"I’m Not Lifting Like I Used To" — Here’s Why

00:00Like this belief that fitness has to be hard and intense to count. That if I'm not like sweating or I'm not sore, like I'm not doing it enough. But now like I know better. Like fitness isn't about how hard you push. It's about how aligned you are with what your body needs. Hey, you guys, what's up? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And on this podcast, we talk about mindset and methodologies and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and most importantly, feel insanely confident.

00:39I am your host, Nikkie Stott. And welcome, my friends, to episode number 251. How about that last episode, though? 250 with Dr. Stacey Sims. Wow. Did I have a blast recording that with her? I felt like I was talking to like a big sister and I felt like I was talking to somebody that like we're on like the same ship together, like steering it through like the tumultuous water, whatever that word is. The rough waters of the fitness industry.

01:12And we're just trying to get that message out there of how important strength training is and even during menopause and protein, all the things that we talked about. I had goosebumps all throughout that episode while I was talking to her. Everything just felt so aligned. If you didn't listen to the episode, I would highly recommend that you go back and listen to it. Anyway, today, you guys, today's episode, this episode isn't about macros or lifting or pushing hard and doing intense workouts. It's about evolution and it still pertains to fitness. But it's about the seasons. It's about like tuning in and realizing that the way that you've always trained or you've always worked out doesn't always need to be the way that you continue to train.

01:52Because lately, you guys, and this is coming from like a very real, raw, honest, I want to be transparent with you guys. And maybe at points even vulnerable during this episode, but you guys know that I love to just be real. And I'm in a season of change. And if I'm being completely real with you guys, I'm not lifting like I used to. I am not currently chasing PRs. I'm not currently training, you know, four or five days a week like I once did. And dude, at first, like the shift made me feel so off.

02:23I was like, wait, like, is something wrong with me? Am I being lazy? Am I letting go of like my identity? And as you guys know, like I went on a darkness retreat. I'm hoping to film that episode either tomorrow or next week. And it'll come out either next week or the following week. So I've had so many questions about it. And I love that you guys leaned in with me on that experience. But coming out of that experience, I realized that like I realized a lot of things. But I also realized that my body is asking for something different right now.

02:54And I'm learning to honor that. So today, you guys, I want to share that like evolution with you because I know that I'm not alone in this. And I know that there are women listening who are probably feeling the pull too. And maybe you just need someone to say, hey, like, it's okay to pivot. It's okay to honor your body and maybe listen to it right now and give it something a little bit different during the season that you may be feeling like you need to lean into. And it's okay. Okay. So let's rewind.

03:26There was a long, long, long season. As you guys know, if you've been following me for a really long time, I've been in the fitness industry for over 10 years. I've been really in it for like the last eight, seven years. I've done bodybuilding competitions. I've done when I first started trying diets and all the different things that were out there when I was confused and overwhelmed on what that I should actually follow and what I actually should do and what is right for my body. There was a long season where lifting heavy, hitting the gym four, five, six, seven times a week at some points doing three, like doing cardio, then a strength training, then cardio again, tracking every single macro to the T.

04:11Like that was my thing. You guys know that if you've been here for a while and it served me so freaking well. Eight has helped me really tune in and hammer in discipline. Like for the reason why I'm so disciplined today is because of how I've put myself in those situations where I made time to go and work out. Like sometimes I didn't have the time, but I made the time and I let go of every single excuse that ever got in the way, especially with tracking macros and being out with friends and choosing to maybe say no to a drink.

04:48Because I wanted to eat my calories. Like it has taught me so much discipline, the discipline to step on stage and prep for sometimes it felt like I was prepping for 12 months. Really, it was eight months. And then getting to the home stretch before stepping on stage is so much more intense. Like I've gotten so much discipline from that long season. It's built my body. Like I've completely transformed my body composition. It's built my confidence.

05:20It's given me structure that I needed when I was building Warrior Babe and showing up for thousands of women. And guys, I still love lifting. I still 1,000, 5,000, 10,000% believe in the power of strength training. Like it's been the backbone of everything that I have taught and embodied. But I also believe in listening. And my body right now, she's whispering. She's like starting to be like, dude, you're like more sore than often.

