Cori Lefkowith, Author at Redefining Strength Page 43 of 154

FHP 448 – What’s Your Beastette Origin Story?

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 29, 2022 | podcast

Want to achieve amazing results and reach your goals?

Recognizing where you’re actually starting from!

Create your beastette origin story…By recognizing where you are, you can map out accurate changes to achieve amazing results. And you can motivate yourself by taking ownership of your priorities and even what has caused you to not see results in the past.

To write your origin story, consider these questions…

What does your current day look like?

What are key parts of your lifestyle?

What do you struggle with?

Why do you really want a change?

Where do you feel the negative impact of your situation currently?

What setbacks have you had recently making you want to see a new and better result?

Why is the pain of staying stuck worse than the pain of change?

TELL YOUR STORY!!!

For more on building your beastette story and creating the systems to reach your goals…

–> My STRONG Systems (and workbook link in video description!)

5 Tips To Lose Stubborn Fat Faster

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 27, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Workouts

There is nothing worse than grabbing those cute pants out of the closet to put them on…and…

AH! Not have them button!

You so desperately wanted to wear them for your holiday party. Your reunion. That big birthday.

Lucky for you, you have a bit of time to trim down and tone up…

What do you do?

How can you avoid gaining more weight and even lose the weight you’ve already gained?

If you’re thinking, “I’m doomed.

I’m too old…

I’m going through menopause…

I’m too busy…

Heck, maybe you even want to blame the pants not fitting on the dryer or dry cleaner…

Stop blaming and start controlling what you can control!

Because there are 5 strategies you can use today to help you feel and look fabulous in those pants.

Right now, as you’re watching this, take a piece of paper or open your phone notepad write down what you’ve eaten or plan to eat today.

Write down the workouts you’re going to be using this week.

Write out your current lifestyle!

Because the best changes to see the weight loss we want are based off of what we are doing currently.

Too often we search for a perfect plan. A perfect time to start.

But there is no perfect time.

The key is taking action NOW.

That doesn’t mean though cutting out the foods you love, starving yourself or starting to train for hours a day.

I know most of us want to go all or nothing. This is what dooms us to not only fall off our plan or even worse…gain more weight!

To fit into those pants we need to make a change that is sustainable.

It might be cutting out a snack.

Walking 15 minutes extra

Drinking more water.

Far too many of us think we’re doomed to fail because we don’t have the time, energy or willpower that someone else has.

When in reality we’re trying to do too much too fast

The first key to avoiding that weight gain is to understand where you are actually starting from to make small adjustments that add up!

Then own your priorities!

If we don’t take ownership of our priorities they will become our excuses.

“I don’t have time because of my job to workout 6 days a week.”

“I can’t eat healthy because of my family.”

“I can’t lose the weight because I travel”

There are certain things in our lives we value most – like our family or our job.

And we should care about those things.

But instead of letting these things in our lives become our excuses, we need to own our priorities, recognize them and then PLAN AROUND THEM!

Design for the time you have!

If 6 days a week isn’t realistic to train don’t plan for that.

Plan for 3 days if that fits your schedule.

Maybe that means you use metabolic strength workouts over separate cardio and strength sessions. Or even full body workouts.

By designing for the time you have you’ll stay consistent and see results build.

Same goes for your nutrition.

I get not wanting to have to prep a separate meal for yourself and then one for your family.

Don’t do it!

Instead plan that meal in first to work around it.

Do you travel a ton?

Set “minimums” to keep you consistent even if they aren’t what you’d do at home.

Maybe it’s a 5 minute hotel room bodyweight workout.

Or maybe it’s trying to finding a local restaurant with healthy options

You can even avoid buying the bulk snacks so you aren’t tempted to eat extra while sitting around!

But realize that there are certain priorities in your life that won’t change and find ways to work around them instead of letting them sabotage your weight loss!

And then…STOP trying to out exercise your diet!

This saves you time and effort and you’ll see results faster.

I know it’s a mental challenge to embrace this/

You can feel so GUILTY for missing a workout or not moving every day.

I know there’s temptation to do DO MORE to lose more weight because training more can create that deficit…

But all this extra working out kept us stuck just having to do more and more to even see near the same result.

It’s even why those skinny jeans we’ve got stuffed in our closet have stayed there for..well…a bit longer than we’d like to admit.

We can’t bear to throw them out, but we feel like no amount of training is going to get us back into them. And it seems to get harder and harder to see the weight budge at all with each year.

It’s because while training burns calories our nutrition alone can make the difference

But most of us don’t want to give up our cake…or chips…

We’re comfortable being uncomfortable when it comes to training but not with our diet

That’s why it’s key we focus on using our workouts to build muscle to keep our metabolism healthy but not to burn calories.

