#117: Factors That Impact Your Strength Training Results (Part 2: Lifestyle Choices that Matter)

When it comes to seeing results from strength training, what you do outside of your workouts matters just as much as what happens during them—especially in midlife.

In part 2 of this series, I’m walking you through the lifestyle choices that either support or slow down your progress. These aren’t trendy hacks or extreme routines. They’re the kinds of everyday habits that help your body recover, build muscle, and feel better overall.

You’ll learn:

• Why recovery time is when your muscles actually grow
• How much food and protein you really need to support your training
• The truth about creatine, sleep, stress—and yes, even alcohol
• Why training hard without supporting your body can actually backfire

These are simple, sustainable changes that make a big difference—not just for your training, but for how you feel every day as a woman in midlife.

Enjoy the episode!

Resources mentioned:

• Episode #116: Factors That Impact Your Strength Training Results (Part 1: Things you can & can't control)
• Episode #110: The Right Way to Recover After Strength Training (Rest, Fuel & Tips for Faster Recovery)
• Episode #32: How to get enough protein each day - practical tips for eating more protein
• Episode #63: Tips for Better Quality Sleep in Menopause
• Episode #41: Stress: Why you should NOT ignore it in menopause

Transcript

#117: Factors That Impact Your Strength Training Results (Part 2: Lifestyle Choices that Matter)

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach. And today we are continuing a topic that we started last week, which is about what are the factors that are going to affect the kind of results that you see? And last week we talked about factors that you can't control and also factors that you can control, which are happening in your training session.

So please take a listen to last week's episode. And this week we're gonna be talking about the factors that you can affect that are happening outside of the weight room. And so your results are not just about what you're doing in your training and in fact. There is a lot that you can do to support your training.

[00:01:00] What's kind of cool about it is that those things that support your training, if your goal is to build muscle and get stronger and, and get your whole body healthier. And stronger through weight training and building muscle is that when you start implementing these other habits that support that goal, you start to really notice a change in yourself.

These ones that I'm talking about today are super important for wellbeing in general in midlife, so let's get into it.

So the first thing, and I think the most important topic is recovery. So I know a lot of us, me included, always thought that more is better. More is more. If I do more, if I train harder, if I do more exercises, if I do it [00:02:00] on more days outta the week. It's going to be better. And there are those of us who are even going twice a day to do stuff but when we're talking about building muscle, what's happening is you're stimulating your body during the weight training session by lifting hard and applying progressive overload and going close to failure.

And once you have stimulated, you need to let your body do the work. The magic of muscle growth actually happens after your training session in the 48 ish hours. So the recommendation is to give your muscle group whatever muscle group you've worked 48 hours to recover before you train it again. And for some of us in midlife, it may even take longer than that.

I actually like to take two days off before training the same muscle group. 'cause I do upper body, lower body [00:03:00] on separate days, so I can do upper body and lower body on back-to-back days, but then I'll take a day off and then go back to doing upper body. I just notice that my performance is way, way better.

So you need that recovery. And I actually did an episode recently on factors affecting how quickly you recover so you can go back and take a listen to that one because there that has some nuance in it. But I definitely would not be training the same muscle group back to back. And one of the big problems in a way with doing random workouts that you find online in YouTube or going to the group fitness classes, and even, you know, if you're doing CrossFit is that so many times you will be training the same muscles day in, day out, two days in a row, three days in a row, and you're never giving those muscles a break to actually recover from the work that [00:04:00] you've done. With them. And that's why a structured program, which plans in the breaks is so much more efficient and effective.

It, it was interesting. One of my friends told me, she was chatting with a friend of hers who has started weight training and she said, you know, it's not something that I love to do. But it is the most efficient and effective way of getting to the result that I want, and that's why I do it. I thought, wow, there you go. There was a huge insight and it is really, really true. I, I have spoken to women who are like, oh, yeah, I go to the upper body class, and then I do the booty class, and then I do the, core class and, they're, they're just piling on class after class, after class so that they can hit their whole body when actually if they had a good weight training program they could follow, they could do it in 45 minutes twice a week rather than. You know, [00:05:00] four or five different classes where they're not even able to stimulate their muscles effectively.

So, all right, but recovery time is important for you.

