Exercises Archives Page 8 of 53 | Redefining Strength

Stop Demonizing Exercises! 4 Myths DEBUNKED

by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 28, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness

The comment section can be…interesting to say the least.

If you spend too much time there, you’ll find out there is only one way to do every move…but no one truly agrees on what that one way is…

But everyone definitely has an opinion. And only THEIR way is the right one.

There are lots of things we’re told will basically destroy us if we do them.

Lots of moves that are demonized and blamed for aches and pains.

But honestly…there really are no “bad” moves…just improper usage and implementation of them.

So often we include moves not right for our specific needs or goals. Moves we haven’t earned.

And then we get injured doing them and demonize them…completely avoiding them.

But what we don’t realize is that by doing this, we put ourselves at greater risk for injury in every day life.

So many moves we do in the gym can be a great way to strengthen muscles and movement patterns essential for everyday life.

It’s why instead of simply avoiding moves, we need to regress to progress and learn to retrain as many movement patterns as possible.

We need to understand why aches and pains and the issues occurred in the first place to find variations of moves we can use to move and feel our best.

The gym should be a place to learn to move well and become functionally fitter so we can be strong and independent till our final day on this planet.

That’s why I want to address some exercises I see demonized and break down how to include them and retrain them, such as deadlifts being bad for your back or squats and lunges being bad for your knees…

Or even jumping and high impact being dangerous for us as we get older!

So first…

#1: Deadlifts Are Bad For Your Back.

Deadlifts are a weighted hip hinge often blamed for lower back pain.

But they are an essential movement pattern we need to all know how to control if we want to avoid throwing out our backs when lifting something up off the ground.

They are often blamed for lower back pain because we aren’t properly engaging our lats to support the weight as we use our glutes and hamstrings to drive the lift.

We aren’t properly bracing and recruiting muscles so our lower back becomes overworked and tries to carry more of the load to lift than it should.

Part of this tendency to overuse and recruit the muscles of our lower back instead of our glutes is due to the fact that far too many of us spend too much time seated at a computer or driving in a car.

Tight hip flexors can result in postural distortions that lead to underactive glutes and synergistic dominance of our hamstrings and anterior pelvic tilt. Which leads to our lower back wanting to work when it shouldn’t.

But it isn’t just tight hips that lead to lower back overload and changes in our recruitment patterns.

It’s also our hunched over posture that can perpetuate the issue.

When we don’t have proper thoracic extension, we are going to seek out mobility from other areas.

In trying to straighten our spine for deadlifts and press our chest out, we may notice we compensate by arching our lower backs. This arch may contribute to more anterior pelvic tilt and perpetuate us not only overusing our lower back but also our hamstrings over our glutes.

So it is key we note our daily postures to address in our mobility work before we needed so we can better activate the correct muscles.

But this is also why we have to notice we are simply leaning forward and not correctly pushing our butt back as we hinge.

And we may especially struggle with a BARBELL deadlift of any kind.

With a barbell deadlift you have to keep the bar basically up against your body as you lift. This means engaging your lats and really pushing the ground away as you drive up to standing.

If you notice the bar drifting away or your butt coming up first as you go to drive up, you’re going to be shifting the load more to your lower back.

Starting out, to change this recruitment pattern and overload, a kettlebell or dumbbell works well as you can hold the weight in the center of your legs and even lower it down and back toward your heels.

But you won’t need to scrape your shins to keep it close and this lowering of the weight down and back can help us remember to hinge over and push our butt back as we lower.

So if you’ve been fearing or avoiding deadlifts due to feeling your lower back, try using a weight you can hold center instead and focus on lowering back toward your heels to help yourself feel your glutes and hamstrings loading!

#2: Sit Ups And Crunches Are Bad For Your Spine.

Your abs power spinal flexion.

Crunches and sit ups are simply that when done correctly – spinal flexion.

Learning to control this move so you can easily sit up from lying down is honestly essential.

So you want to train not only a spinal motion but the muscles that control it.

And these two moves are often great ways to really break down and control this movement without loads as they are more isolated movements, especially the crunch!

Only once you’ve mastered them do you want to move on to more advanced exercises.

Yet so often with sit ups you see people arching their back and relying on their hip flexors alone to sit up and do 100s of reps quickly.

It’s why those ab mats have become so popular.

Use this mat as a band aid to be able to do more reps than you can control properly and use the correct muscles to power.

And THIS is why sit ups end up backfiring in back pain.

NOT the spinal flexion.

But the lack of true ab engagement and ability to even posteriorly pelvic tilt.

The key is making sure you’re actually rounding using your abs to lift in a crunch or sit up.

When you think of doing crunches or sit ups, you should think about exhaling as you roll vertebrae by vertebrae up.

Feel your abs PULLING you up.

And don’t rush it to get in more reps.

If you find yourself struggling to not arch your lower back as you sit up or really use momentum, go back to that basic crunch or even consider a seated hinge.

Learning to control that c curve to your spine as you round back, can help you focus on that spine flexion to engage those abs.

#3: Squats And Lunges Are Bad For Your Knees.

Your knees are MEANT to bend.

And yes, sometimes reducing knee flexion to start is key based on our injuries and aches and pains.

But unless you never plan to sit down again, go up stairs, get into your car or put something in a low cabinet or shelf, you need to learn how to control knee flexion.

Because these are ALL knee flexion!

Practicing squats and lunges in your workouts can help you do just that.

RETRAIN that knee flexion and improve your range of motion in an environment where you can fully control the movement.

It’s why we need to start recognizing our workouts are a chance to learn to move well NOT just burn more calories!

Often squats and lunges cause knee pain because we lack the proper hip or ankle mobility to load muscles correctly and ultimately the knee bares the brunt of it.

While addressing both ankle mobility and hip mobility in our warm ups is key, we can also help avoid this overload by tweaking our form.

This is often why people use the cue, “Don’t let your knees go past your toes.”

