Today we are discussing the most effective way to build muscle: Meet strength training — medicine for the body and the soul. In this episode, you’ll learn the three areas for strength training success: programming, intensity, and volume. I am 100% certain that you can build a strong, lean, healthy, and energized body… with the help of strength training!

First, I share why strength training became my way to challenge genetics. I detail common strength training mistakes and the importance of sticking to a dedicated plan. I share intensity considerations and how they relate to muscle hypertrophy. I also provide recommendations for your weekly volume of strength training workouts.  

If you're a woman over 40 and feel overwhelmed about strength training, don't sweat it! (Pun absolutely intended.) This episode is for you. 

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:

• My glute-focused strength training program 
• The importance of sticking to a strength training program
• The principles of strength training programming
• Intensity considerations for strength training workouts 
• Two kinds of muscle hypertrophy
• How to approach the volume of strength training 

Resources Mentioned:

• See the research on the effects of resistance training HERE
• See the research on resistance training for health and performance HERE
• Read the 7 tips for a safe and successful strength-training program HERE
• Access The Glutes Project HERE
• Listen to Episode 3 of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast 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.

Holly Perkins 0:00

progressive resistance strength training is medicine, not only for your body, but also for your soul. Research shows that strength training, builds muscle that fires up your metabolism, reduces your biological age, improves bone density and fights off osteoporosis, reduces your risk of diabetes, heart disease and stroke, relieves the symptoms of depression and anxiety, improves body composition and boosts self esteem. But it only does this if you strength train, right. So stay with me if you're a woman over 40

Holly Perkins 0:43

Holly Perkins 1:52

If you've ever struggled to feel well or have the energy to just get through the day, strength training is the best way to become invincible, unstoppable and truly on fire. This is especially true if you are over 40 and beginning the menopausal transition. If you want to enjoy your years ahead and avoid the frailty and deterioration that we see in our elderly and enter parents, lifting weights is the most effective way to build the muscle that you need. And if you want to feel stronger, tighter and leaner strength training is the best way to spend your weekly workout minutes.

Holly Perkins 2:41

In this episode, you'll learn how many strength workouts you need each week without spending all your time in the gym. Key things to know about your technique so that you get the most from every single rep. How hard you should be working inside of your sets, so that you get the results that you want without a ton of muscle soreness or recovery. The best approach to body part training and weekly splits and the right rep range to improve lean muscle to the degree that you want for your body. If you're unhappy with your body in any way, right now, I promise that strength training is the solution.

Holly Perkins 3:24

I'm one of those annoying people at dinner parties whose response to every comment is strength training, we'll fix that. And as hilarious as it is. It's really true. And the research backs me up. financial troubles strength training will fix that. Annoyed by your partner strength train more worried about family members lift some weights, it really is true. Well, I'm totally kidding. Here. I'm kind of not also, strength training is the panacea to all of life's problems. I really believe that this is especially true if you're over 40 And you're navigating the menopausal transition.

Holly Perkins 4:08

So I was born into a family with very disappointing glute muscles, if you know what I mean long with my awesome red hair, I also inherited a completely flat butt from my mother. And it really is not all that impressive. So in my early 40s, I decided to see what I could do to change it. And I'll admit part of me, I think, kind of believed that maybe I was stuck with the genetics that I was given and that judging by my mom's body as she ate it aged that was pretty much the direction that I was going to go in but I decided that I wanted to challenge that and just see what would happen. So I created a program that specifically targeted the glutes as part of an overall full body strength plan. I

Holly Perkins 4:59

I was able to radically change my butt forever and for real. And it was through that process that I realized, it's super important to, number one, identify a strength training program for your goals. And then number two, stick to it no matter what, for at least 12 weeks, it's so important to be on a program and stick with it. I want to say this at the top of the episode because it really is sort of the umbrella statement that covers everything I'm going to say next. This one tip alone will change things for you.

Holly Perkins 5:41

In some ways, it almost doesn't matter what program you're following. Almost. If you stick with it, provided it's the right program for your goals. And you stay with it long enough. That program I created became the glutes project by the way, and it's a really great program. If you need a plan. You can find out more information on my website Holly Perkins dot com. This kind of consistency is extra important if you're over 40 as it reduces the inflammation that comes with recovery from workouts. And it teaches your body to better tolerate the inflammation that gets thrown at you every day just from being alive. If you haven't already, be sure to listen to episode three of this podcast where I talk more in detail about inflammation.

Holly Perkins 6:32

Today's tips are going to cover three areas that impact your success the most when it comes to your strength training, and they include programming, intensity, and volume. There are so many different philosophies to how you should approach your strength training workouts. These are the principles that I have found will give you the best results with the least amount of discomfort and pain. And when I say pain, what I'm really referring to is fatigue, muscle soreness, hunger, or just the effort in general that you have to put forth into your workouts.

