Stop Changing Your Workouts Every 2 Weeks (It's Killing Your Results)

00:00If your goal is to build muscle, your workouts probably need to be a little bit more boring than you want them to be. You need to do the boring work in order to recomp and change your body composition. If your goal is to build muscle, if your goal is muscle growth, constantly changing what you're doing can actually make it harder to determine whether you are progressing at all. And so I want you to start thinking about strength training as a skill. A squat is a skill. A deadlift is a skill. A Romanian deadlift is a skill. A shoulder press is a skill. A lat pulldown is a skill.

00:36You have to become good at these movements. And this is something that people underestimate when it comes to you doing progressive overload. Let me remind you that soreness is not an indicator of progress. It isn't proof that you built more muscle. What's going on, everybody? Hey, you guys. Welcome back to another episode of The WarriorBabe Show with your host, Nikki Stott.

01:06And on these episodes, we talk about mindset, methodologies, and tactics that will help you lose body fat, build muscle, be strong, and feel insanely confident. Guys, in today's episode, I want to talk about something that I think a lot of women need to hear, especially if you are someone who loves to work out. Because, ironically, the women who love working out the most can sometimes be the worst offenders of what I want to talk about with you guys today. And that is constantly wanting to change your workouts.

01:40Do you guys know how many times that I hear within our Worry Babe coaching team that our babes want new workout plans, like, every two weeks? Like, new exercises, new programs, new challenges, new training splits, new rep schemes, new something, new ways to make yourself sore. Because somewhere along the way, like, I think women, we started to believe that if our workouts feel repetitive, then they're not working anymore. And so, in today's episode, I want to argue the opposite of that.

02:14Because if your goal is to build muscle, your workouts probably need to be a little bit more boring than you want them to be. If I can even just simply put, you need to do the boring work in order to recomp and change your body composition. And I know that nobody wants to hear that. I mean, I've had to lean in to babes in my previous coaching days saying those. I know that saying that. And I know that our coaches lean in saying that the boring work is where the work actually gets done.

02:50And people still resist it. Babes still resist it. Or women still resist it. You don't want to hear it. Because, and I get it. I mean, doing something new is fun. Walking into the gym and doing something, I mean, doing something completely different feels productive, right? I know a lot of women are so excited when new training programs open every six weeks. Because it's just this new challenge to the muscles. Like, you feel like you're doing something. You feel productive. You're sweaty. You're sore. Your heart rate is up. You're like, oh, yeah. Like, that was a good workout.

03:20But was it a good workout? Or was it just a different workout? Because those are not necessarily the same thing. And if your goal is to build muscle, if your goal is muscle growth, constantly changing what you're doing can actually make it harder to determine whether you are progressing at all. So, in this episode, I want to explain why repetition in your workouts is one of the most underrated parts of building muscle.

03:52Why I think so many women program hop. And how to know when it's actually time to change your workouts. Is it four weeks? Is it six weeks? Is it eight weeks? How do I know when it's actually time to change something up? And something that you'll be able to actually look forward to, right? So, think about it this way. Think about the way the fitness is marketed. Never do the same workout twice. Shock your muscles. You know, all the 30-day challenges, 90-day challenges are out there.

04:22Keep your body guessing. Confuse your muscles. Okay, first of all, your muscles are not sitting there going like, oh, shoot. Like, she's doing squats again. Or she's doing a deadlift again. Or she's doing a chest press or a shoulder press again. Like, we've figured her out. Your muscles don't need to be confused. So, the terminology where it's like, keep your body guessing or confuse your muscles. What they need to be is they need to be challenged. And that's a huge difference. Your body adapts to the demands you consistently place on it.

