212: How to Build A Lean, Toned Body

Introduction 

You're listening to Biceps After Babies Radio episode number 212.

Hello and welcome to Biceps After Babies Radio. A podcast for ladies who know that fitness is about so much more than pounds lost or PRs. It's about feeling confident in your skin and empowered in your life. I'm your host, Amber Brueseke, a registered nurse, personal trainer, wife, and mom of four. Each week, my guests and I will excite and motivate you to take action in your own personal fitness as we talk about nutrition, exercise mindset, personal development, and executing life with conscious intention. If your goal is to look, feel, and be strong and experience transformation from the inside out, you, my friend are in the right place. Thank you for tuning in, now let’s jump into today’s episode.

 

Welcome back 0:48  

Hey, hey, hey, welcome back to another episode of Biceps After Babies Radio, I'm your host, Amber Brueseke. And I'm so glad that you're here. I am just really grateful for the people who listen to this podcast. People share it and the comments and feedback that I get from you guys that you are loving the podcast. So from my heart to yours, thank you so much for being here. 

 

The pathway on how to get a lean, toned body  1:13  

Okay, today's topic is a good one. And honestly, like a very highly requested one. Not that people are specifically saying, you know, do a podcast on like how to get a lean, toned body. But when I talk to people about what their goals are, or what they would like to achieve, these words of lean and toned are the ones that often come up of people wanting that as an end result, and not being sure of the process that they need to take to get there. And so that's what we're going to talk about today is the pathway. 

 

Understanding the different phases and pathways needed to get the end goal  1:48 

And I think the first thing that I want to discuss before we get into like the nitty gritty is understanding that there are different phases and different pathways that we need to take in order to get said result. For example, I'm a nurse, and so in order to work as a nurse, I had to get my nursing degree like I had to go to school, I got my bachelor's degree in nursing, and I took the NCLEX. And then I became a registered nurse and then was able to go apply to get a job. However, if I wanted to be a doctor, that would have been a different path, I would have had to take different steps, I would have had to go get my undergraduate and then take the MCAT and then go to med school and you know, residency and get board certified. So it's really important when we are figuring out our next step in our journey, to first know where you want to go. So that you can reverse engineer the process to get there. You know, I knew I wanted to work as a nurse. So then it's like, okay, well, so what are the steps that I need to take to become a nurse. And it's the same thing here is one of the things that I help clients with initially is asking themselves the question, “What do I want? What is the outcome that I'm trying to achieve? What is the result that I would like to have with my body?” And once we figure that out, then we can start to take the steps or figure out the steps and then take the steps in order to close the gap and to get that end result. And so specifically, in this podcast episode, I'm going to talk about the end result of if you're looking for getting leaner, and by leaner, I just mean losing fat, and having that toned look, if that's a goal of yours, then this podcast episode is going to be very valuable to you. 

 

Free workshop  3:28 

Now I'm going to mention this resource, you know, towards the middle or end of the podcast as well as we kind of circle back around to this topic. But I want to put it here too, just for anybody who is only listening to the first half of the podcast and wants more resources to be able to dive a little bit deeper into this process that I'm talking about this path, you know that one would take in order to get the end result of having a lean, toned body. And that is my free class called “The Five Vital Ingredients Your Workout Program Must Include to Build Muscle And Lose Fat”. So if you are interested in learning the five key ingredients that you need to be making sure that you're implementing if your goal is to build muscle and or lose fat, then that workshop’s gonna dive a lot deeper into this topic. You know, this [episode] is going to be a taste of that. But that workshop is going to dive much deeper into helping you to figure that out. And so you can go to bicepsafterbabies.com/workshop to be able to go listen to that free class and dive a little bit deeper into this topic.

 

