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How To Build Muscle ( 5 HABIT CHANGES)

How To Build Muscle ( 5 HABIT CHANGES)

by | Sep 18, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

Often when we want to achieve a new goal, a new result, we look for a new program, a new set of routines or habits to implement.

But too often we don’t assess habits we may currently have that we actually need to STOP doing.

And many of these old habits even sneak into our new programming ultimately holding us back from our new goal.

Many of these habits we hold on to because they worked for our previous goals – say for weight loss or fat loss.

But when our focus changes, our habits need to shift as well.

And to gain muscle we can’t repeat the same habits that worked for weight loss. Gaining muscle means embracing habit changes.

We have to remember that what worked for one goal may not work for another and could even hinder us from seeing results.

That’s why I wanted to share 5 habits many of us excuse that we actually need to STOP doing if we want to gain more muscle.

 

5 Habits To Stop Doing If You Want To Gain More Muscle FASTER:

It’s hard at times to let go of habits that “worked” or that we enjoyed even when we logically know they no longer fit our goals.

But it’s key we do make sure our lifestyle is evolving to match our changing needs and goals.

Habit #1: Working Out Every Day

“But I love working out!”

“I feel guilty if I don’t do something every day.”

Many of us have said these statements as an excuse to train every day.

And while we may “get away with it” more in a fat loss phase, even then this mindset backfires.

Our body rebuilds and functions optimally when it has time to rest and rebuild.

You need quality recovery. You need proper fueling. You need quality sleep.

You need days where your body and mind can relax and repair so you are prepped to push hard in the following training sessions.

Make sure that you are designing your workouts progressions to give areas rest over the course of the week and even cycling your training intensity.

Getting results doesn’t have to mean, and shouldn’t mean, destroying ourselves every session.

Especially as we get older, our recovery times can increase. This means designing programs strategically to account for this. While it doesn’t mean we can’t still train 5-6 days a week, the way we break up our sessions and the volume we create may vary!

And remember it isn’t just your body but also your MIND that actually needs the recovery time.

It is fatiguing really trying to mentally push yourself every workout to create that progression you need to see results.

You want to be focused and intentional every training session – not just go through the motions.

So we have to recognize how taxing mentally that is, especially combined with a stressful day.

Give yourself time to rest and recover so every session is quality!

We rebuild when we rest and that’s how we see those muscle gains!

Habit #2: Changing your workouts up constantly

While it can be fun to do different things often, we need to design a clear progression to follow if we want to see results.

Changing up our workouts doesn’t allow us to strategically push and get the full benefit of each move.

It can also make us constantly sore, which can negatively impact muscle activation and subsequent training sessions.

Include a variety of movements to work muscles in different ways over the course of the week, but clearly lay out a progression you repeat for a few weeks.

How long you repeat a progression may depend on:

  • How much room for growth you have with moves
  • How much you find ego starts to get in the way when you are hitting your upper limit with an exercise (encouraging you to lift more than you probably should with form that isn’t ideal)
  • How much you do even find your mental focus drifting as you get “bored”

Progressions don’t have to be done for months upon months.

Just remember too that being able to push and see how far you can go with an exercise can be exciting!

Over time you can test out different workout designs and movements. But without repeating a set progression for a bit, you can’t know what does and doesn’t work. It allows you to actually see yourself progressing with one extra rep, 5lbs more or even that full pull up when you couldn’t do one prior!

But that progression is needed if you want to dial in those muscle gains efficiently so you actually are truly progressing moves and not just making yourself sore with different and new!

Because soreness really isn’t an indicator that you’re building more muscle, especially not more muscle faster!

Habit #3: Staying in your comfort zone

It can honestly be hard to push every training session.

While fun in a torturous way, it is at times mentally and physical hard and uncomfortable to push for another rep. Use a bit more weight we aren’t sure will go up for that final rep.

Do that new variation that really challenges us.

It is easy to keep repeating the same exercise variations, with the same loads for the same reps or sets at times.

But muscle growth is the result of challenging our body to have to adapt and repair to become stronger.

That means we need to focus on that progression in our loads, tempos, variations, training density…

Sometimes it may be one more rep in one set.

