How to Squat Low Without Falling Forward: Live Q&A

Nikkiey: What's up, WarriorBabes? Hey, everybody. Nikkiey here, and welcome to our WarriorBabe Wednesday live Q&A time together. I am super excited to be here with you guys. I love coming to the community on Wednesdays and Sundays with our rally calls and just hanging out with you guys, answering your questions, giving you clarification on whatever you need. Super stoked to be here with you right now.

As you're joining into this Q&A, comment and say what's up. Let me know that you're here. The more that you comment, the more those comments push our live stream to the top of our Facebook community so that all of the other babes can join in and watch this live. So if somebody's new and has never joined a live Q&A before, they'll see you joining in and commenting, and it'll give more engagement and keep our video at the top of the Facebook group.

What's up, Jodi? Hello. As you're joining in, comment and say what's up. If you're tuning in at a later date or time after this live has been completed, just keep all your questions that pertain to this live Q&A here in the comment thread so that Kate, our amazing community leader, can come back in and answer any questions that were left behind.

We'll get started in just a few minutes. If you do have any questions, which I see, Jodi, you're ready with questions for me, you can start firing away. There's a little lag time between Zoom and Facebook, so get some comments in and we'll kick off the live Q&A in just a bit.

Before we do, I want to give a huge welcome. Our community keeps growing on a weekly basis in the Revolution, in the Blueprint and in the VIP, so I want to give a huge welcome to all the new babes who joined us this past week. You are part of a community of thousands of women who are getting toned and becoming stronger, more confident versions of themselves. I'm excited that you're here and a part of our community. WarriorBabe is where strong is the new sexy.

Those of you who ordered swag should all be getting it this week. I've seen it show up at a few locations. When we were packaging it, it was one day, two day and three day, depending on where you live, so you should be receiving it all within the next couple of days. Post in the community. I would love to see you in your swag and see you sharing the arrivals of your shipments. I've seen a few pop up in the Blueprint and the Revolution, so keep sharing as your swag arrives.

If you're new, before we dive into this Q&A, I think Jodi's the only one here joining in right now. If you're joining in, let me know that you're here and who's showing up today. If you're new, I need you to listen up: please take the time to go through the WarriorBabe Blast Off emails that are coming to you on a daily basis via the email you signed up with. Those emails are so important because they give you just one task to complete per day that will help you get set up on your journey here as a WarriorBabe and help you transition into this lifestyle. Everything that I'm teaching will help you inside of those modules.

What's up? Here we go, now the crew's showing up. What's up, you guys? Kimberly, Jenny, another Jenny, Christy, what's up? Laura, Kate, Kate's here, Rana, Debbie, what's up, babe? Super excited to be here with you guys. Now you're showing up. Beautiful. I'm stoked that everybody's here and I'm excited to hang out with you right now.

If you're new, remember, like I said, the WarriorBabe Blast Offs are going to help you transition into this lifestyle and help you start to learn my language and understand what I teach and what I preach. Somebody just joined us. They'll help you transition to the lifestyle. It's one video for the first 14 days in your email inbox. I guarantee you, if you go through it, after the first 14 days you will be super excited about your journey. You'll still have the same motivation and the same excitement that you had when you first joined if you go through the Blast Off videos. They're going to help you on your journey here.

What's up, Yana? Thanks, Madeline. Like I said, you should all be receiving your swag this week, which I'm super excited about. Please share it inside of the communities. I absolutely love seeing that you're getting all of your swag.

Before Jodi's comment gets too far down, I'm going to start firing off our Q&A. If you have any questions for me, now is the time. There's no silly or stupid question and no right or wrong question. I'm here to provide any clarity you need for your journey moving forward. So please ask anything you need clarification on, and I'm happy to answer anything here.

Jodi says, "I only have one hour to work out daily with my workout schedule, and I need to cut it down to an hour. I was thinking of following the four-day split with core circuits and HIIT on the non-lifting days. Would this work, or do you have other suggestions?"