A more vertical shin angle on lunging, can help you better load your glutes.

However, it is NOT bad for your knees to go forward and may even be necessary in deep squats based on tibial length.

The key is the loading during this and having the necessary ankle mobility to keep your heels down.

Even purposely having your knee go forward as you lunge can help you really target your quads.

You just need to be able to control this and build up.

So starting with that more vertical shin angle and even limiting your range of motion and instability can be key with both squats and lunges starting out.
If you can’t control the front lunge and keep your weight more centered and knee over your ankle as you are building back from knee pain, try a split squat. This stationary movement reduces the control needed and can help you also improve your hip mobility.

You can also easily control the range of motion you work through and really learn balance.

Same thing can go for the squat. You can control how much knee flexion you work through and the stability demands by just adding a box.

As you can load correctly and control the range of motion, you can always lower the height of the box or fully remove it.

The key is starting with the stability demands and range of motion you can truly CONTROL and then building up.

This brings me to the last thing I often hear demonized especially as we get older….

And that’s #4: High Impact And Jumping.

I’ve even heard clients say they were told not to lift heavy, which is in this same sort of exercise myth vein…

I call them the myths that actually lead to us getting old fast and moving old.

Because exercise is about ability.

You need to meet yourself where you are at due to fitness level, goals, injuries…

But just being a certain age shouldn’t stop you.

And honestly, often when we stop doing the things we did to get strong in the first place, we see decline happen faster.

USE IT OR LOSE IT!

While high impact is not right for everyone, learning to control landing mechanics while also working on power is essential.

There are so many ways to do this.

It is also key we realize where the risk really lies…

It isn’t in jumping up on the box…it’s jumping off of it.

So even just a tweak to include box jumps as part of your explosive work could be to jump up to a low box and STEP off to start.

And to work on landing mechanics to start, we don’t even have to leave the ground.

It can simply be doing a squat to quickly moving up onto our toes to lowering back down.

This learning to absorb impact through that foot motion and knee bend is key.

It can help us avoid injury, especially if you’re ever on a hike and having to step down off a big rock! Or if you slightly trip to catch yourself on a curb or stair.

The more we learn to correctly handle impact and our body mechanics for it, the more we help ourselves avoid risk of injury in every day life!

And that explosive work only further improves our mind-body connection to be able to react and respond quickly.

Stop demonizing moves and just avoiding exercises and movement patterns. Instead see opportunity in modifications to rebuild and retrain as many movements as possible.

Regress to progress and use your workouts as a chance to learn to move your best and develop that functional strength!

For more on form and modifications for these moves, check out the links below…

–> Deadlift Form

–> Squat Form

–> Lunge Form

–> Crunch Form

–> 7 Big Lies About Exercise And Aging

And if this was helpful, I’d love to cover other moves you want to learn more about in a future video. Comment with some moves you’re worried about or have heard people demonize so we can break them down and learn to retrain those movement and recruitment patterns!

The ONLY 10 Things That Matter For Fat Loss

by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 21, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

There is an OVERWHELMING amount of opinions out there about the best ways to lose fat and keep it off.

And these different opinions are honestly OPPORTUNITIES for us to create the plan that meets us where we are at –

Because one size doesn’t fit all.

We just have to avoid becoming overwhelmed by all the options.

Or allow ourselves to get distracted when we do have a plan in place.

That’s why I wanted to share 10 fundamentals principles that are really what matter for fat loss, no matter your exact dietary preference, preferred training methods or lifestyle!

And these things hold true no matter our age and can even set us up to be leaner and stronger till our final day on this planet, the earlier we embrace them!

So…first…

#1: Simplify then diversify.

The less you have to focus on, the more focus each change gets.

While you may want to include a diversity of foods, restaurants, training techniques and tools into your routines, start simple!

You get good at what you consistently do. And this allows you to get consistent with a few key things.

It also allows you to avoid overwhelming yourself with so many options or variables all at once.

Once you get set meals dialed in, feel comfortable with specific movement patterns, you can then begin to add in diversity so you don’t get bored.

But first dial things back and focus on a few basics to build off of!

#2: Your goal can’t only be fat loss.

Fat loss is slow.

And it should be if you want to truly see muscle definition and lose fat without losing muscle.

But because results are slow, because we will hit plateaus, the more we only focus on one measure of success – fat loss – the more likely we are to get frustrated and give up when we don’t see progress week after week.

And guess what?

Progress won’t be linear…which is why we so often give up when results are snowballing.

This causes us to be stuck in this horrible cycle of never really getting closer to our goal or maintaining the results we worked so hard for.

So if you truly want to achieve lasting body recomp, you need to find other ways to measure success and know your habits are working.

Even set a goal of measuring success by how consistently you simply implement the boring basic habits daily!

If you do those things daily and can mark off that win daily, results are GOING to snowball!

#3: Track. Track and oh yea….TRACK.

What gets measured, gets managed.

The more accurate the picture of what we are doing, the smaller and more meaningful the adjustments we can make.

And we don’t end up throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

Too often we don’t track so we guess at what is and isn’t working.

This can lead to us stopping a habit that is building results just because we don’t realize something else is holding us back and needs to be adjusted.

It can also make us feel like we are constantly having to do these massive overhauls, creating unsustainable habits and lifestyles over a small adjustment that could have been the missing 1%.

So track your food to understand what adjustments you need.

Track your workouts to see your progress and adjust.

Track how you feel with different meal timings.

Or if foods cause changes in your energy or bloat.

But track to see the impact lifestyle practices are having so you have the power to truly adjust and fuel to feel and look your best!

#4: Stop saying you “can’t have” something.

“You can’t have that cookie.”

The second I tell myself I can’t have it, I want it even more.

Even if I didn’t want it before.

Telling yourself something is off limits makes you feel restricted.

It also takes away the feeling of control that you truly have over your actions.

Because truly, it’s not that you can’t have something…It’s that you’re CHOOSING not to.

