Blog Archives Page 4 of 82 | Redefining Strength

7 INTENSE Ab Exercises (Most People Skip)

by Cori Lefkowith | Dec 8, 2024 | Blog, Core, Exercises

You clicked on this video for 7 intense ab moves.

I know, I know…Just tell you the moves. Well I’m going to.

Here’s move #1 of 7 in total that will focus on not just your abs, but especially that lower portion of your rectus abdominis….

Move #1: Weighted Crunches

The Pull Over Crunch is one of my go-tos as a weighted crunch variation, but I wanted to mention weighted crunches in general because so often we forget how key it is to progress those basic bodyweight moves to keep challenging ourselves so we see results.

Even adding a weight to the basic crunch can take it up a notch.

While we aren’t trying to do a 5 rep max out on loads, we do want those higher rep ranges of 15-20 reps to really challenge us and adding a weight is a great way to do this!

And if you want to add not only weight but create an extra challenge for yourself, try the Pull Over Crunch.

The reach overhead with the weight challenges your abs to resist extension and brace to protect your lower back.

This is HARD, especially with your legs extended out off the ground.

You’ll then pull the weight from overhead down in front of your knees as you crunch your knees and upper body together.

This pull over is going to work your entire core and even your serratus anterior.

Then extend back out but don’t relax back onto the ground.

That brace to keep your hips tilted toward your pelvis and not let your lower back take over is really what works those abs with the flexion to crunch everything together.

If you’re finding that your lower back or hips are taking over, try lighter or now weight and even try a bent knee variation with touching your toes down between.

You can even modify further with just the upper body crunch or single knee tucks.

But note, what you feel working during this and every move I share!

Because if all you feel is your lower back or hips, your abs won’t get the full benefit and you won’t see results build.

And remember, this move, and all 7 actually, are ADVANCED moves.

I will share modifications like the single knee tucks to make sure you’re using the level that makes YOUR abs truly work!

Now…Move #2: Leg Lowers +

Leg lowers are an amazing move to target that lower portion of our rectus abdominis, aka those lower abs.

And by adding on this little raise and spinal flexion at the top of that leg raise movement, we make our abs work even more not only to brace as we lower and resist extension but to actually power flexion.

To do this move, I love adding in a hold overhead to help brace those abs more, but you don’t need to.

If you don’t hold on overhead, placing your hands besides you on the ground will provide a bit more support than if you place them behind your head.

With your legs squeezed together and feet up toward the ceiling, feel yourself tuck your hip bones toward your ribs to feel like your abs flex and engage.

Lower your legs as close to the ground as you can, then feel yourself pull your legs back up toward the ceiling using your abs.

As you lift them straight back up, feel as if a string is lifting them higher and pulling your butt and back off the ground.

You want to feel your abs flex and lift your pelvis up.

Lower back down before you again do the leg lower toward the ground.

This truly is a killer move especially if you avoid using momentum.

If you feel your lower back engaging, try a bent knee version instead or even test out holding on overhead to help you create that core tension to start if you aren’t!

Move #3: Slider Body Saw

This stability and anti-extension plank variation is deceptively hard.

That lengthening or extended plank position as you avoid letting your butt go up in the air or lower back arch and hips sink to the ground really makes your abs work.

And by doing this off sliders over walking in and out, you reduce any traction that may help you control the movement or push off.

You’ll even feel into your arms and around your rib cage working as you lengthen sliding back then pull yourself back into the plank position.

Make sure you don’t shrug but feel down the sides of your back to move back forward.

And make sure you’re actually extending back. It is easy to try to cheat and just rock forward over our forearms over truly lengthening back through our shoulders and core.

To modify, you can do this walking back over using the sliders and even add in an incline to reduce resistance.

A plank rock is also a more static option to start whether off the ground or an incline!

Always ways to adjust a move, reducing the strength demands through different postures, positions and even ranges of motion!

Move #4: Dip Hold Curl Up

I love moves that work not only our abs but even have bonus areas they target.

And that’s why I love hanging abs and even dip hold ab variations.

But when we think about abs off the parallel or dip bars, we often think leg raises or knee tucks.

While amazing options, this small, simple looking and deceptively killer move for our abs, especially our lower abs is too often overlooked…

Because it doesn’t look like much!

The tuck to pull UP and push the bars away, rounding through the spine is what really targets those abs using spinal flexion.

That pull up and in will make your abs shake if you focus on doing it intensely to almost pretend you’re sucking your body up.

Don’t just bend at your hips.

Pull your body up by rounding your back to hollow out your abs. Think about even curling up.

To modify this, do a foot assisted version to reduce the resistance on your upper body and core.

If you don’t have parallel bars, you can also do a slider variation off the ground, pushing the ground away with your hands as you lift your butt to slide your legs on the sliders back to tuck up.

For those of you without monkey arms, you may need stands or kbs or dumbbells.

Move #5: Incline Bench Abs

This is an amazing way to progress those reverse crunches and add in diversity if you also love hanging abs!

This is a killer lower ab move that also works your serratus or the muscles around your ribs.

That slight incline that challenges you to curl against gravity is what kicks this up a notch.

Just don’t rush through as you tuck and lower down. Really focus on the curl.

You will want to pull down hard on the top of the bench as you start with your knees bent and toes resting on the ground.

Use your abs to slowly curl your knees up toward your elbows, rounding your spine off the bench.

Touch your elbows then lower down with control.

The more you focus on even your upper body pulling on the bench, the more you can feel your abs over your hip flexors, especially if you struggle with your hips wanting to engage with leg raise movements.

And to modify this, lower the incline back to a flat bench variation or even off the ground.

Move #6: Ab Extensions

Ab extensions are another way to do extended planks, and a great way to mix things up.

That extended plank position is so key to include if you do really want to target those lower abs.

The most common version of ab extensions are done with the ab wheel as roll outs.

But you can also use sliders, a stability ball or even suspension trainer.
The provide changes to postures and even instability to help you create progression with this move.

Whichever tool you use, make sure that as you set up on your knees, you’ve engaged your glutes and slightly tuck your hips up toward your ribs.

Keep this ab engagement through the full movement.

Extend your arms out overhead on the ground keeping the brace and even a very slight tuck your chin down over looking out in front of you.

