Imagine lifting that heavy box up the stairs with ease, walking up that massive staircase without feeling out of breath, and strutting through life with more confidence than you've ever felt before. All this (and so much more!) is possible if you start prioritizing strength training in your life TODAY! 

In this episode, I share everything you need to know for starting your strength training journey. I will tell you how to find the right strength training program for you and tailor your diet and lifestyle to build muscle. I also highlight the muscles and exercises you should prioritize and encourage you to enjoy the entire process. Get ready to say hello to more muscle, less fat, and a whole lot of body recomposition!

The Nutrition Project is a 12-week live group program that addresses your challenges in real-time. You will learn my eating methodology and gain direct access to me for in-person coaching. Add your name at hollyperkins.com/workshop.

Want FREE access to my brand new four-week strength training plan, Strength Without Stress? Head over to hollyperkins.com/review where you can upload a screenshot of your review and gain immediate access. This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197, so be sure to grab it now!

If you resonated with anything shared in today’s episode, I hope you’ll rate and leave a *glowing* review of the show on Apple Podcasts. Be sure to follow and subscribe to keep up-to-date when new episodes drop on Tuesdays! 

Topics Covered:

• Preparing for your strength training  
• At home strength training 
• The importance of using the right equipment 
• Finding the training plan for you 
• Start slowly to solidify your technique 
• Muscles and exercises to prioritize 
• Embracing the process 
• Tips for your optimizing your diet 

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the first 15 episodes of Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE
• Join the waitlist for The Body Composition Project HERE 
• Check out my 6 Week Strength Training and Cardio Plan HERE
• Buy Lift to Get Lean HERE

Follow Me: 

Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

Without even the slightest bit of doubt, strength training is hands down the most important thing you can do for your health and for your current body goals. Strength training is the only truly unlimited tool for redesigning your body, you can build muscle to reshape your body the way that you want it, you can improve strength so that you avoid injuries and age gracefully. And you can use it to improve your metabolism and burn off fat without having to diet, which you can only do for so long. If you're ready to start your strength training journey and want to do it right, keep listening.

Hello, and welcome. 30 years ago, I started my career as a personal trainer in New York City. Since then, I have been featured as an expert in pretty much every major magazine and publication. I wrote the women's health book lift to get lean, which is a strength training Bible for women. And I've helped hundreds of women to achieve their ideal body composition. Through my coaching programs, I think it's safe to say I know a thing or two about strength training. Now, I know that that is not all that unusual. There are tons of other people out there who also know a lot about strength training. But I teach women how to do it right, because women are not small men. As a woman, your strength training practices should be different and need to be different from men's. I've developed very specific guidelines to help women use strength training effectively. And while I know a lot about a lot of things, I know a lot about building strength and muscle for a woman's body. If you want to learn more about strength training and get started, but are unsure of where to begin, this episode will help. If you're tired of feeling weak and rundown or you just want to improve your strength and tighten up your muscles. Keep listening. In this episode, you'll learn exactly how to get started and what to look for in a program. Whether you should work out in a gym or at home. The kind of exercises to start with the types of movements to avoid and the most important things to address in your diet when starting a strength program.

As always, be sure to check in with your doctor if you are getting started with strength training, or if you have any existing health issues. While I do know a lot about this topic and have a ton of experience, I am not your doctor. That being said, I do believe that everyone can be wildly successful at strength training. It is the most rewarding journey because the payoffs are huge. There is nothing better than feeling strong and walking around and noticing a new kind of tightness in your body. It feels so good to pick up heavy things with ease and feel like you can just fly up a flight of stairs. Strength is everything. Personally, I will never forget an experience I had just a few years ago. So I had been traveling and I had just arrived back in LA really late one night after a super long day of travel. I think I was coming back from the East Coast and I had a couple of layover. So it was just one of those really terrible travel days. And when I came back to LA I was staying with a friend. I remember feeling particularly wiped out it was late at night I think it was like midnight, it was super late. When the car service dropped me off outside of her condo at the curb. I have this super big, super heavy suitcase. And I remember standing there looking up at a series of stairs that I had to climb to get to her front door and I wanted to cry. I was that tired. I literally had that moment where I didn't know if I was even gonna be able to get this suitcase up the stairs and knowing my friend, it wasn't a situation where it would have been appropriate to have her come help me. And certainly I knew that I was stronger than she was.

