FHP 651 – The Power Of GRIT (You Can Do Hard Things)

by Cori Lefkowith | Aug 20, 2024 | podcast

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Cori (00:00):
Hey guys, this is Cori from Redefining Strength. Welcome to the Fitness Hacks Podcast. This is the show where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m not going to ever fill this episode with sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a review or leave a five star rating or even better share with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes and would mean the world to me and possibly change the life of someone. So let’s jump right in. You can do hard things. Many of you know that my favorite or one of my favorite sayings is suck it up Buttercup, because I think that a lot of times we have to encourage ourselves to overcome the hard, to embrace the difficult situations and sort of pick ourselves up and keep on moving forward. And that’s why I’m super excited today to dive into the power of grit with Sara. Sara is one of my fabulous coach managers. Sara, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Sara (00:56):
Hi, Cori. Thank you so much for having me. I’m super excited as well.

Cori (01:01):
So talking about grit and us being able to do hard things, can you talk a little bit about why this is so important, what grit really is, and then how it can contribute to our success?

Sara (01:13):
Yeah, absolutely. And I would say I want to start with, it’s so important because I felt it in my own life. Just like you said, one of your favorite things is suck it up buttercup. I think so too, and I’ve had to tell myself a similar saying of that over the years and going through hard things for myself. I found that overcoming them, and you can’t get it from going through it. You can’t go under it. You can’t go over it. You have to go through it. And by going through it yourself and overcoming it, it gives you this confidence that you just can’t have by not doing it. Right. So what is grit? I think grit is the secret sauce to getting to your full potential. It’s really finding, well, let me do the definition of it because I think this is important as well.

(02:06):
The definition is courage and resolve or strength of character, and then to have the drive stamina and determination to push through any challenge or obstacle thrown your way until you succeed. And I think that’s so important for us, whether we are on a fitness journey, a health journey, any part of our life, because we can’t earn competence. I’m sorry. We do earn confidence. We don’t just magically get it. We don’t just have it. It is by earned. And so how can we look for hard things is going to give us that confidence that we may be lacking and are wanting.

Cori (02:48):
I love that you bring up that you’ve seen this in your own life. Play out because I think so often we can feel alone in our struggles. We feel like we’re the only one going through the hard that has to encounter it, that they run out of willpower. But really everybody has encountered some sort of struggle in their life and success isn’t the opposite or not having struggles, it is just overcoming them. It’s how many times can you keep picking yourself back up? And we see this confidence, the strength being built physically and mentally and often even on our fitness journeys. We see some of the things that we overcome as translating into confidence in everyday life, like other areas of our life. In terms of how you’ve seen this really play out with clients or how you work with clients to build that grit, what do you do in terms of encouraging it, helping other people overcome struggles? As you said, we’ve all gone through them, but it’s not necessarily easy to embrace that.

Sara (03:42):
I think when working with clients, I will always like to having them take a step back because when we’re in it ourselves, sometimes we’re in the hard, it just sucks, right? You think that you’re the only one. You’re like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe this is happening to me again. And I like to have them really take a step back and really think about, if you were talking to your best friend or your niece, would you say those mean things you say to her or him as you say to ourselves? Because our thoughts and the things we say to ourself are part of that. And so I always say, let’s take a step back. Let’s look at how we’re talking to ourself and then let’s look at this as a challenge and as something that, oh my gosh, think about something in the past you’ve overcome in the heart and you got, how good did you feel on the other side?

(04:34):
Now sometimes it’s a little hard to recognize that when we’re in it, but yet if we have think of it as a challenge and as a growth, this is going to help us grow. Even though it’s hard and even though it sucks, I always share, you’re not alone, but going through that, you’ll come out the other side. And even if it’s just accomplished that you got through it, maybe you don’t win. Maybe you don’t win the race, maybe you feel like a failure, but I believe there’s no failure. It’s always learning. And if we can use that, even that mindset, just like we have to suck it up sometimes, but yet if we think if we’re failing and reframe it as we’re learning and we can actually help our brain refire and feel like it’s learning instead of failing and feeling like a failure,

Cori (05:25):
It really is all that reframing. And going back to talking to yourself as you would a friend, what would you say to them? You wouldn’t say that they were a failure ever just because they didn’t necessarily hit their goal or they didn’t win the race or they did have a little setback. Instead you would encourage them to keep going. You’d say, well, hey, what did you learn from this experience? So I love that you brought up that reframing and even taking that step back to talk to yourself as you would a friend, because I think so often we don’t even recognize the language we’re using with ourselves and how different it would be from how we would encourage somebody else and how that might be holding us back. Speaking about failures, it is something that I feel like often stops us from even getting started, that fear of failing. And I love that you mentioned that it’s really a learning experience. How can you start to embrace the struggles might lead to some setbacks, might lead to not seeing results right away might lead to what feels like failing and recognize that is part of the journey.

Sara (06:22):
I think the thought process around what we’re doing, and a lot of times it’s not actually the fear of failure necessarily, it’s the fear of being seen at somebody’s watching us fail. And I say this myself as well because as I’m just going to use an example. When I ran my first half marathon as a trainer, I felt like I should win. I should be the best. And honestly, I wasn’t very good. I barely finished. And so that kind of felt like a failure in that moment. I mean, I felt really, really proud, don’t get me wrong, but it kind of felt like a failure in that moment, and I just had to really think about it. I would’ve just ran 13 miles. There is no failing about that. I would’ve been happy if I crossed across the finish line. But it’s that mindset of like, okay, are we actually failing or are we worried about what other people think?

(07:18):
And I think that recognizing that too, of if you are afraid of other people seeing you fail again. Because as we go throughout our life, lots of people we’ll say, I’ve tried everything and I failed. But the reality is is that, well, you haven’t tried the right thing, I always say, but it’s also learning to recognize that, don’t use that as letting it down or letting you get down. Use it as this isn’t a failure, this is learning. And at least I’m trying. I do say the cheesy thing, at least I lapped everybody on the couch. And that has gotten me through a lot of times too. But it’s cheesy, but it’s true. There’s lots of people who are not trying and therefore they’re not going to fail, but they’re also not going after their goals and probably feeling super, feeling underwhelmed as well.