Then to move back up, really focus on pulling your hands back under you with the sides of your back while feeling the muscles around your ribs.

Your abs are working hard here to stabilize and avoid movement of your spine!

To modify, you can do a single arm extension, so reaching one arm out at a time or even limit the range of motion you work in.

Using a wall to guide you and stop the movement can help you work in a range of motion you can control.

But you do want to strengthen through the biggest range of motion you can!

And last but not least…Move #7: Bench V-Ups

This full body crunch allows you to work in a bigger range of motion than off the ground because you’re seated on a bench.

And you will feel your quads even often with this killer ab move. Just make sure you don’t rely soley on your arms to support you in the crunch but pull yourself up with your abs.

Seated on the bench, put your hands on the back of the bench behind you with your legs squeezed together and out straight in front of you.

With your feet hovering off the ground, lean back. Then crunch your torso toward your legs.

You will round through your spine as you crunch up.

Then as you lean back and extend out, your abs will work to avoid your lower back arching or engaging.

Really focus on your abs pulling your legs and upper body together each time you v up.

To modify, you can do a bent knee or even single leg version.

Off the ground is also always an option, especially if you don’t have a bench.

And to bring this full circle, you can even advance this move further by making it a weighted bench v-up, holding that weight even between your feet.

Just go light! This can really start to target your quads and hip flexors more to maintain that leg position.

You may find a slight knee bend, but not actively bending at your knees as you do the move is key!

Now go enjoy these moves and make sure you focus on what you feel working! Even consider adding in 3-4 for 30 second intervals and 2 rounds through as a finisher to your workout this week!

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The Weakest Muscle in Your Lower Body (Your Glute Medius)

by Cori Lefkowith | Dec 1, 2024 | Blog, Butt, Exercises, Functional Fitness, Pain Relief, Runner's

Stop ignoring this muscle…

The Glute Medius.

The thing is…we THINK we’re doing a ton of exercises to work this muscle and target it at times.

But all too often we’re doing the “right” moves and compensating because of previous injuries and tight hip flexors from sitting for most of the day.

We’re letting our TFL, a hip flexor, or our piriformis, a butt muscle that turns the hip out and open, take over for the glute medius.

And this not only doesn’t help us build stronger glutes, but perpetuates the aches and pains and injuries FURTHER.

So all of that hard work we’re putting in to correct the problem is actually making it worse.

That’s why I want to break down how to actually make sure your glute medius is working and form tweaks to 2 basic glute medius moves I see people doing all of the time and not truly benefiting from.

I’ll also share a few bonus prehab tips to help you get more out of your glute activation exercises in general!

But first, I need to mention the most important part of activating the correct muscles during movements…

Not just going through the motions with exercises!

You need to actually ask yourself as you do the moves, “Where and what do I feel working?”

This mind-body connection is key. And starting out it may be more of a challenge.

You may not feel anything working when you think about it.

The key is learning to notice when other muscles are taking over.

Which is why I want to help you understand how to know your glute medius is truly working…

This starts with understanding where you DON’T want to feel the move.

And you don’t want to feel this move in your TFL, piriformis or down your IT band. Now if you have no idea where these things are, don’t worry, I’m about to break all of this down!

Let’s start with the TFL…

It is key to note that the TFL, or tensor fascia latae if you want to be all fancy, IS an abductor muscle like the glute medius so IS going to work with lateral raise movements too. It helps raise your leg out to the side and stabilize lateral movement.

But too often it is becoming overworked leading to hip, back, IT band and even knee and ankle issues because we aren’t aware it is taking over for the glute medius.

To feel where your TFL is so you can notice when it is working, put your hand on the front top of your pelvis down your leg as you’re lying on your side.

Rotate your toe down toward the ground, turning your leg all the way up toward your hip.

You’ll feel the TFL flex as you do this movement. That’s where you then DON’T want to feel the main part of any lateral raise type movements you do if you want to target your glute medius.

Next the piriformis…

Now this muscle will assist more with external rotation type exercises, so moves where you’re lifting your leg out to the side but also rotating your hip open or turning your toe out.

To notice your piriformis working instead, you will want to lie on your side and put your hand were the top of your back pocket on your pants would be. Then turn your toe open toward the ceiling, externally rotating your hip. You’ll feel that piriformis muscle flex.

Again you don’t want to feel this taking over during those glute medius lateral raise, abduction movements.

And the last area I want to mention is the IT Band as often we can feel tension down the side of our thigh during these movements as we start to progress them.

Part of this is because of the TFL’s connection to our IT Band and that becoming overworked.

But also because we aren’t focusing on the lift coming from our glute.

If you feel tension down the outside of your leg, you will want to then check to feel if your TFL is really flexed during the exercise especially or if you feel your glute medius working.

Now…I want to help you find your glute medius so you can check to feel it working in moves when you can’t yet just feel it activating with that mind-body connection yet.

Then I want to dive into the 2 moves and form tweaks you can make to help you make sure this muscle is powering the movement.

To find your glute medius so you can place your hand on this muscle even during moves to feel it working and build that mind-body connection, set up half kneeling with one leg forward and your knee bent to 90 degrees.

You want your knee right over your ankle.

Take your hand on the same side and place your thumb in your hip crease with your palm resting fat at the outer hip joint.

Your palm is resting on your glute medius.

Keeping your palm there, lie on your side and lift your leg straight up to the side.

You “should” feel it working.

But if you don’t, this is where the tweaks to form with basic moves is key!

Because form with exercises isn’t so binary and just good or bad.

There are tweaks we can make to work with our builds and our recruitment patterns, or how we’ve taught our body to use muscles based on daily movements and injuries.

Since we used the basic lateral raise to find these muscles, I want to start with this move and the adjustments you can make to this exercise to really make sure you feel your glute medius working!

The Basic Lateral Raise:

The lateral raise exercise can be done standing or lying down and you can use a variety of tools, including mini bands to progress it.

But before you advance it, you want to be able to really activate your glute medius with just your own bodyweight.

You have to EARN the addition of resistance, or even a bigger range of motion. And you earn that by being able to engage a muscle with just your own bodyweight.

If you struggle doing the lateral raise with feeling those other areas we went over and not your glute medius, the first change to the move you may want to make is your hip rotation, which often we can see in our TOE ANGLE.