04:58And that's literally what you want. So, when you lift weights, you're giving your body a reason to adapt. And then over time, you have to give it a slightly bigger reason to continue adapting. Does that make sense? So, it's like, you guys know progressive overload. More load. More reps. More execution. More control. You know, different variations to tempo. Different variations to rest periods. That is a form of progression. But if you're constantly changing the movement, whether it be every day or every two weeks,

05:34which is a common thing that I hear, how do you know if you're actually progressing or not? How do you know that you're actually being able to increase weight on a certain exercise? Right? Like, let's say you do, on a Monday, you do a barbell squat. And the next week, you do a goblet squat. And then you're doing Bulgarian split squats. Like, you know, how do you know you're doing, you're progressing in the squat? Right? And then, maybe you're like on Instagram, then you see this like new variation to the squat.

06:06So, you start doing that. And now you're just doing a ton of different exercises. But are you actually getting any better at them? That's the real question I want to challenge you guys on. If you find yourself in this position where you're changing your workouts, either every single day or every two weeks inside the gym, because of what you saw on Instagram, or because you just want to change up the variation to your workouts to feel more productive. Are you actually getting better at any of these exercises? So, I would ask yourself that. This is one of the biggest distinctions that I want you to understand.

06:40Is that exercise is not the same thing as training. There's nothing wrong with like you going in and you quote unquote exercising. Moving your body is incredible. Walking is considering exercising. Going for a run is considering exercising. Taking a class at your gym is considered exercising. Doing a random workout that you found on Instagram because it looks fun. That's awesome. That's also considered you exercising. But if you have a specific goal in mind, like you building muscle,

07:11which is what a lot of you like when you guys say that I want to be leaner, and I want to be more defined, and I want to be more toned, you are directly also correlating that to the goal of building muscle. And so if you have that specific goal, like putting, like recomping your body and building lean tissue, you're not just exercising anymore. You are training. I'm going to train. Training has, and hear me when I say this, training has intention behind it.

07:43Training means that there's a desired adaptation that you want to happen over time. And if there's a desired adaptation, then we need to be able to measure whether that adaptation is actually happening. For example, I mean, if you guys are into sports, think about how an athlete trains, right? A basketball player. Imagine that person saying, I don't want to practice doing free throws anymore because I've already done those. I just need something new. You think LeBron James and Kobe Bryant and, you know, whoever your favorite player is from your local team is going to say that?

08:20No. No. They still shoot the same free throw over and over and over and over and over again. Why? Because repetition is going to create skill. And so I want you to start thinking about strength training as a skill. A squat is a skill. A deadlift is a skill. A Romanian deadlift is a skill. A shoulder press is a skill. A lat pulldown is a skill. You have to become good at these movements.

08:52And this is something that people underestimate when it comes to you doing progressive overload. The better that you get at performing a specific exercise, the better you're often able to load that intended muscle. Meaning, the better that you become at an exercise and the more weight that you put on it, meaning you're becoming more stable. Meaning, your technique to that specific exercise is improving. You may even feel it in different places as you go down in a squat. Like, oh, I only really ever felt it in my quads.

09:24But now I'm actually getting into my hamstrings because of the depth. Because I've worked on my technique. Because I've worked on my skill. You learn what the movement is supposed to feel like. You understand where your failure point actually is. And then you start pushing that movement harder. But if you're somebody that goes in and changes the workout every single week or you're changing it every day or changing it bi-weekly, you're just consistently living in the learning phase.

09:54You're never giving your body enough time to become really freaking good at that specific movement. You're not giving your body that time to become really good at that skill. So I just want to make that differentiation known. That exercise is not the same thing as you training. Everybody quote unquote exercises. But how many people actually go into the gym with intention? If you have a progressive overload program, quote unquote, if you are inside of Warrior Bay when you're working with one of our coaches,

10:25you have this program that has been developed over four weeks, eight weeks, or six weeks, depending on how your coaches lay it out for you, that has progressive overload behind it, that has intention to it. So that by the, some of you guys will notice, okay, like I started a new workout program. So first week is typically hard because you're calling on maybe some muscle fibers that haven't been incorporated in the previous training block that you were doing. And so they're waking up, they're beginning, that's why you probably feel a little bit more sore.

