Mind Pump: Raw Fitness Truth - 2712: The 5 Biggest Fitness Mistakes Middle-Aged Women Make that Destroy Progress

Episode Date: October 23, 2025

The 5 Biggest Fitness Mistakes Middle-Aged Women Make that Destroy Progress This can be a difficult demographic to train. (1:23) The 5 Biggest Fitness Mistakes Middle-Aged Women Make that Destroy Progress #1 - Not prioritizing lifting. (4:43) #2 – Doing too much cardio. (12:16) #3 - Eating too little. (18:28) #4 - Not eating enough protein. (23:41) #5 - Not managing stress. (25:26) Bonus: Alcohol. (28:49) Related Links/Products Mentioned Muscle Mommy Movement Visit Seed for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code 25MINDPUMP at checkout for 25% off your first month’s supply of Seed’s DS-01® Daily Synbiotic** Mind Pump Store Mind Pump # 2567: Women Who Lift: Breaking Myths and Building Muscle Mind Pump # 2447: The Keys to Visceral Fat Loss & Muscle Gain With Dr. Tyna Moore Mind Pump # 2187: Why Building Muscle Is More Important Than Losing Fat With Dr. Gabrielle Lyon Mind Pump # 2652: How Undereating is Making You Fat & Unhealthy Mind Pump # 2445: Women, You Will Never Lose Belly Fat Unless You Do These 5 Things Mind Pump #2690: The NEW DIET Everyone Is Using For Fat Loss Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube Mind Pump Free Resources People Mentioned Dr. Tyna Moore (@drtyna) Instagram   Dr. Gabrielle Lyon (@drgabriellelyon) Instagram  

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only one place to go. Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts. Sal DeStefano, Adam Schaefer, and Justin Andrews. You just found the most downloaded fitness health and entertainment podcast. This is Mind Pump. Today's episode, look, we're going to talk to middle-aged women who are struggling with their fitness. What they seem to be doing isn't working. What you're doing isn't working.

We're going to talk about the five biggest fitness mistakes. are so common. We see them all the time. If you fix these, watch what happens to your body, your fitness, and your progress. By the way, we have a group coaching group where our trainers help women through this process. It's muscle mommy movement.com. Everybody gets a week for free. Hop in there, get some free coaching. It's awesome. If you stick around afterwards, it's great, but a week for free for everybody. Also, this episode is brought to you by a sponsor. Seed. Seed is the world's best probiotic hands down. Go check them out. Go to c.com forward slash mind pump. Use the code 25% off your first month's order of their daily symbiotic. All right, real quick, if you love

us like we love you, why not show it by rocking one of our shirts, hats, mugs, or training gear over at mindpump store.com. I'm talking right now, hit pause, head on over to mindpumpstor.com. That's it. Enjoy the rest of the show. All right, today we're going to talk about the five biggest mistakes that women in middle-aged make when it comes to fitness that completely destroys their progress. It gets in their way. It stops things from happening.

Prevents them from burning the body fat they want to burn and getting the body in fitness that they desire. We're going to break them down and talk about why they're huge mistakes. Let's get to it. Do our best not to mansplain.

No. I feel like we have to say we had like 80% of our clientele is this category. You know, okay, I'd love that you say that. it's one of my pet peeves when and we've gotten this start to 10 years we've been doing this

there's always a handful people coming I wish you guys would have a girl on the show it's like I feel more confident training a woman, a middle-aged woman than I do a young teenage boy or an older guy like that was most of what I helped I have more experience

training and I'm not going to by no means do I think I came out the game it's an expert. I learned a lot of things in a hard way, didn't know what the hell I was doing. But through years and years and years and hundreds of female clients that I trained, I think I got pretty good at doing that. I think you guys would agree too. That's most of our demographic. It's still the largest demographic. By far. It's not even close. It's not even close. You will, you'll go to a gym that has 10, 15 trainers, and you may see three to four guys getting trained that day. Maybe. The rest will all be women.

It's the largest demographic still. It was when we were training clients. And this is a very difficult, this can be a difficult demographic to train even today, not because there's necessarily anything that's happening physiologically that makes it very difficult. Now, I do know hormones change, and we've had episodes talking about things like paramedopause and menopause that can definitely change how the body adapts and reacts. But the rules still apply. In other words, the things that work still work.