Is your toe and foot pointing straight ahead? Turned open? Or down toward the ground?

If you’re struggling to feel your glute medius, you may find it isn’t turned down toward the ground and that internally rotating your hip and turning your toe down toward the ground actually HELPS.

While having your foot parallel to the ground and toe pointing forward isn’t wrong in the slightest nor is turning your toe open, often those make it harder for us to avoid compensating to start.

If you turn your toe down and still don’t feel your glute, notice your body alignment.

Are your hips slightly flexed? Is your torso slightly forward or legs slightly in front creating a slight bend in your hips?

If so, straighten out and squeeze your glutes to drive your hips into extension. Do not arch your back. Just extend your hips with your glutes.

This engagement of your glute max can help.

You can also then slightly kick back as you raise your leg out to the side.

This also focuses the move more on your glutes to help prevent the TFL, which flexes the hips, from engaging.

Kicking back into a wall even and holding that pressure as you raise can even help further if the basic kickback isn’t enough.

Just to recap the tweaks…

Turn the toe down toward the ground, rotating your hip toward the ground. Keep this position during the move. If you’re standing, you’re turning your toe in toward your other leg.

Make sure your lying in a straight line with your glutes engaged.

Kick back slightly as you lift even pushing into a wall through the entire move.

The next move I wanted to cover is The Clamshell.

This is a move that anyone with back pain, hip pain, knee pain, ankle pain has probably been given in physical therapy.

And it is an amazing move, when done correctly.

But so often this move isn’t done while targeting the glute medius and we don’t even realize it.

With the clam, we tend to focus on range of motion and making it a bigger movement, which really is just more external rotation of the hip and often leads to us feeling the piriformis more.

To stop us focusing so much on the range of motion, place a yoga blocks between your feet. This helps you really focus on lifting from your glutes and makes the move very small.

Sometimes shrinking the range of motion on an exercise to start can help.

Because, while we do want to strengthen muscles through a full range of motion, we first need to isolate to activate at times.

So using the yoga block you can focus on just that small movement to lift the knee open.

This also helps you avoid any toe rotation and therefore extra hip rotation. This keeps your feet locked in parallel.

But if you don’t have a block, just like with the lateral raise, even turning your toe down over your bottom foot can help you focus on that glute medius and restrict the range of motion of the clam too!

You can also put your back against a wall to help you avoid rotating open or swinging your leg if you don’t have a yoga block while almost seeing the exercise as you working to STOP the lift open.

And just like the lateral raise, we also want to pay attention to the amount of hip flexion we have during the exercise or how much our hips are bent.

The more out in front of you your knees are, the more your hips will be bent, which can make it harder to feel your glute medius and easier for your TFL to compensate.

And while you may adjust the degree of hip flexion to target different aspects of the glute medius eventually, to start you want to find the positioning that allows you to make sure your glute is working.

Keeping your hips more extended can help and the wall behind you can be a guide to set up.

To recap these tweaks quickly…

Use a yoga block or wall to help you avoid making the exercise movement bigger than it needs to be and focus on that glute lifting.

Adjust how bent your hips are to even extend your hips more and engage your glutes better.

Turn your top toe down over your bottom foot to help limit the range of motion and focus on that glute even stopping the lifting through engaging.

Then as you feel your glute medius working in both of these moves, you can add resistance.

A mini band placed often on the thighs is a great way to start.

Placing a light resistance closer to our hips helps us really focus on still feeling our glute medius working as we create more of a challenge for the muscle to strengthen it!

Now if you’re still struggling with feeling everything but your glute medius working right from the start, you should NOT add resistance.

And you want to make sure you’re doing that full prehab process, including foam rolling and stretching prior to these activation moves.

Foam roll your TFL and your piriformis to help relax and release those muscles.
Stretch your hip flexors to allow your glutes to engage better.

THEN do these activation moves.

And don’t be afraid to pause in your activation to use those foam rolling moves especially if you do feel something compensating.

But don’t just keep pushing through!

Because what you feel working is getting all of the benefit of the exercise. Make sure the muscles you want are truly being worked!

If you want to improve your hip stability, avoid knee, hip and lower back aches and pains, lift more, run faster and cycle further, stop ignoring the importance of making sure your glute medius is actually benefiting from all the exercises you are doing!

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The 3 Phases Of Fat Loss (And How to DO IT RIGHT!)

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 24, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Exercises

To lose fat you don’t just do one thing the whole time. There are phases and cycles.

Your diet and your workouts should EVOLVE.

That’s why I want to go over 3 different phases you can cycle through during your fat loss journey to see amazing results that LAST and know you’re progressing over time.

Because we have to trust the process…but that is easier said than done.

Not to mention our body needs and goals evolve over time and we have to meet them where they are at, which means at times what was working may not work based on what we need right now and we need to adjust.

That’s also why these 3 phases aren’t just a step 1, 2, 3 kind of thing.

You may go in and out of these phases based on YOUR progress and even desire for faster results at times over more of a lifestyle balance.

And you may return to even phase 2 at points as you even maintain your new lean, strong look!

So the 3 phases I’m going to go over are….

The Lifestyle Build

The Mini Cut

The Diet Break

Let’s start with the main Fat Loss Phase where you’ll find you spend most of your time…what I call the Lifestyle Build.

I just want to be clear about one thing…

What you do to reach your fat loss goal is not what you will do to MAINTAIN your results.

There is a transition to maintenance which I’ll go over more with Diet Breaks.

But you DO want to be creating sustainable habit changes as you lose fat because you can’t just do one thing to lose then go back to what you were doing prior.

And so often our desire to lose faster leads us to doing practices that also ultimately backfire in metabolic adaptations and mental burnout.

This is so often why we end up just losing weight to regain it and even more right after.

That’s why I recommend you most often START with this phase and spend most of your time in the Lifestyle Build.

With this phase, you’re slowly tweaking your nutrition and workouts in a way that truly meets you where they are at in a way that is based off of 1% improvements.

You’ll often track your current diet and workouts first.

You’ll focus on what feels like a realistic schedule to train based on what you easily can do right now.

You’ll take a hard look at your current habits and truly OWN what you’re doing now to adjust.

