June 24, 2024 • 41 mins
In this episode, Kelly and Tiffany dive into the importance of muscle mass for women's health. From boosting metabolism to improving hormone health, they cover how women can get started with weightlifting and the benefits of building muscle at different phases of their cycle. Listen in to hear their personal journeys, tips on maximizing workouts, and how to incorporate protein effectively.
00:00 Introduction
00:49 Why Muscle Mass Matters
01:16 Personal Backgrounds and Experiences
02:20 Metabolic Health and Muscle Mass
04:17 Listener Reviews and Community Engagement
06:34 Role of Protein in Muscle Building
06:41 Fullscript Muscle Building Protocol
08:10 Balancing Muscle and Cardio
14:39 Practical Tips for Building Muscle
22:42 The Concept of Hypertrophy
31:59 Cycle Syncing for Muscle Growth
41:01 Conclusion and Upcoming Episodes
Links to all the extra good stuff:
Muscle Building Protocol: HERE
Protein Snack Ideas: HERE
Membership Wait List: HERE
Childbirth Education Wait List: HERE
Join our email community: HERE
Submit your answer-on-the-show questions: HERE
Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to catch every episode. Follow us on Instagram for extra education and antics between episodes at: @beautifulonemidwifery
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to At Home with Kellyand Tiffany, where naturally
minded women gather together aswe pursue simplicity and
confidence in healthalternatives, so we can show up
better in our busy lives andfeel more at home in our bodies.
Join your favorite home birthmidwife duo for conversation,
candor, and community.
You're at home with Kelly andsymphony.
(00:21):
My name is Kelly Pappas.
And my name is Tiffany Oblinger.
We are two licensed midwivesfrom sunny San Diego who run a
private home birth.
Practice who also love recordingpodcasts and dancing on the
internet on reels and.
(00:42):
Sharing information aboutwomen's health in general.
And that sums it up.
That is that's who we are andwhat we do.
So why on earth are we talkingabout muscle mass today?
Let's do it.
Nothing you just said.
Has anything to do?
Muscle mass.
But you ladies will beincredibly surprised that it
actually really does.
It potentially may blow yourmind how important muscle mass
(01:04):
is to lady.
Life and flourishing in general.
Okay.
So me personally, I'll justshare a little bit of background
here.
As one does on their ownpodcasts.
Go off.
I don't know.
I can't remember exactly whatthe catalyst was for this, but I
was in midwifery school.
(01:25):
Ah, you can relate to this.
Yes.
I was in midwifery school and Ijust needed country.
Control over something in mylife.
And so I started weightliftingand I learned all about.
Doing that I hired a coach.
I like made it an actual thingand it was so good for me.
And then fell off finishingmidwifery school, starting our
(01:47):
practice.
I just was not able to keep upwith it in the way that I.
Needed to.
And I have dabbled in it.
And interestingly enough, as Ithink back over the years, At
really stressful and intensetimes I have.
That's the points that I havejumped back into it.
Yes.
(02:07):
There's something about.
The feedback and the hardness ofit and the, and the, yeah,
there's something like hormonalthat happens that just as like,
oh, this is, this is feeding meright now.
Yes.
But.
The most recent thing that hasgotten me fired up about this
was last year when you createdthe metabolic health.
(02:29):
Course for our membership.
And talking about how importantit is for women to have muscle
mass and be building muscle massand all of the incredible
benefits of it.
I completely shifted the waythat I exercised, because I'm
been pretty good about havingthat as a regular rhythm in my
(02:49):
life lately.
But I was still doing cardio.
I was still engaging in a lot ofcardio and I can't put, I can't
build muscle doing cardio.
Yeah.
It kind of blew my mind also, asI was pulling together all of
the information that everythingwas lining up and I was like, oh
yep.
All of the research points tothe how incredible.
(03:13):
Building muscle is for anybody.
Right.
But especially for women in theway our hormones work and the
way things work as we age aswell.
But.
It's not it.
It's not that you need a bunchof big muscles, right?
We don't need to like bebodybuilders, but building.
Of The mass on our bodies andthe amount of muscle that we
have in comparison to fat.
(03:35):
Matters so much.
And like as women we need, werequire about 20 to 25% body
fat.
At minimum just to have healthyhormone complex.
So then you have to look at therest of the composition of your
body and.
How you want your body to lookhow you want it to perform how
(03:58):
you want it to feel all of thosethings.
Right.
So we're gonna jump into that inthis episode, I'm excited.
To share everything that I know,everything that I learned from
you in the metabolic course,everything that I am continuing
to dive into this is going to bea really great episode.
I do want to share anotherreview.
(04:18):
I promised you guys that therewere a ton of them that have
come through lately and I am so,so, so, so grateful.
This one comes from Kaylee 2 6 12.
She says such a good podcast.
Five stars.
As a student midwife.
I love all the things that I'velearned from Tiffany and Kelly.
I appreciate all the wisdom thatthey share.
I love that a student islistening to this.
(04:42):
Hopefully the way that we speakabout being.
Student midwives isn't doesn'tfeel traumatic.
Hopefully it feels.
Empowering and validating foryour particular experience.
But love the fact that likethis.
Not that we're in this wholeother generation, but this next
generation of like new midwivescoming into their own practice
and then can be.
(05:05):
Hearing this information,sharing it with their clients,
all of that good stuff.
Yes.
And if you heard us read yourreview, Kaylee, let us know.
We'll buy you a drink.
We will happily do that.
That's how it goes around here.
And leave a nice review.
We read it.
We buy you a drink.
We feel good about ourselves.
(05:27):
You have a nice little drinkypoo.
It's a win-win for everybody.
All of us win.
Also reviews help our podcaststo get rated well in our, I
don't know, what do you call it?
Category?
And so the more good ratingsthat we have, the better our
podcast gets rated, which meansmore women are likely to find
(05:48):
it, get this information intheir hands.
That's what we're mostly excitedabout is being able to.
Grow the podcast to reach.
So your reviews.
Views help to do that.
And you don't have to, you don'thave to review it.
We don't know if it was you, ifyou just read it, but you can't
hop on, just read it.
You can just tap five stars andthat contributes also, and just
(06:10):
make sure that your fingertouches the fifth star.
Not the fourth one.
Yeah.
There's really no excuses forfour star reviews, but it is
cool to think about the factthat like you listening have an
impact on.
Sharing this information withother women also by doing so,
you know, by, by adding areview.
Yeah.
So put your reviews where yourmouth is.
(06:33):
Yep.
You're.
If you're saying that you loveit here.
Show us how much you love thatshows us your love.
Okay.
I want to highlight Fullscriptagain because I've created a
brand new protocol on there.
As a response to the inspirationI had in writing this episode.
(06:54):
So there is a muscle buildingprotocol on our Fullscript
account.
You guys know that's ourprofessional dispensary, where
we get you really high qualitysupplements for a fraction of
the cost.
Everyone can sign up.
It's absolutely free.
You get access to dozens ofprotocols.
One of those protocols is goingto be this muscle building
protocol that just sources thebest supplements that You can
(07:18):
take in order to boost andenhance muscle mass, which is
what we're talking about today.
I want to, I want to check thatout.
Actually.
I haven't seen it yet since youcreated it.
Well, it is available to you.
Great.
Immediately.
Everyone else will have to waituntil the episode airs.
Excellent.
By the time you listen, I'mprobably taking some of these,
so it's fine.
(07:39):
Actually I will, I will give ouraudience a hot tip.
If you're on Fullscript already.
If you're already registered,you get email notifications.
When we make new protocols.
It is worth it to be a part ofour like crew in that way,
because we're consistentlyputting out new protocols and
(08:00):
then you don't have to wait forus to talk about it.
On the podcast.
So good on you.
If you saw this come throughprobably a month before this
episode aired.
Good work.
Yeah.
All right.
So putting on more musclemasses, women in packs,
everything we're holisticbeings, nothing is just in this
little vacuum where we're like,oh, this is just an emotional
(08:22):
issue.
This is just a physical issue.
But what, but what musclebuilding does for women is it
takes the focus.
From weight loss, which is whatsociety says is the most
important thing for women tofocus on.
And it switches that focus ontomuscle gain.
And it is all about.
(08:44):
Rejecting this idea that we wantto restrict calories, burn a
bunch of calories, try to getthe extra weight off with those
types of actions.
And it flips it to muscle gain,which helps our body composition
in general, it improves healthoutcomes in almost every single
(09:05):
area of our.
Being, and we'll get into that alittle bit too, but you burn
more fat when you have moremuscle.