And what we see with this demographic is there are common mistakes and common beliefs in this age group that still persist. And I know this because when we talk to people, when we do live events, when we talk to people on the show, when our trainers are training people in this age group, women in this age group, we have to talk them out of doing a lot of these different kinds of things. Do you think that's still largely due to marketing and how they're marketed to it? Yes. And now the younger, so it's interesting you say that because the younger demographic, right, Gen Z and even millennial women, but definitely the younger demographic has figured this out. And it's largely because social media and media and the fitness industry has started to finally start to communicate the right things. But, you know, 15 years ago when I was training clients, it wasn't like that. In fact, 10 years ago when we started the podcast and we talk about some of the stuff that we're going to talk about today, It was actually controversial.

We would actually get a lot of people who would give us a lot of pushback. Now, all the data supports it, all of our experiences support it. We've known this forever. I've known this for over 25 years training people. But still, when we get clients here with our trainers, it's like we still have these conversations. Yeah, you still hear it. Because these beliefs still persist.

So I'll start with the first biggest mistake. Now, if you look at the, again, if you look at the demographic of middle-aged women and you look at the forms of exercise that they prioritize, almost at the bottom of the list. And I mean prioritized. I don't mean the one that they do because a lot of women will do this to some degree,

although they're not doing it properly, which we'll get to. But they definitely don't prioritize this. And that is lifting weights. They don't prioritize lifting weights. The typical demographic of the middle-aged woman's workout routine does not put strength training at the forefront.

He has a cornerstone. And it needs to be at the forefront. So the things that will combat the, signs of aging, the weakness that starts to happen, muscle loss, bone weakening, fat gain, hormone changes. Muscle is what reverses all that. Muscle is a metabolically active, hormone-sensitive, hormone-producing. You can even say it's a hormone-producing, although it directly produce hormones.

It does, building muscle does create a, promote, should I say, a hormone profile that looks like a younger hormone profile through the muscle building process. their routines just don't, when you look at a routine of a middle-aged woman, generally speaking, it typically looks like a lot of other stuff with some lifting weights sprinkled in. And then the way that they lift weights isn't even a strength training. It's not even done in a way to build muscle. And that's a huge, huge mistake.

Well, wouldn't you say that this was the main catalyst for us building the muscle mommy group? I mean, there's a bit of misunderstanding around that, too. This is not a group that's just for mommies. It was really a group. That was a term that was muscle mommy means a woman who wants to build. Yeah, it's really designed, it was really designed for this exact reason for we wanted to put together a group of women that are focused on strength training, to build muscles. You do not have to be a mom. You can be young, you could be old, you could be single, it does not, you could have five kids, it doesn't matter.

But it's, it's a group to encourage women to continue to strain train and make strength training and getting stronger. the corner cornerstone of their program and to let them see the benefits of what that looks like when you do. When we say build muscle, here's what tends to happen, especially for a woman in this age group because she may have grown up

where you hear the term building muscle and you automatically think of a bodybuilder or it sounds very masculine. And for someone who's trying to build a physique or create a physique that's lean, sculpted, you know, toned will be the word that some people will use. They don't, they say, well, I don't want to get bulky.

I'm trying to get leaner. I'm trying to get bigger. Yeah. So here's what happens through the muscle building process. Number one, obviously you build some muscle. That balances out hormones. Muscle, uh, sculpts and shapes the body. And muscle is very metabolically active.

So this is, if you're noticing as you get older, your metabolism doesn't seem to be as fast as it used to be. It's like, I eat certain foods. And before I could get away with now, suddenly I just gain body fat. That's because your metabolism is not being leveraged towards fat loss, building muscle, or even the process of building muscle, does this. And then also, muscle is very dense tissue. In other words, if you lost 10 pounds of body fat but replaced it with 10 pounds of muscle,

so your weight on the scale stayed the same, you would lose about a quarter of the size. Your overall mass shrinks. Yes, because a pound of fat versus a pound of muscle, a pound of fat takes up about 20 to 25 percent more space than the pound of muscle. So you've lost the quarter of the size. So you're tighter, even though you weigh the same on the scale, and muscle, it offers shape, right? Because you built muscle. Where did you build it?

