An 8-Point Checklist to Find Out If Your Workouts are Effective (Part 1)
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Have you ever felt frustrated by the lack of results from your workouts? Are you struggling to understand why your efforts aren't translating into visible changes in your body? Join us as we explore the common pitfalls and misconceptions that may be hindering your progress.
In this first part of our two-part series episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast, we embark on an insightful journey to uncover the secrets of effective workouts. Through an 8-point checklist, we delve into the fundamental components that determine whether your workouts are truly making a difference. From resistance training and muscle group targeting to rep ranges and form, discover practical strategies to optimize your workouts and achieve tangible results.
What I discuss:
Does your workout incorporate weight bearing exercises?
Are you working every muscle group weekly?
How many reps and sets are you doing of each exercise?
Is your form correct?
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] 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 get you 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. [00:00:27][21.0]
[00:00:27] And welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Your Real Podcast. An eight point checklist to find out if your workouts are effective. This is going to be a two part series, so today is going to be part one. And then next week I'll release part two. But if you ever found yourself kind of hitting a roadblock in your workouts, maybe you're feeling discouraged by your lack of gains or fat loss from your workouts. Maybe you're frustrated if you haven't, you know, seen any changes in your body at all. Or maybe in a while, this episode is going to be for you in today's episode as well as next week. So in this two part series, I'm going to be diving into an eight point checklist that you can kind of go through to determine whether or not your workouts are actually effective, like if you don't check something off the list. [00:01:12][50.5]
[00:01:12] This episode could also possibly explain kind of the correct way and why this is essential for you to seeing the results that you want, and it will hopefully offer you, you know, clear solutions for easily turning your workouts into effective workouts so that you can check off all eight points every single time. [00:01:30][17.6]
[00:01:30] Before we dive in, though, I wanted to share this review. It comes from Kay Reid. She gave a five star review and said, mind over matter. I just started listening to her podcast and I've shared it with at least six of my other girlfriends and my mom. My mom sent me your profile a while ago and ironically, she said, you look like you have the same body type as me. However, ironically, you are five nine and I'm five three. She meant well. Laughing emoji. Anyway, I've been so hooked on your podcast morning and night, literally whenever I can listen, even right down to this second. I have tried working out consistently for 11 years, always overcomplicating it. Come to find out, it's my mind that needed consistency over my body. You have taught me through your podcast that has helped me stay consistent, on track with a healthy mind, leading to healthy body and a healthy lifestyle. Thank you so much for your time. I'm so happy and thankful you went through with launching it, girl. Thank you. I cannot thank you enough. Keep shining your light bright. Also, do you have a blooper bonus episode? If not, I would love to hear one. Thank you! [00:02:34][63.8]
[00:02:34] I am sure that Chels who is my podcast producer. I'm sure that she probably has bloopers for days because we are now well over 430 episodes. And I can definitely tell you, there are many times that I feel like the bullet, nearly literally. I don't even know what, what Steve Carell is. I think it's Steve Carell, right? Steve Carell, what movie is that from? It's or maybe it's The Office. No. Is it Bruce Almighty? Evan almighty, I don't know. It's one of those Almighty's I think. Anyways, I just every time like I have a blueberry. Just think of that specific scene where he's like doing the news and he's like, yeah. So, to answer your question, yes, I probably do have a ton. I mean, probably a library full of bloopers. And maybe we will release a blooper episode one time. But just to really show you that I'm embracing my real butt. But without further ado, let's dive into our first four points. [00:03:34][59.2]
[00:03:34] Number one. Does your workout incorporate resistance training exercises? So as women, we have a tendency to gravitate towards cardio or hit style workouts. But if you want to change your body composition and become more lean and toned, this is not going to be the ultimate solution for you. First of all, cardio only burns calories and doesn't build muscle. You need to build muscle in order to look leaned and toned. Second of all, hit workouts. Yes, they can help you build muscle and become more toned, for lack of a better word, because most of them oftentimes include bodyweight exercises. Sometimes they include dumbbell exercises, but many women don't respond well to lots of high intensity workouts like really impact, you know, impact workouts on a daily basis. And that's because if done in too much excess, it can really mess with their hormones and can lead them to hold onto weight, making them feel puffy and inflamed. And this means that if you want an effective workout, your workouts need to contain more resistance training than it does cardio. So if you feel like