37- Breaking Strength Plateaus: Keep Building Muscle and Making Gains

In this episode of MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength, host Kat, a seasoned strength trainer and ultra-marathon runner, dives deep into the challenges and strategies beyond the initial 'honeymoon phase' of strength training. Kat offers practical advice on overcoming fitness plateaus, understanding neurological and metabolic adaptations, and emphasizes the importance of setting clear expectations, embracing variance, and being patient in the fitness journey. This episode aims to help busy women build resilience, strength, and self-compassion while navigating their unique fitness paths.

Ready to build strength without the stress of planning? I have 4 spots open for KatFit Strength coaching, where the workouts are done for you. Just show up and get stronger—no more decisions to make. Book your FREE discovery call today! 

00:00 The Honeymoon Phase of Strength Training
00:23 Introduction to the Podcast
01:39 New Year's Resolutions and Realistic Goals
03:18 Understanding Newbie Gains
05:39 Overcoming Plateaus in Strength Training
07:51 Advanced Training Strategies
10:18 Setting Clear Expectations and Embracing Variance
14:33 The Importance of Patience and Consistency
17:36 Conclusion and Coaching Offer

☎️ - Schedule a complimentary call to see if podcasting is a good fit for you: https://katfit.moxieapp.com/public/katfit/consultation-call
❓ - Have A Question About Strength Training, Nutrition, and cardio training? Submit It HERE:https://forms.gle/kndmqaf91psZEmPs6
📧 - Join The Email List: https://katfit.ck.page/8c2fa05ed8