Your butt, your back, your shoulders. So now you've got more shape to your body. It's really your only insurance policy and an anti-aging method that you could apply. And so, you know, to focus on muscle building, it really, I guess the misconception is that cardio, you know, it's so focused on, you know, all the movement and the burning the calories because of the body fat when, in fact, you know, building the muscle actually is the method that's going to produce all of those results. It all, you know, also, prioritizing lifting makes their ultimate goal way easier. Way easier.

So if the ultimate goal is to lose body fat or to shape the body, whatever, building muscle and focusing on lifting as the main cornerstone will make that process significantly easier. It's the fastest way to get there. Because an argument someone might make is like, well, my friend, my girl. friend. I mean, she just started doing those marathons and running and she lost 15 pounds. Or I used to run. And when I would run, I would, I would easily keep my weight down. And so I liked when, so I've done it before this way. It's like, yeah, it's not, it's not possible to lose weight on a scale through other modes or modalities. But lifting weights will get you the desired outcome

faster and easier and more sustainable when you do that. It is a no-brainer way to go. Well, it boosts your metabolic rate. And it leverages your body to burn body. fat. So here's what I'm talking about, right? So I like to use an investment analogy or making money. I could either work and make a certain amount every hour that I work, which requires my activity, right, requires me to show up and work, or I could find a way to take the money I have, place it in an account that generates money on its own, right? That's what happens when you build muscle. You actually teach your body to burn more calories on its own. You also improve insulin sensitivity, which leverages more fat loss.

You also increase the amount of, we're called androgen receptors. As you build muscle, you get more androgen receptors. What does that mean? That means that testosterone you have in your body. And yes, I said testosterone. It's just as important for women as it is for men. It's just different ratios. Testosterone in women does what it, and women does the same thing as it does a men.

It's libido, it's strength. It's fat loss. It's energy. So when you have more androgen receptors, whatever testosterone you're producing has more Get more places to attach to. So now, again, you're leveraging your body in a way to burn more body fat, which means it's less work. This is less work.

Less work done in the gym, more work done on its own is what happens through this process of strength training. Now, when we say lifting weights, that doesn't mean any form of exercise with weights. Now, this is the other, this is just a little side note here with this particular point is that a lot of women will say, well, I do lift weights. I do this body pump class. where I do this circuit training class, or we lift weights in a method that makes me sweat a lot or whatever.

And really what you're doing is you're just doing cardio with weights. The lifting weights that we're talking about is traditional strength training, where the goal is to get stronger. The goal isn't to lift weights faster. The goal isn't to do a bunch of circuits. The goal is in a class. The goal, and literally what looks like is I lift a heavy weight for 12 reps with an exercise. I rest for two minutes.

I do another set. The goal is build muscle. that is the goal with lifting weights and that should be the cornerstone and what's cool is we are finally starting to get female voices that are promoting this people like Dr. Tina, Dr. Estina Esteema, excuse me,

Gabriel Lyon. Dr. Gabriel Lyon. These are women who are also middle age who are talking about like, and like Dr. Gabriel Lyon loves sharing the data and showing like this is how you get the body you want. This is how you become more resilient. It's through strength training.

So the cornerstone of your routine should be strength training. That's the cornerstone. The second mistake that women in this demographic make is they do lots and lots and lots of cardio. Tons and tons of cardio, whether it's on a treadmill or classes or running outside, the belief is I'm burning all these calories doing this activity. But the problem with doing lots and lots of cardio is cardiovascular activity trains your body to build endurance. So if you want endurance, that's great. Go for it.

But if you're looking for fat loss and you're looking for a sculpted, shaped body, with a good hormone profile, don't do tons of cardio. Tons of cardio counters the signal of muscle building. Having lots of endurance means you don't have big muscles or a lot of muscle. So lots of cardio activity actually does the opposite. It actually promotes muscle loss. Now you're not burning muscle, but you are telling your body to pair muscle down. And so lots and lots of cardio produces with a low calorie diet, which we'll get to next,

a skinny fat body with a hormone profile that looks terrible. A hormone profile that throws you into menopause sooner or causes testosterone depression and issues with estrogen and progesterone. So you're doing all this work, all this sweating, and you're like, why is nothing happening? I'm eating so little. I'm doing less cardio. Why is my body not changing the way? I initially lost some weight, but now I plateaued so hard.