If you're going to drop it down, I would even drop it down to possibly five days. If you drop down to three sets of everything, that'll give you a significant amount of time to get through the entire workout within an hour. Then you can do your core every other day, and every other day that you don't do core, you can do your cardio. If your cardio doesn't fit in on your lifting days, you can still drop it to five, and on one of your shorter lifting days you could add in the cardio session there. Then the other days that you don't lift, you could do cardio on those days as well. That would add up to seven.

So, talking about it out loud, maybe the four-day split would be beneficial for you. You do the four-day workout split, you can do cardio the other days, and any day that's shorter, if you're going to reduce it to three sets, you can fit in cardio on that day as well. So yeah, Jodi, the four days sounds better for you, doing cardio and core on the non-workout days, and on any workout that's shorter, you can fit in the cardio.

Debbie, that's the one I got, I can't wait. Yana just ordered hers. Beautiful. I can't wait for you all to receive it. Our community is going to be popping. The Blueprint already has a few people who have received theirs. Like I was saying earlier, when we were packaging it all up it was one-day priority, two-day priority, three-day priority, so it depends on where you live. Anybody closer to me is probably getting it within the one day, and anybody on the West Coast will probably take the three day. But I can't wait for you to receive it. Please share it in the community.

Laura asks, "How do you get your squat so low without falling over?" This is really good. Madeline and I actually filmed a form video for you, which will be dropping on YouTube in a couple of weeks. We did the form for the squat, the deadlift and the bench press, and the common things that we see wrong, which it sounds like you may be doing by the way you said "falling over."

This is going to be really hard because I have no space. I'm literally up against the wall right here and my desk is in the way. Maybe if I come around.

A lot of women squat by bending at the chest and then squatting down. People are literally bending over. The way to envision this is that your upper body stays completely on top of your lower body. So when you have a barbell, it's not this, it's this. Your booty sticks out and your upper body is right on top of your lower body.

Another thing is you want your knees behind your toes. That's a common thing. All of this can cause you to want to fall forward. See that? If you have your knees behind your toes, you're going to be able to come down in a proper squat and then push up through your heels. So you don't want to do the chest dip. That's the common thing: the chest dip and then the knees over toes. That's what's going to make you want to fall forward. You want your upper body to be completely on top of your lower body, come down in the squat, and I just did legs yesterday, this is killing me, and come back up. So there's a little squat tutorial for you.

Dolphin kicks: what muscles are they supposed to work? Dolphin kicks are supposed to work your booty, if I'm thinking of the right exercise.

Give me some love on that squat. I see a lot of hearts firing up. Zoom is so behind, I literally just watched myself do that. That's hilarious. But that video we did on proper form should be dropping in a couple of weeks, because form can make all of the difference if your form is completely off. Thanks, guys. Yup, no chest dip. Keep your upper body on top of your lower body and knees behind the toes, which is very universal, but the chest dip is what causes you to want to go forward into the ground.

Jennifer asks, "Hi. In a cut I was eating 1,500 calories. On my build that I started in September, I worked up to maintenance, 2,000 calories. How do you know when to step up the calories even more? I'm having a hard time eating just 2,000 calories."

Then I wouldn't even bother stepping it up. Make that work for you. Hit your 2,000 calories and make it work. A way for you to know to increase is if your measurements are not moving and your weight is not moving. And if you're having hunger cues, that would be a good time to increase your calories.

Jodi says, "I can get the cardio and core in on three non-lifting days for sure." Cool. "If I'm doing core and HIIT three days and lifting four days, on the days I do HIIT and core only, not lifting, should I have a pre- and post-workout meal the same as on lifting days?"

Yes, you can still get away with having a pre-workout meal with just doing some core, and a post-workout afterwards. I wouldn't really do a shake, though. You can still have a pre-workout meal and make it a fast-acting carbohydrate or complex carbohydrate, but you could probably use something in place of a shake. I wouldn't do a shake on that day. I would probably stick to whole foods. Good, I'm glad that helped. Yes, Ashley, form is everything.