Focus on ADDING IN more whole, natural foods. Focus on ADDING IN more protein.

Sure we know the pizza night with family or cocktail night with friends isn’t the “healthiest,” but it is also something we enjoy the most

The more we restrict those things first, the more unsustainable the changes will be.

We get good at what we do consistently so we need to find ways to create the healthiest version of our personal lifestyle.

That’s why taking the mindset of adding in to start can be so key.

When you have that pizza night, Eat one slice and ADD IN a side salad.

The nutrient dense foods can help you feel fuller while you’re enjoying your pizza.

This can help you adjust your calorie intake to create that deficit without feeling restricted.

And it can help you feel fuller while improving your vitamin and mineral intake.

Then focus on increasing your protein portions at meals.

Especially as we get older we are less able to utilize protein as efficiently to recover from our training and build lean muscle, making it even more key we increase our protein intake.

If you want to look more toned and even keep your skin, and even hair, looking healthy and young, protein is essential as it is the building blocks of all of our tissues!

Consider adding protein powder to your morning fruit smoothie or iced coffee.

Add one more ounce of chicken or steak or tofu or tempeh to your burrito bowl or pasta dish.

If you enjoy dessert, a meal traditional very low in protein, consider a tofu chocolate mousse or protein mug cake.

But focus on small changes based on your current lifestyle rather than elimination.

And while I know it is tempting to feel like these changes are too small to see results, we have to remember that we can’t out exercise or out diet time.

So often we just want to do MORE to feel more in control.

But less is truly so often more.

Losing weight isn’t just about our diet or our workout routine.

It boils down to STRESSORS.

Too much stress on our bodies and we won’t see the weight loss we want.

And I don’t just mean like stress hitting a deadline at work or stress trying to run for your flight or stress trying to make a holiday meal for 12 people coming over that night…

Our workouts and even a calorie deficit are stressors on our body. While they can be good stressors, they’re still stressors.

And trying to do too much – train longer, cut our calories lower – will ultimately backfire and those stressors will become a negative.

They can lead to hormonal imbalances, metabolic adaptations and poor sleep…all things that hold you back from losing weight while you’re working super hard to do just that.

Same thing goes for trying to cut out even “unhealthy” foods to hit some arbitrary standard of clean.

Sure we know that chocolate chip cookies aren’t rich in vitamins and minerals, but often the stress of restriction can be just as bad if it leads to overeating.

The more you can’t have something the more you want it.

Stress sabotages our consistency more than planning in a cookie to our day would have.

We have to realize that healthy habits and doing more can’t come at a cost to our balance or the stressors scale will tip the wrong way.

So, now I want you to go to your closet, pull out those pants, dress, swim suit….you know the clothing I’m talking about…that one you’re worried won’t fit…YET…

And try it on.

If the button doesn’t close, if there’s just that one spot you don’t like how it fits, don’t worry.

Because you’re going to start today, implementing these tips and see those changes adding up so you can rock this outfit!

Ready to take action?

Book a 15-Minute Action Call so we can help!

–> Book Your Call

FHP 447 – Scared of Gaining Weight? Try This!

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 22, 2022 | podcast

Travel…the holidays…many of us feel like gaining weight is inevitable.

And in the past, it may have been.

But you don’t have to feel doomed to gain weight during the holidays or when you travel.

You just need to consider some strategies to address the patterns that usually add up.

And more importantly, you need to PLAN AHEAD!

So what did I do?

#1: I stopped to assess prior and plan out options.

#2: I focused on doing the minimum and allowing that to build momentum and motivation.

#3: I focused on controlling what I could control aka the meals AROUND holiday meals or vacation meals out. Even using more “strict” ratios and calories prior and after.

#4: I focused on swaps. Where could I swap things at restaurants. How could I swap things in dishes I was prepping to share.

#5: Used fasting strategically.

#6: Never felt guilty.

#7: Realized too often we emphasize the few holidays or vacation days over focusing on the other 300 some odd days of the year….

—

Can’t Do Push ups? Try These 2 Tips

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 20, 2022 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises

Often when we can’t do a move like push ups, we think that there is just muscle weakness we need to address.

So we start doing more strength work for those muscles like our chest or maybe shoulders or triceps.

But even doing this strength work, we can feel like we’re getting no where.

It’s because bodyweight exercises like the push ups are about muscular coordination not just strength. It’s about that mind-body connection.

The correct muscles, recruited in the correct order, to the correct extents.

It’s like an orchestra playing together…you don’t want one instrument playing too fast or too loud. Everything has to work together to make the song sound fabulous.