Cori (08:11):
What you just mentioned with someone saying they’ve tried everything and failed, it sparks something that I’m like, this is actually very interesting because we think, oh, I’m afraid of failing publicly. There is that sort of not peer pressure, but we don’t want to be seen as a failure in other people’s eyes, but we are trying. And if you’re not trying, that’s more potentially true failure, but then you’re also not putting yourself to actually fail. So there’s a safety mechanism there. But in thinking about that, I’ve tried everything and failed often. We haven’t, as you said, tried the right things, but we haven’t truly tried anything. We’ve said we’re going to do something and we halfheartedly go about doing it. But the second we get to that same hard, we turn back. Instead of risking failing at that next challenge, failing to get to the next level, failing to push our comfort zone, we turn back.

(09:02):
And so in our fear of failure, we fail and we still tell ourselves we’re a failure. So if you start to think about it that way and be like, Hmm, every time I’m turning back, I feel like a failure anyway. Why not push through the hard? Why not take that risk and fall down? Because if you’re going to feel like you failed anyway, might as well actually put yourself out there to be a little uncomfortable, because that’s where we get ourselves stuck in that change loop. We make a new change, we start a new program, but at that same hard point where the going gets rough, where we’re really pushing that comfort zone where we have to stick with things even though results aren’t snowballing, where maybe now we’re publicly announcing a goal and other people might know that we didn’t do it or we didn’t do as well as we’d like, or whatever else it is, we turn back. But again, you can fail in the way that you know, had that setback and that failure, you didn’t accomplish what you wanted or you can just not do it, not put yourself out there for the risk, but still tell yourself you’re a failure anyway. So if you think about that, it’s a very interesting mindset where it’s like, why not do the hard, right?

Sara (10:01):
Yeah, absolutely. And if you think about just what you said with comfort zone, our brain naturally wants to stay in our comfort zone. It wants to keep us safe, and comfort zone is safe. And so just like you said, if we get out of that comfort zone and we push ourselves either way, and I don’t want to say either way, we’re failing because we’re not going to fail either way, but we’re definitely going to learn and grow and feel more like accomplished at the end of the day, if at least we’re trying. And at least we’re focused on what is going to help us, whether it be, again, have a lower body fat percentage, a higher muscle, have it be the clothes you wear, the fit the way that you want to, and or your life, your dream life, those big goals that may be stuffed down.

(10:53):
We all have them and sometimes we got so used to hiding them and stuffing them down because maybe we shared with the wrong people who were stifled our ghost. You can’t do that. Who do you think you are? Maybe somebody really knocked you down when you shared their goal with them. And I like to share, we have to share our goals and our dreams with the right people because people who are farther along than you are never going to put you down. I would never ever find somebody who’s going after their goals and be like, you can’t do that because I’m fighting for mine too. And you’re too, right? But the people who are feeling bad about themselves and aren’t getting to their goals are the ones that are going to stifle everybody. So that’s where I say sharing with the right people and getting around people who are going after their goals, getting into fitness, doing some of those healthy things with their life makes a big difference.

Cori (11:51):
You have to find that community because as you said, the people that often are going to punch down on your goals, trample your goals are the people that are feeling maybe they can’t work towards theirs as well. And it actually came up on a coaching call with clients yesterday, well, how do you even know what’s possible? How do you know what’s a lofty goal and something achievable and something that’s delusional? And I commented back and I just said, I think we all need to be a little bit more delusional in our goals because we don’t truly know what is possible until we prove it possible. And no, there are some things you’re like, okay, realistically I’m not going to accomplish this, or genetically I’m not going to get any taller. There’s certain things we can’t change at the same time. There’s so much that we really can control if we give ourself the opportunity to move forward.

(12:35):
And if you shoot for 10 times and end up only achieving two times, you’re still going to have moved forward and probably seen a lot more progress than you thought possible than you even wanted before. You might amaze yourself in what you’ve overcome, and that can translate to even success in other areas. So it is very important that we find that community, but also in finding that community, you’re going to recognize how the most successful people have failed the most. I mean, think about the movies we like to watch, we to watch people who have overcome things that have had setbacks and keep going. And so we’re our own hero or heroine. Why don’t we want to write that story ourselves and celebrate our failures as part of our journey to the success that we’ve had, knowing that we wouldn’t be where we are without them? Right?

Sara (13:21):
Yeah, absolutely. I think sometimes we just with that example of we don’t always want to share while we’re in it don’t always, sometimes we’re embarrassed. We have thoughts that aren’t. We’re like, oh, I don’t want to share, but we recognize what we overcame and then we’ll share more down the road. But I find the most value is that if we can share with people, whether it be a coach like me or with your bestie or with people that while you’re going through it and really learn while you’re going through it, because the most we forget really fast, all of us do, right? Sometimes, sometimes it’s like, what did I say yesterday? So if we write it down, if while we’re going through it, and even if it’s writing down everything that you can think of and journaling, and then maybe a day, maybe a week, we reflect on it and we reflect of what could I have done differently?

(14:19):
If anything, sometimes it is, sometimes it’s like say we feel we failed at a party. Sometimes it was that what we could have done differently is that we ate more protein before we went. We were more cognizant of going and starving. And sometimes it’s like I did the best I could with what I had. I wouldn’t really change anything. And now I know moving forward I can get through that, not always feeling like I’m failing at it, but yet at the same time, moving forward, going through it while you’re in it and learning from it. And I think that growth piece of there is just like you said, being your own heroine, your own hero. What would you do? What would you say to somebody else? And I say that a lot to my clients as well, because we are the worst critics to ourselves.