Ellie asks, "Hi. I have osteoarthritis in my wrist and can't do push-ups. What's a good substitute for push-ups for those who can't do them when they're programmed?"

You can go up against the wall on a slight incline. And have you ever noticed how I bear claw my push-ups? I bear claw because it helps me and my wrist. I was in a car accident a couple of years ago, not my fault. This woman cut out right in front of me and I T-boned her, and my airbag deployed and cut my skin, and it jammed up my wrist as well. So I bear claw my push-ups. I don't bend my wrist like a lot of people do with their push-ups. You can bear claw and come straight down to the ground like this, or bear claw and put it on the ground like that. It doesn't bend your wrists as much. But if that doesn't work for you, then you can come up against the wall. Any wall, just come on a slight incline and do push-ups like that. That could help. Smash the like button for me right now if that helps.

Let's see. Yana asks, "Could you explain BCAAs? Not sure if that's the right acronym, the drink for during your workout." We're talking about BCAAs, or branched-chain amino acids. This is the thing with BCAAs and the whole craze: they matter if you don't eat enough protein, which is something none of us WarriorBabes struggle with if you're hitting your macros. BCAAs contain the amino acid called leucine, and that helps with protein synthesis, so it helps you keep maintaining protein levels in your body throughout the day if you're not eating enough. WarriorBabes don't have that problem. You can use BCAAs if you don't like drinking water and you need flavored water. But other than that, if you stick to whole foods and eat enough of the right types of foods, you've got enough protein and you'll be solid.

So there you go. You don't need to spend your money on BCAAs. If you don't like drinking water, sure, go for it. If you have a hard time hitting your protein, which you shouldn't, then go for it. But WarriorBabes don't have that problem. If you want to drink them, you totally can.

Jodi says, "I need to shed some fat. Should I do a burn first for a while, then go to a build when I'm leaned out?" This is the thing with this question. I'm not as hands-on with my Revolution as I am with the Blueprint and the VIP, where I can answer your questions more specifically to you, but you know your body. If you have a decent amount of muscle structure underneath your body fat, then yes, go for the burn first, go for the cut first, and go for reducing your body fat so that you can show more of that muscle tone.

If you're somebody who needs to build muscle, say you're skinny fat and you need to focus on building up some muscle, in the long run building more muscle is going to help you decrease your body fat. While you work on the building phase, yes, you're going to be eating a lot more, and y'all better know by now that food is not the enemy. Food helps. If you focus on building, going into the building macros and the building workouts, you'll still go through a body recomposition, but that's where patience comes into play. If you're building muscle, it's going to take you a year, maybe a year and a half, until you can really start to see those muscle gains if you're skinny fat and really need to put on some muscle.

So that would be my answer. If you already have some decent muscle structure underneath the body fat, hell yeah, go for a burn, go for a cut. But if you don't need to lose much weight and just need to add some muscle so you can go through body recomposition, then go for the build and go for those macros. Awesome, Ellie, I'm glad that helped.

Johanna says, "It's a super protein drink." Well, it doesn't have protein macros in it. It has the branched-chain amino acids. Amino acids are protein, right? It doesn't have protein macros, but it has a bunch of different branched-chain amino acids that make up the protein complex. There are 21 branched-chain amino acids, and the most important one, leucine, is one of the last ones and helps with protein synthesis in the body. If you drink it, it's not protein, but it has the makeup of proteins because of the branched-chain amino acids. Does that make sense?

Jodi says, "I like BCAAs, it's nice water help." For sure, 100 percent. I get what Yana was saying. I would look at the ingredients. Always look at the ingredients. If it's something you can't read and can't understand, I wouldn't put it in your body. I'm trying to get better at that. I'm learning a lot. I know the energy drinks I've been obsessed with have tons of fake sugars in them. So I'm a work in progress as well, but that's something you want to pay attention to. Look at the ingredients, and if you can't read it, don't put it in your body.

