EP 91: 7 Reasons You Don't Look Like You Lift Over 40

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I am 47, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach, helping women over 40 become their best. Today, I'm gonna share seven reasons that you might be working out and still not seeing the lean, defined, toned body that you want after 40. That was where I was for years. I thought the harder that I pushed, the better my results would be. That meant more sweating, more workouts, more restricting, which meant I was trying to sweat more, work out more, and add more restriction. But no matter how hard I worked, my body never really changed in the ways that I wanted it to.

0:36Until I finally learned what it does take to build a strong, lean, defined body. Now today at 47, I'm training less than I used to, but I'm getting far better results. Because I understand what it actually takes to transform. I'm working smarter, not harder. That's what I teach my clients. And it's exactly what I want to teach you today. Let's jump right into reason number one. And that is that you are exercising but not training. And yes, there is a difference. Exercise is great for health. It improves your cardiovascular function, your mood, your energy, and your overall well-being. But if your goal is to look toned and defined, exercise alone is not going to get you there.

1:16There is no tone without muscle. And muscle will only come from proper strength training. Which means you're following a structured plan, lifting with intensity, getting close to failure, tracking and progressing week over week by adding reps, adding weight, improving your form, and so on. If every workout is random or you're constantly trying to change things up or the sole focus of your workouts is just to burn calories, your body never really gets that clear signal to grow muscle. But when you shift from exercising to burn into training to build, your body responds in the best of ways. You're going to see the shape and definition that you want, plus have the health benefits that only muscle can give you.

1:55Once you start training with purpose, the next question becomes, are you challenging your muscles in the right way? Because just holding dumbbells is not going to be enough. Which brings me to reason number two, not lifting with enough intensity. This was another mistake that I made for a long time. I thought because I was using weights, that meant that I was building muscle. But looking back, I wasn't really challenging myself in the right ways. I would blindly follow a workout program, but never really reach true failure. Muscles need a reason to grow. They need the right stimulus, and that only comes from getting close to failure.

2:26If you finish your set and easily feel like you could do another five to six reps, or if your last rep looked very similar to your first rep, it's likely you didn't use the proper intensity or load, meaning you didn't give your body the signal to grow muscle. That doesn't mean that your workouts have to leave you exhausted or sore for days, But it does mean that when you're working, especially in those final reps, they should feel hard. You should feel like you are earning them because those last reps close to failure are the reps that create the stimulus for muscle growth. You'll know that you're close to failure because your rep speed will naturally slow down.

3:00And that's when you know you are in the sweet spot. That's the point that you want to reach with each of your sets if your goal is to look more defined. You should need those two to three minutes of rest. Once I started training with intention and pushing myself appropriately, I started to see the changes in the definition I'd been chasing for so long. Now the third mistake you might be making is not applying progressive overload. Now progressive overload might sound complicated, but it's actually really simple. It just means that your workouts need to progress over time because nothing changes if nothing changes.

3:30Think about it this way. If you've been using the same 15-pound dumbbells and doing the same 10 reps for the last six months, why would your body have a reason to change or look any different? Your body's adapted to that workload. Remember what I said in the beginning, your body changes when you give it a reason to adapt. And progressive overload is how you can continue giving your body that reason. It doesn't mean you need to add weight every single week. Sometimes progressive overload looks like adding another rep, improving your form, slowing down tempo, or increasing your range of motion. and sometimes it means increasing your weight.

4:01The point is there should be some form of progression. One of the biggest mindset shifts I had to make was to not just finish my workouts, but actually make sure I was trying to get stronger every week because when you get stronger, you create another opportunity for your body to grow muscle. And over time, that's what creates the lean defined physique that you are chasing, not constantly changing your workouts or trying to burn as many calories as possible. Now, let's say you're doing all those things. You're training with purpose, you're pushing yourself and you're adding progressions, but your body still isn't changing, the next thing we wanna look at is nutrition, which brings me to mistake number four is that your diet doesn't align with your goals.

4:36And this is an important one because we've been conditioned to believe that no matter what the goal is, the answer is always to eat less. But your nutrition should support the goal that you're trying to achieve. If you're trying to lose body fat, nutrition should support that goal. And that means eating in a deficit. If you're trying to build muscle, your nutrition should support that goal. And that means eating at or slightly above your maintenance level of calories. Those are different goals and require different nutrition strategies. I think this is where so many women unknowingly sabotage themselves.

5:05They're working so hard to build muscle in the gym while chronically underfueling their body. If your body doesn't have the nutrients and energy it needs, it's going to be much harder to build that muscle that creates the lean, defined look you're after. And this was something that I had to change too. I had to realize that eating less was not always the answer. Sometimes eating more was the answer. And that meant spending time at maintenance, getting enough protein and calories. Now the concept of this is really scary because for so many of us, we've been taught to eat less. And so the idea of eating more makes us feel like we're going to go backwards.