This is why improving your push ups is about more than just strength. You need not only your chest, shoulders and triceps working together but also your abs engaged correctly so you move efficiently as one unit and even your quads and glutes engaged to create that tension through your body.

It’s full body control and coordination.

Which is why I mentioned the importance of your BACK when it comes to push ups.

I’ve had clients with killer bench presses that can’t bust out 5 push ups in a row.

And I found out this “secret” when actually retraining myself to do push ups properly years ago.

I thought I rocked at push ups. I could bust out 20 easily from my toes.

And then…I saw a video of myself actually doing them.

I realized my push ups were FUUUUGLY.

So I put my ego away and regressed them till I could perform them with perfect form.

I had to modify off an incline to start to feel the correct muscles working, otherwise other areas would compensate.

No wonder I’d had some shoulder and neck aches over the last few months! I was overusing muscles not meant to carry the load.

And what hurt my ego even worse than modifying was the fact that push ups now felt HARDER! I couldn’t do near as many in a row!

It’s because the correct muscles were actually working.

When we first get everything engaged and working correctly, moves can actually feel HARDER as we retrain those movement and recruitment patterns.

As I built back I then realized the missing piece to a powerful press up was my upper back and scapular control.

Yes.

Core strength is key – the push up is a moving plank.

But the often overlooked area of our body that is so essential to that powerful push is our upper back and the ability for our shoulder blades to move correctly.

When you set up for a push up, you should be engaging your back to unshrug your shoulders with your hands outside your chest. You will even feel your shoulder blades slightly pulled forward as you press the ground away.

Then as you lower down in the push up, your shoulder blades should draw together toward your spine, engaging your upper back. This allows you to efficiently load your chest and support your shoulders to then power the press back up while maintaining that perfectly straight line with your body.

As you press back up, your shoulder blades should move away from your spine.

This movement of those shoulder blades is key to help you achieve that full push up from your toes while also helping you avoid neck, upper back and shoulder aches and pains.

Here are the two moves I’ve found so essential to activate your upper back to improve your muscle coordination and movement efficiency so you CAN do push ups.

First is the Scapular Wall Hold.

Honestly, this move is a must do whether you want to improve your push ups or simply your posture.

This isometric is a great way to learn how to engage your upper back to support and stabilize your shoulders while even stretching out your chest.

It’s key to include simply because you’re doing a ton of pressing work even as you’re building up those push ups.

With this move you’re using the resistance of leaning back into the wall to challenge you to engage your upper back.

But you want to think about keeping your shoulders locked down with the sides of your back as you draw your shoulder blades toward your spine to open up your chest.

Don’t arch your lower back or try to walk out further from the wall to try to advance it.

Really just focus on the engagement of your upper back coming from you mentally trying to engage those muscles harder as you draw your shoulder blades together.

Just be conscious your shoulders don’t elevate as you do.

But this stabilized position is a great way to learn how to engage that upper back to power your press.

It will even help you learn how to get that proper engagement to start the push up at the top so your shoulders aren’t shrugged and your elbows don’t want to flare out into that T position during the press back up.

Second is the Scapular Push Up To Dolphin.

By doing this scapular stability work from a plank position, you get the added benefit of core work, which is so key for the push up from your toes as well.

This is the perfect time to train that set up in the plank, driving back through your heels to create the tension up your legs.

Like you would for the push up, you want to unshrug your shoulders when you set up from the plank off your forearms, pressing to even almost drive the ground away with your elbows.

Holding that straight line with your body, you’ll pinch your shoulder blades together without shrugging.

This is the same movement of those shoulder blades as when you lower down in the push up. You’ll then press the ground away to separate your shoulders kind of like they would separate as you push back up in the push up.

Then at the top, lift your butt up and extend your shoulders to push back into almost a downward dog position from your forearms. This is a great spinal mobility drill, but the real bonus is learning how to re-engage your upper back when moving back into plank for the scapular push up.

This engagement helps you learn to really support your shoulders with your back to power your push ups!

If you find you struggle with this move to start as it is easy to try and cheat and drop your hips to think you’re making the scapular movement bigger than it is, you may want to modify off an incline.

Like I had to, you sometimes need to regress to progress and take ego out of it.

If you’re still finding yourself not able to engage things optimally from an incline, you may even want to perform a single arm scapular push up off the wall to start.

This does take some of the core work out of it, but it can be key if you do have any imbalances or a previous injury on one side. It makes sure both sides are working correctly without one taking over.

It can even be a great variation to mix things up in your activation work!

I recommend including both of these moves as part of your activation series in your warm up before any push up work or even your upper body workouts that include pressing.