(15:02):
Believe me. I’ve said the meanest things to myself and I’ve ever said, I would never say what I’ve said to myself in the past to anybody else, but at the same time, we can learn to capture those thoughts. We can capture those maybe the mean girl inside of you and use it to our advantage to then find more hard things because we went through this hard thing. And sometimes if you do something hard and you go through, it could be totally non-related of I want to do more hard things, nervous, even me this morning, I’m nervous, but yet nervous and excitement are so close together. I’ve changed my words. I’m no longer nervous. I’m excited. And so I’m excited to look for hard things. That doesn’t mean I don’t still feel fear, but we just learned to move through it and grow through it and really find then afterwards, man, it feels so good.

Cori (15:54):
It is reminding yourself of how good it feels in overcoming something. And even in embracing more hard things, you become more comfortable being uncomfortable in different ways. So it is that growth mindset and there are lots of different ways to approach it, and you’ve got to find what works for you. It might be saying, Hey, I turned back at a specific wall. I’ve got to lower the wall a little bit in order to go over this first hurdle. Maybe you break down the changes so they’re not quite as hard and it’s just pushing your comfort zone a little bit. So it’s slowly expanding versus you just punch punching through and running away from it. So you can maybe sometimes break things down, but even off of that, sometimes the other approach of overwhelming yourself even more makes it easier. We talk a lot about breaking down habit changes, breaking down the hard so that it’s more manageable and it’s not pushing your comfort zone quite so much so that you want to run away in fear.

(16:42):
But I also think that sometimes just giving yourself way too much can be good. While it can create overwhelm often it can also create a feeling of, well, I’m going to fail, and that’s almost freeing this thing of like, well, this is just way too hard. There’s no way I can do all of this and this time, therefore I’m just do what I can. And there’s something freeing and feeling like if it’s too much and you’re just guaranteed to fail, it’s like, okay, well, I’m not a failure because it’s sort of guaranteed, so then I’m just going to see what I can accomplish. And then getting that momentum going forward. Ultimately you do achieve that goal and you overcome a lot of hard stuff. So I think it’s really stepping back sometimes, as you said, to learn about yourself, reflect on the experience, but see how your mindset is and how you’ve handled hard things in the past and trying to overcome them.

(17:25):
Because it might be that you’ve overwhelmed yourself and you need to back off, or it might be that maybe you’re giving yourself two small pieces. And so when you fail at these things that you feel like should be easy, that makes you turn back. And so if you actually overwhelm yourself and tell yourself that you’re just, it’s going to be hard, you’re going to fail. You’re automatically freed from that because it’s just sort of an assured thing. And so anything you accomplish is great in terms of how you approach stuff with clients, getting them to take that first step because again, it is that growth mindset. It is reminding ourselves of how we’re talking to friends and using that language with ourselves. What would be one step you would have a client take forward if they’re like, I’ve always turned back at the heart and I feel myself hitting that ceiling right now.

Sara (18:06):
I always like to in that moment, go back to your why. And I think that our why is one of the most important things I have seen ultimately, clients overcome so many things when their why was strong enough. So for example, this is a one that I’ve seen a lot of big ones, is that they get a diagnosis from their doctor, and it’s either this or this. It’s either you’re on medication or you’re doing something or that type of thing. So that is a big smack in the face, but we don’t always get that right. So to think about it as a smaller thing, what is your why? Because when we take away all of the nitty gritty, how hard maybe exercise is or how hard tracking our food is or how hard it is to say no to our favorite drinks when we’re out on the boat in the summer, those things are challenging.

(18:59):
But if we think about what our why is and typically our why is related to inspiring others, whether it be our children, our grandchildren, or our nieces, nephews, that type of thing. And so when we think of that and we think about our deep why, it comes back to I don’t want maybe someone else to go through what I went through. And that makes the hard things, the hard small things, maybe that roadblock, like you said, right? That roadblock that we ran into of like, well, why are you doing this? Why is it important to you? Is this, even though it feels big at the time, being very aware of this probably feels like a big roadblock to you right now. But in that grand scheme of things, what would you do if you got gritty and you climbed the wall with a rope, right?

(19:45):
Think about your hands bleeding and get very visual. We think about our hands bleeding, climbing that rope, but that’s what it takes to get over it. So in our mind, we’re using that as a roadblock and it feels like a roadblock. But what about just like a GPS? You turn it on and they’ll reroute, reroute, and that’s what we have to do. Maybe the path that we’re on isn’t the exact path, but don’t quit. Don’t go to the easier thing. Don’t jump to the next thing, but use that. This is hard in the moment. I have to go back to my why. I have to remember why I am doing this, and then go through the hard and visualize those hard things. It makes me laugh when I say it out loud, but these are things that when you think about your really hard part and physical, the rope in your hands and how much that hurts and the blisters you might get, that’s what this is about. It is about the hard parts in our brain and overcoming them as well,

Cori (20:45):
Maybe it makes me really sick, but the second you’re talking about climbing that rope your hand’s bleeding, but you keep going. I’m like, yeah, that’s instantly what my brain does. The motivation comes back. You talk about how motivation is sweeting, but we can create it through that. And even in that, when you’re talking about your why, sometimes we go, oh, well, I want to lose five van 80 pounds. Maybe I’m not really motivated to do this. But it’s always tied to something deeper. And part of what it can simply be tied to is us proving to ourselves we can accomplish something we thought we couldn’t, that we had the commitment, the willpower, the drive, the determination, the confidence to accomplish something that seemed like it was habits, challenges, or changes that we weren’t able to do before. Because I bring this up a lot of times where I first wanted to get leaner, I would make the excuse, I liked food too much, I can’t do this.

