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The Best Workout (You Aren’t Doing)

The Best Workout (You Aren’t Doing)

by | Dec 11, 2022 | Blog, Diet, fat loss-featured, Workouts

It can be simply overwhelming trying to figure out how to design the best workout to tone up and see those muscle gains as you lose fat.

We want to LOOK like we workout, right?!

But there are so many options out there…

How do you know which is best?

I get asked all of the time when I share a move even…

“How many reps and sets?”

And while I know this is an annoying answer, the one I always have to give is…

“Well it depends. What are your needs, goals, current training routine, other moves you’re planning to include, equipment, schedule, previous training history….”

There are lots of variables you need to consider to get the best results possible.

And while overwhelming at times, they are also all opportunity!

But because I know it can be especially frustrating to train super hard, dial in your diet and still not see those stubborn areas change, I wanted to share one of my favorite training techniques to help…

Compound Burner Sets!

I want to take you through what these amazing sets are and how to use them as well as a few examples of them so you can get started implementing them today.

And while I know it’s tempting to just jump to what to do, because many of us just want to get started, it’s key we learn the WHY behind the techniques.

This can help us always make sure we’re tweaking things to match our specific needs and goals.

So, What Are Compound Burner Sets?

They are:

  • Two moves done back to back for the same area without resting
  • NOT a superset
  • One is a compound move the other a more isolation based exercise to hone in on stubborn areas
  • One move is done more in that hypertrophy rep range with heavy loads (6-12 reps) while the other is done for higher reps in that strength endurance range with loads that still challenge you (15-25 reps)
  • Rest is about 90 seconds to 2 minutes in length between rounds
  • 2-4 rounds through each series

The theory behind them is using the post exhaust training technique.

What does this mean?

  • You are using that second move to fully exhaust a muscle group worked in that initial compound movement, which can lead to better muscle growth
  • You’re getting the benefits of using multiple rep ranges and both compound and isolation moves

This will help you build muscle and ultimately lose fat from helping increase your metabolic rate. More muscle means more calories burned at rest.

BUT to see the full benefit…You can’t ignore the importance of your diet and I’ll share something to help later on!

Tips to help you get the most out of this workout design….

This is a more advanced training technique even though it seems simple. It truly is HARDER than it looks if YOU push yourself.

You are basically trying to take a muscle close to failure and then PUSH THROUGH failure with the isolation move.

This requires you to truly try to max out with reps and not just stop at a set number because that is what was listed.

If you can easily do the top number or reps listed, add weight. If you hit the bottom of the rep range, maintain that weight until you get toward the top. 

Even use rest-pause technique for the isolation move to push through and really take that muscle even “past” fatigue!

But make sure a weight never feels light!

Record what you do to try to beat next time.

Bonus Benefits….

Not only is this an amazing training design for body recomp, but you will also see strength increases because of the compound movement and lifting heavier loads.

You’ll also see your muscular conditioning, or strength endurance, improve because of pushing past failure with the isolation move!

Warning…

To really get the full benefit of this design, be conscious you are truly pushing to failure!

And do NOT cut out rest periods!

If you haven’t earned the rest and feel like you need it, you need to advance the exercise, add heavier loads, slow down the tempo and focus more on the eccentric or add a few more reps, but don’t go above 15 for that first move!

And then realize this is an advanced technique and can lead to a point of diminishing returns if done for too long when you’re really pushing for progression.

So track those numbers to be able to switch designs after 3-6 weeks or add in a de-load or recovery week!

Now how to use this design….

These sets are often best implemented in a 4-6 days a week split, using a hemisphere or upper/lower breakdown.

HOWEVER, if you make each workout full body, you can make 3 days a week work.

For each workout, create 2-4 compound sets.

If you’re doing upper and lower splits, 3 is more than enough.

For the full body set up, you may want 4 with one being even for core specific work.

