[Mini] How to Start Strength Training | Ep. 84

Today's episode offers a practical guide to incorporating strength training into your routine, highlighting its vital role in hormonal balance and overall health. With insights on workouts, nutrition, goal setting, and listening to your body, we encourage listeners to take actionable steps toward building muscle and confidence.

• Discussing the connection between blood sugar levels and hormones
• Recommendations for beginners on full body workouts
• Suggestions for effective arm, leg, and core exercises
• Importance of nutrition before and after workouts
• Setting realistic, strength-based fitness goals
• Listening to body signals during hormonal changes
• Long-term benefits of muscle building, including supporting bone health

This week's guest was Coach Liv, a registered dietitian and fitness coach, who supports female athletes in achieving optimal performance while keeping their hormones in balance. 

CONNECT WITH COACH LIV

Freebie & website

Instagram

CONNECT WITH BRIDGET

LinkedIn | Instagram | Website

Book your free strategy call here | Sign up for weekly tips via email

Chapters

• 0:03 Strength Training and Muscle Building Tips
• 7:45 Listening to Your Body for Progress

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:03

Hey friend, welcome to today's episode of I'm Hormonal. I'm your host, bridget Walton, and on today's mini episode we're going to be talking about muscle building, strength training, all that good stuff. You are in the right place if this is something that you know you need to get into, or maybe it's something that you've been wanting to get into but you're not sure yet how to make it really practical and actionable. That's what we will continue to do today. You can check out this week's earlier episode for the longer form conversation that I had with Olivia Young, or Coach Liv. She's a registered dietitian and a fitness coach. We had a really interesting conversation starting out, talking about strength training and why is it good for your hormones.

Speaker 1: 0:46

Now, if you've listened to the podcast before, then you might be familiar with the fact that blood sugar and what's going on with your blood sugar whether it's spiking or dropping, whether it's staying relatively level, which is more ideal, and actually I shouldn't even say level, but I should say not spiking that's what we're going for. Anyway, your blood sugar is going to have a big impact on what's going on with your sex hormones and your cycle. And when you have more muscle, when you're focusing on that sort of exercise and movement that's going to benefit your blood sugar, which has so many cascading effects, of course, hormones first and foremost in our minds here. So let's get a little bit more granular with. What does strength training look like? Or, if you're starting out, what might it look like in a way that best serves you. So Coach Liv's suggestion was, when you're just starting out, to focus on incorporating at least two full body workouts per week. So a full body workout meaning that you have two leg workouts or exercises, two arm exercises and one core exercise. Now you might already have an idea in your head of okay, what are a couple of? You know, what can I do, maybe in my house? Or if you are going to the gym, what weights would you use? What part of the gym might you use for certain exercises? But if you need a couple of ideas, then let me run through what's top of mind for me Now. First, if you're somebody who's working out at home, you can always look up a good YouTube video. Just type in full body workout at home, strength training, and you'll get a lot of great results. So that's an easy go-to, especially if you don't have any equipment. If you do have some equipment. You do have some weights, and I think that would be important, helpful to build up, to maybe check out Facebook marketplace, see what she's got for you. Well, using weights when you're lifting something that's heavy, as opposed to just doing body weight exercises, that's what can really help move the needle when it comes to building muscle. So just keep that in mind, whether that is next week or next month or six months from now. As you are building, and as you're literally building muscle, but also building onto your program, your exercises should be getting progressively more difficult, and that's how you can be measuring your progress, or one way to measure your progress.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Now, coming back to some examples, let's say you are somebody, you go to the gym, but you don't often dabble in the weight section. Well, first of all, check and see if there's a trainer that's there who you can do a couple of sessions with. If for no other reason than the absolutely fantastic reason of building your confidence in the gym, building your confidence with okay, what are going to be my couple of go-to arm workouts, leg workouts, core workouts you see where I'm going with it. So just see if that's something that is attainable for you there, or maybe you have a friend or a partner who is a little bit more savvy with that. Now, if you want to just get out there and try some things, here is what I would do. Here's what I'll probably focus on for my workout later today when I'm doing a full body one. For my two arm exercises I'll do first bicep curls and second shoulder presses. You want to do maybe three sets of each. Really, when you're starting out and you're figuring out what weight is good for me, what's manageable here, well, naturally you'll see how many sets you can do. But I would say, you know, if you're starting out and doing maybe 10 reps for each set, that's a good starting point to just say, all right, do I need to use 10 pound weights, 15, 20, 25, and go from there. Next, when you are using weights to do lower body exercises, you can use them for lunges, also for a glute bridge. Generally, when you're using weights for lower body exercises, you can do a higher weight than you do for your arms. So don't be afraid to kick it up a notch to 25 if that feels attainable to you 30, 35. And then for my core workout, I'm a comfort zone gal. I do Russian twists that's my go-to. But sit-ups, leg lifts, bicycle what are they called? Bicycle kicks yeah, whatever fits you, whatever is comfortable to you, just start there and you can grow from there.

Speaker 1: 5:36

One of the things that Coach Liv talked about was fueling pre and post workout. So fasted workouts not really something that she's recommending, not something that I'm recommending, especially if you are trying to make some changes and make some tweaks to your hormones, which is probably why you're listening to this podcast. So I would really encourage you to eat something before you are getting to the gym, before you're starting your YouTube video workout. That doesn't have to be anything crazy, but it should be something that has a quick carb source. So if you want to have an apple and peanut butter, maybe that's a good option. You can also check out the link in the show notes. I linked Coach Liv's website. Head on over there and you can get a free downloadable that has a bunch of ideas for snacks and more information on fueling your body around your workouts. So definitely check that out. So we covered pre-workout. Get something in your body. Post workout, that's when you're going to want to get your protein source in Also. Another good time to come back to those quick carbs, quick burning carbs, meaning something that like fruit right, as opposed to a sweet potato or brown rice.

Speaker 1: 6:54

Now, the couple final things that I want to mention here is first, about realistic goal setting. Now, if you're just getting into the gym, you're going to want to just feel things out and kind of get comfortable with it before you're probably setting any specific goals. But just be realistic about what you're setting. Don't push yourself too hard. Give yourself the room to make some mistakes, and I would really encourage you to set some goals that are not based around your weight, right? Well, not based around the weight of your body is what I mean. They could be based around the weight of the weights that you're using. I think that'd be great to see or if it's certain number of crunches, certain number of pushups or pull-ups, whatever feels right for you.

Speaker 1: 7:45

The other thing I want to mention here is listening to your body is really important. You've probably heard me say that before, but I want to emphasize it here because as you go through the different phases of your before, but I want to emphasize it here because as you go through the different phases of your cycle, you're going to have different levels of energy. Some days you're going to be able to lift more than other days, and some days you're going to feel like absolutely not even doing a workout to begin with. Just giving yourself some grace, listening to what your body needs, fueling your body appropriately and really using food as a tool to nourish your body, because that's what's going to help you see progress in your workouts, see progress in the weights that you're using, and right then, if aesthetic changes is what you are kind of in the market for, then maybe that's what I'll tack on at the end.

Speaker 1: 8:36

But really focusing on why are you in the gym? Why is building muscle and strength training important? And that's because it's going to benefit your health now, especially when it comes to your menstrual cycle, but also in the long run, because it's supporting your bone health. But also in the long run, because it's supporting your bone health, it's helping set you up for success, and building muscle is one of the biggest markers of longevity as we increase in age. So I hope that this was a helpful mini episode for you. Check out the longer one if you're up for it. Let me know what you think on Instagram by DMing me at Bridget Walton. All right, thanks for listening.