5 Reasons Why “More” Isn’t Better
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People have this idea that doing “more” is the solution for a better and faster results. Do more reps, do longer workouts, do more cardio, do double workouts, and skip rest days. Increased work load equals increased results.
However, this assumption is far from the truth.
In reality, results are not always proportional to the amount of effort expended during workouts. While consistency in exercising is essential to achieve desired results, finding the right balance between working out and recovery is equally crucial.
There’s nothing more that I want than helping you achieve your body goals in a correct, safer, and sufficient ways. That’s why, in this episode of Embrace Your Real, we will delve into the various workout scenarios to demonstrate that doing more does not necessarily mean better.
What I discuss:
Why Lots of Cardio Isn't Good
Why Doing a Bunch of Reps While Lifting Isn't Good.
Why Working Out Every Day Isn't Good
Why Longer Workouts Aren’t Better
Double dipping is not always better.
Links mentioned in the episode:
Movement with Julie | App: sale.movementwithjulie.com
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Transcript:
Hey there, beautiful human. You're listening to Embrace Your Real with me, Julie Ledbetter. A podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I issue a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body, and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned if you're ready to embrace your real. Let's get it, let’s go.
We want to see results. You're probably thinking I need to do more reps. I need you more workouts, I need you longer workouts, I need to do more cardio or maybe double workouts. Maybe I need to skip my rest days. All of these things go through our brain, especially when we're like, We want to see results. Now what do we need to do? We always think more is better when it comes to seeing results from your workouts.
More is not always better. While consistency, yes, is imperative to seeing results, finding the balance between working out and recovery is just as important. So that's why in this episode we are really going to explore all the scenarios without, you know, exercise where more is in fact and not better. And so hopefully by the end of this episode, you will have a better understanding of why I'm saying more is not always better.
But before we dive in, I wanted to share this review. It comes from court and Ivy, she gave a five star review and said,
Love, I seriously love this podcast and the movement Julie app. I've been listening and using her app for about a month now and it has been life changing after having a baby a little over a year ago. I've been struggling physically and mentally and the podcast and movement with Julie App have been a real game changer for me. Thank you so much Julie, for what you do.
Well, I am so grateful that this app is serving you. I'm so thankful that the podcast is helping you. Thank you just in general for taking time out of your day to send that review in. I really appreciate every single one of your guys reviews. If you could scooch over to Apple podcast hype and embrace your real and once you're on that page, you can actually scroll down and liberating interview. It just helps us so much in the podcast world, not only know kind of some feedback as to how these episodes are helping you, but also helps other people who stumble upon the podcast. And whether that's from a friend or it's been on the charts and they see it and they're kind of able to look at their reviews and see if it's something that would interest them. So thank you in advance for doing that.
Okay, so let's dive into five reasons why more is not always better.
Number one, lots of cardio isn't always good. So cardio exercise such as running or cycling or swimming, Yes, it can be an excellent way to improve your cardiovascular health. It can help to burn calories and improve your overall fitness level. Now, I suggest that cardio can be something that is in addition to resistance training, but it really shouldn't be the primary focus of your workout routine. If you're wanting to build muscle, if you do too much cardio, you risk burning the muscle mass that you're working so hard to build. And this is something this is a truth bomb that I wish I would have known, especially in my college years. I wanted to be strong. I wanted to be toned, which is just essentially a lack of body fat and also building muscle. And I thought that cardio is going to achieve that. But in fact, it can actually be like the number one hindrance in you just burning all this muscle mass that you're working so hard to achieve. And this is because your body will start to use muscle tissue for energy once it's burned off. All the available carbs from your last meal are what's in your body. Additionally, lots of cardio can actually lead to an increase of the stress hormone called cortisol. We talk about this a lot in the podcast, but cortisol can break down muscle tissue, it can increase body fat and it can decrease your body's ability to recover from workouts. So while yes, cardio can be and is important for cardiovascular health, it's essential to balance it with resistance training to ensure that you're building muscle and not just burning it off. But the truth is, if you're resistance training, especially if you're doing circuit training or if you're lifting heavy, that actually in and of itself will get your heart rate up, similar to how cardiovascular training can, right? You don't need to spend hours on the treadmill or elliptical from week to week to see the results that you want. In fact, I would encourage you to take less and less and less cardiovascular sessions. If again, if your goal is overall to build muscle, I would much rather you spend 20 minutes doing a circuit, a session, a circuit dumbbell circuit or weight training session versus a cardiovascular session because there are just so many more benefits. I talk about this on other podcast episodes, so you can just browse through my previous podcast episodes, but I talk about this why I prefer resistance training over cardiovascular training and why if you had 20, 30 minutes, what I would tell you every single time is to resistance training over cardio.
