Latest / The Body Recomposition Revolution | Fat Loss and Strength for Women 35+ / Strength Training for Women: Will Lifting Make You Bulky? NO! Here’s Why

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Strength Training for Women: Will Lifting Make You Bulky? NO! Here’s Why · The Body Recomposition Revolution | Fat Loss and Strength for Women 35+

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  This is the body recomposition revolution.
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  I am a former personal trainer and educator for over a decade
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  who is obsessed with teaching women 35 plus how to finally
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  drop fat and completely reshape their bodies through science
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  backed nutrition and training protocols optimized to meet your
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  body's changing hormones. Classes in session Welcome back
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  ladies to the body Recomposition revolution.
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  This is episode 3. Today we are addressing one of
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  the most common misconceptions women and people in general have
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  about lifting. Can you guess what it is?
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  You guessed it, because I know you're thinking it.
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  It is that lifting will make you big and bulbous and masculine or
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  bulky or whatever. And I hear that the phrase if I
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  had a nickel would really make me a rich woman if I had a
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  nickel every time I heard somebody go on about not wanting
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  to be bulky. So today we're going to debunk
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  that. And if you have tuned in before,
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  you know, I like to start my episodes with a learner
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  objective. What are we covering today?
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  What will you learn by the end of this episode?
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  As I would say in my classroom listening years on, today's
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  learning objective is by the end of this episode, you will be
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  able to explain why lifting weights helps women 35 plus, but
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  everybody burn fat, build muscle, visible muscle and
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  boosts your metabolism. So again, by the end of this
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  episode, you will be able to explain why lifting weights
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  helps women burn fat, build muscle that you can see, and
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  boost your metabolism. And at the end, I'm going to ask
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  you this question. Why is strength training more
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  effective than cardio alone for body recomposition after age 35?
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  You're listening for why strength training is more
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  effective than cardio for body recomp after 35.
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  That means why it's more effective for dropping fat,
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  gaining muscle. Let's start right off the bat by
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  debunking the myth, the misconception, the all too
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  common narrative that lifting heavy weights will make a woman
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  bulky. If you are tuned in, I'm going
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  to assume you're a woman, but if not, keep listening.
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  This applies to everybody. I'm going to assume you are a
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  woman. You are a woman that is looking
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  to drop fat. You would love to have that
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  lean, muscular physique. Some of you would love to have
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  kind of a small dancer body, and then others would love to be on
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  the other end of the spectrum and they love the bodybuilding
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  physique. They love that quote, bulky
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  look. And most of you fall somewhere
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  in between. I am right in the middle.
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  Sometimes I'm more towards the left and I like to be smaller
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  and sometimes I'm more towards the right.
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  And the great thing about that is it's all up to you.
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  You can change your body composition, your aesthetic
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  whenever the heck you want to. And what is awesome and what
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  most people don't understand is that whether you want to be a
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  tiny little muscular thing or on the other end of the spectrum, a
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  a little bit bigger, a little bit more defined, rounded
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  shoulders. If you're on the far right,
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  either way, you are going to have to lift weights and drop
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  fat to build your lean muscle and get that physique either
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  way. And that right there is the cusp
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  of it. That is what I hear from women
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  over and over again. They are always saying the
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  phrase, well, I just want to be small.
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  I just, I just want to be tiny. Got it.
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  Great. You still have to lift weights
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  because what you're saying is you want less body fat and in
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  order to drop your body fat and to keep it off, you have to have
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  more lean muscle. You have to.
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  There's no in between. Well, there actually is.
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  It's called skinny fat. So if you are not lifting and
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  you're starving yourself, you end up with that small but
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  flabby, malnourished, unathletic.
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  It's not a good look. That's not what we're shooting
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  for on this podcast at all. That's what you end up with.
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  And then newsflash, you can't maintain it.
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  You end up gaining all that weight you ran off every day of
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  the week plus more because you damaged your metabolism and the
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  first thing to go was your lean muscle, which is what boosts
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  your metabolism. Now I want to be very open and
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  very clear that learning the difference between skinny fat
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  and having a lean, strong physique was not just a switch
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  that turned on for me one day. It really wasn't.
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  It was a gradual realization that took me years to fully
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  grasp. I have had so many points in my
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  life where I have been continuously lifting, staying on
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  point with my nutrition and getting enough protein.
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  And then somewhere along the line I either had a kid or fell
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  off the wagon nutritionally. And my instinct, my brain's
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  natural response to how am I going to get this weight off is
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  always. Always has been, always will be.
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  It is always to eat way less than I need and start running.
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  I became a certified personal trainer in college.