Sometimes it may be just 5lbs more.

Sometimes it may be moving on to a different tempo or posture or position for a move to use progression through the same but different.

This though is also why a clear workout progression and schedule is key.

It allows us to make those incremental adjustments to push ourselves outside our comfort zone each week.

And over those progressions, we also can’t fear testing out new workout designs and training methods.

Especially the more advanced a trainee we are, the slower our results will be so the more some advanced strategies, training techniques and workout designs may need to be used at times. Not only to challenge our body but also keep us wanting to push mentally with something new in our workouts.

You may experiment with things like rest-pause technique, drop sets, density training…It isn’t just loads we can use to challenge our body and push ourselves outside what is comfortable to create that muscle growth and change!

Habit #4: Going Low Carb

So I’ve talked a ton about training so far, and it’s because you can’t build muscle without a proper training routine and resistance to create growth.

While weight loss and fat loss are so much about diet, building muscle requires you to train in a way that forces your body to adapt and build back stronger.

However, our diet can’t be ignored if we want the best results from those intensive training sessions! We don’t want our hard work in the gym to be wasted!

That’s why it is key we give our body the fuel it needs to rebuild and repair and have the energy to train hard.

And carbs are truly a key part of having that readily available energy to not only push hard during our sessions but rebuild post workout.

They create that anabolic environment optimal for muscle growth.

Carbs are not only that immediate energy to be able to push at our full intensity during training and create that progressive overload but they are also protein sparring.

They protect your lean muscle from being catabolized or used as fuel and they can help make sure that the protein you consume is used to actually rebuild.

This is extra key if you are an endurance athlete or enjoy steady state cardio and refuse to fully cut back on mileage. Cardio already makes it harder to build and retain lean muscle, so carbs are even more key to serve as that immediate energy source and aid in our recovery.

So while you may have dropped your carbs during your weight loss cycle, you may now find boosting them to be extremely key.

Too often we keep ourselves in that energy deficit and then wonder why we aren’t gaining muscle. But growth can’t truly happen when we don’t have the fuel to repair or even optimize hormone levels.

So increase those carbs.

Even if you start by just timing more carbs around your training sessions, you can’t fear carbs if you want the most efficient muscle gains.

Habit #5: Staying In A Deficit

Just like we may have cut carbs during a fat loss phase, we often focus on that calorie deficit to see results. You do need to consume less than you expend to see that fat loss because you need to tap into that stored energy.

But to gain muscle as efficiently as possible, you now need to make sure your body always has the fuel it needs. So you can’t fear eating more.

Eating too little will keep you training hard and not seeing any gains. It can also lead to burn out, constant fatigue, constant soreness and an inability to recover.

Basically you could feel like you’re working so hard to literally not see any gains.

If you are transitioning out of a fat loss phase, you may simply start by increasing your calories to more of a maintenance level while increasing carbs. From there you may enter a small surplus.

Eating more doesn’t give you the excuse to go crazy. If you do a dirty bulk and skyrocket your calories, you’re going to gain fat and ultimately not really see better results.

A surplus as little as 100 calories may be enough although you may find you need to increase up to 400 above maintenance, which is why it may be helpful to do a maintenance phase prior to learn what you need to maintain your current body comp.

By focusing on protein and not ignoring this essential macro, you can even gain muscle while in a deficit so a slower transition, increasing calories can help you avoid gaining fat.

But we have to remember that the leaner we get, and the more we aren’t eating sufficiently to fuel our training, the more we put ourselves at risk for losing muscle even with higher protein ratios.

You need that fuel to grow those muscles!

And making sure that you’re eating enough is essential even as we enter menopause!

Often under fueling and extreme dieting habits can create metabolic adaptations which hold us back from not only losing fat, but gaining muscle as we enter menopause.

So focusing on increasing your calorie intake and building muscle is KEY as we get older to keep our metabolic rate higher!

Just remember because you can “get away with” something when you’re younger doesn’t mean that dieting practice won’t catch up with you later!

If you are peri-menopausal or nearing that age, really focus on making sure you’re building that lean muscle and not under eating or you could be setting yourself up for unwanted fat gain and muscle loss as you get older!

