NINA'S ACTIVATION RESULTS
5 days = balanced, lean (-13.25” lost) and stronger. Meet NINA @foodasmedicine19 from Philly. She’s been practicing with me since @lithemethod, and our October Jamaica Activation was her second retreat. Nina chose to measure and lost over -13.25” in 5 days. She’s stronger (hello, abs) and leaner all over. Also, I balanced her out and reduced her pelvic rotation, but that smile is everything. She has that telltale Activation glow. Nina, you’re just the best. So glad you were there!
TIF'S ACTIVATION RESULTS
No nonsense and always keeping it real. My girl Tif @cool_moms_sell_real_estate is incredible. Tif is always on the go as a RE guru, Pilates instructor and mom of three. She lost -8.25” in 5 days in JA and you can see she’s leaner and stronger overall. Tif is incredibly strong and well balanced so there wasn’t much for me to “fix” posturally.
Tif and I go way back. We’ve known each other since we were 26. She was my first instructor at @lithemethod, taught for me for 10 years and achieved Master Instructor status at Lithe. Tif attended my first retreat over a decade ago at Bolt House, JA and came back for no. 19 this year at Jake’s. Tif, it was so great catching up x spending time with you, you’ll forever and ever be my muse. I love you.
SIX WAYS TO SEEING YOUR ABS
Feeling but not seeing your abs? Many of you who are fit often ask why you aren’t seeing them “pop” like your glutes or arms do. It’s most likely from inflammation due to overindulgence and other unhealthy habits. Water retention can absolutely mask muscle definition. It occurs when excess fluid builds up inside the body. Here are six “easy” ways to lose it and prevent it from returning.
1. Drink water! It’s ironic but effective. When you’re dehydrated your body tends to retain water. Drink when your thirsty, and drink more in hot temps and when you’re exercising.
2. Eat unprocessed foods. Foods high in sugar and salt (processed, packaged foods) increase water retention in the body. Unprocessed whole foods win every time.
3. Exercise consistently. Movement forces excess fluid to be eliminated through sweat and urine.
4. Sleep. One or two nights of poor sleep can cause your hormones to change and lead to temporary water retention. Sleeping affects the sympathetic renal nerves of your kidneys which regulate body sodium levels. The body works like a plumbing system when you are asleep and flushes out all the toxins.
5. Stress. Chronic stress increases cortisol levels which directly impacts fluid retention in the body. This happens b/c stress increases the hormone in the body which controls water balance, known as ADH. It sends signals to the kidneys about pumping water to other parts of the body.
6. Take Probiotics. They replenish nutrients and assist the intestines in output.
THE SLB EFFECT: WHY SLB MAKES YOU LOOK AND FEEL GREAT
Your SLB practice comes with a ton of small perks, like stress management, better sleep, lifted glutes, and an overall healthy body, which add up to a more radiant, gorgeous you. In my opinion, the ultimate outcome of any fitness program is feeling GREAT in your skin. So many of you ask me how I look so “young” (THANK YOU) and I really do have to credit SLB and a healthy diet, of course.
We all know that our overall health radiates from the inside out. Exercise has been shown to not only keeps us fit, and strong but to have a cascade of positive effects that benefit our bodies in many ways:
Exercise Increases Sex Drive, Sex Hormones and Feelings of Attractiveness.
Do you feel sexy? You should - you deserve to! SLB not only makes you look sexy, it also makes you feel sexy by balancing the body's sex hormone levels, which in turn can improve the appearance of hair, skin and muscle tone. The most studied hormones linked to exercise are endorphins, and sex hormones, such as testosterone and human growth hormone HGH — which both get a boost by moving your body. And, remember, testosterone fuels sex drive in both men and women, so this isn’t one-sided.
What’s really interesting is I recently had my hormone panel checked by my friend, Urologist Dr. Joshua Gonzalez here in LA and everything was normal but my testosterone was elevated and I think that SLB could absolutely be why.
You can tailor your workout to produce more testosterone, says C.W. Randolph, MD. cofounder of the Natural Hormone Institute of America and coauthor of In The Mood Again. At SLB we are always doing compound movements and working large muscle groups. Randolph says working large muscle groups — doing things like squats, lunges, dead lifts, bench presses and rows — ramps up testosterone more than single-joint, small-muscle-group movements like biceps curls or triceps extensions. (For more on the sex appeal of good health, see “Faked Fitness”.)
Exercise Improves Skin Tone and Texture.