So anyway, I looked up this flight of stairs and I was like well, I don't really have a choice here. I gotta do it. So I pulled up my pants and I picked up my suitcase and I got up the first flight of stairs and then had to climb another second smaller flight of stairs and I turned the corner and there was an other flight of stairs, and this is all just to get up to the back of her condo, took a deep breath, climb that second flight of stairs and made it to her front door. I hadn't been to her house before. And when I got into her house and we said hello, I noticed that there was another smaller flight of stairs, just to get to the main staircase that went upstairs. And at this point, I was like, I don't know how I'm going to do this, but I just have to do it. So when it's time to go upstairs, we climb the flight of stairs and turn a corner. And there's another flight of stairs, Oh, I must be on the second floor. And yet, we get to the second floor and turn the corner. And there's another flight of stairs. I was staying on the third floor of her condo. And this was on top of all of the flight of stairs getting to her house. Needless to say, I did it. And when I got to the top, of course I was exhausted. But I was like, Whoa, I did it. That to me was the most gratifying thing. I went from a moment of really and truly being like, what am I going to do if I can't get my suitcase into her house? What would I have done to doing it and I was strong, and I felt good. And that is exactly why strength training is so powerful. If nothing else, start your strength training journey now, so that you can feel strong the next time you have to push or pull or lift something heavy. It's worth it.

So before I get into the episode, I want to announce that my brand new program, the body composition project, is officially and finally starting in just a few weeks. The body composition project is a live group program where I'll coach you and guide you to improve your body composition. So that more of you is muscle, less of us fat, and so that you reach that important 70% lean muscle mass that's associated with better health. This is the program to help you use strength training and nutrition to improve muscle quality, increase energy and stamina, reduce body fat and create truly lasting health. This program isn't for everyone. It's for you. If you're truly ready to make some changes in your body in 2024. And you're ready, willing and able to let me coach you. It is not a fluffy fitness challenge, I will tell you that. It is a medically proven plan. That is the culmination of my 30 years of practice. And it's everything that I teach. It's open to everyone, but it's helpful if you've got some experience with strength training. So for this round, since it's the first, it's not right if you don't know anything about strength training, and you really should have about six months of experience of strength training in practice. To learn more, please add your name to the waitlist at Holly perkins.com forward slash body waitlist. that's all one word BODYWAIT l i s t body waitlist. And then keep an eye on your email inbox in the coming weeks so that you can learn all the details as they're announced. Again, that's Holly perkins.com forward slash body waitlist. And if you are brand new to strength training, let's get into the episode so that you can be ready for the body composition project next time around.

I'm going to go over three broad things that you want to keep in mind when you're starting your strength training journey. So the first thing is, I strongly encourage you to take a beat and truly prepare before you get started. Get a program created by an expert, a legitimate expert, please. And make sure it's a program that is specific to your goal and your life stage. You don't have to spend money here there are decent programs out there that you can download for free. I see them almost every single day. I personally have won over at Holly perkins.com forward slash offer. It's my six week strength and cardio program. If you don't already have it, that's a great place to start. But just make sure that you do the best that you can to get your hands on a solid program if you're not getting mine. If you're new to strength training, I really encourage you not to make the mistake of thinking that you can read did an article or follow exercise videos that you see on Instagram, it's actually really important to make sure you're on a program. And you're following it week after week after week, so that there is design and intention behind the variables of the program that you're following. If you're new, I hate to say it, you're just not as educated as you need to be in order for it to be effective.

While I'm a big fan of going into a proper gym, for strength workouts, you don't have to if you really don't want to, or you can't, you can start at home with even just some bands or some dumbbells to get started and grow from there all throughout COVID, I worked out in a home base gym, and it was great, I had to adapt, I actually didn't know that I could. But you can really absolutely get great results at home, and never step into a gym. It's true. That's not just me promoting something because I'm not, it's really legitimately true. One of my colleagues who I also consider a mentor of sorts, does all of his training at home. And he is hands down, the most well trained, fit guy I know. And he does it all out of a home based gym. And yes, I do love the variety of exercises that you can access in a gym. And I've always said that if you really want to go as far as you can possibly go in your strength training journey, at some point, it's going to be really helpful to have access to the professional level equipment, or the gradations and increments in dumbbells that you can get in a gym. If going into a gym is an option for you, I strongly encourage it.

So on that note, I want to say something that is probably going to sound a bit obvious, but I do think that it needs to be said. So the word strong is very popular these days in marketing and social media. And the truth is, I think probably why is such a popular word is we all want to feel strong, both inside and out. So it's a metaphor. I see a lot of workout programs these days where they are relying on the word strong to convey something that sometimes isn't exactly accurate. So for example, maybe you've seen the word strong being associated with a running program or a cycling class, right become strong, come to this boot camp class. So in this way, the idea is that you'll become stronger from that specific workout. But in truth, you can only become stronger and build muscle through a progressive resistance strength training program. Yes, if you have been, let's say on the couch for three years, and you start a walking program, your leg muscles will become stronger. And if you let's say then start a jogging program, your muscles will then get stronger. If you then go take that cycling class, your legs are gonna get stronger yet. But at some point, you can only actually get stronger by using increasingly harder weight loads repetitively over time.

