Blog Archives Page 4 of 79 | Redefining Strength

15 Tips to Build Muscle

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

Struggling to see the muscle gains you want?

Stop blaming your age.

Stop blaming your genetics.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It may even hold us back!

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this also means that details matter more!

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

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

They’re not eating enough.

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

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

You need to retrain your body to eat more.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

But this carbphobia may be holding you back.

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

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

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

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

PROTEIN.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

One they’re putting cardio first in the session.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

You want to be freshest for your lifts!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

So get ready to feel uncomfortable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

We’re…

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

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

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

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

But we get good at what we consistently do.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Instead we need to get good at those basics.

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

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

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

Focus on hitting your macros consistently.

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

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

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

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

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

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4 Tips To Increase Your Push Ups (In 30 Days)

by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 28, 2024 | Blog, Bodyweight, Exercises, Push Ups

If your push ups are…well…fuglier than you’d like, then it may be time to check your ego, break things down and focus on regressing to progress.

Sometimes little form deviations creep in and we don’t even realize it.

At times like this, it isn’t just about doing more push ups.

Because practicing improper form or recruitment patterns only further ingrains the movements we want to correct.

The question is….how do you change your form, get the correct muscles working and build up to those picture perfect push ups from your toes?

It isn’t just about simply modifying the push up.

There are actually 4 main forms of skill work that I’ve seen dramatically improve clients’ push up results when combined over the week.

I call it their “skill work” because we are working on specific push up variations or training techniques to improve their push ups skills.

And in this video I want to go over each of these 4 skills and how you can implement them into your weekly training routine, as well as one of the most unsexy secrets to improving your push ups, so you can see great improvements over the next 30 days!

Just remember with each of these techniques, you may need to check your ego and modify further than you’d like to make sure you’re feeling the correct muscles working and keeping that picture perfect form.

And FILM yourself with your push up practice!

By filming, you allow yourself to see your movements to change your cues and movement patterns while staying super intentional and focused on what you feel working as you do the actual work.

You’ll also have a great way to track your progress as your form improves and you advance those push up variations and the skill work you’re doing.

Now diving into the skill work…

I’ve mentioned multiple times you may have to modify moves.

That being said, so often we modify our push ups off our knees or an incline and find ourselves never really progressing.

It feels like we’re just getting stronger at the modification.

And that’s why I like to include Eccentric focused push up skill work first in one workout each and every week.

Once you’re warmed up, you will want to perform a few rounds of eccentric only, or eccentric focused, push ups before then going into whatever other workout you have planned.

Putting the skill work first allows you to do it when you’re freshest and focused so you can be very intentional and controlled with the moves. This also allows you to often do a harder variation than you could if fatigued.

And specifically want to use eccentric push ups because we are strongest in that eccentric portion of movements.

This means we’re able to often do a HARDER variation, even if for the eccentric part of the exercise only, than we maybe even can for the full exercise.

In push ups, the eccentric portion of the move is the lower down.

Eccentric means the elongation or stretch of the prime mover muscle. In the push ups that’s your pecs.

So in the lower down of your push up, you may find you do feel strongest.

You may find you can lower down in a full push up from your toes…but you just can’t seem to get back up!

And we want to use this to our advantage to help us PRACTICE and spend time under tension with a harder variation of the move than we can yet fully control.

Because if we do only work on that modified variation, we will never help ourselves truly progress forward.

So if you can, choose a variation harder than you can perform for the full push up movement, and simply do the lower down only with proper form. Spend about 5 seconds on that slow and controlled decent.

Then simply reset at the top.

This fully eccentric only option is great if you are really in between levels and can’t maintain proper form on the way back up.

If you are instead trying to build up your strength endurance a bit more to increase your rep number, or even in between variations where you can’t yet do the next level with control but your current incline or modification is just a bit too easy, you may find you use an eccentric focused push up instead.

With the eccentric focused variation, you WILL press back up but you’ll still use that slow 5 count lower down to really spend time under tension with the hardest variation you can control.

Just make sure that push back to the top allows you to maintain proper form.

This is great to even help you build up the number of reps you can do once you’ve got picture perfect push ups off the ground.

To use eccentric push up work, try this reps and sets layout…

Choose a variation you can do no more than 6 reps with. If you hit 8 reps, you need to advance the variation. Complete 2-4 sets, resting 90 seconds between sets. On your last set, do a drop set. Right after you finish your 6-8 reps, modify just enough that you can complete 6-8 reps more…but with those making you hit failure.

The next skill I like to include is Bottoms Up Push Up work because it addresses one of the hardest parts of a push up and complements the Eccentric work so well.

This push up variation helps you build the strength to push back up while maintaining that straight line from your head to your heels.

Because in that transition from lowering down to pushing back up is where we often see the most deviations in form pop up and tension being lost.

This skill though is the HARDEST to perform.

Seems simple but truly is deceptively challenging so to help yourself truly perform it well, modify more than you think to start.

