Lindsay: Welcome, welcome to the Lifting Lindsay podcast.
I'm really excited to talk about muscle today.
How to, get over plateaus or kind of deep dive and figure out what's going on.
Why aren't we seeing the muscle growth that we want to.
So I've got a great show.
If I say so myself planned out, I actually planned out this show.
Do, do you guys know?
Most of the time I just kind of get in, an idea of what I'm gonna talk about and I.
Just talk.
So this one I'm like, do you know, I'm gonna try to stay on point
a little bit more 'cause I tend to ramble on, on about things.
So I'm really sorry.
Let's, let's try to keep it on point, Lindsay.
So I even spent time writing down notes.
I'm really proud of myself.
So let's get to this now.
A quick update on the IVF.
So I am about six and a half weeks pregnant.
In a few days I'll be seven weeks.
And, um, on Friday I am going in for an ultrasound.
Um, really crossing our fingers.
Everything continues to progress really well.
Quick update as far as to how I'm feeling.
I experience nausea almost daily, which is a blessing to me.
I've expressed that to you guys before.
My energy levels are really being impacted.
They are just kind of plummeting.
You know, I have this hard, this fine line where it's like, okay,
we've gotta listen to our body.
It's important to listen to your body, but it's also important that we learn
how to push into the hard, the things that are uncomfortable, the things
that we don't want to do, so that we can see an end result, the end result
that we want to, well, the end result that I want to see is actually not
one of, during this pregnancy, I'm, I.
It's not like I wanna build all this muscle, or I'm gonna keep my six pack,
or I'm gonna be as lean as possible.
Those are off the table for what I want over the next nine months.
So my goal, the end result is one, to grow a healthy baby and to, to
hold the ground that I've gained or.
Better yet said to maintain the habits that I've worked so hard over the past
years to establish those habits have to do with my family, food culture,
or keeping my own habits with food.
Whole foods, nutrient dense, high protein, those things in place.
Um, and then also keeping in place my habits around the gym
and being an active person.
So typically I go to the gym and I lift weights five times a week.
Now during pregnancy, I think it's really important that we're more flexible.
So there are gonna be some weeks where I go.
Four times, three times for me, how I hold ground, how I keep the habits
going is I have minimums and I actually have a whole podcast on my minimums.
Um, and there are some times when I'm going through a hard patch, um, or high
amounts of work, and I have to adjust.
I have to be flexible.
If you can learn how to be flexible, it will bless your life in so many ways.
It's the people who are rigid who won't bend that break.
So learn to be flexible.
Well, me learning to be flexible and trying to be a flexible
person is me having minimum.
So I have minimum amount of protein during this time.
I have minimum amount of, uh, times I go to the gym.
So there will be times when I get there, you know, five days a week.
There are times I'm gonna get there three days a week and my minimum is
three days because that will keep a really good habit still in place.
And sometimes it's funny because, um.
Today, I didn't want to go.
Um, I wasn't feeling excitement to go to the gym, but I did wanna keep the habit.
So I told myself, just get there.
Just get there, keep the habit.
And when I got there, I was so glad that I have like, um, with
my training app, I follow the, like a program that's in there.
And so I was so grateful that I had this program.
Now, I didn't hit.
Like PRS today, guys.
In fact, my weight, like for a lot of my lifts reduced.
But I went in there, I went through the motions just to keep the habit alive.
And you know, throughout this next nine months, that's
gonna be a lot of what I do.
Another thing that I wanna touch on is, um, for those of you who have
been following me for a while, I always get up at five o'clock in the
morning and I have this whole routine.
And, um, people are always like amazed by this routine, but I love it.
I, I love it.
Well, and other people are like, well, that's not, I can't do that.
I'm like, well, of course this routine isn't your routine, it's my routine.
You figure out what your.
Routine is for you, right?
I'm just telling, I'm just sharing what my routine is.
So the routine of waking up at five o'clock in the morning,
and this is what I would do.