you know you're going to die because you're out of breath for every second of your workout, that's likely not going to be the most effective or efficient way to build the body that you want. The goal is to not run yourself into the ground in your workouts. If you want to get lean and toned, the goal is likely to, you know, lift as much weight as possible. Two very different things and things that will give you two very different results when you do resistance training are dumbbell exercises like squats, deadlifts, lunges. You are stimulating your muscles to adapt and grow stronger. So unlike cardio in here, these exercises not only promote muscular development, but they also enhance bone density, both of which are super crucial for building kind of overall strength and increasing your metabolism. And most importantly, to achieve that toned body appearance that you're striving for, you need to build muscle and reduce fat. So when people tell me, I want to, you know, look lean and toned, that essentially just means that they want to build muscle and then they want. To lose body fat, to see the muscle that you felt, and there was effective way to do both of those things. Resistance training. These exercises are going to play a crucial role in kind of the sculpting and defining of your muscles, which then leads to a leaner, more toned body. Right? Cardio and hit workout alone. Those won't do it. And guess what? You increase muscle mass and your body's resting metabolic rate also rises. This is essentially the rate at which your body burns calories at rest outside of working out. So this is the amount your body burns just to survive. And when you increase your resting metabolic rate, this means that you're also increasing fat burning. So you're kind of killing two birds with one stone or two birds with one stone. You catch what I'm throwing the checklist. Point number one do your workouts include more resistance training than they do cardio? If yes, you're doing something right. If you are looking for resistance training workouts, that is where my movement with Julie app comes into play. You get five brand new workouts, dumbbell only workouts every single week that are super easy to follow along. They are go at your own pace, which is my preferred style of training, simply because I have found when you are doing and you are trying to keep up with a person, that person could be at a totally different exercise intensity as you. They could be in a totally different season of life as you. And oftentimes it's the fitness instructors you know, that are leading the class. They might mean well, but if you are in a totally different season, maybe you're a beginner, maybe you took some time off. Maybe you're recovering from an injury. It can feel super discouraging because they're rushing through a class. You feel like you're not even getting that mind muscle connection. And so just personally speaking from experience, I love that go at your own pace style because you are able to genuinely slow down your movements. You are able to do it at your own pace. And I'm also I'm a sucker for either listening to podcasts or tuning in to a good playlist that's just going to get me through the workout. And so I don't have to worry about listening to someone, you know, yell in my face or talk the whole time. I am really in control of what I'm listening to, and that just really allows me to kind of go inward and really get the best workout that I can. So if you're interested in learning more about my five dumbbell workouts that I release every single week. So they're brand new workouts every single week. Release Saturdays at 12 p.m. on standard time. We have lower body, upper body, cardio on core, shoulders and glutes, full body. You can do all five of those workouts. You can do one of those workouts. You could do 2 to 3 of those workouts. All you genuinely need is a few pair of dumbbells and a small space optional but encouraged resistance bands and a bench. But again, those are optional. I always give alternate exercises for the moves that when I program resistance band exercises, I always give you their body weight or dumbbell alternate. And then same goes for a bench. I will always give a no bench alternate so you can learn more by going to sale. That's Sally Dot moon with julie.com and you can check that out over there. There are thousands of women every single week. And I just love this community, like thousands of women every single week that are going through the same workouts as you. And like I said, it's brand new workouts every single week, so you'll never get bored, right? You're not following the same boring workouts. You know, month to month you're going to see same foundational movements, but there's tons of different variations to keep it fun and exciting and engaging for you. Number two, are you working every muscle group weekly? So with resistance training, you need to work every muscle group and every muscle group consistently in order for your workouts to be effective overall. Right. Let's kind of break it up into two parts. First of all, you can't work out legs one week and then skip them out on the next week. You have to be consistent with working each muscle group weekly in order to start seeing changes in your body, right? Consistency is really going to be key here. If you keep skipping legs every other week or every week, it's going to take you twice to three times as long to see results, or you might not even see results at all. And this is because if you're not working on muscle consistently, the muscle will have no reason to adapt and change, right? If it doesn't adapt and