Transcript

Kat: 0:00

Remember that first time you started lifting and you felt so incredible, the weights were increasing, your confidence was skyrocketing. And you thought, why didn't I start this sooner? That my friends is the honeymoon phase of strength training and it's magical. But what happens when the magic fades and things get harder? That's where the real work and the real results begin. Welcome to miles from review, the podcast powered by KatFit strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through. Through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood all while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in. Let's go. All right. Welcome back. I'm so happy to be here with you today and thank you for tuning in. Today is Friday, January 10th, and I wrote about this in the newsletter. If you have not hopped on my newsletter, I highly recommend you do that. You can subscribe to it in the show notes. Don't worry. There's no spamming there. I don't have time. To write my email list every single day, multiple times a day, but hop on it. There's more stuff in, you can get more information more access to me by hopping on that mailing list, but getting back to it, you know, statistically today is where new year's resolutions start to fizzle. Gym's get a little quieter. You know, that planner that you got starts to gather dust in that new year, new you energy. Well, it kind of starts to fade, but let me be real with you. That's because New Year's resolutions, as most people approach them, set themselves up for failure. I know, I know. You can probably tell me a story. I have stories of people who have really had success off of a New Year's resolution, which is phenomenal, and I'm not here to bash New Year's resolutions. And, or your goals that you might have started on December 31st or January 1st. That is not what this is about. It's a little bit of a tough love, but also a lot of support here. A lot of New Year's resolutions and what we see in the media is this idea of flipping a switch, becoming a whole new person, embracing a whole new routine. Overnight like that little magic when the clock the countdown hits the ball drops from 1159 to 12 a. m On that first that's where that switch flips again. You don't need a resolution You need a plan and a plan that is realistic and sustainable built for you. If you've already started this feeling of those old habits creeping up and pulling you, I'm here to remind you, progress does not come from being perfect. If you're new to the show, you're going to hear me say that a lot. If you have been following the show, you've heard me say that a lot. It comes from showing up even when it's hard. Today we're going to be focusing a little bit more on why gains happen somewhat quickly. In the beginning of any fitness journey, we're going to focus on strength training, weight training, primarily how to overcome this plateaus. Now I would encourage you to go back and listen to some other episodes. I will put them in the show notes about how to show up. Even when it's hard, if you're new here, I am not all about at all. The all or nothing principle, which is show up all the time, regardless and disregard how you're feeling in that moment, I'm a firm believer in meeting yourself in the capacity in which you are showing up that day. That does not mean that we're always easy here where there's no pushing ourselves. That definitely does happen, but we come from a place of Compassion and wholeness and worthiness, knowing and really understanding ourselves. This is something that drives my own training and coaching with my clients. It's also something that I personally take to heart in my own training, but we're going to get back to focusing on what happens as we progress out of those maybe two to three weeks. when you start and focusing on that strength training, that weight training routine. So hopefully I didn't lose you a little tough love in the beginning that wherever you're at, if you're feeling those pulls of those old habits, come back, know that maybe if you need to adapt. Adapt. That is the long game. If you need help, message me if you have questions and I am here to support you. When you first start lifting, like I said, you probably feel like a rock star. You feel like you are invincible. You are wondering like, man, I should have started this a while ago and you are progressing through weight. You know, you start at, I'm picking a random number at a 10 pound dumbbell and that becomes easy. So you wind up moving up maybe a 12 or maybe a 15 and that feels challenging, but you're like, man, this is pretty awesome. And you're progressing from there. But then a few months in things start to slow down. Those personal baths start to decrease. Not the weight does not decrease, but you are sticking around with the same way. Maybe you built yourself up and picking a random exercise, bicep curls. You're now at 20 pound dumbbells and the 25 just feel a little too much. And you're just like, what happened? And I, am I losing fitness? Am I gaining fitness? Am I building strength? Am I not? So we're going to go into that. And how to help continue to see that progression there and work through the plateaus. Because whether you're new to strength training or you have been lifting for years, this is going to come up time and time again. All right. So what are those newbie gains that start of a strength training thing? What does that really mean? What, how does that really happen? And what is going on? So we're going to kind of decode that for right now. So newbie gains is. Like kicking off your strength training journey, or if you've had a lapse of time when you, you know, in between consistent strength training bouts, okay, you're going to feel the body's going to adapt pretty quickly. You're going to feel like you're moving the weights a little bit more efficiently. And this is what's called neurological adaptation. It's your body's way of saying, Okay, I understand this. Let's do a little bit more. I know what's going on here. These movements are feeling more normalized to me. I can take on more. The neurological aspect is where your brain and your muscles get better at talking to each other. Think of it as practicing a skill. You just are getting better at movement patterns. That is one aspect of it. Then the second one is metabolic adaptations. You probably have heard that word. Metabolic or metabolism. So metabolic adaptations is where your muscles start working on endurance and energy production and recovery. Those adaptations come from challenging your muscles with lighter weights and higher reps. Now that you've kind of had those adaptations in the training, because it's not just about the muscles. So when these adaptations take place, it's not just, Oh, this muscle is growing or shrinking. It's the adaptations that are happening with the other systems in the body. What happens when the progress lives? I want to shift this as it's an opportunity. So when you've stopped progressing and you're stuck at a weight and you're like, Oh my goodness, am I ever going to move up from there? Like I want to keep building strength. I want to get past whatever said weight, dumbbell, barbell, kettlebell, whatever you're lifting. It's not a plateau. It's a chance to kind of help you level up when you're ready to focus on like more advanced training strategies. We want to start manipulating other aspects. So something like tempo, adding rest pauses, or switching up your exercise variations. It's not always about doing more, it's about being smarter. And so that is where it gets into the nitty gritty of programming. With my clients, There's basic movements, lifting patterns, okay? I'm trying to help them do through adding outside resistance. So when they're picking up dumbbells, so squat patterns, hinge patterns, pushes and presses, and all of these things help strengthen the body so that You feel stronger in everyday life so that you ease those aches and pains that tend to come up and that we are also feeling more balanced, coordinated, that confidence of not feeling weak in our body. Those are the things that we're doing there. Those basic patterns are seen throughout lifts. And so when clients come in, we work on establishing basic patterns through squats, through different squat variations and every. For weeks, their programs change because those adaptations, the neurological adaptations and the metabolic adaptations have occurred. Every client is different, and this is where I will start to change the manipulation of tempo, adding rest pauses, switching up variations of exercises so that the client is progressing. so that the body continues to have those neurological and metabolic adaptations. That's