SUMMARY:

So if you’re looking to build muscle as quickly as possible it is key you change your habits, especially from the habits you used to lose weight or fat.

Focus on challenging yourself with your training and eating enough to support that muscle growth.

For accountability and support to see better results FASTER, apply to my 1:1 Coaching.

–> 1:1 Online Coaching

FHP 437 – How Do You Even Know What Is Possible?

FHP 437 – How Do You Even Know What Is Possible?

by | Sep 12, 2022 | podcast

How Do You Even Know What Is Possible?

I got asked on a post about getting abs the other day…

“How do you even know what is possible for you?”

It was one of those moments where you sit back and you go…

“Well huh!”

And my honest answer back was…

“I don’t think you can fully know what is possible until you try.”

I don’t think we can ever fully know how far we can go with something until we’ve tried.

And even then, we can’t fully predict the snowball that will happen as we continue to accumulate knowledge, make those small improvements and let TIME do its work.

I say this looking back at my own photos over the years, my own lifting logs…

When I was doing 2 pull ups, I would never have said I’d get 20 beautiful ones in a row.

When I was first trying to change my body type from the orange with toothpick limbs, I would never have told you I’d have abs I wanted to show off.

Heck if you asked me if I’d have half nakey photos I’d share of myself to social media while also filming videos every week, I would have laughed at you and thought you were crazy.

Because none of these things are what I necessarily envisioned even when working toward specific goals.

Because I don’t think we can fully predict the outcome of any journey.

We can just envision what we’d like, constantly work to improve and implement and adjust habits…and stay focused on tweaking based on how things are progressing.

But I do think we have to embrace that our ultimate goals, our results may not be exactly what we expected to start.

This doesn’t mean they’ll be worse or better.

But often they are different.

But we also have to remember we can’t hold ourselves back from trying just because we don’t know what is possible.

We have to remember that line of…

Everything seems impossible until we prove it possible.

So if you want to get better at something, don’t set a limit. See you goal as your starting point to shoot for.

See a goal not so much as the expectation but a vision to drive you.

And then set your expectations to learn and grow along the way.

When we do this, we find out more about ourselves.

We learn what are truly our priorities. We learn what matters to us.

And we improve and grow.

And often, no that end result isn’t fully what we expected. But often it can even be better. And it can lead to other progress, other wins.

But I think in life we have to realize that so much can’t be predicted.

So much has to be us taking a risk and seeing where things can go!

So if there is something you want to work toward…who cares if it is even truly possible?

Why not see how close you can get?

Here are 3 tips to help you get started today seeing what is possible…

#1: List out your priorities.

So I mention to do this first because if you really want to achieve a goal, you must be willing to sacrifice to get there.

Your goal has to be a priority.

HOWEVER, often our goals, especially if they are personal records or aesthetic based and not related to health or injury, will take a back seat to other priorities in our life.

Family, work…overall lifestyle and “survival” will matter most to us. And rightly so.

BUT I think even recognizing the hierarchy of our priorities can help us place these goals within that list and even WORK AROUND the other things we have going on.

Too often our other priorities become excuses instead of being seen as non-negotiable and something to strategize around.

If you aren’t going to shift your priorities, you need to account for them. Create a plan that allows your priorities to be your priorities.

This can mean starting with small changes. It can mean planning in short workouts. It can mean tracking while planning in family meals first. It can mean using meal prep or planning in restaurant dishes.

If you want to see what is possible to achieve in terms of any goal, start with what is also realistic to your lifestyle to build and move forward.

#2: Realize that success means sacrifice.

The more you want to really make the “impossible” possible, the more you will have to embrace sacrifice. Not in a bad way but…success means prioritizing sometimes things that aren’t fun.

To push your boundaries will never be comfortable.

The more we want to really achieve something beyond what we’ve achieved, the more we have to be ready to do things we’ve never done and at times we don’t want to do them.

I think recognizing that “greatness” comes with a sacrifice in another area is key.

It even helps us realize where our goals fall on our priorities and how much we want to push what is possible.

We may have one vision of our ultimate goal and realize that halfway to that we are actually happy. Or we may realize we want more and can achieve more, embracing the sacrifices that come with it.