I say all of this to say, if you want to start strength training, be sure to get a progressive resistance strength training program that features dumbbells and weights and barbells, et cetera. If you want to be strong, use the equipment that's associated with strength training, not a treadmill. Catch my drift.

Another mistake you want to avoid is choosing a program that is designed by or designed for a person that is very different from you. So for example, if you're a woman over the age of 50, don't buy or get your hands on a program that's designed by let's say, a 27 year old male fitness influencer, even if he says this programs are for women. Or if you're a woman, let's say over 60 Don't get a program designed by a 30 year old woman who is Genetically built very different from you. In other words, you're going to have more success. If you're learning from someone who's a proven expert, who truly understands your body, and creates a program for your body and your goals. And maybe someone who is even at the same life stage as you. Does that make sense? I'm not knocking young women, I'm not knocking male trainers, a lot of my colleagues are very smart male trainers and younger women. But I know a ton of male trainers. And I was once a young woman, if you know what I mean. And I now know what I didn't know, then the only years of experience brings to really truly understanding the female body. So make sure you get a program that reflects you. And again, I just want to underscore this doesn't mean that you have to invest. There are a lot of great free programs out there, don't grab it just because it's free, do your research.

So the second thing that I strongly suggest is to make sure that you start with the basics. Your strength training plan should include simple movement patterns with only two phases, an up and a down, like a bicep curl, an in and an out, a down and an up like a goblet squat, a push and a pull, etc. Two Phases. This allows you to focus your learning and energy on mastering single joint movement, so that you can get your technique down. This also allows you to isolate muscles and muscle groups so as to really work on increasing the strength in the function of each group individually. So for example, probably every single woman that I've worked with comes to me with weak triceps, and it's normal. Most of us don't use our triceps a lot in our normal daily lives. And it's one of the muscle groups like your glutes that just tend to be weak and underdeveloped, in order to strengthen your triceps, if they are weak or underutilized is to perform exercises that isolate that muscle group. So for example, a single joint elbow extension exercise like a cable press down, it's one of my favorites. This move allows you to focus on just your triceps, so that you can put your energy into helping them become stronger, so that you can eventually do a more complicated move, let's say like a barbell bench press. So that then down the road, you can do the most complicated move of vol, which would be a military style push up.

A mistake I see is beginning with the complex movement patterns like the push up, a deadlift, a barbell back squat, a Romanian deadlift with a barbell, whole ups, single leg exercises, or multi phase complicated movements a lot like you see fancy interesting exercises on Instagram, I found that you'll be able to master those more complicated moves faster, if all of the associated muscles are each individually strong. If you have super weak triceps, and you start with push ups, and oh, by the way, I see this all the time. If you do that, you're going to end up compensating by elevating your shoulder girdle, which over emphasizes the traps, which means you're going to build up a muscle the traps that isn't really intended for the move. And you're not going to be improving the muscles that are supposed to be worked for that exercise. In the case of a push up, that would be your chest, arms and shoulders. Instead, if you strengthen your triceps and your chest in isolation, those muscles will be prepared when you tackle the more complex exercise the push up and that is how you progress and actually improve your body mechanics.

And on a related note, you want to assume that you're even weaker than you realize. I know that this is probably a very unpopular opinion. And it sounds a lot more empowering to hear. You're stronger than you realize. And the truth is, I do believe that you are you are stronger than you realize. But when it comes to beginning your journey, it's helpful to Start slowly with lighter weights so that you can learn perfect technique. Now I'm not saying always use lightweights. I'm saying, start slowly, using light weights so that you can make sure you get perfect technique. Assume that you're even weaker than you believe yourself to be, because even if I'm wrong here, and I hope I am, you'll end up using a slightly lighter weight, and therefore, you'll perform the move better. Now, listen, this is all a very simplified approach to this information, simply so that you can start your journey. And it's actually a lot more complicated than this. And that's exactly why I offer coaching programs, because most women do need help with this. So at a minimum, please make sure that you get my book lift to get lean, because it walks you through a lot of these basics. You can order it online at national booksellers and on Amazon.