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  I understand the science, but it is so innately ingrained into
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  who I am as a woman and the messages that were sent to me as
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  a child. The messages that are still
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  peddled to young girls every single day.
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  But it is getting better that you need to eat less, take up
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  less space, do more, be tiny, do an hour of cardio every single
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  day until you are a skinny fat size 0.
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  So I'm sure while all of you have heard you need to lift to
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  look the way you want to look, you probably are like me and
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  every other woman who falls into that continuous cycle, the same
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  cycle of falling off the invisible wagon that doesn't
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  actually exist or, you know, just kind of falling out of your
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  routine. You, you put on some weight,
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  whatever. You fall into that cycle of
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  crash dieting, picking up a rampant running habits, losing
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  all that weight, but then gaining it back and reevaluating
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  all your life choices, throwing yourself into endless research
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  and how to get that look. But as I know, you know, just
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  like I knew all those times I've done this cycle, I know you know
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  all roads lead back to lifting weights and getting enough
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  protein. I know it stinks, it feels off.
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  It's but it's truth. It's science.
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  If you have tuned into me before, you may have heard me
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  talk about my exercise and nutritional training protocols
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  for women and how I base my philosophy around Doctor Stacey
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  Sims. She's an exercise physiologist,
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  she specializes in Women's Health from 35 and beyond, and
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  she bases all of her protocols off of research done on subjects
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  who are actually women because, believe it or not, all the
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  widely known published, distributed and implemented from
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  very credible sources. A lot of that is done on men who
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  are obese or men who are overweight because the
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  scientists assumed that their body composition would respond
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  to training the same way a woman's would.
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  That is above the age of 35. False.
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  What Doctor Stacey Sims has found, and many other people who
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  are up to date with their research is that that women are
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  not men. Women do not respond to exercise
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  and nutrition the same way men do.
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  And while we are closely aligned in our bodies responses
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  throughout our entire lives, once you hit 35 and beyond, it's
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  not the same. It's not the same and you need
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  to train and eat a little differently.
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  Not super differently. But those tiny tweaks, the tiny
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  tweaks that I implemented into my own training and nutritional
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  protocols made all the difference.
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  And now here I am, I'm 37. I am the leanest I've ever been.
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  I am the strongest I've ever been.
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  I am also the smallest in terms of pants and dress sizes than
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  I've ever been, that I've ever been.
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  And that's because I finally started following the science
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  instead of what I thought would work.
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  I hired a professional, I did my own research, and then I started
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  this company to help women just like you do the same thing.
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  And I want to drop a little factoid on you, one that stands
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  out in my mind. I always think about it.
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  It's from Doctor Stacey Sims, and she stated that we lose .1%
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  of our entire body's lean muscle mass every single year after age
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  35. That is when you start
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  experiencing muscle loss and a metabolic decline.
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  OK, 35 years old is when your body will naturally shed a
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  little bit of muscle every year and your metabolism will in turn
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  go down. So no, it's not in your head.
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  You are getting bigger and you are getting, I don't know what
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  other word to use then a little bit flabbier I guess, because
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  that's what I was experiencing. I was losing muscle.
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  I mean, I I wasn't losing it so much because I was lifting
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  weights, but I definitely wasn't putting it on to the same degree
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  I was previously before I got into my mid 30s as doctor.
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  Stacey Sims, the boss, says women need strength for life.
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  We need it to support our hormonal changes and we need it
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  for our overall health. It is imperative to have muscle
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  to strength train. Now, I love all of my clients,
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  all for different reasons, but I do see commonalities.
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  I see commonalities in their mindsets about lifting weights
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  and the comfort level of lifting weights in a gym versus at home.
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  And I think it is interesting. I found this research paper kind
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  of talking about the history of women and weightlifting, and it
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  talks about the evolution of women's resistance training all
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  the way. It dates back all the way to the
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  1900s. No, I don't want to nerd out on
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  you. I'll try to keep this brief, but
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  I just thought it was so cool to see.
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  Where does this mindset come from?
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  Why are we so afraid of looking bulky, and why are we so afraid
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  of lifting weights? Why do we feel all these
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  feelings? Well, because of societal norms
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  that have honestly been imposed on us since the 1900s.
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  Very briefly here. 1900s women were limited to light exercise
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  because of the societal norms. During the 1950s and 60s we made
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  slight progress with aerobics and calisthetics.
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  Strength training pretty much remained a man thing.
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  Then the 1970s and 80s came rolling around and the fitness
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  boom started. Aerobics icons like Jane Fonda,
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  all those people. But strength training at this
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  point, it's still seen as a male pursuit.