The second factor is you need to be feeding yourself enough food. Those muscles don't grow out of nothing. So if you are in a perma diet, it is going to be really hard for you to build muscle. That's why I really encourage women to rather start strength training while they're in maintenance mode and then go and do the diet after.

Yes. Technically you could do both at the same time. And if you're a newbie, most likely you will build muscle, you'll lose fat at the same time, but it's gonna feel really rough because when you're in a calorie deficit, you're gonna have less energy. You're, you're, you're just, you're depleted [00:06:00] because you body is not getting enough fuel and then you're kind of beating it with the weight training to try to build more muscle.

So. That is maybe not the most friendly to yourself strategy for doing it.

Now I am not saying that you need to bulk. That is a trend that you see on social media that, oh, if you wanna build muscle, you need to be eating in a calorie surplus. That is not the case. And that gets very, very difficult because of what those people do. And these are for people who are competing, right?

And they really wanna get the absolute, most of, most amount of muscle. And that's a whole different strategy from what we're talking about here, which is to get strong, to get our body strong, to put on muscle for health and quality of life reasons here in midlife. So for us, absolutely you can build muscle while you're in maintenance mode.

That's how I [00:07:00] started. I was building muscle. I was losing fat and that worked really, really nicely. And then, yes, after a year and a half I decided, hey, I wanna get rid of this layer of fat so then I had done my fat loss program and in 10 weeks lost 10 pounds of fat. And that's what I teach in my Fat Loss Formula so if you're interested, take a look at that.

And now what you're eating, you need to be getting in enough protein. Muscle is built from something called amino acids, and the way that you get amino acids into your body so that your body can build muscle is through eating protein and. This is something where if you are a vegetarian or a vegan, it is going to be more challenging for you because you need complete proteins.

You need to pay attention to that. And there has been some research recently which is indicated and [00:08:00] you know, I don't like to. Make sweeping statements, but there's been some indication that it is really harder for vegetarians and vegans to build muscle because of this protein requirement, and they're not getting enough leucine, which is the biggest muscle building triggering, amino acid

so the recommendation if you are trying to build muscle is to get one gram per pound of body weight of protein every day. So that's about 2.2 grams per kilo of body weight for those of you in Europe using kilos. And that's not something you're gonna achieve by chance. You are going to need to try to do that.

So for me, I weigh, about 140 pounds, which is around 63 and a half, 64 kilos. And my [00:09:00] protein goal each day is 140 grams of protein. That is a lot of protein to get. But I have a system by which I get that protein in, and I'm going to share that in an upcoming episode. So hit subscribe so you can learn my system for getting in my daily protein requirement.

But it does include having a big shot of whey protein. So protein shake right after my training session. And that is something which has been recommended and studied to physiologically be important for those of us who are in midlife and trying to build muscle. So getting a big shot of protein, about 40 grams of protein after your session, like within a half an hour is. A really supportive thing to do. Okay? So, and that also helps you get to your protein goal because imagine if you've already kind of eaten [00:10:00] 40 grams of protein every afternoon or whenever it is you train, then that only leaves another a hundred grams that you have to get in the rest of the day. So that eases that burden very, very much.

Another thing that you could consider is supplementing with creatine. So this has been shown to help your muscles actually work harder, like gives your muscles energy, and it is a very much studied supplements, so it's not one of these, Hmm, let's get on a trend. It is helpful. I put my creatine into my protein shake every single day and have it after my workout, or if it's a non-training day, then just at some point in the day I'll be like, oh, I'm feeling a little peckish, so I'll have my protein shake now.

And I put my creatine in it the creatine it does. Cause your muscles to absorb more [00:11:00] water. So you may notice a little bit of a weight gain because of water going into your muscles from it, but that's certainly nothing to be alarmed about and it can make you very thirsty. I noticed that. You know, I've had like a half a liter of water in the gym while I'm training, and then I have my, my protein shake, which is another half liter of water. And then I come home and I'm like, oh, drinking, drinking, drinking. So yeah, but luckily it doesn't, I mean, it holds onto the water in your body, so it's not like I'm running to the bathroom all night as a result of that. So, yeah, just a personal story there.

Then the fifth thing I would suggest is really focusing on your sleep, and this is for recovery. Your body recovers as well as your mind during sleep and in midlife. In general, sleep is something that often eludes us, so when you start focusing on getting [00:12:00] good quality sleep, then. Your overall everything, like you'll be, uh, feeling more energized and also you won't overeat because your hunger and satiety hormones will be in better balance, plus your training will feel easier.