Number two, why doing a bunch of reps while lifting isn't going to be the best use of time, and it's likely going to be counterproductive because oftentimes I think when we want to ramp up the intensity, we say, well, we're just going to do more reps, right? I want to kind of explore why that is not the right way of looking at this and how it actually is counterproductive. So many people believe that doing. High reps while lifting is the key to building muscle. With that, though, it's not necessarily the case. High reps can be effective for improving muscular endurance, but they're not necessarily the best way to build muscle. So building muscle and building muscular endurance, those are two different things. What most people want is to build muscle and thus muscular endurance not being as important, but high reps is really going to be the only way that you build muscular endurance. So it's not going to really do anything for building muscle, if that makes sense. So here's why. To build muscle, you really need to place a sufficient amount of tension on the muscle fibers, which means, you know, lifting heavy for fewer reps. So when you lift heavy, you create these micro tears in your fiber, which your body then repairs and rebuilds stronger and bigger. So if you're concerned and again, paired with nutrition, I always have to say that because nutrition is key, especially if you're wanting to build muscle, build a significant amount of muscle, you need to be in a class surplus. You need to be in a class surplus to build a significant amount of muscle. And this is why it's just kind of a side note here. There are different seasons of nutrition in your fitness journey. You should not always be in a body fat loss phase. A lot of time will likely be spent at maintenance. There will be seasons where you want to build more muscle. You should be in a class surplus. I hope that makes sense. I have tons of episodes on that, but there are different seasons and your nutrition. Do not think that body fat loss every day, every month, every year is the best route to go. That eventually will backfire on you and you will realize, Oh, this is why I've been in this constant cycle every single year. It's because you're not taking your nutrition in phases and in seasons. Okay, Let me get back to what I was saying. So if you're constantly doing high reps with the lightweights, you're not placing enough tension on the muscle fibers to stimulate that muscle growth, but maybe you're only doing 10 to 15 reps per cent, but then you do 6 to 8 sets of those exercises instead of 3 to 4. That's still going to be too many reps, even though it's not done in continuous succession. Right this way of doing too many reps isn't going to help you build muscle. It's going to break down your muscle fiber so much that it goes likely beyond repair and you'll enter into a state of muscle breakdown and not muscle growth. So essentially it will lead to overtraining, which essentially is what this whole episode is about. Right? The definition of overtraining is when the body is pushed beyond its ability to recover and adapt to the stresses imposed on it by exercise. So with that, more reps is not always better. There is a reason why when I'm programing the movement with Julie app workouts I am you'll see eight, ten, 12 reps. Sometimes you'll see 15 reps depending on how many sets. A lot of times you'll see 15 reps. If we're doing two sets or you'll see 20 reps, if it's an alternating arm movement, like alternating bicep curls. Because think about it, then you're only doing ten reps on each side each round and you'll typically only ever see me. Program 2 to 3, sometimes four sets per exercise. I you will never see me do like five, six, seven sets of an exercise in my programing. It just doesn't happen because the majority of women, their goal is to build muscle. And a lot of times because the majority of the women inside the Julie app, their goal is to build muscle. And so thus I'm programing for muscle growth. Again, I always have to say this paired with proper nutrition.
Number three, why working out every day is in fact many people believe that the key to building the body that they want is to have hashtag no days off. That was me for so, so long. I thought, I need to work out every single day. I thought that I was weak if I took a rest day. And, you know, they think that when they skip a day, they're not going to see the results that they want. However, this is not the case. In fact, working out every day can really be counterproductive and can honestly even lead to weight gain. Yes, you heard that right. Working out every day can be counterproductive and it can even lead to weight gain. Your muscles need time to recover and repair after workout. So if you're constantly working out and not allowing your muscles to recover, you risk overtraining, which can lead to adverse effects, including weight gain, slower metabolism, impaired hormone imbalances, all these things. Right? Plus, working out every day will also lead to burnout. Maybe it's not in a week, maybe it's not in a month, maybe it's not in six months. But in ten months you're going to be completely burnt out. And when you're burnt out, you're not going to stay consistent. Right? Instead of working out every day, I tell people, aim for 3 to 5 times a week. This is kind of the sweet spot. This is what I have found most people to stay, most consistent with I. Personally work out four or five days a week. I never really do six workouts in a week. Now I am very intentional with honoring my body, with movement on a daily basis, but not necessarily like crushing a workout six days a week. You know, there's some weeks where we're just feeling extra like, Let's do this. But that more times than not, 4 to 5 times a week is kind of my sweet spot. And I feel like, you know, five days a week, I've seen a lot of women be able to do that and they love it. And that's amazing. I also see women who, you know, maybe they're moms or they're busy working professionals. Three days a week is a great, sweet spot for people. And it's perfect because if you program it right, you're able to hit all of your major muscle groups and you're able to be effective and efficient, but only doing it three times a week. And then outside of that, just being as mindful as you can in terms of additional movement. So, you know, getting your daily steps in, being intentional with that non exercise like specific workouts outside in your day to day life. So, you know, maybe parking a little bit further away from target doors so that you can walk longer, like just being super mindful and intentional about that. So all in all, it's important that you allow yourself at least one rest day, if not to. So if I'm, you know, if I get my five workouts in a week, I have one recovery day where typically I'll do sometimes I'll do a cycle on that day. Other times I'll do a hike, other times I'll go on an extra long walk with my dogs. But my recovery day is typically something outside of my normal workouts in my week. And then Sunday is always my rest day. It's my Sabbath. I take time off my phone. I'm not on social media, I'm not working. And then also I am not doing very rigorous activity at all. Like we will typically always go for at least a 30 minute walk, but that's like very conversational, not getting my heart rate up, just, you know, getting my steps in and just honoring my body with movement for 30 minutes. A lot of times I'll do stretching, I'll do foam rolling, Epsom salt baths, all those good things on Sundays and just allowing myself and allowing my muscles the time to recover and rebuild. That's ultimately what's going to be key if you want to see results from your workouts.