When we’re working to lose fat, we may choose to cut things out at times. Even things we eventually want to include.

But this is a CHOICE to work toward our goals.

And we have to remember at another time we can CHOOSE to take a different action.

Because what you do to reach a goal is not what you do to maintain it.

But our mindset around new and different actions will impact whether or not we embrace the changes long enough to see results.

So stop saying you can’t have something and remember you are just CHOOSING whether to include or exclude it right now.

#5: Move more.

I didn’t say workout more.

I didn’t say workout harder.

I said move more.

Too often we put an emphasis on eating less or trying to burn more calories in our workouts, but there is another way to help ourselves see better fat loss and create an optimal calorie deficit…

And that is by simply moving more.

Being a bit more active throughout the day helps keep our metabolic rate higher and in a way that doesn’t really just stress our body more.

Go for a walk daily, even just 10 minutes.

Get up and stretch throughout the day.

Make yourself walk to get water.

By being more active not only do we keep our metabolism healthy but we also often feel better, making it easier to stick with the other habit changes we need to see results snowball!

It can even make it easier to not just reach for that extra snack on the weekend while watching TV at night because we aren’t just being a slug on the couch watching netflix at every opportunity!

#6: Emphasize recovery.

We can only train as hard as we can recover from.

Losing fat and the workout and dieting practices that help us achieve this goal are stressful on our body.

New habits and changes are hard on us mentally.

We need to embrace this.

But we realize we can’t just constantly willpower our way through.

This often leads to us working really hard to see diminishing returns.

It’s why we get burned out.

This is why we need to not only focus on improving our recovery weekly, but we also need to consider recovery weeks in our training and diet breaks.

Don’t ignore the importance of your sleep, hydration and even the quality of your food to help your body recover.

Don’t try to make every workout every day the same intensity and make sure you’re cycling areas worked over the week.

Recovery doesn’t just means days off.

It means the other habits we are doing to help get our body the tools it needs to repair and rebuild.

It also means even addressing mental burnout through owning our motivation will fade and we have other priorities in life that sometimes need to take precedent to create plans that really help us stay consistent!

But just remember recovery isn’t just about time off from your workouts…it’s about the things you do to fuel that repair and give your body a chance to rebuild!

#7: Set dietary progressions.

We set workout progressions and change things up.

We don’t expect to do one workout program forever.

We do different training progressions over the months and years.

Yet when it comes to our diet we almost take a “set it and forget it” approach.

And then we wonder why we plateau. We wonder why we get bored!

So we want to use this desire for change or variety strategically to our advantage.

That’s why you want to set dietary progressions or what I call macro cycling.

This isn’t done daily like carb cycling.

It’s done every 2-4 weeks, especially with changes in workout progressions or activity level in general, where I’ll have clients adjust macro ratios they’re using.

It is often small tweaks, but this can help shift energy sources to avoid plateaus, address activity level changes and even simply give us the opportunity to include new foods.

Mentally sometimes we need the diversity but simplified into just a few new things.

This cycling may put us slightly lower carb or higher carb to use the best of both worlds while keeping us from chasing a new fad diet or quick fix.

We not only have “end dates” to keep us motivated but we give ourselves checkpoints where we can trust in the process knowing we can make a change at that time.

It gives us the ability to do something “new” but with a focus on the fundamentals.

#8: Challenge yourself.

Workouts should be hard. They should be uncomfortable.

If you don’t challenge yourself, you’re not forcing your body to adapt and grow stronger.

You’re not going to improve your cardiovascular health or see improvements in your ability to run or cycle further faster.

Exercise is a STRESS on the body.

But a good one.

Your body becomes fitter by overcoming the stress.

So challenge yourself to create that good stress BUT…make sure you’re not slacking on tip #6.

You can only train as hard as you can recover from.

And you want that weekly progression to be able to track how things are going to see if you are hitting that point where you may need a break or change up to keep moving forward!

#9: Embrace the suck.

Success is struggle.

Change is hard.

As much as we want to create sustainable habit swaps and really focus on that habit build, not everything we will have to do to reach a goal will feel good or easy.

There is a downside to every upside.

But the more we embrace the hard and push through it to start, the more we often realize the downsides really aren’t that bad.

They were just different.

Sustainable often doesn’t mean easy to start.

But consider how many times you’ve even said to yourself, “Why didn’t I do this sooner?!”

Well it was probably because you weren’t fully ready to embrace the suck and defaulted back into what you’ve always done which IS what felt comfortable.

So if you want a new and better result, suck it up buttercup!

#10: Have an exit strategy.

You aren’t going to do one thing forever.

Your body, needs and lifestyle are constantly changing. Your motivation will ebb and flow.

Along your journey to your ideal body recomp, you won’t approach your goals with exactly the same systems the entire time.

Sometimes you may be more motivated to implement more intensive practices to see results faster.

You’ll cut out that weekly margarita on date night.

You’ll not have that extra cookie.

But at other times, you’ll want to add those things in.

The key is realizing that you are CHOOSING to implement certain habits and that you can work these things in when needed at another point.

But that’s why it is key you have an exit strategy.

You need to assess what a realistic lifestyle truly is for you at different times of year and even as you reach your goal.

Because maintaining your results means a shift in habits from your fat loss phase..

You don’t just simply stay in a calorie deficit forever…

But you also don’t go back to what old habits you were doing before.

This is why we need to constantly be assessing and reassessing and considering even what’s up next and how we can “exit” from our currently plan without just falling back into patterns that will sabotage us!

Stay focused on those fundamentals and always focus on what YOUR lifestyle actually looks like to make adjustments.

And then don’t get distracted by all of the options out there. See the opportunity they offer while focusing on these principles!

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–> Join The Redefining Strength Newsletter

The Best Core Exercise (Everyone Hates)

by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 14, 2024 | Blog, Core, Exercises

Teapots have gotten a lot of hate in recent years.