Then select a small change that feels like it is so silly simple you could do it on the worst of worst days even.

Too often we base changes off what we can do when life is perfect.

But because life often is NOT perfect, we create habits we can’t maintain over ones that we can get disciplined with quickly because they are just only slightly pushing our comfort zone over completely outside it.

This then builds momentum to do MORE and see results snowball faster and faster.

But it helps us ease in over overwhelming ourselves with habits we’re willpowering our way through.

Because too often we do so much we overload ourselves and mentally rebel.

We feel restricted. We feel like nothing will work for us because it’s too much.

The excuses pop up because we have other priorities fighting the changes.

In this phase, you’ll want to start even with a minimalist macros approach and a very small calorie deficit.

Once you see what calories you’re maintaining, or gaining weight with by tracking your current diet, you will cut out 100-200 calories and focus on nutrition by addition and adding protein.

You want to work to get your protein to 30-35% of your calorie intake to start.

This focus only on calories and protein simplifies with a clear focus.

It also helps us find our balance including foods we love while also fueling our body in the way it needs.

It’s about true changes to our lifestyle over forcing ourselves into a mold and demonizing foods.

From here you may begin to cycle macros and even adjust carbs and fat.

You want to adjust macros over cutting calories further, using those changes in energy source and even higher protein, up to 40%, to help you continue to see fat loss happen.

However, if you find your current calorie intake, while you aren’t losing and even gaining, is 1200 or below, you may want to start with phase 3, a diet break first!

And with these diet changes, you will also focus your workouts on a balance of strength and cardio.

We can’t out exercise our diet, but both need to work together to help us lose fat while not losing muscle and avoid metabolic adaptations.

Cardio especially with this deficit may be more focused on sprint intervals and walking while we focus on still lifting heavy.

We don’t want to turn to cardio only!

During this phase, you will also want to continue to push and challenge yourself with weights in the gym. Doing everything you can to build muscle while in a small deficit will help you better maintain your results.

Workouts may be slightly more metabolic strength though with things like circuits or even some interval strength training.

Now how can you know things are going well…

I will tell you the scale is NOT necessarily going to be your friend.

Because you’re after fat loss, not just weight loss. And slow progress on the scale doesn’t mean you aren’t losing fat – it means you’re not losing muscle too and creating unsustainable changes.

So often when we start our fat loss journey, we do so much we deplete our body completely, leading to fast scale results, only to see every little deviation from our diet or workouts lead to massive gains.

And of course, we regain the weight…which is what has brought you to this video to finally see the fat loss results you deserve.
So with seeing true fat loss results you can expect to see these signs during the Lifestyle Build…

#1: You will see inches being lost while the scale will be SLOW to change.

#2: You may lose up to 1lbs per week but no more.

#3: Your energy can dip then level off as you adjust to changes in your macros and that initial little deficit. Your calorie deficit will be small so you shouldn’t be starving if you do this right! You may even feel FULLER with the change in macros!

#4: Workout numbers should still consistently improve.

But you shouldn’t see massive swings in how you feel or like you’re starving. So often we try to lose fat, end up hangry and just then binge on whatever we can find when we can’t stand the restriction any longer.

That won’t happen if you do this right because you’re creating that very small calorie deficit!

Just note…tracking is key! And one day off plan, the “I was good all week” to fall off on the weekends, can have a massive impact because you’re creating that smaller calorie deficit over the week.

So be aware of those patterns to make small adjustments!

But also note, results are consistent but fat loss isn’t something that’s going to happen overnight.

If you do know that you need that initial bigger change to stay motivated, while you will spend most of your journey in this phase to prevent metabolic adaptations especially through a higher calorie intake and balanced training, you may start with phase 2…

The Mini Cut.

The Mini Cut is an intensive fat loss protocol…

And not fun.

It is more restrictive, going to be tougher macros and a bigger calorie deficit.

It is a kickstart or plateau buster.

It is a short term, quick fat loss sprint to be used strategically.

While I prefer to start with the Lifestyle Build to ease in to change and create more motivation to do more, sometimes we need that extra little push to see results happen then dial things back to embrace the process.

We need the motivation of that quicker result to help us want to keep going.

That’s where Mini Cuts come in.

Generally done for 7-14 days, these kickstarts will put you in a 500 calorie deficit off what you’re maintaining your weight at.

They will also mean tracking EVERYTHING PRECISELY and adjusting your protein, carb and fat with a full macro breakdown.

They are not fun ratios either. Your protein is going to be 40% at minimum and often up to 45-50%.

Your fat and carbs will often be in that 20-30% range.

And food quality matters. This isn’t the time to work in foods you love. Or to include your alcohol or lifestyle balance.

This is a CUT.

Your energy may take a hit.

This won’t be the time to focus on performance goals.

Mentally this will be harder. BUT you know it is short term.

And unlike fad diets, this is still based off the fundamentals of macros and a training progression and you have an EXIT STRATEGY.

Your workouts should also shift away from cardio during this time aside from walking.

The big deficit puts you at risk for losing muscle, which is why protein goes up and intensive cardio goes down.

Workouts should be very focused on strength!

And rest between rounds will be key. Don’t cut it out.

Then after your Mini Cut 7-14 days, you will slowly increase calories over the weeks, 100-200 at a time to get back to either your maintenance or small Lifestyle Build calorie deficit as you drop your macros back to something more sustainable.

Mini Cuts are a great way too as you reach your fat loss goals to maintain the level of leanness you want year around.

Because even as you maintain, you can throw one in if you’re going to travel or have been a little lax around the holidays.

They can be that push for balance with the ebb and flow of life.

If you do a Mini Cut…some signs you’re doing it right…

#1: The scale may change up to 5 pounds during this quick protocol.

#2: Bloat will go down fast.

#3: Energy may dip.

#4: Workout numbers may not improve.

#5: Some hanger and cravings may pop up but remember it is a short sprint!

While Mini Cuts can be satisfying in the faster progress you see on the scale, doing MORE of them will backfire and not lead to faster fat loss and even potentially metabolic adaptations where you see weight creep on as you eat less and less.

So be conscious not to extend them out past 21 days and to slowly increase out of them.

And do not do them if you’re currently eating 1200 calories or in a big deficit already.

