Stivers Strength

It’s so cold outside you have to open the refrigerator to heat the house…

And our joints do NOT like it!

We need to pay extra special attention to our warmup prior to strength training the colder it is.

A warm joint lubricated by lots of bloodflow and synovial fluid feels better and is safer to begin loading with resistance.

You don’t just want to walk into the gym and start loading up your working weight under normal circumstances much less when it’s cold.

My favorite method to warmup on these super cold days is 5 minutes on your cardio machine of choice, a very brief dynamic warmup consisting of no more than 3 movements (one legs, core and upper body) followed by extra warmup sets of whatever your first exercise is.

For example, just recently, I was doing hack squats and my knees just didn’t feel warm and ready to go. So instead of bailing on the exercise I just simply did multiple sets of the empty machine. After 5 sets of 10-12 reps with no weight my knees felt warm and ready to go and I was able to start adding weight until I got to my planned work sets.

If a joint isn’t painful but it just doesn’t feel quite ready to train hard, try flushing the area with blood and warmth before deciding whether or not to shut it down.

You may be surprised to find that your joints feel great with just a bit more lovin’ before you start loading them down.

If you need help learning how to strength train safely and effectively as you age, reach out and let’s chat.

We have in person coaching at Stivers Strength Gym, online coaching AND in home coaching where we come to you 🤙

People don’t quit because they’re weak or lazy.

They quit because they don’t see progress…

It’s incredibly frustrating to diet and exercise only to not see changes in your body.

And most people simply cant tolerate it and quit.

“Why bother if it’s not even doing anything?” they reason.

They need to SEE and FEEL the changes and progress from their efforts.

This is why tracking both inputs and outputs is essential.

You want to give yourself as many reasons to celebrate and congratulate yourself as possible along your journey.

Tracking bodyweight, bodyfat percentage, muscle mass, how your clothes fit, taking progress pictures, recording progress on your gym exercises, having more energy, better digestion, better mood, etc are all examples of outcome progress.

And it’s incredibly motivating to see changes in these areas.

But if these are the only variables you allow to bring you motivation or satisfaction in your journey, you’re severely limiting yourself.

We also want to track and celebrate our consistency of inputs.

Celebrate simply doing the things required to see the outcomes we want.

Completed a workout? Win
Hit your protein target? Win
Stayed within your calorie budget? Win
Avoided alcohol consumption? Win
In bed by 10pm? Win
Managed a craving? Win

Once you associate positive emotion with both completing the inputs AND seeing the results you’re giving yourself the opportunity to see progress almost constantly.

If you’re struggling with motivation then do your best to string together as many actions as possible to build momentum towards your goals.

Celebrate every single input to create positive emotion for yourself to get you to your first evidence of progress (weight loss, strength etc).

Then let that positive feedback spiral into more action and celebrate the actions.

This process is already hard enough, dont starve yourself of positive emotion by only celebrating results.

If you need help with motivation, accountability and taking action then reach out and let us help you build the lifestyle and mindset required to see lasting change.

DM me if you’re interested 💪