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Lindsay Brin, Exercise Science
Strength training makes us strong and aids in weight management. It is that simple. Here’s why!
Typically, muscle and strength increase steadily from birth and until 30 to 35 years of age. We don’t have to think about it much. After that, without regular use, our muscles weaken and lose mass. After age 30 we lose 3 – 8% of our muscle every decade! Muscle is lost far more easily and quickly than it’s built, so a consistent strength training routine is crucial, especially as you get older.
What does age have to do with it? In yours 20s you generally have a faster recovery rate and can adapt more quickly to strength training stimuli. This allows for more frequent and intense training sessions. Younger individuals typically build muscle more quickly thanks to peak levels of hormones.
I AM NOT TALKING ABOUT BULKING! When we say muscle or strength we automatically think “build bulk”. No! Not here. Our goal is creating lean tissue aka muscle, which systematically reduces fat. We are creating and preserving strength to carry us through our 30s, 40s and beyond.
Strength improves body composition, improves insulin sensitivity, and helps balance various hormones. When combined with good nutrition and walking, it’s effective for weight loss (far more effective than walking and nutrition alone).
There are so many forms of strength training, but what is the best form for a mom of 3 who tries not to stress but carries a lot of stress? I’ve always had a pretty good relationship with exercise. I’ve always loved it. I grew up watching my mom teach fitness, so I got my degree in Exercise Science.
In my 20s, I was all about cardio. I taught strength classes, but kickboxing was my jam! I could get away with mostly cardio because I wasn’t losing muscle yet. In my 30s, I walked my triple stroller to the park most days and got in an intense HIIT strength or HIIT cardio session when I could…literally whatever I had time to do. Once I turned 40, I realized exercise was breaking me down and not building me up. I was depleted doing HIIT strength. I was depleted doing barre sessions. I was depleted running. I was depleted doing Pilates. I was gaining weight for the first time since my 4th pregnancy. But why?
I dove right past the HIIT research looking for what would make me feel good again. I tested these methods on two focus groups totaling 900 women. Let me start by saying, it works! Not only did it work for me. It worked for 85% of the 790 women that completed our focus groups. 85% saw success within three weeks! Here is my story – what made my body love exercise again.
Research is very clear on hypertrophy, strength, and endurance down to the percentage and reps to create change. How can we make it work for us? I want to see strength, I want to feel strength, I want it to be effective and efficient without increasing my pant size. Let me tell you, the way we sequence our Weekly Schedule is all about seeing change. I personally lost 7.5 inches! We will get into that in a second, but first let’s let American College of Sports Medicine, ACSM, define a few things for us:
Improving muscle endurance helps in performing activities over a longer period, making it particularly valuable for endurance sports and daily tasks. Strength training preserves and increases our strength. And, I know most of us are seeking results and want to feel good! This is why I created our Weekly Schedule. We utilize all components of fitness – strength, cardio, flexibility and recovery.
In the first few weeks of a program, strength changes are primarily due to neural adaptations rather than an increase in strength. The nervous system becomes more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers, particularly the fast-twitch fibers that are responsible for generating power. These improvements can be seen as early as two to four weeks after starting consistent training. After the initial months, strength continues but at a slower rate compared to the initial rapid improvements. For that reason, long-term, consistent training, is necessary.
According to ACSM, general fitness goals can be achieved with light and heavy weights with a repetition range of 6-20. Often literature refers to a percentage of the one-repetition maximum 1RM. [2]
Your brain doesn’t necessarily perceive the number on the dumbbell, it perceives the load or tension. This can be varied with longer levers, angles, light and heavy dumbbells, bands, machines and bodyweight…this is where exercise gets exciting! The benefits come when pushing close to muscle failure. For lighter weights, this means higher reps, faster tempo and/or longer duration, usually 15+ reps per set. For heavier weights this means lower reps, controlled tempo, and 60-90 second sets ~ 8-12 reps.
For our Weekly Schedule, we incorporate our Burn endurance workouts with Sculpt strength workouts every week. With both strength + endurance formats, by the end of a set we are engaging maximum number of muscle fibers by being within 2-4 reps of failure. Think of it this way – just a few reps left in the tank! In our strength workouts, the last few reps increase the heart rate to support the lift of the last few reps. This is where the change happens!!!