Well, what's going on? What's going on is you're literally teaching your metabolism, to put it very plainly, although it's more complex than this. You're teaching your metabolism to slow down. So don't do hours and hours of cardio. If the cornerstone of your routine is strength training, then do a little bit of cardio for your health, but the cornerstone should be strength training. Your goal is to get stronger. When it comes to your workout, if you're getting stronger, in combination with stuff with diet, which we're going to talk about, you will get the body that you want.

And the variability you get from weight training is so much more significant. Like inevitably doing cardio too much and too frequently, you get in this repetitive stress that, adds up over time to where your joints actually start, you know, sending a pain signal. We get restriction there. And there's actually an aging effect to that. If you stay in it long enough where your body, you get this oxidation effect. They've done some studies on what forms of exercise are the best for the skin. And strength training is the only form of exercise. All forms of exercise have done properly. If they improve your health, you'll get better skin. Okay. But only strength training promotes collagen synthesis in the skin. So it literally will

your skin look younger. Now, why is it? Why is strength training promoting the building of collagen, the collagen matrixes in my skin? Well, it's, when you're building muscle, you're sending a signal that says increased protein synthesis. That's, you get that locally to the muscles you train, but you also get the systemic effect where your body's trying to build. And it's also builds your skin. More useful, healthy profile. And the data show this. The data actually shows it. So strength training is a way to actually give yourself the, make your skin look, younger, lift weights, if that's what you're looking for. I think it's important to note or at least bring up right now, since this is where

we're at, talking about between cardio and lifting, the form of lifting weights that a lot of women are doing, too, is not the proper form of lifting weights. That's what I said earlier, yeah. And so calling out the Barry's boot camps, the Orange Theory's, the F-45. That's not lifting weights. This is, that form of lifting weights is closer to cardio than it is to actually lifting weights. That's right.

And so I think there's a whole cohort of people that choose to do all the running, like you're saying. And a lot of family members that still think cut the calories, go for runs. That's the way to get in shape is the method. That's completely wrong. And the circuit training type of classes of weight lifting is not that much better. It's like a fraction better than what just going out for a run is for them. because the rest periods in lifting weights are one of the most important

part essential. And so, and I know this firsthand from teaching Orange Theory classes. I used to stop my classes in the middle class and like literally stop the group. And the reason why that is, and I can't speak for F-45 because I didn't teach there, even though I know Barry's boot camp at F-45 has a similar mentality around lifting weights. And that they encourage the burn and the heart rate. In fact, in Orange Theory, you get points for keeping your heart rate up. And it is almost impossible

to go there with your friends and not be competitive about who gets the most points. And you get the most points by keeping yourself in these elevated heart rates and keeping your heart rate elevated like cardio training, which that's what that is, while lifting weights defeats the purpose of lifting the weights. It makes the weight training. You may as well skip the weight part and just stayed on the treadmill for the extra 20 minutes. And you'll get the same benefits. And so there is this misconception of just because I'm lifting weights that I should be getting these benefits that you're talking about. You only get those benefits if you actually do this in a more traditional form

where you have rest periods and you rest between each one of your sets. And that looks very different. It feels different. So resting in between sets isn't because I need the break. I think a lot of people think that like, oh, I can keep going. No, no, no. It's not because you need the break. It's because we're training it adaptation that builds strength,

not lots of cardiovascular endurance. Again, if you want lots of endurance, if you're going to run a marathon, then that's the way you need to train. But if you're trying to shape and sculpt your body, get leaner, leverage your hormones, get that kind of body that most women, I think, want, then what you want to do is you want to leverage things

in a way that builds muscle, which means rest periods. So lifting weights feels different. It feels like you're trying really hard for 10 to 12 reps, and then you break for two minutes, and then you try again. It does not feel like this continual, you know, Calorie burns, sweat, you know, producing type of a workout.

It's a very different feel. And some people, when they do it first, they think, well, this isn't the sense. This isn't a workout. I'm used to just moving and moving, moving. No, no. If you're getting stronger in your workouts, if you're lifting more than you did before, if you're able to add reps, you're moving in the right direction, keep going. It's not about continual movement.

That's not what's going to produce this. Now, the next mistake is they eat too little. Yeah. And this is just, this one is tough to kill. This one is in most demographics that are trying to lose weight. but is especially difficult or challenging with women, especially middle-aged women. But it goes hand in hand with a lifting.

