How Long Does It Take Women to Build Visible Muscle?

Nikkiey: Society wants to be able to pop their body into a microwave, hit 30 seconds, and in 30 seconds out comes the body of their dreams. That ain't gonna happen. On the commitment side of things, you have to show up for yourself consistently. Not just when it's convenient or when you're feeling motivated. You have to show up and keep the promises that you've made to yourself four weeks ago, six weeks ago, in my case, ten years ago.

What's going on, you guys? Hey, everybody. Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkiey Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. On this podcast, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. I am your host, Nikkiey Stott, and welcome to today's episode, episode number 229.

Today, we're going to dive into a concept together. One that I absolutely love. One that I am over the moon so passionate about. I hope that if you are somebody who maybe has thoughts like building muscle makes women look bulky, or I need to jump on this quick fix program to lose 10 pounds. Maybe you don't even look at it as a quick fix program. Maybe you're just like, I want to do this program because it's promising me I'm going to lose 10 pounds. It's a combination of those two things and so much more. Maybe I'm speaking to somebody that lacks patience along their journey and wants the instant gratification results to happen like yesterday.

I hope that if you're one of those people, this episode can change your perspective and leave you thinking a little bit differently as you navigate your fitness journey. Whether it be that you're losing weight, whether it be that you're looking to decrease body fat, whether it be to build more muscle, which is what the majority of this conversation is going to be about today. And that is that visible muscle is literally the ultimate symbol of patience, of discipline, and of consistency, and so much more that I'm going to break down in today's episode.

I came across this quote the other day and it really, really, really hit me super hard. It says: visible muscle is a unique status symbol. It's one possession that you can't buy, you can't inherit, and you can't fake. In a world of instant gratification, it's something that takes time, often years of consistent application.

So take a moment to just let that sink in, because it's so true. We're in a society that is very obsessed with shortcuts and quick fixes, and there are even famous celebrities that back these things. It's marketing and it's so many other things. People want results yesterday. People jump onto something because it gives them a promise that they could achieve. Building muscle is one of the rarest things that can't be rushed and cannot be faked. It's not something that you just stumble into or luck out on. It's literally a reflection of hard work. It's a reflection of showing up. And it's a reflection of trusting the process over time.

If maybe this is your first episode hearing me speak and you don't know who I am, I am the testament of this. The 20,000 WarriorBabes, or half of them that actually do the program, are a testament of this. The ones that put in the hard work. I put in the hard work over the last 10 years and I have results that I'm so freaking proud of, and that actually are sustainable, realistic, and something that I can carry on through for the rest of my life. I put in the hard work. I've shown up for myself. There are WarriorBabes that have shown up for themselves.

What I always tell the WarriorBabes, and anybody that comes into my ecosystem that is starting their journey of health and fitness and looking to lose weight and build muscle, is: trust me now, believe me later. Trust our coaches now, believe them later. Trust the process over time.

Let me start off by talking about what visible muscle even represents. Because sure, a lot of you may think about it as a physical change that you can see in the mirror. But I believe that it is so much deeper than that. It's not just about the aesthetics. It's not just about your outward appearance of having muscle. It's literally a reflection of discipline. It's a reflection of your effort. It's a reflection of the consistency that you put into yourself.

Because this is the thing. Building muscle takes commitment. It takes patience. And it takes resilience. On the commitment side of things, you have to show up for yourself consistently. Not just when it's convenient or when you're feeling motivated. You have to show up and keep the promises that you've made to yourself four weeks ago, six weeks ago, in my case, ten years ago. And I'm still keeping the promise to myself to show up. I'm committed to myself, I'm committed to the journey, and I'm committed whether or not it's convenient or whether I feel motivated or not. And you could argue that's the same thing as discipline as well.

On the patience side of things, you don't see results overnight with building muscle. It is about trusting the process and it's about celebrating the small wins along the way. The small wins on a daily basis. The small wins that maybe you are doing things differently than you were two weeks ago, four weeks ago, six months ago. You have to celebrate those small wins along the way.

I joke about this all the time with not seeing results overnight. We live in a society that literally wants instant gratification. They want results yesterday. And I joke and say that society wants to be able to pop their body into a microwave, hit 30 seconds, and in 30 seconds out comes the body of their dreams. That ain't gonna happen.

And then on the resilience side, my friends, there are going to be setbacks. There are going to be plateaus. And there are going to be days where you just don't feel like doing the work. But visible muscle is the reward of pushing through those moments. It's being patient when you recognize, okay, I've been doing the same things for the last three weeks, there's got to be give or take here, I'm going to break through this plateau. And you will. The only thing that's going to stop you is giving up. Setbacks: maybe you had a sickness, maybe you had an injury. The thing is that when you're back feeling 80%, 90%, you have the resilience to show up even when you don't feel like doing it. Okay? Because those are going to happen.