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  It is on the sidelines to women. And now we're in the 80s,
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  nineteen 80s here. Shape magazine came out and I'm
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  dating myself. But Shape magazine was right up
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  there next to Oxygen magazine with my idol Jamie Eason.
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  Shape magazine started encouraging women to embrace
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  that strong toned physique. This is right when society
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  started being OK with women having kind of a muscular bod, a
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  muscular look. Now we're in 1990s to 2000s.
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  This is when all the inclusive gyms started, the mainstream
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  gyms, They had environments where women could comfortably
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  engage in resistance training right alongside men.
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  Woo. And now here we are in the 21st
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  century and we are all about strong is beautiful.
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  This movement is huge. You can feel it.
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  You can see it on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, wherever.
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  Finally, women are embracing it now because this shift of
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  encouraging women to be on the wait floor exists now, and we
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  are embracing it now. The data for women over the age
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  of 45 is so limited. There's so limited.
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  And the data that we do have, as I stated earlier, a lot of it
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  revolves around men. And that infuriates me, but it
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  also makes me so passionate about educating women in general
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  on how to treat their bodies so they can have longevity, they
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  can have health, they can have Wellness.
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  They can be the strongest versions of themselves that they
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  don't even know exist. And when you are the strongest
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  version of yourself, when you are happy putting on your
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  clothes in the morning, you are the best wife, you're the best
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  mom, you're the best friend, you're the best sister, you're
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  the best coworker, you're the best neighbor.
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  You're the best you you can be when you commit to making the
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  changes in your life that you need to make in order to be
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  stronger, in order to be healthier, in order to like what
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  you see when you look in the mirror, in order to step out of
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  your sweatpants and maybe once in a while, put on some jeans
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  and feel good about it. It's possible, I promise you.
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  And now we're going to move on to the science behind heavy
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  lifting. Why does lifting heavy?
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  And that's a subjective statement, but why does lifting
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  weights matter? How does it benefit women over
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  35? When you lift weights, that is
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  stimulating neuromuscular adaptations that leads to
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  increased strength and muscle mass.
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  The more muscle mass you have, the higher your metabolism is.
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  It is vital for metabolic health.
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  And as I stated in the beginning of the episode, after age 35,
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  you're losing .1% of your muscle every single year from this
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  point on. So if you are not strength
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  training to combat that natural our body's response to shed
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  muscle naturally, if you're not combating that with lifting
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  weights, lifting weights that are going to be heavy enough to
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  stimulate that neuromuscular adaptation, then that muscle you
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  had is going away. OK.
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  And the muscle you think you're getting from lifting those tiny
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  little 5 LB weights around in your aerobics class or your
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  whatever class, that isn't going to do anything.
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  That's why a lot of you who are in those classes that they toss
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  around £510.00 with, that's not focused enough to actually
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  stimulate neuromuscular adaptations, That's not focused
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  enough to give you real strength.
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  You have to be intentional about splitting your lifting sessions
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  to designate muscle groups where you are honing in on really
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  challenging yourself. So I want to wrap up today's
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  episode with some facts and some facts that I hope will just
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  drive home the objective of understanding why lifting heavy
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  is not going to make you bulky in any capacity that is more
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  geared towards your nutrition and how much you're eating.
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  OK. Lifting weights is just going to
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  increase your lean muscle mass. You don't have enough
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  testosterone to look the way you're envisioning when I say
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  the word bulky. Let's start at the metabolic
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  rate. So lifting heavy increases
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  resting metabolic rate, which means you burn more calories
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  just living your life. Strength training increases your
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  resting metabolic rate by about 7 1/2%.
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  That's big. So if you are strength training
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  consistently, know that your metabolism is going up over 7%.
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  Just by living your life sitting there on the couch doing
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  absolutely nothing. Your metabolism is higher.
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  You can eat more food. After the age of 35, hormonal
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  changes make muscle building more important than ever.
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  So after 35, your estrogen goes down.
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  And when your estrogen goes down, so does your muscle mass
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  and function #3 And I'm going to pray tattoo this on my forehead.
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  You can't tone what isn't there. So when you say I want to look
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  toned, what do you have to tone? You don't have any muscle.
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  What are we going to do? Tone your bones?
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  That doesn't make sense. You cannot tone what is not
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  there. You have to have some muscle
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  there to look toned. Muscle is what gives your body
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  shape. This one kind of coincides with
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  the metabolic rate, but building muscle equates to burning fat
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  even when you're not working out.
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  Muscle tissue burns more calories at rest compared to fat
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  tissue, which helps you drop fat doing nothing again just because
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  you have more of a solid base. Another factoid about why
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  lifting heavy will not make you bulky, but it will in fact do
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  the opposite. It reduces your belly fat more
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  effectively than cardio alone. Yes, you heard me, daily weight
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  training is way more effective than aerobic exercise at getting
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  rid of that belly fat. The belly fat I hear everybody
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  complain about, including myself.
