by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 10, 2018 | Blog, Bodyweight, Core, Travel Workouts, Workouts
Not all workouts to build strength need to be done for reps and sets. Sometimes INTERVALS can help you build strength, especially if you need to challenge yourself with just your own bodyweight!
If you want a 30 minute workout to build your leg, chest, shoulder, arm and CORE strength, you’ll love this Squat and Press 1 Minute Max Out. It’s a great Anterior Chain workout aka you’ll feel your entire frontside working!
The Squat And Press 1 Minute Max Out
WARM UP:
Roll out.
Stretch:
5-8 rounds Dynamic Squat Flow
WORKOUT:
Set a timer for 1 minute intervals with no rest between. You have 1 minute to complete as many reps of each move as you can. Record how many you get each minute and try to beat that next time. Rest 1 minute between each round. Complete 3-5 rounds. If you are short on time, just do 3 rounds.
CIRCUIT:
1 minute Alternating Front Lunges*
1 minute T Push Up
1 minute Squat to Lunge
1 minute Plank with Punch
1 minute Sprinter Sit Up
1 minute Rest
COOL DOWN:
Roll out.
Some Recommended Stretches:
Camel Bridge
Child’s Pose with Reaches
*NOTES: If you have weights this is a great place to use them. You can also simply move faster to get more reps if you don’t have weights…Or hold your dog or child or any heavy object even up at your chest to add some more weight! 😉
Don’t have hours to spend at the gym but want to build full body strength as you lean down?
Learn more about my 6-Week Bodyweight Shred!
Bodyweight Workouts like this one that you can do anywhere and easily fit into your busy schedule!
GET STARTED WITH THE 6-WEEK BODYWEIGHT SHRED!
by Cori Lefkowith | Apr 4, 2018 | Blog, Core
Spot Reduction…
When I first started out, I would get asked, “How can I just tone (insert specific area as they grabbed it here)?”
I would hear that phrase and roll my eyes.
My answer would always be…”You can’t spot reduce an area.”
Like DUH! 😛
And you can’t….at least not in the way we like to try to…
BUT…have you noticed in fitness how there is always a BUT?…
Spot reduction DOES actually exist.
Again…just not in the way most of us have tried to do it.
You can’t go do a bazillion crunches or tricep extensions or repetitions on the adductor machine and expect to transform that one targeted area of your body. No amount of sit ups is going to get you a flat stomach if you don’t lose enough total body fat. Just like no amount of walking is going to magically erase fat from a region if you don’t lose enough body fat overall.
HOWEVER, there are ways you can OPTIMIZE your fat loss from specific areas!
AKA you CAN actually spot reduce.
So how can spot reduction work if it isn’t by just doing a bazillion moves targeted at a specific area?
Well see…we aren’t WRONG in wanting to work a specific area. That is just ONE STEP in the process.
The problem is…All too often that is where we stop.
For spot reduction or spot lipolysis to actually work we need to work the muscles near the fat we want to get rid of, BUT then once we’ve warmed up those muscles to mobilize the fatty acids in the surrounding areas, we’ve got to actually put those mobilized fatty acids to work!
If we don’t put them to work, we won’t actually get rid of our fat!
That is why activation exercises can not only help us get the right muscles working, BUT they can also warm up those muscles to release and mobilize the fatty acids in the surrounding tissues so those fatty acids can then be UTILIZED during our HIIT or hybrid strength training moves AFTER.
Aka…
Step One To Spot Reduction – Warm up the area we want to target. Lipolysis is higher in areas near the contracting muscles.
Step Two To Spot Reduction – Utilize the mobilized fatty acids by doing HIIT, Hybrid, or full body strength training moves!
You need BOTH steps if you want spot reduction to work for you.
So when you’re trainer tells you that you need compound moves and interval training they are trying to get you more bang for your buck because they know those isolation moves alone won’t get you the results you’re looking for!
Why am I telling you all of this?
Because I like efficiency. I like getting the best possible results and using all the tools at my disposal.
No…You can’t out exercise a bad diet. And if you’re short on time, don’t waste time on those isolation moves. Hybrid and compound exercises will work more muscles at once to get you better results in less time.
BUT I think everyone should be doing activation exercises before they workout to get the right muscles working and prevent injury ANYWAY.
So why not even use those activation moves to help us benefit from spot reduction as much as possible!?