It's so rare in today's world to find something that truly can't be bought or faked. You can't inherit muscle like you can money. You can't fast track the process of changing your body composition and building more muscle with some magic pill or with some quick fix program. Because if you think about it, that is all society is after. The majority of society. That's what they're on. They're on this quick fix program, or they're trying to find the next best thing, or they want this supplement that's going to make fat burning happen faster. If all of those things worked and they were the fast track, do you know what society would look like? We would look drastically different. But we're still one of the top leading nations for obesity. So how are those things a fast track?

You can't fast track building muscle. It's one of the most honest outcomes of effort. And that's why it's so freaking powerful. Literally, I was in the gym this morning and I took a selfie in the mirror, which I tend to do here and there. And I was like, damn, I'm so proud of this body that I've built. Because I'm still on it. I'm still committed. I still have patience. I still have resilience. I still have so much discipline. And I can look at that and say, this is the most honest outcome of my efforts over the last 10 years.

And I want that for everybody. I want that for you. I want that for your cousin. I want that for your aunt. I want that for your daughter. I want that for your husband. I want that for everybody around you who's going to be surrounded by your efforts of showing up for yourself.

Because, as I said earlier, we live in a world where instant gratification is literally everywhere. Think about it like this. You can order anything that you want online and have it delivered the next day. You can post a picture and get immediate likes on social media and immediate external validation. You can buy into a program that promises you're going to lose 10 pounds in 10 days. But here's the thing. True lasting change does not work that way. Building muscle and transforming your body is the opposite of instant gratification. It is the epitome of delayed gratification. In the dictionary, building muscle should equal delayed gratification. It's doing the work day in and day out, knowing that the payoff is going to come maybe in six months, maybe in eight months, maybe in two years, depending on where you're starting in your journey.

And let me be 1000% real with you. That's what makes it so rewarding. If it were easy or instant, it wouldn't mean that much. Think about that. Let that set in. When you grind day in, day out, you have these foundations, these behaviors, these values of commitment, of patience, of resilience, of discipline. And you actually start reaping the rewards of that six months later. Delayed gratification. That's what makes it so freaking cool. So rewarding.

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Think about it like this. Honestly, I'm kind of saying this to myself because I resonate with it. You can order anything online and have it delivered the next day. I've gotten into loving Revolve for shopping for clothes. There are things in my closet that still have tags on them. I'm like, Nikkiey, come on, seriously? But it doesn't mean that much to me. I'm so excited when I see a cool outfit on Revolve and I order it and it literally comes within two business days. I get it and I'm like, oh, cool. And I put it in my closet and then I'm like, oh, I forgot that I even had that.

It's kind of similar if you think about all the programs that you've tried where maybe you had results happen in X amount of time. 10 pounds in 10 days, I don't know. Maybe 90 days, maybe 60 days, maybe 30 days. Let's put it at 30 days. Typically what it looks like at the end of the 30 days is people are like, I want more. Because the process in those 30 days didn't mean as much to you, since it's such a short time frame. The process of actually earning it, the process of actually putting in the work and the effort and living all of those values I just named, that's what builds your confidence. That's what builds your grit. That's what builds your pride in yourself. In yourself. Not in the external validation of people saying, oh, wow, what you're doing looks so cool. Like, thanks, but I'm doing this for me. That's what builds all of that. That makes it so much more rewarding. And it's going to mean so much more.

So how do you actually earn visible muscle? How do you become the person who can look in the mirror and see the results of years of consistent work? It comes down to three key things. If you're driving, take a mental note, come back to this podcast, and write them down. If you have the ability to write this down, maybe you're listening in the background while you're doing some work, quickly jot these things down.

Number one, it's showing up when it's hard. Some of these may sound repetitive, but maybe you just need to hear them again because you find yourself in the instant gratification space, or the I-want-results-yesterday space. If this is you, then this is just a reminder for you. Showing up when it's hard. Consistency doesn't mean showing up when it's convenient or when you're motivated. It means showing up when you're tired. It means showing up when you're busy. It means showing up when you want to hit the snooze button when the 5 a.m. alarm is going off. When life gets in the way, it's about making a commitment to yourself and honoring it. Do you know how much more proud you're going to be of yourself when you don't want to do it, and then you do it, and then you're done? You kept that commitment. You kept that promise.

Number two, trusting the process. Building muscle is so freaking slow. It's not sexy to say that in this society. You're not going to see massive changes week to week, and that's okay. Where progress shows up is in the day-to-day grind: hitting your protein, lifting heavier over time, and fueling your body the right way with the right nutrition. Sounds pretty freaking simple, right? Because it literally is. It doesn't have to be that freaking complicated. It's just consistently doing the same thing day to day, over and over and over again. And if you do it this way, you can expect better results. Not the same results. Better results.