change, your body, composition doesn't change. Therefore, your workouts are not effective. You also need to ensure that you're working all muscle groups, not just a select few each week, right? You can't just do shoulders and triceps and not do back and chest. You can't just do glutes and not quads. Like it's important that you're having a balanced approach when it comes to your training and to build a lean, toned body. You really can't neglect a body part and your body as a unit. It all works together and you can't build that lean, toned body by focusing just on targeted muscles and not anything else. And this is because our bodies don't burn fat from specific areas in response to exercises. So yes, exercises like crunches or leg lifts, those will strengthen those targeted muscles, but they won't necessarily lead to fat loss or changes in your body composition in those isolated areas. This is where genetics play a role and a huge role in fat loss. Genetics don't tell you if you have fat, but it tells you and kind of determines where you carry the most fat. So some people hold fat in their thighs while other people hold, you know, most of their fat and their core or their arms. You're going to need to reduce your body fat all over in order to get fat off the areas that you want most. Okay. This is just basically a long winded way of saying that you cannot spot reduce, and you need to work every single muscle group in order to see optimal results. So it's you know, it's not really just showing up for your workout. It's really knowing and showing up for your workout and strategically showing up and working each muscle group to be effective. And if this sounds super overwhelming, if this sounds super complex or confusing, you have nowhere to start. Let me kind of make it simple for you. So, like I mentioned in my July app, I give you five brand new workouts every single week. And I had told you you could do one, you could do two, you could do three, I recommend three. And the reason I say that is because if you're working, if you're doing these three workouts from the Julia app, you will be hitting the majority of your muscles. Now, I will say that if you want to genuinely work your shoulders, I'll give you a swap out in terms of workout. So number one, the first workout that I want you to prioritize is lower body. Number two, the second workout that I want you to prioritize is your upper body. And then the third workout that I want you to prioritize is one of two workouts. It's either your full body workout or it's your shoulders and glutes workout. And you might be asking, okay, then why? You know, I already have upper body. Why are you encouraging me to recommend the shoulders and glutes over the full body? Here's why. Because in our upper body workout, we actually don't typically tend to prioritize shoulders as a first. Targeting that muscle group first. There are some moves, especially in some back moves, that you are targeting your shoulders secondarily, but not first and so. And then in full body you might be targeting 1 or 2 exercises might be targeting your shoulders, but they're likely also targeting something else. So for example you're doing a deadlift two upright rows. So you're targeting your glutes. You're targeting your hamstrings, your targeting your shoulders, your back. But it's not just an isolated shoulder exercise. So if you really do want to isolate your shoulders I would recommend doing lower body, upper body, and the shoulders and glutes workout. And the reason I also you say okay, well I already did lower body. So why are you recommending that I do glutes again. Well two things. Number one, the majority of women that I talked to you, one of their goals is they want to build or at the very least maintain their glutes. That's just a body part that is is highly prioritized in women. And so you'll be able to work at twice, right? You're going to be obviously working your glutes and the lower body, but in the shoulders and glutes work out. You're really isolating those glutes and a lot of those movements. So you're able to work at twice in one week. And then you're also able to, like I mentioned, really isolate those shoulders and work the shoulders. So that way you really, genuinely have worked every single muscle group effectively throughout the week. Now, I will say some people will ask, okay, well what about core now if you are lifting properly, your core should always be working. Your core is a unit that is connected to your whole body. It's at the centric of our body, right? It's the center of our body. If you are properly lifting with proper form, which we'll get into in next week's episode, or maybe at the end of this episode, I can't, I can't remember. Oh yeah, we're talking about at the end of this episode, if you are properly executing your form, then you will secondarily be working your core. With that being said, if you want to work your core but maybe you don't have time for a fourth, a total fourth workout, you can do just the core portion of the 60 minute cardio and core workout, and you can add that into any other workout that you want. So that is definitely something that you could do. So let's say for example, on Monday you're doing lower body, on Wednesday you're doing upper body on Friday you're doing full body and hour or full body or the shoulders and glutes. So one of those two workouts, and let's say you're doing a 30 minute of one of those two workouts. Then you're going into the 60 minute of the cardio and core workout inside the minute with Julia app. And maybe you're just doing that core circuit. Now that core circuit is going to be