There you go. "It works for people. I don't want to waste BCAAs, so it makes me drink my water." Yeah, 100 percent.

Jenny asks, "What's your take on supplements that are supposed to help with adrenal fatigue?" This is something I talk about in my Blueprint program. I'm really big on adrenal fatigue and really big on hormones because of my nursing background and knowing what works food-wise. There's a woman inside my Blueprint program right now who came in with diagnosed adrenal fatigue. It's diagnosed, and her doctor's helping her with it. There are no supplements that can help you with it. It's food. I have her up over 2,000 calories. She's somebody who needs to lose weight, but the adrenal fatigue and getting that fixed first is what matters most.

Fixing your internals is always what's going to get you the outside eventually. You've got to fix internally first before you get the results outward. That's a really hard thing for a lot of people to process, but it's the darnedest truth.

This woman in my Blueprint program is eating well over 2,000 calories, and she just popped up on a Q&A on Sunday and said, "I'm feeling so much better. I'm healing, I'm getting better, and now I want to start focusing on a cut." I was like, that's so great. We've had her sitting at those macros for a while, over a month. So just the constant eating, fueling your cells with the food and the right stuff, and taking it a little bit easier on your workouts for just a little bit of time, just a month, can make a world of difference for a six-month period when you want to go into losing fat.

That's what a lot of people have problems trying to figure out or accept. One month of just working to heal your insides is what can make your entire journey of a year or two years of fat loss or building muscle so much easier. You have to heal the insides first before you can focus on the outside appearance. So nutrition, hands down, is going to help with adrenal fatigue. I wouldn't recommend any supplement. One just popped into my head, but that totally goes against what I just said, so I'm going to keep it with nutrition. That's hands down the most important thing.

Jodi says, "Nutribio has a pure, non-artificial BCAA." Yeah, Nutribio is bomb. Great stuff. It's unbelievable, and their labels are totally transparent.

Rana says, "I'm getting ready to bump my carbs to 383 next week. I'm not scared of the carbs, but I'd have a hard time getting those in without adding more sugar. I've gotten pretty fluffy in my abs. Is this normal?" Yes, it's normal. Just watch that with your body so you can pay attention to how your body's adjusting and take control of that.

For the carb sources that I use, it's probably so bad to say it, but Eggos help me, fruit helps me, and getting more veggies helps. Bagels: I switch out my bagels. Sometimes I go with everything bagels and sometimes raisin bagels, and I switch out my breakfasts daily. I'll do an everything bagel with eggs and egg whites, and then I'll do a cinnamon bagel with cream cheese and eggs and egg whites the next morning, and I alternate through those.

Beth asks, "Speaking about hormones and artificial additives, do you only eat the expensive free-range, antibiotic-free chicken and meat? I'm consuming mass quantities of chicken now to meet my protein needs and spending a lot more money than I used to. I spent $100 today on chicken. Is it worth it?" Oh my god, wow, that's a lot for chicken. I get my chicken from Costco, and I get the organic chicken from there. I'm not sure where you get it from, but it is important what you're putting into your body.

This is the way I look at it from being in nursing and being in the ER. I would see people come in in their 60s and 70s and I'd look at them like, wow, if they had only changed some things back in their 20s, 30s and 40s, they probably wouldn't be here today. So you've got to think about changing everything right now, because it will benefit you when you're older. That was one of the main things that got me to change: being in the ER and seeing that, and thinking, oh my god, what I can control is that I can work out and eat better. So that's my thought on that.

Thank you, Jodi. Thank you, babe. You guys rock. You're working towards it. Keep coming in clutch with the carbs. Dried fruit packs a big carb punch with lower volume. Nice, there we go.