Did I mention that getting near muscle failure in a set is the key to seeing results! We can do this with exercises utilizing dumbbells, bands, sliders, equipment – plus Pilates, barre, bodyweight.
For trained individuals to see continued progress, a minimum of 5 sets per week for all major muscle groups is recommended [1, 3]. This is one of the reasons you will see 25- and 35-minute options in our workouts. The 35-minute options are geared towards trained individuals that need at least 5 sets to see change (2-3 sets on Monday and 3 sets on Wednesday – for that same muscle group). To allow continual progression, it’s important that we add variety and different stimulus to train the same muscle group. In our Weekly Schedule, we do new workouts each week.
Why do we do more than one set? Multiple sets ensure more recruitment of muscle fibers, including both slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers. The first set can fatigue a portion of the muscle, but subsequent sets recruit additional muscle fibers, 40% more effective than one set alone! [1, 4]
Everyone needs to give a muscle group 36-48 hours rest before training it again. When muscles undergo stress from strength training, they experience micro-tears, triggering an inflammatory response as the body works to repair and strengthen the muscle fibers. This is where the change happens! While acute inflammation is necessary for muscle repair and growth, chronic inflammation can be detrimental to overall health. In your 40s, you’ll need more recovery than you need in your 20s.
In our Weekly Schedule, we build these recovery days into the schedule. In fact, we build in a Recovery Week every 6 weeks. Read more about why our body needs recovery.
Just how many days per week should we be strength training? I believe the frequency of your workouts depends on your body type. Most literature points to frequency being less important than sets and reps, it is secondary to volume. Generally 2 times per week for each major muscle group.
I used to love that feeling of sore! Initially this will happen. After exercise, the microtrauma to muscle fibers triggers a response, which is a natural part of the healing process. This response involves the removal of damaged cells and the activation of satellite cells that contribute to muscle repair and growth. But, it is not a direct indicator of strength!
Your muscles can adapt to training stimuli over time. As they become more accustomed to a specific workout routine, you might experience less soreness or none, but this doesn’t mean you’re not gaining strength.
Exercise programs use both linear and undulating periodization. Both aim to increase performance and provide results. In all our programs, I have always found that undulating periodization is best for results, adherence and success. But I cannot just leave you with anecdotal! Here is a small sample of research on Undulating Periodization. [5]
Variation in strength exercises is crucial for several key reasons; injury reduction, enjoyment and adaptation. When you perform the same exercise repeatedly, your muscles adapt to that specific stress over time, which can lead to a plateau. Varying exercises helps challenge your muscles in new ways, which is important for continuous improvement. We do this our Weekly Schedule with new workouts uploaded each week. Then every two weeks we switch up the sequence with some exercises repeated intentionally.
While both strength training and cardio offer significant benefits on their own, doing both is key! While cardio works the cardiovascular system, there is some overlap between cardio and strength … the effort required to lift weights increases heart rate, pumping more blood and oxygen to the working muscles. This leads to an increase in breathing rate to support the cardiovascular system’s increased demands. While overlap exists, strength should not replace your aerobic activity. Walk daily! Walking helps in clearing metabolic waste from the body.
If your goal is weight management, both strength and cardio should be an equal part of your routine.
You’ve probably heard that weight bearing exercises are good for bone density. These exercises require your body to work against gravity while staying upright. They are particularly beneficial for increasing or maintaining bone density because they stimulate bone formation and slow down bone loss. If you are using our Weekly Schedule you are using these types of exercises every time you exercise. Other examples are walking or hiking with or without a weighted vest, running, sports with lateral movement.
For beginners, a single set can often be enough to stimulate muscle strength increases. Start with our one-week program called QuickStart. We do three workouts, each 25 minutes in length, as well as daily steps/walking.
Our Weekly Schedule is for everybody. You get to decide what fits your time budget. For trained individuals I recommend the 35-minute workouts 3x or 4x per week plus walking.
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