The Unf*ck Your Fitness Podcast

174. Muscle Takes Time: What to Expect from Lifting + When You’ll See Results

• Kristy Castillo

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Let’s talk about one of THE most common questions I get as a personal trainer: How long is it going to take before I see results from lifting weights?


I get it - you’re showing up, lifting weights, and trying to do alllll the right things… but you’re still wondering, “when the heck is this going to pay off?!”


The truth is…it REALLY depends. Your results come down to factors like your starting point, how consistently you’re training, if you’re challenging yourself in the gym, and other key factors specific to YOU (your hormones, sleep, nutrition, etc.).


Most people feel changes before they see them. You might notice more energy, confidence, and better moods within 2-4 weeks (which is amazing)! The physical changes tend to take longer, but again, this is super variable (definitely not a one-size-fits-all).


Building muscle takes time, but it’s worth EVERY bit of effort to break free from the dieting and ‘skinny’ cycle that has trapped you for too long. 


I hope this episode reminds you to trust the process and keep lifting f*cking HEAVY - you’ll love your results if you do!!


In this episode, we cover:

  • How long it really takes to see changes in your body
  • Key factors that will impact your progress
  • Why fewer full-body workouts per week may give you better results.
  • Fueling your body *right* if you want to hit your body recomp goals
  • Why your hormones & sleep are crucial + matter more than you think 
  • My personal experience with body recomp and learning progressive overload
  • What to reassess at the 6-month mark if you’re not seeing the results you want
  • How heavy you should be lifting to actually build strength


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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Un-Fuck-Your-Fitness Podcast. I am your host, Christy Castillo, and I'm here to give you real talk and cut the BS so you can actually enjoy building a body you love. I'm a personal trainer obsessed with giving you simple action steps to take you from feeling stuck to feeling sexy. Let's go. Hey guys, what's up? Welcome to today's episode.

Speaker 2:

I have a really good topic today, if I do say so myself. We are going to be talking about basically answering the question how long until I see results from lifting weights? And I'm going to kind of tie this into just exercising in general, but lifting weights in particular, because we've been talking a lot about body recomp and changes in your body and, of course, the mindset that comes along with that and the way that you have to think and the way that you have to kind of reposition your mindset and your thoughts and your self-talk and all the things to achieve that body recomp and how it's different than just weight loss. I get this question a lot like when will I start to see results from lifting weights? When will I start to see my body composition changing? And there are different factors that we're going to talk about in this episode. There are different factors than just the lifting weights. You can be you know, quote unquote feeling like you're doing everything right and maybe you're not, or maybe you just haven't given it enough time. You don't know what to expect. So I thought this was a really good topic because, along with the mindset, along with, you know, just thinking about body recomp in general, what does that look like? Like, what is the timeline like for starting to see muscle gain, starting to see your body really changing shape? Because the opposite is focusing on the scale. You know, thinking about weight loss, moving your body for weight loss, becoming smaller, all of that that's kind of out of our control. And some of lifting weights, some of body recomp is as well, but not quite as much. So there's just a lot of moving parts that we kind of have to get in line. And also, I think this is just great to kind of have that awareness, because instead of getting on the scale, when you're in a weight loss or a fat loss phase and you're wanting to become smaller and you're wanting to see that scale go down, that's kind of your only target, that's like your only goal is to get on the scale and see it going down. And if you're only working on body recomp and maybe the scale isn't going to move, right, maybe you're in maintenance and you just kind of want to build muscle and lose fat at the same time, or whatever, wherever your starting point is, it's like well then, what am I actually looking for? Like the scale is not going to move, my muscle isn't going to grow that fast. I'm not going to lose fat that fast. So, like, how long is this going to take? What does this look like? How is this happening, right? So I totally understand the question. It's very, very valid.

Speaker 2:

I did get this particular question from an Instagram friend. Her name is Taylor and I'm not going to read you her question because it's very long and very thorough, which I really, really appreciated. But this is essentially. I'll kind of give a little rundown here. She said, hey, so I'm not sure if you've ever talked about this on past podcasts and I can assume that it's different for everyone, but I'm wondering when you started seeing results and you noticed and felt good about those results, right? I love the way that she worded that because I think it's important to know when are you going to see results that you can notice and that you feel good about? And she also said she would categorize herself as a very healthy eater, well-balanced eater. She's been working out for about five days sorry, five days a week for about eight weeks now, and although I'm noticing that I feel different in my clothes and definitely lifting heavier progressively, I'm just dying to know when I can expect to see obvious tone and definition, and so she went on to say a bunch of other things which I loved. I responded, and then she gave me a ton of even more information, which I thought was great, and so I really, really appreciate, appreciated that question and the way that she worded it and gave me so much information. But that was kind of where the idea for this episode came.