You want to set up at the bottom of a push up, really focus on engaging everything even running through a set up checklist to make sure everything is engaged because you’re then going to push up off the ground with everything moving TOGETHER.

You can’t allow yourself to worm. Or your butt to go up in the air.

You want to have everything flexed and be pushing the ground away so you’re almost feeling like your body is hovering off the ground before you officially lift.

But this helps you learn to create and maintain tension throughout the movement and maintain full control while bracing your core.

Even think about that exhale as you push up.

And unlike the eccentric work, for this, you will need to start with a modified variation and even more of one than you usually use.

To include Bottoms Up push up work, you’ll again want to do your skill practice at the start of your workout after your warm up.

You will focus on a variation you can only do 5 reps of. And you’ll perform 4-6 rounds, resting 1-2 minutes between rounds. Do not skip the rest so you can keep working at the hardest variation possible. Do not be afraid to even add in 15-20 seconds rest between reps at points to complete the 5 each round.

Do fewer rounds if you find you’ll have to modify further to complete more than 4. Better to just do the most advanced variation you can for a few quality rounds.

The 3rd skill work I include for clients uses Cluster Sets to help them improve their strength and endurance and create a great training volume but also while using a harder variation of the push up than they usually would be able to for the same number of reps.

Think about the variation of a push up you can right now do for 10 reps.

Now think about what variation you may be able to perform if you could only do 2 reps.

It’s probably a bit more advanced, right?

Cluster sets allow you to do 10 reps but with that variation you normally would only use for 2.

With Cluster Sets, you’ll set your total rep count for the set and divide those reps into mini sets of just 2-3 reps at a time with about 20 seconds between mini sets before you rest longer between rounds after all reps are complete.

You want to choose a variation that really challenges you for just those 2-3 reps.

This helps you keep progressing the variation you can do while getting in more training volume (more reps) at that harder level.

This works because it helps your body adapt to the harder variation, not just get better at the modification, and builds strength to control that movement.

The short rest periods, in the most unscientific terms possible, basically trick your body into believing it can do 10 reps with a version you can really only do for 2 reps.

But this helps you build strength and control fast!

To include this skill work, you want to set a rep count of 8 for each set and perform 3-5 sets.

You should be able to do only 2-3 reps in a row of the push up variation you use for the 8 total reps. And even at the end may find you have to do some singles to get all 8. Rest 10-20 seconds between mini sets and then 90 seconds between full sets.

Better to rest longer though between sets over modifying as the whole point is using that harder variation!

Now the final skill work I like to include with clients is Push Up Holds.

Ever notice you sort of “stick” or fail at specific points in the push up?

Like you can’t lower all the way down without flopping?

Or you get stuck at the bottom or half way up?

That’s where push up holds can help.

You can hold right at your stick point to help you strengthen that position and learn to engage everything correctly where you usually stall.

When we eliminate the movement, we can often focus better on what we feel working and even work on that mind-body connection to recruit muscles harder.

This helps us really perfect and tweak our form and build that stability.

And holds are deceptively hard, building core and upper body strength.

But you may find that by setting up at specific spots in your push up, you can even use a harder or more advanced variation than you can do to complete a full push up.

This can really help you keep progressing toward that first full one from your toes. It can also help you increase your reps by strengthening where you normally fail.

So find the points you struggle with the most in your push up, and include timed holds at those spots really focusing on what you feel working and engaging those muscles harder.

I’ll often include push up holds for 20-30 seconds and 2-3 rounds for clients even as part of their activation work or in an isometric recovery workout for the week. Pairing them even with pull up holds can be killer for the core and upper body!

Now the final tip I want to give is the most unsexy of secrets, and something you probably don’t want to hear…but truly is often the missing component of all of our push up work…

It’s that PREHAB work that we can and should be including in every warm up.

We often think, “I’m weak! That’s why I can’t do more push ups!”

And while improving our strength is key, I know a lot of people that are very strong, can bench press a lot that aren’t that good at push ups.

It isn’t just upper body, or even core strength, that is needed.

It’s good scapular control and activation of so many muscles to work together from your head to your heels.

This means doing that foam rolling, stretching and activation to get things working correctly so you can move efficiently for the push up.

This prehab work will also help you avoid wrist or elbow or shoulder injuries which are so common as people include more push up work in their routines.

So don’t ignore the importance of that 3-part prehab process in your warm up so you can get the correct muscles working and avoid injury to keep working on those skills and building up!

Make all of your focused skill work pay off by getting on that mobility and stability work.

And as you add in that prehab, make sure you’re including all 4 of these skill sessions (1 time each per week) at the start of your workouts for the next 4 weeks.

Want more amazing workouts to improve your push ups and rock those results? Join my Dynamic Strength Program!

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Stop Gaining Weight with Age (In 2 Steps)

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

So often we blame our age for the reason we’re seeing that middle age spread happen.