For an example, if you were to design a leg workout it may look like…

#1:
6-12 reps Barbell Back Squat To Box
15-25 reps Lean Backs

#2:
6-12 reps SLDL
15-25 reps Hamstring Seated Curls

#4:
6-12 reps Band Hip Thruster
15-25 reps Band Y Reverse Hyper

Think about your heaviest biggest lift first for that first compound move of the first set. You want the lifts you can go heaviest on first before you fatigue.

Then over the sets try to vary what is worked enough that you don’t hit a point of diminishing returns.

But you want to consider the OTHER workouts as well for that week to make sure areas are getting rest and also being worked in other days.

But especially with 4 days a week, that 2 times hitting an area is a great training frequency!

You may then include a recovery day or interval cardio session on two other days if you are training 6 days a week.

(Want more amazing workouts like this one? Check out my DYNAMIC STRENGTH program!)

SUMMARY:

If you’ve been struggling to see the body recomp results you want, give this training technique a try.

Make sure to track your results and focus on small progression each week, listening to your body and not just pushing through pain.

You want to be intentional with moves.

And as I mentioned earlier, fueling correctly is key.

But it can be hard to make certain habit changes to build muscle, especially when we fear gaining weight.

That’s why I want to share the next video you should check out if you’re looking to take your results to the next level…

Check out the link for 5 habit changes to improve your results!

–> 5 Habit Changes To Build Muscle WITHOUT Gaining Fat

FHP 449 – It Never Gets Easier…

FHP 449 – It Never Gets Easier…

by | Dec 6, 2022 | podcast

Talking to Sarah – she’s like…

“It didn’t get easier this week! You lied!”

And I said back, “Did you use a harder variation? Did you finish the workout faster?”

She said…“Yes.”

“Then it DID get easier.”

With training, you will ALWAYS feel challenged, because you’ll always be reaching for that next thing.

But you’ll see the progression in how far you can run and how fast you do it…or the weights you can lift for more reps…

But no…it never FEELS easier.

We are just stronger, fitter, faster, more confident…

I don’t share this to be negative but I think this delusion that things will at some point be “easy” holds us back…because it makes us ignore how much more we can do…

Whether in the gym or other areas of our life.

And even habits that do become fully ingrained…well we don’t always want to do them!

This isn’t a bad thing either.

It’s just a fact.

It’s why you…

#1: Always want to track progress to truly see progression and not let “feelings” derail you!

#2: Focus on tracking all the different ways you’re growing!

#3: Recognize that feeling MENTALLY tired can be a reason to take a diet break, switch ratios or even use a de-load week. Just because we CAN push through doesn’t always mean we should.

#4:  Sometimes embrace doing the minimum to stay consistent.

Realize that strength doesn’t come from NOT doing hard things…it is built going through the hard.

And pushing those limits never feels easier, but you are able to handle more!

Is An Injury Why You Can’t Lose Fat?

Is An Injury Why You Can’t Lose Fat?

by | Dec 4, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises, injury-featured, Pain Relief

Let’s face it. Injuries suck but so often they aren’t what’s truly holding us back from losing weight.

Often it’s a case of the more you do, the more you do…and our diet starts to slide as we’re thrown out of our normal routine.

However, ultimately we can’t always change our situation…we can only control our perspective.

We can see it as an obstacle or as an opportunity.

How can you see this as an opportunity to actually get better fat loss results over feeling like injuries keep sabotaging your progress?

What are some new things you can EXPLORE?

– New recipes
– New hobbies
– Dialing in your rest and recovery
– Learning about rebuilding from injury – looking for perspectives on your issues and even why they occurred to ask better questions of your health care professionals.

See this as an opportunity to come back STRONGER even with so many habits dialed in to build off of!

But we’ve got to focus on controlling what we can control.

And you 100% can control how you’re fueling.

While you definitely need to train to build muscle, because you need that challenge to adapt and grow stronger. And while training can really help make the fat loss process easier and your results easier to maintain, you can honestly lose fat without doing any activity at all.

Aka being injured really isn’t an excuse!

Sure you may not be able to train exactly how you’d like, but you can see that as giving you more time to try new ratios or learn to track your diet.