Let’s define toned  4:34

Okay, so first, let's dive into the definition maybe of some of these words that I'm using and that I hear a lot in the space, and specifically this word “toned”. I think it's really important to recognize that when people use words, they usually have a concept in their head of what that word means. But what that word means to one person can be completely different than what that word means to somebody else. So I think if you have ever told yourself or thought or set a goal of like, I want to be more toned, I think it's a really great idea to reflect on what you actually mean by that word, because I have talked to different people. And what one person means as toned, can be completely different than what somebody else means as toned. And the reality is, is that you cannot tone a muscle, that's not an actual thing that you can do. Muscle can grow or shrink, it can get bigger, or it can get smaller, you can have more muscle, or you can have less muscle, but you can't tone a muscle, that's not a physiological thing that you can do. Like, if you were talking to a scientist, and you were like, how does one tonne of muscle what is the biological mechanism through which a muscle is toned, that does not exist. Like I said, you can add more muscle cells, you can increase the size of those muscle cells. And so basically, you can add muscle or you can take muscle away. And the same thing with fat, you can add fat or take fat away. One of the misconceptions that I hear a lot, and it is well intentioned and it is demonstrates a lack of maybe scientific understanding as people are learning about this process, which again, not everybody has taken anatomy courses or loves, like learning about fitness and nutrition and the body and anatomy and physiology., that's my jam. So I will do all that learning for you and I will share that with you so that you don't have to go take a college anatomy and dissection course in order to learn all of these things. But one of the things that I will hear a lot is people saying that I want to turn my fat into muscle. And I get where that comes from. And I think what people actually mean or what they maybe don't understand about the process is that when you look at a muscle on a physiological like cellular level, muscle is a completely different bodily tissue than fat is. And so saying that I want to turn fat into muscle is almost like saying I want to turn my heart tissue into a liver, they're completely different tissues, you cannot turn one tissue into another. So what I think most people actually mean when they say something like I want to turn my fat into muscle is that they would like to lose fat and they would like to gain muscle. And I think if I asked most clients who come into MACROS 101, what they would like to do, that that's what they say I want to lose fat and gain muscle. And, you know, for most people that's like the holy grail, let's I want to do both of those things, I want to lose fat and gain muscle. 

 

The optimal environment for Losing fat and gaining muscle are completely different   7:49

The tricky part about that is that the optimal environment for those two goals are completely different. The optimal environment for one to gain muscle is one where you have a higher caloric intake and a lower cardio, lower amount of cardio per week. Okay, so the optimal environment for building muscle is higher calories, and lower cardio. And the optimal environment for losing fat is lower calories, and higher cardio. And so you can very quickly see that the optimal environment for those two goals is completely opposite of each other. Now, that doesn't mean you can't like that nobody can simultaneously lose fat and build muscle that that you can it is called recomposition, some people are able to do that. So that is that is something that can be done. However, for a lot of people, it's not something that works well together simultaneously and that is because those optimal environments are completely opposite from each other. 

 

Idea of lossing or gaining fat and muscle  9:00

So going back to what I started with this idea that we can lose fat or gain fat and we can lose muscle or gain muscle. When most people say that they would like to tone, what they usually mean is that they would like to lose fat and have a visible amount of muscle present there. However, I will add the caveat that I've talked to some women and when they say toned, what they really are thinking about is losing fat and not really building muscle but like seeing whatever muscle is there on their bodies at that point. And that's a very different conversation than somebody who wants to see muscle and have some definition associated with that muscle. And this is an important distinction because if you want to have the definition associated with muscle, the shape associated with muscle, you must build it. You have to build it. And so often women, the only phase that they are comfortable with, that they are familiar with, that they have done before, is a cutting phase where you're creating a caloric deficit, and your goal is fat loss. And so oftentimes I hear women trying to get to a lean, toned body, and the only phase that they are staying stuck in is the phase of cutting and creating a caloric deficit. Yes, that will help you to get rid of some fat to an extent, obviously, like, there's a whole reverse that comes into that I'd like a completely separate topic. But caloric deficit, yes, is going to help you with removing fat. But here's the thing, I think that a lot of people don't understand. It doesn't matter how much fat you lose if you have not built the muscle, you're going to lose fat, and there's going to be nothing there. And this happens, not infrequently with women, where they lose, and they just look skinny, there is no muscle definition there. And the reason is because they haven't taken the time to actually build the muscle, you cannot reveal muscle that has not yet been built. And in order to build muscle, you can't just hope and pray and cross your fingers and go to the gym and do whatever you want. Just thinking oh, I go to the gym and so that's going to help me to build muscle. 

 

Muscle growth 11:25

I will say this is one of the biggest misconceptions that people have about building muscle. And that is that if a program has hurts my muscle, or if a program makes me sore, or if a program has dumbbells in it, then that means if I do this, I'm going to build muscle. And that's not actually the case, there are important ingredients that have to be present in that workout for it to stimulate muscle growth. Your body doesn't just grow muscle for funsies. It doesn't just wake up a name, say you know, it'd be really fun to have more quadriceps. We should do that today, we should go build some quadriceps. Our bodies don't work that way. Our bodies do things that it has to do to adapt to stay alive. That's what our bodies are created on this ability to adapt in order to keep us alive. And so muscle growth is no different. Muscle growth is really an adaptation that our body is forced into, based off of what we are what stressors we are placing on top of our body. 

