Fit Me Forever Podcast
Fit Me Forever Podcast
#26 Muscle Building Tips
In today’s episode, we are talking all about GAINING MUSCLE!!
Many women come to us with the desire to change what their bodies look like...tighten, tone and develop shape... all of these things involve gaining muscle, but that's not always what people think.
Here's a few points that we cover today:
- What's the best weight training program?
- Setting realistic expectations
- The top 3 factors that influence results
The references we mentioned:
3DMJ's Muscle and Strength PyramidBook.
3DMJ's Muscle and Strength Training Pyramid Level 1 and intro
Next Steps:
Receive updates and learn more at: AgingStrongLife.com
Send any questions or comments to: jodie@agingstronglife.com
Hi, welcome to the[inaudible] forever podcast, hosted by the Omni fit. We're about all things fitness. We help women get off the Diet roller coaster, define sustainable health, embracing life right where you are on the way to where you're going. Welcome to the podcast. I'm coach Jodie v, a certified nutrition coach who specializes in helping women become physically and mentally strong to regain energy for a life they love. I would like to welcome my cohosts Kayla Dunkin, owner of the Omni fit and fellow colleague and nutrition coach Taylor blocks. And together we are the Omni fit.
Speaker 2:Welcome back, ladies to episode 26 of the fit me forever podcast. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about what it takes to build muscle, but before we do that, we want to remind you about the live event we're hosting in Dover, New Hampshire. Kayla, do you want to fill us in on the details? Yeah, sure. So we are so excited about this event. It's going to be happening here in Dover, New Hampshire on July first at the Sunday, and we would love to have you guys here in, in person like this is not your typical conference. We're not going to be, you know, standing on stage and just talking to you all day long. We're actually gonna be sitting down beside you with you. We're going to be helping you goal set, construct and understand plans so that you walk away from this event with a plan in place knowing exactly what to do to reach your goals. Um, we're going to be having conversations around common things like cravings, managing stress, consistency, mindset techniques. It's, it's basically all the things that we talk about here on the podcast, but we get to do it with you in person and we do have limited spaces available for this. So make sure you go and reserve your ticket@theOmnifit.com slash live. We are super excited about this event. We're going to be hanging out with you guys in person. So again, if you want to reserve your ticket or just learn more about the details of the event, everything is posted there on the Omni.com backslash live. So jumping right in to our topic for today, building muscle. This was, this was requested from our community. So I'm really excited to, to be diving in and just sharing this, this information with you guys. I would say that the majority of the people that come to us, I'm building muscle. Muscle is definitely one of their goals, even if they don't necessarily say that. Right? Right. And it's such a secret. Everyone wants to look toned and that's what I was going to say. It's usually referred to as being toned. Yep. Which is not bad at all because obviously that's what it is, right? Muscle tone. And that's the tight from um, smooth as coach jody likes to call it skin, the coveted smooth skin. So what does it take? That's a really good question. Um, I think, well, you know, I'm going actually gonna refer right starting off to another company that, that the three us love, three DMJ, 3d muscle journey there. You know, a group of other coaches, but they truly do specialize in bodybuilding and in all honesty, any type of muscle, whether you're a stay at home mom or whether you desire to have smoother skin, it's going to require for building muscle. And Eric Helms who is a researcher as a part of the Three D Dmj I'm coaching group authored will. In fact he actually, he actually made youtube videos about muscle pyramid, so kind of stacking a pyramid, if you can visualize this with me of having a foundation that is, you know, from on the foundation and then the less important things kind of get stacked on top. And what happens a lot of times is that the things that we're focusing on get misplaced and so we might be putting a lot more effort or importance on something that doesn't really matter that much. So I'm actually going to be linking the videos and the actual book that they turned the videos into the muscle and strength pyramid for you, just as a reference because we are going to be talking about that foundation a lot. Excellent resource. Oh, it's so excellent. Yeah. Um, so most importantly above anything else, no matter what anybody has ever told you, I'm adherence to whatever program that you're doing is the absolute most important, which boils down to consistency. I'm the most perfect program done inconsistently doesn't matter. Like it might look perfect on paper. What have you been, your experiences with that guys? I think ours is probably pretty similar. Jody, with just enjoying. I mean we all have very similar upbringings in terms of, you know, bodybuilding, competing and figure, just that kind of background, but that has all shaped our knowledge and our experiences now. But we can all easily say that we thoroughly enjoy weight training. We thoroughly enjoy the food that we eat and just the day in, day out grind of it all. It doesn't seem like a chore to us. And so that's what's so important for our listeners to understand is that, you know, especially when it comes to building muscle and especially when it comes to being a female wanting to build muscle, it takes a long time and that's something that isn't the most attractive thing here in our ears. But you know, it does take a long time just because we do not have the hormones as males do. We have the same hormones but not in the same amount that's conducive for us to build muscle quickly or as quickly as a man can, which is a whole different topic that we can talk about in terms of women bulking up