05:51You're more inflamed. You're more tired. Even when I was like checking all of the boxes, like I'm getting eight and a half hours of sleep. I am drinking my water. I'm eating. Even though I don't track my macros, you guys, as diligently as I used to anymore, I've earned that right. Because I have weighed and measured and like done that for 10 plus years. And I've seen what it looks like to be on a scale. And so my mind is just ingrained by, oh, this is like 40 grams of oatmeal.

06:23Or this is 150 grams of egg whites. Or this is X, Y, and Z grams or ounces of whatever food I can look at and just gauge. I can tell you off the bat like some macros that are in foods. So it's like I've earned that right to not track my macros anymore. And I would still can look at it. And so I was checking all those boxes, right? Like I was eating. I'm eating enough. I'm eating enough protein. But I'm more tired. I'm mentally like I didn't feel the same drive to crush my workouts like I used to.

06:58Like I'm in that season right now. And instead of like enduring has been my word or bulldozing through that with like I can do this. I just have to do this. Or, you know, it's not that I have to. It's more like I can power through it. I can muscle up. You know, I can endure it. I can push with more caffeine or I can just push harder type of energy. Instead of doing that, I'm slowing down enough to listen. And so that was a rewind. Let me bring you up to now the right now like the current season where I have pulled back from intense lifting where I've said like yes to other things that I thought that I would never crave.

07:35Like I'm so I made a promise myself when I was in the cave and the darkness retreat that I did for three days and four nights. I made a promise myself that because I could this the the whispers were way louder in there because the silence is it's all that it is that you're with your thoughts. And you can feel I could feel how I haven't dropped into my body before. And so I could feel like my body was just like I'm I'm so tense in areas like even though I get massages almost every week, I'm still tense.

08:05I have knots in my back like all of that from the long season I was in. But I'm craving more things I never thought that I would crave like doing more yoga, doing more mobility work. Like when I talked to Dr. Stacey Sims, she's like, dude, I do more mobility work almost more than I do strength training. Like I warm up with so much more mobility work. I'm like tonight. I heard her say that. And I'm like, okay, this is confirmation. Because at this time, like when I recorded with her, I would this was post the darkness retreat. And I already knew that these were the like it was more confirmation I needed to hear. So I'm craving more of this now. More walking, more stillness.

08:37And I've started feeling like this deep desire just to like move gently, to move with more intention, to create space in my workouts, not just like muscle up, push it through, effort, effort to, you know, just like to to power, power through it. And you know what's so freaking wild about all that is my body actually loves it. And from going from the tremor, like from the thoughts of that I was thinking of, like I had, I'm going to talk about this in a second.

09:08Actually, I'm going to save it for that for that point. But like to think about like, damn, my identity, like this is who I am. I have to push hard. I have to go work out. Like I felt so off when this initial decision was like I was just owning it and I was leaning into it. It felt a little off at the beginning. I'm not going to lie. But now my body loves it. My body, my mind feels calmer. My joints feel better. They're not, they're not like prime time yet, but they're feeling better.

09:38My energy is even like it's more even now. Like I'm not up and down, up and down all throughout the day. Like I'm finding strength in slowing down, which is crazy to me and amazing at the same time. Hey, while you're listening, if you're getting value from this episode, take a moment to tap that review button or share this podcast with a friend. It's a small gesture that goes a long way in helping more women find their way to feeling stronger and more confident in their skin.

10:11I appreciate you so much for taking the time to support this show. And I'm not sharing this, you guys, to say like everyone needs to quit lifting. Please do not get this message, that message from this podcast. Like no way am I saying that at all. Lifting will always be a part of my life. It is just a season I am in right now to honor my, to honor my body and to slow down and to be, as I said to myself in the cave, dude, you got to be more gentle with your body. And so I am not saying that you need to quit lifting.