But the key is realizing that part of seeing what is possible is also seeing how much we can push our own boundaries!

#3: Embrace that nothing may ever be enough.

Often we will achieve one goal and just want more. It’s why we do have to find ways to love ourselves, love our lives, love the journey as cliche as that is over defining our happiness and satisfaction based on a destination.

Because there will always be more you want to explore. And often there will always be more you want to achieve.

Embrace the fact that you can always want to improve while also being happy where you are with what you have.

And then don’t just blow past the wins. Recognize them.

Give yourself credit for the journey as you continue to push forward.

But also don’t feel guilty if you do reach a goal and just want more!

To want to improve is never a bad thing as long as we also realize that no single goal will define us. We have to love the growth and learning process along the way as well!

SUMMARY:

The simple answer is we can never know what is fully possible until we’ve tried.

And even then, over the years, over the learning process, we may constantly reassess what we want and even redefine what we believe we can achieve!

—

Why Can’t I lose Weight? 8 Common Weight Loss Mistakes To Avoid

Why Can’t I lose Weight? 8 Common Weight Loss Mistakes To Avoid

by | Sep 11, 2022 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

We can be our own worst enemies when it comes to achieving the weight loss results we want.

Often we keep ourselves stuck. We end up working super hard to ultimately derail our own consistency.

We think, “Do more,” and often overhaul our entire lifestyle for some new popular program. When really we should be focusing on small, realistic changes to create the healthiest version of our personal lifestyle.

Too often we don’t actually recognize our priorities in life and then they become the excuses that derail us.

I don’t have time to train because of my job.

I can’t track macros because of family meals.

When really we should shape our new routines and habits AROUND what truly matters most to us.

But we don’t do this because we fall prey to the fad diet out there promising overnight results.

Because of these fad diet, overnight transformations we see online, most of us do tend to overestimate what we can accomplish short term while even underestimating what we can accomplish with long-term consistency which allows those results to snowball.

But I want to save you the heart ache of starting another program, working super hard, to only ultimately end up worse off than where you started.

That’s why I wanted to share 8 common weight loss mistakes I see people making and how to avoid them.

#1: Setting unrealistic short-term goals and expectations that cause us to give up in frustration.

Think about the last time you were actually at your goal weight. Was it 10 years ago? Or 6 weeks ago?

Or was it maybe NEVER?!

Because this timeframe WILL impact how fast you see results.

If you just gained the weight, your body will be more responsive and be more comfortable getting back to what it still may see as normal.

If you just gained the weight, your body will fight the loss of it less.

Whereas if you haven’t been at your goal for years, or maybe even EVER, your body won’t want to change from where it is now – what it sees as a normal balance.

It’s why we can’t just expect to even reverse years of damage in months – despite those months feeling long and like we’ve really been working hard.

We need to realize that progress is never linear and there will be periods where we even feel like we’re taking a step backward before we move forward.

It’s why it is key we find multiple ways to measure progress, celebrate the daily habits and the repetition of them consistently as wins themselves AND take time to step back and watch overall trends.

Remember that results take time to snowball!

#2: Eating too little.

You need a calorie deficit to lose weight.

Whether you create this through eating less or working out more or maybe a little bit of both, you need to eat less then you expend to lose.

However, this doesn’t mean a great deficit will mean better and faster results.

Often eating too little, or even training too much, will sabotage our results, especially long term.

And eating too little in the past may actually be making your current attempts at weight loss even harder.

Our body puts survival as its top priority. And when we eat too little, our body fears for our survival and will regulate what it can to conserve energy.

This is why our metabolic rate can drop and we can even lose muscle mass over controlling as much as possible for fat loss when we drop our calories too low.

This is why we need to focus first on macros and second on that smaller calorie deficit when trying to lose weight.

It may even be why we need to NOT focus on weight loss for a period even if that is our ultimate goal.

Sometimes we first need to do a period where we’re rebuilding our maintenance calories, retraining our body to eat more and properly fuel before we can even consider then creating a small deficit to lose weight.

Otherwise we may find ourselves in the situation of eating 800 calories but still not losing while training for hours each and every day!