But honestly, your age isn’t an excuse to gain fat or not feel and move your best.

You’re using it as an excuse because it’s…well…easier than taking ownership.
Harsh…YUP.

But it’s the reality.

It’s hard to take that look at ourselves and assess the changes we need to make.

It’s much easier to blame something we aren’t in control of.

Now I’m not saying changes don’t happen with age…

But the changes we see with our body and even our lifestyle can be addressed so we can see results.

The key is controlling what we can control and being open to evolving and changing our dieting and training practices.

Too often instead of being open to changes, we push back.

We say things like, “Well this used to work!”

“I could just get away with this in the past!”

Well guess what?

You can’t now.

And some of those things you did that you got away with are now the reasons you’re struggling more and seeing that weight creep on when you just look at a cookie.

I’ve had this hard conversation with many clients over the years, but we have to let go of what used to work.

You have to step back and ask yourself…

“Is it working NOW?”

Because that is all that matters.

Are those dieting and training practices truly helping you move forward?

Are they truly meeting you where you are at?

Because if they aren’t, it doesn’t matter how much they used to work…

They don’t match your body needs and goals now.

And that’s really the first “secret” to avoiding gaining fat as you get older…

Stop clinging to what once worked.

You CAN feel your most fabulous at any and every age.

But we have to recognize the changes that have happened, even down to shifts in our activity level and priorities as our lifestyles have evolved as we’ve gotten older.

Because so often what we blame on AGE is simply an accumulation of improper dieting and training practices or even lifestyle shifts over the years…

Not just the number of years we’ve been on this planet.

We just start to notice the accumulation more over time.

It’s like a leak in our ceiling we never addressed….for a long time the ceiling may have been fine…

But at some point, it’s going to collapse.

This is exactly what happens when we often blame our age for our aches and pains and weight gain now…

But it’s the under eating to lose weight faster in the past that led to us losing muscle and negatively impacted our metabolic health…

It’s the overtraining and skipped warm ups that led to overuse, overload and injuries…injuries we never really rehabbed or addressed…

It’s the 1% deviations and lack of consistency over the years that made us slowly slip further and further from our goals…

It’s these leaks that have finally added up.

That weight gain we see with age is just the ceiling finally collapsing.

And we can’t just paint over the ceiling expecting it to be fixed even though that may have covered it up in the past.

We actually have to go in and correct the problem.

We have to let go of what once worked. And we have to be open to approaching our training and fueling in a new way.

You may have to step back in your workouts at first to correct those movement and recruitment patterns.

You may have to first address metabolic adaptations, eat more, focus on macros and GAIN weight before you can lose because you need to increase your muscle.

You may have to accept that you can’t just do what you want and stay in your comfort zone.

Because your body has changed.

Hormone levels aren’t the same. Recovery isn’t the same. Our ability to utilize protein isn’t the same.

But these aren’t excuses. They can be addressed through lifestyle changes…

We can increase our protein portions per meal to create the same stimulus for muscle growth.

We can do different training splits and include more prehab work to help with recovery.

The key is stepping back to assess what we need NOW, not clinging to what worked at a different stage.

Because forcing yourself into your younger self mold is why you’re gaining weight.

Stop. Embrace the new.

And don’t stop challenging yourself.

We get old because we stop doing the things that kept us young.

We get old because we ACT old.

We tell ourselves we can’t achieve certain goals, so we let ourselves off the hook for making uncomfortable changes.

We stop pushing our comfort zone and challenging ourselves.

We say we can’t lift heavy.

We can’t jump.

We can’t make certain changes.

And this mindset that all of the sudden we “can’t do” something because of our age is what instantly makes us old and often leads to weight gain.

We stop trying to make changes and meet ourselves where we are at and just ACCEPT weight gain and decline.

But don’t.

Instead keep pushing that progression in your workouts.

Keep looking to learn about how to adjust your nutrition to better fuel.

Keep seeking to embrace the discomfort of change over getting set in your ways.

Remember you can DEFINE HOW YOU AGE.

Stop just giving away your power and agency.

Take OWNERSHIP of your results.

And with taking ownership and not just defaulting back into what you’ve always done…

Embrace a perspective shift.

Want to avoid gaining fat?

Don’t focus on fat loss. Focus on building muscle.

You heard that right…

Even if your goal is fat loss, you can’t just focus on fat loss to see results.

As you get older, you need to focus on gaining muscle.

This shift in focus is key because so often a loss of muscle mass and the metabolic adaptations that occur with that, is why we struggle to lose fat.

And the dieting and training practices that help us build muscle are often also what we’ve let slide.

It’s a bad cycle we get stuck in.

We stop challenging and pushing ourselves in our training, we implement improper dieting practices that create metabolic adaptations in an attempt to lose weight faster…So we lose muscle.

Then because we’ve lost muscle, we ultimately end up seeing the weight creep back on.