WIN WIN – RIGHT!?
Prevent injury and up our fat burning from more specific locations!?
Heck yes!
References:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10671188.1968.10616592?needAccess=true
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33917584/
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/10671188.1968.10616592?needAccess=true
https://www.acpjournals.org/doi/10.7326/0003-4819-74-3-408
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8697059/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17391155/
by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 31, 2018 | Blog, Diet
Tracking your food SUCKS. It’s the worst.
BUT it is also the BEST way to learn how to eat well and really understand what proper nutrition looks like so you can learn to eat intuitively.
Tracking is like studying for a test. You don’t want to do it. But you’ve got to if you want to really learn and understand the material.
When you study, you’ve got to read and take notes. You take practice tests even and review to really start to learn the information and soak it all in.
BUT hopefully over time studying, you begin to understand the principles and aren’t constantly needing to research or seek out the answers. You’re ready for your test because the information has become INGRAINED and LEARNED.
Same goes for tracking.
You track to LEARN how foods affect you.
What portions sizes really are.
To KNOW what you’re really eating…Because trust me…All too often we don’t really understand what makes up the foods we are eating.
How many hidden carbs there are. Or how many foods have more fat in them than we realize.
We’re not really aware of our macros.
And sometimes we aren’t even fully conscious of how many little “bites” of something we take throughout the day.
Tracking helps us truly understand what we are doing so we can learn from it and make the necessary changes.
Changes we couldn’t make without tracking because we’d only be able to really say “Well, I’m focused on eating whole natural foods and I eat generally well while watching my portions.”
We need something MEASURABLE.
When you have something measurable, something that tells you what is truly going on, you can then more easily make changes. You can realize what you haven’t yet learned how to do.
You can see the answers you may have been missing!
You TRACK to “STUDY.” But at some point this becomes information you KNOW.
The thing is…you can’t just skip ahead to the test!
So as much as tracking may be annoying, it’s only a few minutes out of your day that becomes easier over time.
Any change is hard. But you have to give it a chance.
It’s the way to ensure you get that A+ on your test AKA actually get the results you’re looking for! 😉
That’s why I recommend all of my clients track what they eat. It’s the best way to learn to understand macros and help yourself get the results you’re looking for!
Learn why understanding MACROS is the key to making ANY diet work!
Learn how to take control of your diet!
by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 29, 2018 | Blog, Pain Relief
You get injured…
What is often the first thing you are told to do?
REST!
When someone gets injured, the “safe” thing to say is “Rest it.”
But REST is OVERRATED when it comes to preventing and alleviating injuries.
Now I’m not talking about recovery from workouts or days off during the week.
I’m talking about the fact that anytime someone gets injured, the answer is “Well rest it.”
And don’t get me wrong, certain injuries do need rest.
But rest doesn’t CORRECT the problem. It doesn’t deal with the initial compensation and movement distortions that LED to the injury.
Resting until it feels better and then returning to the exact same poopy movement patterns you were doing before?
Well that is just a recipe to end up injured again!
But that is what happens.
When we are prescribed “rest,” it SHOULDN’T mean doing nothing.
Rest should mean going back to basics and starting to CORRECT the movement patterns that lead to imbalances and compensation and OVERLOAD.
Yea…take time off from the things you are doing wrong. Take time off from OVERLOADING the same area.
But during that time off, work on FIXING the problem.
Start foam rolling overactive muscles. Start working on mobility of other joints that may not have the mobility they should.
Build up supporting muscles and start getting the right muscles working with basic, fundamental movements.
Take this time when you’re RESTING as time to go back to basics, which we never seem to want to do when we are healthy. (Or at least we often get lazy about doing.)
You know how clients don’t actually want to take time off even when they should? Well use that to your advantage and make them do the stuff they need to do to move better!
They can feel like they are at least doing something then AND you’ll make their “REST” actually help prevent the injury from returning!
Plus, exercise actually PROMOTES tissues healing!
Tissues need to be loaded to get stronger and handle day to day tasks and loads. Resting completely takes away any loading to basically every part of your body.
And guess what that means if you aren’t doing any work or load for your body? Your tissues actually get smaller and weaker, which is the OPPOSITE of what you want to happen.
On top of working to correct the imbalances and compensations, you also need to keep your body strong by adding appropriate amounts of load as you are ready so the areas can rebuild strength and stability.