 

Workshop 12:41

And hey, I get it. I've been there. If you don't know my story, I taught group fitness, love group fitness, that I'm not saying bad things about group fitness. Group Fitness was a lifeline for me, especially when I was young, having kids like being able to go to the gym, drop my kids off at the childcare and like go teach a group fitness class probably was the thing that kept me sane during med school and residency while my husband was, you know, as basically single during those time periods. And I had these little small children, it kept me sane. I have so many fond memories of group fitness and the people that I met and the friendships that I made and the community that I developed and the fun that I had during that time. But at the same time, I went and taught Body Pump for eight years. And yes, did I put on some muscle at the very beginning? Yes. But over the next I don't know, seven years, I realized that even though I was teaching Body Pump, I was lifting weights consistently like week, over week, over week, over week, I never really built any more muscle doing that. And it was because at the time, I didn't understand that just because your workouts have dumbbells, just because your workout has a barbell like body pump has a barbell in it, just because your muscles get sore, just because it burns when you do it does not mean that you're building muscle. And so I'm gonna link back to that workshop that I talked about because I actually go into the five specific ingredients so that you can check off and say yes, my workout program includes that, includes that, includes that, includes that and you can walk away being cool. My workout program is created to build muscle or you can walk through and be like oh actually it doesn't do that and it doesn't do that and it doesn't do that and maybe I need to be looking for a new program that is going to actually support the muscle that I want to grow. So again that free workshop I go into depth it's like way beyond the scope of this podcast, but I go more into depth in that podcast or in that workshop. So you can go to bicepsafterbabies.com/workshop to go dive deeper into those five ingredients. 

 

Build muscle to have a lean, toned body 14:53

But the reason I bring this up is because if you want a lean, toned body, you have to build muscle. For most women, if you've never intentionally taken the time to build muscle, you're never going to get a lean, toned body because you cannot cut to what has not been built. And building muscle takes intentionality, I promise you, I promise you. Nobody wakes up and is like, oh my gosh, where did all this muscle come from, I didn't do anything to have this and I have all this muscle, especially females. If that has happened to you, please message me, because metabolically does not happen to us, you have to be very intentional about gaining muscle. Now, there are some people who build muscle faster. If you've listened to Episode 45 where I talk about different body types, you'll know that if you tend towards a more endomorph body type, you may build muscle faster than somebody else. And if you tend to a more ectomorph body type, you may be a harder gainer, it may be harder for you to gain muscle. However, even if you are the most endomorphic endomorph, you're not going to just accidentally wake up one day and be like, Oh my gosh, we're gonna lose muscle come from, I didn't do anything to do this, you have to be intentional about building it. So to circle back around and bring this you know, full conclusion, this thought that I started, if you would like to build a lean, toned body, you must build muscle, you must be intentional about building muscle, you must have a muscle building focus. It's not accidental. It's not like oops, I don't know, I just like did some things at the gym and like all of a sudden I built this muscle like it has to be intentional. And again, that workshop that I cover is going to cover all those ingredients that need to be included. So bicepsafterbabies.com/workshop. 

 

The weight associated with muscle 16:53

On this vein of building muscle, one thing that I think is really important to talk about is the weight that is associated with muscle. So I hear this a lot from clients who say things like, I would like to build muscle and then they get very confused when they see the scale going up or when they like when their quads stopped fitting into their pants, and they get scared and freak out and want to go backwards. And I think having an expectation of what this process is like, can help you make the decision of if you want to do it and why it is so beneficial to do it. 

