Consistency is King

Your progress is not going to be made in one workout or meal; just like missing a workout, or eating off plan for a meal, isn’t going to break your progress.

Far more important is how many workouts you’re getting throughout each week for the month. And how many of your days involve some kind of meaningful movement.

You see, consistency beats inconsistent perfection every time. I’m constantly telling my clients, “something is always better than nothing.” That doesn’t mean a balls to the wall workout daily. It can be as simple as taking yourself through some dynamic stretches. Getting outside for a 20 min walk. Doing 50 bodyweight squats before hopping into bed. Just move in a meaningful way.

And rather than worrying each meal, blowing it on one, and then saying “eff it” and blowing each meal for the next 48 hours, try looking at your entire month. Most individuals should be shooting for 80/20, meaning 80% of your meals are clean, or on plan, and 20% of your meals allow for indulgence. Let’s say you eat 4 meals a day, that’s 28 meals per week, 112 meals for the month. At 80%, roughly 90 of those meals should be on plan. That means that 22 of those meals can include some indulgence and you’ll still make progress.

The goal is progress, not perfection, and consistency beats perfection every damn time.

Successful and unsuccessful people don’t vary greatly in their ability. They vary in their desire to reach their potential. And reaching their potential comes down to consistently striving every day.

You’re amazing, so shine bright and light up the world with your awesomeness.✨💕

xoxo -

Jules

A Simple Guide to Progressive Overload

In order to make any real progress, the body has to experience a stimulus greater than what it’s used to receiving on a regular basis. That’s exactly what progressive overload is.

Let’s break it down...

1️⃣ You’ve got to start with perfect form and progress from there. Do not overload a lift with less than ideal technical form. Figure out where you are on the regression-progression continuum and start getting stronger.

2️⃣ Progressive overload is more than just load. Increasing ROM, improving form, progressing the movement, performing more reps, performing another set, decreasing rest time, lifting with increase acceleration (intensity of effort); it all adds a new stress to the body.

3️⃣ Focus on improving form and ROM first, then focus on load.

4️⃣ Progressive overload takes some serious strategy for veteran lifters. New lifters can make awesome strength gains doing pretty much anything, as long as they’re consistent. However, after a couple years of solid training, you have to be strategic with your programming. Rotate lifts, periodize your programs, and experiment with different methodologies.

5️⃣ You’re not going to be able to increase load on every lift every month, so it’s important to switch up the emphasis with each new phase. I recommend focusing on progressing 1-2 lifts each month. A great way to break them down is this:
➡️ Glutes (barbell hip thrust, barbell glute bridge, Reverse hyperextensions, etc.)
➡️ Lowe Pull (deadlift, RDL, Nordic hamstring curl, etc.)
➡️ Lower Push (squat, RFE split squat, lunge, lateral lunge, etc.)
➡️ Upper Pull (pull up, chin up, bent over row, single arm row, etc.)
➡️ Upper Push (bench press, push up, overhead press, etc.)
➡️ Accessory (lateral raise, rear delt raise, core work, etc.)

Pick 1-2 lifts from the above categories to focus on with each phase of training. By rotating your focus, performing different variations, changing reps and sets, changing tempo, and adjusting rest times you can continue to challenge yourself and set new PRs.

xoxo -

Jules

SLEEP - The Missing Link

When people think weight loss, they usually think about exercise, proper nutrition, drinking water, taking supplements, etc. What most people forget to look at is sleep. Your quality, and quantity, of sleep plays a HUGE role in you health and fitness goals.

BENEFITS OF SLEEP:
Your body does the most recovering during sleep; recovery of your muscle and brain. Working out actually causes muscle damage. Sleep is where the muscles repair and you make strength gains. It is a significant stimulator for growth hormone release, which is a natural agent for cell growth and reproduction. Sleep also appears to improve muscle memory, with the most benefits after 7 hours of sleep.

Individuals who get in extra sleep are more likely to perform better at work in workouts, and/or at their sport, have a better mood, and have increased alertness.