And the last thing is focusing on small wins. As I said, this is a journey that could take six months, eight months, two years. Too often people get so caught up in wanting the results sooner and quicker and faster. But the journey to building more visible muscle is made in the day-to-day grind, as I just said. Did you hit your workout today? Did you fill your body with good nutrition? Celebrate those moments. Because when you show up for yourself, you kept the commitment, you kept the promise. When you fuel your body the way it needs throughout the day, you are building the blocks of your transformation. You're building momentum. You're building focus. You're building unstoppable characteristics within yourself to carry it through. And if you do that day after day after day, it's going to compound over time. So as much as you want to get caught up in the big picture, don't. Try to detach yourself from it and focus on the day-to-day.

Because one of the most beautiful things about building muscle is that it's not just about physical strength. It's about the mental and emotional strength that you develop along the way. Think about it like this. When you push through a tough workout, you're building resilience. Especially if you didn't want to show up and you push yourself through it. You do amazing. You feel good. You feel the blood running through your body. When it's a hard workout, a tough workout, as it should be, you're building that resilience. When you hit a plateau but you keep going, you're developing patience. When you stay consistent even when you don't feel like it, you're building discipline.

It's not just, hey, I have this result. I want you to think of it like this: visible muscle is the physical representation of all the inner work that you've done. It's proof that you've learned to prioritize yourself. It's proof that you've learned to stay committed. And it's proof that you believe in the process.

So when you look at somebody who has visible muscle, and maybe some of you are inspired by the physique that I have, it's because I've done all of this. I've done this work. I've put in the effort. I have a strong foundation of patience. I have a strong foundation of resilience. I have a strong foundation of commitment. I have a strong foundation of discipline. That's all inner work. You can't buy that. You've got to develop that in yourself. And I know you can. Why? Because I was in your shoes and I didn't have any of this 10 years ago. So if you just commit to yourself and prioritize yourself, and say, day to day to day, I'm going to do the same things and I'm going to get better results, you're going to transform yourself in ways that may not feel imaginable right now, but are totally possible.

How can you earn that status symbol, visible muscle? How can you have that result? Here are a few things you can take away from this episode.

You have to commit to strength training. Aim for three to five sessions a week. Make strength training a priority in your routine. Say goodbye to the boot camps. Well, you don't have to say goodbye to them. Okay? Because at WarriorBabe we believe that if you love those things, cool. We're just going to make them 20% of your routine rather than 80% of your routine. You can't get visible muscle by doing tons and tons of cardio, or boot camps, or classes. Over time, if you consistently do that for 15 or 20 years, maybe you will develop some muscle. But strength training is literally the fast track to getting there, along with focusing on progressive overload and lifting heavier over time to challenge your muscles.

Fuel your body properly. You heard me in the last episode say nutrition, strength training, cardio. You can't build muscle without proper nutrition. So you have to focus on hitting your protein goal. You have to stay consistent with your macros. Macros are a big thing for showing more visible muscle. You can't just focus on calories. You have to focus on the next step, which is macros. And eat enough to support your workouts and support the outcome, the goal you're going for.

The third thing is be patient. This is a long game. This is a long game. Celebrate the small wins. Trust the process. And remind yourself that the effort you're putting in today is going to pay off down the road. The effort that you put in today is for the results tomorrow and the next day and the next day after that.

And then stay consistent. It sounds so basic, but it is literally the secret potion to getting results. It's the secret recipe, which shouldn't be so secret because it's so basic. Everyone's trying to be perfect: if I don't follow this routine, or I messed up one day this week, I'm going to start over on Monday. No. You're not going to be perfect at this. Consistency beats perfection every single time. You don't need to do everything perfectly. You just need to keep showing up. All right?

Because here's the hard truth again, my friends, and I'm going to end the episode on this. Visible muscle is earned. It is not given. It's one of the few things in life that truly reflects the work that you put in for yourself. And that's what makes it so freaking special. That's what makes it so freaking cool. Because, as I mentioned, in a world of shortcuts, a world of quick fixes, and a world of instant gratification, you're doing something different than everybody else.

I love you guys so much. I just want the best for you. I just want you to win. I want you to succeed. If this resonated with you, please share it with someone who needs to hear it as well. You spreading the word helps plant these concepts as seeds in other people's minds. All right?

And if you're ready to take the next step in your journey, if you're ready to trust the process, trust the coaches that we have at WarriorBabe and believe us later, then check out WarriorBabe. All of that is in the description below this episode. Or you can go to warriorbabe.com. We just finished a new website and it looks so freaking good. I'm so proud of the team that worked so hard to build it. So go check it out, please. We're here to help you build strength, both inside and out, that you deserve. You deserve that. All right? I love you guys and I'll catch you in the next episode. Peace out.

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