#70: Why You'll Build More Muscle with a Structured Weight Training Program

If you've noticed the loss of muscle tone that so many women in their 40s, 50s or 60s wake up to, and you are working out regularly, then this episode is for you. 

One of the biggest misconceptions in the fitness industry is that any workout with weights will 'tone you up' (ie. build muscle) but that's just not true. 

I used to believe that too, and I was devastated when despite going to my beloved Pump and Bootcamp classes, and working my tail off, my muscle tone disappeared. 😭

There is a science to building muscle. 💪

When we're younger, our bodies respond better to less 'optimal' training, but as our estrogen levels decline in menopause, we need to train more effectively - and a structured weight training program will allow you to do just that.

In episode #70 of 40+ Fitness for Women, I discuss why you'll build more muscle with a structured weight training program. 

Enjoy the show!

Transcript

#70: Why You'll Build More Muscle with a Structured Weight Training Program

 [00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach. And what that means is that as a personal trainer, I am focused completely on women who are in perimenopause and post menopause and helping them to achieve fitness because it really is a different ball game once you hit that perimenopause transition. 

And today we're going to talk about why you will achieve better results by following a structured weight training program. And the reason that I wanted to talk about this is that I noticed that my gym is really filling up with people lately.

And I think it is because the sun is finally shining, skies are blue. It's getting to the point, I live way up north, where you can actually wear a t shirt outside and people are getting themselves ready [00:01:00] for summer. And so they're doing their best, of course, at the gym. And it's great that they are at the gym in the weight room, but I see all too many of them.

They're kind of doing a little bit random workouts. They might be spending way too much time working a particular muscle group and neglecting others. Or I see them and they're having like a conversation on the phone while they're doing their sets. Let me tell you, all these things. Are going to be things that are going to stop you from getting the results that you could be getting from your time in the gym.

And I have to say, I applaud those who I see in there with a program. So they're checking out their phones or they've got it written on a piece of paper. And those who are in there getting PT sessions or a personal trainer is actually going through the program with them and then they're going to start training on their [00:02:00] own.

So. Definitely a far, far superior way of doing things, but the fact of the matter is that time is running out and I'm feeling the same because of course you want to look your best in the summer. You've been doing all this work, especially where I live, where like you are covered about 10 months out of the year.

And then maybe there are. I don't know, six, eight weeks where you could be revealing your arms and your shoulders and kind of the results of your hard work. And not to say that that is the only reason that I weight train, but it is such a nice side benefit to look good that you kind of want to show it off.

So you want to be optimal in the weight room. You want to be getting results from the workouts that you're doing. And so let's talk about how having a structured program is going to help you do just that.

We know that we need to [00:03:00] be targeting our type two muscle fibers in order to see our muscles actually get more visible and bigger and stronger. And those type two muscle fibers Are only triggered into action when you are lifting heavy for you.

And that's why I'm always talking about lifting heavy for you. And I was thinking I need to do a podcast episode on just that specific topic.

 And the fact of the matter is that it is harder to build muscle in perimenopause and menopause. A couple of episodes ago, I was talking about how your body changes fundamentally in perimenopause and postmenopause because of the lack of estrogen.

And that estrogen, which has in the past supported muscle growth, when it's gone, your muscles are Harder to grow. So [00:04:00] we as perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, we really need to be optimizing what we do in order to get results. And that's why so many of us, me included notice at some point that the workouts that we've been doing, even if they've been with weights, even if we thought we were taking care of our muscles, all of a sudden our muscle tone disappears because actually we have not been training heavy enough in order to stimulate those type two muscle fibers, which will help us to maintain our muscle and even grow our muscle.

 So I was religiously going to body pump classes, for example, when my muscle tone disappeared. So you might think that's structured and all that, but it's just not using progressive overload, which was one of the very, very key factors in building muscle, especially [00:05:00] in perimetopause and post-menopause

now, something that I see so many women doing is that they realize they need to start building muscle and they think, okay, I'm, I'm going to figure this thing out for myself. And for sure, you can try that route. And I definitely tried that route. And let me tell you, it led me to. taking longer to get to where I am today.