You have to. If you eat too little, your body will learn how to adapt to the new caloric intake. One of the ways it does is it pairs muscle down. By the way, if you eat too little for too long, your body leverages things to store body fat. Again, I'll use another investment analogy. If you're making so much money,

and then the intake of your money goes way down, you're going to reduce your spending. That's what ends up happening. You reduce your spending because I'm not making that much right now. If you're not feeding your body enough, your body learns how to burn less. And it does this through a lot. And this can get very complex. But one of the things it does is it pairs muscle down.

This is why when you look at the studies on people who go on a calorie-restricted diet to lose weight, 40% of the weight that they lose is muscle. On average, 35 to 40%. So somebody loses 10 pounds on the scale, four of it is muscle. Now what's happened is you've lost some fat, but you've lost an almost equal. amount of muscle, which means your body fat percentage hasn't changed much. So you're smaller, but your body fat percentage is around the same. So skinnier, but similar fatness, essentially. But now you also have a slower metabolism. Now you're making future fat loss even more difficult. So if you eat too little, then it kills future progress. So what's the reverse

of this? Fuel yourself to build strength and build muscle, set yourself up for effective fat loss. Well, you're also, not only are you teaching the body to slow the metabolism, down. You're more likely going to pair muscle down. You also are not giving your body the material to go build the muscle, which is the thing that helps you metabolically and is so beneficial to not only sculpting a physique, but speed the metabolism up. So you could potentially be running a great program, right? doing the rest periods and trying to lift heavier weights. And you're not getting stronger. But you're not getting stronger. You're not building muscle because you're eating too little because you're not giving your body the material to go build the muscle.

So it's like you're sending the signal, the right signal, and the body's going like, yeah, we need to build muscle. But then you're like depriving it of what it needs to go build the muscle. And then it's like, yeah, sorry, I can't. I don't have the material. And so it doesn't do it. And so then you're frustrated because you're like, man, I'm doing all the right things. But then you're not fueling the body enough in order for it to build muscle.

And this is such a challenging thing when you're helping a client who gets in front of you because their ultimate goal is fat loss. They'll say things like, I want to lose 15 or 20 pounds or 30 pounds. And then I'd like to, you know, sculpt my shoulders or my butt or they'll describe body parts or basically describing somebody who's more muscular and less body fat. But we have to focus on building the muscle first before we try and trim down the body fat. You don't do them simultaneously. you're not going to eat in a caloric deficit to lose fat and simultaneously build muscle. You have nothing to build with. It won't happen.

This was the most frustrating part when you go to body fat test again down the road. And like you had mentioned skinny fat before, but like, you know, being deprived of calories and nutrients for an extended amount of time. You're doing all the right things. All the activities there. All the weight training is there. And yet, and you're losing size, but your your body fat ratio increase. It's not uncommon. By the way, body fat percentage is what matters, everybody.

not how much total, it's about your percentage of body fat. So, in other words, a 200-pound man with 20 pounds of body fat on him is 10% body fat. A 100-pound man with 20 pounds of body fat would have 20%. And they look very different. To put it differently, a 200-pound man at 10% body fat looks very different than a 200-pound man at 20% body fat. Same thing for women, right? 20% for a woman is considered healthy and lean.

You could be 170 pounds at 20% or 170 pounds at 30%. They look very, very different. if you feed the muscle, build the muscle, it helps with the fat loss throughout this entire process. If you take muscle away, makes fat loss very, by the way, it's not unheard of. It's actually quite common for people to lose weight the wrong way. They see themselves go down 10, 15 pounds on the scale,

and their body fat percentage either stay the same or go up a little bit. Or goes up. One of the most discouraging and reasons I saw people quit was exactly that, was busting their ass work-wise as far as movement, sweating, eating less calories, disciplining themselves, sacrificing for months, months in a row,

then getting on that body fat test and being told that their body fat percentage went up is unbelievably discouraging, especially when they saw the scale go down 15 pounds, and they were celebrating that, and then they get their body fat test and find out, and they just can't wrap their brain around. How is this possible?

I went down 15 pounds. I was so excited about that. How this thing has got to be wrong? And it's like, no, it's not wrong. What happened was you lost a lot, larger ratio of muscle than you did fat. That's right. And that is not the goal in the situation.