four rounds. Maybe you don't have time for all of that. Just do 1 or 2 rounds. That way you are isolating and you're specifically working your core. So that's, you know, that's very specific. That is for someone who is, you know, you want to intentionally work on your core. Now, I will say there is something coming to the app that's called flex workouts. And those are going to be kind of one off workouts. And so that will be super, super easy for you to be able to isolate a specific muscle group. I'll have a shoulder burnout, I'll have back burnouts, I'll have a, you know, a seated upper body day. I'll have, glutes and hamstrings. And so these are kind of one off workouts that you can do at any time. And that's going to be super easy. For you to be able to kind of pick and pick and play kind of the workouts that you want to do from week to week, but just to give you a good understanding. I know I kind of got in the weeds there, but hopefully that was helpful for you. If you have questions and you're an active subscriber in the app, feel free to always send me a message in the app. I can always help. There are people every single day that come to me and say, hey, these are my goals. This is what I'm doing. Can you recommend, like a schedule for me? And I'm happy to help in any way that I can. Number three how many sets and reps are you doing of each exercise? Actually, let's rewind for a second and make sure that every and every person understands. When I say, you know, sets and reps, you understand what a rep is and what a set is. So a rep is short for repetition. So that refers to a single complete cycle of an exercise. So one squat or one pushup that counts as one rep right. A set is a group of consecutive reps performed without rest. So this is, you know, a set of workout. So you're doing a set of ten reps. So you're doing ten reps. So one bicep curl two bicep curls three bicep curls all the way up to ten reps. That is going to be one set of ten reps of bicep curls. So now you kind of know what those are. Let's kind of dive into why each are important for determining whether or not your workouts are effective. So sets and reps determine the intensity of your workouts, aka determining whether or not your muscles you know need to adapt and grow. So kind of some general parameters on sets and reps based on the results that you're looking for. If you're solely wanting to build strength, the strength set and rep range is going to be lower rep ranges. So typically 2 to 6 max. I mean, typically I see, you know, 2 to 5, 2 to 4 reps per set. With higher sets. This could be 3 to 5 3 to 6 sets challenging those muscles for shorter bursts, promoting those neurological adaptations and strength gains. Right. This is going to be, again, for someone who is purely looking for strength and not necessarily esthetics. We do have a strength program that's coming later in the year to the moment with Julie app. That will still be demo only, but it will be solely focused on strength. And so you are going to see those really low rep ranges in that program with the higher sets. The second parameter is muscle growth rep and set range. So moderate rep ranges usually 8 to 12 reps per set with moderate sets 2 to 4 sets. And this is going to induce muscle hypertrophy. So hypertrophy is when you lift weights and you create these microscopic tears in your muscle fibers. So as your body repairs these tears it strengthens and enlarges the muscle fibers leading to stronger muscles. And this is you know, what you're looking for when building a lean, toned body. This is typically where the optimal range is. Because most women are looking to build a lean, toned body. They want to have some muscle. They're not solely focused on strength, but they want to overall build some muscle. And so I typically program the majority of my weekly workouts are within that moderate rep range. Endurance is going to be a higher rep range. So 15 plus reps per set with moderate sets a 2 to 3. This is going to improve muscular endurance which enhances your ability to sustain physical activity for over, you know, an over extended period of time and endurance focused workouts. They often incorporate lighter weights, higher repetitions. For example. This is where you would find it in a dumbbell hit workout or a Pilates workout. Maybe this is really, again, improving your muscle endurance, but not necessarily going to improve your muscle growth, leading to a leaner, toned body. It can, and you can incorporate both of those. You could incorporate the muscle hypertrophy as well as the endurance. And we do actually in our cardio and core days we do program more endurance. So for the cardio section at least especially for the 60 minute, you're going to see kind of the endurance rep range there. You're going to see 20 1520 wrap range a lot in those style workouts. So again, where does your workout fall within for optimal results? You're going to want to fall within that muscle growth rep range for the majority of you, if you have the goal of building a lean, toned body and that's going to be, you know, anywhere from 8 to 12 reps, 2 to 4 sets of eyes each exercise for building the body that you want. And last but not least, number four is your form. Correct? So this is what I was talking about earlier. And this is actually one of the most overlooked points that people consider when determining whether or not their workouts are effective, but by maintaining correct alignment and execution during the exercises in your workouts, you make sure that all the muscles that you're trying to target in a specific workout are subjected to the appropriate