SLEEP DEPRIVATION:
When deprived of sleep, our level of cortisol (the stress hormone) raises, which interferes with tissue repair, growth, and increases fat storage. Lost sleep has also been show to affect the cerebral cortex, which is responsible for focus, concentration, decision making, reaction time, and more. Once sleep deprivation has reached a certain level (differs from person to person), it has been shown to hinder cognitive response, similarly to what's seen with intoxication. (If you normally sleep 8 hrs, but you only get 6, the impact is roughly comparable to a 0.05 alcohol level).

When looking at performance, it looks as though sleep deprivation may affect your body's ability to metabolize glucose efficiently. This causes the time it takes for you to reach exhaustion to lessen and increases the perception of how had you're working, because your body does not have the energy to work at it's normal capacity. Fatigue also masks your exertion level. You "max out" well before you actually should.

Sleep deprivation is cumulative, and it takes time to fix that "sleep debt". Many individuals accumulate large sleep debt by not obtaining their nightly sleep requirements. You should try to extend nightly sleep for several weeks before any kind of athletic event to help reduce sleep debt. If nerves keep you up the night before, don't stress, that's normal. What's important is your regular sleep habits. The greater your training intensity, the greater your sleep needs. And if you're not sleep deprived, studies show an extra hour may help increase your athletic performance.

When tired, form goes south. This can lead to injuries and forming bad habits in your movement patters.

SLEEP TIPS:
Unplug at least 30 minutes before bed. You want your brain activity to slow down. Try meditation, or some gentle yoga, which may help you unwind for better quality sleep.

Minimizing light and noise level is key to quality sleep. Your body will absorb the smallest amount of light, which will reduce your secretion of melatonin (natural sleep hormone). Close your curtains, block the light from appliances, even the light from your alarm clock can inhibit your sleep. If you can't minimize noise, try a white noise machine for soothing background noise.

My caffeine rule: NONE after 2 PM. Even chocolate. Caffeine has a half life of up to 7 hours, so if you consume it too late in the day, it has the potential to greatly affect your sleep.

Alcohol has also been seen to inhibit your deep REM sleep, so try to limit your alcohol consumption.

Consumption of cheery juice, before bed, has actually been shown to increase melatonin production. This allows individuals to fall asleep faster, and achieve a better quality sleep.

Early risers tend to be more active, because they have longer daylight hours to be active in. It's actually been shown that, comparing work in the early hours of the day, to work completed in the late night hours, work done in early hours is more significant (larger projects), whereas late night work is more menial (minor tasks).

EXERCISE. 

Any level of exercise seems to make for better rest, but vigorous physical activity enhances deep sleep.

Now get out there and sleep like a champ.

XOXO -

JULES

The Power of Walking

Yes, you read that title correctly. The days of walking being reserved for older adults, parents with strollers, and dogs are over.

Brisk walking has a multitude of benefits, including:

• It burns a ton of fat, and virtually zero muscle.

• It speeds recovery.

• It helps ease stress and anxiety, reduces depression and imparts a positive kick-start to your day. It improves your self-esteem, charges up the mood and helps to keep you energetic, positive and happy throughout the day.

• It improves brain function. Walking stimulates blood flow, and provides oxygen to the brain. This leads to improved functioning of the brain and better ability to recall.

• And it may help slow down the aging process.

You don’t hear a lot about brisk walking because, well, it’s just not that sexy. Kettlebell circuits, track workouts, battle rope intervals; these are much more exciting, and they certainly have their place, I’m not discounting them one bit, but brisk walking is the one thing you can (and should) do everyday to reach your fat loss goals, and feel better about yourself.

People make the mistake, if fat loss is the goal and they're not getting there as quickly as they'd like, of doing more intense exercise. But this will only ever lead to one thing... burn-out. 1-3 days per week of intense metabolic conditioning is more than enough to reach any fat loss goal, with a clean diet and plenty of brisk walking. And most of all, it’s sustainable.

I do my best to get, at the very least, a 30 minute walk in everyday. It’s my favorite way to catch up with a friend, but I also enjoy going it alone. Sometimes with music, sometimes a podcast or book on tape, and sometimes I just get into what’s going on around me. Just focus on being very deliberate about it. Walk at a pace as if just someone is following you and you want to maintain distance.

Now get out there and walk my friends, I promise you won’t regret it.

XOXO –

JULES