10:57And then by the end of that training block, you're not only do you know the routine that you now go inside of the gym, right? I go from this, this equipment to this equipment to this equipment. By the end of the training block, you recognize that the exercises are actually getting not like I say this word lightly, like easier, right? I mean, they should be hard with the load that you're putting on them, but the exercise feels better. That's everything that I just said happening. You're getting better at the movement.

11:27Your skill is developing. Adaptation is happening. Quick break. If you're finding this episode helpful so far, it would mean a lot if you could hit pause for just a second, leave a quick rating or a review or share it with someone who could benefit from it. Your support helps more women discover these tools to build muscle, lose fat and feel confident. Thank you so much for being a part of this journey with me. To piggyback off kind of what I just said, like why new workouts always feel effective? Because this is where people I think get fooled a little bit.

12:00You try a new workout and then the next day you barely sit down the toilet. Like your glutes are destroyed. Your hamstrings are sore. You're having trouble walking down the stairs or up the stairs. You have to walk up sideways and you're like, wow, that workout worked. That felt great. But let me remind you that soreness is not an indicator of progress. It isn't proof that you built more muscle. A big reason why you're sore is because the stimulus was new. Kind of what I just said, like your body wasn't, the muscle fibers weren't yet used to this new, this new block, this new training block.

12:38Your body wasn't used to it. And so new doesn't always mean it's automatically better. This is where I think that a lot of women accidentally start chasing that soreness feeling instead of chasing the progression over time. So many women that I would say like at least a solid percentage above 80% walk into the gym and they leave by gauging whether they're going to be sore or not the next day. That is a terrible gauge. The gauge is not going to happen on a day-to-day basis, guys.

13:11The gauge is going to happen if you are progressing over time. And that's why I think a lot of people get fooled because so many people want instant progress, instant, tangible result. Something that happens in the 24-hour period. I hope by now you understand that muscle is not an overnight process and you building it is not going to happen in a 24- to 48-hour period. It happens over time, right? So if you're somebody that's going and evaluating your workout by did I sweat or did I burn a lot of calories?

13:44Am I sore? Like did it feel hard? I would challenge you to change that perspective to did I perform better? Did I feel like I actually felt it in the muscle groups I'm supposed to feel it with the movements I had to do on my plan that day? Whether it be a squat or a row or a chest press. Did I feel my muscles working? Was I able to add more weight? That's a completely different question.

14:14Completely different perspective. Because muscle growth isn't about you destroying yourself every single workout. It's literally about repeatedly creating enough tension and enough stimulus that your body has a reason to adapt over time. And then most importantly, you guys have heard me say it before, you don't build muscle when you're inside that gym and working out and doing your training. You are breaking down the muscle fibers. And then what matters is that in the post 24- to 48 hours, how you recover from that workout.

14:49Are you getting adequate sleep? Are you providing your body with the proper nutrition and enough food to recover from that workout? And then give yourself the feel that it needs for the next workout, right? So recover from it and then do it again and again and again because recovering is where the muscle gets built. And something else I want you to think about is that repetition, like you doing the same thing for four weeks, six weeks, eight weeks, whatever the programming, you know, calls you to do. That repetition gives you data.

15:20And I personally love data and I personally love numbers because it tells us what's actually happening instead of us relying on feelings and emotions. Like let's say you do a Romanian deadlift for eight weeks. But at week one, you're only using 30-pound dumbbells for 10 reps. And then let's say like a few weeks later, now you're using 35s. Maybe you're even getting into the 40s. Or maybe the weight hasn't really changed yet, but you have been able to do more reps with that same weight, right?

15:55Maybe you did eight reps before and now you're doing 12 with the same weight. Or your range of motion is better. You're controlling the movement better. Your technique is cleaner. Or you're leaving four reps in the tank before and now you're actually able to push through close to failure doing it safely. You know what I mean? Like that's progression. Any one of those types of, any one of those categories.

