How to Overcome Your Fear of Building Muscle and How to Start Building Muscle ASAP
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Do you have a fear of bulking up? Are you worried that you will turn into the hulk if you start lifting weights? If so, don't worry – you are not alone. Many women feel this way, but it is essential to overcome your fear and start building muscle.
In this episode of Embrace Your Real, we will talk about why muscles are crucial, how to overcome your fear of bulking up, and some tips for getting started.
Are you ready?!
Related Links:
If you want to nerd out on progressive overload and you want to start incorporating it into your workouts, check out….
Episode 68: Getting Off Your Fitness Plateau with Progressive Overload
If you want to learn more about why protein is so important, check out…
Episode 171: 7 Reasons Why I Prioritize Protein Daily
And if you want tips on how to increase your protein intake, be sure to check out…
Episode 105: The Secret to Eating Enough Protein Daily + Why It’s So Important
If you’re ready to start resistance training, check out my Movement with Julie workout app. I give you 5 brand-new workouts weekly and make it super simple for you to just follow along and build the body you want.
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 dish 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.
Hello and welcome back to another episode of the Embrace Your Real podcast. If you have a fear of bulking up, I know for me, when I first started getting into weightlifting, it really took some time for me to start doing it consistently, because I was scared, honestly, that I would turn into the Hulk. I remember telling my boyfriend at the time, who's now my husband, "There's no way you'll find me in the weight room. I don't want to be one of those bulky women." I know that many women feel this way, but it really is essential to overcoming your fear when it comes to building muscle. So in today's episode, I am going to help you give you tips and just information as to how you can overcome your fear of building muscle so that you can start building muscle.
So if that is you, if you are in this boat, if you have maybe this fear and you want to overcome this fear so that you can start building muscle, tune in, be sure to take some notes. If you have a friend or a girlfriend in your life that you feel like would really benefit from this specific episode, I just ask that you share it out with them. Also, if this episode helps you in any way, if you could just screenshot it and post it up on your Instagram story or your social media, be sure to tag me, Julia Ledbetter, and tag Embrace Your Real. I always love connecting with you guys that way.
So before we dive into this episode, I had to share this review of the day, Liz Ray KS. She gave a five-star review and said, "My happy place. This podcast is my happy place. I have followed Julie on social media since the beginning of 2021, and started listening to Embrace Your Real a few months later. I quickly binged all the episodes and continued to re-listen to them over and over. Her words hit home in a way I cannot fully describe. It's like you're talking to a friend, and every episode leaves you feeling taller and happier than when you started."
I love this so much. Thank you so much for leaving this rating interview. I appreciate every single one of your guys' words. If you could, either on Spotify, there's a rating section and you can rate the podcast. It's at the very top once you type in Embrace Your Real, or if you're listening on any Apple device, you can also leave a rating and review once you are on the Embrace Your Real page. All you got to do is scroll down and you'll see the rating and review section there. If you tune in to the podcast on any other platform, there should be a rating interview on there as well. Any reviews, any ratings really do just help us out. It helps other women who maybe come across the podcast, whether it's through a friend, it's through kind of browsing the podcast app, and it just helps them understand and kind of anticipate what they can expect on this podcast. So it really does help us out. Thank you in advance if you do that.
So the question is how do we overcome our fear of building muscle? We need to first understand why having muscle is so important and the amazing benefits that it brings. So I want to explain that, because this is something that if I would've known the benefits sooner, I would've saved so much time, so much energy, so much stress being scared that I would be bulky or being scared about building muscle. So number one is that more muscle can actually increase your resting metabolic rate. So I know what you're maybe thinking like, "Julie, what the heck is a resting metabolic rate?" That's a very scientific term. In fact, I know that when I first started getting into this and I started hearing all of these terms and terminology, I was like, "Okay, checking out," but don't check out, because this is very, very simple.