(21:32):
It’s not really important to me. And at some point I was like, but it’s not really about the aesthetic goal. It’s about the fact that I keep telling myself I can’t make all these hard habit changes because I just don’t have the willpower. And I want to prove to myself how much stronger I actually am that I can have control over anything I choose to have control over that I can work towards any goal I set, even if this one might be more of a vanity goal. But we have to remember that that confidence, that strength is built through what we overcome, and it’s only through pushing the hard that we’re going to achieve it, that people aren’t just naturally sort of gifted with this. Yes, people have more confidence, less confidence, it can seem natural, but a lot of it is built through how they push themselves to keep moving forward through things. And I love that visual because for me, right away when you’re saying that, I’m like, yes, okay, I’m going to go. I’m going to do this. Let’s climb. Let’s go push through the heart. There is a good feeling to it.

Sara (22:24):
Exactly. And I think I always laugh, and we talked about this before too, but as trainers, we almost love that physical piece of where you hate us in the moment, but you’re going to love me in about two hours. So I think when we can learn to recognize that in ourselves as well, I know why it’s so hard in the moment because we’re pushing you past your limit. And then in, like I said, a couple hours, whether it’s the endorphins, the endorphin rush that we get, or when you get those goals, that’s what all that hard work was about. And being like you said, maybe it feels it’s just not that important. However, when you get up every morning, what do we have to do? We all have to put on clothes. Well, I hope we do. Right? Some sort of clothes, some, and if you feel confident right out of the gate in the morning, yeah, I feel good. I got my clothes. Or you feel frumpy and you feel down, how do you think that affects our day? It either sets you on the trajectory of, and I’m not saying you’re always going to have a great day because your clothes fit, but it sets you on the trajectory of having a small win, just like making our bed a small win in the morning that helps set the other day, the rest of the day, excuse me, to be on, even if it’s a little bit better of a mindset.

Cori (23:46):
And it comes back to you have so much power and control over that. And even just looking in the mirror and smiling at yourself to yourself, as silly as it might seem, can really change that mindset. Flip the script, put you on that trajectory to want to overcome more things. Because the more you do, the more you do, the more you put yourself out there to overcome things, the more confident and stronger you feel. Any closing thoughts, Sarah? For somebody who’s like, I’ve really struggled to have that grit to believe that I can do hard things.

Sara (24:16):
Yeah, I think, and one of the things that I hear a lot too is like, well, I don’t have confidence in myself because I have not things. And I would say kind of like you said, mentioned earlier about setting realistic goals, and I agree sometimes we have to go with something so big that is exciting. I’m a big dreamer and I share this a lot. I have to go so big. So it’s exciting. So that way, and again, you have to then chunk it down to make smaller goals. So something like, today I’m going to drink more water. You start there and then you follow through with one small thing and then you’re like, right, got four days, got seven days. Maybe one day you had a crappy day at work and you forgot. Instead of beating ourselves up and being, see, I can’t even do the small things.

(25:11):
We’d get back on again because if you do six out of seven days, it’s still better than zero out of seven. But we’re recognizing that it doesn’t always have to be this huge, huge thing that you’re going to get right away, but for having a big goal and for doing something exciting, having that and knowing that each little thing matters and each little thing that you’re going to do. And I always say, what is the biggest needle mover? Because I do think that there are many things that we can do and we can get overwhelmed with, I have to eat good, I have to exercise, I have to do. That’s kind of how my brain feels too. I’m like, but if we start with the small thing and we think of it as this small thing is going to get me to the next thing and then to the next thing, it takes away that fear of the big, hard, big failure, but yet it keeps you excited because maybe it’s something that you are really passionate about.

(26:05):
That’s where grit comes. We have to have that passion. We have to have that perseverance and then the resilience and that resilience is by going through it, maybe taking a couple steps back, but the great saying, get up, dust off your jeans and keep going. And so last thing I would say is instead of feeling like you are stuck or in a really hard spot, even though you may truthfully be knowing that finding hard things, getting around, having your community, getting around people who are doing things, you are naturally going to want to do it. You’re going to feel the energy, you’re going to feel how they feel. Maybe you go watch something and you feel that energy. And so getting around them, getting around people who are doing hard things and you recognize I can do hard things too, because you can.

Cori (27:02):
I love that finding that energy because I do think that’s so key. And whether it’s creating it through the community, through your visualization, through remembering the purpose of all the little things you’re doing, you can really create that motivation in the moment to keep going. And then it’s celebrating each of those things. And I do like that you said break it down with purpose and the find the biggest needle movers, because I think those things give us motivation in that we’re seeing progress forward. We have the purpose to each thing we’re doing, so we understand why, because that’s so important over just being like, well, I’m doing this because I was told to do it right. You see a greater bigger picture with it basically. And then on top of that, it’s like celebrating each of those things that you’ve accomplished as an accomplishment, because so often we write them off and only focus on where we have to go still.

(27:44):
Instead of looking back in our rear view mirror to recognize how far we’ve come and when we see all that we’ve already even overcome on the journey, it can help motivate us to keep pushing. But I love that idea of finding that energy because I think often we do get psyched up by those things, and that can give us that little extra to push through on those times where we’re feeling a little down or we’re counting that hard to have that grit to keep moving forward because we can do hard things and strengthen confidence or built through what we overcome. Thanks for listening to the Fitness Hack podcast. Again. This is the place where I share all my free workout and nutrition tips. I’m never going to run sponsorships or ask you to buy anything. All I ask in return is if you’re enjoying the podcast to leave a rating, review or share it with someone you think it might help. This will only take a few minutes, and it would mean the world to me and possibly change life with someone.

The Most Underrated Hip Mobility Exercise (Not Stretching)

by Cori Lefkowith | Aug 18, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief

If you’re frustrated not seeing your mobility and flexibility improve, it’s time to not just focus on your prehab and warm up but also how you’re truly using the moves in your workouts.

Because so often we do all of this work to try to have our joints be able to move in every direction as our muscles can stretch further…

Only to then go strengthen through a limited range of motion in our workouts.