#3: You fear heavy weights.

Let’s get one things straight…lifting heavy will NOT make you bulky. It isn’t easy to gain muscle, especially the more advanced a trainee you are.

And especially when you’re trying to lose weight because you’re eating in a deficit NOT the surplus often required to build more muscle.

We need that surplus often to build lean muscle because muscle is metabolically costly. More muscle means more calories burned at rest which means more calories needed to KEEP that lean muscle.

This is why we want to be conscious not to cut our calories too low and also focus on protein in our diet. This helps us retain our lean muscle mass. And the higher protein macro ratios can even help us potentially gain muscle while in a deficit.

But to gain muscle and keep our metabolic rate higher, we need to lift heavy. To build muscle, we must force our muscles to be challenged so they have to rebuild stronger!

As you train to lose weight, do not skip those weight training sessions. Do not cut our rest. Focus on heavy weights that really challenge you to get close to failure and eek out those last couple of reps.

Don’t just use a weight you kind of “feel” or could easily do more reps with or don’t really need rest to recover between rounds to maintain the loads.

Challenge yourself. It should feel heavy no matter the rep range you use so you don’t want to have to do all the reps you’re going to perform.

If the range says 6-12, you don’t want to be able to do 15 reps. 12 should be a struggle and you may find as you increase loads, you even hit a weight where you just barely hit 6. Then maybe you stay there for a few weeks as you build up to being able to do 12 reps with that load before increasing.

But you don’t want to just stop with a weight because you hit the top of a rep range or like the number you’ve performed.

#4: You cut out foods you love.

Here’s a question we all need to ask ourselves – Will I be able to cut this out long term?

Now, achieving a new and better results always means sacrifice. And the faster we want the results, the more we may be willing to sacrifice at least to start.

But we can’t do this at the expensive of creating something sustainable. We can’t do this with no plan as to how to add in the things we love when we are ready.

Because the simple fact is, you can’t do one set of habits to lose the weight then simply go back to what you were doing prior.

Your habits have to have changed even though you won’t be doing exactly the same weight loss habits as you maintain your results.

It’s why it’s key we learn how to balance in the foods we love and maybe even start by tweaking AROUND those foods.

I’m 100% pro macros and tracking. This is truly the best way to see what you’re currently eating and learn how to adjust YOUR lifestyle.

You can also plan in the thing you want first and adjust your other meals around that snack or dessert or meal to then hit your overall macros for the day.

And you can even learn how to eventually make swaps to strike your balance.

But too often we simply cut out the things we enjoy even though we will eat them long term and never learn to strike that balance.

A healthy diet has to be one you’re going to stick with if you want to lose weight and KEEP it off.

#5: You estimate portions. You eat intuitively.

If you’re looking to lose weight, I’m sorry but you don’t yet intuitively know what you need. You can’t just fully listen to your body and fuel.

You don’t truly know the portions you need to see results.

You need to LEARN what your proper portions are and truly relearn how to listen to those natural hunger cues.

We have to remember that there are so many things that fight against us actually being able to tell what our body needs – from hyper palatable foods that don’t cause us to feel full when we should, to stress and lack of sleep making us feel hungry when we aren’t to even distorted portions we are just used to eating and consuming that now feel normal!

Learning what you need to reach the weight you want, means tracking and measuring. It means giving yourself an accurate picture of what you’re consuming to adjust.

We are really bad at estimating our portions until we’ve truly seen what the correct portion sizes are.

So while your ultimate goal should be to learn what you need to do, you first need to start by tracking and measuring everything.

That is the only way to have that objective outside look at what you’re doing.

What we measure gets managed!

Don’t deceive yourself by not giving yourself that clear picture. Don’t let yourself feel frustrated that nothing is working when you can’t truly know what you’re doing.

Track and measure to learn what your body needs and be able to adjust even as your needs and goals change over time!

#6: You don’t focus on sleep.

We often focus on our workout and diet routine when we want to lose weight. And part of that is because it truly is easier to “control.”

It’s hard to be like I need sleep and then get more sleep!

But we can’t ignore the importance of getting adequate rest.