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  And the reason that is, is because when you are lifting
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  heavy, that builds lean muscle, which increases your resting
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  metabolism and it helps your body burn fat even more when
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  you're just living your life. Now, here's another little myth
• 17:15
  Buster for you. As you get older, your
• 17:17
  metabolism is not slowing down. It's not slowing down.
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  What's happening is your body is slowly releasing that lean
• 17:26
  muscle mass after age 35 because of hormone fluctuations.
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  Your estrogen, your progesterone, that's hard for me
• 17:34
  to say, and your growth hormone, all of those begin to gradually
• 17:38
  decline after age 35. And that does three things.
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  That reduces your muscle mass, which lowers your metabolic
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  rate, that increases your insulin resistance, which makes
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  it easier to store fat, especially around the stomach
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  area, and it leads to more inflammation and cortisol
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  dysregulation. And I I battle that.
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  I battled that. I am still battling it actively,
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  but I combat it intentionally by lifting heavy, by lifting heavy,
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  and by doing my high intensity interval training instead of all
• 18:13
  of that steady state cardio. So as your estrogen levels
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  decline, that decline impacts your strength.
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  Lifting helps offset that loss in strength.
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  Now I could go on and on about the benefits of lifting and how
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  important it is for anybody, even outside of aestheticals for
• 18:34
  health, longevity, your insulin sensitivity.
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  I could go on. But I want to address the
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  overarching point, the objective of this lesson.
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  Now if you were tuned in with your listening years on, you
• 18:46
  will be able to answer this question.
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  Why is strength training more effective than cardio alone for
• 18:54
  body recomposition after 35? And what that means is that
• 18:58
  strength training is better for dropping fat than cardio.
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  Why is that? Short pause?
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  And the answer is because it builds muscle, which increases
• 19:10
  your metabolism, it improves your insulin sensitivity, it
• 19:14
  balances your hormones, and it burns more fat, especially
• 19:19
  around the belly, than cardio does.
• 19:21
  Facts, and I also really want to impress this upon you before the
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  end of this episode. And that is lifting heavy is
• 19:29
  important for both aesthetic ends of the spectrum.
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  If having a little toned tiny dancer esque body is your thing,
• 19:39
  great. You have to lift.
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  If having a stronger, more athletic presence, maybe a bit
• 19:46
  heavier really developed muscles is your thing, great.
• 19:50
  You still have to lift heavy for both looks for both the toned
• 19:55
  lean look. Heavy lifting builds dense
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  muscle without size, it tightens up your body, it burns fat, and
• 20:01
  it gives you that fit but petite shape.
• 20:04
  And for the more muscular physique, heavy lifting is still
• 20:08
  the foundation, just combined with more food.
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  OK, more food, more recovery to support the muscle muscle
• 20:15
  growth. Either way, lifting heavy.
• 20:17
  Improves your muscle quality, your metabolic rate, and your
• 20:20
  body's definition. That toned look on both ends.
• 20:24
  The only variable here that is to be considered is the amount
• 20:28
  of food you're consuming. Right now I'm in a deficit I'm
• 20:32
  cutting down. I kind of want to look a little
• 20:33
  more lean this summer, so I'm eating less food now.
• 20:38
  During the winter, I upped my calories.
• 20:40
  I focus on muscle growth For a while.
• 20:42
  My shoulders were a bit more developed than I liked, so I cut
• 20:45
  back. I cut back on lifting shoulders
• 20:47
  for a bit. You, it's fun.
• 20:49
  There are a lot of moving pieces that are all up to you.
• 20:52
  Shape your body, make it look the way you want.
• 20:54
  You have control here, nobody else.
• 20:57
  You. Now, if you're interested in
• 20:59
  beginning a strength training regimen, you can click on my
• 21:03
  Instagram link in the bio. You can visit my website, which
• 21:05
  is also in the show notes. I have an app.
• 21:08
  I do programming for women of any age, but I specialize for
• 21:12
  women above the age of 35. But if you would like just a
• 21:16
  free printable that will show you a few lifts you can begin
• 21:20
  doing at home, I'm going to include that in the show notes
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  as well because my mission is to help women understand how
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  attainable those physiques that you dream of are.
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  So in the show notes, I'm going to put a free workout log with
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  some foundational lifts you can begin doing at home with just
• 21:38
  your body and some dumbbells. That's all I have for you
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  ladies. Thank you for tuning in to
• 21:43
  another episode of The Body Recomposition Revolution.