Not to mention we often see a negative impact on our strength, making us feel older, feel less like pushing ourselves and see ourselves gain weight while feeling completely demotivated to do anything about it.

When we do finally muster the motivation, we just end up eating less and trying to do more cardio only to be frustrated by the slow progress on the scale…

And the cycle just repeats…over and over and over again…

STOP DEFAULTING BACK INTO THIS CHANGE LOOP!

Shift your focus to building muscle and you’ll see far better results.

But this won’t be easy. It does get harder to build and retain lean muscle as we get older.

So the best time to start focusing on building was probably a few decades ago.

But since we can’t go back…

The second best time is RIGHT NOW.

SO STOP WAITING!

It becomes harder to build and retain lean muscle because we simply don’t have the same hormonal environment or muscle building response to protein that we once did.

And on top of that, with being more advanced, having trained for longer, we’ve adapted to a great training stimulus.

This means we have to work harder to create that challenge for muscle growth.

On top of the changes with age, this slows the rate at which we can often see muscle gains.

It also means we need to eat MORE to fuel those gains. And especially focus on protein.

We simply don’t use protein as efficiently as we get older.

It’s why with getting older, increasing your portion per meal by even 10 grams may be what you need to create that same muscle building response you saw from your training when you were younger.

And…as much as you may love fasting?

It may not be serving you well.

It may make it harder to eat enough, get in enough protein and even have full energy stores to push hard in your training.

Again, what worked for a goal in the past, may not match your body now.

You’ve recognized you’re getting older. Recognize you also need a new approach.

And part of that approach is still CHALLENGING YOURSELF.

And not just with weights, although heavy loads and lower rep work for more advanced lifters is ESPECIALLY key as we get older, but also with different tools, tempos and moves that make you just feel…well awkward and uncomfortable!

We’ve got to embrace being uncomfortable and this is something we so often shy away from more and more as we get older.

But if you want to avoid gaining fat and feel your most fabulous, stop clinging to what used to work, embrace a new challenge and focus on building that lean mean muscle!

Why just accept that getting older has to mean feeling old?!

Define how you age and embrace the changes to address them!

Ready to dial in your diet and your workouts to feel your most fabulous at any and EVERY age?

Learn more about my 1:1 Online Coaching!

Change Your Habits Not Just Your Diet (For Fat Loss)

by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 14, 2024 | Blog, Diet

And that’s one of the biggest pitfalls sabotaging our diet and our success…

We go in thinking we’ll do something short term to then go back to the lifestyle we want.

The habits we had before.

But that’s not how things work.

You can’t do one thing to reach your goals then go back to what you were doing before and expect not to lose all of your progress.

If you want lasting results, you have to actually change your habits and build…yes…a new lifestyle.

Yet so often how we approach making changes doesn’t allow us to create new habits.

We do think of it as “going on a diet,” instead of adjusting our diet.

And because we have this short term focus, often we jump to doing more, which means restriction.

It also means overwhelming ourselves with changes we often can’t maintain.

Changes that sometimes stop us from even starting and definitely stop us from sticking with anything long term.

Changes that make us feel like we just don’t have the willpower or self control to ever see results.

And this all is caused by this pressure we feel to hit some ideal over assessing our current lifestyle and habit swaps that would meet us where we are at currently.

By why does this happen?

I think it’s because we have been brainwashed to believe that dieting has to mean restriction.

We’re also constantly bombarded by all these ideal diets and made to feel less than when we can’t hit someone else’s arbitrary standard of clean.

I see it when clients try to follow some fit-fluencers standard of “clean eating.”

Heck, I kept myself stuck never seeing the body recomp I wanted, constantly losing the weight only to regain it when my motivation and willpower ran out because I was trying to force myself to fit a clean eating mold…

A diet that is so different from our own it seems impossible and even miserable to maintain.

But we see this as what we “should” do…

What we NEED to do to see results.

So we start to try to make all of the changes.

We adjust our meal timings, making ourselves stare at the clock fantasizing about our next meal.

We force feed ourselves bland meals that lead to us feeling like we’ve just got to make it through till we lose the weight….then we can eat tasty things again…

We restrict all of the foods we love till we can’t take it any longer and we go devour that whole pint and ice cream and bag of chips giving ourselves a food baby….

And then we think, “I’ll never see results! I’ll just have to start over Monday!”

Only Monday doesn’t happen for a few more weeks.

Instead we yo-yo back up, not only regaining the weight but often more.

And in the process we often negatively impact our metabolic health.

But honestly…what’s worse than the weight gain, is the mindsets we’ve now created.

Each negative experience…each time we feel MISERABLE doing what we feel we “should,” we become more mentally set against the healthy changes we feel we need.

Think about tracking macros for instance…

So many of us feel tracking is restrictive.

But it’s because of how we’ve used the tool in the past.

When most of us have first tracked our food, we eliminated whole food groups.

We starved ourselves, slashing our calories super low.