Ellie says, "I'm in the medical field and I'm super motivated by my frail patients." Yeah, it was a huge eye-opener for me working in the medical field in the ER, and even before my ER experience, I was in the nursing home as a CNA taking care of older people. So much fun, but there was a lot of it where I was like, wow, I can take control of this right now. So it is really important to focus on what you're putting into your body. Like I say, with my Alani Nu here, I have some artificial things here and there, but I'm leaning more towards the antibiotic-free and the organic. It's important. Think about your health as your wealth. That is so true. For me personally, in my opinion, the money that I spend on food is well spent. If it's $300, it's $300 towards my health. That's how I feel.

Rana says, "I've been having a banana and 1.5 scoops of Super Carb before and after my workout. Is that too much of the Super Carb?" Oof, yeah, that might be a little too much, babe. Typically, when I use my Super Carb and I have high carb counts, I add in two scoops of the Super Carb, so you can totally get away with two scoops. That's about 50 grams of carbs right there.

Yes, Yana, you really are what you eat, 100 percent. I can look at somebody walking down the street and tell exactly what their lifestyle is like just by the way they look. I'm not judging. I just look at it and I'm like, you can tell how they live.

Jodi says, "I'm jealous. I have no problem hitting my carbs. I finish my pre- and post-workout and I'm basically left with fat and protein for the day. I know I will bump up sometime, but right now I'm dealing as a curvy girl." Yeah, protein, you'll learn. Chicken, egg whites, ground turkey. If you're vegan, the meat alternatives; seitan is another really good one. A lot of the meats will help you hit those protein numbers. Yogurt, Greek yogurt, I absolutely love. With protein, you'll learn. It won't be hard after you just keep going with it. For fats, you can use peanut butter, and you can use olive oil. Olive oil is great because it's just straight fat; two tablespoons are 14 grams of fat. Avocado is really good too.

Yes, Michelle, your health is your wealth.

Yana asks, "Are you a fish eater?" No, not really. I used to be. I was pescatarian for about six months, and I did a lot of tilapia and cod when I was competing. I'll do sushi. You've seen on my Instagram, I do a lot of sushi. But other than that, I don't meal prep it. That's another really great source of protein, though. Tilapia and cod are really great. Yeah, Michelle, coconut oil is another great fat.

All right, babes, any more questions for me? We've got you putting in some swag orders now. I can drop the link for you. Anybody who didn't order, you can go to the link I just dropped in the comments and order your swag.

Amy says, "I'm competing in 32 weeks." Do you prep to stage? Yeah, that's my love. You've got to come up to the VIP for that. But yeah, 100 percent.

True to fit, Yana. I saw a babe posting in the Blueprint who's losing a lot of weight, so that could be why she said the medium hoodie was a little too big for her. I think they fit perfectly for me. Super true to fit. I'm in a small right now, so you can see it; my desk is super high right now. But yeah, I think it's true to fit.

Will it be restocked soon? I'm going to have to go through the inventory and check that out so we can get some orders in. I know we were running super low on some things. Once we get all of our shipments out, I'm also going to be restocking and checking what we have here. So keep an eye out over the next couple of weeks. But you did get the crewneck. That's awesome. "Can't wait to get mine, so excited." Yes, you guys, super stoked. Again, as you get them, start sharing with the community. I want to see our community flooded with swag.

All right, babes, I'm going to pop off of our Q&A. It's been so much fun hanging out with you. I absolutely love coming on Wednesday nights and being part of this Q&A with you, getting clarifications, just hanging out, having some fun, doing some squat variations and some push-ups on the wall. I love spending this time with you.

So keep up the good work. Remember, right now is what matters the most: you showing up for yourselves right now through the holidays. Enjoy yourselves on Thanksgiving, memories over macros, but then the next day you get right back to it. No excuses. Work your leftovers into your macros at that point. I love you guys. Keep up the good work, and I will catch you on the rally call on Sunday. Bye, everyone.