But unpopular opinion. I think the hate is unwarranted.

They can actually be an amazing move to include in your workout routine when implemented correctly.

I say this often but there are no bad exercises…

Just misused moves that aren’t right for our needs or goals that need to be modified for us at this phase in our journey!

And too often these days a missing component of our core training routines IS lateral flexion movements.

Our spine and the muscles of our core are meant to side bend.

Learning to control this movement in our workouts is key to helping us avoid unwanted strain on our spine when we lift and move in everyday life.

Not to mention, by simply writing it off because someone said it was bad for them, means we could be missing out on a move that perfectly addresses OUR unique needs.

Can’t get down on the ground?

Well the teapot is an amazing STANDING core move.

Need to address an imbalance between each side?

Well the teapot is an amazing UNILATERAL core move.

There is so much opportunity with different exercises if we simply seek to learn more about them and when and why they may work, or not work, for us and our goals.

That’s why I first want to go over some key pointers for using this exercise correctly, such as ways to include it in your workout routine, and even variations so you can build up and work your core in a way that matches your needs and goals!

USING TEAPOTS:

Now if you’re thinking about grabbing as heavy a weight as possible for your teapots and doing only a couple or reps, this is not the exercise for that type of loading.

While creating progression even in our ab and core routines is key, moves like the teapot should never be about constantly just going heavier and heavier, especially for lower rep work.

Moves like this should most often be progressed through changes in equipment, tempos and even to some extent volume (adding a few more reps).

While you can add loads, you want to be conscious that you aren’t trying to max out. You want to be in full control of that range of motion.

And often you will want to work in that 10-20 rep range based on your experience with lateral flexion and any injuries.

Keeping the reps higher and loads challenging but overall lighter is key especially starting out.

You also want to note that this lateral flexion exercise often puts more emphasis on the eccentric, and because it applies more load when the muscle is stretched, can make you VERY sore even with lighter weights starting out.

That’s why even opting for just a round or two to start of those higher reps at the end of your workout can be good.

It’s key you move slowly and work through only the range of motion you can control.

But because strengthening and controlling that movement is so key, again starting lighter is best.

Really focus on that slow lower down of the weight at your side and don’t twist or rotate to get the range of motion bigger.

When you lower you aren’t focusing on the side that is actually flexing…

You’re focusing on the STRETCH on the opposing side.

And then to move back up to standing, you will feel that stretched side PULL your torso back up straight.

While you can crunch slightly to the other side, the focus should be on that eccentric lower down to the move back upright.

Too often we rush through movements over focusing on what we feel working.

Now as amazing as this move can be, one exercise in one form is not right for everyone.

And while this traditional teapot may be done with a dumbbell or kettlebell down by your side, there are other variations you can use based on the tools you have and even your specific needs.

VARIATIONS:

There are so many ways to address and implement lateral flexion into your routine – from more isolated oblique crunches to variations of the teapot.

You can simply change the type of tool you use while doing the same basic teapot, trading a dumbbell for a kettlebell or plate weight.

(The plate weight especially can be a great too for one, working on your grip strength in a different way!)

You can even keep the same loading placement and use a cable or band anchored down low to apply resistance in a new way. The band anchored down low will really challenge your core as you pull to come back up!

This simple change in types of resistance can be a great way to progress this move as you advance with it to challenge your body in new ways.

You can also change loading placement, anchoring the resistance overhead by using a cable or even doing a variation of this in the suspension trainer.

This will also change the focus from being on your OPPOSING side, to the same side you’re bending toward.

But so often little changes like this can create progression through the same but different and really help improve our mind-body connection because we are working the same muscles but in a new way.

And if you have no tools available, you don’t have to miss out on the benefits of this amazing move.

Side plank hip dips are a great way to work on that lateral flexion without any equipment.

If the full version off the ground isn’t right for you, modifying the side plank off an incline, such as a bench, allows you to really use this move to your advantage and control that lateral flexion.

Just make sure you’ve engaged your back to support your shoulder and have flexed your feet, especially if your feet are stacked, to protect your knees.

And as important as it is to work through that range of motion to strengthen the muscles that power the lateral flexion movement, it can also be key to include some ANTI-FLEXION exercises as well.

Learning to PREVENT unwanted flexion or movement is equally as important.

And you can strengthen those muscles to stabilize using different anti-flexion moves as well.

It’s why things like side plank holds or the stability or pallof press can also be key to include.

But too often we aren’t using both and we’re even valuing one over the other instead of seeing the opportunity in combining both in our routines.

Remember moves are only as good as their implementation.

And lateral flexion, and the ability to avoid it, are key movement patterns we want to learn to control.

Train them in the gym to become stronger and functionally fit!

Looking for amazing workouts to help you rock those results?

Join my Dynamic Strength program!

–> LEARN MORE

5 Tips to Burn Fat (NOT MUSCLE!)

by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 7, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

If you feel lost as to what to do and like your hard work in the gym isn’t showing, I want to help you avoid common body recomp mistakes with 5 tips to dial in your workouts and your diet to help you lose fat NOT muscle!

The first key component for fat loss is adjusting your diet to not only fuel your training but better help you recover from it.

Because we can only train as hard as we can recover from!

And our nutrition is a key component of our recovery!

Now…this tip is one most of us know we should be doing…yet we often try to find a reason NOT to do…

It’s why I really want to take a second to explain the WHY behind it.

While we often just want to know WHAT to do….

Knowing the what without the why doesn’t help us truly embrace the changes, especially when we don’t…well….like them to some extent.

So what is probably the most important thing we can be focusing on nutrition wise if we want fabulous body recomp no matter our age?

Increasing our protein!

You’ve heard me harp on this before, but that’s why I want to really focus on WHY higher protein is so key.

First reason why protein is key…It’s the building blocks of muscle.

By increasing our protein, especially when in a calorie deficit, we are making sure we’re getting our muscles the fuel they need to repair and rebuild from our hard training sessions.