Not only is sleep key to recovering and rebuilding from our workout session, and even making us want to push hard during our training because we are energized, but getting enough sleep is also key to helping us avoid overeating!

A lack of sleep can basically make you feel hungrier!

This isn’t your imagination.

It is due to the fact that a lack of sleep can raise ghrelin levels while lowering leptin levels. Ghrelin increases your appetite while leptin surpresses your appetite.

So you can see how increasing ghrelin and decreasing leptin can literally cause you to feel hungrier during the day so you feel like you need to eat more. This is also why tracking and not just eating intuitively to start can be so key!

The hard part is…how can you focus on getting more sleep?

Creating a pre-bed routine to help you wind-down can be key. And even getting in the habit of going to sleep and waking up at the same time can help you build that pattern to get better quality of sleep.

And as weird as it sounds, you may even want to adjust your workout design and schedule so you aren’t always sacrificing sleep for training if you do train early in the morning.

While working out is essential to our overall health, we can design for the time we have while caring about the quality of our sleep to get more out of every training session!

#7: You don’t focus on a proper warm up.

Ever notice if you don’t do a warm up that you feel like you’re not as able to squat as deep or perform that bench press as well for the first few rounds?

Like it takes you time to WARM UP and fully get the most out of moves?

It’s because you’re basically wasting rounds of your workout warming up and you’re potentially putting yourself at greater risk for injury with improper recruitment patterns, which could lead to you actually having to take time off of training.

Time off from working out won’t make losing weight easier.

And by not warming up and not necessarily using the correct muscles as efficiently, you may not really be getting the full benefit of moves.

This can mean subpar muscle growth and even fewer calories burned simply because you aren’t getting the most out of moves.

Your warm up doesn’t have to be long, but with a combination of foam rolling, stretching and activation for 5-10 minutes you can help yourself get so much more out of each second of your workout.

You may be surprised by how much more efficiently you are able to run or lift and how much more you feel the correct muscles working to truly benefit!

Because if the correct muscles aren’t working, we aren’t only putting ourselves at risk for injury but potentially not even building the muscle we want to build to improve our resting metabolic rate and make losing weight even easier!

#8: You force yourself to skip meals or to eat 6 small meals a day.

Starving yourself with Intermittent Fasting only to find yourself so hungry you overeat later?

Forcing in 6 small meals a day so that you never really feel satisfied or full but instead constantly feel hungry and overwhelmed by the meal prep?

There is no one magic meal timing that is guaranteed to work.

You need to adjust your fueling to match your schedule and lifestyle. And no matter how you feel best breaking up your meals, you need to track your macros.

If you hit those macros, you will see results.

So don’t try to force a meal timing that leaves you stuffed or starving or overwhelmed with the meal prep.

Find a sustainable schedule for you even experimenting to see what makes you feel best.

But eating before a certain time of day or after a certain time of night isn’t going to magically make you gain fat.

If you need the calories, you need the calories. If you overeat, you’ll store the excess energy.

SUMMARY:

If you’re looking to lose weight, avoid these 8 common mistakes.

And focus on meeting yourself where you are at.

Ultimately small changes based on YOUR needs and lifestyle will be best. Don’t just get caught up in doing more.

Stay focused on doing these basics to see amazing results!

Ready to map out what YOU need to succeed? Ready to get your leanest, strongest body at any and EVERY age?

–> Book Your Coaching Consultation Today!

 

FHP 436 – Which Direction Are You Heading?

FHP 436 – Which Direction Are You Heading?

by | Sep 5, 2022 | podcast

Everyday we are either working toward our goals or moving farther away from them.

And while I don’t think we can always be focused on the future, and immediate gratification will at times “sabotage” our long-term goals and focus, I think recognizing that every day is building our future result…

That your situation today is a result of your past hustle…

Is super key.

Because so often we stress perfection when we start a new program. We get up in a 21 day or even 6 week SPRINT….only to burn ourselves out with the habits so we can’t keep moving forward.

Instead we need to focus on those small habit changes. The ways we can make 1% improvements.

The ways we can be BETTER THAN we would have been in the same situation before.

Because every day we are technically building and moving forward or taking that step back.