Tracking your diet can also make you feel a bit more secure you’re doing what you need and have the power to adjust as you’re lifestyle evolves.

And being out with injury doesn’t mean slashing your calories lower.

While I know we often go straight to this because we feel our activity level has decreased so we’re burning fewer calories, this can also lead to more muscle mass being lost!

It can lead to impaired recovery as healing takes energy!

EAT ENOUGH!

And honestly, if you want a magic pill, protein is it!

It is the building block of all of your tissues aka all of the things that need to repair from injury.

So while you want to avoid an extreme deficit, your energy intake will decrease. And you don’t want your protein levels dropping too much during this time.

Protein can aid in your recovery and help you retain lean muscle mass, which can also help you keep lean while not training the way you’d like.

Studies have shown that “insufficient protein intake will impede wound healing and increase inflammation to possibly deleterious levels.”

It’s honestly why I even have clients take BCAAs when out with injury as they can help improve muscle mass retention and are no calories to avoid consuming too much.

And, partly due to the fact that BCAAs can help us build and retain lean muscle, but also due to the fact that isoleucine and leucine help improve glucose tolerance and increase energy expenditure and fat oxidation, they may also help you increase fat burning and fat loss. Especially when insulin sensitivity has been decreased due to a reduction in exercise.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4672013/

It’s also why I promote Collagen use during recovery periods especially as well.

Collagen is the most abundant protein in the body and is used to make connective tissues.

Type 1 and 3 collagen are for skin health and help with sagginess, wrinkles and wound healing. Type 2 collagen is for joint health and may help relieve joint pain, swelling and stiffness.

Even take collagen with Vitamin C as vitamin c boosts natural production of collagen as well.

Plus vitamin c itself helps with tissue repair and growth

Even jut 5-15 grams of collagen with 50mg of Vitamin C can be a great bonus!

Drink enough water! Hydration is key to you healing quickly, not eating out of boredom and sleeping well!

NOW BEFORE YOU NOD YOUR HEAD AND START TRACKING WHILE HEADING BACK TO THE COUCH….

Realize you CAN truly do so much to keep training!

And this doesn’t mean pushing through the pain!!

We have to stop thinking that because we can’t train how we normally would that we can’t do anything at all.

Even just some form of training can go a long way in maintaining the muscle mass and strength we’ve built. Even if we aren’t training those same areas in the exact way we would like.

It’s sometimes about doing the minimum you can to keep that muscle memory, put the breaks on muscle mass loss and create that anabolic environment to avoid muscle catabolism.

Because even if we can’t do enough to BUILD, often we can do enough to MAINTAIN!

And there are so many ways to modify around injuries.

Ankle injury?

Try kneeling squats.

Shoulder injury, try lower body workouts.

Knee pain and want to do cardio? Try even battle ropes seated.

See this as an opportunity to have fun training around.

Even depending on the ache or pain, you can sometimes modify the exact movement to engage the correct muscles.

And then focus on this as a chance to rebuild your foundation stronger!

Do that prehab. Focus on the mind-body connection.

Learn about and address what lead to the overload.

Even find other weaknesses to work on!

Maybe this is the chance to do a deload and address other mobility restrictions or areas that have been achy in the past.

Studies have even shown that training one limb can improve strength gains in the untrained limb. So while we don’t want to go crazy, it does show that doing SOMETHING can even pay off.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31136543/

And then rebuild slowly.

Don’t just do less, truly meet yourself where you’re at so you even crave more.

And during this time as I mentioned to start, see this as an opportunity.

Dial in other areas of your healthy habits, even including your sleep.

For more on even mobility work and that full 3-part rehab process, check out the links below…

 

For two essential fat loss tips: https://youtu.be/hFk0UylZYX8

 

For more injury prevention, or prehab exercises:

Shoulder Mobility: https://youtu.be/elmpc3U3xHU

FHP 448 – What’s Your Beastette Origin Story?

FHP 448 – What’s Your Beastette Origin Story?

by | 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

5 Tips To Lose Stubborn Fat Faster

by | 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