I would wake up at five, I would go down to the elliptical that I have.
I wasn't doing hardcore cardio, but I just wanted blood flow.
I just wanted movement.
And so, um.
I would listen to a good book, positive, uplifting, encouraging, energizing book.
And then afterwards, uh, I would do that for 15 to 20 minutes.
And then afterwards I would do a quick 10 minute, um.
Meditation.
Um, I use the app Headspace because I'm not like knowledgeable in meditation.
I just, but I really do like Headspace 'cause it walks you through it.
And I always loved how he would begin the meditations with these
awesome, uplifting, uh, messages.
They were always so uplifting.
I just loved it.
Then afterwards, I'd go into my office and I would, have my time with God is
what I would call it, where I would, I, I journal out my prayers and I love doing
that because then I would actually go back through and I would read my prayers
and I would even write notes on the sides of, oh my goodness, I, I got an answer
to that, and, or, it was just so cool.
I loved it.
So I would do that, uh, with some scripture study and
then I would jump into work.
Now that's actually a pretty long.
Um, like morning routine.
And I could do that if I woke up at five.
Well, I'm not waking up at five o'clock right now.
I can't do that.
I just can't.
So I mean, I could, but then I would be exhausted throughout the day.
I don't want to do that.
I need to show up with health and energy at night and I need good,
almost longer amounts of sleep.
So, and I also do know during pregnancy my sleep can be.
I'm not the best sleep and does it, I don't sleep as deep.
So if I can try to at least sleep longer, that's gonna help
mitigate that a little bit.
But, um, I just can't, I can't wake up the five that I did.
That's okay.
I'm gonna be flexible right now guys.
I'm trying to figure out what my new morning routine is.
My kids get up at seven and we are out the door by eight.
Um, so I don't wanna wake up at seven 'cause I don't like waking up reactive.
I want to be proactive.
So now I'm waking up at six 30.
I'm going down into my office and I'm trying to figure out my new routine, and
I'll let you know, but I'm being flexible and I'm trying new things every day.
I'm like, okay, I'll go down and immediately do journaling.
I'm not liking that I, I still want some good blood flow, what I'm probably gonna
do is I'm gonna move my walking pad from upstairs where I would wake people
up downstairs in my office and I would go and I would start doing walking and
um, have my computer there and just kind of plan out my day.
So I'm gonna be trying new things so that I can still, um, get some good
blood flow and energy and positivity started throughout for the day and
get my time with God before, I start in with my family or maybe I can't do
that and I've gotta be flexible and it's after I drop off my daughter and
go straight to the gym and, and maybe my time with God will actually be
on the way home from the gym, I will have my prayers and, and,
and I've gotta be flexible.
I can't write 'em down anymore, right.
Mental flexibility.
This is the one thing that I feel like people don't, don't understand.
They think it's all or nothing.
I either wake up and I have my two hour, five o'clock morning routine, and if
I can't do it just like Lindsay does, then, then gonna, I can't do anything.
It's like, ah, that's the wrong way to look at it.
Instead of saying, you know, these are my new limitations, these are
like my new schedule, my life.
Instead of saying, looking at those and saying, and because of
those, I can't do these things.
Instead, we need to look at those and say.
So how can I get some minimums to work into this?
And maybe that means I say no to my Netflix at night or no to that 30,
60 minutes of scrolling on Instagram.
And instead of doing that, if I find myself doing that, that's like a,
a reminder, Nope, I'm going to read a positive uplifting book instead.
Find, where am I wasting time?
How can I be a little bit more productive in a way that's gonna really help me out?
So instead of looking for reasons why we can't, we look for reasons how,
despite these things, I can still do this and maybe it's gonna look
a little bit different during the season in life, and that's just fine.
Okay, so with that all being said, now let's dive into what do you
do if, if a muscle isn't growing?
What do you do?
I think it's really important to understand that there's three
aspects to seeing muscle growth.
One is training, the other is nutrition, and then the third is recovery.