 

Specific example inside MACROS 101 17:33

So let me give you a really specific example. I remember that I was coaching a client, this was inside of MACROS 101. And she got on the coaching call and she asked me a question about her pants and like, she's like, I'm been focusing on muscle growth and building muscle. And, you know, I'm seeing the weights go up at the gym, and it's really excited, and I'm really loving it. But my pants are not fitting me anymore. Like I cannot squeeze into my pants like what is going on. And as I started to ask questions and dive deeper into this, I realized that this woman was previously wearing like a size zero or a size two pants. And she was not fitting into those size zero and size two pants and she was going having to go up in pant size. And I explained to her. And we all do this to some extent in our journey that “this problem”, like “this problem” was not actually a problem. It was just a she was building muscle and the muscle has to go somewhere. And so yeah, it may mean that you need bigger pants but that's not actually a problem. Unless it's a problem for you like I'm you know, you do you whatever you want. If you are like no way Amber, I never want to go out of a size zero pants, great, do whatever rocks your boat. But if you want to build muscle, it has to go somewhere. And so yeah, your quads may get bigger. And if you would like to build muscle and you want to have a lean, toned body, then that may be part of the process to get there. And so once we started talking about this, and she had this realization that like oh actually nothing's wrong. I'm literally doing what I said I wanted to do. My body is responding beautifully. And what actually is wrong is that I'm trying to fit into pants that aren't right for my now more muscular body. So guess what? She went and bought new pants in a larger size. And she commented later when she actually like took a picture in the changing room when she was you know, buying these larger pants is that she looked better in the larger pants. Like the definition that building muscle had given to her legs, gave her like form and shape to her legs and she actually looked better and she was super happy with that and with with the process when she understood that that was like her legs getting bigger was part of the process.  

 

We are more valuable: we deserve to take a space 19:58

And I think one of the things that I try to teach clients about so much, and I try to encourage people and women especially, and you hear this a lot, is this idea that we've been told all of our lives that we don't deserve to take up space. And it gets deep into our psyche. And I think this is, you know, we can get this could be a whole podcast episode in and of itself of this idea that our value comes from being quiet, from not rocking the boat, from not taking up space, and there's a lot of patriarchy associated with that, of like, that's the value of a woman is to just stay home, be quiet, support the man and you know, not take up any space and allow the men to run the world. And, man, do I resist that? Man, do I like fight back against that idea that my role as a woman is to be as small as possible, to be as quiet as possible and to not speak my mind? And I would you know, you do you but if that like kind of irks your tater as well as like this is part of the problem is like this idea that we are more valuable, the smaller we are. I think That's hogwash. I think your value is innate. And I think you deserve to take up space, you deserve to fill out your genes, you deserve to do whatever it is that you want to do in the world. Take a space, and rocket. And so I think as this client started to have that shift from realizing that there was no innate value in her fitting into a size jeans other than the association that she had given it, of like, Oh, I'm so valuable because look, I can fit into a size zero jeans when she got rid of that. And so to realize like, but I actually look better in the size four or the size six jeans. As I build muscle as I create shape to my body, I actually look better. And my value is not found in my pant size anyway. Yeah, like, I'm not saying oh, she's valuable because now she fits into a size six, you're valuable at a size zero, size six, a size 26, a size 106. Your value is irrespective of the jeans that you are wearing. And when you can start to separate that out. Right, I talked about this. Two weeks ago on the podcast, where I did the episode about improving your relationship with the scale. That was episode 208 if you missed it, that was a really good episode, if I do say so myself. So if you missed that one, definitely go back and listen to 208, How To Improve your relationship with the scale. So when you can start to separate out my size, or my size of jeans or my weight from your worth, the world becomes open to you. 

 

When we build muscle, it must go somewhere 22:37

So I have this conversation, because it's important to know that when you build muscle, it has to go somewhere. It is ment, like it is a thing. It is mass, it has to go somewhere. So yeah, especially if you're pretty skinny, you may have to buy a bigger jeans. That doesn't mean it's a problem, it means that you are building muscle, which was the goal, if you want to lean, toned body like that is the goal. That's part of the goal. And so having that expectation is important. 

 