If you are in a deficit already of 100-200 calories, consider cutting no more than 300 off and even consider a Diet Break before or after!

Which brings me to Phase 3…Diet Breaks.

Sometimes the best thing we can do is do less to achieve more.

Slow down to speed up.

Sometimes our body, and mind needs a break!

This is where Diet Breaks can be key.

After an extended time in a deficit, our body adjusts.

And too often we cut calories lower when this happens. But then we adjust again. And unless we end up eating nothing, we can’t keep cutting calories lower and lower.

Not to mention if we cut calories too low, our body will actually find ways to reduce our energy expenditure to match which is why we can stop losing and even start gaining as we eat less and less.

This is why I recommend cycling macros.

But if you’re finding that isn’t kickstarting progress and you’ve been in a deficit for 3-6 months, consider a Diet Break.

Especially before or after a Mini Cut.

A Diet Break is like a mini maintenance period.

You’re focus is on maintaining your current results while eating more and training harder.

It is not only a break for your body, but even mind.

Because while you’re trying to create sustainable changes in the Lifestyle Build, you’re still in a deficit.

You’re still pushing to lose and tracking and often doing workouts when you’d sometimes like to be lazy.

Achieving results is hard.

So sometimes we need the break to care less, even if just because life priorities have shifted so we’re feeling burned out.

But during this phase, you want to slowly try to bump calories up even by 200-500 from where you are. This may be done all at once, or you may do it slowly over a few weeks.

A diet break will range from 7-21 days.

You will often also return to the minimalist macros approach, working in foods you love and focusing even just on protein hitting 30% of your calories.

You want to work in foods you maybe haven’t.
You want to also cycle carbs and fats up if one has been lower.

And in your workouts, you want to combine strength and cardio, even using some steady state cardio especially if you enjoy it.

You want to focus on pushing in your workouts and you should really set performance goals during this time.

You’ll know you’re doing a diet break right because you’ll…

#1: See your energy increase and feel extra fueled.

#2: Feel like performance goes up and you’re lifting heavier and setting PRs.

#3: You may feel bloated to start as you increase those calories especially if you choose to do it in one go.

#4: You will first see the scale jump but even by the end see your measurements go down.

#5: You may see the scale fluctuate LESS daily.

Your body won’t be depleted of anything in this phase, that’s why you may see a jump in the scale to start especially the quicker you up calories.

But this will level off. And you may end up losing, but don’t be surprised if you do stay up in weight just slightly.

Take measurements during this phase as you may be surprised to see inches come off even while on a break. Gaining muscle as you lose fat during this phase often happens.

This is a great little muscle gaining phase even to help with avoiding metabolic adaptations and even help you LOOK LEANER as you lose.

Just eating at this level of maintenance or slight surplus can be the muscle boost you need and help you learn what maintenance will even look like for you after!

But embrace the balance to get remotivated and kickstart things when you go back to that Lifestyle Build even.

And if you’re thinking, “But I’m so far from my goals!”

We still will often need a diet break and even all the more because we will need longer deficits.

This also recharges us to keep moving forward!

Remember these phases aren’t steps to do in one order, but phases you will cycle through even many times over your fat loss journey.

Where are you on your fat loss journey? Which phase are you in or will you be moving to next?

Want guidance and support to navigate these phases and see the LASTING fat loss results and muscle definition that you want?

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5 Tricks To LOSE FAT (That Actually Work)

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 17, 2024 | Blog, Diet, Workouts

Stop believing that losing weight and maintaining your results has to be a full time job.

Because it doesn’t.

And the more we act like it has to be, the more we’re ultimately sabotaging ourselves.

We’re just creating unsustainable habits that, while they may yield some fast initial results, also lead to a quick plateau and us just regaining the weight and even more.

To help you stop this extreme dieting cycle I’d found myself also caught in for years, I want to share 5 weird but extremely effective weight loss tips to help you build your leanest, strongest body ever.

And I’m going to start by telling you the oddest sounding weight loss tip ever…

Stop focusing on losing weight!

That goal weight you have in mind, that you’ve tried countless times to get back to, is actually stopping you from losing weight.

It’s causing you to try to out exercise and out diet time.

It’s causing you to eat less as you train harder, which doesn’t make you actually lose fat any faster.

Our singular focus on the scale and that number changing leads to burn out and metabolic adaptations that make each weight loss attempt harder and harder.

Instead we need to focus on multiple ways of measuring success and even step away from the scale for a bit.

Because it isn’t that number on the scale we are truly after – it’s how we FELT at that weight that we want back.

And that FEELING isn’t truly attached to the number. It’s how energized we felt. The PRs we could set.

It’s how we looked in that dress or bathing suit or in those vacation photos.

We want to look toned and leaner and feel fabulous and strong and youthful.

That number just represents that time and FEELING for us.

But focusing only on that number being our only measure of progress often leads to us giving up on habits that are working…habits that would yield the results we want if we gave them time.

Because the scale doesn’t really show us true fat loss happening, especially as we retain and even gain muscle.

And the better our body recomp results, often the slower the scale will shift.

Because there is no rushing fat loss.

The scale only changes faster because we’re losing water weight or depleting our glycogen stores or even losing as much fat as muscle.

So if you want to truly FEEL the way you felt at your goal weight, step off the scale.

Start taking progress pictures and measurements.

Use an article of clothing you felt fabulous in to track progress based on how it fits.

But stop sabotaging yourself and giving up on the habits you need because the scale isn’t changing quick enough.

Results will NEVER happen fast enough.

But we need to celebrate the other signs of success, such as improved energy, better sleep, crushing our workouts and inches being lost, that show us the habits are working so we stick with them and results can snowball!

The next weird tip, and it’s more a way of thinking about how to make diet changes is to…

Build your diet based on meals you love.

When we think about adjusting our diet, we go to all the foods we “can’t” have and then find diet meals we now need to make.

This makes us honestly often feel deprived and really not enjoy our lifestyle. It makes us dream of going back to what we were doing.

And this is why the changes don’t stick.

We’ve got to evolve our diet to match our needs and goals.

So instead of focusing on diet meals, take meals you already eat and love and find ways to adjust them to match your goals.

Love pizza?