So training, nutrition, recovery equals muscle growth.
So if we're not seeing the muscle growth that we want to.
It's more than likely because of one or more of those three things.
Now let's just before we dive into this, ask the question, who cares?
Like, why should anybody care about muscle growth?
Well, some people have the aesthetic goals, um, that they want to get
a certain look, and that's fine.
That's.
Sometimes people are like, well, their, their why isn't as good as mine.
Or sometimes we think we have to downplay our why.
Well, I can't tell people it's because of aesthetics, because
then they're gonna think that I'm superficial and, and so I'll say, my
why is because of this when maybe.
It is a little bit, but maybe it's just mainly, I wanna look
good naked, and that's okay.
That really is fine.
And sometimes those why's are the most powerful to get you started and then
pretty soon as you get started and start moving down the path, your why changes.
Now.
My why, when I first started out, it was exactly that.
Like I was feeling uncomfortable in my skin.
Um.
I, I liked myself.
I loved myself.
It wasn't that like I hate myself be so I've got to, no.
It was just like, I want something more for myself.
I feel uncomfortable.
I don't like this.
I I remember my husband's why he said it was, um, 'cause he is a
web developer, so he sits and he'll work for eight to 12 hours a day.
Just sitting the whole time.
And then he also was like addicted to caffeine and all sorts of like things.
And um, he would just sit there and drink Mountain Dews and I mean, not lift.
And he was just put it on the pounds.
And he said his, his initial why was actually, this is so heartbreaking to me.
It was, um, I wanna be able to tie my shoe laces
without feeling like it was like a, a huge chore.
He said he was really embarrassed when he hit that, where it's like,
I can barely tie my shoe laces.
Um, I can barely put my shoes on, because he would pack so much around his waist.
And we all have these different whys.
Maybe it's, we're uncomfortable, maybe, um, it's because we just,
well, I just wanna look better.
I wanna feel better.
And then that we dive into it.
And then as we move forward, and we love the gym and we love
figuring out food, and we love this.
It's so much fun and all.
And then we kind of notice that over time our wis begin to change.
Maybe as we age or maybe as we're watching our mothers and
grandmothers and sisters and friends.
And we're realizing I don't wanna age like that.
I, I wanna feel we're all, all these women, we're all going through menopause.
And, um, there are some things that we can do to help make it easier.
Um, one of them is more muscle tissue actually, and, being able to, lift,
walk and keep our stress levels down.
There's all these little things that can help us mentally and physically
keep that cortisol down and, help us sleep better and manage the
stresses and all of these things.
So it's like that's actually kind of, maybe what I'm moving into now is
that's actually a more appealing why to me now, then, so that's actually
getting bigger than the aesthetics.
Everybody's why changes and who cares what somebody else's why is,
honestly, as long as they're just like moving and being healthy.
Like we want this for people, right?
So we all have a different why.
So that's why muscle growth is important though, just kind of what I was
talking about with just general aging
two is we wanna feel our best.
We want to feel strong and capable and get confidence and feel better, and be able to
move easier as we move forward with life.
To be able to meet the demands of being a mother or working, and
that those are huge why's too.
So now let's dive into what I said about the, there's these three important
keys, foundations of building muscle.
Training has to be on point, nutrition has to be on point and recovery.
All three of those lead to muscle growth.
So first and foremost, let's talk about training.
First, we have to make sure we have a good program where we are
tracking our weights and progressing.
So a lot of times people will go into the gym.
They don't necessarily have a plan or anything that they're following, or
they're not tracking their exercises and seeing whether they're progressing or not.
So maybe somebody has just, I've always grabbed 12 pound dumbbells for for bicep
curls, so I'm just gonna keep doing it.
And over five years they're like, how come I'm not building muscle?
How come my body hasn't changed?
Well, are you tracking your exercises and seeing that over
time they are progressing, whether that's, in intensity, in weight,
are you adding more sets or reps?