So the answer is consistently nomatter where you are at.
In your own body composition andwhat you want to see changing.
No matter what your goals are.
(09:26):
Having more muscle is going tohelp you, whether you want to be
stronger, whether you want tolook stronger, whether you want
to add.
Maybe you need to burn fat.
Maybe you need to lose.
Lose weight to be healthier, tofunction better, to just feel
more comfortable in your body.
Muscle mass is the answer forthat.
I love when we can focus onsomething that is positive, that
(09:49):
then allows sort of some of thenegative things to fall off a
little bit more because if we dohave a positive.
Goal rather than right.
Lose weight, whatever.
When we're focused on somethingpositive, then that gives us
something to look towards ratherthan look away from.
Right.
And then I feel like once westart to do that other pieces
change, right?
(10:10):
Like.
All of a sudden, if you, if thatis your focus, you're like, well
then my food choices probablyneed to reflect that.
Right.
I probably want to start eatingmore protein.
You just sort of naturally startdoing that.
I know in, in seasons where I'vebeen more Focused on this or
less.
I'm not necessarily thinking,oh, I, I want to eat this
particular way right now.
(10:30):
It's mostly just your bodyinstinctually being like, I need
this for fuel and you startcraving things.
Differently.
You're staying more hydrated.
Your sleep will be better, thestress and the way that you
respond to stress.
Infinitely better.
And so I feel like when you,when you start to realize, Hey,
This actually can impact, notjust like the way my body looks
(10:53):
in a bathing suit this summer,but like can impact every aspect
of the way my body isfunctioning.
It is a worthy goal to kind ofrun towards absolutely.
Or.
Bear crawl.
With bands around your legstowards.
Yeah, we, we're not, we're notgoing to advocating a whole lot
of running.
In this episode.
(11:15):
Okay.
So let's do unpack some of thosebenefits because even if you can
set your body image stuff to theside as women, which most of us
can not.
But even if you can into, to beable to replace some of those
thoughts about.
How how muscle can have a reallygood impact on other things
(11:37):
besides how your body looks.
Muscle mass creates better bloodsugar stabilization for women.
It gives us deeper sleep.
It lowers our cortisol.
Having muscle isanti-inflammatory in and of
itself.
It makes us a healthier weightoverall.
It gives us stronger bones.
(11:58):
Our mortality rates aredecreased in comparison with
muscle mass.
So the more muscle that you puton the lower your mortality rate
goes.
It increases our heart health,our brain health, our
metabolism.
It makes us less prone toinjury.
Especially as we age, which, Imean, unfortunately, I'm really
(12:18):
starting to think about thatnow.
In my late thirties already.
I'm like, oh yeah, I I'm sort ofaccident prone.
I've.
Broken a bone in the last year,doing something really basic.
And we need to have some ofthose, those protective strength
pieces in place for that.
But muscle mass also contributesto better hormone health for
(12:40):
women.
And which is like in and ofitself, that's just so much
there.
Right?
That's like worth.
Investigating at the very least,if you're somebody who has not.
Utilized this idea in your ownworkout approach.
But what I thought was the mostfascinating pieces that was
pulling together for thatmetabolic course that we were
(13:01):
talking about, that it'savailable in our membership.
Was how important it was to thehow quickly and how like
completely it can pull peopleout of metabolic dysfunction.
So insulin resistance,pre-diabetes blood pressure
issues.
Like this are all fat.
Like the fat around your belly,which can mess with the organs
(13:25):
that are, you know, trying towork really hard.
It's the quickest way to be ableto pull yourself out of that, in
that.
That's just a train towards.
Not doing well, if you stay onthat.
Right.
And so being able to witnesslike, Hey, this is a, this is a
way that I can actually protectmyself and potentially change
(13:45):
the outcome of my entire health.
Future.
It's worth looking at.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And like metabolic dysfunctionaffects something like what 78%
of Americans.
Yes.
the flags for metabolic disease.
Are so common right now, likeall the vast, vast majority of
(14:10):
adults, at least tick one ofthose things, blood pressure's
off lipids are high.
Belly fat.
Blood pressure, all kinds ofstuff.
Right.
And so, the fastest way out ofthat is through building muscle.
Mass is not medications.
It's not supplement routines.
It's not overhauling your diet,except all of those of course
can contribute to betteroutcomes.
(14:32):
The fastest way, scientificallyis putting as much muscle on as
possible.
That is so cool.
So let's get down to some of thelogistics about working out,
because that will be thestumbling block for most women,
I think should be doing it.
Everyone's on board with thebenefits everyone's on board
with that, how all the positiveimpacts and women are like, yes,
(14:53):
I want more muscle mass.
But then you have to work onthat.
You have to work really hard onthat.
So our advice for this is justget started.
Think about what you can do tojust get started.
It doesn't mean you have to belifting really heavy weights.
You can just use your own bodyweight.
You can choose any program thatyou want to, that has a focus on
(15:17):
resistance training or, orweight training.
You can find free stuff all overthe internet.
Kelly and I are just down in thedepths of Peloton.
We will probably just live thereforever.
They have great like coursesthough that aren't just on the
bike or on the tread orsomething.
(15:38):
The floor courses are really,really beneficial.
Yes.
And there's a lot of courses forwomen on there.
I know because I've taken everysingle one of them so far.
I'm starting to have to takethem again.
Which is also wonderful wherethe women instructors are
providing.
Lower body weight trainingclasses, and they're emphasizing
(16:02):
heavy lifting and teaching womenhow to do that safely and well.
And so that has been a wonderfulexperience, but you can get a
coach.
What a great thing to invest in,go to your local gym and find
somebody who can teach you howto lift weights.
You can use resistant bands.
You can use just lightweightsthat you have sitting in the
(16:24):
corner of your garage.
Your cute little pink.
When's that have the numberthree on them or whatever, like
just get started.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it, especially as somebodywho, you know, you were talking
about like the more intenseworkout program that you did in
midwifery school, I didsomething very similar in
midwifery school in terms oflike a really regimented and
(16:46):
hard kind of workout experienceand kind of falling out of that.
And then getting back into itlater, it's very easy to kind of
judge yourself of like, well,I'm, I'm not as strong as I was
before.
And it makes you kind of feellike, do I, is this worth it?
Because I'm not that anymore.
And so it's not about pittingyourself against anybody else or
even against yourself.
It really just is keeping youreye on those benefits, keeping
(17:10):
your eye on.
The things that this will impactin your life.
And again, yes, just gettingstarted does not need to be
complicated.
Anything that you are doing toencourage muscle growth in
anywhere in your body isimportant.
So all muscle groups, yes.
Important, but in particular,lower body has the biggest.
(17:32):
Kind of impact and what's goingon metabolically and it's
usually the easiest also forwomen to kind of really build.
Muscle on because those musclegroups are just big.
Yeah.
And like men, they have a lot oftestosterone that allows them to
like build up upper body andit's easier for them to build
mass there and women just withthe hormonal profile and we'll
(17:54):
get into hormones and how to,how to work with that for muscle
mass.
But women just generally canbuild larger leg and glute
muscles faster.
Yeah.
And that doesn't mean that youneed to be like, okay, I'm all
in.
This is my life now.
Like I am a muscle builder.
You, the, the research that isout there shows.
(18:17):
Three times a week, if you canreally focus on muscle mass
building for 30 minutes of thosethree times a week, that has all
of the benefits.
So more than that.
Great.
But you also don't need toenvision your entire.
Life being completely overhauledby this finding 30 minutes,
(18:38):
three times a week, andprioritizing this in particular.
Shows a ton of benefits forwomen.
Absolutely.
And when you're trying to figureout exactly like what kind of
exercises do you need to do forthat?
I just would recommend focusingon some really core.
Movements.
That are lower body like squats,lunges, dead lifts, hit bridges,
(19:01):
hip thrusts.
Basically anything that is goingto build your booty is going to
also build up your legs.
And a lot of those.
Big lifting motions are sodynamic because they also help
with course stability and helpwith functional flexibility.
And you can do a lot of thoseunilaterally and work on balance
(19:24):
and stuff like that.
So there's so many ways in orderto get some of those core.
Lifting movements on board andour friend.
Natalie, I think you can findher on Instagram at trainer
Natalie.
She is a just a specialist infitness and pelvic floor health.
And she has fitness programs forwomen and all kinds of really
(19:46):
wonderful things.
But she was telling us recentlythat she got AI to craft her a
workout plan.
With just some of those pieceswhere she like asked AI to.