How can you add a bit of protein to your pizza? How can you adjust the portion with maybe a side of veggies to lower calories and increase your micronutrient intake?

Love pasta?

Can you add in an extra ounce of protein? Can you swap the type of pasta to a chickpea or lentil that may boost protein?

Take the dishes you ultimately want to enjoy and find ways to tweak them so you aren’t feeling like everything you love is being cut out or that your meal prep and cooking habits all of the sudden have to shift so dramatically you’re miserable!

But stop making yourself extra miserable trying to completely overhaul your diet!

The third tip is something some of you may hate to hear and others may love…

Cut back on steady-state cardio!

So there is a lot to this tip…And first I want to address those of you who love endurance cardio sessions and want to mentally do everything you can to fight against this tip…

First, if you love running or cycling, I’m not telling you not to do it.

But if you’ve been struggling to lose weight and see the muscle definition you want, you may want to cut back on your mileage for a bit or really acknowledge the cost of doing this cardio and make massive changes to your strength workouts and diet to account for this activity.

For those of you who refuse to cut back on the cardio…

Slow down your other strength workouts and lift heavier with lower reps and longer rest periods while increasing your protein more than you want to and even de-prioritizing your endurance sports to focus on your lifting when you’re fresher.

Now for those of you who are thinking, “I don’t like cardio but it’s always helped me lose weight in the past.”

Think about that statement…you’re here because you need to lose weight AGAIN.

So as a long-term strategy, cardio didn’t work.

And part of the reason why is we’ve often used it to try to out exercise our diet instead of making dietary changes.

But also because we haven’t really built muscle and have even lost it in the process of eating less as we try to burn more. This negatively impacts our metabolic rate and how many calories we burn not only in our workouts but at rest.

And the more calories we burn at rest, the more muscle we have, the more toned we will look and the easier our results will be to maintain.

So instead of turning to cardio, focus on strength workouts. Whether you challenge yourself with bodyweight sessions or hit the gym to lift, focus on building muscle!

This next tip was one of the weirder realizations for me but also why I feel I’m able to stay leaner all year around…

Stop acting like the person always on a diet.

When we’re working to lose weight, we can feel like the friend who can never eat out. We can feel weird at parties or celebrations.

We can feel like we have to avoid the baked goods at work or office lunches.

We can feel a bit like we have to isolate ourselves and not really have fun.

No wonder most of us dread making diet changes and ultimately fall off the healthy habits we are trying to build.

But we often do this because we feel this need to be perfect. To eat clean based on what someone told us a healthy diet should look like.

We also don’t own who we are, our current lifestyle and what we want our lifestyle to look like.

We approach habit changes as being these very set things we have to do in one rigid form instead of finding ways to implement them to match what we need.

If your friend invites you out to dinner at your favorite restaurant, instead of saying no, instead of trying to deprive yourself of a meal you love, plan it in.

Maybe you go lower calorie and higher protein earlier in the day to then have flexibility at that meal.

Instead of feeling like you’ve ruined the day, just focus on that portion control and getting right back into your healthy habits the day after too.

Don’t let the dinner become multiple meals.

If you loved the baked goods someone surprised you with at work, maybe you have one.

But instead of feeling guilty for it so that you end up eating 10 or forgetting about your healthy meals the rest of the day, just enjoy it and even adjust your other meals to create a balance.

So often we try to force this perfection on ourselves over realizing that some LIFE being included in our habit changes is what allows us to actually create new healthy sustainable habits that allow progress to truly build.

And not only can we work in those things we love, but we can change how we spend time with family and friends.

Not every celebration has to revolve around food. Quality time with friends and family can be active as well.

Think about new things you want to try and explore other opportunities to spend time with loved ones that even supports the new healthy habits you want to create! You may be surprised by how much they enjoy exploring new activities too!

And the final tip I’ve found to be super key in not only achieving amazing body recomp but sustaining it over the course of the year is to take more movement snacks.

I think so often we put this emphasis on working out and working out intensely over just moving more.

But the more we are active, the more we want to be active. And the more active we want to be often the more we want to do other healthy habits to support the fact that we feel good!

The more we do, the more we do.

So throughout the day, include movement snacks.

Get up and do something if even just for a minute or two. Listen to a song or quick podcast and walk around your office.

Get up and stretch to reverse sitting hunched over.

Get up between episodes of your nightly TV shows and go roll out or even wash dishes quickly.

Do a quick post dinner walk.

But get up and move around.

The less we’re just seated, bored, lazing around doing nothing, the less likely we are to just indulge in mindless eating.

And often a big habit we have to break, on top of the benefits alone of moving more, is that mindless eating and especially the desire to eat later at night while watching TV.

But just trying to willpower our way through this desire can often lead to losing the battle when stressed because we haven’t shifted our patterns or environment.

That’s why these movement snacks can be key.

We aren’t focusing on what we shouldn’t be doing. We’re focusing on something good we want to do.

This mindset shift and focus helps as it feels positive over us feeling like we’re FIGHTING something.

Plus, moving more does mean we burn more calories at rest, helping keep our metabolic rate overall higher.

And while no, we don’t want to just focus on doing more to burn more calories, being more active does help our health and weight loss results!

But use these 5 tips to help meet yourself where you are at and make sustainable habit changes that build.

Stop trying to just force some cookie cutter plan on yourself and instead truly focus on how you can adjust your lifestyle and shift your mindsets around the habits that lead to you seeing the results you want!

And if you’re ready to build your leanest, strongest body at ANY age…yup NEVER too old!…schedule a coaching consultation call below. I’d love to help you see the results you deserve!

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How To Build Muscle Faster (One Underrated Technique)

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 11, 2024 | Blog, Exercises, Workouts

You’ve got to embrace being uncomfortable and really challenging yourself with exercises if you want to build muscle, especially the longer you’ve been working out.

And this doesn’t mean just feeling like you worked hard and that the reps and sets you did felt challenging.

It means even sometimes FAILING to do the variation or weight you selected for the reps or sets assigned.

Because too often we just stop when it feels hard enough instead of truly PROVING it was hard enough with having to stop.

That’s why I want to share this simple, but oh so effective workout tip to accelerate your muscle and strength gains and truly push that progression and challenge in movements safely!

And that tip is….

