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00:26 Welcome back to part two of Simple Strength Training Foundations for Moms. I ended up breaking this up into two episodes because I felt like there was more material, and I didn't want it to be a 45-minute episode.
00:42 I know you guys are listening to me in the car, or while you're on a walk, and so you probably only have 15 to 20 minutes.
00:53 So I wanted to make sure I fit it into that timeframe, because that is how I listen to podcast episodes.
01:01 If you have not listened to part one of this series, I want you to go back and listen to that.
01:07 That is the first part of the four foundations of strength training, and I really want you to get that, because those first two foundations are so critical to you being able to build muscle.
01:23 Once you go do that, go back and listen and join us back here. We're going to talk about the third and fourth foundations today, and these are just as important. They're just important in a different kind of way.
01:37 The third foundation of strength training is protein. Now, I know that I talked a little bit about this two episodes ago, where I talked about simple fat loss foundations for moms.
01:52 If you haven't listened to that, definitely go listen to that one. I talked about protein there, so I'm not going to be heavy on this today. But lifting is how you tell your body to keep your muscle, and protein is what your body actually uses to build the muscle.
02:16 You can do all the progressive overload in the world, but if you are not eating enough protein, your body is going to struggle to build muscle, and it's probably going to struggle in your workouts as well.
02:25 I like to start my clients at about 100 grams of protein a day, if that's reasonable for them.
02:38 And we don't end there usually, but that's usually the starting point. It depends on your starting point, okay? So if you are currently eating 40 grams of protein a day, then maybe hitting 60 is a good first step for you.
02:49 That's why I don't give out cookie-cutter macro plans to all my clients. For the first two weeks that they work with me, they send me pictures of every single thing they eat, so I get a really good understanding of what their current eating habits are like.
03:09 Where do we need to add in protein? What can we switch around? How can we beef up this snack versus that snack? Do you understand? This is why I love a personalized approach to fat loss and muscle building, because it is so individual.
03:26 Depending on where you're starting, I would hit 20 to 30 grams more as a challenge point from wherever you're starting.
03:35 That means that you probably have to know where you're starting. So if you have zero idea how much protein you're getting in, that's a good place to start. Just track your protein. If you need help with this, you can grab my free 100-gram protein cheat sheet. It's a simple resource with pictures to help you find out how you can get 100 grams of protein using whole foods in a day. Go
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grab that. The link is in the show notes.
04:01 So that is our third foundation of strength training.
04:13 The fourth foundation is one that isn't talked about a whole lot, but it is recovery. This surprises a lot of women, because you don't actually build muscle during your workout. Did you know that?
04:25 You're not building muscle. You're actually tearing your muscle down and damaging your muscle during your workout. You build your muscle while you recover.
04:34 Recovery can encompass a lot of different things, but I want you to think about it like this: your workout is like your order at a restaurant. You're at a restaurant, you're going out for dinner, maybe you're going out on a date. I went on a date last week, it was amazing. We don't get a lot of opportunities with five kids, so we went out to eat.
05:05 So I want you to think about your workout as your order. The waiter takes it and brings it to the kitchen, and they stick it on that little spike. It tells your body what needs to be cooked. That's what your workout does, okay? "Hey, here's our order."
05:12 But recovery is when the kitchen, the people that work in the kitchen, actually show up and do the cooking. They're like, "All right, let's build this thing right here."
05:25 If you never give the kitchen time to cook and you just keep throwing orders at it, it gets behind, and it's not efficient, it's not effective. You don't get your food, you wait a really long time, and you get angry. Okay? Just me? No?
05:45 Recovery is so important because it allows your body the time it needs to do the thing that you asked it to do.
05:55 Remember, in the previous episode I talked about how strength training is communicating to your body: "Body, this is hard. We need more." It's that order, okay? Recovery is where the magic happens.
06:04 Recovery includes your sleep, it includes rest days between working the same muscle, it includes eating enough, and getting enough protein, which we talked about.
06:25 That is why three days of lifting can get you better results than five, sometimes.
06:34 I mean, it depends on the situation, but if you're burning yourself out hard five days a week, you're probably not going to get as good results as if you do really intentional exercise three days a week and give yourself those in-between days to recover.
06:48 That's how I like to do it. It is possible to stack your lifting sessions, but I don't like to do that. If I'm working out on two consecutive days, I'm making sure that the part of my body that was working the previous day is not being worked two days in a row. Does that make sense?
07:05 This matters more as you become a more experienced lifter, but it's still an important foundation.
07:17 More is not better if your body never gets the chance to build. This includes, like I said, sleep. A lot of us moms struggle with getting enough sleep, and a lot of that has to do with your nighttime habits. I'm just going to be honest.
07:36 You're tired, you just want to scroll on Instagram or TikTok and veg out. I get that. Do yourself a favor and get off your phone. Get off the screens. Allow your body and your brain time to signal that it is time to rest so that you can fall asleep.
07:55 That does require self-control. It's one of those things that I work on with my clients. A lot of my clients have what I call a lifestyle prescription, where I'm like, "Put your phone to bed, go to bed on time." That's what we're working on, because sleep is that important.
08:15 It impacts your hormones, and it impacts your ability to manage your cravings.
08:24 When you don't sleep, you are much more likely to crave things that you should not be eating if you're trying to lose fat. It also impacts your ability to have self-control around those things.
08:32 How many times did you pull an all-nighter in college and then crave nothing but donuts the next day? That happened to me. That's what happens when we don't get enough sleep.
08:50 So we want to set ourselves up for success by getting the sleep and taking the rest days. Another piece of this is managing your stress levels. That's a lot more complicated than we are going to cover in this one episode, but it is an important piece as well.
09:05 I want to put all this together. The core lifts, like I talked about in part one, are the foundation, the exercises that we're doing.
09:14 Progressive overload is how you make them work for you. It's that order that goes into the restaurant. Protein gives your body what it needs to build the muscle, and recovery is when it actually gets built.
09:24 This week, I want you to pick one lift and write down the weight that you did and how many reps you did. That's it.
09:38 Next week, when you go back to repeat that exercise, you'll know exactly where you started and what you need to beat in order to challenge your muscles. So if you did eight reps, maybe do 10, maybe do 12. Okay, listen to your body, of course, but you want to be constantly challenging yourself.
10:00 If you want help building a plan that works for you, and you're ready to level up and stop just messing around doing things that are ineffective, I would love to support you in that. You can book a free discovery call at effectivefitnessforwomen.com/fatlossformula, or you can tap the link in the show notes.
10:21 I'll talk to you next time on the Effective Weight Loss for Moms podcast.