We do half squats.

We don’t lunge all the way down.

And all this does is cause us to tighten back up because we are only strengthening muscles and building stability through a very limited range of motion.

We are training muscles to be shortened. Not to mention a huge part of what allows for greater joint mobility is a joint feeling STABLE through the range of motion.

And stability is muscles being able to power and control the full range of motion.

So if we are lifting in a way that isn’t working a joint through the range of motion we’re building, like our hips, we’re just going to end up frustrated feeling like we’re wasting time on prehab to just have our hips be constantly tight.

And increasing the range of motion you do your lifts through isn’t just going to pay off for mobility purposes….

There is amazing research showing that by putting a muscle under greater stretch with loads, we may see better muscle and strength gains faster.

That’s why one of the most important components of mobility you need to stop ignoring is your range of motion in your lifting sessions!

And this is why I want to share one of my favorite lunge variations for functional strong hips.

The bonus too of doing increased range of motion exercises like this lunge is that they will pay off in better strength gains, progressing moves without adding loads or fancy equipment.

You may even find you have to go lighter than you normally would by just adding a few more inches you’re working through!

Changing the range of motion can make exercises harder, changing postures, muscle activation and even adding instability.

It’s progression through the same but different.

Now it is key to note that a “full range of motion” will vary person to person.

This doesn’t mean you should be trying to force ass to grass squats if you can’t keep your heels down and load the movement correctly.

We will each have different builds that will impact what full movements are right for us.

It is though why you may want to check your ego at times, lower the weights and focus on instead increasing the range of motion you are working through.

It’s why you may want to swap in a single leg squat even to a lower box over your normal heavy back squat.

That focus on a unilateral move through a bigger range of motion can help you see huge improvements in your mobility and even your heavy lifts!

It’s also why performing a balance lunge or bulgarian split squat with your back foot raised can help you make the move harder while helping you better build and maintain the mobility you’re working hard for.

But if you’re going to use a tool that increases the range of motion, and often adds instability as well, you actually need to move through that now larger movement and fully control it.

Too often we do balance lunges and don’t drop our knee to the ground. We don’t use the range of motion we’ve added.

So while having our back foot up may have added instability, we aren’t really getting the full benefit. We aren’t strengthening the hip mobility and flexibility we built in our warm up.

It’s why we need to find ways to slowly increase the range of motion and work through it.

It’s why I wanted to share one of my favorite balance lunge alternatives to focus on improving hip mobility and stability – The Deficit Split Squat.

This is a very quad intensive move and often really gets you feeling that rectus femoris, or the only quad muscle that connects at both your hips and knee.

But it is a great way to take that split squat up a notch when you can complete the full range of motion from the ground.

Because moves like the split squat are basically hip stretches. Ones we just load down to strengthen muscles.

And the Deficit Split Squat is deceptively hard. So start with adding only a very small rise under your front foot.

This rise under your front foot over your back one, is a great way to work on your ankle and hip mobility in a very quad focused way.

It is also often easier for us to control and control without adding in a hip hinge.

Often with the balance lunge, we struggle to go as low and tend to include a bit more glute loading, hinging slightly at the hips.

While not bad, it does prevent us from training that hip extended position.

That’s where the Deficit Split Squat can be key.

Raising that front foot will help you focus on that back hip being extended as you sink deeper than you would if you were just lunging to the ground, putting those hip flexors under stretch.

And you’ll also find yourself loading your quads and feel that ankle mobility of your front leg being trained and tested as you keep that heel down.

You want to sink straight down not shift forward or backward.

When you stand up, you’ll also find your front leg stays slightly bent. This extra time under tension only serves to make your legs work harder.

This is why sometimes not just thinking about adding weight to moves can be so key to us seeing better results while progressing exercises to challenge ourselves.

As you can control the range of motion, you may add more of a rise or add weights. Sometimes if you can’t yet work through a slightly bigger range of motion, loads can be key!

But focus on that control through that full range of motion as you slowly build it up.

So instead of trying to add in more and more mobility work, swap in the Deficit Split Squat for your normal split squat or front lunge and see your mobility work finally paying off!

And if this range of motion is too much for you and you want to build up from where you’re starting from, you can use these same principles but in the opposite way.

If you can’t sink more than an inch or two in a split squat, give yourself a block to kneel down to as a guide to go lower.

Use a slight balance element to help assist you.

And for all of these variations, consider starting bottom up to make sure you’re set up in a range of motion you can control without momentum.

But don’t just excuse partial ranges of motion and then complain you’re not seeing flexibility and mobility improvements!

Strengthen through that full range of motion!

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How to Build Muscle and Lose Fat At Any Age (7 TIPS!)

by Cori Lefkowith | Aug 11, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Age is a number. Strength is a choice.

Plain and simple.

You can’t change your age. You can’t reverse that number.

But at ANY time, you can change your lifestyle habits to feel and move your best.

Whether we want to admit and OWN this responsibility…well that’s another question.

Sorry some tough love but it is true even if I ruffled your feathers.

I can tell you that this isn’t personal opinion either or based on a single “elite” individual.
I’ve seen clients starting their fitness journeys at 50, 63, 74 and older….more times than I can count.

It’s NEVER too late to start.

But the longer you wait to move forward, the more you put off even ONE. SMALL. CHANGE…

The harder you make it on yourself.

And the more you’re going to feel your age working against you.

Because how old we feel has very little to do with that actual number.
It has more to do with our lifestyle CHOICES.

Ignore aches and pains?

They’ll add up.

Ignore poopy dieting practices?

They’ll add up.

Control what you can control…and you’ll be amazed at how confident, strong and FABULOUS you feel till your final day on this planet.

Getting older doesn’t have to mean feeling old.

And while I believe that, yes, our body does change with age as do our needs and potentially goals, we can feel freaking FANTABULOUS at any and every age if we choose to put in the WORK.