kind of the back end nerdy science that I like to do. Individuals stay on programs that are the same for months and months and they're like, why am I not seeing any gains? Because the body is used to it. You're still going to get those, I'm going to say, Gains are maintained that gains. You're now in maintenance because even clients who work with me. We're not always going to be gaining. There will be a maintenance time when you are looking to continue building strength or change the body composition. So developing more lean. Mass versus non lean mass, lean mass, muscle mass, non lean mass fat. When we're looking at trying to decrease non lean and increase lean mass, that's where we want these adaptations to continue. So if you're staying on the same program for months and months and months, then you will start to see those plateaus. So the action steps here. To get off that plateau is set clear expectations. What do you want from your training? This is a big one. I see a lot of people around this time of year, it's January saying, I want to get in shape. Fantastic. I fully support this. So this is not a diss on this. I want to be very clear about this. What I do see is the failure to set clear expectation because workouts are designed to develop an adaptation in the body based on the stimulus of that workout. So, what do you want from your training? Do you want to build strength? Do you want muscle growth? Increased endurance? That answer is going to guide the programming. So sit down, think about what do you want from your training plan? Whatever you establish there does not mean you are stuck on that for the rest of your life. You can change. That's the beauty about adaptations. The body is so amazing that it can adapt over time. A little insert of my own personal journey. I started out as a power athlete and track and field where I was a sprinter jumper from there, I maintained in that. power aspect, but started dipping a little bit more into endurance running, you know, around the 5k. And then it wasn't until after my second child is where I really got into endurance running in the half marathon and above. And now I'm in that ultra marathon where my training has changed with my strength training. Yes, I'm still lifting heavy, but it is. geared towards supporting my run training, but it has changed over time. My training and my expectations for my training have changed based on what I want to do and how I got clear on them. The second thing I want you to think about is embrace variance. I don't want you to think that means we're doing a different workout every single day. A little kind of step back when we were setting up a program. and how to see progression is it's not jumping into different workouts. Like I'm going to strength train today and then tomorrow I'm going to do a random YouTube video and then the next day I'm going to pop into a class at a gym and then I'm going to go to CrossFit style workout on another day and then you know where you're constantly changing up the different themes that's not the variance that we want. When we switch it up we want to try different rep ranges you and adjust the rest periods and play with tempo. Tempo is the speed in which we are moving the weight. It could be a barbell a dumbbell, a kettlebell. It is the speed in which that is moving. We never ever want to be moving it so quick that it's just up and down unless we're working on pliant metrics. That's a different aspect, but if we were doing a bench press on a bench with a barbell, we would think like a tempo might be 2020, where it's a two second descent coming down to the chest, the bar coming down to the chest, no pause at the bottom, and then a two second descent. Raising of the bar and no pause at the top the top where you're going into the next one, the idea behind tempo is developing time under tension. And that is working on muscle recruitment of the muscle fibers. That's what tempo is adjusting with rest periods. We do want some component of rest in between our. There are times where I'll say, Hey, you know what? No rest. Just hop into the next exercise that tends to be with more of the auxiliary lifts which is working on smaller muscle groups versus our main lifts, something like a squat, a deadlift, bench press, lying press, meaning on the floor without a bench for bench press. And then different rep ranges. So I'll have clients where we might. And I'm picking a number to start out at reps of 10, three reps of 10. And then we are switching it up and we're now doing three reps of eight, or, you know, there's a lot of very thing, like maybe it might be three reps, but reps or excuse me, rep range of 10, 12, 15. It's all working at understanding what I'm trying to get the client to do. So that goes back to the clear expectations. Are they wanting to build strength, muscle growth, increased endurance you know, getting that metabolic response for that adaptation in that body? The final thing that is most important, you know, some of this is boring, but it's tried and true, is be patient. It takes time for the body to respond, and sometimes it just comes on its own terms. Keep showing up. They're still coming. You have to stay consistent and trust the process. I know that's hard, especially when you can log on to any social media device and you can see all these flashy bodies. Stay consistent. The truth is, it takes a long time to build muscle. That does not mean that You're broken. That's just the body. Some of it is based on your own genetics and that's fine. A lot of the things you can control, but you have to stay consistent. And this is where it goes back to having a well written program that you can show up to. On your terms, in the aspect of my clients, a majority of my clients strength train two times a week for about 30 minutes a day, their program is geared to eliciting the exact stimulus that they want their goals so that they are building strength. They are seeing that body composition change they want. And it's set up around the exercise equipment they have accessible to them. I am kind of the master behind the scenes that changes the variance for them. I also know and encourage my clients to get clear. on the expectations of their program. I understand the expectations of their goals so that there's that synergy there that I can help coach and support them. And then we work on the variants. Always trying to encourage patience. I myself, I am a lifelong athlete. I am someone who is always Also in the throes of training, I have to be reminded to be patient. It's easy to forget why this matters is strength training is huge. It's going to help us stay more resilient in our bodies as we age. We're never ever going to stop that aging process when we strength trained. And we have those variations when we have clear expectations and we are patient. We are going to be able to be more independent, more balanced, more coordinated. As we progress through the decades of our life, you're going to find the aches and pains decrease. You're going to find that your sleep is going to be better. You're going to find you're going to move with greater ease. You're going to be able to pick up things without second guessing. If you're going to hurt yourself or if it's too heavy. These things are huge and they go beyond the aesthetics. Aestheticals are amazing. I think they're great, but I think Sometimes when we stop at only establishing an aesthetic goal, an aesthetic goal is something like fitting into a certain size, weighing a certain number, looking a certain way. When we stop at those, it causes more frustration and friction with trusting the process and being patient, with showing up to workouts that are going to help us see those long term results that we want. There's a lot more behind this. I've only scratched the surface here. And if you have questions, message the podcast about this, message me, I will respond. But if you're ready to build strength, but you don't want one more thing to think about, I've got you covered. Let me handle the planning and you can just focus on showing up and getting the results. I have four spots available in my KatFit Strength Coaching, and I'd love to help you feel strong, capable, and energized. Book your free discovery call. Through the link of the show notes, and I would look forward to speaking with you. Thank you for tuning in to miles from review powered by catfish strength. If this podcast inspires you don't keep it for yourself, hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast, and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into next. You can connect with me on Instagram KatFit Strength, or share this episode with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.