too quickly, that kind of thing. So renting it back to, you know, it's so, so important just to make sure that focusing each and every day, what can we do every day that we are enjoying what we're doing and progressing and making sure that we're loving what we do and when we focus on that every day, that takes the stress of that longterm goal and the expectations off. That's true. To recap that it's definitely gaining muscle is a long game. You gotta kind of have your head in for the long game. And I loved the grind and that could be the word grind to have a connotation of negativity. But really when you use it to your advantage, um, you, you just go do the thing, you know, you go in and do the thing and it's an uncomfortable patients. I think that's what we have to get our hands around is it just takes time,[inaudible],[inaudible], and it really goes back to just enjoying what you're doing. I mean, um, when we're talking about consistency being the very foundation, the very bottom of that pyramid, um, if you have in your head that going to the gym or what it's going to take to reach your goal is going to require you to do, let's just say arbitrary five days a week. But in all reality, most of the time you could only make it three days a week. Then you're not going to get the most out of that program. But instead, if it were restructured in a way that you know, benefited you a little bit better, um, you would be able to adhere to that more. So making sure that whatever program that you're following, whatever that you're doing in any form of exercise, if you want to see the results from it. And specifically for muscle building, you have to be doing it consistently and that is going to require patience. Um, initially when you're going into the gym, it is encouraging to get stronger every single day to see those linear progressions as we like to call them. I'm literally lifting more for more reps on a regular basis, but that doesn't happen. I'm going to be generous and say after six months, sometimes it doesn't happen sooner than that. If, if maybe you push yourself a little bit further, but usually at that six month mark, someone, if they have the wrong expectation, can feel like they're not making progress and you might be tempted to change when in all reality that your body is doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Yeah. I think, you know, I think about that. I'm that uncomfortable in this, not just in the patient standpoint, but really it's very rare that you can be gaining muscle without being in an excess. You have to eat more food than what you think, so that your body can repair and energized. And so that is, that's a big struggle for women is to actually put on muscle, you've got to be pounded some, you know, most people and in a consistent and regular and responsible way. Um, and it is uncomfortable. I remember thinking about when I was balking a bit and I really felt like I was getting a waste that I was not accustomed to and my clothes just fit tighter and it just, it, it was an. And then it got to the point where it's like, Kayla, I do not want to eat any more food, please stop the food type of thing. So I think that so many women are, you know, come to us like under eating as, as I did way back when undereating and expecting to gain muscle and it's just, it really isn't physiologically possible. Um, to do that. When you're in an extreme depth, you're in a deficit. So yeah, in your mind, you have to accept the truth before you're able to act on that. And that sometimes means just, just trusting your coach just coming to us are hearing this and saying, okay, I just have to put my foot down and just do it. Um, but I mean we have in past fat loss protocol podcast, talked about, you know, losing fat and being at maintenance. Just our last episode, episode number 25, we're talking about maintenance intake and we've talked consistently about eating enough and yes, I mean absolutely in, in conjunction with following something consistently. You could follow the best thing consistently and do it perfectly, but if you're not eating enough, Jodie, you're absolutely right. You're, nothing's going to happen. I like to describe this as, um, I love analogies. I feel like they're so easy to kind of visualize. But if you think about building muscle as building a house, you need resources to build the house. And so you might have the best schematics, you might have the best floor plan, a wonderful builder and a whole crew that is willing to just work night and day to get this thing built. But if you didn't buy the resources and they're not on your property ready to build your house, you're not going to have a house. And food is your resources. So when we like Hashtag what laying bricks and things like that, we're talking about food, having enough food and putting it to good use. Taylor, you can talk all day about this because you're in the gym training people all the time. But progressive overload is super important. Just challenging in that case. It's almost just, you know, if you're not constantly progressing, have, you know that you're getting better at something and building upon that you're almost, you know, spinning your wheels a little bit if you're just at that constant, that constant place at not being able to measure, measure anything. If you're not, you know, doing more sets or doing more reps. and of course that does take, that does take time and that at some point it does slow down a little bit as Caitlin was saying. Um, but you have to be able to be tracking that kind of progress. And it can look different for all kinds of different people. You can measure it in different ways. So say if you're an endurance athlete that looks different from if you're in the gym all the time. Um, there's plenty of ways to go about it. I think to that progressive overload does not mean training to failure. And that is sometimes people that don't understand training protocols that gets mixed up. They think they need to go in and blow out on every single exercise all the time. And you will, you will blow out totally if you do that. So having well planned plans like Kayla, like you said, an executing them consistently is huge. But