Essentially, it is the amount of calories you burn just by breathing. For example, this is the amount of calories that you would burn if you just laid on a bed all day long without any activity, without ever moving a single muscle. So this is essentially the amount of calories that your body needs just to carry out essential functioning. The number of your resting metabolic rate is directly correlated to how much muscle you have. For example, for each pound of muscle burns six calories, whereas each pound of fat only burns about two calories. Now this might not sound like a big deal, but over time, this can and will make a big difference. So essentially the more muscle that you have, the more calories your body needs for basic functioning, which means the more calories you burn outside of your workouts and around the clock. The average amount of calories a woman burns for basic functioning is around 12 to 1400 calories daily. But again, if you're gaining more muscle, you could actually ramp up that calorie burn to 1700, 1800, or even more, depending on how much muscle you build.
Which leads me to number two, having more muscle can help with weight management. So since having more muscle means you can have a faster metabolism for lack of a better term, this means that you could lose weight faster by focusing on muscle gain through resistance training than what you would be doing with cardio alone. So roughly 30 to 50% of our daily calorie burn comes from daily movement and exercise. But what about the remaining 50 to 70%? Well, this actually comes from your resting metabolic rate. Sure, doing extra cardio might allow you to burn more calories in that moment, but around the clock, it won't. That's honestly what matters most when it comes to contributing to the majority of your daily calorie burn. In fact, studies have shown that resistance training can help your metabolism be elevated for at least up to 48 hours after you finish your workout, which is crazy, and just another benefit of resistance training. Resistance training obviously can lead to building more muscle.
Number three, more muscle can mean more fat loss. Fun fact, when you build more muscle, it actually triggers your body to make both physical and metabolic adaptations that actually protect your body against gaining more body fat. So how is this done? Well, it gets really technical at this level, but one thing that building more muscle does is it actually gives the carbs a place to go to be burned for energy instead of storing it as fat. So the more muscle that you build, the more your body processes food and calories differently, which actually can make it less likely that what you eat will actually be stored as fat.
Number four, more muscle can reduce body fat. Now I know so many women who do cardio on top of cardio on top of cardio. That was me, you guys. So if you're in that boat, don't feel like you're the only one. I promise you working with thousands of women over the last eight or so years, I have seen that many women have a very similar story to my own in college. These women are doing cardio on top of cardio, and they really don't understand why they have like this lower pooch of fat on their lower abdomen. Well, they're working out regularly and they're nourishing their bodies, yet they just can't get rid of this, what they call stubborn body fat. Disclosure, there is nothing wrong with extra body fat there at all. But I know that majority of you guys know what I'm talking about.
Well, in fact, a 2014 Harvard study researcher actually followed 10,500 men over the course of 12 years. They found that strength training is more effective at preventing increases in abdominal fat than cardiovascular exercise, which is crazy, right? So essentially when people incorporate strength training into their weekly workouts, they're not only burning calories, but they're also increasing their lean muscle. The more lean muscle mass that you have, the less body fat you will have as well.
Number five, it changes your body composition. Now, when I say it changes your body composition, one thing I need to make extremely clear is that it will not make you more bulky. Here's the truth. More muscle does not make you look bulky. It makes you look leaner. It makes you appear as leaner. The only way to get "bulky", and honestly, I hesitate to even say the word bulky, because bulky means different in every person's mind. Like bulky is a general word that has so many different meanings, depending on how you perceive bulky to be. But when you're weightlifting, if you want to build a substantial amount of muscle, you have to be eating way more calories than you need. It's honestly almost impossible to bulk up unless you're doing it intentionally, because it takes such a large surplus of calories to do so.
Sure, there are many female body builders with a significant amount of muscle mass, but this was their intention. It took years. It did not take just three months or six months. So unless you're eating in a caloric surplus for a prolonged period of time, becoming bulky should not be a worry. So if you're nourishing your body with what it needs, it's literally impossible to build a bulky looking body and build bulky looking muscles. In fact, it will likely make you look leaner and smaller, not bigger. Plus, to get bulky again, I hesitate to use this term, because it really does mean something different in every person's eyes, but for lack of a better term, in order to get bulky, you need to also have a certain amount of hormone and testosterone, and women simply don't naturally produce enough testosterone to do so. So moral of the story, if you really want to change your body composition, hop off the treadmill and start picking up some weights, because real talk, doing all the cardio in the world is not going to give you more defined arms or more defined glutes.