And step backs are GOING to happen.

But we have to recognize that, in life, there is no starting over.

So how fast we get results will also be impacted by those steps….in either direction.

That’s why that TODAY, right now, as you plan for tomorrow…as you choose between trying to be perfect and rely on willpower over making small changes to constantly learn and grow, you have to recognize that every day you are making the choice about which direction you will move in.

And if you fall down? If you slip up, while that one event may have moved you away from your goal, the power you give that situation can impact future days.

And those days again are either moving you forward or setting you back.

Results come from what we consistently do. From how we learn and move forward.

And again…There is NO STARTING OVER.

That’s why I wanted to share 3 tips I use to help myself find ways to always move forward even on those days that feel like you’ve taken that step back.

Tip #1: Learn.

Every situation is a learning experience. And as humans, we will not handle every new situation correctly.

Not to mention, emotions will get the better of us at times.

But everything that happens can be a positive learning experience even when the actual situation…well…sucks!

Everything in life is really impacted by our perspective, by our perception of events.

So even when you have a day you feel sets you back – you missed your workout, you ate off plan – you can either choose to let that impact future days negatively OR you can learn from it so tomorrow is better.

Failures can often be amazing learning experiences that teach us things that can rocket us forward.

But we have to choose to learn from them instead of beating ourselves up about them.

So every chance you can, reflect and learn.

Don’t just try to gloss over bad times, forget failures. Own them and learn from them!

Tip #2: Stop trying to be perfect.

We rely on motivation and willpower because we are trying to be perfect.

But guess what?

You’re human so you’re therefore FLAWED.

Perfection isn’t in our DNA.

Stop trying to do more. Stop trying to do things perfectly.

A. Perfect doesn’t exist.
B. There is no true definition of perfect.

What is perfect “clean” eating?

What is a “perfect” workout routine?

No one agrees.

And the more you try to pressure some arbitrary standard of perfect, the more you’ll actually hold yourself back from creating the perfect or BEST plan for you.

Focus on improvements.

Focus on changes based on meeting yourself where you are at.

Motivation and willpower are things we rely on to do more than we are truly often capable of…especially long term.

Results come from creating even minimums we can repeat at times we don’t want to do anything.

So focus on doing the minimum at times. It’s not sexy, but it’s what truly builds.

Tip #3: Meet yourself where you are at.

The perfect plan for you is created by meeting yourself where you are at RIGHT NOW.

And I mention the “RIGHT NOW,” because often we compare our current selves to our past selves or our ideal selves.

But none of that really matters if we want to move forward from our current spot.

You could beat yourself up about where you used to be or could be…you could create a plan based on what “used to work,” but none of that will actually move you forward.

We move forward by focusing on where we are at currently to then create an accurate road map to our end destination.

I mean think about if you’re driving to a location…you don’t start your route based on where you could be or where you used to live!?

NOPE!

You set the start of your route based on where you are now.

The best plans have to meet us where we are at.

So don’t even just do “less” if you’re coming back from injury.

Don’t even just jump into a macro ratio that worked in the past.

Assess where you are RIGHT NOW and adjust off of that!

SUMMARY:

Your future self is based off of what you do today, tomorrow, the next day…not to mention every day that has come before today.

We can’t go back and change the past, we can’t start over.

But we can see the opportunity in each day being a chance to move forward.

One small thing, a 1% improvement daily, weekly, monthly, yearly will pay off.

So focus on how you can make those small tweaks, learn from each experience, to try to move forward!

The Best Dumbbell Tricep Exercise (TO HIT ALL 3 HEADS)

The Best Dumbbell Tricep Exercise (TO HIT ALL 3 HEADS)

by | Sep 4, 2022 | Blog, Exercises

Postures and specific positions of joints during exercises can have more of an impact in what is working than we realize.

It can help us target different aspects or heads of a muscle to get the best muscle hypertrophy results while achieving aesthetic balance.

It can also help us be functional stronger and prevent imbalances, improving our joint stability and ability to recruit muscles more efficiently and effectively.

That’s why I wanted to discuss one of my favorite moves to work those triceps and target all three heads.