So volume sometimes may need to increase if we want to see more muscle growth.
And we'll talk a little bit more about that later.
But, but having some type of program, um, there are so many.
Apps now.
Um, there are so many people who write their own programs and I love
seeing people, um, with, you know, tracking on their phones or tracking
on paper to make sure that, okay, I, I'm doing a little bit more work
to today than I did the last time.
If you are not doing that.
That seriously is like playing darts with a blindfold on.
You have, you're just guessing.
You have no clue.
So get a good program and start tracking your lifts.
And that's, I, I'm doing a shameless plug right now.
That's one of the, actually my favorite parts about, um, my training
app is that I can see, click on it.
What did I do last week?
I did this many reps, this was the weight.
Okay, can I do that weight, but maybe add in one more rep this
week, or can I squeeze out another half a pound or pound on that?
And so I love being able to see what I did last time and then look over the
training program in general and say, okay.
Maybe from week to week, the weight's not gonna go up.
But over the course of this training program, I have progressed
in these different ways, and that is really important.
The second one is you've gotta make sure that your training intensity is high.
Okay?
More muscle growth comes as we actually work closer to failure.
So, three to zero from failure reps from failure.
Okay.
And here's the thing, if you're never going to failure, then you don't
actually know where failure is, right?
So I usually take only, only the last rep, or excuse me, set.
I only take the last set.
An exercise that I really want to see progressions in to failure.
So we're not taking every single set to failure, but I am keeping an eye on where
is failure, because if I'm progressing, then failure should be changing as well.
So this is another thing that kind of bleeds into the like, are you tracking?
Are you seeing that over time?
Are you grabbing the same exact weights over years and not somehow
modifying or making it more difficult?
So that's really important.
We've got to sit closer to failure in our working sets.
That is going to produce a little bit more hypertrophy is what the
studies are showing, so you don't have to have every set to failure.
In fact, sometimes that can create too much fatigue and
it can impact your recovery, especially when volume is higher.
So if volume is really low and you're, you know, doing 10 sets a week, then you
could potentially take more of those to failure without it hurting your recovery.
If you enjoy higher volume, because you're not seeing as much progressions
with the lower volume, then more of those will have to be, well, I should
say less of them will be to failure.
So just take one of those to failure then the higher the volume, and let's
actually talk a little bit about volume.
So typically what we've seen in the literature is that 10 to 20 sets is
ample enough sets for somebody to grow.
So 10 to 20 sets a week.
Now, if you have a stubborn muscle you feel like is a stubborn muscle
that's not growing, then maybe we need to actually push the volume higher.
So let's say for example, you really wanna see glutes grow.
You've been working in a 15 to 20.
Set a week range and you feel like they're just not growing and it's been months.
You can push that up to maybe 20 to 25 sets and see how it goes.
Now, whenever I suggest this, people freak out.
No, you can't do that.
It has to lie within, you know, 10 to 20 sets.
And if you do that, then it's just junk volume and it's gonna hurt you
and it's gonna blah, blah, blah.
Guys, I did not grow my delts and over the past two years, my
glutes sitting at 10 to 15 sets.
So number one, I, I've tested this on myself, on other people.
What is the research saying though?
What do the studies say?
So we actually have a few studies where they have taken and pushed
people's volume of work higher than the 20 and, and guess what?
They didn't see a reduction of muscle.
They did see an increase.
Now, these were not, per se, full body programs.
They usually were just like, okay, we're gonna have them do.
32 sets of squats per week, and let's see what that does, you
know, in comparison to lower.
In comparison to between the 10 to to to 20, or we're gonna have
them take, uh, triceps, they'll do 27 sets, and then this, this other
one will have them do quads for 55.
So as you can see, what they're doing is they usually, this is called a
specialty program or an emphasis program.
So we're usually biasing one muscle group.
Not all muscle groups.
People freaked out about that.
Like 55 or 53.
I can't remember exactly now the, the sets that study, um,
and they freaked out about that.