Number six, when you feel physically stronger, you also feel mentally stronger as well. Now, building more muscle doesn't just give you physical benefits. It also gives you cognitive benefits as well. Countless studies have shown that building more muscle actually improves your mood and lowers depression. It can make you feel more confident in your body and in yourself. It also can give you more energy. It makes your mind more sharp and the list goes on and on. So while yes, there are so many physical benefits, there are also so many mental benefits to building muscle and feeling stronger. Number seven, more muscles improve your overall health. So building more muscle can actually control your blood sugar levels. It can reduce your risk of cancer. It improves your flexibility and mobility. It also helps lower your risk of injury. It can support your joints and bone health, and it can also give you an overall longer lifespan by reducing your risk of all sorts of common age-related chronic diseases, more so than cardio alone.
So now the question remains, how do you build more muscle? All of this sounds great, but how do you actually increase your muscle mass? I actually have a program for that to help you build more muscle inside my Movement With Julie app. I give you five brand new workouts that are carefully programmed on a weekly basis to ensure that you are working every single muscle from head to toe. All you have to do is follow along. You literally open up your app and you follow along the workouts. Plus, I give you video demonstrations for every single workout.
One thing I wanted to note on here that's really important when it comes to building muscle is yes, resistance training is so, so important, but you also have to pair that with your nutrition. You have to make sure that you are eating enough for what your body needs based on your goals. If you're not eating enough, or if you're eating in a surplus, you're likely not going to reach your goals. So if you are looking to learn more about that, I do have a free ebook. I will link that in the show notes below, but just know that nutrition and training are a wonderful combination when it comes to making sure that you're building muscle. I really hope that all of this has showed you that there is no reason to fear gaining muscle.
In fact, gaining muscle is what you need to building the body that you want. Let me say that again. Gaining muscle is what you need for building the body that you want, because without muscle, you will not and cannot build the body that you want. You need to have muscle if you are looking for a toned strong body. If you are still nervous about gaining muscle, I just want to give you a heart to heart. You need to trust that building more muscle will lead you to building the body that you want, and in fact is the answer to building the body that you want.
I know this was super scary for me. I was in your exact same shoes, as I mentioned earlier. I was terrified, literally terrified to gain muscle, but my husband, who was my boyfriend at the time, he literally just convinced me, "Julie, you got to trust the process, trust the process."I was so skeptical, but I decided that I was already at rock bottom, so what did I really have to lose? Honestly, it was one of the best, best things that I could have ever done for myself is to trust the process and go ahead and just start resistance training and really work towards building muscle. I want to challenge you, give it a try for at least six months, and I can almost guarantee that if you remain consistent, you will likely love the results that you see.
So let's say you're ready to build muscle. So how do you actually build muscle? Well, number one, resistance training. Resistance training is one of the only ways that you can build muscle. Cardio can build endurance of your muscles, but not strength of your muscles. In order to build more muscle, you need to build more strength. So cut back on the cardio and do more strength training. In particular, I really encourage you to focus on more compound exercises. So compound exercises include involving multiple muscle groups, which means that you will be able to lift more weight and see better results. The program that I do inside Movement with Julie incorporates tons of compound exercises. In fact, that is the foundation, almost every single workout, with the exception of cardio and core. Obviously, I am providing core workouts, and then we have a cardio section as well. It's a HIIT cardio section. But the other four days of the week, we have lower body, upper body, shoulders, and glutes and full body. Those have a foundation of compound movements.
Number two, you need to start slowly. Do not try to lift too much weight or do too many reps right away. This will only cause you to likely become frustrated and discouraged. Instead, I want to encourage you to start with a comfortable weight for you, and gradually increase that over time. Give yourself time and give yourself grace during this process. But just remember it's a process. It's not going to happen overnight, and so just trust the process and go slowly. With that being said, number three, you have to also make sure that lifting weights is something that is challenging you. If the weight is too light, you will likely not see the results you're looking for. This is where the principle of progressive overload can come into play. So if you keep lifting 10 pounds of weight for the rest of your life, you'll not continue to build muscle. You'll see results maybe at first, but then your body will adapt and get used to the amount of weight, and you will need to challenge yourself to continue to build more muscle.