16:25For most of you guys, you're probably going to notice that you have the same rep scheme, right? But you're increasing your weight. That's huge. That's progression. From the first week you're doing 30s to the end, you're probably doing like 40s or 45s. That's huge. And with that data, you can see it. You can track it. But imagine if every single Monday you did a different hamstring exercise. Like week one, you did an RDL. Week two, you did a good morning. Week three, you did a single leg RDL.

16:56Week four, you did a deadlift. You have no baseline. Like you, you may do those in isolation work. But it should still be the same workout every single day for a certain amount of time. It's not changing every day or every two weeks is my point that I'm trying to make there. Because you have no baseline there. You have nothing to compare it against. You don't actually know whether you're getting stronger or not.

17:28You're just, you're just doing, you're just doing stuff. And I don't want you to just do stuff. I want your training to have purpose. So I want you to have intention behind your training. I want you to have purpose behind your training. And then that's, this is where the progressive overload really shines. Because progressive overload, think about it this way. Like I need to add every week. Not necessarily, but progressing, progression can happen in multiple different ways. It can happen by you adding more weight.

17:58It can happen by you adding reps. It can help him by you changing the tempo and speed or of your, of you doing the motion. Or the, the improving your technique where you get a little bit deeper in a squat. What I mean by that? Or, you know, you have more control or you have more stability. Like that is, that's progression. Um, and then for women that have been like training for years, progression is not always going to happen in these like giant jumps.

18:30Sometimes progression is very boring. Like you did 10 weeks last week. This week you probably did the same 10. Like you're, it can be very, it is, it's supposed to be very repetitive and very boring. But it's still progress. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause? It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle

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19:38That's warrior babe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. You, you need repeated exposure to an exercise to see this progression happen over time. And it's not just going to happen in a one week span. This is why I always want women tracking their lifts. I want people paying attention to their weight. I want people paying attention to their reps. I want people paying attention to the order of the exercises that they're doing.

20:08And sometimes you might have to move an exercise around because somebody is sitting on the, on the piece of equipment, but you're still paying attention to how much weight, how many reps and how are you improving? Are you getting better? Did it improve over time? Because now, now you're, if you walk into the gym and you don't remember like what you did last week, like if you're changing it over and over and over again, you're leaving so much opportunity on the table because now you're just choosing your weight based off how you feel that day.

20:41Oh, okay. Well, 25s feel good. 30s feel good. Meanwhile, maybe you did 30s the weight before, but you don't remember. So now you're actually just either unloading yourself or doing the same exact and not really challenging the muscle. That's not progression. That's guessing is what my point is I'm trying to say. And muscle growth and you building muscle doesn't happen by you guessing. It happens by you being strategic with your data. So if there's anything I could take away from this podcast, I'm saying to you guys right now is you have to be intentional with your training.

21:15You have to have purpose behind why you're doing it. And you have to have logical strategy when it comes to data and actually track what you're doing. So if up until this point, you're wondering, well, okay, why do people then, if this all makes sense, right? This all makes sense. Well, why do people do this? Why do people keep changing their programs? I think why women are so tempted to change. One first thing is boredom. And I get it. Doing the same exercises for several weeks doesn't have that same like productive or that same dopamine hit that trying something new does.

21:54The mindset shift that I would say to that, though, is your workout doesn't need to entertain you every single day. Your training has a job. And that job is to move you towards your goal. And sometimes the things that create the best results aren't exciting. I mean, eating enough protein every single day isn't exciting, but you still do it, right? Getting your steps in isn't exciting. Like this is where I wish the industry didn't make such profound. Not profound. Not profound, but like such big claims that sound like it's going to create such big changes.

22:31When truly it's like the basics. It is just the basics. It's just eating your protein, having a training block for X amount of time, getting your steps in, going to bed on time. Like this stuff isn't exciting. And as I said it over podcasts before, it's also not sexy to say this stuff. That's what the industry does really well. It makes things sound sexy. But I'm here to tell you the opposite and challenge it. Doing, doing, going to bed on time isn't sexy. Going, doing Romanian deadlifts, you know, for eight, for the eighth week in a row is not sexy or exciting.