Use Rest-Pause Training Technique!

Rest-Pause Training Technique is an amazing way to lift heavier and use harder variations of moves to really challenge yourself and build muscle, especially if you feel like its gotten harder with age or even menopause!

And this technique can be used no matter your fitness level.

To help you implement this amazing workout tips, I want to break down what the Rest-Pause Training Technique is, why it works and 3 main ways you can use it to build muscle faster with your current workout routines even.

First, what is Rest-Pause Training Technique and why does it work?

With this workout approach, you are going to use mini breaks to get out the total reps you want.

Because the rest is only 15-30 seconds, you’re basically not allowing your body to near recover BUT also allowing yourself to recover just enough you can do a few more reps with the same variation or load.

This helps you ultimately do more reps with a weight or exercise variation you really can’t do that many reps straight with had you tried.

This is what allows you to do a more challenging variation of a move but also create more training volume.

This push and challenge to really work muscles is what drives growth!

It works because you are basically helping yourself do 10 reps with a weight you couldn’t truly do 10 straight reps with.

The magic is in that very short rest you’re using between reps to get out more quality movement but in less time than if you took a full rest between rounds.

You can almost think of it as using the short rest to work past failure.

Where you normally would stop to rest for the next round or have to lower weights, instead your taking a short rest your body doesn’t fully register as rest, to do reps you can’t normally do!

And you can use this short break and bonus reps in a 3 different ways to see amazing results and really challenge yourself with your strength training…

First, is the Basic Rest-Pause Technique.

To use this approach in the most basic way, even with almost any exercise you have currently in your workout, you’ll want to consider the rep range you want to hit.

So if your sumo squat in your workout is for 8-12 reps, you’re going to pick a weight for those squats you will probably want to, or have to, stop at 6-7 reps with.

You’ll then perform those 6-7 reps and rest 15-30 seconds before seeing how many more you can get to get in that 8-12 rep range.

If you find you’re doing 6-7 reps in your first little mini set and then able to get 12 total reps after the short rest, you may consider shorting the rest further or even going heavier until you can just hit 8 reps or the bottom of that rep range.

Both of these can allow you to advance the exercise as you slowly can get out more reps in a row.

Once you can use that weight, or exercise variation, to get the 8-12 reps straight, you may decide it is time again to increase weight and use rest-pause technique to progress further.

This basic rest-pause technique is great to use with any lifts in your workout where you’re even stuck between weights and can’t yet fully go heavier or as a way to correct imbalances, especially using even the rest to get out all the reps on your weaker side!

The second way to use this technique is as Cluster Sets.

With the Cluster Set approach, you’ll set a total number of reps you want to do and then select an exercise variation or resistance you know you can only do no more than a third of the reps straight with.

So if you want to do 10 reps, you’ll select an exercise or weight that you can do about 2-3 reps with.

You’ll perform these 2-3 rep mini sets, with 10-30 seconds of rest between them until all 10 reps are complete. Then you’ll fully rest between the next round.

But unlike the basic rest-pause design, where you will only pause ONCE, with Cluster Sets, you have a specific number of total reps, not a range, and you’ll often use multiple pauses and mini sets to hit your total.

Once you can do more than the top reps in your mini set, you’ll want to progress the move.

Cluster sets are a great tool to use for a big heavy compound lift, or exercise like the pull up or push up, you want to progress strength in to build muscle.

They allow you to go very heavy but still get in more volume or total reps!

The third use of this training technique is in the Ladder Rest-Pause set up.

This is a very strategically designed rep layout using mini rests to really boost the total work you can do with an exercise and weight.

With this design you will use descending reps so reps that go from higher to lower with mini rest between these rounds before a longer rest and repeat.

The rest can ALSO decrease in length as the reps go down.

An example of this may be the 10-7-3-1 workout design.

With this design, you’ll pick a weight you can basically do the full 10 reps with and maybe even 11 or 12 with, especially to start.

You’ll then do your 10 reps, rest 10 seconds. And then perform 7 reps.

You’ll then rest 7 seconds.

And then do 3 reps, rest 3 seconds and finally a single rep before a longer break to then repeat the series.
You’re going to end up being able to do 21 reps with a weight or exercise you could usually only do for about 10-12 reps.

And the very short rest and dropping down in reps with each round is what helps you get out that quality of work for more volume.

You don’t have to use those specific reps or rest, but you do want reps to decrease over the rounds and dramatically at the end, while including no more than 15-20 seconds of rest.

You also want to do only 3-5 drops down in reps for the ladder.

But using any of these 3 variations of Rest-Pause Technique, you can really challenge yourself in your workouts to accelerate those muscle gains!

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10 High PROTEIN Foods I Wish I Started Eating Sooner

by Cori Lefkowith | Nov 3, 2024 | Blog, Diet

I’m not going to waste your time in the video going over the obvious protein foods – chicken, beef, pork, fish, shellfish, seitan, tempeh, eggs, greek yogurt, protein powders…

Instead, I want to highlight all the foods we often don’t think about that are higher in protein and can be great ways to increase our intake while making meals delicious and helping us avoid that protein fatigue we can sometimes suffer from.

Not all of these may be right for you, but see the opportunity in the options to explore!

We have to remember that through diversity we can see results, get more nutritional benefits and even enjoy our meals and make those grams add up!

The first two foods I want to mention are both forms of dairy but not the common ones we go to.

Often we think cottage cheese and greek yogurt as protein boosting dairy products.

But Fairlife Milk and some forms of cheese like Parmesan Cheese can boost our protein intake more than we realize while making dishes more delicious.

And the best part is, we can select different options based on our macros even, going higher or lower fat as needed with both.

Fairlife Milk is a higher protein milk option, and lactose free if you were about to write off all these dairy options, that can add 13 grams of protein to your day.

It can make delicious smoothies and protein shakes, overnight oatmeals and even sauces for pasta dishes.

It can even be swapped into baked goods to add a protein bump to your favorite dessert to make it more macro friendly!

Cheeses are another great way to add flavor and protein, although you do have to be conscious that many cheeses can really pack a fat content punch.

But the great thing is you can often find lower fat variations and options if you need to hit your macros.

Options like parmesan cheese, swiss cheese, fat-free feta cheese can all be great. Honestly, things like parmesan cheese are basically protein salt.

