Top 3 Exercises To Build Muscle & Progressive Overload Techniques

00:00Doing it this way, it will help you increase and get stronger in those movements. And if you get stronger in those movements, you get stronger in every other movement as well. Yo, yo, yo, what's up, you guys? Welcome to The WarriorBabe Show with Nikkie Stott, co-founder of WarriorBabe. And 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, Nikkie Stott, and welcome you guys to episode number 53, where I am going to share with you guys my top three exercises to building muscle.

00:43And then we're going to dive into speaking again to progressive overload techniques. I talked about progressive overload in earlier episodes, but it still gets to be a question of topic to me, from you guys, all throughout my social media channels, and wanting to just know more about progressive overload. So we're going to dive into that too as well. But first, let's kick it off with talking about these top exercises that I recommend for building muscle and why.

01:15So they are, it's not some groundbreaking like answer, squat, deadlift, and bench press. So these compound movements mixed in with some isolated movements, like for example, let's just speak to a leg day, you're going to hit your squats, right? And then you're going to finish your workout with like isolated movements, like leg extensions, hamstring curls, glute kickbacks, and so on. Okay, but why these three are so important, and if you want to do it the right way, is knowing how much you guys can max out in a one rep max with these three movements.

01:53So like what I mean by that, and like why I love the squat, deadlift, and bench press. You guys, you're probably like, Nikki, that's power lifting. Man, that can be anything related to building muscle, okay? And what I've taught our warrior babes in our blueprint program is how to, in a like maintenance build phase, specifically program their workouts around these three main lifts, and then use isolation exercises to help, you know, even build up the muscles too as well around those three or fatigue those muscles even more too as well.

02:29And then break them down, obviously post-exercise, you build them up by proper recovery and nutrition. But like I said, if you want to do this the right way, and like these are some serious takeaways, you guys, and tactics that you can start implementing into your routine, like tomorrow or like next week. But you really like taking your squat, taking your deadlift, and taking your bench press, finding what you can truly max out in those specific lifts, and then taking, so then you would take that number, and you would take a percentage of that number, and progressively program it weekly into your workouts, and aim for like a percentage of it.

03:17So for like example, it's like, let's talk about week one, it's like, okay, for week one, I now have like you just did a testing week, right? So you tested your squat, your deadlift, your bench press for max. Okay, the following week, you're going to take a percentage of that max, let's do like 65% to start. And you're do whatever rep range, 6, 8, 10, 12, that you want to do in the squat for as many sets. Okay, starting out, that would be your first lift of the day for your workout. And then you would do all the isolation exercises that come with that specific movement.

03:52Right? And so then what I mean by progressive overload, I'm going to talk about this a little bit more in depth in a second. But then week two, you will take again, the percentage of your max, but let's up it to instead of 65%, let's increase it by 5% to 70%. And then you would do X amount of reps and X amount of sets here in this given week. So you're increasing your weight here on a weekly basis, that is a form of progressive overload.

04:24Okay, and then week three, you up it to 75% and so on and so on and so on. You throw in a deload week and you throw in another testing week. And like this, doing it this way, it will help you increasing it stronger in those movements. And if you get stronger in those movements, you get stronger in every other movement as well. So these are some things I love to speak to as like it being a non-scale victory, right? Like throw the scale out the window when you're trying to make some progress of building muscle, as I spoke in the last episode.

04:58Because a non-scale victory is like you being able to go up in those percentages, aka lifting more weight on a weekly basis and doing it in a smart way that is progressive overload. That is a technique of progressive overload. Increasing in your weight, playing around with some sets, playing around with some reps, yada, yada, yada. You do it right, right? Like you are progressive overload. You are gradually increasing the difficulty of your workouts to continue challenging your muscles. And so you're getting stronger.

05:30You're helping increase your strength. And that is a non-scale victory, right? You're increasing in your strength in the gym. And if you're increasing your strength in the gym, you're getting stronger and you're building muscle, which is amazing. Okay? If you're not increasing the weight or you're not increasing the intensity of your workouts over time, your muscles may not continue to grow and adapt. Okay? That's where I like to say, man, if you're just going through the motions on a weekly basis or you're chaining up your freaking workout every single day and it's something different,

06:01then over time, your muscles may not continue to grow or adapt. And so like if you're doing that and or you're not doing it and you're like inconsistent or you're doing something different every single day or you're not, you know, challenging yourself and you're just going through the motions, man, six months from now, you could be like or even a year from now, you could be banging your head into a freaking wall being like, man, why am I not seeing the results that I want of putting on more muscle? Why am I not getting stronger? Sure.