Speaker 2:

Also, I've been getting a lot of questions like how heavy should I be lifting? And that is a good question and I think that ties into this episode. So I wanted to do a podcast on that to an an episode just talking about how heavy should you be lifting and what does that look like? And do you have to lift as heavy as I do? Do I have to lift as heavy as someone else does? What the heck does heavy mean? Right, I always say, like lift heavy, lift as heavy as you can, lift as heavy as possible, and I get a lot of questions like what does that mean? What exactly does that mean? So hopefully I will have the chance to discuss that in today's episode too.

Speaker 2:

So how long does it actually take to see changes? You see the changes in your body, body composition. Wise, so let's break it down because it goes just a little further than you know what you're able to see in the mirror. There's a lot of different things and when Taylor asked me this question, like obviously she even went even further than a lot further than what I told you. She's feeling really good in the gym, she's feeling really confident, she's enjoying her journey. She mentioned, you know, having kids and all of that and feeling like she's given her body away and it's had other purposes and now she wants to get it back and feel like it's hers again, like take control of her body. So she's feeling really, really good mentally and about that part of things.

Speaker 2:

And that's something that I want to kind of preface this with is that please make sure that you are looking for other wins, and she told me again in her message that she is. But if you are listening to this and I want to just make sure that you are aware of that like you are going to feel stronger, you're going to be able to lift heavier weights in the gym before you see huge body composition changes, right, and you're going to be able to have more food freedom. You're going to feel more confident. All of those things are going to come, probably before you see huge results in your body, and those are wins, and so I want you to focus on those things too, and I know I kind of covered that in the mindset episode with body recomp, but I wanted to just preface that for sure, because this is mostly going to be about the physical part and I don't want to discount that there are huge wins in the mental part of this as well, so don't forget about that. So as far as the timeline and this is very, very basic, but most people start to feel changes in their energy, their strength, their mood, their confidence within about two to four weeks.

Speaker 2:

Visible body composition changes typically show up around eight to 12 weeks. I even think that may be a little early. I mean, yes, visible body composition changes show up around eight to 12 weeks, like, obviously that's what I believe. But when I say that I think eight weeks is a little early, like you're going to see a little bit of change and you're going to mostly feel change, still it's going to be 12 weeks and onward that you really start to see results that you're proud of, because you can feel like, oh yeah, I think I see a little muscle. Here I get messages like this all the time from clients. I think I see my you know shoulder muscle popping through. I think I see a bicep. I can see my quads growing. I think I, you know my glutes are getting bigger. It's like I think it's there, but it's such a small change that I'm not quite sure right and we also discredit ourselves a lot. So eight to 12 weeks is when you're going to really start. I'll just say that, start to see body composition changes and then onward it's going to really skyrocket from there.

Speaker 2:

But significant transformation happens over months. So give yourself, let's just say, six months, honestly, and that's kind of a random number, but you're going to start to see changes before then, okay. But if you say, okay, six months, I'm really really dialed into what I'm doing. I'm dialing in my nutrition. That doesn't mean being perfect, that means eating for a goal, dialing in your nutrition. When I say that, I mean eating for a goal, you're doing certain training exercises, a program, a routine for six months that you know will get you to the results, and give it six months, so that's kind of the number that I'm sticking with. Okay. So within two to four weeks you're going to feel great. You're going to feel changes.

Speaker 2:

Eight to 12 weeks you're going to start to see changes, and six months is what I want you to kind of commit to. Because that's kind of why I break it up into the year format for myself, because because if you okay, even if you're going into a cut phase, right, let's say, you can do body composition in different ways, which I've talked about in previous episodes. So if you haven't heard me talk about that, please go back and find those other body composition, body recomp episodes. But you can achieve body recomp living in maintenance calories and you can build muscle and burn fat, lose fat at the same time in maintenance calories. Or you can eat in a surplus and build muscle along with a little bit of fat for a while, and then you can go into a cut phase where you lose fat and reveal that muscle for a while, and you can do all three.