Include them for 1-2 rounds of 10-15 reps each.

They help you make sure you’re able to engage your chest, shoulders and triceps efficiently.

And for not only form cues, but how I modified the push up to rebuild for picture perfect push ups, check out my Can’t Do Push Ups, Just Do This video.

FHP 446 – Watch Your Language

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 14, 2022 | podcast

Have you ever considered the power of some of the words you use?

I know many of us have read and listened to things discussing how important the way we speak to ourselves is…

But often that even misses the little words that really change our mindset most.

Honestly the power of words is why I will always say “Act as if” and never fake it till you make it.

We don’t realize even sometimes how we are framing things until we see the changes they create.

Or realize the mindsets holding us back.

When I first started out as a trainer, I could have easily said I was faking it.

When someone asked if I could help them with (insert any countless things I hadn’t yet worked with as a newbie trainer), I always said I would find a solution.

And guess what?

I did.

I dove into the research, staying up late on a Friday night with a textbook even on the couch. Following and questioning fellow trainers till they probably felt like I was a mosquito they wanted to squash.

But I learned so much because I never turned down the opportunity.

I honestly never saw it was faking it.

Which is when I realized what I was doing…

I was acting as if.

I was embracing the habits, routines, experiences, lifestyle of someone who would be in the position I wanted to be in.

And that realization paid off in so many areas of my life.

Because as simple a tweak as it seemed to rephrase the thought this way, I realized how much more positive it was.

With “faking it” you didn’t believe you were this thing or necessarily even could become this thing. You weren’t growing into the role. Seeking to live it.

You were FAKING it.

Acting as if though is all about truly doing what is needed.

It changes your perception of your behaviors.

And this lead me to assess other areas I felt small changes to how we thought and phrased things to ourselves could really pay off.

From this, I found two 3 letter words that had oh so much more power than we recognized.

Two 3 letter words that could both detract from our success or encourage us to pursue our goals.

The first word that I found had a big impact is…

BUT

A friends says, “You look fabulous!”

You say back, “Thank you! BUT I have so much further to go.”

So often we put a BUT on accepting a compliment. We put a BUT on our success.

Part of this is in our head to not be bragging, but ultimately what this does is take away from our hard work and wins so far.

It puts us down.

It focuses only on how far we have to go.

And then we wonder why we aren’t happy with the journey. Why we can’t see our own small wins as they add up.

It’s because we always see the BUT in everything.

As tempting as it is to qualify your success, catch yourself next time you go to and just say…

“THANK YOU! I’ve worked really hard to get here!”

Recognize that you’ve put in the work to reap the rewards.

And if you choose to include BUTs when talking to yourself, only use them with your failures.

“Yes, I didn’t hit my macros this week BUT I did do all of my workouts!”

Use but to not detract from your wins but even help you recognize them.

We have to remember we can always reframe things with how we speak to ourselves.

And our thoughts become our actions….whether we realize it or not.

As cliche as the line is…whether we believe we can or we can’t, we’re right!

The other word is…YET

Guess what?

There are lots of things we all can’t do….YET!

And I’m not saying you’ll choose to or want to achieve every goal out there.

And I’m not telling you not to be realistic.

But too often we talk about a goal we want to pursue and say we “can’t” do it.

Maybe a 4 minute mile isn’t in the cards for you.

But why not at least give yourself the respect to realize you can improve!

If you catch yourself saying you can’t do something, put that positive on it. Give yourself the respect to attempt to move forward by saying YET.

I can’t do a pull up…YET.

I can’t hit my macros…YET.

I can’t fit into my fabulous black holiday dress…YET.

Because there is always room for growth. There is always room to improve.

We just haven’t gotten there YET.

But respect you can test those boundaries and prove so much possible if you give yourself the chance.

With YET we take something “concrete” and give ourselves the opportunity.

We can always improve.

Give yourself the chance to mentally by just recognizing you may not be at your goals YET!

SUMMARY:

The language we use with ourselves…well…we hear everything we say to ourselves, positive or negative.

And it makes an impact.

Those beliefs impact how we act.

Changing how we speak to ourselves can go a long way.

And if you want to see just how often we aren’t talking to ourselves like we would a friend, really listen to what your friend is saying to themselves and how you battle against their beliefs.

Really consider if you would be saying what you are to yourself if you were a friend encouraging growth.

I’d love to hear what words you realized were holding you back from embracing your greatness. I’d love to hear you tell me what goals you haven’t achieved YET but plan to while sharing a BRAG without a but about how far you’ve already come! Comment on my Fitness Hacks Blog Post or message me on Instagram or Facebook!