And the recipe for that is eating a low calorie diet with lots of cardio. That is, if somebody told me, there's only one way to do that, there's only one way to lose muscle faster. And that is to be bedridden on a low calorie diet. But if somebody was like, hey, I don't want to be bedridden, how do I lose muscles as fast as possible? This is what you do. Tons of cardio, eat a low calorie diet.

You're going to burn. Your muscle is going to go, it's going to go down. The next part, the next mistake is not eating enough protein. Now, most people eat enough protein. for what is considered essential. So most people are not deficient in protein. But there's a big difference between what is essential and what is optimal when it comes to fat loss and muscle gain.

Now, what is optimal? It's closer to about a gram of protein per pound of target body weight. Okay, so if you're a woman listening to this and your goal body weight, let's say, is 140 pounds, aim for 140 grams of protein a day. And for most people, that is way more protein than they've ever eaten before. Okay, that's a lot.

That's like three meals at, what, 35, 40 grams of protein each meal. That's a decent amount of protein. I think about breakfast, for example. Two eggs for breakfast, that's high protein. That's 12 grams. You got to go find another 30 grams somewhere. So eat about a gram of protein per pound of target body weight in combination with strength training.

Watch what happens. And the data shows, by the way, even in calorie deficit, when they compare two calories with groups of people, sorry, two diets with groups of people, same calories. everything else is essentially the same but the difference is this group is high protein like I'm saying the other group is essential protein but nothing higher

the group with the high protein even though the deficit is the same loses more fat and keeps more muscle than the other group and then when it comes to building muscle everybody knows this higher protein diet

will build more muscle so eat the protein don't underfeed yourself lift weights by the way you mentioned our muscle mommy group the majority of the women in the muscle mommy group right now we're having are following what's called a reverse diet, meaning we're bumping their calories,

bumping their protein, they're lifting weights, and you know what a lot of them are finding? They're actually getting leaner through this process. Leaner, that's not unheard of. Lastly, it's not managing stress properly. So what does that mean managing stress? I think some people think that means

I just do less stressful things, but sometimes that's not realistic. It's like, okay, my job is kind of stressful. I've got a family to take care of, of that's kind of stressful. Yeah, I got three little kids. That's super stressful. Like, what do I do?

How do I manage? Well, here's what the data shows. Do things that give you a sense of purpose and do things that you enjoy doing. Those actually mitigate the effects of stress. And what does that look like? For some people, it looks like yoga or walks, prayer or meditation. It could look like reading a book that is something that you're interested in. It could also look at reframing things in your life.

Like, I have to work. well, I like to work. I want to work. You know, that's another reframe. And the reason why I'm saying this, this sounds hokey to some people, but when you look at the data on stress management and they've compared people taking things away,

except for extreme things, right? Because there could be extreme things in your life that are very stressful. But I'm talking about the average person. They'll compare people with average life, average stresses, take things away versus people who just add things that give them purpose. And the people that add things with purpose

or change mindset along with it have better stress management. So that's, that's the same. It also means managing and modifying the amount of intensity and volume you train with. That's a stress. So exercise is a stress. Now, it's a good stress because you stress the body. It has an adaptation that's positive to the body. But the 20-year-old single version going to school or out of school with no husband, no kids, no job, no nothing going on could handle a total different workout style than the 42-year-old version with two kids married and has also a job that they're trying to manage and a family they're managed. Totally different. That same woman at different parts of their life, no different than a man,

where we at different periods of our life, can handle different loads of stress and different levels of intensity inside the gym. And sometimes their application of intensity in the gym, they're all or nothing. It's either they're not working out at all. And then when they decide to do it, they're going as hard as they possibly can and running these circuit type classes, high intensity type training,

like no, like getting after it every time they work out because it feels cathartic, because they get a cortisol spike afterwards, and it feels good initially right afterwards, but it's actually the worst type of training for that person based off of the level of stress they have. And so that's always a very common thing that we have to modify.

Generally speaking, generally speaking, for most people in this Democratic, graphic, two days a week of strength training for about 45 minutes, traditional strength training, 45 minutes for an hour, is plenty. And on the other days, make sure you get a decent amount of walking. That's a wonderful routine. You combine that with a high protein diet, whole natural foods. You're not trying to deprive yourself.