Speaker 2:

So I usually, like in the fall winter months, I live a little bit in a surplus and I'm in a build phase, and some of that I'm also kind of in maintenance phase. And then in the spring, like right now, essentially I'm cutting, I want to lose fat and reveal the muscle that I built over the winter and then in the summer I'll be at maintenance, because I don't want to cut or build in the summer, I just kind of want to coast, I don't want to think about it, I just want to live in maintenance and that's where my body's healthy anyway, metabolically, that's where our bodies thrive, or is in maintenance. It doesn't have to work so hard, right? So let's give our body a little bit of a break and then I go back into that. If my life allows stress, kids, just life right allows then I like to go back into that other, that routine the build phase, the cut phase, the maintenance phase. So I'm not going to see huge changes quickly in a build phase and also right now I'm in a cut phase and I'm not seeing huge changes. Right now It'll be eight weeks probably before I even start to see massive change in a cut phase, but then 12 weeks I'm feeling looking really good and and I'm kind of coasting right.

Speaker 2:

Keep that in mind when you start something. If you're like, oh, I have a vacation coming up, oh, I'm getting married, oh, whatever it is, you kind of want a good six months there to get yourself in a place where you really feel confident, allow for life to happen. Things like that yes, it can be done in a shorter amount of time. You're just going to have to work harder and it's going to suck a little worse, honestly. So that is kind of the timeframe. So that's the timeline, the timeframe.

Speaker 2:

I want to also talk about variables that will impact your progress. So your starting point matters, which is when Taylor asked me this question, she said you know, I'm sure that it varies from person to person, which it does Very, very rarely is there a one-size-fits-all answer that I can just give like a very basic answer, because it depends on so many factors. So your starting point matters. Of course, Someone brand new to fitness is probably going to see newbie gains, beginner gains. They're going to see quick results because their body's like oh, you're starting to lift weights, now Cool, your body's going to respond a little bit faster, rather than myself. Even I'm at a place where my maintenance is pretty high calorie. I'm lifting pretty heavy I would have to, you know, for someone who's just been a runner their whole life and then they go into the gym and start lifting weights. Yeah, they're going to be like oh shit, I see some muscles. Right For me. I lift four days a week consistently, so for me to see huge amounts of progress in my body I would have to make really big changes. So someone brand new is going to see faster results. If you're already pretty healthy and you have a pretty good looking body and pretty strong, you're not going to see changes right away. In other words, if you've been active, changes can take a little bit longer to show visibly.

Speaker 2:

Like I said, and that was kind of for me too, and I didn't really know that early on, but I was smaller. Even in high school I was a runner, I moved, I was busy, I liked to be active. So my starting point was pretty good. I wasn't extremely comfortable in my body but I didn't quote unquote look bad, right, I wasn't severely overweight, I wasn't severely underweight, I ate kind of whatever I wanted. And then I had children and then I was like, oh, I now have a post baby body. Like what am I supposed to do with this? But still, I wasn't in terrible shape. But I was brand new to kind of lifting. So I thought like, oh, once I start lifting weights I should see huge gains. And I didn't because I was already in quote unquote pretty good shape and I also wasn't lifting heavy. I was scared to lift weights. So here I am trying to grow my glutes with 10 pound dumbbells, and that wasn't going to happen. My glutes were already pretty strong because I ran. So I wanted to bring that up because it definitely matters.

Speaker 2:

Just because you've never lifted weights doesn't mean you're necessarily a newbie. I guess is what I'm trying to say. It depends on your starting point. For sure, training intensity and consistency also is a huge, huge factor. Are you progressively overloading your lifts? Are you showing up to lift three to five days a week? Five days is sometimes too much, so keep that in mind too. There is such a thing as overtraining, so keep that in mind too. There is a such a thing as overtraining, and so if you are overtraining, you're not giving your body enough time to recover. You're not giving your muscle only grows at rest. So if you're not resting, you're literally not giving your muscles the opportunity to grow, and then you will not see results. So if you're working out five, maybe six days a week, cut back to four for two months and lift heavier on those days and, of course, be working out with a program that you know will work and get you the results that you want, in a gym, with a trainer, whatever, and make sure that you're doing something correctly, but four days a week is perfect. I found that to be the perfect amount for me when I was that's kind of a good time to bring this up when I went from just not I don't want to say just lifting, because I definitely had a plan.