Give me a weightlifting programwith this amount of weights,
three days a week with thesecore movements and blue blue
(20:06):
poop.
AI link just told her exactlywhat to do.
How many rabbits, how muchweight in what order?
And.
It really can be that simple.
Yeah.
And I th I think taking some ofthat second guessing out of it
is what is so helpful.
Yeah.
I asked the guy to do the samething after she told me that
just with Peloton classes andI'm like these particular.
(20:27):
These only with theseinstructors for this amount of
time, like give me like amonth's worth of what I should
take, what or whatever.
And I was like, oh, this isgreat.
Cause then I can like find thatclass and just take it.
What a time.
To be alive.
Let me just say but as we'redoing this right.
I think it is really importantthat like, none of that sounds,
oh my gosh.
It's so life changing.
(20:49):
Right?
Okay.
I need you to really focus onsquats and lunges, all of the
like 30 minutes, three times aweek, understanding how to move
your body correctly.
Understanding like thatfoundational piece of how to do
those movements wisely and wellwill.
Absolutely.
Then.
You know, impact the longevityof you being able to continue to
do this, but also as you'rethinking about longevity, this
(21:12):
really is the long haul, right?
This is a lifelong health idea.
This needs to be sustainable.
So while some of these programsand ideas that come out right
can help kickstart some things.
I know a handful of people justhaving been on Instagram
recently are doing like the 75hard where it's like 75 days of
(21:34):
working out twice a day andeating a particular way.
And you know, all these otherthings that you have to do.
Great in the short-term.
If that is something that youwant to do, whatever, that's an
entirely different conversation,but.
Six months from now, what doesthat look like?
Right.
And so how to fail, how toreally figure out how you can
make this more lifelong and lookat it.
(21:56):
In the long game.
We'll help you say we'll helpyou stay with it because.
If you do miss a day or yourweakest in particular, like kind
of heart, you can look at it iflike, Okay, well, I didn't fail
this particular thing.
Right.
I'll just get back up and do itagain.
Yeah.
And like there's so manystrategies for habit building
(22:17):
and accountability and findingsomebody who can like, you know,
kind of be with you in that andsetting goals for yourself and
all that kind of stuff.
So just life skill gets builtinto this.
There's, there's so many piecesthat you've already been
successful with in your life inmany other areas.
And this is going to be one ofthem.
You're just going to add it tothe list of things that you.
(22:37):
Are practicing and working on.
That is your pep talk from TIFF.
Okay.
Be successful.
I want to share about like the,the actual concept of building
muscle, besides just likeworking out and resistance and
lifting weights.
Hypertrophy is the word thatbasically just describes gaining
(22:57):
muscle.
It is the process of tearingthe, having little micro tears
in the muscle when you work itout.
That's what the fatigue of themuscle feels like.
And the repair of that.
Actually is what builds themuscle.
So you tear it a little bit.
Your body sends all these cellsin order to create more muscle
fiber to repair it.
And that repair process actuallyputs more mass on your muscle
(23:21):
muscles.
The sweet spot for this inexercise.
Is going to be different foreverybody, depending on what
access to equipment you have,what your physical capabilities
are.
If you have to modify for anyinjuries or whatever, it can
work for heavy, medium, andlight weights.
(23:42):
But what you want to focus on isjust having consistency.
Several times a week.
So hitting this three minimum ofthree weight lifting sessions a
week, and to continuechallenging yourself so that you
will be able to see thosechanges.
So you cannot stick with lightweights unless you increase your
(24:04):
raps.
You can stick with lower reps ifyou increase your weight.
So whatever you do, you have tobe constantly working towards.
Gaining muscle and strength bythe fatigue and failure of the
muscle.
So if you do a workout and youdon't feel sore the next day or
two, or you didn't feel like youwent your max, you didn't
(24:28):
fatigue that muscle, you didn'tfeel like, oh, I could barely do
one more rep if I wanted to.
Then you were not reaching thathypertrophy, mark, where your
body is, has, has.
Created the opportunity to sendthose fibers in for repair.
So like I said, you can doreally low weights or body
weight, and just work until youget to that fatigue or failure
(24:51):
place, but it will take youlonger.
So that's why once you get intothis world, you tend to just end
up progressing towards heavierand heavier weights because the
real sweet spot for most peoplewho only want to work out for 30
minutes and not.
Hours something.
Is to do three or four sets ofmovements for about six to 12
(25:13):
reps.
So if you can do.
If you can do more than 12 repsat the end of, of your third set
in your movement.
And you don't feel like you areat that point of fatigue or
failure, then you probably needto increase your weights.
And that can kind of be likethis play.
This little interplay there.
(25:33):
For you while you're figuringout exactly how hard to push
yourself.
And I personally just go for theheaviest wheats possible mostly
just for time.
Because I can get a workout.
I mean, I know that werecommended women work on this
for 30 minutes, but I, becauseI'm not in a gym waiting for
equipment, et cetera, I'm in mygarage where I have my weights.
(25:55):
I can usually get in an, in aworkout and out of a workout and
hit all of the major lifts thatI wanted to do in like around 20
minutes, just because of I'mlike, I just want to make it
count, make it really hard andheavy.
Push my body to the place whereit's going to need to repair.
And then be done.
And that might be really thatmight be intimidating for some
(26:17):
women to hear, or that might belike such a relief for women to
hear like, oh really, I can dothat.
I'm allowed to do that.
Yeah, I think understanding too,like when you got back into it,
you probably weren't at thehighest level that you could do
now versus, you know, at thebeginning, so helpful to see
also you can start, there's noshame.
(26:37):
You just need to just getstarted.
Right.
So what works now?
Potentially that's the goalright?
In a couple months from now,hopefully those lighter weights.
Aren't still keeping you at thatsame place and you're moving up
and you're challenging your bodya little bit.
And then depending on what isalready going on within your
body, like, I have a shoulderinjury that side, no matter what
(26:58):
I do can not do the same thingas the other side can.
Right.
And then being able to be like,Okay.
Well, I don't also don't want tohurt myself, so I really need to
get down with like, okay, if Ihave to go slower, if I have to
do fewer reps, if the law, ifthe weight on that side needs to
look different for thisparticular move.
That is okay.
Also.
So really kind of fine tuningthat, listening to your body
(27:20):
while also pushing it.
Is important and that's a partof just connecting with your
body and listening to it too.
You had mentioned cardio, and Ithink that's a helpful thing
also to chat about.
This is not like an attack oncardio whatsoever.
We're simply just talking aboutmuscle mass.
So that's why we're going tojust be focusing much more on
that, but small amounts ofcardio while you are trying to
(27:42):
really focus on muscle mass areokay.
Anything over 30 minutes.
Can potentially cause proteinbreakdown and just prevent
growth of those muscles.
So I know women who hate cardioand this news is like really
great.
And I know women who are like, Ilove cardio so much that it
gives me joy to do it.
(28:03):
Okay, great.
But if this is a goal of yours,it's helpful just to sort of put
it in perspective.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like, I mean, there's, there'sendorphin rushes that come with
cardio.
There is opportunities to beoutdoors, which is, you know,
like that that's an importantpart of exercise too.
There's women who have, youknow, certain goals like
(28:25):
marathon running or right.
Like, so there's lots of,there's lots of valid pieces of
having cardio a part of anexercise routine if you want it
there.
But I'm here to say that if youdo not want cardio as a part of
your exercise routine, and youwant to be fit, you do not have
to do cardio.
You are going to get enough of aheart rate increase and enough
(28:49):
of a.
Like prac practice.
Heart muscle.
Heart rate thing.
You know what I'm trying to say?
There's a word there.
That's not coming.
But you are going to challengeyour heart muscle enough with.
Weightlifting that you are goingto get the benefits of cardio.
And also weightliftingcontributes to better
(29:12):
performance in other more cardiolike sports.
So it's really about balance.
It's really about shifting.
Goals, potentially looking atthe exercise that is actually
better for women, better fortheir health, better, better for
body composition.
Just better overall.
And figuring out how to makesomething work that is going to.
(29:36):
Help you reach those goals.
I love it.
I feel like this gives,hopefully anybody listening
feels some freedom in all ofthis, as they're figuring out
like, what exactly is right foryou and balancing that with.
Your likes and what is actuallygoing to be consistent for you
and all of that good stuff.
So as you're building muscle,right, we're talking about how
(29:57):
cardio.
Pieces of it can potentiallyprevent some of that muscle
growth how the muscles areactually grown and what to do
about that.
Really helpful to understandthough, too.