It adds a ton of flavor without a huge impact on your macros.

And for snacks things like babybel cheese can be amazing to grab and go!

They can even make for a great snack plate with all-natural sliced deli meat, veggies with a greek yogurt dip!

A third food that can boost protein easily while adding flavor, and honestly is very similar to parmesan cheese as more of a salt or seasoning BUT great if you are plant-based too is, Nutritional Yeast.

You can sprinkle this on almost anything you want to add a cheesy flavor too and bump your protein by 5-10 grams. Sprinkle it on popcorn, mix it into greek yogurt, season your tofu or chicken with it.

Those grams can add up and help us prevent our meals from feeling bland or boring!

The fourth and next item I’d recommend adding to your grocery list to boost your protein intake is Non-Traditional Pastas things like – Chickpea pasta, Buckwheat pasta, even brands of mac and cheese like Goodles.

Too often we feel that we have to eliminate all carbs from our diet to increase our protein intake.

And this ultimately stops us from ever truly making lasting changes because we feel restricted and like we can’t enjoy the meals we love.

Instead of cutting out pasta, swap your traditional pastas for these higher protein variations. And many even pack in more vitamins and minerals to help!

Brands like Goodles are great if you’re plant-based and looking to bump protein. They are chalk full of amino acids and veggies!

You can have your pasta and hit your protein.

And to even combine a few of these tips and make this a killer protein combo, make your pasta sauce with Fairlife milk, chop up some chicken or tempeh to add in that you’ve seasoned with nutritional yeast and sprinkle on some parmesan cheese!

My 5th go to high protein food, that honestly has now become a grocery list staple for me, is egg white.

I love whole eggs and the yolk has nutritional value. I’m not saying to cut that out.

BUT having just egg whites to add into things, can often provide the protein boost we need with no added fat.

Egg whites are really easy to hide in dishes without changing the flavor but adding protein.

They can be good in stir-fries or fried rice.

They can be added to an omelet with even a full egg to bump protein.

They can also be used to bake your favorite dessert, or a breakfast oatmeal bake, lowering the fat of the baked good while keeping protein up!

If you’re a sweet treat person like me, even using them for a low calorie meringue cookie could help you stay on track and consistent while getting your fix!

They can also be used for savory dishes to make a crepe-like vehicle to roll veggies and hummus in or even to use as a sandwich wrap!

The 6th food, and it can be gotten fresh or frozen, is Edamame.

Whether you need a quick snack on the go and eat them with just salt or add them to a salad or stir-fry, edamame are a great protein boost.

One serving, or 85g, gets you 9 grams of protein and adds a great taste and texture to meals.

They are easy to combine with other protein sources as well to help you boost protein without getting bored just adding another ounce of chicken you have to chew!

And edamame also can be blended into a great guacamole or hummus substitute and used on veggies as well. It can even be a great spread for sandwiches to boost protein too!

And since sandwiches are an easy, on the go meal option, I think it is key we steer into how we like to prep and eat. This makes this 7th food a key staple to add that we often omit from our grocery list – Sliced Deli Meat.

Deli meats have gotten a bad rap. But not all sliced deli meats are highly processed bologna.

There are natural turkey and chicken slices. Great smoked salmon options. And I’d even add to this list cooked cocktail shrimp as an option.

But there are lost of all natural, pre-cooked and sliced proteins that can be easy to eat on their own as snacks or added to sandwiches and salads.

You can add them to omelets or egg cups too to make use of those egg whites as well!

They save on prep time and truly are portable. Plus, they are very easy to use with family meal prep lunches too!

Another very portal protein snack that I think is a must have especially if you travel a ton for work or are constantly shuttling kids from activity to activity is grocery list item number 8 – jerky.

No refrigeration and you can leave it in your purse or desk drawer, jerky is easy to always have on hand and stocked in your cabinet when you’re in a pinch.

But just like deli meat it has gotten a bad name and demonized as being too high in sodium and processed.

However, there are so many all natural options now and even plant-based alternatives jerkies. You can easily find everything from turkey to beef to fish made into jerky. And there are even lower sodium options.

But having this item on hand may be just what you need on a busy day to stick with your dietary changes and not go off plan.

Too often when we don’t have something macro friendly easily available, we reach for comfort foods or foods we shouldn’t and then we let one little deviation become 10.

So stocking your cabinet with a variety of jerkies and keeping them handy just in case can really help!

Pair that with some veggies and greek yogurt and you’ve got a great little snack too that’s high in protein!

Item number 9 is a very well known plant-based protein source, and one I could have listed at the start of the video but didn’t, because I wanted to highlight the different uses it can have whether or not you are plant-based.

And this high protein option is Tofu.

I wanted to mention Tofu as a great grocery list item because it can not only be added to stir fries and fried rices and so much else even with chicken or beef or shrimp to prevent protein fatigue and add another flavor and texture, but also because it can be used as a protein source in sweet treats like smoothies and baked goods as well.

I see it so often only used by plant-based clients or in savory dishes I did want to highlight it more.

Especially because often when we make dietary changes, we cut out things we love instead of seeing ways to tweak and swap to make things fit.

And especially with protein we can feel more restricted and feel like our desserts have to go.

But tofu can be a great way to bump protein and make delicious cakes, mousses and even ice creams.

It can also be a great add to smoothies if you can’t have dairy or don’t enjoy protein powders!

And the 10th and final grocery list item I want to mention to boost your protein is hemp seeds.

I want to mention hemp seeds because they often are underutilized compared to chia or flax seeds but with similar benefits.

And while we may be focused on boosting protein, we also want to get in all the nutrient diversity we can. And hemp seeds are a great way to boost those micros and pack in a ton of antioxidants.

They can be sprinkled on salads, made into pestos or even added to smoothies. They are a great alternative to flax or chia seeds with more protein per tbsp.

And like with all of these items, they can help us add flavor to our meals and boost our protein without dishes becoming bland or boring or getting that protein fatigue.

Even just picking one or two of these items to add to your grocery list can help you start increasing your protein intake this week.

Love to hear your ideas to even COMBINE a few of these for amazing protein packed snacks and dishes in the comments and I’ll share a few of my favorite recipes as well!

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