If we aren’t getting our muscles what they need, we risk losing more muscle as we try to lose fat, especially the harder we train and the more cardio we include.

And we want that muscle!

Building and retaining lean muscle helps us look more defined as we lose fat.

It also helps us avoid metabolic adaptations to burn more calories at rest.

And when we are getting our body the fuel it needs to truly repair from our workouts, we are preventing the catabolic environment that can often occur during a fat loss phase, leading to us losing not only fat but ALSO muscle.

Now you may have heard that you can only use about 20-30 grams in a meal for muscle protein synthesis.

And tried to use this as an excuse to not eat higher protein.

But protein isn’t just used for building muscle….we are literally made up of protein.

So that 20-30 grams you’re eating, isn’t just going to cover your muscle needs. It’s being used for other body functions as well.

And as we get older, we also aren’t as able to utilize protein as efficiently.

So the harder you’re training as you’re trying to see body recomp, especially as you get older, your protein needs increase.

Second, protein makes the fat loss process easier not only because of it’s muscle building benefits but also because of it’s thermic effect and satiating effect.

Higher protein diets have been shown to increase satiety, partly because they even help you create higher volume meals.

And higher protein diets also lead to a daily higher calorie burn because it requires more energy to digest protein than the other macros.

So you can feel fuller with technically a higher calorie intake, and ultimately create a bit more of a deficit through the fact your body has to work harder to turn that protein into the fuel you need!

Not to mention…it’s way easier to create and maintain your calorie deficit with higher protein for many people.

We just don’t want to eat more of the protein than we have to so we are less likely to overeat!

And if you do happen to overeat your calories, high protein diets are the only diet shown to help you avoid gaining unwanted fat with a slight calorie surplus.

High protein diets give you that extra wiggle room!

With increasing your protein, and the extra flexibility it can give you in your calorie intake, you also want to fight to keep your calories as close to your current maintenance as possible.

Creating a SMALL calorie deficit is key if you want to lose fat and not muscle.

Our body doesn’t like change.

The more we can adjust from what we’re currently doing, the better as our body won’t rebel as much.

And if you are currently under eating protein, you may even keep your calories where they are at as you increase your protein first.

Because even by increasing protein, due to the thermic effect, you could put yourself into a slight deficit.

With also building muscle from your training because you are eating enough calories for muscle growth, you may then find what was your maintenance is now a small deficit.

So with calories, fewer isn’t better.

Extreme deficits put us at more risk for muscle being lost NOT better or faster fat loss results.

And this can lead to us looking softer and needing to slash our calories lower and lower to see further progress.

Keep your calories as high as you can, first changing protein levels.

Then consider even starting by subtracting 100-200 calories from what you’re consuming CURRENTLY to create that deficit.

These diet changes then need to be paired with your workouts strategically.

Especially the harder you train, the more you need to avoid extreme deficits while focusing on increasing protein.

And you want to make sure your workouts are designed with a focus on muscle.

Yes, muscle.

Even if your goal is fat loss.

This makes sure you’re retaining lean muscle while in a deficit to lose fat as efficiently as possible.

And KEEP IT OFF.

Now, there are lots of workout designs that can work.

But your focus when you design your workouts is on how you can lift more quality loads during your session.

Too often we try to add more quantity, more training volume.

Instead we want to focus on the QUALITY of the volume we are doing.

Not only does this help us get more out of short sessions, but it truly challenges our muscles with the intensity and progression they need to be forced to adapt and grow stronger.

More reps and sets, more volume, can just lead to training we don’t recover from without actually pushing us to the extent we need to create that stimulus for growth.

We need more quality loads lifted over the session.

That’s where cluster sets can be a great technique to use.

If you’re struggling with going heavier, only able to do a few reps with your current weight in a row…

Or even slightly fear your form breaking down as you begin to lift heavier so hesitate…

Cluster sets can be a great technique to use.

They can help you get out 8 reps with a weight you would only usually be able to use for 4 or even 5 reps. That’s a lot more weight lifted over the workout! And it’s all because you broke down those 8 reps into mini sets.

With cluster sets, you are breaking up your traditional set of 8 reps, mini sets of 2 or 3 in a row, with just 10-30 seconds of rest between those mini sets, before you rest longer and do another round.

Because you are only performing 2 or 3 reps before the short rest, you will find you can use more weight for the full 8 reps than you would have been able to if you had tried to just do 8 in a row.

Using this technique to lift more weight for quality reps will lead to faster muscle growth in a safer way and us losing fat NOT our muscle!

It’s a great way to really create the needed stress and stimulus for muscle growth even as we get older and don’t have the same anabolic hormonal environment we did when we were younger.

But no matter what techniques you include, and especially the more advanced an exerciser you are, the more you have to really focus on pushing yourself in your training sessions.

This doesn’t just mean adding more loads.

It means creating progression in different ways.

And one way we often don’t discuss as a way to create progression in our training is exercise order!

The order of the exercises we include can have a huge impact.

Ever become aware of how much a muscle is actually working in a move because of another exercise you recently started including before it?

That can be used to your advantage!

Include an isolation move before a compound lift and you can use “pre-exhaust” or pre-fatigue technique to your advantage.

You may find you better activate the muscle you targeted with the isolation move in your following compound lift for more quality of movement.

Or that you are able to fatigue the prime mover in your compound lift with lighter loads and better quality of movement.

If however fatiguing the muscle with the pre-haust technique leads to you compensating, you may find that using an isolation move right AFTER a compound lift works for you better.

This post-exhaust training technique can be a great way to push a muscle past failure.

You’ll do the compound lift to fatigue, compound then use an isolation move to further target a muscle involved in the lift to work to failure.

You can also use BOTH techniques over progressions, especially to help you both take muscles past fatigue but also fully fatigue prime movers that usually won’t hit failure with a compound move because you’re usually limited by smaller, weaker muscles fatiguing first!

