I’m no different than you; I want my fitness fast and effective! In the past few months, I’ve watched my clients and my own fitness improve more rapidly. Why? I am fired up to fill you in!!

Here are the top three things no one is telling you about working out, my friend:

1) If you’re not consciously training your brain, you’re missing out. BIG TIME. Mindset is everything and it takes practice. This is why I changed my online training business model last year to be Mindset & Muscle Makeovers! Today, yes TODAY, I completed my first chin-up in almost 6 years and I credit it 90% to my investment in mindset training. Now, pull-ups and chin-ups were never something I was great at, but I could get myself over the bar. In 2012, on the Mt. Everest obstacle in a Tough Mudder race, I got yanked up by one arm.

While the woman in this photo makes it look fun, I all but dislocated my shoulder. The guy who pulled me up was awesome, especially as he offered to pop my shoulder back in. ? (Side note, if you wanna hear why I would definitely do a Tough Mudder again, write a comment below!) Ouch. It took over a year to heal enough where I wasn’t scared to lift more than 10lbs with my left arm. In the following years, I noticed increasingly rounded shoulders – one of the body’s signature ways to protect. That injury etched fear into my brain. My workouts avoided strenuous shoulder work for the next three years.

Fast forward to two years ago, when I started really digging into self-care and brain training. It’s amazing how doing the mental work quickly funneled into and fueled my fitness. As I built mindset training into my daily habits, everything seemed to come alive. Life in technicolor!

This morning’s chin-up feat has been my #1 fitness performance goal for 2018. For the past six weeks, I’ve completed pull-up and chin-up skill sessions 3-4x week and practiced visualizing myself getting over the bar. This morning I woke up and told myself I was going to do it. And as you can see here, I did!

I 100% feel that this result is 90% mindset and 10% strength. Training your brain, just like your bod, needs a plan, commitment and execution. Want help? I’ve got you covered in my 90 Day Mindset & Muscle programs! 

2) You don’t need to annihilate yourself. Crazy hard workouts are all the rage. Think of the words the fitness industry crams into your brain:

Shred

Blast

Burn

Eliminate

Rip

Crush

Torch

What the? This is your body we’re talking about! YOU ONLY GET ONE – why would you want to shred it? Yes, I understand the power of language like this. It builds excitement around a workout and I’m all for that! But if you’re getting crushed in your workouts day after day, that’s a recipe for destruction. Even professional athletes don’t get beaten down every day. If Olympic champions take recovery days, you can too. By all means push yourself hard a couple times a week. But do it with awareness, without judgement and definitely not as punishment. Here’s my rules for how much to workout in a week overall:    

3) All those magazines boasting about ‘sexy abs in seven days’ are bullshit. I’ll risk never being in one to tell you the truth. Fitness takes time. It takes patience, consistency, commitment and work. Just like anything good. Like you, I wish there was a magic workout or fast track trick to fitness, but there’s not! And no one wants to tell you this because quick fixes are a hot sell. I bet deep down in your guts and brain, you already knew this. As your honest fitness professional, I’ll tell you again – there are no fast fixes. You get this body for a lifetime, so why not try investing some quality time with it?

In short, train your brain, workout wisely and don’t fall for fast fixes.

Much love!

xoxo, Katie