But also I ended up realizing that, Hey, this actually like an area that one needs to study and really get some information from the experts who know about this. And that's why I've, you know, done, done the studying and gotten the certification, you know, from the top people who know about menopause fitness and building muscle and strength and keeping your body maintained in menopause. 

So you can try to figure it out yourself, but the shortcut to [00:06:00] success is going to be to actually buy a program from somebody, a personal trainer that is at your gym who understand something about perimenopause, menopause. or an online coach like myself. , but there is a little bit of a difference when we're talking about the perimenopause and menopause.

Just today I had somebody write me an email, a customer who is working with an in person trainer, but also wanted to join my program because she wanted the perspective of the perimenopause, postmenopause, and menopause. Woman understanding what she needs to do from that perspective because her in-person trainer just is not educated in that area.

So anyway, so it's wonderful that women are figuring out that yes, they need to be doing some weight training. And then they find these lovely workouts online that look like super fun and the women doing them look [00:07:00] super fit and they've got dumbbells and they're waving them around and they think that they are doing some good for their muscles. And yes, you are doing some good for your muscles. If you have been a couch potato up to today, and then you start doing something, then yes, you are going to get some results. But those kinds of random workouts where it is not being systematic, so you're not systematically challenging your muscles a little bit more and a little bit more, Sure, you're going to get something, but you are not going to get as much as you could get for that effort that you are putting in. 

And then there are a lot of weight training programs there are online and you can download them for free. And some of these are quite good and some of them are not. And I think the challenge there really is that. How do you know? I mean, how do you know, as [00:08:00] a person who doesn't understand biomechanics, who hasn't studied what is it that you need to do to build muscle, who doesn't understand like the whole mix and all the factors that go into this.

Right. So you may take a program and start following it, and then you don't get the results that you want to get, or maybe some of your muscles develop and other muscles don't develop. I mean, I've seen these programs and. The, I guess the flaws in them a lot of times is that they're really long and, uh, and they have just so many exercises in them.

And I think maybe one of the reasons that that happens is that you do need to have some sort of understanding of biomechanics and which exercises are going to which muscles in order to Optimize your time in the gym, right? It's easy enough for somebody to go, okay, so I need to [00:09:00] hit my bicep, my tricep, my upper back, my lower back, my quad, my hip, my inner thigh, outer thigh calves, you know, and then they pick one exercise for each or what they think is one exercise for each.

But man. You're going to spend two hours in the gym, right? So that is not so optimal because once you start getting tired in your session, then it's not so effective. So you want to have something that's optimized in the sense that you get in and you train hard and you get out before your body gets too tired.

Okay. So then there are a lot of people that are just going in and doing something. I mean, you see them walk in and they kind of look at a machine and then they're like doing a couple of reps and they might switch the weight and do a couple more reps and then they kind of wander to the next machine and all that.

I mean, [00:10:00] wonderful that they have made it to the weight room. I mean, yay, I'm so excited for them. And whenever I see a person like that, I wish I had like a sheet of paper that I can be like, here's a program for you to follow now that you're here. Congratulations for showing up. Um, because they're not really going to get much out of that kind of random.

Let me do a little bit of this, a little bit of that. Again, if they've been a complete couch potato, yeah, sure, they'll see something. But if they just got a structured program and started working it in a structured manner, consistently coming to the gym, applying progressive overload, doing those same exercises and progressing the weights and reps, they would get so much more out of that weight training session.

And when you're just wandering around the gym and you're like choosing machines, cause it looked like fun, uh, you've seen this one online. You may actually be kind of training the same muscles over and over again, [00:11:00] and then neglecting other muscles altogether. Uh, at least at my gym. We have so many different ways, for example, that you could train your chest, right?

There's a horizontal chest press and a vertical chest press and a little bit of a angled chest press. Then you could do a bench press. You could do it on the Smith machine. There are all these options. And if you didn't realize that, Hey, these are all essentially doing the same thing. And, you know, I maybe just need one chest exercise per day.

You may end up like just kind of wasting time, right? I mean, now I'm talking to my audience who is women who are 40 plus, who are not just like having nothing to do with their lives besides training. So you want to spend your time in the gym wisely.