We restricted foods we loved.

We made ourselves miserable.

We felt judged and deprived.

So of course, now thinking about tracking to hold yourself accountable or make changes sounds absolutely miserable.

And we think tracking is restrictive.

But the tracker wasn’t judging. It didn’t make us make those changes.

We CHOSE to make those changes and adjustments.

The tracker is now just associated with those feelings which makes it harder to use again.

So now you have to find ways to separate out the tools from the improper implementation in the past.

And this is why one of the most important things you can do for yourself if you want to avoid sabotaging your diet is to…TRACK WHAT YOU’RE CURRENTLY DOING.

And do this without making changes!

If we want to make changes to our nutrition and see not only the results we deserve but LASTING changes is to truly understand where we are starting from.

Not only does logging without making any changes help us realize that tracking our food isn’t restrictive so that we can regain power to use this tool and shift our mindsets…

But getting this clear picture of where we are starting from allows us to make habit changes that meet us where we are at.

Too often we try to just force ourselves into a dieting mold with no thought as to how those habits will fit long term.

And while not every change we will have to make will feel sustainable, especially to start, we do want to do as much as possible to reduce the “pain” of change.

I say “pain” because change can cause mental push back.

And the pain of staying stuck has to outweigh the pain of change.

It’s why when we get that initial motivation to make changes after realizing nothing in our closet fits…

We are willing to make more sacrifices.

However, those sacrifices are often short lived when the motivation fades.

And unfortunately we can’t just manifest motivation whenever we want.

So since we often can’t make the pain of staying stuck greater…We have to find ways to reduce the pain of change.

That means we have to make the habit changes EASIER.

Because what feels easy and comfortable and sustainable is just what we’ve always done.

But too much discomfort in the changes will make us run back to our comfort zone.

It’s why at some point when we try to force all these clean eating standards on ourselves, we often hit the hard we can no longer handle and say FORGET IT and give up.

So instead of repeating this same pattern, track what you’re currently doing.

Get an accurate picture of your lifestyle…

Then make one small swap.

A change that almost feels too easy. From here you can build.

Sure maybe ideally you’d like to be eating lean protein sources and vegetables at every meal.

But if right now you’re having pizza or take out for most meals and vegetables don’t seem to exist in your diet, instead of forcing yourself to choke down salads and steamed broccoli at every meal, just add aside salad with your pizza.

I know probably someone in the comment section is getting made about this…

But too often we sabotage our success by not building from where we are currently.

If you want to get to your goal, your destination, you need to set your current location in your GPS.

That’s the only way to map out the route and start moving forward.

Same thing goes for your diet changes.

So stop worrying about ideals.

Stop restricting yourself and making so many dietary changes you can’t maintain them and you’re powering your way through a 21 day or 6 week fix only to fall back into old habits…

And instead get that accurate picture of what your lifestyle is and make one change that feels almost painless.

This will then help you stack more and more habits on to move forward.

Because the more you do, the more you do.

But you have to be able to take that first step and adjust your diet…instead of repeating the same pattern going on a diet only to fall off!

Break out of this yo-yo dieting cycle. Here’s my 3-Step Recipe To LASTING Results!

2 Intense Ab Exercises (Most People Skip)

by Cori Lefkowith | Jul 7, 2024 | Blog, Core, Exercises, Functional Fitness

No you can’t spot reduce the fat around your middle by doing a bazillion crunches or sit ups…

BUT focused ab work can help you get that lean, defined core when your nutrition is dialed in.

Yet too often we skip the core work.

If we add it in, it’s an afterthought.

And too often we think we’ve done even enough core work because we’ve included heavy lifts like squat and deadlift.

And while those moves do benefit your core, they’re working it only in one way…to stabilize.

But our abs power spinal flexion and don’t only resist extension or stabilize.

Not to mention our obliques twist and turn, and laterally flex not to mention help us prevent unwanted rotation.

This means we want to target all of these movement patterns to see the best results.

That’s why I want to share a few of my favorite core moves, specifically two moves focused on your abs, to train these muscles both with flexion and anti-extension exercises to not only help you build a stronger core but a more defined one.

However, first I want to touch on two essentials to core training that will help you see better results faster and are too often IGNORED…

I’ll then also show you how to use my favorite moves while addressing these two key components…

#1: Make sure your abs are ACTUALLY working!

You can’t just rush through moves and let your hip flexors and lower back compensate.

And you may just write this off, labeling those others weak.

But, if these areas are compensating, THEY are getting the work from the moves you’re including…

Not your abs.

What you feel working in a move is what is BENEFITING from the move.

So whether your hip flexors and lower back are actually weak or whether they are taking over because a move is too advanced and your abs have to rely on these other muscles to keep up because they aren’t strong enough…

You have to address this compensation if you want results.

This may mean changing your form or it may mean regressing the move to build up!

But if you don’t feel your abs, your ab exercises aren’t paying off and you’re wasting time and energy.