The Texas Heart Institute reports that a person who exercises vigorously and regularly has lower levels of circulating stress-related hormones, which helps improve the health of the blood vessel lining. Moderate exercise everyday can strengthen the heart and arteries, making the circulatory system more efficient. That improved circulation floods our skin with oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood cells. The results: A healthier complexion with clearer skin with a more healthy coloration. But consistency counts: Researchers at the Institute found that the heart goes back to its baseline strength after just 2-3 weeks off of exercise.
Better Mood
Researchers have been looking into the link between exercise and cognition for several decades. One conclusive and undeniable truth has emerged from these studies: Exercise boosts your mood because it fundamentally changes your brain, both in the moment and over time.
What kind of impact, you ask? For starters, when you exercise, your heart rate increases and your body pumps more oxygen to your brain. That process can affect your overall positivity, as multiple studies have found that a well-oxygenated brain helps manage anxiety and depression. Other studies have found that exercise may help alleviate depression and anxiety overall.
Research has also shown that after 20 or 30 minutes of aerobic exercise, your body releases chemicals called endorphins that interact with receptors in your brain that reduce your perception of pain—meaning you're more likely to feel positive and upbeat during a tough workout. It also releases other mood-enhancing chemicals like serotonin and dopamine that can stick around in your brain for a couple of hours after you exercise (all via Mindbodygreen).
Anti-inflammatory
Breaking a sweat isn’t the only way exercise benefits the skin — it also reduces body-wide inflammation, helps regulate skin-significant hormones and prevents free-radical damage. When you exercise, the tiny arteries in your skin open up, allowing more blood to reach the skin’s surface and deliver nutrients that repair damage from the sun and environmental pollutants. These nutrients also rev up the skin’s collagen production, thwarting wrinkles and help fibroblasts work more efficiently so the skin looks younger.
Better Immunity and Detoxification
Exercise also keeps the lymph system happy. The body has roughly 500 lymph nodes — little nodules of tissue that take out metabolic trash. But the nodes can’t haul garbage to the curb without the help of nearby muscles. When muscles contract during exercise, they put the squeeze on lymph nodes, helping them pump waste out of your system. Result: You look less puffy and polluted.
Less Visceral Fat
Yes, exercise can help you lose your love handles, but it’s the loss of excess fat deep inside the body that boosts your overall vitality and your looks.
The body contains two types of fat. The one you can pinch (subcutaneous) is relatively benign. But the less visible stuff, the visceral fat that pads the abdominal organs like so many packing peanuts, can be a killer. Excess visceral fat fuels low-grade inflammation in the body and is tied to a virtual who’s who of 21st-century ills, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, colon cancer, breast cancer and dementia. It can also upset the balance of important hormones (more on that to come) that affect your skin, hair and general appearance.
Lauren Boggi's Top 10 Fitness Tips
Everyday I’m asked questions about how to achieve a stronger, more fit, leaner body. I love helping you guys hustle and chase your dreams. Here are my top 10 re: body and fitness.
1. Fitness level reflects workouts and aesthetics is more related to nutrition. Combine the two for incredible results.
2. The magic that you’re looking for is often in the work that you’re avoiding.
3. Training the body and mind to work together in harmony will bring you the results that you desire.
4. It’s not just about cardio…Strength, balance, flexibility and rest/recovery are just as important.
5. Cardio increases endurance and sculpting is the key to increasing lean muscle mass and will assist with weight control. The combination is the key to transforming your body.
6. Don’t be afraid of building muscle and lifting heavy – it will change your metabolism and your body.
7. You’re doing it FOR YOU and to feel good in your skin not for them or in a bikini or a dress (those are bonuses).
8. It’s very important to live but your off days will absolutely impact your results even if you're on-point 80% of the time.
9. Being consistently consistent is everything. Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally, it’s from what you do Every.Single.Day.
10. You CAN do it. How bad do you want it? The only limit is you. Stay positive, have fun, and never give up.
💭 MID-WEEK MOTIVATION
Thoughts to get you over hump day and into the second time through this week’s Ultraviolet, Upside and Sig. I hope you’re feeling inspired, lifted and in your power…
1. You can rise up from anything and recreate yourself. Connect with your energy, passion and will.
2. Don’t get in your own way and be insecure. Be confident and own what makes you uniquely beautiful.
3. Normalize the butt and the female body. You’re working hard, celebrate it!
4. Sell it. “Sell it” is a cheer term used when facials or attitude is exaggerated to make the motions or dance have more appeal. Smile through it - I promise it’ll upgrade your mood.