But first I do just want to discuss what the triceps do to highlight while including a variety of different moves for muscle groups can be key!

The 3 Tricep Heads:

The tricep muscle group is comprised of 3 heads:

– The Long Head
– The Lateral Head
– The Medial Head

All three heads work together to power elbow extension.

However, the long head of the tricep also impacts our shoulder stability and function because it crosses over the shoulder joint and attaches to the scapula.

It also can then assist in shoulder extension which is why you may have felt your triceps some during moves like lat push downs!

But because the tricep muscle group does contribute to actions at both of these joints, you want to account for this when selecting moves – whether you want to try to target one head more than the other or work all at the same time!

Because I think it is key we’re able to train efficiently, even when we are short on time, I wanted to share a great move to target all 3 heads of the tricep in one exercise.

This amazing move to hit all three heads is the Narrow Grip Press To Overhead Tricep Extension.

Why You Should Use The Narrow Grip Press To Overhead Tricep Extension:

The Narrow Grip Press To Overhead Tricep Extension is a great hybrid exercise that combines that close grip bench press with an overhead tricep extension.

The chest press involves the triceps in elbow extension.

But it doesn’t activate the long head as much as overhead tricep exercises do.

That’s why combining the chest press with the overhead tricep extension can be so key.

That shoulder flexion puts the long head under more of a stretch to work it and you’ll even feel it as you pull back forward from that shoulder flexed state to perform the chest press.

And while you can of course do overhead tricep work standing, many of us tend to compensate due to a lack of thoracic mobility, arching and overloading our lower backs or really feeling our necks.

By performing this overhead extension lying down, it can be a bit easier on our shoulders and even prevent us from engaging our lower back to seek out mobility we don’t have in our thoracic spine.

You can use the bench as support and a guide for that overhead extension.

But the combination of these two movements is a great way to efficiently hit all three heads while even working your chest and shoulders.

So…How Do You Do The Narrow Grip Press To Overhead Tricep Extension:

To do this exercise, lie on a bench with a dumbbell in each hand and a neutral grip or palms facing in toward your body.

Firmly plant your feet and brace your abs.

Keeping your elbows in by your body to target your triceps more, press the weights straight up from your chest.

Fully extend your elbows to press the weights up and even focus on that extra tricep squeeze at the top.

Then as you begin to lower the weights overhead, soften your elbows to lower the weights in an arch.

While you’re flexing at your shoulders to reach overhead you want to soften your elbows to just lower the weights beyond your head off the bench.

You don’t want this to turn into a skull crusher or you won’t get the extra stretch on the long head of your tricep.

But you also don’t want to turn this into a pull over where your arms are straight. You what that elbow flexion to reach just overhead.

Lower the weights toward the ground with that slight elbow flexion then focus on your triceps working to pull the weights back over your chest.

Pause as you fully straighten your elbows and flex your triceps before lowering the weights toward your chest.

Move at a controlled pace and really focus on feeling those triceps work.

Make sure you aren’t shrugging your shoulders as you go through the movement or allowing your arms to flare way out from your sides on the press.

Modifications and Variations:

If you don’t have a bench, this move can easily be done as a floor press while still reaching overhead.

You can also modify using a single dumbbell or kettlebell if you don’t have an appropriate set of weights. This can also help you focus on that narrower grip if you find you struggle with controlling the two weights.

An EZ bar is also an option to add loads as you feel ready, using the overhand grip, palms facing away and about shoulder-width apart. You still want that narrow grip to better activate the triceps, especially the long head.

But just be conscious of engaging your back to support your shoulders.

SUMMARY:

Remember, when selecting moves to include in our routines, we want to stay focused on our needs and goals. Every move we include should have a purpose.

It’s why sometimes doing the same but different, choosing moves that work muscles from different postures and positions can be key for progression. It isn’t just about add loads but about addressing every aspect of a muscle.

So if you want an efficient exercise to work all 3 heads of the tricep, this move is an amazing option whether you include it in a compound set after a heavier compound chest, shoulders and tricep movement, use it in a supplemental circuit or even include it as an arm finisher at the end of your workout!

Want workouts to match your needs and goals? Ready to see the muscle tone you want?

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