Speaker 2:

But when I started to focus on body recomp purposely and that was my only goal was to change the look of my body. I wanted stronger and wider shoulders and stronger, wider glutes so that my waist looks smaller. I wanted to start to build an hourglass figure instead of the box figure that I've always had Nothing wrong with that. I just thought I was learning about body recomp. But I was learning about how I could take control of that and if I wanted to have a more shapely figure, I could build that, but I had to build that. No one else could do it for me. I had to start lifting heavier. I had to start lifting with purpose.

Speaker 2:

I couldn't necessarily do all the movements that were my favorite anymore. I had to do movements that I hate, like hip thrusting, overhead, press, lat pulldowns those are just like. That's not that much fun for me. In particular. I like other movements, but if I wanted to particularly grow certain parts of my body, I had to be very specific about that. So I started doing workouts that were full body, which is what we do in Fit Club full body Monday, wednesday, friday, and then upper lower Tuesday, thursday, and they're a little bit easier on those days.

Speaker 2:

Of course, fit Club isn't exactly what I was doing back then, because that program was made for me. But and this is you know Fit Club is an amazing workout program and you should get inside of there, but it's made for the masses, of course. So it's made. If you're only working out three days a week, there's three full body days. Those are enough. You will build muscle doing those workouts alone, and sometimes that's what I did, because I ended up realizing when I was body recomping, I'm like I don't even need these other two days, like they're great workouts but they're more accessory.

Speaker 2:

They're more upper body targeted, lower body targeted. They're not foundational movements necessarily. So like I can do without these. I need to do lunges, I need to do hip thrusts, I need to do RDLs, I need to do chest press, I need to do shoulder press, I need to do back pull down, I need to do these foundational movements. I don't really need to do these other smaller accessory movements every single week.

Speaker 2:

So for me, I started to realize, okay, I can get away with a couple months of just doing three full body days. Maybe some extra glutes, I can walk, I can, you know, do other things, and then, yeah, if I want to step it up, I can. But it gave me that flexibility. So make sure in all of this that you are paying attention to your body, and if you are not giving your body enough rest, you will have to start doing that. That will be something that will help you to get results faster. That was something that was a total mindfuck for me, because I thought how will I work out less and see more results? But what was happening was I would lift let's say it's Monday, wednesday, friday. I lifted as heavy as I could. On Monday, I rested. On Tuesday, I lifted as heavy as I could on Wednesday, which was pretty dang heavy because I just rested the day before and then I rested on Thursday. And then I lifted as heavy as I could on Friday, and then I rested Saturday, sunday, so I lifted heavy, I tore my muscles up and then I gave them time to recover.

Speaker 2:

I also fueled myself, which is another thing we need to talk about is your nutrition. You have to fuel yourself with enough protein and enough overall calories. Eating and no hate on Taylor here who sent me this message but eating balanced meals and eating healthy isn't always enough, and so many people do this, and this was me. I was like well, I eat pretty healthy, or I eat okay, I eat well, I eat clean, I eat good. Right, those words are fine and that's a good place to be, but if you are not eating enough calories and if you are not eating enough protein and you're not resting enough, you won't see the body recomposition changes that you want to see, point blank. I can't put it any differently.

Speaker 2:

Body recomp takes time and it does require eating for muscle, not under eating. So make sure that you are tracking your food. Even and yes, well-balanced meals are great. That's great for metabolism, that's great for hormones, that's great for your body. Like please, keep that going. That's not a bad thing. But in addition to eating well-balanced and in addition to eating good and in addition to eating properly in addition to eating healthy all of those things, because I know you may fall into all of those categories. Make sure you're eating enough and make sure you are fueling your body. You cannot under-eat your way to body recomp, unfortunately.

Speaker 2:

Something else we need to talk about is sleep and recovery and your hormones, especially as we age. So stress and sleep and hormone health all impact how efficiently your body will build muscle and how efficiently and quickly it burns fat. So all of this comes into play. Okay, if and I'm not going to push HRT, hormone replacement therapy on anybody but if you are in your 40s, I do think that's a great place to start looking at your hormones and a great place to start with HRT, and there's a lot of stuff out there. I'm currently on HRT. I know a lot of my clients are and I know a lot of ladies message me on Instagram and ask me about hormone replacement therapy and what I'm doing. I am not a doctor, but I just tell them what I'm doing and I tell them the company that I go through and give them a little discount for it. But it's really helpful in the sense that your body we are lacking hormones, things are changing and we need to have that in line.