Holly Perkins 7:11

The biggest thing to know about your strength workouts is that if you're a woman over 40, is that harder is not better, better is better. It's super important to understand how inflammation plays a part in the process of building muscle. So be sure to listen to episode three when your workout isn't working.

Holly Perkins 7:34

So let's get into the three things to address so you can strength train, right if you're a woman over 40 The first thing to understand is the overall programming aspects of your strength training plan. A big part of effective strength training is how you structure and execute your workouts. I've always said any strength training is better than none. So if you're someone who feels maybe a little overwhelmed right now about your workouts and about strength training in general, don't sweat it pun intended. Just get started with any kind of strength work at least two times each week. That is better than nothing. Then, once you're ready to lean in a bit more, it's important to adopt a dedicated plan. It's just not good enough to haphazardly lift weights when you have time or when you feel like it. If you want to be better if you want to maintain or even build muscle. If you want to become smaller, tighter or leaner, it's helpful to take your workout programming seriously, especially if you're over 40.

Holly Perkins 8:49

When it comes to programming for women over 40 I found that dedicated strength sessions are the most effective way to improve your strength and the quality of your muscle. This means that each week you dedicate an entire workout to just lifting weights, and you set up that workout so that you maximize your body's ability to lift progressively harder weight loads over time. The focus of these workouts is to lift weights, the goal is not to burn calories. The goal is not to get your heart rate up or sweat. The goal is to perform in a way that you lift as much weight as possible in each session. Now before you start visualizing your next workout and what this means. I've got some other super important tips coming in a few minutes. Because the phrase lift heavy weight can mean many things and there are a few considerations to be aware

Have. For now I want to plant the seed in your head that you want to set up your workouts so that you are in the best situation possible to maximize the weight loads that you're using. Building muscle is hard for everyone. And it's extra hard for women over 40. Structuring your workouts so as to prioritize dedicated strength sessions puts you in the best position to be able to build muscle.

The most common mistake I see women make is being haphazard in their training or ambiguous and their weekly programming. They do what they want when they want and they mix it up a little bit too much each week. Unless you're highly experienced, it's not effective to just piece together ideas or workouts that maybe you see on social media or that your friend told you about. Also, a big mistake I see is flip flopping or just switching up your workouts each week and just generally bouncing around. For women over 40. I also find that circuit training protocols and classes are not the most effective for building muscle.

The next programming consideration that clarifies your weight loads is how you perform the exercises in your program. I've found that absolutely nothing is more important than your technique when executing your strength exercises. For example, whether you're doing a leg press or a goblet squat, it's how you're moving your body during each repetition that matters. In some ways, it doesn't even really matter what specific exercise you're doing. It's how you're doing it. If you read my first book lift to get lean, you've heard my phrase, technique trumps all. And this means that the very first thing you want to focus on is adopting excellent technique, nothing matters more. And your technique will then determine how much weight load you use.

Your program tells you the exercise sequence, the number of sets for each exercise, and the number of reps for each set, it gives you the overall programming, simply follow your program and then commit to learning excellent technique. The benefit of this is that your technique will tell you if you should use a heavier weight load or a lighter one. So then you don't have to wonder if you are lifting quote unquote, heavy enough, heavy is relative. A big mistake is arbitrarily trying to just lift heavier. Without regard to anything, I made this mistake for years, I would go into my workout and I would just lift as hard and as heavy as I could. And I never ever got good results. It's a big mistake to arbitrarily try to just lift heavier without regard to anything else. I call this blind heavy, and it means that you're not qualifying You're heavy. And when you do that, you usually end up compensating with muscles other than the ones targeted for each exercise.

Your strength training plan will dictate the sequencing of your exercises and the protocol of the sets. And I've found that the best approach is either number one straight sets, and or number two super sets with a dedicated rest of at least 30 seconds between sets. This is in contrast to circuit training and classes like I mentioned above, straight sets are when you perform one set of one exercise, you rest and then you perform a second, third or fourth or more set of the same exercise resting between every set before you go on to the next exercise. Super sets are when you pair two different exercises back to back with no rest between those two exercises. Then you rest after you've performed the superset. In other words, it's two sets performed together as one and then you rest it

In general, the two exercises target two different muscle groups. The benefit of straight sets and super sets is that you can work hard during the sets, dedicating all of your energy towards the weight load towards the rep, and then you get to rest and recover before the following sets. This way, you've got the biological energy and the resources to work hard enough during each set, so that you stimulate muscle adaptation. This is in contrast to probably the biggest mistake I see is thinking that your heart rate should be up for the whole workout. And the quality of your workout is dependent on being breathless or sweaty. Instead, you want the work to be in the sets. This provides sufficient intensity very specifically on the muscles, rather than systematically on your body during the workout.