And we've mentioned protein alittle bit, protein intake is
going to be a huge part of yourmuscle building journey.
And so generally speaking, youwant to look at your own
(30:17):
personal body weight, and youwant about a half to 0.8 grams
per pound of protein for yourbody weight.
Right?
So if you weigh a hundred and.
30 pounds.
That's like 70 to about ahundred grams a day.
So, if you weigh more than that,less than that, you can kind of,
do the math for yourself, butthat's generally what you're
(30:37):
aiming towards in terms ofbuilding muscle.
And so that may be, you may behitting that and you're like,
dude, I'm like killing it.
Or you may look at your day andbe like, oh yep.
I can hit 50.
That's what I'm normally doing.
Okay.
Well then now, if this is thegoal and this is what we're
working towards.
We got to start to get a littlecreative, got to start to really
(30:59):
think about this and prioritizeit throughout your day.
If you're prioritizing proteinat every single meal and in each
snack.
You will most likely be hittingthis number, but you may not be
doing that right now.
Right.
And so figuring out whatproteins do you like, what can
you eat?
Can you add an extra serving ofa particular something?
(31:21):
What kind of snacks can you grabeasily?
That kind of stuff so that youcan make that shift to a higher.
Graham per day load foryourself.
Yeah.
And I mean, unfortunately, ifyou are not eating enough
protein, but you areparticipating in weight training
exercises, you were not going togrow.
Your muscles at all.
(31:42):
In fact, you're going to createmore stress inside your body
because you've created thisthing that needs to be repaired
and can't actually be prepared.
Repaired properly and it'll bean inflammatory state.
So protein is really important.
Let's talk about cycle sinking,because that's a huge thing that
(32:03):
we are just like about here ingeneral.
And we apply cycle sinking to somany different things.
Like.
How to spend creative energyduring your cycle, how to do
seed cycling, what things toeat.
We have like a whole episode oncycle sinking that we can share
with you guys.
And we also have a cycle sinkingguide that I'll link in the show
(32:23):
notes for women who want to knowmore about that, but there are
ways to.
Maximize muscle mass growth inyour cycle.
And the place that you want tokind of emphasize that the most
is this first part of your cyclewhen estrogen is the highest,
because it is very forgiving tocortisol and we can handle these
(32:45):
harder workouts without havingour hormones very much affected.
And estrogen also allows us tobuild muscle mass faster than in
our luteal phase becauseprogesterone and our luteal
phase in the second half of ourcycle is actually an antagonist
to muscle mass.
So we want to emphasize proteinat this point in our cycle.
(33:07):
And we also want to just be surethat we're participating in.
Our weight training activities.
During this part of our cycle.
The most you need about 35 gramsof protein at once in one
sitting to properly stimulateamino acid receptors, which are
going to help to get proteininto your muscles that need to
(33:31):
be repaired.
That means we need to eat thathuge bolus of protein within
like an hour of working out inorder to maximize that.
So we we've ripped our muscleswith our.
Exercise.
And then we're going to shove aton of protein in there so that
our body can repair it and, andhelp to build some of those
(33:52):
muscle fibers back in again.
Yeah, and I just, I just lovethe idea of cycle sinking in
general, because it makes youthink about what is happening in
your body and put a purpose toit and connect with it and think
about it.
And it's just yet anotherreminder, right?
That like nothing happens in ourbodies in a vacuum, like it is
all interconnected and then weget to actually use it to our
(34:14):
advantage.
So during ovulation, after thatfirst part of the cycle, right
during ovulation, testosteroneis at the highest at this point,
which makes sense.
Right?
Most women are like, Hey, atthis point in my cycle, I'm like
interested in having sex.
I'm feeling very energetic.
I'm very creative.
I have all of this likecapacity.
Right.
So we want to take advantage ofthat here now as well.
(34:37):
You can lift the heaviestusually around this time, so you
can literally go big at.
In all of the ways, right.
Creatively libido wise, andbuilding muscle mass.
So going big at this point isusually the best benefit.
And, but you also want to thinkabout, and most likely if you're
going bigger, this will comealso, but going slower so big
(34:59):
and slow, you don't need.
Or you can lean into the ideaof, of those bigger weights
rather than the small ones witha bunch of reps, just going
slowly with the big stuff aroundthis time, because.
Again, your hormones are workingfor you to kind of lean into
that during that ovulatoryperiod.
Yeah.
And then right after ovulation,which is typically like this day
(35:21):
16 to 19 progesterone is notquite building up yet.
And we have the one final windowto maximize protein intake and
muscle mass before we hit day20, which is really important
because that is when ourprogesterone starts to peak to
support our luteal phase.
(35:42):
Progesterone wants to ensurethat our bodies are completely
capable.
Bubble of handling a potentialpregnancy.
If we got pregnant in our Latoriwindow.
And so progesterone is just allabout making everything full and
soft and slow.
And so this is not the time tomaximize a ton of weights after
(36:02):
day 20.
This is not a time that our bodyis going to be really receptive
to protein.
Still important to get plenty ofprotein, just to.
Continue to support yourself,metabolically and blood sugar
wise and everything like that.
But this is the time that weneed to.
actually slow down, kind ofchill out.
We don't want to do like a lotof endurance training.
(36:23):
We don't want to do really heavyweights during this time while
we're waiting for our period tocome.
We want to try to keep cortisolas stable as possible and
preparing for the start of ourcycle is actually going to help
us to have a smoother cycle.
So a lot of women, they justkeep going hard throughout their
(36:43):
whole entire cycle until theirperiod comes in and they're
like, well, now I'm, I'm totallywiped.
And I have to take this time to.
Slow down and bleed and rest,but what's happening.
With our hormones during ourcycle is actually, our body is
telling us and giving us lots ofsigns and signals to slow down
and rest.
When progesterone is building inthat final week and women who do
(37:07):
that transition into theirmenstrual period, a lot
smoother.
And a lot of women need thatfirst or second day to kind of
like, just adjust to.
Having the heaviest flow of yourperiod and that big hormonal
shift that happens can just kindof feel disruptive.
But that's what estrogen isstarting to build again, in that
(37:28):
first part of your cycle.
And you have a potential forreally being able to get back to
more endurance, just what'shappening with hormones in men
and metabolically in your bodyand back to the protein
building.
You want to know somethingcrazy?
So I've shared a handful oftimes.
I love sweating on the first dayof my cycle.
(37:49):
Like I get into my sauna bag andlove it.
I don't necessarily.
I enjoy working out on thatfirst day because my period just
starts and it's heavy that firstday.
But the second day of my cycleis like, I get the.
I can PR I can get like the bestI can do the.
I like, there's something aboutthat second day where I'm like,
(38:10):
man, this is a great day for mein my body.
Like, and it's very counter.
I'm not pushing myself so hardand not pretending like I'm not
on my period or something, butthere's some thing that is
happening hormonally that I'mlike, oh yes, this feels, it
feels good right now.
And most women would say that nomatter what their issues are
(38:30):
around their period, movingfeels better.
Moving usually improves theperiod and is just a better.
happier thing.
So.
You ladies have a lot ofinformation.
You have a lot of our opinions.
Also you have a lot of ourexperiences and I hope
encouragement to at leastconsider how to work this in a
(38:53):
little bit more into yourlifestyle.
I know that it's going tobenefit every single woman who
is able to just start somewhere,do something.
And we have a couple ofresources available to you.
In the show notes, we have ablog all about whole food
protein.
protein.
ideas.
So things that you can quicklygrab a snack or small meals that
(39:15):
is like real food.
We also have that muscle massbuilding protocol from full
script that you can find insideof the show notes.
And I'm also gonna throw in ourcommunity membership, wait list.
I know it's not open now, butput yourself on the wait list.
So when it does open, you canjump in there and get tons of
(39:36):
support for stuff just likethis, but especially access to
the metabolic health course thatKelly created for us there last
year.
It just unpacks everything abouthow to get yourself as
metabolically healthy aspossible, and some really
tangible ways to do that,including this whole muscle
building idea.
I hope, I mean, this has beenone of my favorite episodes to
(39:59):
record in a while.
It's just getting me fired up.
I'm like how something that itcan feel like a roadblock in
some ways, but when you hear itlike this, you're like, why
wouldn't I?
Right.
And so I hope that you listeningare feeling the same way.
Feeling fired up about takingcare, really good care of
yourself in a way.
that makes sense.
Hormonally, biologicallymetabolically all of those
(40:21):
things line up.