Speaker 2:

Recovering, like I said, eating well, sleeping enough your body has to be. So this actually does apply to weight loss too, but people don't talk about it enough. People are like well, how do I lose weight? It's just like calorie deficit. You wanna be in a calorie deficit? You also do need to be sleeping well. You also do have to have your metabolism and your hormones working correctly to be able to lose weight. So this also applies to the opposite. This is I don't want you to just think like God, body recomp is really hard. There's a lot of shit I got to do for this. No, it's the same for anything.

Speaker 2:

If you're trying to build muscle, if you're trying to be stronger, if you're trying to be more fit, if you're trying to have more endurance, if you're trying to lose weight, whatever you're trying to do to become more healthy, you're going to have to sleep. You're going to have to recover. You're going to have to eat enough. You're going to have to make sure your hormones are in line right. You sure your hormones are in line right. You're going to have to lift with a purpose. You're going to have to move your body. You're going to have to hit your steps, not because hitting your steps is the gateway to losing weight, but hitting your steps is a way to just get your ass moving a little bit more, because we were made to move. So these types of things are very, very important and can also affect how quickly you're going to see results.

Speaker 2:

So I kind of feel like the question that I was going to answer was how long does it take to see results? And I gave you a million reasons why eight weeks to six months is when you will start to see results. So I hope I answered the question. It's just not a one-size-fits-all. I mean, I say six months because I think that's a very good timeline. It allows for some fun, it allows for a little bit of sickness, it allows for a little bit of, we'll just say, life to happen, and it also does allow for you to get some experience in the gym, to perfect your form a little bit more, to show up with consistency, to figure out what's going to work for you.

Speaker 2:

So when you get to that six-month spot even and think about this a little bit when you get to that six-month spot, I want you to be like okay, you know, hopefully you can look back at pictures you took six months ago and compare and you think, okay, I am looking different, I am feeling different. This is really, really good. What do I like about this? What can I maintain about this? What do I need to change about this? What isn't working for me? Right, but stick to that for six months. If it's a maintainable plan for six months, hopefully, it is. Be doing things that you can do for six months and stick to it for that six months and you will start to see results. I'm sorry, you will start to see results sooner than that. You will love the results that you see I should say it that way in six months, because that's a good amount of time, too, for you to build even more confidence and more belief in yourself and more self-love in your body.

Speaker 2:

Something else as far as my own journey because I know it's helpful to kind of hear that side of things and I know I've talked about you know your body is going to change. You can expect your clothes sizes to be different and all of the things. So I will say this when I got to the six month spot for myself, so I started my body recomp journey. I started my body recomp journey. I started a program specifically targeted for body recomp in September and this was years ago Started it in September thinking, okay, I'm going to really start to lift heavy. It was the first time that I ever really did a program on purpose. That was the same workout plan for four weeks and then it was after that four weeks. It was another set of five workouts for four weeks and it was the first time I ever really did that with the exact purpose to progressively overload.

Speaker 2:

So the first week I used it as kind of figuring out the movements and you know what they were, what that looks like, what I should be lifting, kind of getting an idea of like how this feels weight-wise. Like, okay, there's hip thrust and then there's chest press and then there's back pull-downs and then there's RDLs. What do I want to use? Am I using dumbbells? Am I using the barbell? You know, kind of getting my routine that first week. The next week I knew my routine a little bit better and I was probably sore. So I lifted at least the amount of weight that I lifted the week before, if not a little bit more. The third week I lifted definitely more, like I wanted to progressive overload into that third week.

Speaker 2:

The fourth week was maxing out if I could, if I could go any further, like depending on where I'm at in my cycle, if I'm on my period, if I'm whatever I'm feeling right. This all is dependent on that. Of course that's an entirely different episode. But that fourth week was supposed to be like my max out week, again, still doing the same amount of reps and sets, but could I lift heavier? And if I could, I needed to and I needed to hit the lower end of the reps.

Speaker 2:

Because the next week that I'm starting a new set of workouts, I'm going to go back down in weights. I'm not going to progressive overload again. I'm going to lift lighter and figure out my movements again, figure out the workouts, what it feels like and kind of start that cycle over. So it takes a little while to get into the cycle, what it feels like and kind of start that cycle over. So it takes a little while to get into the cycle. I gave myself two months for sure to figure that out and realize, okay, this is where I'm at with my cycle physically, where I can lift what you know again, am I using dumbbells? Am I using barbells? Do I want to superset? Do I want to do all three hip thrust rotation right and then move on to the next? Like, how am I doing this for my own body? How much time do I have? What does this look like? Just figuring it out? So I gave myself about two months to figure it out.