I know one thing that we tell clients is pick those one or two movements a day that you're shooting for an additional rep or um, you know, maybe it's an additional set or you're, you're moving up in weight or something. And so you're really are tracking that, those changes so that you are getting stronger. You have to, your muscles have to be taxed in order to gain. You can't go into the gym and left lift 10 pounds every week for six months and expect to see a lot of change. It's not going to happen. Nope. Nope. I totally, totally echo you guys on that. And having a way to keep track of that. I'm like, we do not believe in muscle confusion. You cannot confuse your body. It is way, way, way too smart for that. Um, and in all reality, you want the adaptation of the repetitive movement. So what, what might feel boring to your brain because you do squats all the time, is actually good for your nervous system because neurologically your brain gets used to telling all those muscles and joints what to do and the initial strength gains that you see or ability to be able to move a little bit more weight or feeling confident, um, comes from the neurological pathway much more than it comes from the actual muscle. Getting stronger initially, which is why it happened so fast because neurologically, those pathways that from your brain to your muscles to tell them what to do and movements to do, that pathway paves very, very quickly. What is a lot slower, as we mentioned it in the very beginning of this podcast is the actual tissue being added. That hypertrophy that happens, happens a lot at a lot slower rate and it also requires the food versus like the neurological pathway becoming stronger doesn't require nutrients. So you might see those initial gains while you're at a deficit. Um, you're eating less and think, oh, I'm good. So you were trying to help you save a little bit of time so that you're not just burning your wheels out and six months in and going, I really was expecting a different result. Um, if you kind of check these boxes of eating enough food and, and following a that isn't changing every day. Now having some variety a lot of times, especially for clients that have been kind of in the weight room for a period of time and they do it is important that they enjoy what they're doing. Um, will make programs that are like a week and be weak and so that really they're getting something different week to week. But when you zoom out month by month by month, there's a lot of patterns that their bodies are learning and they're able to see those strength progressions so you can always keep that in mind for some program designed to always crazy that those first two weeks or so on a new program and you like it if you've been lifting for a while I guess, and you pick up and start a new progression and it's like, oh, this just feels weird and awkward because you do get seen and as you get more sinked in the program goes on. I mean I remember having some programs, Kayla, that we ran for, you know, 12 weeks and then did another 12 weeks of it, but just try to, you know, pick some different movements to overload on. And it was like, oh, I could do it in my sleep. And I loved it because that's when you talk about the graph, you know, the grind coming in. I didn't have to think about what I was going to do next. It was just like my body knew what to do and I could be totally in the group. It was fun. Yeah, and it's efficient. Those, those gym sessions you kind of get in and get out versus in the beginning when you're referencing what you're going to do, you're looking at your phone a little bit more of your piece of paper, whatever it was that you printed out. That's a good point. Another topic or another comment I want to make about building muscle and we had kind of opened up with this and all jokes aside about I'm toning. If that's just the popular thing that maybe makes you feel most comfortable, your desire, the muscle tone. Um, we don't want to discourage you from using that because it is true, you know, muscle tone. It gets a bad rap because the three pound pink dumbbells are not going to actually help you build muscle. And so just want you to know that a lot of times it's misunderstood that what you actually need is what's called building muscle. But initially when you hear that, you're like, I don't want to bulk. I don't want to get bigger, like, no, that's the opposite of what I want to do, but in all reality, when it comes to muscle, the bigger that it is, um, it takes up less space than your body fat. And so when you're working to build muscle, it's going to require more energy to sustain itself, which is why that recomposition can be happening at a similar time. Um, you can take advantage of those new big gains if lifting weights is new to you or if you're well seasoned, it might require you to move in and out of those seasons like we've talked about, of being in a deficit phase versus a maintenance versus maybe more of a building phase if you desire to gain more muscle. Um, so I just wanted to note that, that we don't want you to have a bad taste in your mouth about toning or having muscle tone because muscle tone is the desirable look for most people that we speak with. At least. Another thing that we kind of explore on too is, you know, the time and intensity that some of these things, you know, take what are some of your thoughts on that, but that's a really good point about, um, the time that it takes to, to build the muscle. We've covered that. And as long as you're in the gym doing something, I mean, I've seen'em don't be discouraged if you don't even have an hour. I think that depending on where you are in your fitness journey, um, that time variable does change. Um, for someone like myself, and I'll just use myself as an example. If I'm looking to grow and build after I've been doing this for 15 years, it's going to reach in order to provide myself with progressive overload. It's going to take longer to accumulate that volume to reach the intensity that I need. Um, I can't expect that whole, you know, making your expectations will line up with your reality. I can't expect to see large gains or progress and muscle growth