resistance and range of motion for optimal growth. AKA, if you have the wrong form, your muscles don't have to work as hard and aren't targeted for muscle growth. So proper form is needed so your muscles can be like, oh, okay, this is actually hard. I need to adapt and grow. So with that being said, poor form that can actually that can and it will prevent the effectiveness of the exercises in your workout. And this. Can reduce the intensity placed on your muscles, and that will drastically hinder your progress. And this is true whether you're aiming to build strength, increase muscle size, improve endurance. Proper form is key for maximizing the benefits of your workouts and building the body that you want. So to kind of sum that up in more simple terms, proper form, this is going to be key in any workout routine. Because if your form is wrong, you're not actually working your muscles optimally. And when you aren't maximizing those exercises, you're going to see slower results or no results at all. And this is kind of goes back to not working out each muscle group weekly. Like I said, right? If you are, if your form is wrong, you're going to miss out on working the muscle to effectively grow that week, and especially when it comes to like your core unit, if you're not focusing on proper form, you're likely not even hitting. You might not even be hitting the muscle that you're supposed to be, you know, targeting first, let alone the secondary muscle groups that will, as a result, be working as well. So my recommendation is to always, you know, start lighter with proper form and then progress from there. I know that it's hard. I know that our egos want to take over. But I'm telling you, lighter weight, well, with correct form that will give you better results every single day than you trying to lift heavier weight and have poor form. So this is exactly why every single exercise in my app has a video demonstration to give you just kind of, okay, this is what the movement should look like, and it will give you a clear video demonstration. And this also kind of goes back to what I was talking about earlier, the go at your own pace style workouts. Again, proper form and executing proper form is so essential. And I have just found that when you're doing these follow along style workouts, you already feel rushed from the beginning because you're trying to keep up with the instructor and you're not actually focusing on the form as much because you're just trying to keep up. Now, this could be, you know, this could be totally different. This is my perspective. This is what I have found works best for me is to go at your own pace style. I've just found that I am a lot more intentional because it is go at my own pace. I'm not trying to keep up with an instructor and I'm really able to focus on that mind muscle connection. Okay, so there you have it. Those are the first four points in our eight point checklist to find out if your workouts are actually effective, let me quickly recap what we talked about in today's episode. Number one, does your workout incorporate weight bearing exercises? Number two, are you properly executing and working each muscle group weekly? Number three how many sets and reps are you doing of each exercise? And now number four, is your form correct? So if you've already, you know, looked at this and you're like, I have not checked any or all of these on my list, then I want to encourage you to get plugged in. We we have them. Julie app for a reason five brand new workouts every single week. You can learn all about it by going to sale. That's Sally wiggly.com. I really think that that is going to be beneficial for you because you will. If you are following those workouts on a weekly basis, you are going to be incorporating weight bearing exercises. You are going to be working each muscle group effectively. If you're, you know, following that three day plan, at the very least that I suggested, you are going to be in that rep range of 8 to 12 reps, typically 2 to 4 sets. And lastly, you should be knowing what proper form is. And again, if you always if you have questions about proper form, I am always happy to answer questions in the community group. You can always, you know, post a video in there. We are happy to help in any way that we can check in with us. We are happy to help with you in terms of proper form, but just know that when you are trying to execute proper form, always start with body weight or very, very low weight. At the very least, to really make sure that you're getting that full muscle connection and contraction so that you are actually working the muscles that the exercise should be working. And that's actually a feature that's coming to the app very soon, is each movement will have the muscles. So they'll be like kind of a little icon. You'll be able to click on that, and then you'll be able to see like the muscle groups that are going to be worked or should be worked in that movement. So that will also help you in terms of really making sure that you're having that mind muscle connection when trying to execute proper form. But that is all that I have for today's episode. Be sure to tune in next week. We will finish out this episode by part two of the eight point checklist to find out if your workouts are effective. I love you so dang much. I mean it, and I'll talk to you in the next one. [00:25:09][1295.1]
[00:25:09]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're not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter. Yes, it's with an 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 it real because you're worth it. [00:26:05]