But, but keep in mind it wasn't full body.
I.
It was just the quads, and what they noticed was those that were
training at higher volume were able to squeeze out a little bit more.
Now, I'm not encouraging people to do 50, 35 or 32 sets or anything like that.
I'm just saying, hey, if you've hit a plateau and you've been
staying at like 15 to 20 sets for that muscle, maybe it's time to.
Maybe spread out the work that you're doing on that muscle over three
days and do higher volume so that you can get between 20 to 25 sets.
And I like spreading it out over more days because we don't
wanna do like 10 or 12 sets.
On one muscle group in one sitting, because oftentimes what happens
is the intensity levels drop dramatically after, like anywhere
between, six to eight hard sets.
They'll drop dramatically.
So you can't keep the, the quality of work goes down.
And that's kind of where we get into, well, it's kinda a little
bit more like junk volume at that point because we're not really
getting a lot of stimulus out of it.
So maybe we break it down into a few days, do you know, the seven to eight
sets and, over like three days, and then we're pushing above and sitting more
of 20 to 25 sets during the program.
So that's all I'm saying is if you are not seeing the muscle growth that you want
to then try increasing the volume a little bit and see how well your body responds.
Because from the body of studies that we have on pushing past the 20
step mark, we actually are seeing that people are able to squeeze out
more and get more muscle growth.
So you kind of at this point need to be like, okay.
Do I just error on the side of low volume?
I can decrease my amount of time in the gym and just accept
and be okay with 80% growth.
Or do I really, really, really wanna push myself and see how much more can I grow?
And so maybe sacrifice a little bit longer in the gym for
more, potentially more muscle growth.
The a hundred percent versus the 80, that's kinda what you
just kinda have to sit down and figure out for yourself really.
Because once again, as much as we'd like, I would love it if the
studies were like, no, no, no.
Anything past 20 man that is detrimental to muscle growth.
I would love it because it would be amazing to be like, Hey guys.
30 minutes in the gym doing, eight sets a week on each muscle division
you can, you can maximize your growth.
I would love that.
Wouldn't that be amazing?
I would sell so many, you know, workout plans, but the, um, the nuance of it is.
Is what we have to think about.
So are you willing, are you capable, uh, to put in a little bit more
time to see if you can optimize and get a little bit more gains?
Now, for some people, that just wouldn't be worth it.
They can't do that.
Okay, well if you can't do that, then you've got to be okay with a
little bit slower growth and let's look at some of these other aspects
and make sure that we are maximizing, optimizing these other points.
So the other one that I said was nutrition, right?
Are you trying to maximize muscle growth?
Well being in a 25 calorie, 25% calorie deficit.
Okay.
So yeah, that's not gonna work.
So the further you step into a calorie deficit and the further you step away
from maintenance, you are slowing down the muscle building process, so you
want to make sure you are at a higher maintenance or even a slight calorie
surplus, especially on lifting days.
Maybe just on lifting days, you're in a two 50 calorie surplus
and see how well that works.
That's one thing that could really be holding you back is energy availability.
You don't have the supply to to build muscle.
A lot of times people are like, go to the gym to build muscle.
You don't build muscle in the gym.
You can stimulate the muscle, but nutrition and recovery, if they
are not on point, you won't build.
So sometimes people don't even change anything that they're doing in the gym.
They just get their recovery on point and their nutrition and all of
a sudden they start gaining muscle.
So maybe that's you.
Maybe what you're doing in the gym already is perfect for you, but you're
not eating enough because maybe you're like, oh, I can't lose my six pack.
I want to keep my six pack and maximize muscle growth for women.
I don't believe that that's necessarily possible for 99 point.
2%.
I don't know why I chose two.
It seemed seemed like a good number.
That was a completely made up percentage, by the way.
So don't quote me on that one.
But I do actually believe for majority of women that that's going to be an
impossible feat to maximize muscle growth while keeping a six pack.