23:04But you know what is? Looking back six months later and realizing your body composition has changed. That's, that's freaking exciting. And then the second reason women change their workouts because, is because they think that they've plateaued. They've done the program for maybe two or three weeks and they're like, okay, my body is just used to it at this point. Three weeks in, my body's totally just like, you know, it's not really doing anything. It's not changing and I don't feel like I'm sweating in my workouts.

23:36Girl, I need you to, I need you to hear it. You just learn how to do those exercises. You just, this is three weeks in, like, guys, give yourself, give yourself a minute here. You probably haven't exhausted the adaptation from that, from the program yet. Like, you may, you may just need to get better at executing it or training harder or recovering better or eating more. Right? Right? And then this, like, so if that's you, if you're saying, well, I just plateaued, please, I challenge you to keep going with that same workout program and actually putting more intention behind it.

24:19Like, if you're, it could be lacking one of those three things that I said. Either you're not tracking your data. There's not purpose behind it. You don't have intention behind your training. You're just going and looking at it as exercising. One last thing before I start closing down this podcast. Because, and I think this is really important for you guys to hear. Doing the same exercises does not mean that you're giving your body the exact same stimulus forever. Because you are changing. Let's say you've been squatting for six weeks straight. Week one, you're thinking about, like, you're thinking about where are my feet?

24:52How, how, how much am I going to load up on the bar? And what's the weight that I'm actually going to start at? Am I going down my squat with good, like, am I keeping good form? Am I, am I breathing right? Is my back straight? Like, your brain, you're thinking about everything in week one when you're introducing a new workout program. You're thinking about, like, 47 different things. And it could not just be on squat. It could be, how am I going to flow through the exercises here in my gym with the landscape? Oh, well, I'll probably have to move this exercise up here because I know somebody is, like, you know, you know what I mean? Like, you're thinking, week one, when you get a new program, you're thinking about everything.

25:25Six weeks later, you don't have to think about all that anymore. You, the movement becomes automatic. And now you can focus on the effort. Now you can actually push. Now you can actually feel the muscle working. Now you can actually know the difference between, like, this is uncomfortable and, like, wow, I legitimately actually only have one rep left. That's a huge difference. And that, and also, too, you also, like I said earlier, become accustomed to how your path moves inside the gym. And so, like, I always used to joke around the warrior babes.

25:55The first week, your workouts may take a little bit longer because you're just trying to get the lay of how you're going to move from exercise to exercise to exercise. By week, like, three, you're basically a pro at end. By week six, like, you could do with your eyes closed. Okay? But that's, like, the huge difference I want you to realize. Week one is going to be drastically different from week six. But you have to keep doing the same thing over and over again. And that's where, like, really productive training starts happening. Because that progressive overload that you're doing through those weeks requires you to have effort.

26:27So the common question is, like, when do I change my workouts? I'm not telling you to do the exact same program for the next seven years. Please absolutely do not do that. Because there's totally a time that change happens. It needs to happen. Because your body still does need to have a bigger reason to adapt, as I said earlier. The reason why you would change a program is you're changing it for a reason. Not because you're bored on a Tuesday. Not because you saw a new, like, good exercise on TikTok and you wanted to incorporate it.

27:00Not because you're not sore anymore. Generally, I want you to think in terms of training blocks, as I've been kind of saying and throwing out through this episode. And it's definitely not to think that you need to, like, your muscles need to be more confused. But give your body enough time with a group of movements that you can actually become proficient at and progress in them. Then that might mean keeping some of these foundation movements in for six, eight weeks. And then depending on, like, and this depends on the person, depends on the program.

27:33This is, like, you know, even as I said over many, many episodes that macros, no one person will have the same macro numbers. This is the same when it comes to, like, a strength training program. It's going to look drastically different for everybody. But here's the one thing that I want you to do know. You don't have to change everything at once. This is where people think, okay, well, I need a new training block. And suddenly every single exercise is different. Why? If your RDL is progressing beautifully, then keep it.