#2: If it challenges you, it will change you.

Just like building up any other muscle, you need to progress the moves you’re doing to see results.

And no, we aren’t trying to bulk out our middles, which is why we may not just focus on heavy loads.

But we need to advance moves to drive that muscle to change which will help us see that definition as it is revealed through proper nutrition.

This also means strategically designing your workouts to include core work you can progress as too often core work is just an afterthought in our training.

We add a move here or there. And we may add a rep or two but don’t really do anything to continue to progress the exercise.

While you can add weight to progress a move, we often want to progress through the same but different, changes in types of loads or loading placements, ranges of motion or even instability as we keep the reps higher, even in that 15-25 rep range often.

Now I want to share a 2 of my favorite ab exercises to work your abs with spinal flexion AND anti-extension movements.

These moves are especially amazing if you’re looking to target your lower abs.

Yes, your lower abs.

If you’re about to say, “There is no lower ab muscle.”

You’re right. There is no separate lower ab muscle.

But we can target different portions of different muscles to greater extents based on the postures and positions used.

And leg raise type movements, if you can avoid overusing your hip flexors, as well as extended plank positions, have been shown to activate the lower abs, or lower portion of your rectus abdominis to a greater extent.

With both of these moves, I’ll show you how you can make sure your abs are actually working and even progress, or regress, these moves to fit your needs.

The first move is the Reverse Crunch Roll With Overhead Hold.

This lower body crunch variation is a great way to target those lower abs while also helping you prevent your lower back from engaging or relying on your hip flexors over your abs.

The key tweaks this move makes off the basic lower body crunch is the overhead hold and the heels locked back into a roller.

Both of these help you avoid compensating to better target your abs.

The overhead hold helps you more easily engage your abs without your lower back compensating because it creates tension through your lats to protect your back.

You want to pull down hard on the pole or even edge of a bench you’re holding onto.

This slight move to even flex your lower abs will help you protect your back further.

Then using the roller locked between your lower legs and hamstrings, you’ll be able to engage that posterior chain, especially your hamstrings, to prevent those hip flexors from activating.

With even these two tweaks, you still want to focus on ROLLING one vertebrae at a time up. Curl those knees in toward your elbows FLEXING your spine.

If you don’t have a roller, you can still do this move by just thinking about pulling your heels in toward your butt and hamstrings. That activation will help inhibit your hip flexors to focus on your abs.

But these two tweaks to that basic lower body crunch can help you really make sure you’re focusing on your abs with spinal flexion.

And then to progress this move, you can change tempos.

Or you can even do a straight leg variation, but not only perform a leg lower but an extra LIFT at the top.

This lift at the top as you raise your legs up is what gets that extra spinal flexion. But you have to make sure you’ve built up to this move and you’re not just relying on your hips to lift and lower.

While your hip flexors are working with hip flexion, the raise of your legs back up, you want your abs engaged using that posterior pelvic tilt, or tilt of the hips up toward the ribs to round the back toward the ground.

This protects your back and supports those hips so you aren’t only feeling them working. And that plus part of the movement and lift at the top further work the abs.

To further advance this move and even target your adductors and pelvic floor more, you could hold a med ball between your legs.

Or to even make this move tougher on your abs, you could use an incline bench.

This way you’re working more against gravity to even tuck up!

But the key is to progress only once you’ve mastered that basic variation.

And even as you progress, never think you’re above returning to this move as sometimes changing things up is the progression we need to see results as we can focus even more on really activating our abs with those basics!

The second move is Plank Extensions.

I also call these the Body Saw when done off the forearm over the hands.

You’re trying to brace your abs so you don’t get sawed in half…just kidding…but seriously!

This move is freaking DECEPTIVELY hard.

By extending your plank position, your abs and especially your lower abs, have to work very hard to prevent extension of your spine and stabilize.

This takes that basic plank up a notch!

You should NOT feel your lower back engaging or arching. If it arches, you may start to feel yourself even overusing and resting on your hip flexors.

So to modify this move, start off an incline, such as a bench.

Focus on engaging your abs as if you’re going to be punched in the gut as you even flex your glutes to walk back. That glute flexion helps protect your back and disengage your hip flexors.

If you can walk back into that extended position, maintaining that brace, lower the incline.

You can then move to this walk back from your hands on the ground before moving to your forearms.

These changes in postures can really help you target those abs and progress the move.

Then you can start to implement different tools even instead of adding loads to make the move more challenging for your core.

You can use sliders to slide over walk back (towels work too).

Or you can even really vary the move by changing the way you’re extending the plank, using a ball to roll out under your forearms instead of the sliders on your feet.

It’s not just weights that can make moves harder and drive progression! Those different postures, tools and even placements can have an impact!

If you’re looking to take your core definition to the next level, use these moves and tips to really work those abs and progress your training.

And yes, dial in that diet to truly reveal your hard work in the gym!