So that's something you may have to give up is how lean you are to get
the muscle that you want so that you can get the look that you really want.
But a lot of times we have a problem of we give up our future
self because ourself right now, we can't see past the self of today.
And it actually is blinding us and stopping us from progressing.
I can't give up that six pack today.
Well then good luck getting the body that you want tomorrow or the next day.
Or the next day, or the next day, right?
You're don't allow yourself and your desires of today to hold
you back from getting the real overarching desires that you want.
Let's end with talking about sleep and recovery, because sleep is pretty crucial.
So your body produces hormones crucial for muscle growth and repair when you sleep.
So this hormone helps rebuild damaged muscle tissue and stimulates the
production of new muscle fibers.
If you're not getting enough sleep, your muscle won't have the opportunity
to recover correctly, and this is definitely going to limit your growth.
It's not only that getting enough sleep helps muscle grow.
It's actually without adequate sleep, muscle mass can even decrease.
So there was a study in 2011 that examined how sleep deprivation
affected muscle gains and recovery.
People are always shocked when they hear the the sleep deprive deprived number.
One group, the sleep deprived group was allowed 5.5 hours of sleep.
Some people are like, oh, I get six hours.
I'm fine.
Try getting seven or eight.
There's a huge difference between six and seven or eight.
So a lot of times people will be like, I'm not sleep deprived.
I'm fine.
But it's like that's because you're just used to feeling like.
this like the sleep deprivation.
You're used to not having energy.
You could have so much more.
You're just used to it and used to, it doesn't make it right.
So back to this study, the other group with allowed eight and a half
hours per day and then all individuals followed a calorie regulated diet.
What research discovered was that the individuals who slept only 5.5 hours
had 60% less muscle mass at the end of the study, while those who slept
8.5 hours had 40% more muscle mass.
So doing whatever you can within your schedule, your reality, what
life is to you, doing whatever you can to get more sleep could actually
be the very thing that helps you put on the muscle that you want to.
So keep in mind this all comes down to training, nutrition, recovery.
So now the important thing is just for you to sit and do a deep dive with
yourself and be honest with yourself about what am I doing in the gym?
Do I have a good program?
Am I tracking my lifts?
Am I working hard enough with intensity?
Am I training close to failure?
Do I need to increase my volume?
Or I forgot to mention this one, should I try to decrease my volume?
I.
It is not uncommon at all for women who are overly hyped about building a certain
area to be hitting 30 plus sets a week.
Especially.
I see that a lot with glutes, and so if you're doing that and if you're not
seeing any benefits and nutrition recovery is on point, then try pulling back.
Try pulling back to 15 to 20.
See how that affects your training.
See how, if you feel stronger, if you're able to actually increase
intensity levels, doing so now you might not get as much of a pump because
there will be a reduction in in that
pumped up feeling, but there are a lot of women who they go into the gym,
they do 30 plus sets on their glutes.
They get this pump, and then two days later when the pump
goes away, they're like.
Better go to the gym again to build muscle.
They go there, they get the pump again, and then the reduction happens again.
Right?
So the pump is, pretty much a pooling of nutrients and blood to a certain
muscle and it can give it a bigger look.
Your skin will feel a lot tighter.
It will look like somebody has more muscle.
Unfortunately, the pump goes away, so we don't wanna always
be doing pump work, right?
So if you have that, if you're seeing that, that while I'm always doing 30 plus
sets, maybe it's time for you to actually.
Spring, the sets lower, 15 to 20 maybe your issue is actually your body will
respond better to lower volume than higher because a lot of times with
these studies we see bell curves, some people respond to higher volume
better.
Some people respond to lower volume better, and it could also be that
somebody is, adapted to higher volume and maybe they need to switch it up
and do lower volume and maybe their intensity levels will be a little
bit higher and they can learn to.
Work closer to failure.
Um, better at those lower volumes.
So just some food for thought.
I really hope that that was helpful.
You guys.
I love you.
I appreciate each one of you.
You have a wonderful week.