28:03If your hip thrust is progressing, then keep it. Like, if you are progressing in one specific exercise over the other, then keep that in for the next. Keep it in for 10 weeks. Keep it in for 12 weeks. If your lat pulldown feels incredible and you're getting stronger, then keep it in there. You don't have to change every single exercise in a new training block is my point here. You could change maybe one or two workouts or one or two things without burning the entire program to the ground. If there's anything that I learned when it came to bodybuilding is actually to think like a bodybuilder.

28:44There's a lot of repetition in that sport. You don't build a physique by constantly changing your workout program or by constantly chasing something new. You build it through repetition, rep after rep, meal after meal, doing the same thing almost every single day. Workout after workout, week after week, month after month. And I think this is one of the greatest parts of fitness for people to accept. Because everybody wants to know the secret. Like, what's the best exercise for glutes? What's the best split for working out? What's the best rep range? What's the best program? But the program that you can execute consistently, that you can progress in intentionally, that you can recover from, and you can stick with long enough to actually adapt is going to beat the perfect program that you keep abandoning every three weeks, every single time.

29:31Muscle is you, muscle is being built through you doing quality work consistently over days and months. Not just random acts of you going in and doing a fitness workout. And I want you to remember that. And I want you to remember too that random acts of fitness do not create intentional physiques. Or do not change your body composition. If there's anything that you guys, maybe you guys, the story that I shared with you when I first started working out where I would Pinterest all my workouts. I'd be doing a different workout every single day.

30:01And then when I finally got into like having the consistent routine when it came to bodybuilding because I had a goal of getting on stage, my workouts were the same for four weeks straight. And then maybe taking one exercise in and it would be in every one of those workouts for the next like 12 weeks. And we're going to change some things. But basically what I'm saying to you is what I've lived. It's been the best thing that's worked. Is being okay with doing the boring stuff. Because the boring stuff is going to get you ultimately to the goal that you want with your physique. So what I would challenge you with after leaving this episode is look at your current training and ask yourself am I training or am I just working out.

30:38Do I know when I lifted last week? Do I know how many reps I got? Do I know whether I'm actually progressing or not? Am I giving exercises I'm doing or movements I'm doing inside the gym enough time to like actually grow and develop a skill or master them? Or am I just someone that's doing a new workout every day? Or am I someone that's just changing it up every two weeks? Am I someone that's searching for something new because it feels more effective and it feels more productive? And if you're somebody who gets bored easily replace it with just saying like doing the boring work is going to give me the result.

31:13Because there is a point where repetition stops being boring and literally starts becoming mastery. And I can confidently say that being in the industry for over 10 plus years. You start knowing your numbers. You walk into the gym thinking okay last week I got 10. This week I'm going to be able to let me up it to 12. Or last week I did 30s. Let me try 35s. That's training. That's where you're competing with yourself. That's you chasing progression not chasing something new.

31:44And then suddenly like the same workout isn't really boring anymore because you're actually seeing yourself progress. You're seeing yourself get stronger. You're seeing yourself master the movement. You're seeing yourself learn the technique better. Your muscles don't need more confusion. What they do need is consistency and they need progression. So stop thinking that a good workout has to be new or it has to have you have to be sore and I have to be sore because that means that I'm growing. Stop thinking that your body has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it has to be new or it

32:39because they actually have and they know that it takes time and they don't spend their year starting over every two weeks. They just compound effect over time. Rep by rep, workout by workout, year by year. Your muscles love. Just repeat that. They love repetition. Your muscles love repetition. All right? I hope this episode helped you guys and I'll see you in the next one. Peace out. Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask.

33:11If this episode brought you value or sparked something in you, take just a moment to hit that review button. Your rating and review make all of the difference. Helping more women discover the tools they need to transform the fitness and their confidence. It takes less than a minute, but it can change the path of someone else's journey. Thank you so much for leaving that review. I appreciate you so much.

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