You're fueling yourself. Stick to whole natural foods because it's far better for you. And then watch what happens to your body. It's miraculous. The other option is like a MAPS 15 type of program. This is the program that we have where you're doing about two exercises a day. So instead of two days a week, it's six days a week. But you're only doing two exercises every day, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes.

Very similar. It's most appropriate. It's one of our most popular programs for that reason right there. And it produces tremendous, tremendous results. And lastly, this isn't one of the big ones, but I do want to throw this in as a bonus. Because I did some, and this was a common thing for my female clients in this age demographic. And I looked up the data on this. I said, okay, because I remember having these conversations with these clients of mine.

I looked up the data. What is the average amount of alcoholic drinks? that the average middle-aged woman will have in a week, and it's between four to five a week, okay? Those calories are wasted calories. That's anywhere between 600 to 1,000 calories a week. Alcohol does not have a positive effect on hormones, does not have a positive effect on fat loss or muscle gain.

Yeah, and it negatively affects sleep. Alcohol also lowers inhibition. Even one glass of wine will do this, and the food choices that tend to follow tend to not be the best food choices. So in my experience, when I've worked with people in this demographic, getting them to cut alcohol out was like an easy 7 to 10 pound fat. Ironically, it's if the point before, it's used a lot for managing stress.

That's right. It's not a stress management. Especially in the context of the beginning of this journey, because I always used to like to communicate that to my clients, too, is just that, listen, I am not an anti-alcohol person, and I think there's tremendous value in the glass of wine or two with dinner with your husband once a week or with your family or your girlfriend's like 100% I'm pro that but where we're currently at when you normally hire me and we get started where you're at already super low calories super high stress it is an absolute waste and it's slowing down our

progress now take give me six to eight months with you where I build five to eight pounds of muscle on you you're eating 25 to 2,600 calories now we're having a couple glasses a week total different scenario than when you're eating 1,500 to 1,800 calories and 600 of them calories every now and then are coming from alcohol. Not a good strategy and is not helping the cause. So it's not a, you can't ever have it and be healthy and fit. No, you absolutely can have a balance of having drinks occasionally in your lifestyle and be extremely fit.

But in the context of when you're starting this journey and you're trying to build muscle, get fit, speed your metabolism up, and you're coming from a place like that where you use alcohol and mitigate your stress, your low calorie, you're overtrained or not training at all, and you're doing it, it's killing our gains. Whereas if we can put it aside for a little bit, focus on the high protein, feed your body what it needs, build some muscle, then we can reintroduce it, whole different ballgame.

Now your margins are... A whole different ballgame. Much bigger. And here's what we're going to do. So we do group coaching for women, and this is led by our trainers. And by the way, if everything that we're saying sounds crazy, I'll tell you what's crazy,

doing what you've been doing and getting nothing in return. If you're like spinning your wheels in the dirt, you're like, I don't know why my body's plateaued. It doesn't want to respond anymore. Try what we're saying and watch what happens. Give it a couple months and watch what happens. But again, to go back to our group coaching, it's muscle mommy movement.com. Everybody listening right now will get in there for a week for free.

So get some free coaching for a week by our trainers. They'll give you more details on this kind of stuff. Afterwards, if you want to stick around, that's phenomenal. And coaching is one of the most effective ways to help you through this process because you're going to have questions and there are going to be some roadblocks along the way. But nonetheless, even if you don't do that, take our advice, follow what we said, watch what happens to your body. Look, if you like the show, come find us on Instagram. We'll see you at Mind Pump Media.

Thank you for listening to Mind Pump. If your goal is to build and shape your body, dramatically improve your health and energy, and maximize your overall performance, check out our discounted RGB Superbundle at Mind Pumpmedia.com. The RGB Superbundle includes Maps Anabolic, Maps Performance, and Maps Aesthetic. Nine months of phased expert exercise programming designed by Sal Adam and Justin to systematically transform the way your body looks, feels, and performs. With detailed workout blueprints and over 200 videos, the RGB Superbundle is like having Sal Adam and Justin as your own personal trainers, but at a fraction of the price. The RGB Superbundle has a full 30-day money-back guarantee, and you can get it now plus other valuable free resources at mindpumpmedia.com.

If you enjoy this show, please share the love by leaving us a five-star rating and review on iTunes and by introducing Mind Pump to your friends and family. We thank you for your support, and until next time, this is Mind Pump.