Saturday Steel : Squat Strong, Eat Smart

Apr 5

***Every first Saturday of the month, Saturday Steel delivers helpful takeaways on strength, mobility, nutrition topics, and the most effective coaching techniques. (Did some amazing friend forward this to you? ***Subscribe here.***)

Welcome to this month's "Saturday Steel" - where we focus on forging ourselves into better versions, much like the process of forging steel. As we delve into April, let's explore some tips on how to get the most out of Goblet Squats as well as our next nutrition habit we’re focusing on this month “Prep Your Meals”.

💪 Enhancing Your Goblet Squat

How to Improve Your Technique:

Knees Tracking Toes: Ensure your knees are aligned with your toes throughout the squat to maintain joint health and leverage your strength effectively.
Maintain a Neutral Spine: Keeping your spine neutral, not arched or rounded, protects your back and allows for a stronger squat.
Weight Over Mid-foot: Distribute your weight evenly over the middle of your feet to maintain balance and maximize power.

🤷The Importance of Squatting:

Cultivating proficiency in bodyweight squats is invaluable, as it enhances the foundation for most movement-based goals. Given our bipedal nature, strengthening our legs is crucial for overall fitness. Progressing towards weighted squats safely enriches this benefit even further. Executing squats with impeccable technique and weights tailored to your strength level refines muscle tone in the legs and core. It also fortifies tendons and bones, contributing to healthier hips, knees, and ankles. These benefits substantially elevate the quality of life across all ages:

For ➡️ Young Individuals: It fosters healthy joint function and movement patterns, setting a strong foundation for future physical activities.
For ➡️ Adults: It supports athleticism, essential for moving confidently and efficiently, whether in day-to-day activities or higher-level athletic pursuits.
For ➡️ Older Adults: It enhances resilience, aiding in the maintenance of independence and confidence in movement through later life stages. This includes tasks like navigating stairs with ease, playing on the floor with grandchildren without difficulty, continuing to enjoy hiking and other physical hobbies without being hindered by joint pain or weakness, and confidently moving over uneven terrain. Fortifying the legs, which house a significant portion of the body's muscle mass, is pivotal in countering sarcopenia—the gradual reduction of skeletal muscle mass with age. Addressing sarcopenia through leg strengthening plays a huge role in preventing functional decline and loss of independence among older adults.

Incorporating goblet squats into your routine, with an emphasis on technique, not only enhances your leg & core strength; it enhances overall fitness and significantly impacts your quality of life, from youth through to older adulthood.

Join us in our upcoming KB Strong Start course as we teach & guide you in honing your technique and connection with these foundational kettlebell skills. Our next Kettlebell Strong Start Course is set to commence on April 29th at noon.

🍽️🥕📅 Nutrition Habit: Prep Your Meals

This month, OMP coaches Luis & Mel have been working on being consistent with our weekly Sunday meal prep ritual. Taking a little extra time to meal prep for one or two days can significantly increase our free time throughout the week. This allows us to engage in activities we enjoy or simply relax and recharge.

🤔 How to Seamlessly Integrate Food Prep into Your Routine

Eating healthily is a goal many of us strive towards, but it often feels like a daunting task. The key to simplifying this journey? Breaking it down into manageable, bite-sized steps that fit seamlessly into your daily routine. Here's how you can mix and match these steps to build a system that works for you.

🔍👣 Find Your Bite-Sized Steps

The first step to mastering meal prep is identifying the small, manageable tasks that make up the process. Whether it's chopping vegetables, measuring out portions, or planning your meals for the week, breaking down food prep into smaller steps allows for flexibility and creativity in how you fit these tasks into your schedule.

⏰✅ Match Tasks to Your Schedule

Once you have your list of bite-sized steps, the next step is to integrate them into your daily routine. Look for gaps in your day where you naturally have more free time. This could be early in the morning before the day begins, or late in the evening after the day's activities have wound down. Use these quiet moments to tackle the more time-consuming prep tasks, like chopping and storing vegetables. This way, you'll have them ready for quicker use later, saving you time and effort.

🔄🍲 Make Food Prep a Ritual

Finding a food prep method that works for you and sticking to it can turn this task into a pleasant ritual rather than a chore. Here are a couple of examples:

A Weekly Ritual: Dedicate a couple of hours every Sunday morning to shop and prepare food for the week ahead. This can become a soothing ritual that sets you up for success in the coming week.

A Daily Ritual: Spend 20-30 minutes every evening (or every other evening) preparing food for the next day or the next couple of days. This habit can easily integrate into your evening routine, ensuring you always have healthy meals at hand.

🔄📌 Utilize Existing Routines

Consider the existing structures and routines in your day. How can the small steps of meal prep fit creatively within these? Integrating meal prep into your established routines can make the process feel less like an added task and more like a natural part of your day.

🔄🌱 Embrace the Process

Consistently eating healthy requires time, attention, knowledge, and skills. Like any skill, the more you practice, the easier and more seamless it becomes. Moreover, becoming adept at meal prep means more than just preparing healthy meals efficiently; it's about engaging with the process, learning about the ingredients, and enjoying the creative journey of making your meals both delicious and satisfying.

Remember, the goal is not to overhaul your lifestyle overnight but to find small, sustainable changes that can gradually lead to a healthier, more balanced diet. With a bit of planning and creativity, integrating meal prep into your routine can become not just manageable, but enjoyable.