But they are both great ways to progress and create that stimulus for muscle growth without just focusing on adding more weight!

Then remember, we can only train as hard as we recover from.

When you’re working hard toward a goal, you’re going to get burned out.

That’s why planning in breaks is key!

And breaks are not only rest days every week, but also strategic diet breaks and recovery weeks.

This doesn’t have to mean, and honestly shouldn’t mean, just lying on the couch doing nothing.

Nor should it mean excuses completely blowing your calories and macros.

The goal of these breaks is to help you mentally and physically have a break from the grind.

It’s like refilling your gas tank.

You don’t want to end up on empty by the side of the road.

You want to pull into a gas station when the light comes on.

This allows you to keep moving forward faster.

These strategic breaks can help you from avoiding hitting burn out or letting cravings get the better of you.

So don’t fear sometimes backing off to ultimately do more!

Take time where you include more foods you love and even increase your calories out of a deficit.

Take time at points to lower your workout intensity or recharge with workouts that are new and fun and address any weak links.

Embrace even doing the minimum as you shift your priorities to come back wanting to keep working toward your goals!

But stay focused on the fundamentals and use these 5 tips to help dial in your diet and your workouts together to lose fat and NOT muscle!

The best results happen when we follow a “recipe” – a clear plan…

Learn more about my 3-Step Recipe For Results”

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#1 Reason Your Workouts Aren’t Working (And How To Fix It)

by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 24, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Workouts

Stop stringing together random moves. Stop just pulling random workouts that feel hard.

If you want results, your training sessions need to be designed with purpose.

You need to create routines that are actually focused on your goals.

Because training hard and training hard in a way that pushes you forward aren’t the same thing.

One is wasted effort.

The other is progression.

That’s why I want to go over the key factor in creating a workout plan that actually works as well as 3 amazing training techniques to help you build your leanest, strongest body ever!

Because there isn’t just one way to do things or one best workout.

No one best move.

No one best training split.

We need to stop ask what we “should” ideally be doing to start.

Instead we need to ask ourselves, “What is realistic for me based on where I am RIGHT NOW?”

Because even what used to work, may not fit our body or lifestyle now.

Ultimately what dictates what we need as much as our fitness goals is our schedule.

To see results, you have to design for the time you have.

DESIGN FOR THE TIME YOU HAVE:

Many of us have thought, “How many days a week do I need to train? For how long?”

We’ve sought out some ideal, but this stops us from designing for what is actually realistic for our schedules.

When we design for the time we have over getting caught up in some ideal of 1 hour a day, 6 days a week, we can create a routine we can actually be consistent with.

And consistency is key.

Honestly…Inconsistency is the biggest results KILLER.

Yet so often we set ourselves up for inconsistency in our workout routines by focusing on doing more or some ideal over first assessing what is truly realistic for our routines.

And that inconsistency has such a huge impact because your weekly schedule is built on everything working together.

When you design for 6 days a week, you’re using training splits, workout designs and even moves based on having all 6 days a week to train.

Miss one of those days and the whole system isn’t going to give you the same benefit.

That’s why you want to first ask yourself…

“What schedule is realistic for me?”

When you’re looking to start a new routine.

Once you know your timeframe, how many days a week and for how long, you can then select workout layouts, moves, training variables that make the most out of your timeframe.

Because if you have 3 days a week to train you can use full body splits to hit areas 2-3 times whereas you may use more hemisphere splits alternating upper and lower to get the same volume and frequency over the week if you have 6 days to train.

Design so that you don’t miss things and the system can work together!

Not to mention so often just because you have an hour to train doesn’t mean you should just add in MORE to fill the time.

If you have an hour, that can allow maybe for isolation moves for stubborn areas or extra rest to lift heavier.

But an intense speed or power workout still shouldn’t be made longer just because you have the time.

A intense sprint or HIIT workout SHOULD be short.

So once you know your schedule, don’t forget your goal for your training progression. Sometimes you won’t need to use the time just because you have it!

That’s why, with designing for the time we have, it’s key we also stop seeing our workouts as strength OR cardio.

We will often even BLEND both to see the best results based on our schedule and goals!

STRENGTH-CARDIO CONTINUUM:

When thinking about our workouts, we need to think of strength and cardio not as an either or thing in our training, but more as a workout design continuum we can use to our advantage.

Because whether you’re doing what we more traditionally call cardio, which is that steady state endurance type activity….

Or even that more traditional, more low rep slow lifting we call strength…

You’re working an energy system, which is technically having an impact on your cardiovascular health AND your strength and muscle.

And working along this continuum can help you see amazing body recomp while truly designing for the time you have!

It can also help you work not only on your aerobic base but on your speed, power, work capacity, lactic threshold, recovery and so much more.

So we don’t want to see our workouts as either or to get better results.

We also need to be conscious of this continuum so that we aren’t just turning every strength workout into a cardio session, which could be fighting against our muscle gains.

When you design your workouts, stay focused on your goals, not just on making a session feel harder.

Because while a more metabolic strength session that’s more circuit based or even a timed set may be amazing for losing fat while retaining lean muscle during a fat loss phase, that same lack of rest or more metabolic element may be hurting your focus on muscle hypertrophy.

Instead you may need to add in a bit more rest or switch it up to a superset or compound set design.

The key is understanding that how we vary rest and cycle exercises in a workout, the overall workout design we use, and not only the types of moves we use, can impact the results we get – from the strength to cardiovascular benefits.

Not to mention we can use workouts that are a combination of some conditioning and strength work to our advantage, especially when we are short on time.

Because most of us DO need more efficient workouts to fit our busy schedules.

And too often not having enough time is our excuses for not being consistent with our training or seeing the results we want.

That’s why I wanted to share 3 training techniques that can help you not only get BOTH cardio and strength benefits but also be super effective in allowing you to see results while designing for the schedule that is realistic for you….