When we build muscle, your weight may go up 23:08

The other expectation that I want to you know, have you expect going into this process of building muscle is that your weight may go up. And yes, for so many of us that has been the marker of failure in the past. Scale goes up, I'm doing something wrong, I'm failing, right? It's that repetitive talk about I need to be smaller. My value is in weighing less and being in a smaller pant size. And when we can start to shift that and recognize again, you're building muscle, it has to go somewhere, and it's going to weigh something. So one of the reasons that building a better relationship with the scale, remember to Episode 208 is so that you can release that grip that the scale has on you in order to get what you really want, which is the lean, toned body. So when you can get rid of that connection that you have with the scale weight and your worth, then you can do things like add muscle, see the weight go up and be okay with it. Because at the end what your goal is, is not really the weight. The goal is the aesthetic. The goal is how you look. I mean, for all of the terrible things on Instagram, I'm sure if you've followed many fitness accounts, you've seen the photos where it's like, I weigh 140 pounds in this picture and I weighed 120 pounds in this picture and like girlfriend looks leaner at in the 140 pounds because she's like put on a bunch of muscle and she's like way leaner and you know, she looks completely different even though it's a lower weight. Hopefully, you've seen those pictures. I have a picture like that where I show a side by side where I'm 142 pounds, but I look vastly different. And I could show you a picture of where I'm even lower than that but don't look the same as I do and when I've built muscle. So again, it's like separate writing out the aesthetic or the look that you are wanting from their assumption that that look is going to be a smaller size or a smaller weight. Gaining muscle has to go somewhere, it has mass, it has weight to it. And so freaking out because the scale is going up, if you are intentionally looking to put on mass is just silly because a lot of times, that just means that you're doing it right. 

 

I coach how to be a macro scientist in MACROS 101 25:28

And I know if you're listening to this, you may be like, but Amber, like how do I know if it's muscle or if it's fat? Or if like, how do I tease that out? And, you know, honestly, that's something that I coach clients through a lot is how to become the scientist in your journey. That's what we do in MACROS 101, I teach you how to become the scientist, I teach you how to tease those things out, I teach you how to gather the data, I teach you how to analyze it, I teach you based off of that analysis, what you do to be able to continue on in your journey and customize this process you like that is what we do in MACROS 101. So if you want to learn more about how do I know when I'm losing fat or gaining muscle, or how do I know if the scale is going up, if it's going in the right direction, those are the types of things that I teach and I coach on inside of MACROS 101. So if you want to get in the next time we open doors, we open twice a year once in the fall, and once in the spring, go to bicepsafterbabies.com/waitlist and I can coach you through all of these things. I can teach you how to be that scientist and then also coach you through all the mental side of the process as well. 

 

Definition of a lean, toned body 26:30

Okay, so let's talk rock bound to the topic. You want a lean, toned body. I've made the point and hopefully I've hammered it home. That if you want to lean, toned body, part of that is going to likely be building muscle. Now the other part of it is lean is how do we get that? How do we like not just look bulky? How do we not just look bigger by gaining muscle? And the second part of that is losing the fat. Right? So fat sits over the muscle. And so if you have a layer of muscle, and then you have a layer of fat over that muscle, yes, it is going to look bigger. And this would be what some people would call “bulky”. I don't love that word. But I know why people use it. It's because if you have muscle within a layer of fat over it, that may look bulky to you. And so the second part of it is losing the fat that is over the muscle. And that is what's going to give you that definition. That's what's going to give you that that shape. And what most people would term lean, toned body. Now, I say this, and people automatically usually are like, okay, cool. So we'll start with fat loss first with fat loss, because that's very comfortable for me. I know fat loss, I want fat loss like all of those things like so I should start with a cut first. And it's true, some people should start with a cut first, and especially the higher your body fat percentage is, doing a cut first and being able to get some of that excess fat off is going to be beneficial in the long run to help you build muscle. However, I would say for a lot of women, especially women who are closer to a healthier weight, a healthier body fat percentage, there's a lot of value in not going in immediately into a cut, but taking the time to build first, before going into a cut. So it's like taking the time to build it before you were reveal that rather than trying to reveal it first and then build it afterwards. 

 

Two parts if you want a lean, toned body 28:33

But if you want a lean, toned body, there are two phases, there's two parts of it, there's the building of the muscle and the losing of the fat. And those are like I made the point at the very beginning of the episode like those are separate processes. And often they require separate phases in order to happen. Can some people have read composition where they lose fat and gain muscle at the same time? Yes, but it is a select amount of people, it doesn't work for everybody. And a lot of people are going to take those into separate phases of losing fat and gaining muscle and focusing on those in, you know, in separate time periods. 

