on that push of the ground away to engage if that cue, pushing away helps or you don’t have something you can use to slide on a wall.

The next activation exercise is the Serratus Anterior Press.

This is a horizontal pressing option which focuses on protraction more while the Shoulder Extensions focus a lot on upward rotation of the shoulder blade as well.

The one thing to really be careful with during this press, is that your pecs or the front of your shoulders don’t take over.

It’s one reason I don’t use the push up plus often for activation for the serratus anterior but will include it in workouts for pure strength building.

But this move is a great way to isolate each side independently and even correct imbalances.

A band or cable work well for this move and you’ll want to standing in a staggered stance.

You’re going to be performing a variation of a chest press or punch with the hand of the leg that is staggered back.

As you press out, feel your shoulder blade move forward around your rib cage and focus on those muscles around your ribs really pulling it forward.

You want to even get that little extra reach out at the end, slightly rotating even.

Then bring your hand back into your chest. Be conscious that even though you may slightly press up as you press out that you don’t shrug at the end.

If you don’t have a band or cable, wall protractions are always an option.

To do the wall protractions, place your knuckles on the wall, palms facing in and make sure you aren’t shrugging.

Then push off the wall, pulling your shoulder blades forward to almost round your spine back.

Don’t just hunch forward. Feel the pull of your shoulder blades around your ribs coming from you pushing away from the wall.

The 3rd activation move I love to include is the Scapular Push Up To Dolphin.

This move strengthens the serratus anterior but also helps you learn to control scapular retraction, the movement of the shoulder blades toward the spine to engage your upper back, as well as your core stability.

That scapular retraction component can really be helpful if you do find your pecs often want to engage.

With this move you’ll set up in a forearm plank with your elbows under your shoulders as your feet close together.

You want that nice plank position. You’ll then pinch your shoulder blades toward your spine to retract before pushing the ground away to protract them back.

Once back in that plank position, you’ll pike your butt up and drive your chest back toward your feet. It’s like a downward dog from your forearms. Feel yourself stretch through your triceps down the sides of your back.

Feel around your rib cage working to press your chest back as you extend your spine.

Then come back into the plank and repeat.

Make sure you don’t shrug your shoulders as you pinch your shoulder blades together or push the ground away. And really focus on that shoulder blade movement then the extension of your spine as you push back.

Now…If you’re struggling to isolate and feel your serratus anterior working, especially with any of these moves, you will want to include these other prehab moves potentially before your activation exercises…

Because that full 3-step prehab process of foam rolling, stretching and activation is key.

Here are 2 foam rolling and 2 stretching moves you may want to include prior to your activation work for your serratus anterior in your warm up routine.

First, Chest Foam Rolling.

Rolling our your pec minor with a ball can help relax this muscle that wants to take over. A ball in a doorway is best as you put that ball right at the front of your arm pit next to your shoulder joint.

Hold in the meat of the muscle as you even reach your hand overhead then back down toward the ground.

The second foam rolling moves is Levator Scapulae Foam Rolling.

You can do this against a wall or the ground. The ground will allow you to apply more pressure.

But find that top edge of your shoulder blade closest to your spine. Put the ball right above that corner and press into the ball.

You can look down and away tilting your head to help stretch the muscle as you hold. You can then even help the muscle relax and release as you hold by moving your arm up and down or back and forth across your chest.

And after including some foam rolling, especially in your warm up, you want to do a few dynamic stretches.

One key one is the Kneeling Thoracic Extension And Lat Stretch.

This stretch works on improving our shoulder and thoracic mobility. A lack of both can also have an impact on our scapular movement.

Especially a lack of thoracic extension can lead to our shoulder blades not sitting properly on our rib cage.

And tight lats can also perpetuate the bad posture that doesn’t allow our serratus to work as it should.

To do this stretch, you can kneel on the ground with your elbows on a bench. You want to sit back on your heels as you drop your chest toward the ground and lengthen through your spine.

Don’t just arch your lower back but focus on pressing your chest down to extend through your mid and upper back, feeling down the sides of your back stretching, not just your triceps.

Then relax out and repeat.

If you can’t kneel, you can even do this as more of a wall hang variation with your hands on the wall as you hinge over and press your chest toward the ground, extending your spine.

The final prehab move that can be key is Suspension Trainer Snow Angels.

This stretch improves your shoulder mobility and works to stretch out your pecs to help improve your shoulder blade alignment.

This is super key if you feel your pecs during your activation work or even your anterior delts.

To do this move, you’ll have a hand in each suspension trainer handle and face away, walking out so there is a bit of tension with your arms down by your sides.

You’ll then slowly bring your arms out and up overhead as if you were making a snow angel in the snow.

Feel your chest stretch as you open up at the top. You don’t want the movement only coming from your shoulders. Then lower down and repeat. You can walk out further to get more of a pull back.

If you don’t have a suspension trainer, you could do one side at a time, sliding your hand up on a wall next to a doorway or do a version lying face up on a foam roller.

But if you’ve struggled to lift as heavy as you’d like especially due to neck, shoulder or even upper back aches and pains, stop ignoring this essential muscle!

This prehab work in your warm up goes a long way!

And the stronger our weakest links and those muscles that really improve our stability, the more we can lift and push our workouts to improve our muscle and strength gains!

For workouts that include prehab in every routine, check out my Dynamic Strength program:

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