Speaker 2:

It was about month four that I thought okay, I've got this on lock, I'm feeling really really good, I'm feeling really really strong. I did end up lifting too heavy. Eventually you can progressively overload yourself into an injury. So be careful. Because I didn't necessarily injure myself. But my entire posterior chain became so tight because I was lifting so heavy with calves, with hamstrings, with my glutes, hip thrusts, deadlifts for my back. My back was getting sore. So my whole posterior chain was feeling like really sore. So I ended up having to go back down and wait. But I was feeling so strong and I was feeling so good and I looked so freaking strong. My body was changing. And then I kind of hit this wall of like okay, I'm lifting a little bit too heavy. Now my body's kind of telling me you either need to stretch more, recover more or lift a little bit lighter. So that's kind of when I went to like three workouts I stopped doing so much weight and I stopped doing so many movements for my glutes. I took out like the extra glute day and really tweaked it to myself, but that was between like the four and six month mark, and then about six months, I knew exactly what routine was going to work for me. So I kind of just want to talk about that for a second too and kind of drill that in around the six month mark.

Speaker 2:

While we're talking about that number, that timeframe, start to think about, like I already said, like start to think about what's working for you. Can you continue doing this? You'll probably then, after six months, you'll want to go into a different phase. Possibly If you're in maintenance, you don't have to do that. But if you're in a surplus and you're building and you're in a build phase, trying to body recomp, you're probably going to go into a cut phase. So try to think about what that looks like for you.

Speaker 2:

But if you're doing a program, if you're working with a trainer or something, maybe regroup around that six month point and say, okay, this is working, this isn't, I need to change this right. Trying to figure out like how to really really personalize it for yourself and take a step back at that point and say how am I doing? Am I liking this? Is this working? What do I need to tweak to be able to continue this? Do I like five days? Am I seeing progress? That I want? If not, go down to three days. If you're working out six days that's too much. Go down to four and just see what happens. Commit to that for three months and see what happens. If you don't like that after the three months, change it right. Always be changing things because you'll change as a person. Your body will change, your body will adapt to what you're doing. So you'll have to throw some changes in there to make sure that you're consistently seeing the results that you want to see.

Speaker 2:

So just a little recap and a reminder if you're lifting and if you're feeling properly and if you are staying consistent, you are making progress in so many different ways. Don't get discouraged. Give yourself that three months to six months to really really show yourself off right. Keep showing up and doing what you can. If you quit, you're certainly not going to see results. So keep going, even if the results you expected to show up in 12 weeks aren't showing up in 12 weeks, keep going, okay, reach out to someone, come back to this episode, whatever you got to do, and be like, okay, something needs to happen here, like I don't know why I'm not seeing results. Then maybe you need a one-on-one call with me. Maybe you need a one-on-one with your trainer to say, okay, these are my food logs, this is how much I'm moving, and be honest, are need the facts here. But maybe you need a little bit more dialed into you. Where are your hormones? Maybe go get checked, get a body scan, get a DEXA scan, go get a physical done. Like, figure it out. If you're not seeing any results, okay, because there could be something else going on there.

Speaker 2:

But muscle building muscle is a long game. It is a long game and it's not always flashy. And especially the older we get, the later in life that you start body recomp, the longer it's going to take. That, and I don't say that in a bad way, I just say that to be honest, because even now for me, I'll be 44 next month, which is crazy. You know, I'm losing muscle faster and I'm gaining fat faster than I ever have before. So my body it's just, it takes longer. It takes more work for me to maintain and, yeah, I let my body slide a little bit when I was sick earlier this year, which obviously I was sick for like three months. So that's going to happen. So my body kind of got away from me and I'm kind of reeling it back in.

Speaker 2:

But it does take time. It all takes time and it's so worth it I can't stress that enough that it's so worth it to get out of the diet cycle, to get out of that skinny cycle, to get out of that smaller cycle. This body recomp is so worth it. So give yourself six months. Six months goes so quickly. Okay, just put in the work. And we are now having that mindset of we're training for strength and we're training for energy and we're training for confidence. So that strength and energy and confidence is the reason that we're showing up right. So give yourself the time. We've totally got this. Change your mindset to. I've totally got this. I just got to keep showing up. But I hope this was really, really helpful and I really appreciate when you reach out to me and give me your exact questions and you give me your exact scenarios. I know that you know Taylor wrote in to me and she's, of course, one person and she's not like anybody else, but I know that this can also relate to so many other people and I think that it's really important for me to address when you do write in and you know what that does look like for you.