And so that just, it's excitingto be able to share stuff like
this and hopefully encourage youfor lifelong health, no matter
what kind of season of life youare in.
And so, again, hopefully thisleaves you encouraged it.
It was a joy to chat about thisnext week.
We're going to go into somethingthat actually can be impacted as
well.
Just metabolically by musclemass and all that good stuff.
(40:43):
We're going to be chatting aboutpreventing hypertension, high
blood pressure.
And so that's going to be like,sort of the next stage of some
of these conversations of justwhat's going on metabolically.
So excited to.
Lead you through thatinformation next week as well.
All right, ladies, we'll see youthen.
Bye.
Welcome to At Home with Kellyand Tiffany, where naturally
minded women gather together aswe pursue simplicity and
confidence in healthalternatives, so we can show up
better in our busy lives andfeel more at home in our bodies.
Join your favorite home birthmidwife duo for conversation,
candor, and community.
You're at home with Kelly andsymphony.
(00:21):
My name is Kelly Pappas.
And my name is Tiffany Oblinger.
We are two licensed midwivesfrom sunny San Diego who run a
private home birth.
Practice who also love recordingpodcasts and dancing on the
internet on reels and.
(00:42):
Sharing information aboutwomen's health in general.
And that sums it up.
That is that's who we are andwhat we do.
So why on earth are we talkingabout muscle mass today?
Let's do it.
Nothing you just said.
Has anything to do?
Muscle mass.
But you ladies will beincredibly surprised that it
actually really does.
It potentially may blow yourmind how important muscle mass
(01:04):
is to lady.
Life and flourishing in general.
Okay.
So me personally, I'll justshare a little bit of background
here.
As one does on their ownpodcasts.
Go off.
I don't know.
I can't remember exactly whatthe catalyst was for this, but I
was in midwifery school.
(01:25):
Ah, you can relate to this.
Yes.
I was in midwifery school and Ijust needed country.
Control over something in mylife.
And so I started weightliftingand I learned all about.
Doing that I hired a coach.
I like made it an actual thingand it was so good for me.
And then fell off finishingmidwifery school, starting our
(01:47):
practice.
I just was not able to keep upwith it in the way that I.
Needed to.
And I have dabbled in it.
And interestingly enough, as Ithink back over the years, At
really stressful and intensetimes I have.
That's the points that I havejumped back into it.
Yes.
(02:07):
There's something about.
The feedback and the hardness ofit and the, and the, yeah,
there's something like hormonalthat happens that just as like,
oh, this is, this is feeding meright now.
Yes.
But.
The most recent thing that hasgotten me fired up about this
was last year when you createdthe metabolic health.
(02:29):
Course for our membership.
And talking about how importantit is for women to have muscle
mass and be building muscle massand all of the incredible
benefits of it.
I completely shifted the waythat I exercised, because I'm
been pretty good about havingthat as a regular rhythm in my
(02:49):
life lately.
But I was still doing cardio.
I was still engaging in a lot ofcardio and I can't put, I can't
build muscle doing cardio.
Yeah.
It kind of blew my mind also, asI was pulling together all of
the information that everythingwas lining up and I was like, oh
yep.
All of the research points tothe how incredible.
(03:13):
Building muscle is for anybody.
Right.
But especially for women in theway our hormones work and the
way things work as we age aswell.
But.
It's not it.
It's not that you need a bunchof big muscles, right?
We don't need to like bebodybuilders, but building.
Of The mass on our bodies andthe amount of muscle that we
have in comparison to fat.
(03:35):
Matters so much.
And like as women we need, werequire about 20 to 25% body
fat.
At minimum just to have healthyhormone complex.
So then you have to look at therest of the composition of your
body and.
How you want your body to lookhow you want it to perform how
(03:58):
you want it to feel all of thosethings.
Right.
So we're gonna jump into that inthis episode, I'm excited.
To share everything that I know,everything that I learned from
you in the metabolic course,everything that I am continuing
to dive into this is going to bea really great episode.
I do want to share anotherreview.
(04:18):
I promised you guys that therewere a ton of them that have
come through lately and I am so,so, so, so grateful.
This one comes from Kaylee 2 6 12.
She says such a good podcast.
Five stars.
As a student midwife.
I love all the things that I'velearned from Tiffany and Kelly.
I appreciate all the wisdom thatthey share.
I love that a student islistening to this.
(04:42):
Hopefully the way that we speakabout being.
Student midwives isn't doesn'tfeel traumatic.
Hopefully it feels.
Empowering and validating foryour particular experience.
But love the fact that likethis.
Not that we're in this wholeother generation, but this next
generation of like new midwivescoming into their own practice
and then can be.
(05:05):
Hearing this information,sharing it with their clients,
all of that good stuff.
Yes.
And if you heard us read yourreview, Kaylee, let us know.
We'll buy you a drink.
We will happily do that.
That's how it goes around here.
And leave a nice review.
We read it.
We buy you a drink.
We feel good about ourselves.
(05:27):
You have a nice little drinkypoo.
It's a win-win for everybody.
All of us win.
Also reviews help our podcaststo get rated well in our, I
don't know, what do you call it?
Category?
And so the more good ratingsthat we have, the better our
podcast gets rated, which meansmore women are likely to find
(05:48):
it, get this information intheir hands.
That's what we're mostly excitedabout is being able to.
Grow the podcast to reach.
So your reviews.
Views help to do that.
And you don't have to, you don'thave to review it.
We don't know if it was you, ifyou just read it, but you can't
hop on, just read it.
You can just tap five stars andthat contributes also, and just
(06:10):
make sure that your fingertouches the fifth star.
Not the fourth one.
Yeah.
There's really no excuses forfour star reviews, but it is
cool to think about the factthat like you listening have an
impact on.
Sharing this information withother women also by doing so,
you know, by, by adding areview.
Yeah.
So put your reviews where yourmouth is.
(06:33):
Yep.
You're.
If you're saying that you loveit here.
Show us how much you love thatshows us your love.
Okay.
I want to highlight Fullscriptagain because I've created a
brand new protocol on there.
As a response to the inspirationI had in writing this episode.
(06:54):
So there is a muscle buildingprotocol on our Fullscript
account.
You guys know that's ourprofessional dispensary, where
we get you really high qualitysupplements for a fraction of
the cost.
Everyone can sign up.
It's absolutely free.
You get access to dozens ofprotocols.
One of those protocols is goingto be this muscle building
protocol that just sources thebest supplements that You can
(07:18):
take in order to boost andenhance muscle mass, which is
what we're talking about today.
I want to, I want to check thatout.
Actually.
I haven't seen it yet since youcreated it.
Well, it is available to you.
Great.
Immediately.
Everyone else will have to waituntil the episode airs.
Excellent.
By the time you listen, I'mprobably taking some of these,
so it's fine.
(07:39):
Actually I will, I will give ouraudience a hot tip.
If you're on Fullscript already.
If you're already registered,you get email notifications.
When we make new protocols.
It is worth it to be a part ofour like crew in that way,
because we're consistentlyputting out new protocols and
(08:00):
then you don't have to wait forus to talk about it.
On the podcast.
So good on you.
If you saw this come throughprobably a month before this
episode aired.
Good work.
Yeah.
All right.
So putting on more musclemasses, women in packs,
everything we're holisticbeings, nothing is just in this
little vacuum where we're like,oh, this is just an emotional
(08:22):
issue.
This is just a physical issue.
But what, but what musclebuilding does for women is it
takes the focus.
From weight loss, which is whatsociety says is the most
important thing for women tofocus on.
And it switches that focus ontomuscle gain.
And it is all about.
(08:44):
Rejecting this idea that we wantto restrict calories, burn a
bunch of calories, try to getthe extra weight off with those
types of actions.
And it flips it to muscle gain,which helps our body composition
in general, it improves healthoutcomes in almost every single
(09:05):
area of our.
Being, and we'll get into that alittle bit too, but you burn
more fat when you have moremuscle.
So the answer is consistently nomatter where you are at.
In your own body composition andwhat you want to see changing.
No matter what your goals are.
(09:26):
Having more muscle is going tohelp you, whether you want to be
stronger, whether you want tolook stronger, whether you want
to add.
Maybe you need to burn fat.
Maybe you need to lose.
Lose weight to be healthier, tofunction better, to just feel
more comfortable in your body.
Muscle mass is the answer forthat.
I love when we can focus onsomething that is positive, that
(09:49):
then allows sort of some of thenegative things to fall off a
little bit more because if we dohave a positive.
Goal rather than right.
Lose weight, whatever.