Here are 7 tips to help you lose fat as you build muscle so you can feel strong at ANY and EVERY age…

#1: Stop saying “some day.”

Honestly the most common reason we don’t see results is we fail to take action.

We don’t ever actually start making changes.

How many of us are guilty of getting super excited, buying another program…then never actually using the program?!

Far too many of us!

But if nothing changes nothing changes.

And the longer we wait, often the further we slide from our goals and the more bad habits we have to undo.

So if “some day” is going to be the right day…why not make “some day” TODAY?!

#2: Stop restricting. Focus on nutrition by addition!

Eat less. Cut out the foods you love.

This is how many of us have dieted in the past for fat loss.

No wonder we hate making changes to our nutrition.

No wonder we lose weight to only regain it when we run out of willpower!

This approach to dietary changes is miserable!

It’s also why we feel like getting older means metabolic slow down and gaining weight if we even look at a cookie.

So we need to change our approach and focus on eating more to fuel our activity level and support our lean amazing muscle mass.

Even if we want to lose fat, we can’t cut our calories super low.

Often as we get older, we need to focus on eating more.

If you’re thinking, “But I’m not hungry!”

If you want to lose fat and gain muscle, you may have to embrace the process of retraining your body to eat more.

Because often we’ve trained our body to function off of less through previous dieting practices while also seeing a natural decline in our appetite with age.

But if we don’t eat to fuel, we risk losing more muscle, which is already harder to build and retain as we get older,

not to mention we may see fat creep on as we try to starve ourselves to lose!

That’s why we want to focus on nutrition by addition for body recomp over cutting things out.

Focus on adding in more nutrient dense foods, like fruits and vegetables.

Focus on increasing your protein to support the strength gains you’re working hard to achieve in the gym.

But focus on what you can first ADD IN to make changes.

#3: Embrace the 80/20 rule.

We sabotage our own success by forcing some “ideal” on ourselves that isn’t realistic for our lifestyle or needs.

We force clean eating standards that make us feel guilty for including a slice of pizza.

Or a handful of candy.

We force restrictions on ourselves that just simply aren’t sustainable.

And while not every habit change we make will feel easy, we can’t just be relying on willpower.

We don’t have to be perfect to see progress.

By embracing giving ourselves a bit more grace we can actually create consistency so results can build.

Instead of shooting for 100% perfection, and making ourselves feel guilty for being human, we should focus on the 80/20 rule.

Own that 20% of the time, life is going to get in the way and that isn’t a bad thing!

By giving ourselves that little bit of grace, we ultimately create better consistency not only over the weeks, but months and years.

And that is what adds up.

Because losing fat as you build lean muscle is a slow process. You can’t out diet or out exercise time.

And too often we strive for this perfection we can’t maintain only to find ourselves implementing…well…not even 10% of what we should for more than a few weeks.

When, if we had expected less, we probably would have seen far more habits built and results begin to snowball.

So while not plan for some deviation to start?

Focus on those whole natural foods 80% of the time with working in the things you love.

Focus on pushing in your workouts and creating a schedule that fits your lifestyle while accepting the occasional missed session or session where you’re just not feeling it that day and need to modify.

Create that 80/20 balance so you aren’t constantly starting over and blaming your age for things getting harder and harder!

#4: Let go of what used to work.

What worked for you a decade ago, may not work for you now.

Your body, your lifestyle, your needs are all different.

And your workout routine and diet need to evolve.

So the more you constantly compare to what used to work… To what you used to be able to do…The less you’re meeting your body where it is at now.

So stop saying, “I used to get away with..” because that may be part of why you’re even struggling now!

And ultimately, results happen by us meeting ourselves where we are at NOW to create a clear path forward.

Don’t search for some ideal. Don’t cling to dieting and training practices from your past.

Track what you’re CURRENTLY DOING and what you CURRENTLY NEED and build off of that.

If you’re just starting back to training, modify so you’re craving more over feeling so sore you can’t get consistent.

If you’re eating a ton of carbs, don’t tell yourself to cut out all carbs.

Maybe just tweak the types of carbs your consuming at one meal.

Our body and mind don’t like change and the more habits are STACKED and built off of what we are currently doing, the easier the changes are and the more results snowball.

So focus on where you are now. Not where you used to be or what used to work.

#5: Train that mind-body connection.

You know those complicated coordination or agility moves you want to avoid?

The awkward unilateral or balance moves you want to skip?

Don’t.

Those moves are so key to staying functional fit and strong till your final day on this planet.

And many of those moves that test our mind-body connection are also essential for us seeing better body recomp faster.

Because the longer we’ve trained for, and often the older we get the longer we’ve been working out, the more we’ve adapted to be able to handle in our training.

It’s why we’ve gotten stronger and can run further and cycle faster.

That means we need to find new ways to challenge ourselves.

While adding more weights or heavier loads is a key component, it’s not the only way to create progression.

We also need to focus on what we feel working and include those awkward, unstable, even complicated moves.

By focusing on what we feel working with moves that make us feel awkward, we improve our ability to recruit muscles quickly to the correct extents in the correct order.

And this is what helps us get stronger and move more efficiently. It’s what helps us even keep our reaction times quicker for every day life.

So don’t shy away from those forms of training that make you uncomfortable! They may just be the key to seeing better body recomp as you get older!

#6: Own the changes.

Your body doesn’t have the same hormonal environment that it once did.

Your lifestyle and time and energy commitments may not be the same as they once were.

So?

Stop using these changes as an excuse.

Instead address them.

Our hormonal environment isn’t as optimal for fat loss or muscle growth.

And often those quick fix previous dieting and training practices we used to see results in the past have now created issues and adaptations we have to address.

Own what’s going on now and account for it.

You can do this by increasing your protein intake since you are less able to utilize protein as efficiently and we are also at greater risk for losing muscle as we get older.

But not only do you want to increase your daily protein intake, you may want to increase portions at each meal as more protein in one sitting can be key to creating that same muscle building response.