All the things. So if you can be getting enough sleep rather than living off of caffeine, that would be a wonderful thing. In fact, I have. Often said that I would not sacrifice my sleep to train. I would get the sleep under control first, and I know that is way more easily said than done, and I have some tips for getting better sleep in an earlier podcast episode, and I'll link that in the show notes.

Number six is stress management. So when your body is stressed, it is actually in a catabolic IE muscle breakdown [00:13:00] mode. So if you are in a state of constant stress, it is not conducive to building muscle Stress is something that we women in midlife need to be thinking about. Because we have lost our estrogen, which has been helping to keep our cortisol levels in check.

We need to be managing our stress because we don't anymore have the estrogen that is helping us to do so. So things like. Deep breathing, a little bit of meditation, cuddling with your dog, cuddling with the guy or girl in your life. All these things to reduce stress are good, good things take a walk in nature.

 Even small habits can really help. I know that walking outside, I mean, I would normally walk on my walk pad, but walking outside makes me feel so good. And lately I've decided that hey, I'm gonna really lower the barrier to taking that walk and I'm just gonna decide [00:14:00] to walk around the block.

That takes me literally 10 minutes to walk around the block. And I tell you in the first three minutes, I'm like. Oh my God, I feel so much better. There's just something magic about walking. It destresses you. So maybe if you're working at home like I do, even though I have the walk pad that I walk on, I'm trying to kind of let go of work at the end of the work day and take a 10 minute walk and kind of recharge. So maybe try that. It's been helping me even though I've only been doing it for a few days. It has felt really good. And now that summer's coming. I'm hoping I can really keep this up. 

And then the last one you're not really gonna like, but alcohol alcohol's never a good thing. And I know I am not a. No alcohol person. I do enjoy my gin and tonics and I like to go out partying and I have a lot of friends who enjoy drinking a lot more [00:15:00] than I do, so, so it's kind of encouraged in my circle of friends. But I do keep in mind that if I go to the gym and then I have a drink, I'm like, okay, I am kind of. Maybe not helping my results from that weight training session. And of course, alcohol is more calories. It interferes with your sleep and all those things. So having many reasons to refrain from that one glass of wine in the evening and maybe have a glass of or a cup of robust tea instead is a good idea.

All right, so to summarize. In order to help your results in your weightlifting, you can adopt some habits outside of the weight room, and these are habits that actually will serve you well as a midlife woman as you start to make these kinds of lifestyle changes. They're simple. [00:16:00] Boring and not sexy, but they really, if you start to do these things, you will notice a big difference in your life. The first is giving yourself enough recovery time, so you don't need to be whipping your body every day into like huge sweat, high cardio, all the rest, at least two recovery days per week. And when we're talking about weight training, leave at least 48 hours between working the same muscles again. Second is make sure you're eating enough. So don't be in a constant state of dieting 'cause that will not help your body build muscle. And it also make your training sessions feel. yuck, because you just wanna have the energy to get through them. Third thing is make sure you're eating enough protein. So planning your meals around protein, getting in that one gram per pound of body weight or 2.2 grams per. Kilogram of body [00:17:00] weight and at least a hundred grams a day would be a great goal to go for. And having that big protein shot right after your training session is important in the half hour after. And that by the way, applies if you've done a HIIT session, cardio session or weight training session. That's a great time to feed your body something so that it can start moving into that rest and recovery and build phase. Creatine supplementation, easy to do. Add it to your protein shake then there are the slightly more difficult ones, which are managing your sleep. So making sure that you're getting seven to eight hours of sleep. That is when your body recovers and builds stress management to get yourself out of that catabolic state, and certainly not having a state of constant stress. So different kinds of ways of managing your stress. And then finally [00:18:00] maybe don't have that daily glass of wine, maybe restricted only to the weekends or special occasions. And I think that's good advice in general. 'cause no amount of alcohol is safe or good or healthy. Um, yeah, so.

With that, I wish you the best results in your weight training, and if you want some help getting started, you know, I have my learn to Lift programs, and if you're a more experienced weightlifter, then I have my monthly memberships where you can train two, three or four days a week at home with just dumbbells or at a commercial gym. Check out the show notes for links to more information and happy training.