5. Just start. Start with a Quick Burn.
6. Progress is different for everyone so try not to make comparisons.
JENNA'S SLB PROGRESS
We love when you share with us! Read SLB member, Jenna’s story of progress and self-love during the pandemic…
This week marks 1 yr training SLB: 6 days a week + 12 months = 30lbs and 21.5” gone.
The past year has definitely been a journey of self-love and self-care, something I had neglected for far too long. I had prioritized everything and everyone ahead of myself. Ever since my kids were born, I struggled with the ever-elusive work-life balance. It always seemed that it was work or the family, but never enough time to focus on me. So when the lockdowns began in mid-March 2020 and despite the chaotic world around me, I realized I was being given a golden opportunity. What I learned in those early days of the pandemic is that the only thing you can control is yourself. I was working from home, all the kids activities were cancelled and we were homebound. There were Z E R O excuses for why I couldn’t focus on me. So I turned to something that helped me recover from injuries over a decade ago when we lived in Philly. And it has been one of the B E S T decisions I’ve made during quarantine.
My original why was because I could no longer wear my wedding and engagement rings because I had gained so much weight, they were getting stuck on my finger. After two months, I had achieved that goal and ever since, my whys keep transforming and pushing me to think about what I truly want. And while I love that I’ve lost weight, I realize that the number on the scale is just that – a number. It doesn’t define me.
I’ve learned the importance of prioritizing myself.
I understand the need to be selfish sometimes.
I understand the need for self-care.
I’ve regained my confidence.
Because if I don’t focus on myself, there’s no way I can be 100% for the people who need me the most.
PUSHING YOUR LIMITS
Think you’ve hit your ceiling? You haven’t, I promise. I know that many of you are completing the January Program this week...congrats! Have you noticed that you've pushed yourself and have become stronger, or maybe you're still modifying and doing your push-ups on your knees after 3-4 reps? If you have pushed, have you noticed that your body has changed?
Most women come to SLB with the desire to change their body and become the best version of themselves. When developing new workouts, my main goal is to increase your lean muscle mass, keep you interested and make you happy so that you can push yourself to become your most powerful.
We focus on increasing your lean muscle mass because that is a major catalyst in decreasing overall fat. We achieve this through cardiovascular resistance training via Cardio-Cheer-Sculpting. And boy, does it hurt at times. Have you ever heard the saying, “What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger?” At SLB, most of you learn how to push through your (good) pain and allow it to help you gain strength and earn the physical and mental results that you're striving for.
Many of you become frustrated, or stop when an exercise becomes painful – not injury pain, but the burn that occurs when you are fatiguing your muscles. Tbh, you can’t find your limits without testing them, and you can’t test them unless you’re willing to push through the good pain. If you can breathe and you’re not injured, then you’re absolutely fine to keep going. Don’t have heart rate anxiety. Breathe through the uncomfortable, because it's at that exact moment when you're creating changes in your body.
If you never change your diet for the better and do the same workout everyday (with the same modifications) and never push through the burn or leave your “comfort zone," you will never see change. So, in light of completing the January Program this week, make it your goal to channel that pain and strive to get in that near perfect breakdown, one more set, OR - hold that half plank for one more rep.
Here are some simple mental tips that work help you push through your workout:
Break it up. Think about tackling the workout in smaller increments. Cutting the full length into two, 25-minute halves is a lot less daunting and you won’t have that pit of dread that usually starts brewing long before you press play.
Stop watching the numbers Be present! It isn’t all about the numbers. Just like a watched pot never boils, staying fixated on reps, how many minutes you have left or how many calories your burning will only make the time pass more slowly, and will keep you from ever getting fully mentally “in the zone.” If it’s a hard habit to break, put a piece of tape over the time counter on your screen or your HR monitor.
Go beyond aesthetics Sure, having a killer bod is an incredible side effect of SLB, but for a lot people, “wanting to look amazing” isn’t something that they’re actually emotionally connected to. I’ve found that thinking about strength is more powerful when you’re trying to power through a plateau.
Know your why I say it all the time, but it’s so important to know and connect with your true north and set goals.
Really feel it Find something you enjoy about what you’re doing. I always like to feel like I’m punching above my weight. You’re doing SLB because on some (sick, masochistic) level, you enjoy it, right? Remember what you “like” about it so you enjoy the sensation of building muscle rather than just thinking of it as just a painful experience.