 

The importance of nutrition in conjunction with the workouts that you are doing 29:09

Okay, so the last thing that we'll talk about in this formula of building a lean, toned body is the importance of nutrition in conjunction with the workouts that you are doing. So, as you may assume that there are two, you know, big rocks, I guess we can say in terms of creating change in your body composition. We have workouts and specifically like cardio and weights. And then we have your nutrition. And what I like to help clients do is to be able to when we can get all of those on board, all of those aligned towards the goal that you want. Because if you think about it, okay, so the nutrition we can be in different phases. There's the cutting phase, which is a caloric deficit. There's the bulking phase, which is a caloric surplus, there is a reverse phase, which is going from a cut to maintenance. And then there's a maintenance phase which is in the middle. Right. So there's these four phases, I talk more in depth about those four phases in Episode 76. It's called the Cycles of Weight Loss. But there's those four phases with our nutrition. And each of those phases, purpose is a little bit different. And then we think about our weights. And we think about the weightlifting that we're doing and the types of weightlifting, the types of weight training that we are doing. And I talk more about this in that workshop that I linked out. And then we think about our cardio and the amount of cardio and the type of the cardio that we're doing. And I like to talk about these in terms of I call them levers and dials in MACROS 101, where we can turn up or turn down or pull a lever or not pull a lever. And we kind of have this like dashboard at our disposal to be able to customize what we're doing with our cardio, with our weights, and with our nutrition and help it support a goal. So whatever your goal is figuring out from you know, reverse engineering from that this is my goal to this is the type of nutrition, this is the phase I should be in. This is the type of weight training I should do and this is the type of cardio or the amount of cardio that I should do to be able to achieve that goal.

 

MACROS 101 and Build Your Workouts Programs 31:11

And again, that's like this whole customization process is what I teach inside of MACROS 101, that's what I help clients to be able to create is to work backwards from I would like X, Y and Z, please and thank you. Okay, well, what do we need to do with your, specifically your nutrition, and we talk a lot about nutrition in MACROS 101. And then the workout side of things, I teach a lot inside of Build Your Workouts. And if you go to that workshop, that free workshop, I'll talk about Build Your Workouts there. And that is where I help clients to learn how to customize that that workout side of things. So MACROS 101, it's kind of the nutrition side and Build Your Workouts is the workout side. And then all together, those are going to help you to be able to customize those levers for your specific individual goal.

 

Definition of success or done  31:57

So if we do a quick recap, the things that I want you taking away or that I hope you're taking away from this episode, number one, to get really clear on what your definition is of success or what your definition of done is. So in the business, Carly's my integrator, and she's always talking about this, like definition of done, meaning when she gives an assignment to someone on the team. She outlines, okay, here's the assignment and here's the definition of done. Right, you'll know that this task is done when somebody can type in a URL, it pulls up the page and the button on the page, you know, links out to something, right. So she'll have I like that definition of done. And I think that's a really valuable thing for you to take and apply to your journeys like what is your definition of done? What is that end destination that you're looking at? And if you say I want a lean body, I want a toned body, I want a muscular body I want to like whatever it is, the more clear you can get the more specific and focused you can get on what that actually means. Like what does lean mean to you? Are we talking like 14% body fat? Are we talking like 22% body fat? Like what does lean mean to you? If we're talking about hey, I want to be toned, are we talking about like, you know, Yoga Instructor, Pilates instructor like toned, where they don't really have a whole lot of muscle mass, but they're very lean. Are we talking about someone who has a little bit more shape because they've taken time to build muscle. You may be saying toned and thinking of the pilates instructor. And some people may be saying toned and thinking more of the like more shapely, like athletic figure. It doesn't matter. I don't care. I don't care what you want. But you need to be clear on what it is because unless you are clear on what you would like, then we can't figure out the path to get you there. Unless I knew I wanted to be a nurse, I couldn't figure out the path that I needed to take in schooling to be able to get me there. So step number one is figuring out what the heck you want. Sometimes that can be the hardest part. Step number one, figure out what you want. 

 