And you may also find that with getting older, your recovery has slowed.

Instead of letting this sabotage how hard you can train,

change up your workout split to allow you to keep training hard but give areas the rest they need.

Stop skipping your warm up routine to get in that prehab work which pays off for recovery.

Or adjust your nutrition and focus on increasing your water intake while addressing nutrient gaps, like not getting enough magnesium.

Control what we can control and address the changes over just writing yourself off because of them!

#7: Take things back to basics.

It’s easy when it feels like nothing is working to seek out MORE to add onto what we’re doing.

Doing more makes us feel in control.

The idea of something new that is magical excites us.

But no matter our age, we are NEVER beyond those basics.

And so often in adding in more when nothing is working, we’ve overcomplicated things and made a mess of the basic systems we need.

So if you’re struggling to see results, go back to basics.

Strip back all the fluff and return to just those fundamentals.

Focus on a simple lifting routine.

Focus on tracking your macros and focusing on protein.

Then off of these basics, tweak and adjust.

But sometimes we need to strip everything away and simplify to get rid of the extra work we’re putting in that is actually just making us spin our wheels.

Step back to move forward.

Just remember, you have so much within your power to adjust and control to feel your most fabulous at any and every age.

Don’t let that number define you!

Build your leanest, strongest body at any and every age…And if you’re looking for that personalized program to help, check out my 1:1 Coaching!

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15 Tips to Build Muscle

by Cori Lefkowith | Aug 4, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Struggling to see the muscle gains you want?

Stop blaming your age.

Stop blaming your genetics.

While these things impact how we may design our workouts and diet to help us achieve results, they are within our power to address.

Because the real reason we aren’t seeing the results we want is because a system is off.

There isn’t one magic move or food that will make everything work.

It’s all the components of your plan that work together.

An amazing move or workout routine done with improper fueling will lead to lackluster results.

A perfect diet can’t create progression in your training.

So if you aren’t seeing results, stop blaming things outside your control and instead take a step back to look at your lifestyle and make small adjustments to meet yourself where you are at so your lifestyle is moving you forward.

Here are 15 reasons why I often see clients not achieving the muscle gains they want.

And I will tell you…some of these you are mentally going to resist because they are things that “worked” in the past.

They may have been key to us achieving our weight loss or fat loss goals even.

But what works to get us to one goal may not only not work to get us to the next…

It may even hold us back!

Not to mention, our body and needs change over time.

And this actually brings me to the very unsexy first reason we don’t see the muscle gains we want…

We think it should be easier to see results because we’re an experienced exercise.

While you may feel it should be “easier” to see results because you’re an advanced worker-outer, this will actually make your progress SLOWER.

So recognize that change takes time and the more you have a foundation already built, the more small tweaks can have an impact.

You’ve adapted to more. It’s why you’ve gotten stronger and fitter.

But this also means that details matter more!

Get ready to embrace changes if you want to focus on those muscle gains…

And one of the surprisingly most common reasons I see clients not achieving the muscle gains they want is…

They’re not eating enough.

There can be a slight fear about eating more when you’ve just lost weight.

This is why increasing your calories after a weight loss phase has to be a slow process of even just 100 calories added to your daily intake and maintained for weeks before further increases.

You need to retrain your body to eat more.

But in this process of eating more, you are supplying your body with the extra energy it needs to not only train hard to build muscle but also support that muscle growth.

Not only does increasing muscle mean you need to eat more to maintain that newly added muscle, but there are other changes with increasing calories that actually mean your body uses more calories even at rest.

If you are struggling to build muscle, it may be time to increase your calories even if you aren’t feeling hungry.

We have to remember that hunger cues are partly TRAINED from even previous dieting practices.

So to build muscle, track and increase those calories slowly.

You can’t stay in a calorie deficit and efficiently build muscle especially if you’re at your desired leanness level. And even as you then see the scale creep up with muscle being gained, you may need to increase your calories further.

You may also have to let go of specific meal timings – such as fasted training.

The more advanced a trainee you are, the harder it gets to build muscle.

And as we get older, we are less able to build and retain lean muscle as well.

These aren’t excuses, they’re just facts that can and need to be addressed.

And besides making sure you’re eating enough, this may mean adjusting your meal timing.

The fasted training that used to work, may not be giving you the immediate fuel your body needs nor helping you create that anabolic environment for muscle growth.

And I say this as a person who really loves to train fasted at times. BUT…what works for one goal or stage of life doesn’t always work for another.

To be able to train harder and help your muscles recover better, you may need that pre-workout snack with especially some carbs. Having full energy stores can be key.

So consider even just breaking your fast with a small snack prior to your training session if you really want to see those muscle gains.

Now you may be thinking, “No! I’m low carb! I’m not giving up fasting and adding more carbs!”

But this carbphobia may be holding you back.

While low carb can be helpful for some during a weight loss phase, especially during menopause, carbs really do help create that hormonal balance and anabolic environment for muscle growth.

They give you the immediate fuel your body otherwise has to work hard to get from fats or protein so you can truly push hard and work at the intensity you need to create progression in your training.

Because we NEED to feel energized if we want to train hard to build muscle. Working at a zapped 100% intensity just isn’t going to drive growth efficiently especially if we’ve trained for decades and have adapted to a great training stimulus.

Before I move into some workout mistakes often holding clients back, I wanted to highlight one more nutritional piece which is so key…

PROTEIN.

Our body is made up of protein and the protein we consume isn’t just used for building muscle.

If we don’t prioritize getting enough, not only will our muscles not have the fuel they need to rebuild and grow, but our hard training sessions may actually be leading to muscle loss, especially the more cardio they are (which I’ll touch on next).

Because our muscles are also our biggest reserve of amino acids. So if your body feels it needs amino acids for other functions or to recover from your training sessions, you may actually be turning to your muscle…

Which completely defeats the purpose of your training sessions in the gym.