06:31That's why. Because you're doing all these different things and you're not consistent. Like, like, let me say this, you guys. Eating the same thing is boring. Doing the same workouts is boring. Right? Nothing about working out and eating right, like, is sometimes fun. It's the boring work. And that's why, like, you know, you see all these people online, these influencers, like, showing all of the freaking workouts. They're just doing it for Instagram. That probably ain't the workout they're actually doing. So know that following the same workout program for six to eight weeks and doing the same exercises

07:08every single day may sound boring. But if you're doing it the right way, as I'm sharing with you guys here and these tactics that I'm giving you, then you're going to see strength and improvement in your lifts and in your body. Okay? So do, how should I do the boring work? Like, let's just make that a thing. Okay? Okay. So those are, those are some, like, high-level tactics, right? I talked about the percentages. I talked about going after your one max reps. I talked about the squat, deadlift, and the bench press.

07:40Now I want to discuss the importance of progressive overload and how it can help you maximize muscle growth. Okay? So you can take those three exercises that I just said. You can go figure out your maxes. You can go and program percentages on a weekly basis. You can figure out what are some isolation exercises to do. If you don't want to figure that out, check out Warrior Babe. The programs are below this podcast right now. We can do it all for you. But you can start doing this literally tomorrow. Okay? So with those three lifts and how you progressive overload, I already spoke to, like, some weight

08:11and some rep schemes and, like, all this stuff. But first, I want you guys to know what progressive overload is in a little bit more elaboration form that I've already spoke to. So it promotes muscle growth and adaptation. It increases strength and it prevents plateaus. And some of you guys are like, Nikki, let's talk about the plateaus first. First, let me say, like, as you continue to increase the stress placed on the muscles, the body will always continually adapt. Resulting in ongoing progress and gains in strength and your muscle mass. Okay? With increasing strength, you increase the weight, you increase the resistance used in

08:47any specific given exercise. And that challenges the muscle and forces them to work harder. And so as the muscles adapt to this increased stress, they become stronger, allowing you to lift heavier weights and to perform more challenging exercises. And again, this results in ongoing gains in strength, ongoing gains in your muscle mass and all of the things. Okay? Now, preventing plateaus. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to this show.

09:18It means a lot. I hope you guys are enjoying it and there's so much more to come with it. If you are enjoying it, hit the subscribe button. I'd appreciate that tons. And also, it would help this podcast reach others who need to hear these messages too. Thanks so much, guys. Let's get back to the show. If you continue to perform the same exercises with the same weight and the same resistance, your body will eventually become too comfortable with that routine and stop making progress. This is what I mean by like, you cannot just walk into the gym and just go through the motions and be like, I showed up for my workout today.

09:51Woo woo. That's a win. And do that consistently for like six weeks. If you're not physically challenging yourself, like I always say in the last three reps of a set, then like, what are you doing with your workout? Like, you might as well just wash it as a waste of your time. Like, show up there, do the work, put in the work and challenge yourself. Okay? So when you do these things, I'm about to share with you guys different techniques that you can implement with progressive overload. It ensures that the body is continually challenged and it's being forced to adapt and it's preventing

10:26plateaus. Like, the way you can break through plateaus, sometimes it's not even like playing around with your nutrition. It's just like, yo, you got to work a little bit harder in the gym. No joke. I am not kidding you. Like, there's been some instances where I've worked with clients and I'm like, so talk to me about your workouts. What are you doing in them? Like, I know what I program for you, but like, sometimes I'll even dive into their weights that they're using. I'm like, dude, I know they can go a little bit heavier than that. And this is what our coaches do too as well. It's like, I'll overanalyze some, some like a, like a program and be like, and like, if

11:01there's like not results I want to see yet and I know that we're in a deficit and I know we're doing all the other right things. And then I'll be like, okay, let's check out this intensity that you're doing inside of your workouts. Let's check it out. Let's, let's question it. Because literally like by you just turning the notch up in the gym literally can help you break through a plateau. Okay. So those are just, again, a little diving a little bit more into progressive overload and what it means. But some of these tactics that you could implement to, to break through plateaus, to always continually adopt the body to, you know, I'm not saying you do this, you apply these tactics every

11:34single day. You try like a different technique every week or every two weeks or in every single program. I like to do every single like block, right? So like I have clients follow maybe a four to six week block or a six to eight week block. And that next block is going to have some type of different progressive overload technique involved in it. Now in the blocks, we're always trying to work on increasing weights, playing around with rep schemes, playing around with set schemes and all that kind of stuff. So I have six specific techniques that you guys can use and take away today.

12:05The first one I already spoke to is increasing resistance and increasing weight. So gradually just increasing the weight using any given exercise and one of the, is one of the most common forms of progressive overload. Adding reps, adding sets, I already spoke to that too as well. So increasing the number of reps or sets performed in a given exercise. It also creates press aggressive overload and forces the muscles to work a little bit harder. I'm always playing with those numbers inside of one block. But these forward ones, you can just try either on a weekly basis or again, just in different blocks. So the third one is decreasing rest time between sets.