First, Use Interval Workout Designs For Your STRENGTH Workouts.

When we think of an “interval workout,” we think of a cardio session.

And, yes, this can make your lifting sessions a bit more metabolic.

You may find you get more out of breath.

But intervals can also be a great way to increase your training density, especially when you’re short on time to improve your strength and muscle gains.

By using intervals with more strength based lifting exercises, you can help yourself achieve amazing body recomp, building muscle, improving your work capacity and even your recovery.

You can use interval workouts whether you’re doing more of an anterior/posterior split or even full body routines.

But set an interval of work, generally a minute for more strength exercises is good, using an exercise and load that challenges you so that you are almost working past failure in that time.

In back to back intervals even alternate areas worked so one muscle group can rest as you continue to use the time you have efficiently to work another area.

But during each interval of work, because the goal of this session is still building strength and muscle, challenge yourself so you need to pause for a second or two.

This pause to completely more reps means you were challenging yourself with loads. And generally at that pause with traditional reps and sets, we would have STOPPED and moved on.

But because we still have time in that interval to work, we do more!

This ultimately helps you lift more quality loads in a shorter amount of time, creating an amazing stimulus for muscle growth even when you need a quicker training session!

Interval strength work done this way, also implements the second training technique that can help you be more efficient in your workouts…

#2: Rest Pause Technique.

Rest-Pause Technique has many offshoots and usages.

But in its most basic form, you will perform reps until you need to pause, then rest for generally 15-30 seconds, before trying to eek out a few more reps with the same loads.

In the interval work, you want to rest no more than a few seconds to keep moving.

With things like cluster sets, you may use this brief pause but with smaller sets that don’t fully take you to failure, but allow you to lift heavier than you would be able to had you just done all reps straight.

But using this brief rest allows you to not only increase your training density, doing more reps in a shorter amount of time, but also often lift MORE weight in that same timeframe as you can go heavier for the same volume because of the rest.

You will find this improves not only your strength but also your muscle gains and even strength endurance.

And you may be surprised too by how much you see your recovery times improve in your other conditioning work even!

Now, this final technique I want to share goes against what we often think to do when we’re short on time and designing efficient workouts…

But I want to share it because it highlights how many opportunities and options there are out there to make things match what we need and progress over time.

Too often we get stuck feeling there is only one right way, and then miss out on an option that is different but could be the switch up we need.

Usually when we are short on time, we design our workouts to cycle areas worked.

This allows one area to rest as another is worked.

So in a circuit or set back to back moves may be one upper then one lower body exercise instead of back to back moves for the same muscle group.

But you may want to break this rule at times if you are really focused on those muscle gains, especially for stubborn areas.

This is where Post-Exhaust technique can come in handy, especially for more advanced lifters!

#3: Post Exhaust

With post-exhaust technique, you are working the same muscle group with back to back moves, usually using a compound exercise even followed by an isolation move to hone in on one of the muscles that was just worked.

This can help you work past failure in another way and recruit more muscle fiber to improve your muscle growth and strength gains.

But because you’re doing a high volume of very focused work for an area in a short amount of time, it can help you see better results even when you’re workout schedule is more limited.

You aren’t giving an area a chance to recover yet you’re working at an intensity with the change up in moves that allows you to keep that quality of work.

By pairing these two moves together back to back as then you even cycle between pairing that target different areas, you’ll be able to use all 3 drivers of muscle growth very efficiently.

BONUS: You can even do post-exhaust in an interval design, working the same muscle in back to back intervals!

And you may be surprised by how much you feel your blood pumping without doing anything you’ve usually thought of as remotely cardio!

So just remember, there are lots of ways to use different moves, techniques, and workout designs to our advantaged based on the time we have.

And we don’t have to see our workouts as just cardio or strength.

But we need to make sure we design everything with purposed focused on meeting ourselves where we are at to move forward toward our goals.

And be realistic with what you need.

Design for the time you have!

Want amazing workouts designed to help you rock those results no matter your fitness level, schedule or the equipment you have?

Check out my Dynamic Strength program!

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The Best Bodyweight Exercise (Everyone Hates)

by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 10, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Functional Fitness

Unpopular opinion…

I think Burpees are underrated.

You may be like, “WHAAAAT!? I see burpees in everything. They’re overdone!”

And while I agree they can be overused, misused and simply put in a workout just to make it harder…

I also think they aren’t given their due credit for being more than just a hard move, but an amazing full-body cardio move to improve your mind-body connection and functional fitness.

Burpees are an exercise that too often don’t get enough respect for being a move that has to be EARNED, but that can, and should, also be done in some form at EVERY age.

Yup…EVERY age…

That’s why in this video I want to explain WHY burpees can be so valuable to do even as we get older, but also why this move can be such a challenge and how we can break it down and modify it to fit our needs and goals!

And if you’re right now shaking your head saying, “NOPE! Burpees aren’t for me!”

I’d urge you to hear me out on WHY they can be so beneficial and then check out the modifications I share!

So…how and why are burpees so beneficial to include?

I’ll be the first to admit…I don’t like burpees.

They stink.

They’re hard.

They’re uncomfortable.

They never seem to get easier…especially if we do them correctly with intention and focus.

And because they are a very advanced move, I’m very careful with how I program them into progressions for clients.

They are a complicated, full-body, explosive movement.

They challenge your mind-body connection, requiring you to perform multiple joint actions and engage muscle groups down your entire body efficiently in sequence to move quickly and powerfully.

Lose tension in one area and your burpee looks like the worm. Your push up becomes a belly flop.

And not only do they require a strong mind-body connection and great full body strength and stability, they also require more MOBILITY than we realize.

To be able to jump your feet fully in close enough to your hands to jump up at the top, requires more hip and even ankle mobility than we recognize!

But what makes them a hard and complicated movement we need to often regress to progress and truly EARN, is also what makes them a valuable exercise that I want every client to build up to as much as possible.