10:43If you were like, please, if you are on this journey and you, if you are on this journey and like you're, and you're loving lifting, dude, keep going. You're not getting like, I'm, I'm just sharing and being personal with you guys on where I'm at in my life right now. Or maybe you're hearing this, like you feel a little inkling and you resonate with me on it, but you're like, I've got goals, right? Keep in mind, like I've done 10 years of this. So maybe it's just something like I need to incorporate more mobility work. I need to incorporate more stretching. If you're someone that doesn't stretch, like then actually do that.

11:16If this is like resonating with you, what I'm saying is like, at the same time, like you're allowed to evolve. Like you're allowed to shift. You're allowed to be in different seasons and not make yourself wrong for it. Like the truth is, is that I felt guilty at first. I had like these thoughts, like when I was initially like trying to accept this season, I was like, am I losing my edge? Well, what will people think I'm slipping?

11:46I'm not going to show up like how I normally do on social media. Will my body regress? Like there's been, that's been the heaviest one is like, oh, my body might change a little bit. Will my body change? Man, am I going to lose all that I've lost and like put in the effort in the last 10 years? Like, is that going to be lost? But those thoughts, dude, they're just my ego. They're like, they're all conditioning. Like this belief that fitness has to be hard and intense to count. That if I'm not like sweating or I'm not sore, like I'm not doing it enough.

12:17But now like I know better. Like fitness isn't about how hard you push. It's about how aligned you are with what your body needs and how I can make that sound. Like maybe to those of you guys are like that are in the gym right now and you're doing strength training and you're going after the goals. Like, dude, I celebrate you guys and applaud you guys. And I empower, like I want to empower you guys to keep crushing it and going for it because that's how you're going to get the results that you want is with incorporating strength training. Right. But at the beginning of my journey, I knew that strength training was so aligned at that point with me and my body because it was aligned with my body was like, oh, this is amazing.

12:54This feels so good. I can I have a mind to muscle connection so easily. And like the moves just came so naturally to me. And like that's that's when you know that it's aligned with your body and what it wants and what it needs. And I have lost a little bit of that lately. So right now my body is just asking for recovery and it's asking for like a deeper connection. It's asking for like movement that supports my nervous system and my hormones and doesn't deplete them.

13:25Right. This season is teaching me a lot. It's teaching me to listen more. It's teaching me to soften. Guys, one of the biggest compliments. Oh, it's going to make me tear up. One of the biggest compliments that I got today was from a really good friend of mine. And they were like, I love that you're leaning more into like your feminine side of things. For those of you guys that know I'm very much masculine energy, like very much grit and leadership and get things done and power through. And like, you know, what I'm going to share with you guys on the darkness retreat episode is the somatic healer was like you have an animalistic body.

14:04Like you're basically cut off from your mind to your body. And I'm like, oh, damn, I hit hard. Like I really feel that. But that was like one of the best compliments I got is I'm softer. I like my energy seems different more in person. Like I'm more feminine and I'm really letting that show right now. And that's a season that I feel like I need to lean into a little bit more to really get to see that side of things and understand that part of me. And this is all from the darkness retreat, you guys. And just like being you can do this like you can learn how to do that by doing the work on a daily basis, which is what I've been doing with my energy coach since October.

14:41You guys have heard her on the podcast before. But putting yourself in an experience that you really can't like it's you have to really three days of darkness to four nights at four nights of darkness. It's like you're in it and you have to figure shit out kind of thing. You really learn these aspects of yourself a little bit faster. But this season is teaching me a lot, man. It's teaching me just to listen more. Like I said, teaching me like to soften and teach me to trust that I can still be strong, even if my workouts look different. And I'm still strength training. I'm just not in there four days a week.

15:12It's more like two, maybe three. And then I'm doing like three days of yoga, two, three days of yoga. But it's the slow like the one the class I'm in is surrender yin. And that one's like seven different movements in the course of an hour. But you're holding like we were doing like shoulder stretches and chest stretches and hip stretches and like holding those movements for like five minutes.

15:42Like you're in you're in it and you just got to like learn how to soften into it with your body a little bit more. And then the other one is called Ruth Hoffna. I'm saying that right. And that one's like your basic slow yoga. You're just flowing through the movements. And man, it's been it's been I've felt so present by just tuning to my breath and being with my body during those experiences. And it's really cool. And I'm still like I said, I'm still incorporating strength training. But it's just like I can still be strong, even though my workouts look different right now.