When we're focused on somethingpositive, then that gives us
something to look towards ratherthan look away from.
Right.
And then I feel like once westart to do that other pieces
change, right?
(10:10):
Like.
All of a sudden, if you, if thatis your focus, you're like, well
then my food choices probablyneed to reflect that.
Right.
I probably want to start eatingmore protein.
You just sort of naturally startdoing that.
I know in, in seasons where I'vebeen more Focused on this or
less.
I'm not necessarily thinking,oh, I, I want to eat this
particular way right now.
(10:30):
It's mostly just your bodyinstinctually being like, I need
this for fuel and you startcraving things.
Differently.
You're staying more hydrated.
Your sleep will be better, thestress and the way that you
respond to stress.
Infinitely better.
And so I feel like when you,when you start to realize, Hey,
This actually can impact, notjust like the way my body looks
(10:53):
in a bathing suit this summer,but like can impact every aspect
of the way my body isfunctioning.
It is a worthy goal to kind ofrun towards absolutely.
Or.
Bear crawl.
With bands around your legstowards.
Yeah, we, we're not, we're notgoing to advocating a whole lot
of running.
In this episode.
(11:15):
Okay.
So let's do unpack some of thosebenefits because even if you can
set your body image stuff to theside as women, which most of us
can not.
But even if you can into, to beable to replace some of those
thoughts about.
How how muscle can have a reallygood impact on other things
(11:37):
besides how your body looks.
Muscle mass creates better bloodsugar stabilization for women.
It gives us deeper sleep.
It lowers our cortisol.
Having muscle isanti-inflammatory in and of
itself.
It makes us a healthier weightoverall.
It gives us stronger bones.
(11:58):
Our mortality rates aredecreased in comparison with
muscle mass.
So the more muscle that you puton the lower your mortality rate
goes.
It increases our heart health,our brain health, our
metabolism.
It makes us less prone toinjury.
Especially as we age, which, Imean, unfortunately, I'm really
(12:18):
starting to think about thatnow.
In my late thirties already.
I'm like, oh yeah, I I'm sort ofaccident prone.
I've.
Broken a bone in the last year,doing something really basic.
And we need to have some ofthose, those protective strength
pieces in place for that.
But muscle mass also contributesto better hormone health for
(12:40):
women.
And which is like in and ofitself, that's just so much
there.
Right?
That's like worth.
Investigating at the very least,if you're somebody who has not.
Utilized this idea in your ownworkout approach.
But what I thought was the mostfascinating pieces that was
pulling together for thatmetabolic course that we were
(13:01):
talking about, that it'savailable in our membership.
Was how important it was to thehow quickly and how like
completely it can pull peopleout of metabolic dysfunction.
So insulin resistance,pre-diabetes blood pressure
issues.
Like this are all fat.
Like the fat around your belly,which can mess with the organs
(13:25):
that are, you know, trying towork really hard.
It's the quickest way to be ableto pull yourself out of that, in
that.
That's just a train towards.
Not doing well, if you stay onthat.
Right.
And so being able to witnesslike, Hey, this is a, this is a
way that I can actually protectmyself and potentially change
(13:45):
the outcome of my entire health.
Future.
It's worth looking at.
Absolutely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And like metabolic dysfunctionaffects something like what 78%
of Americans.
Yes.
the flags for metabolic disease.
Are so common right now, likeall the vast, vast majority of
(14:10):
adults, at least tick one ofthose things, blood pressure's
off lipids are high.
Belly fat.
Blood pressure, all kinds ofstuff.
Right.
And so, the fastest way out ofthat is through building muscle.
Mass is not medications.
It's not supplement routines.
It's not overhauling your diet,except all of those of course
can contribute to betteroutcomes.
(14:32):
The fastest way, scientificallyis putting as much muscle on as
possible.
That is so cool.
So let's get down to some of thelogistics about working out,
because that will be thestumbling block for most women,
I think should be doing it.
Everyone's on board with thebenefits everyone's on board
with that, how all the positiveimpacts and women are like, yes,
(14:53):
I want more muscle mass.
But then you have to work onthat.
You have to work really hard onthat.
So our advice for this is justget started.
Think about what you can do tojust get started.
It doesn't mean you have to belifting really heavy weights.
You can just use your own bodyweight.
You can choose any program thatyou want to, that has a focus on
(15:17):
resistance training or, orweight training.
You can find free stuff all overthe internet.
Kelly and I are just down in thedepths of Peloton.
We will probably just live thereforever.
They have great like coursesthough that aren't just on the
bike or on the tread orsomething.
(15:38):
The floor courses are really,really beneficial.
Yes.
And there's a lot of courses forwomen on there.
I know because I've taken everysingle one of them so far.
I'm starting to have to takethem again.
Which is also wonderful wherethe women instructors are
providing.
Lower body weight trainingclasses, and they're emphasizing
(16:02):
heavy lifting and teaching womenhow to do that safely and well.
And so that has been a wonderfulexperience, but you can get a
coach.
What a great thing to invest in,go to your local gym and find
somebody who can teach you howto lift weights.
You can use resistant bands.
You can use just lightweightsthat you have sitting in the
(16:24):
corner of your garage.
Your cute little pink.
When's that have the numberthree on them or whatever, like
just get started.
Yeah, absolutely.
And it, especially as somebodywho, you know, you were talking
about like the more intenseworkout program that you did in
midwifery school, I didsomething very similar in
midwifery school in terms oflike a really regimented and
(16:46):
hard kind of workout experienceand kind of falling out of that.
And then getting back into itlater, it's very easy to kind of
judge yourself of like, well,I'm, I'm not as strong as I was
before.
And it makes you kind of feellike, do I, is this worth it?
Because I'm not that anymore.
And so it's not about pittingyourself against anybody else or
even against yourself.
It really just is keeping youreye on those benefits, keeping
(17:10):
your eye on.
The things that this will impactin your life.
And again, yes, just gettingstarted does not need to be
complicated.
Anything that you are doing toencourage muscle growth in
anywhere in your body isimportant.
So all muscle groups, yes.
Important, but in particular,lower body has the biggest.
(17:32):
Kind of impact and what's goingon metabolically and it's
usually the easiest also forwomen to kind of really build.
Muscle on because those musclegroups are just big.
Yeah.
And like men, they have a lot oftestosterone that allows them to
like build up upper body andit's easier for them to build
mass there and women just withthe hormonal profile and we'll
(17:54):
get into hormones and how to,how to work with that for muscle
mass.
But women just generally canbuild larger leg and glute
muscles faster.
Yeah.
And that doesn't mean that youneed to be like, okay, I'm all
in.
This is my life now.
Like I am a muscle builder.
You, the, the research that isout there shows.
(18:17):
Three times a week, if you canreally focus on muscle mass
building for 30 minutes of thosethree times a week, that has all
of the benefits.
So more than that.
Great.
But you also don't need toenvision your entire.
Life being completely overhauledby this finding 30 minutes,
(18:38):
three times a week, andprioritizing this in particular.
Shows a ton of benefits forwomen.
Absolutely.
And when you're trying to figureout exactly like what kind of
exercises do you need to do forthat?
I just would recommend focusingon some really core.
Movements.
That are lower body like squats,lunges, dead lifts, hit bridges,
(19:01):
hip thrusts.
Basically anything that is goingto build your booty is going to
also build up your legs.
And a lot of those.
Big lifting motions are sodynamic because they also help
with course stability and helpwith functional flexibility.
And you can do a lot of thoseunilaterally and work on balance
(19:24):
and stuff like that.
So there's so many ways in orderto get some of those core.
Lifting movements on board andour friend.
Natalie, I think you can findher on Instagram at trainer
Natalie.
She is a just a specialist infitness and pelvic floor health.
And she has fitness programs forwomen and all kinds of really
(19:46):
wonderful things.
But she was telling us recentlythat she got AI to craft her a
workout plan.
With just some of those pieceswhere she like asked AI to.
Give me a weightlifting programwith this amount of weights,
three days a week with thesecore movements and blue blue
(20:06):
poop.
AI link just told her exactlywhat to do.
How many rabbits, how muchweight in what order?
And.
It really can be that simple.
Yeah.
And I th I think taking some ofthat second guessing out of it
is what is so helpful.
Yeah.
I asked the guy to do the samething after she told me that
just with Peloton classes andI'm like these particular.
(20:27):
These only with theseinstructors for this amount of
time, like give me like amonth's worth of what I should
take, what or whatever.
And I was like, oh, this isgreat.
Cause then I can like find thatclass and just take it.