Be grateful for the body and mind that allows you to move When I teach live and our hearts are in our throats I always remind people what a privilege it is that they can move. It’s easy to forget that working out is a gift. Some people have physical limitations that prevent them from being able to move so be mindful that you are lucky you get to do 100 squats and lunges today!
LB'S GLOW
BTS of me tapping in-between shots. You guys ask me all the time how I get a lit from within glow. I work from the inside out by sweating everyday with SLB and I follow a low glycemic, whole foods diet but I also take my skincare really seriously. A few key products that I swear by:
Shani Darden Retinol Reform is key to keeping my skin glowing and exfoliated without irritation or dryness.
Adipeau Fat Balance Activator plumps. I use it as a sleeping mask nightly.
Deesse Pro Mask Next Generation (via Shani Darden) - I rely on red + blue light therapy daily for anti-aging and treating acne rosacea.
Lauren’s results after 3 months of Adipeau
Lauren using the Deesse Pro Next Generation
SLB BOOTY
Are you squeezing your butt while you lean fwd during standing abs? Your glutes are your powerhouse! We train the chain all the time at SLB for so many reasons beyond aesthetics:
Athletic Performance: Ideal hip extension means improved propulsion for CCS, etc.
Muscle Balance & Pain Reduction: A strong booty supports the core, lower back and spine and changes the way your body reacts to gravitational force by taking pressure off the joints.
Great Posture: Sitting all day with poor posture can cause tight hip flexors, dormant glutes and a weak core.
Accelerates Fat Loss: Your glutes are the strongest and largest group of muscles in the body (they’re our “fat burners”). Because muscle burns more calories at rest than fat does, increasing lean muscle mass via glute training can accelerate fat loss and keep it off.
BETSY'S ACTIVATION RESULTS
SEVEN DAYS to vertical, musculoskeletal balance, -12.08”, and a healthier 🌱 diet. Meet @bootsycollins810 from Philly. This was B’s 9th Activation with me and she is always my favorite postural analysis/people to “fix”...I swear that I do not make anyone stand wonky on day one!
We work from the inside out and my goal is always to balance her muscularly and take the edge off the bulk/mass. This lighting is not ideal but check out the space between her arms and her bikini bottoms. And her back! 🤯 Betsy has a stunning body and builds muscle easily. She works really hard, and is always up for HH & another workout. Betsy began her fitness journey with me back at Lithe. She currently takes group classes at @rippedphl, does personal training and also fits in Studio LB. Tbh, I can’t imagine a retreat without her. Swipe on IG for her results last year 12 wks post labral hip repair and us three years ago in Little Corn, Nicaragua.
Betsy is strong, very fit, and loves to be challenged on the beach and in-studio. Her challenges are relaxing her traps and balancing her back and hip mobility during core/floor work. Betsy lost 12.08 inches and I love that her entire body is much more balanced on day seven. I cant say that we always see eye to eye on rest days, but I get her type of ‘crazy’ and we have a great working relationship. I adore you, B! Can’t wait for the next one.
💭 this week
The second time (or third, or fourth) is ALWAYS better than the first. This week we’re revisiting some of our fave SLB workouts. They’re familiar to many of you, which means you don’t have to expend energy learning the choreography and can jump right in at 110%. You’ll be able to work harder and get more out of each session. Practice makes perfect. Keep working towards those goals, or the opportunity you missed to nail the Cardio-Cheer-Sculpting choreo the first time around. There’s nothing more exciting then a comeback! Let’s keep this can-do positive attitude going all week long. And, if you’re new to SLB, don’t worry about nailing every move. Just keep moving and have fun with it. We all have to start somewhere!
SLB GREEN SOUP
Our first SLB member recipe is a staple of mine. I always have this zucchini soup on hand and everyone in my house loves it. It’s incredibly rich, filling, nutritious, and nobody ever believes it’s dairy-free. Our weekly recipes will live in-Studio and will be accessible to SLB members only, but I will occasionally share them here on the blog.
SLB KITCHEN
Welcome to the SLB kitchen! You guys know that I’ve been preaching for years that nutrition is 90%, and for the longest time I’ve been wanting to incorporate food into the mix in a bigger way. In addition to your weekly workouts, SLB members will now receive recipes each week that will live in-studio. Some will be my own and some will be from nutritionists, chefs and food partnerships. I’m so excited to help you guys reach your goals!.