Talk about the variables needed to support your goal  34:01

And then from there, we need to talk about the variables. We need to talk about what nutrition do you need to do to support that goal? What workouts what lifting do you need to do to support that goal and what cardio do you need to do to support that goal. And if your goal is to build a lean toned body, there are two phases, there is the building of the muscle and there is the stripping away from of the fat. And for most women, both of those need to be addressed and likely addressed in separate phases. So that's the formula for building muscle and losing fat, not just losing fat, not just getting smaller, not just from your value coming from a smaller version of you or a smaller pant size of you. It comes from building muscle and that has to go somewhere. It's going away something, it's going to have maths to it, that's part of the process. But if you said that you want this end result, sometimes you have to go through things that are hard or that you are uncomfortable or unfamiliar, I would say unfamiliar is probably the better word there. It becomes uncomfortable. And this woman who I was talking about in the coaching call, she was uncomfortable, not because it was wrong, or because it was a problem, but because it was unfamiliar. And that's a very different conversation. So once I helped her to realize that, like, you just haven't ever had quads before, babe, like, welcome to having quads. This is like part of having quads, and helped her to realize that there wasn't, she felt she didn't feel uncomfortable, because it was wrong or bad, or she was doing it wrong. Simply it was unfamiliar. But the goal that she wanted to reach was unfamiliar, she had never reached that goal before. So of course, it's going to be unfamiliar. So sometimes we feel uncomfortable, and we think wrong. But in reality, it's just you said you wanted a new result, you said you wanted something different. So of course, it's going to be a little bit unfamiliar of the process to get there and what it's going to feel like when you actually achieve it. 

 

How lifting weights teaches women how powerful they can be  36:04

And taking time to build that muscle is one of the best things that you can do for your body, for your physique, for your health, for your metabolism. And, man, if I could, like do one thing in the world, I could wave my magic wand, I think it would be to get more women lifting weights. Because I think, like I said, a lot of society likes to tell us, be smaller, be quiet, sit down, don't make noise. You know, be pretty. And let us just look at you, but don't do anything. And I think when women walk into a weight room, and they pick up a weight, and it's hard, but they can do it. It builds confidence. It builds this thought of like, man I can, I don't have to just sit there and look pretty. I can freakin do things, I can freakin do a lot of things, I can do things that even I used to think I couldn't do. And I think when women lift weights, yeah, I love building muscle, I think it's fun. You look great. But to me, the reason I would say I want women lifting weights, is not because of the aesthetic. It's not even because of like, how it builds your metabolism or like improves your health. It is because it teaches women that they're frickin powerful. And I think the more women start to recognize and find and discover the power that's already inside of them, Gosh, like, that's what changes our world. And it's honestly the vision that I have for my company. Our vision, is to help you find the power that's already inside of you, to help our clients to unlock that power, to feel it, to be able to access it, and be able to put it out into the world. And so that's why my vision, my goal, if I can wave my magic wand, I would have women lifting weights. Because yeah, you look great. Yeah, it's super fun. Yeah, it's like, you know, really great for your metabolism, you want to eat more food, build some muscle. Yeah, it's great for your health, it's great for like being able to have longevity and be able to do acts of daily living when you get older. It's all those things are great reasons to build muscle. But what I love is women learning that they can take up space, is women learning that they're more powerful than they even thought, that they could do things that they used to think were impossible, but that they can reach in and they can work and they can stay consistent with something and then they can achieve it. To me, there's nothing as like empowering as learning the power that you have through lifting weights. That's why I love it. It's why I do what I do. And it's why I come on here and try to get you to do more of it. 

 

Free class  37:42

Alright, so this was a fun conversation. Again, if you want to learn more about making sure your workouts, the workouts that you're doing, are aligned with this goal of building muscle and losing fat, then I highly, highly suggest going and listen to my free class bicepsafterbabies.com/workshop. And I'll talk to you about those five ingredients that you can kind of check off and see, hey, does my workout program include that? What about that? What about that? So that you know that you are spending your time well. What I can't stand to see is women who are making time, taking time out of their very busy day to go to the gym to do things that aren't actually working, that aren't actually driving them to their goal because that's just a waste of time. I don't want you wasting your time, your time is valuable. Let's make sure that the time you're putting at the gym is actually working, is actually effective, is actually driving you closer to the goal you have. And that's what I'm going to talk about in class.

 

Learnings that can boost up one’s confidence  40:05

So, thanks for being here. Thanks for letting me, I feel like this kind of turned into a little rant, a little ranty mostly because I feel very passionate about this topic. And it starts to come out when I start to talk, but this is important stuff. And I hope by the end in this episode you saw that it's just it's deeper than like building some really pretty deltoids. It's a deeper thing than that. And it's one of the reasons that I love the playground of fitness because I think the things that you learn in this journey and the things that you learn about yourself, they bleed out, it bleeds out into other areas, and that confidence you build in yourself makes you a more confident parent. It makes you more confident woman, a more confident spouse, more confident community member, and that's what I think the world needs a lot more of. That wraps up this episode of Biceps After Babies Radio. I'm Amber, now go out and be strong because remember my friend, you can do anything. 

 

Outro

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