So make protein at each meal you eat a priority. And don’t fear increasing protein portions per meal to even up to 40 grams.

This can be key as we are less able to utilize protein as efficiently as we get older so getting MORE is needed to create the same stimulus for muscle growth.

Now going back to why cardio may be hindering your muscle gains…

There are two issues I see popping up with clients and how they include cardio in their workouts…

One they’re putting cardio first in the session.

And two, they’re simply doing too much steady state cardio.

If you love your cardio workouts, your long bike rides or runs, I’m not telling you not to do them. But you also need to know the COST of these sessions if you’re frustrated by not building muscle.

Because that steady state cardio at that intensity greater than walking is more catabolic to muscle mass and will often leave you depleted for your strength sessions.

It’s kind of like taking one step back for every two steps forward.

You can still move forward, you’re just making it harder and really have to tweak your fueling and other strength workouts to account for that.

So if you want the fastest results, cut back on your steady state cardio workouts and mileage for a bit, don’t turn your strength workouts into cardio by cutting out rest and time any cardio you do on days between that won’t fatigue you for future workouts or AFTER your strength session.

While you may put cardio first in your day if you’re training for a race, what you put first gets you when you’re freshest.

You want to be freshest for your lifts!

And being fresh and energized for each session is key because you need to create true progression in your strength workouts to see results.

Driving muscle growth means you’re going to feel uncomfortable, both mentally and physically.

You need to push hard and even at times push to a true failure. You need to keep progressing moves whether through loads, tempos, variations, perfection in form, volume…week over week.

This is incredibly taxing at times and may lead to you needing a deload week at points because you’re even just mentally feeling burned out from the strain.

But too often I see clients just pushing till it feels “hard” but never really pushing their comfort zone.

They stop at 12 reps not because they had to, but because it felt hard enough and that was the top end of the reps given.

NOPE! You’ve got to at points fail with a weight or variation to truly test those limits if you want to build muscle faster and know your pushing!

So get ready to feel uncomfortable.

But just note…uncomfortable doesn’t just mean feeling destroyed or sore from every workout.

Actually constantly feeling beat down or constantly seeking to be sore may be why you aren’t seeing the muscle gains you want.

Because soreness isn’t an indicator that a workout was hard enough or that we’re going to see better muscle gains.

While muscle tissue damage is one driver of muscle growth and can lead to muscle soreness, it isn’t the only driver of muscle growth.

And if you’re following a clear workout plan and progressing week over week, you shouldn’t always be sore from the calculated progress.

Honestly often we are so sore because something isn’t CORRECT in our plan.

We’re…

Not fueling well so we’re not truly rebuilding from our training.
We’re not including proper recovery work so that our muscles have that time to repair and rebuild stronger.
We’re not creating a clear progression that we repeat week over week but just randomly stringing together new things. And new alone will make you sore while actually not driving that progressive overload to see results.

So stop just seeking to be sore and instead follow a clear plan where week over week you can make incremental changes.

And jumping around too much is a very common mistake I see clients making.

It’s easy to want to chase something better, especially when we see all these new and exciting things on social media promising faster results.

But we get good at what we consistently do.

We need to have a weekly schedule we repeat week over week so we can truly track progress.

Don’t allow yourself to get distracted. Create that clear plan and repeat it, working in new things over time.

But constantly jumping around keeps you stuck starting over again and again never achieving the build needed for results.

Now here’s the important flip side to that…you also can’t get so married to one type of training, one type of move that you don’t at points change things up.

At some point, you can’t just keep adding weight.

At some point you do need a new training technique or exercise to create progression through the same but different.

So set those end dates where you adjust your training progression over just continuing to cling to what used to work.

Just because supersets worked in the past doesn’t mean 6-12-25 may not now be better since you’ve adapted to that other training stimulus.

So often we don’t see the opportunity in little tweaks like that, especially as we are more advanced and we can’t just keep adding loads to certain moves or training more frequently or for longer!

And one of those tweaks I see too often ignored for muscle building, and too often overused for fat loss, is isolation moves.

If you have a specifically stubborn area, you need to hone in on it.

While compound moves are amazing to help you burn more calories and be efficient in your training sessions while lifting more weight to drive muscle growth, areas that you struggle to gain in need the extra attention.

Isolation moves can help you really hone in and work an area to fatigue, recruiting more muscle fibers to help create that stimulus for muscle growth.

Isolation moves can be included in so many different ways whether you want to pre-fatigue a muscle, tiring out a harder to fatigue muscle slightly before a compound lift to be able to use lighter loads while working to failure…

Or use them to end your workout and fully fatigue one of the muscles worked during compound exercises earlier on.

But don’t ignore the importance of isolating stubborn muscles if you want to build muscle.

(If you’re looking for amazing workouts to help you build muscle and lose fat, check out my Dynamic Strength program…sorry shameless plug for these fun workouts you can do anywhere!)

Now the final reason I see clients not achieve the muscle gains they want is not valuing quality over quantity with everything they do.

So often we just seek to do MORE, use more supplements, implement more techniques, add on more we have to do or manage into our diet and workout plans.

Instead we need to get good at those basics.

We need to have that solid plan we follow and set end dates so we can assess and tweak.

And we need to focus on really perfecting the habits that we do.

Focus on the quality of your reps and what you feel working in your workouts.

Focus on hitting your macros consistently.

Don’t get distracted by supposedly magic pills or fancy tools that only add complexity.

Stay focused on your plan and get really good at doing it, improving week after week.

And while I know I gave you 15 reasons why you may not be seeing results…Don’t feel like you need to address all of them, especially all at once.

Find just ONE that you can adjust and dial that in first. Focus on getting really consistent with the change and then build off of that.

It will amazing you how simplifying and dialing in even just one of these habit changes with a focus on quality leads to faster muscle building results than you thought possible no matter your age!

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