So when somebody is creating a [00:12:00] program for you, somebody who has been studying biomechanics and programming, then they're thinking about different things over time. Now I have talked about like you can get one program and you can do that for a long time. Actually the one program you can do it for Well, I would say you should do it for at least 10 to 12 weeks, because honestly, especially if you're just starting up, you are going to have ramp up time where you're not really pushing your muscles that hard.

And then you start to notice that, yes, you're progressing, progressing, progressing, been able to add weights over time, add reps over time. So that first program can actually last you a nice long time. And even at my stage where I've been training, I'm like into my third year. Now, I don't swap out all of my [00:13:00] exercises.

There are certain exercises that I keep over time because I keep progressing in them, right? I'm still getting stronger in them. So, and I like them, so, and that is a factor and I like them. So I keep them, but. Over time, one does need to think about things like , that you are sometimes incorporating unilateral training, right?

That because if you're always working, let's say both legs at the same time, then you're Unbeknownst to you, it may be that one of your legs is working more than the other one. I have a client who just discovered recently that she actually has one leg that is shorter than the other, and she has had all kinds of problem, like pain problems, sciatica.

Due to this and now we have started [00:14:00] her really on training one leg at a time and I bet you she is going to discover that one leg is significantly weaker than the other. Uh, I had that issue. I was lopsided on my, the backs of my thighs. So my hamstrings from an injury that I had when I was like seven, no, maybe I was a little out of it 10. 

I was doing the splits in ballet class and my hip kind of went out of place. Click click and Hurt like heck. My parents never took me to the doctor over the weeks It started to heal and it was fine for a lot of years when I was playing lacrosse and field hockey and high school and college It was not a problem for me.

And then when I stopped working out so much It got so painful that I couldn't sit,, I couldn't run all these things. And I was going to these pump classes, as I said, and then [00:15:00] when I finally went to physical therapist and please go much, much sooner than I did, if you have issues, go physical therapist can really be your best friend to help keep you going.

Anyway, so I went to the physical therapist and it turned out that I've basically not been using my left hamstring in, I don't even know how long. And so I really started working my hamstrings unilaterally. So one leg at a time. and got those strengthened, got my left side strengthened so that it is equal with the right.

And today I can run without any pain. I don't have issues sitting and all that, but I need to do the unilateral training. And it's a good idea to have that in your programming so that at some point in the year you're doing unilateral work to keep and check that both sides are as strong as one another.

And then you want to be [00:16:00] sure that you're hitting all your muscle groups twice a week is great. Three times a week is not necessarily better. Some people that may help if they're doing it three times a week, but twice a week is what I would recommend. And that takes some knowledge of biomechanics to understand that which exercises are hitting which muscles so that you can mix up the exercises so that your full whole body is covered, you know, the twice a week and the hardest, sessions, actually the hardest programs to create are actually for people who are only training twice a week or, you know, shorter than an hour twice a week are particularly challenging because with them.

You just have a very limited amount of time and a limited amount of exercises that they do in a week. And then there are things like. Whether the muscle is being challenged in a shortened position or a [00:17:00] lengthened position that matters to the lengthen positions, uh, are for a lot of muscles are shown to be a bit more effective at building the muscle, but then there's, there's the trade off that recovery may take longer.

So there are actually a lot of things that go into this. And then when you talk about things like your glutes and your back, then there are several different ways to hit a little bit differently. Also in your arms, different ways of hitting the different muscles. 

So as you can see, there's actually a lot to consider when you're pulling together the program.

And another thing that is a discussion area is, you know, doing compound exercises versus isolation exercises. So a compound exercise is one where many muscles work together to move the weight. And an isolation one is one where you try to get just [00:18:00] one muscle predominantly to be doing the work. And The thing about compound exercises is that, yeah, you can stimulate a lot of muscles at the same time, but not all of them are going to be the one that's really pushed.

Okay. And you may end up stimulating like a muscle you didn't need mean to stimulate. So if you think about like, if you were carrying a table with your kids, helping you out, . And okay, let's say it's you and a friend of yours and another adult and the child carrying the table and you're really having to hold the table and hold the table, you know, and then the kid is doing their best and then decides that, oh, There's a toy over there.