What a time.
To be alive.
Let me just say but as we'redoing this right.
I think it is really importantthat like, none of that sounds,
oh my gosh.
It's so life changing.
(20:49):
Right?
Okay.
I need you to really focus onsquats and lunges, all of the
like 30 minutes, three times aweek, understanding how to move
your body correctly.
Understanding like thatfoundational piece of how to do
those movements wisely and wellwill.
Absolutely.
Then.
You know, impact the longevityof you being able to continue to
do this, but also as you'rethinking about longevity, this
(21:12):
really is the long haul, right?
This is a lifelong health idea.
This needs to be sustainable.
So while some of these programsand ideas that come out right
can help kickstart some things.
I know a handful of people justhaving been on Instagram
recently are doing like the 75hard where it's like 75 days of
(21:34):
working out twice a day andeating a particular way.
And you know, all these otherthings that you have to do.
Great in the short-term.
If that is something that youwant to do, whatever, that's an
entirely different conversation,but.
Six months from now, what doesthat look like?
Right.
And so how to fail, how toreally figure out how you can
make this more lifelong and lookat it.
(21:56):
In the long game.
We'll help you say we'll helpyou stay with it because.
If you do miss a day or yourweakest in particular, like kind
of heart, you can look at it iflike, Okay, well, I didn't fail
this particular thing.
Right.
I'll just get back up and do itagain.
Yeah.
And like there's so manystrategies for habit building
(22:17):
and accountability and findingsomebody who can like, you know,
kind of be with you in that andsetting goals for yourself and
all that kind of stuff.
So just life skill gets builtinto this.
There's, there's so many piecesthat you've already been
successful with in your life inmany other areas.
And this is going to be one ofthem.
You're just going to add it tothe list of things that you.
(22:37):
Are practicing and working on.
That is your pep talk from TIFF.
Okay.
Be successful.
I want to share about like the,the actual concept of building
muscle, besides just likeworking out and resistance and
lifting weights.
Hypertrophy is the word thatbasically just describes gaining
(22:57):
muscle.
It is the process of tearingthe, having little micro tears
in the muscle when you work itout.
That's what the fatigue of themuscle feels like.
And the repair of that.
Actually is what builds themuscle.
So you tear it a little bit.
Your body sends all these cellsin order to create more muscle
fiber to repair it.
And that repair process actuallyputs more mass on your muscle
(23:21):
muscles.
The sweet spot for this inexercise.
Is going to be different foreverybody, depending on what
access to equipment you have,what your physical capabilities
are.
If you have to modify for anyinjuries or whatever, it can
work for heavy, medium, andlight weights.
(23:42):
But what you want to focus on isjust having consistency.
Several times a week.
So hitting this three minimum ofthree weight lifting sessions a
week, and to continuechallenging yourself so that you
will be able to see thosechanges.
So you cannot stick with lightweights unless you increase your
(24:04):
raps.
You can stick with lower reps ifyou increase your weight.
So whatever you do, you have tobe constantly working towards.
Gaining muscle and strength bythe fatigue and failure of the
muscle.
So if you do a workout and youdon't feel sore the next day or
two, or you didn't feel like youwent your max, you didn't
(24:28):
fatigue that muscle, you didn'tfeel like, oh, I could barely do
one more rep if I wanted to.
Then you were not reaching thathypertrophy, mark, where your
body is, has, has.
Created the opportunity to sendthose fibers in for repair.
So like I said, you can doreally low weights or body
weight, and just work until youget to that fatigue or failure
(24:51):
place, but it will take youlonger.
So that's why once you get intothis world, you tend to just end
up progressing towards heavierand heavier weights because the
real sweet spot for most peoplewho only want to work out for 30
minutes and not.
Hours something.
Is to do three or four sets ofmovements for about six to 12
(25:13):
reps.
So if you can do.
If you can do more than 12 repsat the end of, of your third set
in your movement.
And you don't feel like you areat that point of fatigue or
failure, then you probably needto increase your weights.
And that can kind of be likethis play.
This little interplay there.
(25:33):
For you while you're figuringout exactly how hard to push
yourself.
And I personally just go for theheaviest wheats possible mostly
just for time.
Because I can get a workout.
I mean, I know that werecommended women work on this
for 30 minutes, but I, becauseI'm not in a gym waiting for
equipment, et cetera, I'm in mygarage where I have my weights.
(25:55):
I can usually get in an, in aworkout and out of a workout and
hit all of the major lifts thatI wanted to do in like around 20
minutes, just because of I'mlike, I just want to make it
count, make it really hard andheavy.
Push my body to the place whereit's going to need to repair.
And then be done.
And that might be really thatmight be intimidating for some
(26:17):
women to hear, or that might belike such a relief for women to
hear like, oh really, I can dothat.
I'm allowed to do that.
Yeah, I think understanding too,like when you got back into it,
you probably weren't at thehighest level that you could do
now versus, you know, at thebeginning, so helpful to see
also you can start, there's noshame.
(26:37):
You just need to just getstarted.
Right.
So what works now?
Potentially that's the goalright?
In a couple months from now,hopefully those lighter weights.
Aren't still keeping you at thatsame place and you're moving up
and you're challenging your bodya little bit.
And then depending on what isalready going on within your
body, like, I have a shoulderinjury that side, no matter what
(26:58):
I do can not do the same thingas the other side can.
Right.
And then being able to be like,Okay.
Well, I don't also don't want tohurt myself, so I really need to
get down with like, okay, if Ihave to go slower, if I have to
do fewer reps, if the law, ifthe weight on that side needs to
look different for thisparticular move.
That is okay.
Also.
So really kind of fine tuningthat, listening to your body
(27:20):
while also pushing it.
Is important and that's a partof just connecting with your
body and listening to it too.
You had mentioned cardio, and Ithink that's a helpful thing
also to chat about.
This is not like an attack oncardio whatsoever.
We're simply just talking aboutmuscle mass.
So that's why we're going tojust be focusing much more on
that, but small amounts ofcardio while you are trying to
(27:42):
really focus on muscle mass areokay.
Anything over 30 minutes.
Can potentially cause proteinbreakdown and just prevent
growth of those muscles.
So I know women who hate cardioand this news is like really
great.
And I know women who are like, Ilove cardio so much that it
gives me joy to do it.
(28:03):
Okay, great.
But if this is a goal of yours,it's helpful just to sort of put
it in perspective.
Yeah, absolutely.
Like, I mean, there's, there'sendorphin rushes that come with
cardio.
There is opportunities to beoutdoors, which is, you know,
like that that's an importantpart of exercise too.
There's women who have, youknow, certain goals like
(28:25):
marathon running or right.
Like, so there's lots of,there's lots of valid pieces of
having cardio a part of anexercise routine if you want it
there.
But I'm here to say that if youdo not want cardio as a part of
your exercise routine, and youwant to be fit, you do not have
to do cardio.
You are going to get enough of aheart rate increase and enough
(28:49):
of a.
Like prac practice.
Heart muscle.
Heart rate thing.
You know what I'm trying to say?
There's a word there.
That's not coming.
But you are going to challengeyour heart muscle enough with.
Weightlifting that you are goingto get the benefits of cardio.
And also weightliftingcontributes to better
(29:12):
performance in other more cardiolike sports.
So it's really about balance.
It's really about shifting.
Goals, potentially looking atthe exercise that is actually
better for women, better fortheir health, better, better for
body composition.
Just better overall.
And figuring out how to makesomething work that is going to.
(29:36):
Help you reach those goals.
I love it.
I feel like this gives,hopefully anybody listening
feels some freedom in all ofthis, as they're figuring out
like, what exactly is right foryou and balancing that with.
Your likes and what is actuallygoing to be consistent for you
and all of that good stuff.
So as you're building muscle,right, we're talking about how
(29:57):
cardio.
Pieces of it can potentiallyprevent some of that muscle
growth how the muscles areactually grown and what to do
about that.
Really helpful to understandthough, too.
And we've mentioned protein alittle bit, protein intake is
going to be a huge part of yourmuscle building journey.
And so generally speaking, youwant to look at your own
(30:17):
personal body weight, and youwant about a half to 0.8 grams
per pound of protein for yourbody weight.
Right?
So if you weigh a hundred and.
30 pounds.
That's like 70 to about ahundred grams a day.
So, if you weigh more than that,less than that, you can kind of,
do the math for yourself, butthat's generally what you're
(30:37):
aiming towards in terms ofbuilding muscle.
And so that may be, you may behitting that and you're like,
dude, I'm like killing it.