16:14And it's showing me that my worth isn't tied to a training split, that my identity isn't like based on how many times I train each week, that health isn't one dimensional. Like I'm still nourishing my body. I'm still moving. I'm still taking care of myself. It just looks different. And that's OK. This is like a new level of my fitness journey. It's not a step back. And that's why I'm like learning how to change a narrative for myself. It's not like a pause. It's just it's literally an evolution.

16:45And so if you guys are listening to this and you're like in this like weird in between space, if you are, because there's probably a lot of you guys that aren't that listen to this podcast. It's seek information of like how to eat right and how to train and how to do all those things and trust. I'm going to still bring that type of energy to all of these episodes moving forward. I just want to bring this one in here because I'm a real raw, honest person with you guys. Like I just say it straight how it is. But maybe some of you guys are in that like weird in between space.

17:16Maybe there's like some of you guys that are vets listening to this episode that have been doing this for as long as I have. And you're like feeling the same way. Maybe there's just some type of words I said today that really resonated with and your body is like craving change. But your mind is trying to guilt you out of it because that is so real. Here's what I want you to know. You are not lazy. You're tired. You're not weak. You're changing. You are not quitting. You're pivoting. And guess what? That pivot might be the very thing that brings you closer to your next level of strength in all the areas mentally, physically, emotionally, spiritually.

17:55You are allowed to evolve. So if you are in that weird in between space, my friend, let this be your permission slip to honor the season of life that you are in with your fitness journey. Learn how to honor it. Okay. I hope that you guys met me where I'm at. It's kind of like the flip. Like I'm being open, vulnerable. This was a vulnerable one for me because like, again, my identity is so tied in fitness. And everyone knows Nikki Stott is fitness and working out and strength training and eating macros and tracking macros.

18:32And dude, yeah, that was a long season of my life. Like and I have and it served me so well. Like I said, I've gained so much from it. The skill sets, the understanding, the knowledge, the education that like you could talk to me about this all day long type of deal. I could just spitball with it for hours. And so that's how I felt. But like this is a season I hope that I can be able to share with you guys and you guys meet me where I'm at. And you can be like maybe in a year from now, if you're feeling like this, you're like, dude, Nikki went through this season two as well.

19:06And I'm not alone. I'm going to, you know, honor this season two that I'm in. Right. But I hope it landed for you guys. I hope this episode landed for you guys. Because yes, like The WarriorBabe Show, we talk about building strong bodies, but it's not just about talking about building strong bodies. It's about it's about building strong women who know how to listen, who know how to adapt, who know how to keep showing up for yourself with self-awareness and with grace. I need your help. I need and want this podcast to reach more people so that they can listen to these episodes and gain, you know, maybe just have one light bulb moment go off or they resonate with something and they, it helps change their life.

19:50And you guys can be a part of that with me. I'm one person. You guys are so many. So what I ask is like, what resonated with you during this episode? So I would screenshot it, put it on your Instagram story, put it on social media and share what resonated with you. And then maybe tag a friend or share it with a friend or just putting on your story is it just, I would, I would thank you guys so much for doing that. Okay. Cause like, let's, I want to normalize fitness looking different. Like as we continue to grow, knowing that you don't have to hit the iron and, you know, make your body so tired after 10 years of doing something like you can learn how to evolve.

20:27Okay. All right, my friends. That's the only ask I got for you guys today. Please do that. I would love you guys and appreciate you guys so much if you did, but until next time, keep moving, keep evolving, keep growing. And most of all, just keep listening to yourself. All right. Love y'all. See you next episode. Peace out. Real quick. If this episode resonated with you or gave you the push that you needed, I'd love for you to pay it forward. Drop a quick rating and review, share the podcast with someone who might need it and help me keep spreading the word.

20:57Your feedback and that only helps to show grow, but it might just be the nudge someone else needs to kickstart their transformation. Thank you so, so, so much for your support. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.