For instance, rehabbing a shoulder injury?
Maybe a plank from the ground isn’t right at that time, BUT instead of doing nothing, your trainer or physio may have you do a plank off an incline. This can train you to engage muscles correctly and add a load your shoulder can handle!
The point is to fix poor movements to prevent future overload, restore proper mobility and regress to REBUILD those weak areas NOT just take time off so everything gets weaker and the pain goes away.
So remember REST doesn’t have to mean sitting on your couch doing nothing. Rest can mean correcting the poor movement patterns and imbalances that led to your injury in the first place!
And if you need help with the 3-part process to eliminate aches and pains, you should check out my RStoration program.
by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 22, 2018 | Blog, Bodyweight, Butt, Core, Workouts
Building a strong core means getting your abs and glutes firing properly. It means using moves that target your abs and glutes in a way that you can focus on them working before integrating them into more compound moves.
BUT it isn’t just about activating and then integrating.
It is also key that you correct imbalances to make sure your lumbo-pelvic-hip complex is stable and you can prevent compensations and injury!
That is why using some unilateral movements in your core training is so key.
If you’re ready to build a strong, stable core, try this Bodyweight Unilateral Core Burner. It uses 3 simple moves to get your abs, glutes and obliques firing!
The Bodyweight Unilateral Core Burner
This quick workout focused on unilateral moves is just under 15 minutes and can be shortened and used as part of your warm up or even as a burnout to end your workout! Or if you’re short on time, it’s the perfect quick workout to do ANYWHERE!
WORKOUT:
Set a timer for 30 second intervals of work with about 3 seconds to transition from move to move. Do not rest during the 30 seconds of work. Modify if needed to keep moving. Make sure you feel your abs, obliques and glutes working. If your lower back takes over, modify the move. Do not just push through. If you want results, you NEED to get the right muscles working! Complete 2-4 rounds. Beginners may rest up to 30 seconds between rounds.
CIRCUIT:
30 seconds per side Side Plank Clams
30 seconds per side Mountain Climber Turkish Bridge
30 seconds Glute Bridge with March
More advanced exercisers can even sub in the Single Leg Glute Bridge, but this is an advanced move and you don’t want your lower back or hamstrings to take over for your glutes. Moves like the Glute Bridge with March are a great way to get the benefits of a unilateral move without fully having to do a unilateral move!
Ready to build a bulletproof core and get flat abs using just your own bodyweight?
Learn more about my 28 day Core Burner!
by Cori Lefkowith | Mar 18, 2018 | Blog, Recipes
I don’t know about all of you, but I LOVE apples and peanut butter!
But I’ve gotten asked, “Is fruit healthy?”
My opinion – HECK YES!
Do I believe that carbs need to be dialed in like all macros?
YUP!
But can fruit provide nutritional benefit and be included in our diet, especially if we ENJOY it?
HECK YES!
And this quick snack is a great way to enjoy your fruit AND even add in a little PROTEIN to that carb and fat heavy snack of apples and peanut butter.
The Greek Yogurt Apple Dipper!
SERVINGS: 1
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup Fat-Free Plain Greek Yogurt*
1/8 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tbsp Honey
1 tbsp All-Natural Peanut Butter
1 small Apple
DIRECTIONS:
Mix yogurt, honey, cinnamon and peanut butter together.
Slice up your apple, dip and enjoy!
MACROS:
Calories: 297
Protein: 15 grams
Carbs: 44 grams
Fat: 7 grams
*You can sub in a diary-free or full fat option. Just adjust the macros
** On occasion, I’ve even added a scoop of vanilla or peanut butter whey protein to this or even an unflavored collagen to boost protein further!
Feel like you’re eating well, but not getting the results you want?
Ready to enjoy the foods you love while getting results?
Learn the 5 Reasons Diets Usually Fail –>
I would hear that phrase and roll my eyes.
Step One To Spot Reduction – Warm up the area we want to target. Lipolysis is higher in areas near the contracting muscles.
Step Two To Spot Reduction – Utilize the mobilized fatty acids by doing HIIT, Hybrid, or full body strength training moves!
No…You can’t out exercise a bad diet. And if you’re short on time, don’t waste time on those isolation moves. Hybrid and compound exercises will work more muscles at once to get you better results in less time.
Yea…take time off from the things you are doing wrong. Take time off from OVERLOADING the same area.