I want to go play with. And then they leave, right? They just don't do anything. And then you have to work twice as hard. Well, the same thing happens with your muscles. That [00:19:00] sometimes some of the muscles are contributing more than other of the muscles. So while it may seem like that, "Kid Muscle" should be working.

Maybe that they're not working at all. And then you need to do another exercise to make sure that the kid muscle is actually doing something.

And then another factor in programming is stability. So how stable a particular exercise is, how well you are able to recruit the muscle. So you don't need to remember those factors, but I just bring them up to show you that it's actually, there's a lot of complexity in there. And I try in this podcast to really leave the complexity out of it because I want women to get started. 

But it's good for you to understand that actually behind that program, which may look very simple to the naked eye, there's been a lot of thought [00:20:00] about, okay, I'm putting in this because of this and this because of this, and I'm leaving this out and I'm making this selection.

And this is why I'm splitting them onto the two days like this and not some other way. Right? There is some thinking that goes on behind that, and that is essentially what you're paying for when you pay for the program.

And then when we talk about actually getting the results, the thing about once you have that program, the things that you need to do are apply progressive overload. And I have an episode on progressive overload. So you can listen to that if you're not sure what that is.

So it's always going to be a matter of making sure that you are, as you get stronger, you push your muscles a little bit more, it would be pretty boring. It is pretty boring for your muscles if they're not being challenged, they'll just stop working. It's like if you [00:21:00] let your kid do second grade over and over and over again, not very challenging, but then.

Once they've learned the second grade stuff, you move them up to third grade and fourth grade and fifth grade. Same thing with your muscles. When they can handle this level of challenge, then you add challenge and add challenge and add challenge and they continue to develop

and applying the progressive overload is easiest to see if you're actually using a tracker. And I do have an Excel sheet tracker on my website among my like free, uh, assets. So you can go ahead and download that from there. 

So to summarize, The reason that you're going to be able to get better results from a structured weight training program is that somebody who has got some education on biomechanics and programming has created a program for you to make sure that that you're hitting your [00:22:00] muscles at least twice a week, and that you're not overtiring any muscles that they're getting the break days that they need.

You'll be able to track what you're doing and ensure that you are applying progressive overload because that in the end is what is going to encourage your muscles or stimulate your muscle to actually grow

one thing I haven't mentioned earlier is that the programs generally come with demo videos so that you can learn how to do the exercises correctly. And I know there are a lot of videos online showing how to do those exercises, but I'll tell you when I search for demo videos for my clients, I do some of them myself and some of them I use other people's videos.

Because they've just explained them really well. I mean, it can take me like half an hour or an hour to find a demo video that actually explains it 

The way I would explain it and that you know has [00:23:00] all of the necessary info So those are important as well in the structured weight training program

Plus you can avoid overtraining. So one of the things about just grabbing, you know, some random workout program from online and doing it, and then the next day watching another one next day, doing another one like this is that you might be training the same muscle groups many, many, many times in a week and not allowing for any recovery, and that's not going to necessarily help them get on their way to growing.

And finally, muscle imbalances. You can correct them and avoid them by having a structured program where the person who's designed the program takes that into account over time so that you're doing unilateral and bilateral work, sometimes one, sometimes the other.

so I hope this has encouraged you [00:24:00] if you're still doing random workouts online or going to different group fitness classes that use weights that, hey, trade those in for a structured weight training program, because really you are going to get better results. You can buy it from me. Of course. Yes.

Shameless plug. I do have them available because I want women to be able to get started. But just as well, you can go to a personal trainer at your gym and have them design a program for you. Just be sure that they understand that you want to build muscle because a lot of personal trainers, they'll, they'll do like an all rounder, you know, where they're thinking about, Oh, her balance and her cardio and all this, but actually it would be good if you get a good strength training program.

And if you only have two days a week to do it. Get them to make one that's for two days a week and then do your cardio separately. Go to a [00:25:00] yoga class for your balance or do some balance exercises at home. Brush your teeth while you're standing on one foot, for example. But yeah, ask for specifically one where you can build muscle and get stronger.

And if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out 

All right. And with that, I will wish you a wonderful week and happy training.