Number four why longer workouts aren't better? So yes, it's important to challenge your body with exercise, but it's also important to know that longer workouts aren't always necessary for building the body that you want. Like when you train longer, you might end up doing way too many sets and reps and you're pushing your body hard without allowing sufficient time for recovery. And sometimes people even pushing their body past, you know, repair and research has shown that longer workouts can actually lead to an increase in cortisol levels, which is the hormone that produces stress in our bodies. And high levels of cortisol can lead to increase inflammation, can actually break down muscle tissue and, you know, can also increase body fat loss and can also increase body fat storage, which is very much counterproductive to building the body that you want. If you're on a body fat loss phase, if you're wanting to build muscle and all of those things. So additionally, longer workouts might not be as effective as shorter, more intense workouts in terms of building muscle, increasing strength. So studies have also shown that high intensity, shorter workouts can be just as effective, if not more effective, in building muscle and increasing strength as longer workouts that might involve more volume volume, meaning like the amount of reps and sets that you do in a workout. But let's be real. A lot of people having long workouts, and when I say long workouts, I'm talking like an hour and 15 an hour and 30 minutes, 2 hours. That's just not sustainable for many people. I mean, even a 45 minute workout is not sustainable for a lot of people. And that's okay. You don't need even 45 minutes to get a great workout in 30 minute workouts that you can stick to for five years. I mean, I would much rather you be consistent to 3 to 4 times a week doing 30 minute workouts, then doing one time a week, an hour and a half or two hour workout, and then, you know, missing every other week. Like that's just you're not consistent long term. You're not building these lifelong habits. And this is, again, just why a key piece of why I program two workouts under each workout each day in movement. Julia have a 30 minute and I have a 4560 minute variation in each workout. So the 30 minute will take people on average anywhere from 25 to 30 minutes to complete, and then the 60 minute variation will take anywhere from 45 to 55, sometimes 60 minutes to complete, depending on how slow or fast you go. But if you even just you like people ask me all the time, can I just do the 30 minute workouts? Like, is it will I still see significant results? And I always say, well, number one, nutrition plays. The key role in this, like nutrition really is queen number two. What will you stay more consistent with? And a lot of times the people that are asking are the people that are you know, they just don't have that much time and they're like, I need to be able to stay consistent. But I'm scared that the 30 minutes are not going to give me results. And I always say, Ah, first of all, these 30 minute workouts inside the app are programed specifically to ensure that you are properly training each muscle group. But secondly, I would much rather you be super consistent with the 30 minute workouts than you being super inconsistent with the 60 minute workouts because you just keep telling yourself, I don't have time and you keep putting it off again. Do you see why? I'm a huge believer in consistency over perfection? Consistency over perfection. So if that's 30 minutes three times a week, that's really all that you need. Genuinely, you can see amazing results with proper nutrition and 3030 minute demo workouts three times a week. Genuinely, that's all you need.
