7 Ways to Improve Your Training and Health in 2023

Albert Einstein is famous for saying, “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.”

So why do we do this when it coms to our health or fitness?

We follow the same strength program…

…make the same mistakes with our nutrition…

…or we don’t take recovery seriously…

…and then we wonder why we don’t see the results we’d like!

So today, I’m going to share 7 ways you can make 2023 your best year EVER!

Interested?

I sure hope so…let’s do this!

1 – Rebuild Your Foundation

Let’s be real: Getting older sucks.

Well, that might be a bit too harsh.

I love accruing wisdom, experience and insight as I age.

But from a body-perspective? I’d love to move and feel like I did when I was in my 20’s!

So I always ask myself to be more specific – it’s not just that I felt better in my teens or 20’s, because that’s too vague.

More importantly, WHY did I feel better?

What specific things did I feel that makes me say that?

And here are a few reasons I always come back to:

  1. Improved range of motion,
  2. More power/force production, and
  3. Improved conditioning.

So now instead of being wishy-washy and reminiscing about my lost youth, I’ve outlined specific goals that I can focus on to help me restore some of that mojo!

Adapted from Al Vermeil and Robbie Bourke

That’s also why every new client I work with starts by rebuilding their foundation.

For many, their movement foundation is the weak link.

Heavy strength training, through too little range of motion, combined with a body that doesn’t have that mobility to begin with is a recipe for disaster.

For others, their conditioning is definitely the biggest issue.

Whether it’s poor recovery, poor cardiovascular health, or just poor health in general, conditioning has to be improved to level up the rest of the system.

So if you want to make 2023 great, start by rebuilding your foundation at every level.

Get your mobility back where it needs to be.

Start working through a full range of motion in the gym.

And crank up that cardiovascular and metabolic work to improve your conditioning and overall health.

I guarantee if you only do this one thing, you’ll immediately see more success in the new year.

2 – Rotate Your Training Emphasis

When you’re young and just getting started in the iron game, it’s easy to have a singular focus when you step in the weight room.

Develop super strength.

Build slabs of muscle.

Get as shredded as that guy on the cover of Flex. (Never-minding the fact that he’s taking enough “supplements” to sink a battleship.)

But when you get older, it’s not just your training goals that change, but you tend to change as an individual as well.

Instead of having that one, singular focus, we want to evolve and become more well-rounded.

Sure we might have certain strength or body comp goals, but it’s not for the same reasons as when we were younger.

Things that came easily when we were young – mobility, injury prevention, conditioning – are things that move up the training hierarchy as we age.

We don’t just want to be big or strong – we want to be able to move freely.

We want to play with our kids (or grandkids).

And for many of us, it’s less about the aesthetics as it is about living as long as we can, while feeling as good as we can.

As the saying goes, “What got you here won’t get you there.”

Banging heavy weights at the expense of your mobility isn’t going to cut it.

Lifting 3x per week without any focus on conditioning leaves holes chinks in your armor.

And “just moving” without the intention of building (or maintaining) strength and power will leave you feeling frail and weak as we age.

That’s why it’s important to start rotating your training emphasis now.

Dan John calls this “seasonal” training, but essentially, with each new season your

training emphasis shifts.

In my RTS Annual Program, we rotate through four training emphases each year:

  1. Movement Restoration,
  2. Body Comp,
  3. Athletic Development, and
  4. Strength.

Training in this manner not only makes sure you never get too far away from any one goal, but it also makes sure you don’t spend too much time focusing on things you’re already great at!

As I alluded to in my recent 13 Practical Programming and Coaching Tips podcast, you need to seek out those weak links and eradicate them.

Doing what you like to do – or what you’re good at – is easy.

But focusing on those weak links?

Those rate limiters?

That’s a lot harder – but they’re also the things that can unlock the greatest levels of future progress and success.

3 – Layer Your Nutrition Goals

One of the biggest issues I see when it comes to nutrition is people trying to make wholesale changes all at once.

They go from eating out 2-3 times per day and drinking pop with every meal, to wanting to track every calorie, drink 16 ounces of water with every meal, and make sure they hit their macros every single day.

Trust me – I’ve seen this before, and it just doesn’t work.

This was actually reaffirmed to me earlier this year when I worked with Trevor Ratzky from Tailored Coaching Method (you can listen to our podcast together here).

Trevor laid out this beautiful template of what I should be aspiring to do every day, but in the beginning, he said to just focus on hitting my protein and calorie goals.

That’s it – just protein and calories.

Once I dialed those in, I moved on to the next sub-goal.

And I followed this framework until I hit the body comp/weight goal that I had set out for.

When it comes to nutrition, drastic and wholesale change sounds nice – but it’s almost impossible to achieve – let alone maintain – right out of the gate.

Instead, set one small goal at a time and build from there.

Once you’ve locked that down, move on to the next goal.

As the saying goes, “Rome wasn’t built in a day.”

But those small wins accumulated across the year?

Those can help you build something truly magnificent.

4 – Dial in Your Body Comp

Years ago, Dr. John Berardi stated that one time per year, he made body comp a priority and focus of his training.

Now if you’re young and naturally lean, this may not apply.

But if you’re like the rest of us and haven’t been given the gifts of the gods, it may be something we need to address sooner versus later!

When we’re young our primary focus of training (at least for most of us) is the aesthetic side – and by extension, to help us find a significant other.

But as our priorities shift, aesthetics may not be the end goal, but they can give us insight as to how our body is functioning.

If we’re carrying too much body weight and/or body fat, we know it negatively impacts our short- and long-term health.

So why wouldn’t we address it?

Now I realize this is a sensitive topic, but please understand there’s zero shame wrapped up in this statement:

I firmly believe you can love your body and respect what it does for you, while still aspiring to shed that extra body weight or fat – and reap the health benefits that comes alongside that.

