Aside from being aesthetically pleasing, having strong, well-balanced leg muscles is key to having a healthy and functional body. It is important to build your legs for not only strength but for stability. Strong, stable legs can help prevent lower-body injuries such as ankle strains, knee injuries, and hips problems. Strength training can be used to both prevent and manage all of these conditions, but done improperly can be a cause of injury itself.

Glute Activation Warm-Up

The best leg workouts begin with glute activation. By taking time to warm up your glutes before a workout, you will be able to establish that mind-muscle connection with your glutes which will be transferred into the rest of your workout. After proper glute activation, your body will be able to engage the glutes easier and maintain that same level of activation throughout the entire workout.

Banded Monster Walks

1. Step both legs through the band. (Band can be around knees, ankles, or feet...

Look BACK at it.

Not only is it aesthetically pleasing (in our opinion) to have a strong back, but it is also a key muscle group used to achieve total body strength. The back is arguably one of the most difficult parts of the body to train. It is the largest muscle group in the upper body, making it a key group to train for total upper body strength and posture. By strengthening your back muscles, you're building up the main support structure for your entire body. A healthy and strong back will stabilize and brace your spine, which will make reaching your health and fitness goals even easier.

How to train to GROW your back

You may be reading this thinking that you’ve tried every back movement in the book to grow your back, but it may not be the movement itself that is hindering your progress, it could be the WAY you are training.

#1 Focus on your mind-muscle connection.

The mind-muscle connection is a conscious and deliberate muscle contraction. The...

Protein: The G.O.A.T.

We've all been there, looking for a quick fix to drop 10 pounds, or searching for a one-step tip for success. Unfortunately, this is not usually possible. We know that exercise is important in creating a caloric deficit and body recomposition... but diet and proper nutrition is the main driver for fat loss. We also know that everybody is different and will require a different strategy to achieve the goal of fat loss. That being said, we are here to tell you, with a high degree of confidence (backed by science), that protein is one of the main keys for every individual to successfully drop body fat (the right way).

Here's why:

#1 Helps you feel fuller, longer.

One of the biggest reasons people fail when starting a new meal plan or macro goal is due to feeling excessively hungry. When someone is hungry, they are much more likely to stray from their goals and overeat. This is where protein comes into play. Protein is the most satiating macro, compared to...

Who is Becky?

Becky is a hard-working, competitive, and highly focused woman in pursuit of her personal and professional goals. She is kind & has a lot of energy with a zest for life others find contagious. 

Mom to four fur-babies of all ages and sizes. Becky’s husband of 5-years will tell you her love for her dogs surpasses her love for literally everything else.

Becky spends the summer months on her boat in the St. Croix River and in the winter, you can find her snowmobiling and spending time with her pro Snocross team. 

What made you want to start your fitness journey?

I’ve always been extremely active playing in multiple co-rec leagues & and working out regularly.  I was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 27 years old. The chemotherapy treatments made me lethargic, had a loss of appetite, and suffered from insomnia. My body’s muscle and fat loss were unreal, changing my body composition in the 4-months of treatment and maybe even...

Graduations

Weddings

BBQs

Boating

Birthdays

Bonfires

The list goes on...

Summer is a time for activities, celebrations, and countless social gatherings. While we greatly enjoy being actively part of our social groups, it can be quite challenging to maintain your waistline with all the delicious temptations that come with many social gatherings. So how do we enjoy these outings without the anxiety of the pressures we put on ourselves around food? First off, we need to remember that we eat to live, not live to eat. When we look at it from that perspective, we are then in a better mental space going into social gatherings. 

With any goal, there will be times where sacrifices/changes need to be made in order to reach said goal. However, there can be situations that allow exceptions to that rule. In general, we recommend finding a balance somewhere between complete restriction and overindulgence. We call this controlled enjoyment. 

Controlled enjoyment: how it works?

The...

Try these sweet and savory recipes that are perfect for summer! All of the recipes below have macros listed, as well as tips for preparing. Feel free to swap ingredients as you see fit, but be sure to log the ingredients into your macro tracking app so you know the new macro count. Tag @okonfitness on Instagram with your favorite recipe!

Dessert Fruit Pizza/Bars

Macros per bar (makes 12 bars): 5F, 36C, 9P

Tips to prepare: Preheat Oven 350°. Grease pan (10-inch pan is ideal) can be any shape to do pizza or bars. To make the crust, in a large bowl, combine oats, oat flour, cinnamon, vanilla extract, salt together. Add honey and coconut oil into the mix until all ingredients are stuck together. Press mixture down firmly on the pan. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, then allow time to cool.

While the crust is cooling, make the protein cream filling. In a mixing bowl combine yogurt, honey, and vanilla protein powder. Once the crust is cooled, spread cream topping across the cooked...

Whether you’ve been stuck at home due to a global pandemic, or you are waiting for the aliens to add a plot twist to our ever-changing wolrd…

One thing we are all in alignment with is figuring out how to drop body fat and to do it quickly. 

As much as I would love to tell you that there is a magical cocktail of pills or steps to take to losing fat quickly while also prioritizing your health, unfortunately, that is not the case. As an online fitness coach, with over eight years of experience, I can tell you first hand that it is not realistic to expect a quick fix.

However, there are ways to see visible changes in a short period of time. So let’s begin with some of the easiest things you can do, with minimal work that will help you see results. Here are the top five ways to see changes relatively quickly.

#1 Stay Hydrated

Staying hydrated is important. Not only does it help you mind your own business, but studies have shown that even mild...

Fitness at home can be very challenging to navigate. Oftentimes we lack motivation, structure, and knowledge of what to do. With limited resources it may seem impossible to stay “fit”, so I am going to share a few tips my clients and I use to stay on track. 

Schedule Your Workouts 

Yes!! PUT THEM ON YOUR SCHEDULE! Even if you are doing them from home. We tend to thrive on a schedule with a solid routine. Simply plan out specific times during your day to dedicate 30-60 mins of exercise. There is success in a solid routine.

Equipment

You can effectively workout from home with little to NO equipment. However, when adding resistance/weights to your at-home workouts, you then add a greater challenge with better results. 

Get this FREE guide of my top 20 at-home movements here

Follow A Workout Program

It can be a challenge to get creative with new workouts and for most, the last thing we want to do is come with a routine daily. Having a custom goal-specific...

You followed your nutrition plan for a few weeks, but all of a sudden, you ate that donut, that cookie, or that slice of delicious pizza...now what?

You see her on your Instagram feed. That #goals woman crush that you want to be like. Maybe at some point that was me, but I guarantee you this example isn’t me.

It’s that fit IG model that is posting photos of her taking a bite of a donut in all her abs and toned/fit glory.

She’s living the dream isn’t she.

Donuts, pizza, and rock hard abs you can see from a mile away. I want to teach you how to cheat like this so you can experience the same thing.

Yet..the fact of the matter is that if I told you how to do this I would be lying to you and short-changing you toward your goals. You see, the photos you see of these Instagram models who are eating the donut, pizza, or cake end up being less than 2% of their actual diet over a very long period of time.

They aren’t eating like this regularly, no matter...