Number five, double dipping is not always better. So what do I mean by double dipping? I mean by doing two workouts in one day. I think a lot of times people are so set on, Oh, I just need to burn more calories. First of all, if you're properly fueling your body with the proper amount of protein, carbs and fats and you got that calculation from a coach or you got that through, you know, calculating what your day to day activity is, what your goal is, where you're currently at, that goal factors in your activities. You don't need to think like, oh, my gosh, you need to train, burn more calories. No, no, no, no. I don't want you to think like that because if you're properly fueling your body, it already factors in the workouts that you're doing. You don't need to double dip. I think sometimes, you know, people say, well, oh, I missed upper body, so I'm going to do upper body and lower body and I also do some court. That's not always the most productive thing that you can do. I would love for you to intentionally get a killer lower body workout in and then intentionally get an upper body workout in and then intentionally get a full body workout in versus trying to fit in all these workouts. And you're just not giving your body enough time to rest and recover. This even goes for like doing a tons of cardio as well as strength training. You don't need all of these things. You don't need to overdo it over training your body sometimes is the worst thing that you can do for your body when you think it's the best thing. Like I'm just going to, you know, train so hard. It's not always the best thing that you can do. Focus on what you're doing throughout your day. So I always tell people I would much rather you get a 30 minute workout in a solid 30 minute workout in and be intentional with your daily steps or be intentional with kind of your your knee, which is your non exercise activity thermogenesis, which is essentially just referring to like the energy expended during the day, like the daily activities that are not considered structure exercise that could be walking, gardening, cleaning, playing with your kids, wandering around target. I would much rather you be more intentional with that and getting a solid 30 minute workout in than you like rushing through your workout and then rushing through your cardio and like just wasting time. It's just going to be counterproductive. Right. I get it, though. Like if you're sitting at your desk all day and you do the 30 minute workouts like that might just not feel enough for me personally. I sit all day. I need to make sure that I'm getting I aim for 8000 to 10000 steps a day, and that's coming from literally just me walking and making my tiktoks or my Instagram videos or going on a walk with Josh after work and like decompressing. It's not intense activity. Like my even my cardio on a weekly basis consists of my daily walks. And then maybe, maybe and I say maybe, like the lot in the last month, I can remember one hit session, which is high intense interval training session on my Peloton bike one time. I did that on a Saturday, so I did like, you know, four or five actually workouts. And then I did 120, I think it was a 25 minute hit class with Kendall piece for Peloton. Writer Kendall is awesome. Love her so much, but I don't do a lot of cardio. In fact, I like intentional cardio. Like I said, once in a month. In the last like two months, I've done one a month. So you don't need to do that, especially if your goal is to build muscle. So all in all, I hope that this episode gave you kind of some more clarity in terms of more is not always better, right? Overtraining, doing too much cardio, focusing on high reps, trying to burn all these calories. It will come at an extreme cost to you and it will be counterproductive to building muscle and achieving the fitness goals. And overall, it's just not sustainable long term.
So kind of here are some quick tips on breaking free from your more is better Mindset number one, ditch the cardio and focus more on a quality risk. Resistance Training session. And Resistance training is the key to building a tone lean body paired with proper nutrition. Number two, balance cardio with resistance training. So if you enjoy genuinely enjoy doing cardio, keep doing it, but make sure that you're not overdoing it, especially if your goal is to build muscle. Make sure that you're doing the amount that you actually enjoy and nothing more because it can be counterproductive. Number three, focus on lifting heavy for fewer reps. So instead of doing more reps and more sets, really try to challenge yourself. Those last 1 to 2 reps of each set should be almost impossible. You should be able to maintain proper form, but they should be almost impossible. Number four take rest days to allow your muscles to recover and rebuild. Remember that body fat loss and muscle growth happens during rest, not during your workouts. And number five, use a program if that's the Julie app. Amazing. But follow a plan. When you follow a plan, you're more accountable to it. It takes the guessing game out of it and you can ensure that you are properly training your body and you're not just wasting time. So if you want to learn more about my workouts, you can go to sale. That's S-A-L-E dot movement with Julie dot com. I will link it in the show notes that you can easily go check that out. But like I said, I mean three times a week for 30 minutes, that's genuinely all you need. Paired with proper nutrition and just being intentional outside of your workouts with your daily steps and just gardening or walking or cleaning, playing with your kids, just being intentional outside of your workouts and you will see results.
All in all, please just know that building the body that you want is a journey. It's going to require a balanced approach to exercise. And I hope now more than ever, you are motivated to not take on kind of the more and more, more approach to building the body that you want and really just focusing on quality over quantity, quality over quantity. And if you want to learn more about my demo only workouts for women, you can check out sale dot movement with Julie dot come. I'll link it in the show notes that you can easily go check it out, but that is all that I have for today's episode. I hope that this was helpful for you. I hope that this educated you or empowered you or encouraged you in some way, shape or form. If you have a friend, a coworker, someone in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. You can copy the link, send it to them in a text message. You can also screenshot this and post it up on your Instagram story. We love connecting with you guys. That is all. I love you so much, Nina. I'll talk to you in the next one. All right, sister. That's all I got for you today. But I have two things that I need you to do. First thing, if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, It's with with A in the middle for that daily post workout. Real talk. Healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world. And I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real because you're worth it.