And I think that’s a big shift in mindset – you’re not “getting lean” to fit some cultural or societal norm.

You’re doing it to help yourself live a longer and healthier life.

5 – Get Serious About Sleep

Years ago, my sleep was WRECKED.

A big part of the problem was having to be up at 4:45 am to either train in-home clients or open IFAST.

But getting up early wasn’t the only problem, because let’s be honest – if you’re serious about sleep you just go to bed early and make it work.

But needless to say, I wasn’t serious about sleep.

I’d routinely stay up late to watch whatever sporting event was on that night, and than “manage” that fatigue with coffee as soon as I rolled out of bed.

And if you want to add some jet fuel to all this, don’t just drink caffeine in the morning, but take in another 250-300 mg’s around 3-4 pm…

…because you really want to “bring it” for those afternoon clients!

So now you’re negatively impacting your sleep that night as well, and the vicious cycles goes on and on.

It’s mildly amusing thinking about this now, because back then there was a hashtag going on Twitter – #TeamNoSleep – that I thoroughly subscribed to.

Until I got out of those 4:45 am mornings, ran some blood work with a functional med doc, and saw what that lifestyle was doing to me.

My hormone levels were jacked, my inflammation was through the roof, and overall I was a wreck.

So about 7-8 years ago, I got serious about sleep – and it has made all the difference in the world. (If you want to learn more about this, check out my BIG Sleep Podcast or my show with sleep expert Nick Littlehales.)

I don’t feel the need to caffeinate my way through every day ending in Y.

I’m clearer and more focused than ever.

And most importantly, my energy levels are consistent and smooth day-to-day, versus riding the energy roller coaster.

The bottom line is this: If sleep isn’t a priority or focus for you, it should be.

It’s one of the lowest hanging pieces of fruit out there, and it’s something you have to do daily for the rest of your life.

With the ability to help you move and feel better, improve your focus, increase energy and just make you happier and healthier, why wouldn’t you make sleep a priority?

6 – Meditate

Meditation is something I tried to do for years with little – or no – success.

My journey started 12-15 years ago when Jay Ferrugia mentioned that he was meditating.

I loved Jay’s personality and fire, but I think even he would say he was a bit of a hot head at that point in his life.

So if a guy like Jay was using meditation to help himself chill out and focus, I wanted in, too!

I started with a program called Holosync, but it just didn’t seem to work for me; every time I tried to meditate, I feel asleep.

And if I’m being honest, I don’t think I was fully committed at that point in time – I didn’t have a big enough “Why.”

But all that changed when I had Kendall.

The days of being 100% work-focused and disconnected when I got home wasn’t going to cut it, because I wanted to be present when I get home to see her smiling face.

So at this point in time, two things happened:

  1. I found Headspace, which was huge because it made it “okay” to only meditate for a few minutes per day, and
  2. I got an accountability partner in Sandy San Miguel who was on this journey with me.

I made a little ritual where I’d work until 3 or 4 (or whatever time it was that day), then meditate before I picked Kendall up from day care.

And needless to say, it made all the difference in the world.

Now instead of coming home and thinking about what project I should be working on, who needs to be billed, or how I could make that coaching session better, I was dialed in to the most important thing in my life – my daughter.

If you’re not meditating regularly, it could be an absolute game changer for you in regards to your focus and clarity.

I can say unequivocally it’s been one of the most impactful things for me in my life.

7 – Find Accountability

If you read a little deeper into the above points, you’ll see that most of my great wins in life have only happened because of the support from others.

Trevor helped me lock in my nutrition.

Kendall and Sandy helped me make meditation a consistent part of my life.

Taking that a step further, mentors like Bill Hartman, Lee Taft, and Joel Jamieson have helped me level up as a coach.

Coaches like Bill, Eric Oetter, Mike Tuscherer and Mike Camporini have helped me move better or get stronger than ever before.

And I think this same principle applies to you as well:

If you want to do big things in life, you have to find other people who you deeply respect to hold you accountable.

I want you to take a minute and think about what your goals are for next year:

  • Do you want to get leaner? Stronger? More athletic?
  • What do you need to do from a nutrition standpoint to help you achieve those goals?
  • How’s your recovery right now? Could you benefit from getting more (or better) sleep?

Regardless of how you answered those, here’s the bigger question:

Who is going to support you when it comes to ACHIEVING those goals?

Because let’s be honest – there are roadblocks on every journey.

If it was as easy as writing your goal(s) down and then magically achieving it, we’d all be strong, ripped, and absolutely crushing it in life.

It might sound simple, but arguably the most important thing you can do right now, TODAY, is figure out who your support staff is going to be in 2023.

Because if you’ve got the right people in your corner, your chances for success go up drastically.

Summary

Okay so there you have it – seven ways you can improve your training and health in 2023.

I really hope the tips I’ve outlined here stimulate some thought, and more importantly, get you to take action and make next year your best one ever.

And if you’d like a little help along this path, I can’t recommend my RTS Annual Training Program enough.

Each month, you’ll get a done-for-you training program delivered straight to your inbox.

We’ll rotate the emphasis of the workouts every three months, to make sure you check all your training boxes.

And last but not least, we’ll help you dial in your nutrition, recovery and mindset to make sure 2023 is a year to remember.

If you’d like to learn more, just follow the link below.

Learn About the RTS Annual Training Program HERE!

Thanks for reading and MAKE IT a great year in 2023!

All the best,
MR

P.S. – I’m offering my annual program at nearly 70% off this year, because I want more people than ever before to level up in their training and life.

Plus, when you consider the fact that you’re getting a full years’ worth of programming for less than I normally charge for one month of private training, I hope you’ll agree this is a no-brainer.

I hope to see you in the group soon!

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