Or you may look at your day andbe like, oh yep.
I can hit 50.
That's what I'm normally doing.
Okay.
Well then now, if this is thegoal and this is what we're
working towards.
We got to start to get a littlecreative, got to start to really
(30:59):
think about this and prioritizeit throughout your day.
If you're prioritizing proteinat every single meal and in each
snack.
You will most likely be hittingthis number, but you may not be
doing that right now.
Right.
And so figuring out whatproteins do you like, what can
you eat?
Can you add an extra serving ofa particular something?
(31:21):
What kind of snacks can you grabeasily?
That kind of stuff so that youcan make that shift to a higher.
Graham per day load foryourself.
Yeah.
And I mean, unfortunately, ifyou are not eating enough
protein, but you areparticipating in weight training
exercises, you were not going togrow.
Your muscles at all.
(31:42):
In fact, you're going to createmore stress inside your body
because you've created thisthing that needs to be repaired
and can't actually be prepared.
Repaired properly and it'll bean inflammatory state.
So protein is really important.
Let's talk about cycle sinking,because that's a huge thing that
(32:03):
we are just like about here ingeneral.
And we apply cycle sinking to somany different things.
Like.
How to spend creative energyduring your cycle, how to do
seed cycling, what things toeat.
We have like a whole episode oncycle sinking that we can share
with you guys.
And we also have a cycle sinkingguide that I'll link in the show
(32:23):
notes for women who want to knowmore about that, but there are
ways to.
Maximize muscle mass growth inyour cycle.
And the place that you want tokind of emphasize that the most
is this first part of your cyclewhen estrogen is the highest,
because it is very forgiving tocortisol and we can handle these
(32:45):
harder workouts without havingour hormones very much affected.
And estrogen also allows us tobuild muscle mass faster than in
our luteal phase becauseprogesterone and our luteal
phase in the second half of ourcycle is actually an antagonist
to muscle mass.
So we want to emphasize proteinat this point in our cycle.
(33:07):
And we also want to just be surethat we're participating in.
Our weight training activities.
During this part of our cycle.
The most you need about 35 gramsof protein at once in one
sitting to properly stimulateamino acid receptors, which are
going to help to get proteininto your muscles that need to
(33:31):
be repaired.
That means we need to eat thathuge bolus of protein within
like an hour of working out inorder to maximize that.
So we we've ripped our muscleswith our.
Exercise.
And then we're going to shove aton of protein in there so that
our body can repair it and, andhelp to build some of those
(33:52):
muscle fibers back in again.
Yeah, and I just, I just lovethe idea of cycle sinking in
general, because it makes youthink about what is happening in
your body and put a purpose toit and connect with it and think
about it.
And it's just yet anotherreminder, right?
That like nothing happens in ourbodies in a vacuum, like it is
all interconnected and then weget to actually use it to our
(34:14):
advantage.
So during ovulation, after thatfirst part of the cycle, right
during ovulation, testosteroneis at the highest at this point,
which makes sense.
Right?
Most women are like, Hey, atthis point in my cycle, I'm like
interested in having sex.
I'm feeling very energetic.
I'm very creative.
I have all of this likecapacity.
Right.
So we want to take advantage ofthat here now as well.
(34:37):
You can lift the heaviestusually around this time, so you
can literally go big at.
In all of the ways, right.
Creatively libido wise, andbuilding muscle mass.
So going big at this point isusually the best benefit.
And, but you also want to thinkabout, and most likely if you're
going bigger, this will comealso, but going slower so big
(34:59):
and slow, you don't need.
Or you can lean into the ideaof, of those bigger weights
rather than the small ones witha bunch of reps, just going
slowly with the big stuff aroundthis time, because.
Again, your hormones are workingfor you to kind of lean into
that during that ovulatoryperiod.
Yeah.
And then right after ovulation,which is typically like this day
(35:21):
16 to 19 progesterone is notquite building up yet.
And we have the one final windowto maximize protein intake and
muscle mass before we hit day20, which is really important
because that is when ourprogesterone starts to peak to
support our luteal phase.
(35:42):
Progesterone wants to ensurethat our bodies are completely
capable.
Bubble of handling a potentialpregnancy.
If we got pregnant in our Latoriwindow.
And so progesterone is just allabout making everything full and
soft and slow.
And so this is not the time tomaximize a ton of weights after
(36:02):
day 20.
This is not a time that our bodyis going to be really receptive
to protein.
Still important to get plenty ofprotein, just to.
Continue to support yourself,metabolically and blood sugar
wise and everything like that.
But this is the time that weneed to.
actually slow down, kind ofchill out.
We don't want to do like a lotof endurance training.
(36:23):
We don't want to do really heavyweights during this time while
we're waiting for our period tocome.
We want to try to keep cortisolas stable as possible and
preparing for the start of ourcycle is actually going to help
us to have a smoother cycle.
So a lot of women, they justkeep going hard throughout their
(36:43):
whole entire cycle until theirperiod comes in and they're
like, well, now I'm, I'm totallywiped.
And I have to take this time to.
Slow down and bleed and rest,but what's happening.
With our hormones during ourcycle is actually, our body is
telling us and giving us lots ofsigns and signals to slow down
and rest.
When progesterone is building inthat final week and women who do
(37:07):
that transition into theirmenstrual period, a lot
smoother.
And a lot of women need thatfirst or second day to kind of
like, just adjust to.
Having the heaviest flow of yourperiod and that big hormonal
shift that happens can just kindof feel disruptive.
But that's what estrogen isstarting to build again, in that
(37:28):
first part of your cycle.
And you have a potential forreally being able to get back to
more endurance, just what'shappening with hormones in men
and metabolically in your bodyand back to the protein
building.
You want to know somethingcrazy?
So I've shared a handful oftimes.
I love sweating on the first dayof my cycle.
(37:49):
Like I get into my sauna bag andlove it.
I don't necessarily.
I enjoy working out on thatfirst day because my period just
starts and it's heavy that firstday.
But the second day of my cycleis like, I get the.
I can PR I can get like the bestI can do the.
I like, there's something aboutthat second day where I'm like,
(38:10):
man, this is a great day for mein my body.
Like, and it's very counter.
I'm not pushing myself so hardand not pretending like I'm not
on my period or something, butthere's some thing that is
happening hormonally that I'mlike, oh yes, this feels, it
feels good right now.
And most women would say that nomatter what their issues are
(38:30):
around their period, movingfeels better.
Moving usually improves theperiod and is just a better.
happier thing.
So.
You ladies have a lot ofinformation.
You have a lot of our opinions.
Also you have a lot of ourexperiences and I hope
encouragement to at leastconsider how to work this in a
(38:53):
little bit more into yourlifestyle.
I know that it's going tobenefit every single woman who
is able to just start somewhere,do something.
And we have a couple ofresources available to you.
In the show notes, we have ablog all about whole food
protein.
protein.
ideas.
So things that you can quicklygrab a snack or small meals that
(39:15):
is like real food.
We also have that muscle massbuilding protocol from full
script that you can find insideof the show notes.
And I'm also gonna throw in ourcommunity membership, wait list.
I know it's not open now, butput yourself on the wait list.
So when it does open, you canjump in there and get tons of
(39:36):
support for stuff just likethis, but especially access to
the metabolic health course thatKelly created for us there last
year.
It just unpacks everything abouthow to get yourself as
metabolically healthy aspossible, and some really
tangible ways to do that,including this whole muscle
building idea.
I hope, I mean, this has beenone of my favorite episodes to
(39:59):
record in a while.
It's just getting me fired up.
I'm like how something that itcan feel like a roadblock in
some ways, but when you hear itlike this, you're like, why
wouldn't I?
Right.
And so I hope that you listeningare feeling the same way.
Feeling fired up about takingcare, really good care of
yourself in a way.
that makes sense.
Hormonally, biologicallymetabolically all of those
(40:21):
things line up.
And so that just, it's excitingto be able to share stuff like
this and hopefully encourage youfor lifelong health, no matter
what kind of season of life youare in.
And so, again, hopefully thisleaves you encouraged it.
It was a joy to chat about thisnext week.
We're going to go into somethingthat actually can be impacted as
well.
Just metabolically by musclemass and all that good stuff.
(40:43):
We're going to be chatting aboutpreventing hypertension, high
blood pressure.
And so that's going to be like,sort of the next stage of some
of these conversations of justwhat's going on metabolically.
So excited to.
Lead you through thatinformation next week as well.
All right, ladies, we'll see youthen.
Bye.
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