Speaker 2:

I want to touch very, very briefly on the topic of how heavy should I be lifting, and there's so many different ways to say it and I also struggle with exactly how to say it. So when I say to lift as heavy as possible, I mean that okay, and the older we get, I mean that even more so. Okay, I personally very rarely work in the 10 plus rep range. Right now I'm working in more of a six to eight rep range because I want to lift as heavy as I can. For me personally, at the rate that I'm losing muscle with some autoimmune issues that I've always had, just different things and I truly believe, as we age, we need to be putting more stress on our bodies, because if I'm lifting 10-pound dumbbells for bicep curls for years, if I'm doing that for five years, it's not really challenging my muscles anymore and, yeah, they're going to maintain and they're going to look good, but I need to be lifting more, not always because obviously I can't progress every single week in a bicep curl, right, but I need to be lifting, picking up the dumbbell that that day, because this can depend on the day Ladies, do you feel me Depending on hormones, all the things, it can depend on the day. So pick up the heaviest dumbbell that you can that day and rep it for anywhere from six to 12 reps, whatever it is for you. Okay, I'm personally working in like the six to eight rep range. So I'm lifting heavy and then I'm recovering all the way because I want to be able to lift as heavy as possible again in my next set. So remember to take reps.

Speaker 2:

And what I want to say mostly about what does lifting heavy mean? It means exactly what I just said For you on that particular day. What can you lift? Do you have access to a barbell? Try to lift it. Do you have access to machines at the gym? Try to up it a notch. And if you can't do eight reps, if you can't do 10 reps, if you can't do 12 reps, do four, do six. You can do less reps with heavier weight and make huge, huge progress, because it's all about stressing out your muscle, overloading your muscle to make it work, tearing those muscle fibers resting so that they can grow bigger and stronger.

Speaker 2:

So when I say as heavy as possible, I don't mean pick up the dumbbell that's the heaviest in the gym or pick up the heaviest dumbbell you have access to. I mean pick up the dumbbell that's the heaviest you can lift that day and get four reps minimum and kind of move on from there. So that's a very brief description of that, but I get that question a lot and it's really not that complicated so I don't want to spend a lot of time on it. I get that a lot, though. Like how heavy should I be lifting? Lift as heavy as you fucking can, okay, lift as heavy as you can, period. That's exactly what that means For me.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes I can pick up a 20 pound dumbbell and curl it for a bicep curl. Sometimes I can literally only rep out a 10-pound dumbbell because of what I ate the day before. Maybe I slept like shit, maybe I ate like shit, maybe it's that time of the month and I'm weak and I can only curl a little bit less right, sometimes I the other day I felt so strong and creatine has a lot to do with this, which is what I think I'm going to talk about in my next episode. Fingers crossed I can get that recorded for Friday. But creatine makes me feel so strong, so when I'm consistent with that, I feel like a freaking beast in the gym. When I'm not consistent with certain things, I'm not a beast in the gym. Okay, but that's all that it means.

Speaker 2:

So take out the guesswork, take out your overthinking and just be like what can I pick up today? That's the heaviest weight that I can do for minimum four reps. If I can do more, amazing. But just challenge yourself. You will see that you can lift heavier, and just lift heavy consistently. It's not about being perfect, it's not about a certain amount. You don't have to lift as much as me. What's heavy to me is different than what's heavy to you, okay, there's no perfect number. Just pick up the heaviest dumbbell you can lift for that movement or barbell or machine whatever for that movement for that day, and that's as heavy as you can. That's what I mean by as heavy as you can. Okay, I hope this was a really, really helpful episode. Please, as usual, let me know, and please also, I'm going to start begging for these. Leave me a review on Apple Podcasts, if you're listening on Apple, because I love to read them. It helps the show and I really really appreciate it. All right, I'll talk to you in the next episode.

Speaker 1:

Thanks for listening to today's show. Go ahead and leave a rating and a review and, of course, follow the podcast so you don't miss out on any future episodes. And I would love it so much if you came to connect with me over on Instagram at Christy Castillo Fit. I will see you next time. Bye.