5:36But the first time that I really leaned into fueling with purpose, eating at maintenance calories and trying to get stronger in the gym, my body and my results changed in ways that I didn't know was possible. It was truly eye-opening. My workouts improved, my recovery improved, I built more muscle, and that's when I started to see the body composition changes that I had been chasing for so long. This is also what I see with my clients. Women who have spent decades chasing fat loss, living in deficits, are now seeing their bodies transform while eating more and training less but in the right way.

6:08Even when you have the right training and the right nutrition, there's still one piece that a lot of women overlook. And that brings us to reason number five, not prioritizing rest. I know rest can feel counterproductive. You know, we've been led to believe that more is more. But here's what I want you to remember. Your workouts are where you stimulate muscle and recovery is what allows that to happen. Every time you strength train, you're creating small amounts of muscle damage. It's during recovery when you eat, sleep enough, and allow your body to repair that your muscles rebuild. If you're constantly training, not sleeping well, under eating, and never giving your body time to recover, you're working against the very results that you're trying to achieve.

6:49And that doesn't mean spending recovery days lying on the couch. Rest days can look like going for a walk, getting in some mobility work, going for a hike. The goal is to help your body recover, not continue breaking it down. Recovery is an important part of the process. It's as important as your workouts. Without that recovery, your body never gets the opportunity to adapt and to grow. When you recover well, you come back stronger, you perform better in your next workout session, and over time, that's what helps you build more muscle and create the lean, defined physique that you're after. Now on to mistake number six, which is you're relying too much on cardio.

7:24Let me preface this by saying I'm not against cardio. I love cardio. I think it's an important part of your overall plan. It plays an important role in your health, but the problem comes when we use cardio as the only strategy to try and change our body. After 40, our bodies are going through a lot of different changes, especially with our hormones, and that makes it harder for us to maintain our muscle tissue. We also become less sensitive to the signals that stimulate muscle growth, which means preserving and building it becomes more important. If all we're doing is chasing calorie burn and weight loss, we're missing the very thing that's going to have the biggest impact on our body composition, and that's muscle.

8:00It's what gives your body shape, creates that lean, defined look, supports a healthy metabolism, improves insulin sensitivity, supports bone health, and helps you stay strong and capable as you age. That's why strength training has to be the priority. Then we can pair it with the right type and amount of cardio. And for a lot of us, that looks like strength training three to four times a week, staying active with daily walks or steps, and then maybe adding in some zone two cardio to support your goals. When you pair strength training with adequate recovery, proper nutrition, and cardio that complements your training instead of competing with it, that's when everything starts to work together.

8:35Which brings me to the seventh and final mistake, which is not staying consistent with these basics. I think one of the biggest reasons I used to struggle with this, and I see a lot of other women struggling too, is because we've been conditioned to believe in quick results. That's what the fad diets and the trendy workouts gave us. Those old flawed approaches might have helped us lose 5 to 10 pounds pretty quick, but not all of that was fat loss. A lot of it was just water loss that came right back, or worse, it was even muscle loss, which only left us with slower metabolisms. Not to mention, these methods weren't really sustainable.

9:09So when we couldn't sustain them anymore, the weight came right back. And as they say, easy come, easy go. But the main issue with all of those different quick fixes is that they never actually really changed your body composition. They didn't teach you how to fuel yourself. They didn't improve your strength. They didn't set you up for long-term health or longevity. They just taught you how to chase a lower number on the scale. But creating a lean, defined, strong body looks very different. Building muscle and losing body fat in a healthy way while you preserve that muscle takes time. Changing your body composition takes time, and that's okay.

9:46Those are the results worth waiting for. So instead of chasing those fast results, start to lean on the boring basics because they are going to build results that last. Because a year from now, you can either be exactly where you are, or you can be stronger, healthier, more confident, and living in a body that you feel amazing in. And the best part about all of this is that when you take the time to change your body composition, to create true transformation, that doesn't go away overnight, especially when you build them on these foundational habits because it's just going to be who you are. So the results are going to last.

10:17At this stage of the game. That's exactly what we want. If there's one thing that I hope you take away from this today, it is that you don't need more, you need better. Better workouts, better nutrition, and consistency with both long enough so that you can see the amazing results that they'll give you. Lean into this approach of getting stronger, trust the process, and then let time do its job. Thank you so much for joining me in today's episode. If you did find it helpful, I'd be so thankful if you left a rating or a review. Until next week, keep getting stronger, and I will see you in the next episode.