Breaking down the burpee to build up this movement will help you improve your ability to recruit muscles correctly quickly.

It will help you be able to engage muscles throughout your body in sequence to perform functional everyday activities that have us squatting and reaching and bracing all at once.

It will teach you to brace and stabilize while still reacting quickly.

And it will help you maintain the mobility to get down and up easily off the ground.

While you may never do the exact burpee movement in every day life, it can really help us build functional strength through the fact we ask our body to do so many things as once and quickly.

That ability to engage things to stabilize and power movement FAST is what helps us react in everyday life to stay injury free and functionally fit.

It helps us react quickly to catch that glass when it gets knocked off the table.

To avoid slipping and falling when we trip on the curb.

It’s all about that mind-body connection.

And burpees are exceptional at helping us build that.

They are also a great move to improve our conditioning, especially when we are short on time. Working so many areas at once with this fast paced movement is going to get your blood pumping. And even just intervals of 20 seconds of work can be killer!

And while this may sound weird…

They even help us become more comfortable being uncomfortable which is truly invaluable to growth in life and success.

This ability to be comfortable being uncomfortable helps us conquer new challenges, which builds confidence. And the more confident we become, the more we will embrace learning and growth and rock those results as we get older!

Now if you’re starting to be sold on burpees and considering adding them in, you need to make sure you’ve truly EARNED the full variation.

And just because you can “do” a burpee, doesn’t mean that full variation is right for you…YET.

If your burpees look sloppy, like you’re a fish kind of flopping out of the water on dry land, it’s time to check your ego and regress.

Build that core stability. Build that strength.

Build that mobility.

Regress to progress!

Get everything truly working together efficiently so you aren’t just working harder with this move, but actually seeing amazing full-body strength and conditioning gains from it!

So…How Can We Break Down And Modify The Burpee?

I want to break down some key modifications for this move based on some reasons why the burpee is so challenging….

Starting with the fact that it requires more mobility than we recognize.

Challenge #1: I don’t have the mobility to easily get down into the plank and stand back up.

I love using a bench or low box for clients starting out who may not yet have the mobility to easily step or jump back into a high plank and stand back up.

If you notice when you do burpees that you don’t put your hands flat on the ground or you can’t jump your feet in close enough to your hands to easily shift your weight back and stand up, using a bench or box will help.

The incline helps create more “space” so you can more easily jump or step your feet into your hands.

This modification can also be key if you struggle with challenge #2…

Challenge #2: You don’t have the core stability or upper body strength.

The incline can also help reduce the resistance or load on your upper body and core as you move into that plank position and perform the push up.

Because the burpee shouldn’t be a belly flop onto the ground.

There should be a jump or step back into plank then a lower into a push up before you press back up and stand up.

By using an incline you modify the push up and plank, which can help you slow build that core and upper body strength.

As you build up, you can lower the incline slowly toward the ground, increasing the resistance and load on your upper body and core!

And even starting out, if you don’t have a proper incline to use, try taking out the push up even and just focus on that nice plank position to start. Or even consider a knee push up variation.

But focus not only on moving quickly but also proper form with each component of the move.

I mention this because SPEED and moving quickly with exercises has to be earned!

Which brings me to Challenge #3: Not having the neuromuscular efficiency aka the speed or power.

We can move faster while performing a movement correctly because we’ve built up that mind-body connection.

And that takes time.

To start, you may need to step with the burpee over jumping.

Or you may need to slow things down.

I know often we don’t want to do that with the burpee because we are using it as a cardio move.

This is why modifying it to allow ourselves to move quickly and get our blood pumping is key.

BUT always modifying may also be why you feel “stuck,” unable to progress to a harder variation.

Sometimes we also need to progress and slow things down.

Then as we master that new movement pattern, we can slowly speed things up!

So consider including both burpees slightly broken down into components as you build up, removing the push up or only doing a half burpee without the jump up while also taking time to do longer intervals of conditioning work where you can slow things down to focus on the full movement!

Now the final challenge I want to address and help you work around is…

Challenge #4: Modifying around aches and pains.

I’m going to tell you right now, the burpee may not be right for you in the starting phases of rehab.

But your goal should ALWAYS be to build back and retrain whatever movement patterns and exercises you can.

The key is to find ways to reduce mobility or strength demands whenever possible in that rebuilding phase.

If you have a wrist injury, that may mean using a bench to reduce the load on your upper body.

It may mean slowing down to place your hands on dumbbells instead to keep a neutral wrist position.

It may even mean using an incline to modify into a forearm plank as you step back.

But you want to find ways to embrace the components of an exercise you can train while avoiding overload.

Same can be said for knee or hip injuries.

Maybe you remove all jumping and instead step back. Or you even use sliders to reduce impact more.

Maybe you use the incline to give yourself space so you don’t need as much hip or ankle mobility to step back up and stand up.

Or maybe you even do a bulldog variation to target those quads more while putting less stress on your core.

Again it is about considering what you need to eliminate, but what you can still do in a move to use as much as possible!

While the burpee may not be right for you at your current fitness level or phase of rehab…

While it may not be right for you YET…

I think too often we just demonize moves or write them off over thinking…

“How can I regress to progress?”

“How can I build back?”

We don’t break moves down, slow down the speed and RETRAIN movement and recruitment patterns to function optimally…

We just AVOID.

And this doesn’t help us stay functionally fit till our final day on this planet.

It honestly puts us at greater risk for injury in everyday life!

The more we can retrain and the less we have to FEAR movements, the stronger and more independent we will be till our final day on this earth!

So if you’ve been just hating on burpees, avoiding them thinking they’re hard and pointless…

Think again!

Find ways to include this amazing move in your workout routine using my tips to modify around your challenges and see your strength and conditioning improve dramatically when you’ve earned this killer exercise!

Ready for some fun workouts that will challenge you no matter your fitness level?

Take your training to the next level with my Dynamic Strength Program.

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