without knowing I need to spend time in the gym. But now for someone that is early on in their fitness journey or earlier on in their fitness journey, and especially if you haven't, you couldn't confidently say you've done things correctly for a long time. It doesn't really require all that much. I've literally seen 30 to 45 minutes. I'm working on those specific movements now. The variety of movements that you do in that time are going to be vastly different. I mean you're not going to be able to do five exercises and in 30 and 40 minutes, but you can focus on like three main movements that if you know 30 to 45 minutes in the gym, you could do on a regular basis versus an hour. You couldn't. New thing to add to that coach Jodie. I think. I mean if, if I've got 30 minutes, 40 minutes, that's exactly what I do and get a little bit warmed up a little bit. Warmed up cardio. I'm doing, I'm working sets and usually it'll be squatting probably right now. Not back squatting anymore, but kettle ball and as much as I can get, get my heart rate up and get moving. Um, do some dead lifts and then probably shoulders and biceps and boom, I'm out of there is, that's all I can do. And, and it may be doing four or five sets of each movement, but I knocked it out and you know, gone. I look at it this way, it's like 30 minutes is better than no minutes. If, if I'm training three to four days a week, it's like I want to get that fourth day in and if that means 30 minutes, that's what I'm doing. I mean obviously it's for me really an hour is ideal. It just takes, it takes longer and I'm older, I'm a little bit so that I used to think. And that's how, that's what works for me. What about you guys? Yeah, I think getting warmed up is the longest part. I'm making sure that because in order to progressively overload the weight that I have to be moving is higher and I can't just walk in the gym and do that and you're gonna see that as you become stronger. Um, so for those larger compound movements, if I expect to progress in those versus the smaller isolated movements and so I try to give myself a variety depending on what I'm trying to accomplish and at this stage in the game, what it takes to maintain my muscle mass is vastly different than what it took to get it there. And so it's important to, it's going to be, you know, we're saying all of this, but in all honesty it's going to be very specific to you to what you can accomplish to your training age, to your physical age, your past, your history, you're dieting, it's gonna that that is something that's hard to answer. I think it is so individual. I just think about, like for myself, I was offered a year because I had a hip surgery and so what I was lifting prior to that was, is not what I can live now. But what's been kind of cool is I can, it's picked right back up at lesser weight. So what? My progressive overload now it doesn't take as much work as it did before. So it's Kinda, it's Kinda fun. It's different, you just flow with it and about the intensity tay you had asked about that. Intensity is very important and we also just want to put it out there that soreness out of breath, the things that you might feel in your mind that like, oh, I'm having a good workout. They don't necessarily equate to equaling gaining muscle. And in fact, many times I'm in intense set things that we really look for with our clients are a muscle pump, is the blood getting to the muscle cells. You want to feel pumped, almost like your skin is really tight and your arm is about to explode. You know, if you're doing bicep curls or something, um, the burning sensation is also good because that's metabolic stress kind of occurring. It's a piece of hypertrophy. Um, and then overall load increases, being able to see those. So intensity needs to always be there. If, um, if you can do something intensely consistently for long periods of time and be patient, you're going to see change. Even the worst program, you're going to see some sort of change, uh, as a beginner. And then if you add that, you know, I would say consistency over frequency, so if you show up consistently intensely, um, you're going to see the progress that you desire. I think too, with intensity, I think about just the mind muscle connection. So it's like when you're in there, you're, you're being intense, very intentional about the movement and that can therefore bring the intensity, right, because you're all into that. Um, rather than just going on, going in intensity, a lot of people think I'm white, you know, throwing weights around, that's not necessarily, it was not the same thing or like an orange theory where you're just, you're breathless like you're. So because high intensity cardio looks different and a lot of times we get that intensity confused, um, based on the amount of effort that we're exerting versus the intentionality behind, you know, the connection and moving. I'm moving the weight. Aerobic versus anaerobic. Yep. Well, awesome guys, we really just wanted to give you a kind of a short and sweet overview of those basis of building muscle. So just to kind of wrap up patients consistency, make sure you're eating enough food. Um, make sure you're making progress over time, you're moving more load, you have that progressive overload in place, um, and then you've got the intensity or showing up day after day, like actually working towards making improvements over being, you know, inconsistent. So if you guys have any questions, please let us know. I'm so glad that we were able to bring you this content and thanks for giving us your feedback. This was super helpful.
Speaker 1:Well, there you have it guys. Thank you so much for joining in to another episode of the me forever podcast. If you guys have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out via email@infoattheOmnifit.com. And of course, please connect with us on social media. All of our handles are instagram and facebook are both at the Omni fit and if you like this kind of content, if you like what we're putting out, please rate us on itunes and stitcher. That helps other people find us and it lets us know that we're putting out content that you enjoy. All right, talk to you guys soon.