So you want to think of it like the workout is the rep, the workout isn't the workout, if that makes sense. As an aside, at times, I will also program three exercises per set. And I like to use this kind of a set protocol for lower intensity recovery or beginning workouts or for super advanced programming. That's brief. Some people refer to this as a monster set. It's not quite a superset, because it's more than two exercises. But it's definitely no more than three exercises, which then becomes more of like a circuit training, which in general, I don't get great results from my female clients when they're doing circuit training, or like I said, strength training type classes.

Next up, I'm going to define intensity and go over how hard you should be working in your workouts so that you get results without delayed recovery, fatigue, or excessive inflammation. But first, now that we've covered the programming aspects, let's define how hard you should be working and what that looks like. The second thing to understand is the intensity considerations in your workouts. Like I said earlier, if you want to build muscle, you want the effort to be in your sets, not throughout your workout.

Once you have a program that spells out your exercise, sequencing reps, and sets scheme, and you're keeping an eye on your technique, the next thing to dictate your workout is the quality of your repetitions inside of each set. I've always said the real workout is rep by rep, meaning all the good stuff of a workout happens during each and every rep. Therefore, since technique trumps all, you want to ensure excellent technique for every rep of every set, except for the last two to three reps of each set.

For example, if your program tells you to do three sets of 10 reps for goblet squat, you'll find a weight load where the first eight reps demonstrate excellent technique. And then the last two reps are hard enough because of the weight load that you start to lose your good technique. Now listen, this is a bit of a sliding scale of sorts. For example, if your first three to four reps look absolutely perfect, then the next few reps will be progressively sloppier until those last two reps are definitely sloppy. So it's like the first couple reps are perfect. The third rep, you start to lose a little bit of technique, the fifth or sixth threat, you lose a little more technique and onwards until you get to that eight or so rep. And that's where you really are starting to see a breakdown in your perfect technique. Because if the whole set had perfect technique, you're never going to be challenging your muscle enough to expose it to a heavier weight load than it's currently capable of. And sloppy is a relative term to your last two reps should still be about 70% Perfect and not complete. neatly, disastrously sloppy. You know, like that person you see at the gym whose technique is just a mess, you don't ever want to be there, you just want your technique to break down about 30%. So that you're still about 70% Excellent technique.

When you do it this way, you'll find the perfect weight loads that tax the intended muscle group, without calling upon any compensation from other muscles. The goal is to tax the exact muscles that the exercise intends. The problem with blind heavy is that you end up calling upon synergistic muscles to move the two heavy weight loads. And then you don't strengthen your muscles in a balanced way. You may hear the message to just lift heavy, you're stronger than you know, lift heavy ladies. And then you might choose weights that are way too heavy, because the truth is, if you're sacrificing your form, and you're just trying to lift as heavy as absolutely possible, you're going to be able to lift a lot more weight using compensatory strategies. But the actual intended muscle might not be doing all of the work. And that's what we actually want.

Most of us have muscle weaknesses and muscle strength. Using the wrong weight loads tends to emphasize these imbalances because your stronger muscles take over and your weaker muscles stay sleepy and get weaker, good technique, and overloading the last few reps is a great way to ensure you don't compensate and demand that your weaker muscles step up to the work.

The next consideration regarding intensity is the rep scheme. There are so many different voices out there telling you the right number of reps for your sets. If you're listening to me, you're probably listening to other fitness and nutrition experts out there. And I imagine you're probably confused on well what is the best rep scheme, understandably because there's a lot of voices. And while there are numerous strategies, what I've found in my practice, is that 10 to 12 reps is the sweet spot for women over 40. There is a time and a place for less than 10 reps, and there is a time and a place for more than 12. But this is where I think it's best to work with a coach like myself because reps outside of the 10 to 12 range have considerations. Research shows that 10 to 12 reps is ideal for both strength and muscle development. And it's a solid and safe range if you're self managing your training program.

One thing to note that never gets talked about is the concept of muscle hypertrophy, which simply means the process of your muscle becoming bigger, there are two kinds of muscle hypertrophy. Number one sarcoplasmic hypertrophy happens at higher rep ranges. And number two myofibrillar hypertrophy happens at lower rep ranges.

I found that most women get the best results with programming to promote myofibrillar hypertrophy. The trouble I see with lower rep ranges say six to eight is that you need a solid foundation of technique, real solid to be able to accurately move the weight loads that are so heavy, that you can only do six to eight reps. So it's not like you want to pick up lightweight loads and only do six to eight reps. It's that you're using a weight load where you can only do six to eight reps. And in order to be able to accurately do few reps like this, you've got to have awesome technique and a lot of experience. I love this rep range. It's my favorite and it's effective, but you better have excellent, perfect, incredible technique. Otherwise you're gonna get into trouble.