Be sure to start slowly and don't jump in too much. I realized that you might be super excited to get going. But be patient and start gently so that you avoid soreness, overtraining, and you walk away from your workouts feeling good and wanting more. Most of us don't love a crushing and grueling workout. Now I know some people do, but most of us don't really enjoy it. I find that my clients are more excited and more committed. When they leave a workout wanting more. Approach your workouts like the goal is to walk away feeling better than when you started. That will keep you coming back for life. Specifically, the muscle groups that you want to focus on first are the hamstrings, the muscle group on the back of your thigh, quadriceps, the muscle group on the front of your thigh, your glutes, your back, chest, shoulders, biceps, and triceps. Those are the major muscle groups of the body in a very simplified way. And some exercises that should appear in your program are these are my favorites that I believe in leg press. If you're at the gym, a goblet squat, if you're at home, the leg curl machine to hit the hamstrings my favorite. And this one is actually really hard to do at home and I have not yet found a perfect substitution. There are some complicated band exercises that you can do where if you're able to attach a band to the wall at the height of your ankle, and then you wrap that band around your ankle and lay on your tummy, you can pull your heel to your butt to mimic a lying leg curl that you would do in the gym.

A seated cable row at home it would be a band lat row, a dumbbell side raise for the shoulders, a flat lying chest fly for your chest and a straight bar cable triceps press down this is an exercise that I mentioned earlier, it's my favorite to start to address the weak triceps. This one is also a bit challenging to do at home, but you can attach a band above your head and perform the same movement with a resistance band. And even though it's hard to do at home, this is my favorite tricep exercise to start with. At home an alternate could be a dumbbell French press. If these exercises sound like a foreign language, you can just come over to my YouTube channel under women's strength nation on YouTube. And I have a ton of video tutorials there. All of these exercises are included.

And the last tip is to give it time and embrace the process. The best results from strength training come in time. It's a long game. And I know I know you might want fast results we all do I get it. But fast results don't happen with building muscle. Pretty much every legit study has shown that it takes at least at least six to eight weeks of a consistent strength training program to really change a muscle. And if you get let's say three or four weeks into a new program, and you think that you're bulking up, think again. You're not you literally can not build muscle in a few weeks. Again, the research has shown over and over that it takes at least six weeks to start to see real change in muscle. So when you start plan to adopt this as a lifestyle, the results will build upon themselves. And it gets better and better, the longer you work at it. All these years later, I now get better results with less effort, because I've been doing it for so long. And because it's a process, your target should be consistency. Let consistency be your goal. And the thing that you look at when you're wanting to assess your progress, don't look for weight loss as the result or the measure because it is the last thing to change. Don't look for obvious changes in your body fat or your body composition. In the first six weeks or so this is something that takes time it is a long game. Instead, look at all the other signs of progress, and really celebrate consistency as the win, showing up doing it mastering the moves, increasing your wait loads, and pay attention to all of those feeling results. Do you feel better? Are you sleeping better? Are you managing stress better? Are you in a better mood, there are so many amazing benefits that come from this. And you know what, what you see in the mirror and what you see on the scale are though I asked of those things. And in my opinion, they're the least important.

And the very last thing to do is to start paying more attention to your diet. Muscles are made in the gym, but they're fed in the kitchen, be sure that you get your daily protein intake, right, do not work out on empty. Eat a combination of carbohydrates and protein at every meal and snack. Don't go longer than about four and a half hours between a meal or a snack except of course overnight while you're sleeping. And be sure to listen to the first 10 episodes of this podcast because I go into a lot of these things and much more detail. And that is it. If you approach this as a lifestyle change, and enjoy the process, you'll get better results faster than if you're looking for quick weight loss. I am just not about that at all because I have found that it just almost never works. I remember crystal clear. First learning how to lift weights when I was in college. I remember feeling so confused and so uncomfortable. And I can remember the fear and the panic, trying to figure out all have the crazy contraptions and the weight equipment. It can be really intimidating and deflating. I look back on that with like, great sadness, because I wish that it hadn't been such a discouraging experience for me. Now, thankfully, I figured it out. And I'm so glad that I did. But please don't let yourself feel discouraged. The rewards are too great for you to let fear and uncertainty stop you. I learned it. And I have 1000s of women in my community who have learned it too and been able to overcome the gym intimidation. And I know that you can do it too. No one cares what you do. And no one cares what you look like except for you. So just put your head down and have fun with it. It will be worth it. I promise.

I hope you enjoyed this episode. Come on over to Holly perkins.com forward slash body waitlist and add your name so that I know you're interested in learning more about the body composition project if it's right for you. And stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong my friend