Want amazing workouts you can do anywhere? Check out my Dynamic Strength program:

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7 Mistakes Women Make Trying to Lose Fat or Gain Muscle

by Cori Lefkowith | Jun 30, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

We’ve all fallen for the fads.

The promise of a quick fix to get lean and strong overnight. But real and lasting results take time.

Quick fixes often keep us trapped in a vicious cycle, making it harder and harder to see the results we want.

I say this having made almost all the mistakes myself.

That’s why I want to share the 7 most common mistakes I see my female clients especially making to help you not waste time falling into these traps.

And I want to start with what may be the hardest change in mindset to embrace..

The struggle to take days off when we really want results yesterday…

The struggle to give ourselves permission to take it easy at times…

But this is a HUGE mistake that will sabotage your results every single time…

Mistake #1: Under recovering.

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

End of story.

But so often we label this as “over training” instead of under recovering.

And I feel this leads to us actually sabotaging our own success.

I’ve even seen a trend recently pushing people away from training hard.

A fear of cortisol levels rising because of working out intensely.

But exercise is a GOOD stressor.

It’s a stressor you not only want but NEED if you want to build muscle, be stronger and ultimately look leaner.

We WANT to challenge ourselves with intensity and loads.

But we can only do so in a way that actually allows us to push if our recovery is on point.

So we do need to cycle the intensity of our training.

We do need to vary how muscles are worked and even what muscles are targeted in sessions.

However, too often we only focus on the workouts, not all that we are doing, or not doing, between our sessions to help ourselves recover.

Instead of not pushing in your training, figure out ways you can go at that 100% intensity and truly maximize each session through how you’re fueling and recovering between workouts.

Focus on that quality of your sleep with a bedtime routine to wind down.

Focus on hydrating properly so your muscles can get the nutrients they need and repair.

And focus on making sure you aren’t depriving your muscles of the fuel they need to repair and rebuild.

Which is the next mistake I wanted to cover as it is very easy to fall for those diets with labels that lead to us not properly fueling to see results….

But jumping on that restrictive diet with a label train leads to us not only NOT truly seeing the body recomp we want happen, but ultimately sabotages our long-term success.

This mistake is what can lead to us feeling like our metabolism is broken and that we just have to accept the middle age spread.

We need to stop jumping into these diet programs that just completely restrict whole macros or food groups.

While yes, based on health concerns or activity level or goals, we may adjust our macros or the types of foods we include to move and feel our best…

We need to stop just DEMONIZING foods or macros because they may not be right for someone else.

Because this can lead to us not only sabotaging our fat loss or muscle building results,

but also lead to us creating hormonal imbalances that can impact our health.

Thyroid issues, adrenal fatigue, constant inflammation, low energy…

We blame our training too often for some of these things or even our genetics.

But often it is our diet.

We’ve cut out micronutrient diversity by eliminating whole foods groups.

Or we’ve even restricted a macro to the extent our body can’t handle based on our goals and activity level.

If you’re super active and want to lose fat and gain muscle?

Cutting your carbs super low even if you’ve heard it is better for a women in menopause may sabotage your results.

It may lead to you losing muscle and actually gaining fat as you see your thyroid health impacted and your energy and motivation to train severely decline.

Fear fats will make you fat?

That fear of healthy fats may be why you’re seeing chronic inflammation and constantly sore and not recovering from your sessions as well as you’d like. H

So stop just demonizing foods and realize that each of us may need different dietary preferences or macros to match our needs and goals even as our bodies change over time!

But eat to FUEL your body as you push hard in those sessions to see results and ultimately improve not only your functional strength but your cardiovascular conditioning.

This brings me to mistake number 3, which I find we often make because we’ve been scared away from pushing “too hard” in our training, especially as we get older.

But we NEED to challenge ourselves if we want to create change, ESPECIALLY the older we get and even as we go through menopause….

Our body doesn’t respond the same way it used to when we were younger.

That doesn’t mean we’re doomed. Or that we can’t build our leanest, strongest body ever.

It just means we can’t fear intensity in our training.

So stop skipping those SPRINTS!

Honestly this is a huge mistake not including sprint work often enough.

This doesn’t mean you should now start to do a bazillion sprints daily…

There is such a thing as too much of even a good thing.

But sprint work, and different sprint intervals should be included weekly.

So much love is given to Zone 2 training, and enough can’t be said about building that aerobic foundation…

But too often we fall in love with one form of training, one piece of equipment, one move and neglect other essential components that would make our systems more successful.

You want that diversity in your programming over the course of the week.

So include that short and killer sprint work!

Note I said SHORT and killer. Just because you have an hour to train doesn’t mean you always need to use it!

Too often we just focus on training longer, on doing more, over designing with a purpose.

Sprint work shouldn’t be stretched out into a long workout.

It’s generally a quick session, and often no longer than 30 minutes at LONGEST.