So once you kind of ease yourself into resistance training and you stay consistent and you are consistently tracking your progress, that's another reason why I love the Movement with Julie app is that you're able to track the amount of weight that you're using for each exercise. Then when that exercise comes up again in your workouts, you can look back on your history and you can see how much you were doing prior. That will allow you to make sure that you are constantly keeping tabs on increasing your weight, increasing your reps to place new demands on your body. New demands on your body requires that your body build more muscle to meet those demands.
So if you want to kind of nerd out on progressive overload and want to start incorporating that into your workouts, I do have an episode for that. It's episode 68, getting off your fitness plateau with progressive overload. Heavy weights are your friends when it comes to building the body that you want. It will not make you bulky, do not be afraid to lift weights. As you've learned in this episode, lifting heavy weights will help you build the muscle and the body that you want faster. The faster that you build the muscle, the faster you'll be able to change your body composition and achieve the body that you want.
Number four, you've got to eat protein, eat enough protein. You literally cannot build muscle without eating protein. So I always encourage that you at least at the bare minimum aim for a hundred grams of protein a day and then kind of go up from there, depending. Each person will need a different amount daily, but I will say that everyone at least needs around a hundred grams of protein. I personally aim for about 145 to 155 grams of protein per day. Again, that is my personal preference based on where I'm at, what my goals are, and what my body weight is. But if you want to learn more about why protein is important, I do have a podcast episode for that as well. It's episode 171, seven reasons why I prioritize protein daily. If you want to kind of learn how to increase your protein intake, you've got to be sure to check out episode 105=5, the secret to eating enough protein daily and why it's so important.
Number five, give your body rest. Your muscles do not grow while working out, but while you are at rest. So while you are working out, you are breaking down your muscle fibers, and at rest, you are building your muscle fibers back up and building more muscle fibers to meet the demand of your workout. So if you're training too many days a week and you're not giving your body enough substantial rest, it will literally be impossible for your muscles to grow. You will constantly be breaking down your muscle fibers without ever giving your muscle fibers time to rebuild and grow.
So just how a plant needs the right environment to grow your muscles do too. Muscles need rest. I personally give my body about two days of rest a week. This doesn't mean that you can't do any movement. It just means that you're not resistance training or crushing a workout more than five days a week. You can still do, of course, leisure activities, take an easy bike ride, do some chill yoga or stretching, take your dog for a walk, or do some gentle Pilates, but you are really being intentional about giving your body that recovery day as well as a rest day. So my recovery day is typically not my normal resistance training workout. Like I said, it could be a cycle. It could be a bike ride. It could be a hike. It could be a walk or a jog with my dog, but it is so important that you give your body that rest.
So all that being said, I hope that this episode gave you some encouragement. I hope that this episode gave you some inspiration and just reassurance that building the body that you want really does go hand in hand with building more muscle. There are really no reason to fear building more muscle. So again, if you're ready to start resistance training, I do have a program for that. My Movement with Julie app, you can go to sale. That's S-A-L-E .movementiwthjulie.com. Inside that every single week, I give you five brand new workouts so that you never get bored. You are training effectively, and there are time efficient for you.
There are two versions of every workout each day. You pick one depending on your time constraints. So we have a 30-minute variation, which takes you anywhere from 28 to 32 minutes to complete. Then we also have a full workout which takes anywhere from 45 to 55 minutes to complete. You can learn all about that program by clicking the link in the show notes or going to sale.movementwithjulie.com, S-A-L-E .movementwithjulie.com. Again, I will link that in the show notes as well as all of the episodes that I mentioned for you to learn about progressive overload, to learn about why prioritize protein, and also the secret to eating enough protein and why it's so important. All of that and more is in the show notes. I hope that this episode encouraged you. I hope it inspired you in some way, shape, or form. Can't wait to chat in the next episode. Love you so much.
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 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 your real, because you're worth it.