12:39So what I mean by that is like reducing the amount of time taken between your sets can increase the overall demand on the muscle and promote muscle growth and adaptation. So going from like two minutes on a break on like a back squat one week, it's like one minute the next. That little change will increase the overall demand of your muscle and promote them to work a little bit harder and to adapt a little bit more. No joke. It's a game changer. Do a two week period or two minute rest period.

13:10And then the next week, try a minute rest period or like try like a month of doing two minutes. And then the next month, try a one minute rest time. It's it'll it catches up to you, but it feels so damn good. Increasing the speed of the movement would be number four. So performing an exercise at like a faster pace. So like tempo work, right? Like you may see people say do like a tempo four zero one zero, or then maybe the next week, it's a three zero one zero or the following week, it's a two zero one zero, right?

13:41This creates to a greater demand on the muscles and promotes the progressive overload and promotes the growth and adaptation to be happening to as well. So tempo work, right? Increasing the speed of the movement, a.k.a. tempo work or slowing down, vice versa, slowing down the speed of the movement. So that's number four. Number five is a variation in exercises. So for example, drop sets, right? Drop sets can be considered a form of progressive overload and a variation in exercises.

14:11So they involve performing a set of an exercise to failure, then immediately reducing the weight and continuing to perform additional reps until failure again. And this creates demand on the muscle and forces them to work harder, which again, doing all of these things promotes growth and promotes adaptation to the muscle. So by continually increasing the stress placed on the muscle, drop sets can be used as a form of you implementing these progressive overload techniques. And it can help you see some serious gains.

14:43Like drop sets are pretty freaking brutal and try putting them at the end of your workout. They're nasty good. So that's number five, variation in exercises, drop sets as an example. And then number six, which is eccentric training. So focusing on the eccentric or the negative portion of the lift, meaning like, again, like I already spoke to like tempo work here is a great example and placing more time under tension. Time under tension is a big thing, you guys, slowing down the movement, mixing in what I

15:14said with like, four and six here. I said four is increasing the speed of the movement. Six is the opposite. As I said, slowing down the movement, putting more time under tension. So like, think about it. You got a barbell squat, right? And you're lowering in the negative portion of the lift. And all of a sudden, man, like you're like, it burns, right? And vice versa, all of the other things that you could potentially be doing and other lifts as well in the negative portion of the lift. And this can be more effective at inducing muscle damage.

15:49And from there, because you're breaking down the muscle inside of the gym, you will then, you know, you're creating the muscle damage, you're creating the muscle tears and the fibers and all that stuff. Post-workout, obviously promoting the growth is what you're going to be doing when you're eating right and recovering right. So those are six ways that you are, you can incorporate progressive overload with those types of techniques into your routine. Like I said, you don't want to try it every single day, but you can try it like in block periods.

16:20And then overall, using the broad perspective of what I shared with you with max reps, and then doing percentages to your max reps. And then you could even so much do like five by fives or like five sets of five. And then work to like, four sets of five, and then three sets of five or three sets of five to start and then five sets of five and five sets like, or three sets of five and four sets of five and five sets of five, right? So there's a plethora of different ways that you guys can incorporate these types of techniques

16:50into your workout programming. Now, some of you are like, I don't fucking feel like doing that, right? Like I am that way. I don't like programming my own workouts. I have someone do that for me. And there's no shame in having a coach do this for you. So if you want this done for you, apply for our VIP program. Our coaches, we have 30 coaches on team. They will work with you personally to put together a program that works exactly for you and help you identify these numbers and all of the jazz help you build muscle.

17:22And more importantly, know that every time you walk into the gym, you have your plan. You just open up the app and it's like right there and you don't even have to think about it. I love that. Like I always say our coaches take out the thinking thought process for you to be successful with your workout program and the things that you should be eating on a daily basis, all this stuff. Okay. So those, that information about the program is below this podcast. Check it out. But that wraps up the podcast for today. All of the things with the three exercises to build muscle, finding your one max rep, progressive

17:54overload techniques, using the one max rep and breaking down in percentages for you guys to focus on how to get stronger, non-scale victories, yada, yada, yada. And then dove into those progressive overload techniques. So I hope you found this super helpful and I'll catch you guys in the next podcast. Peace out. Real quick, the only ask I could ever have of you guys is to help spread the word so we can help more women lose body fat, build muscle, reach their goals and feel insanely confident. And the only way we can do that is if you rate, review and share this podcast. So the single thing I ask for you to do is if you could leave a review, it will take you

18:2810 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

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