And honestly, the things that should impact the length of your sessions most aren’t even the length of the sprints themselves, but the rest between or the prehab work you include before and after!

Sprints really should be between 8-20 seconds, 30 seconds at longest.

Depending on what you’re working on you may do a work to rest set up of 2:1 up to 1:12 work to rest as intervals based on how much you’re working on true explosive speed.

And this variety of options can be used to your advantage.

Two amazing sprint protocols for women that are focused on body recomp while improving their cardiovascular health are…

20 seconds on, 10 seconds off or even 20 seconds on, 40 seconds off for 4-8 rounds.

The different work to rest intervals will help you target different energy systems over the week!

However, going back again to the biggest mistake I see people making, under recovering…

The harder you train, the more you need to make sure you’re truly getting your body what it needs.

So don’t make the mistake of NOT EATING ENOUGH to lose fat and gain muscle!

I know this was a mistake I made multiple times over the years.

Eating less to try to see faster results on the scale is a hard mindset to shift.

But as much as a calorie deficit is needed to lose fat, eating less will NOT yield better results faster and is often why we get stuck on that yo-yo dieting cycle never actually seeing the definition we want.

It’s what leads to metabolic adaptations and hormonal imbalances, especially as we restrict whole food groups or macronutrients.

If you want to see your hard work in the gym paying off, you need to fuel well.

And often that means eating more to ultimately lose fat and look leaner!

When you want to lose fat, you want to create a very small calorie deficit of only 100-200 calories off of what you’re eating to maintain your weight.

More than that and you do cause your body to find ways to conserve energy.

Our workouts can suffer, we can stop fidgeting or moving as much naturally.

Our body will even adjust other bodily processes to account for the reduction in energy coming in.

That’s why we don’t want to cut calories too low.

And if we’re training hard, we need to make sure we’re getting our body the fuel it needs to repair and rebuild.

Muscle requires more energy to be maintained.

So if you want to retain your lean muscle and even build more, you’ve got to eat enough to support the process to do that.

And the more muscle you then keep on, the more you then may find your calorie requirements increasing.

This is why you want to be conscious not to just cut your calories lower and lower, even if you do hit a weight loss plateau.

It’s also why you need to focus not just on calories but also on this essential macro everyone always wants to avoid prioritizing…

PROTEIN. Yup.

This is a big mistake we often make…Not prioritizing protein.

And while many of us hate being told we should eat more protein…

We should.

Especially if you’re a woman.

Especially if you’re feeling like your age is causing you to struggle to lose fat and gain muscle.

Especially if you train hard and “eat well” and aren’t seeing the results you want.

High protein diets are the only ones shown to help you build and retain lean muscle in a deficit and avoid gaining fat in a calorie surplus.

This gives you more wiggle room on your calorie intake and can help you make sure your hard work in the gym pays off.

And because we don’t use protein as efficiently as we get older, we need to make sure we’re getting bigger portions of protein in every meal to stimulate the same muscle building response.

So as much as you may hate being reminded of this tip, it’s a big mistake if you keep running from making this change in your diet.

And yes…It can be a challenge to start.

But instead of just saying it isn’t possible to eat more protein,

take one meal and your current protein source and just add one ounce. BOOM! More protein!

And if you’re still thinking “But I’m not a body builder. I don’t want to get bulky.”

Protein won’t make you bulky.

It can actually be key for seeing better fat loss because it raises your metabolic rate, aka requires more calories, to digest protein.

Which brings me to mistake number 6…and something too often also feared for making us bulky…

Heavy weights!

We need to stop fearing and avoiding low rep, heavy weight lifting.

And on top of this, which is mistake number 7, we also need to stop turning to doing more cardio when we want to lose fat.

This prioritization of steady state cardio or even only high rep, lighter load weight work is what can hold us back from truly gaining muscle or even losing fat.

Metabolic health, especially as we get older is key.

And while we may see a higher calorie burn on our fitness trackers from cardio workout, strength workouts may be more essential for our metabolism and body recomp goals.

Not to mention strength workouts can improve our cardiovascular health.

Workouts really don’t have to be only cardio or strength.

They can work a variety of energy systems while helping us build muscle.

But we can’t fear those heavy weights that challenge us for lower rep work.

Because the more we build that strength, the more we can lift to see better muscle gains and even then improve our strength endurance for any cardio endurance sports we do love!

But heavy weights are what help us truly challenge ourselves so our muscles are forced to repair and rebuild stronger.

And no, your age isn’t an excuse to skip those heavy weights. You honestly need them even more.

Use it or lose it!

We need to keep pushing ourselves to optimize our results.

So if you’ve been struggling to see the results you want, assess if you’re making one of these mistakes and focus on even a small habit adjustment you can make this week to start correcting your course!

Dial in your diet and your workouts to build your leanest, strongest body at any and every age!

If you’re looking for that custom program and coaching to help, check out my 1:1 Private Coaching.

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