On the flip side, using reps higher than 12 means that you've got to be fit enough to withstand the high intensity at a high enough weight load to improve your muscle. high reps doesn't mean light and An easy weight load at 15 or 20 reps, it means still challenging weight load for a lot of reps. So therefore, it's high intensity 10 to 12 reps is a great place for you to work hard without having to be super skilled. My rule of thumb is that you should have at least at least six months of nonstop practice in the gym, before you start doing fewer than 10 reps, unless, of course, you're working with a coach. And you need to be someone who recovers well and has great cardiovascular fitness to be able to benefit from more than 12 reps. Now that we've covered the programming and intensity considerations for effective strength training for you, for women, if you're over 40, let's go over volume. And this just means basically how much total work you should be doing each week, so that you're doing enough to spark change, but not so much to require tons of slow recovery.

The truth is, if you do too much, or too hard or too heavy or too intense, you're going to need more recovery. The total amount of work you do each week, otherwise known as volume always depends on your current fitness level and ability. Too much will leave you exhausted, sore and overtrained and too little leaves you without results and therefore uninspired. Keep in mind that I'm in the business of personally coaching women through my services and programs. And there's a reason why I'm in business. When it comes to health and fitness one size does not fit all, it is more complicated than it should be.

What I'm about to say next is for general purposes, and a safe middle road for most women. So if you're trying to self manage, and you're not totally sure if you're on the right track, this is great advice. And if you need the more specific nuance to work within your body's unique physiology, that's where we have to tweak the different ends or the broad spectrum of your programming. There's a good chance I don't know you personally and therefore you made me tweaks to what I'm about to say. In general, I find that three strength specific workouts, three dedicated strength workouts per week are best for women over 40 with the following muscle group exposure.

Each week, you'll do leg exercises three times each week, you'll do back exercises two times each week, meaning to different workouts to exposures. You'll do chest, shoulders and arm exercises each one time each week. Regarding abs, I've found that if you're following a good program, you have great technique, and you are using appropriately challenging weight loads for all of your full body strengthening, your abs don't need a ton of isolated exercises. I've always said that I get the best ab workouts when I do RDLs and lying dumbbell pullover. Therefore, ab work to me is at your discretion or your interest. While your abs are a major muscle group. Like I said, they get used in pretty much every other movement pattern. And I tend not to program a ton of ab work.

The last thing to cover regarding volume is the number of sets per workout and therefore per week. And this is where it gets a lot more personalized. This particular programming variable is super nuanced. But in general, I like 16 to 24 Total sets per workout. Depending on which body parts you're doing. You can do fewer sets if you're more advanced and are fit enough to achieve high intensity reps. Or you could do more sets if you're newer and still learning your edge in terms of intensity. So how this breaks down is where it gets more nuanced. But if you're doing three workouts per week, and as I said you want to expose and strengthen your legs three times each week. That means you're going to be doing some leg exercises every workout and then to have your three workouts each week you're going to be doing some back exercises, and then one workout per week would be dead. catered to chest, arms and shoulders and how you split those body parts up is really where the art comes into what we do. But in total, whatever body parts you are focusing on per workout, it would be a total of 16 to 24 Total sets per workout.

Okay, so, wow, that's a lot of information I know. And I realize if you're a little confused, that's why there are people like me out there to offer guidance, I wanted to offer you an episode specifically on these kinds of programming variables that are best for women over 40. So that if you do want to self manage, or if you're sort of a science geek and nerd like me, if you want to understand the process a little bit more. So I hope this helps. This information is designed to inspire and motivate you. If you feel overwhelmed, remember that anything is better than nothing. I want you to just get started, because that will never set you back and will only improve your life. So if you hear all of this and you're like whoo, I don't even know where to start. Don't worry about it. Don't sweat it pun intended. Not yet, and just get started. The best results from strength training happen in the long run anyway. So just get started now and then incorporate new tips and strategies week after week. As you're ready.

After 30 years of practice, I am 100% certain that every single woman, including you is able to build a strong, lean, healthy and energized body. It just takes some time, some focus and some consistency. So if you haven't already, I want you to start your journey now, just to get it started. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Remember, if you want access to my four week strength without stress program for free, be sure to rate and review this episode now. Grab a screenshot and then send it to me over at Holly perkins.com forward slash review where you'll be able to upload it and you will get immediate access to strength without stress completely free forever. No strings attached. It's just my gift to you. Stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday next week. Stay strong my friend