Why Building Muscle Is Beneficial & Common Mistakes To Avoid

00:00Muscle is the organ of longevity. What is going on, you guys? Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if you are a new listener, 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 52, where I'm going to talk about why building muscle is so freaking beneficial.

00:35And also, I'm going to touch on a few common mistakes that I see people make when they're trying to build muscle, and I want to talk about how to avoid them. So first and foremost, you guys know if you follow me, or if you are new to following me, or you know, you've never heard of WarriorBabe before, you don't know what I'm all about. I am all about building muscle. Muscle is my jam. You want to talk to me about something? Talk to me about muscle, building muscle, how to get more muscle, how to tone. Tone is just more muscle. That word gets to me sometimes with the industry. But all things muscle related.

01:12And I want to speak to why I believe it is so beneficial for you to focus on building more muscle. And, you know, speaking to my women who are like 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 years old, look, y'all grew up in the age of like being skinny was cool. So we are transitioning and I want like WarriorBabe, Nikki Stott, like build muscle. That is what I identify with and what I believe so much in.

01:44And I'm going to talk on like all of the things why. But you guys who grew up, you know, obviously before me, but your era was like, yo, let's be skinny, all things skinny, diet, diet, diet, salads, like Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig, like all of the things like to be skinny, right? Models, skinny, freaking even like the things you go into like Macy's, like the mannequins, skinny, like why don't those mannequins have muscles on them?

02:14Like that's a great question to ask, right? So like I feel like and me specifically, like I feel like things are shifting. Me specifically wanting to get the word out of like muscle is sexy. Muscle is like a signature of strength, a signature of discipline, a signature of like a healthy physique, all of the things. So I want to talk about first why it's so beneficial to focus on building muscle.

02:45And then I'm going to talk about the common mistakes. So first and foremost, there is this woman that I follow on Instagram, Dr. Gabrielle Lyons. And she shares this message through her platforms and it just resonates so hard with me to sum up in one answer why building muscle is so beneficial. And but like I'm going to elaborate obviously a little bit more, but just to sum it up, muscle is the organ of longevity.

03:16Okay, muscle is the organ of longevity. Like I just want you to have that tagline, motto, like summarization in your head for the rest of the podcast. Because everything that I'm going to speak on in the rest of the podcast really speaks to this one line. Muscle is the organ of longevity, okay? So if you guys don't know, right? And like if you follow me, you'll learn more about this.

03:46But muscle is active tissue. And I will speak all of the things, muscle, fat loss, X, Y, and Z, how to build it, all of the things. But muscle is active tissue in your body. And there's this saying, and I'm sure you've heard it before, you either use it or you lose it. And so there was this interesting statistic that I read once in the National Institute of Health is that muscle mass to your body, like the muscle mass on your body, that decreases approximately 3% to 8% per decade after the age of 30.

04:20And so, like I said, I'm speaking to you guys who probably, you know, focus on trying to just be skinny and do all the things like fad diets or, you know, not really particularly looking at how much food you are eating or you're not eating enough or you're doing tons and tons and tons of cardio because you think that this is the way to get the body that you want. And typically, a lot of you guys lose it.

04:51You lose your muscle mass as you age throughout life, right? And especially the women that I'm speaking to that are maybe going through menopause or are in the phases of about to experience menopause, right? So you guys typically will lose more muscle mass after that, especially if you're not focusing on strength training and putting an emphasis towards building muscle. And so to speak to that a little bit more, what I just said, you either lose or lose, you either use it or you lose it.

05:23I also want to paint pictures mentally here. And so this may pull in a little bit of my nursing background, but I'm okay with that because I want to paint this picture really, really hard in your brain. So I want you to think about your body at 70 years old, okay? And what you do right now at age 30, at age 35, at age 40, at age 45, 50, 55, 60 matters for that body at 70 years old.

05:56So let's say you don't strength train. Let's say you don't eat the right types of foods. Well, to pull my nursing background into this, when I worked pretty much nine to 10 years in the healthcare industry before I transitioned over to being in the online space and starting Warrior Babe, many of the patients that I used to see in the hospital, I worked in the emergency room, and I also worked in long-term care in a nursing home facility prior to working in the emergency room. So I have seen and been exposed to what women's bodies look like if you don't incorporate a healthy lifestyle in your younger years.

06:36And that's why I am just so – because I've seen this. Not a lot of women do, right? Like not a lot of women see nursing homes or see firsthand what all of this can result to or like worked in emergency rooms and see – like nurses will be able to speak to this. Doctors will be able to know all of this. But majority of people who are not in that profession don't know this. And that's why I believe in this so much and want to bring this type of vision to you guys firsthand so you can make sure that right now you're doing all of the things to help your body at that age of being 70 years old.

07:12Okay, so a lot of the patients I used to see in the hospital, the reason why they were coming in is because it usually resulted in weaker bones and a higher probability of having fractures, right? Because when you have weaker bones, you have higher probability of fractures. And so majority of the cases that I would care for in nursing home was people falling down and breaking in their hip. A lot of people that I would see in the ER would be falls, right? Women mainly.

07:43And so just want to – I'm putting this in here. I want this to start painting a picture, right? Because if you don't strength train, you don't eat the right types of food right now, whatever age you are, 60 and below. Dude, like 50 and below, 40 and below. I want you to think about your body at 70 years old if you're not doing that right now. And this could be a probable statistic that this could be you, right? So I don't mean to like say that in like a daunting or like scary way.

08:15I say in a way to empower you to make sure you're starting to do these things like strength training, building muscle, having a strong body now rather than waiting until it's too late, okay? And so another interesting stat from the CDC, which is the Centers for Disease Control, states that 95% of hip fractures are from falling and women fall more than men because women are more often exposed to having osteoporosis, which is a disease that weakens the bones and makes them more likely to break.

08:47So if you don't strength train with weights and eat right to fuel your body to make it strong, what I just explained is a possibility of your future. And like maybe it is like, you know, Nikki, you're scaring me. Good, go and start to take strength training seriously. Not doing endless amounts of cardio, not doing all these HIIT classes and boot camps and let me eat less because this is what's going to get my body to be skinny, right?

09:19And then you just end up skinny fat and then the relative proportion of muscle mass you have to your body is nothing. So like, yeah, maybe I do want to like poke you a little bit here and like shake you to wake you up if you aren't doing all of these things. Or like if you are and you know your friends and your family members that are not, maybe it'd be best for you to share this podcast with them so they can take it from a professional and not just like from you. When you're like, yo, you need to start strength training, like go work out, like go lift some weights, bring them into a professional space, me, right?

09:52And share this with them so they can have this eye opening enlightenment from this podcast. Okay, because if you don't strength train, if you don't eat right to fuel your body to make it strong, because we all know if you follow me and what I preach is you got to eat because if you're eating the right amount of foods, protein, fats, carbohydrates, you're giving your body significant amount of calories to maintain you building muscle because muscles active tissue, where do you think it gets the energy from it gets the energy from food?

10:26Okay, so if you're not feeling your body enough, and you're not doing all the right things, muscle mass is going to decrease. Osteoporosis is going to speak up, sneak up a little bit more, all of these things will happen. Okay, so the pot, what I explain is a possibility of your future. And to nail at home a possibility of like, and like, I say this with love, because I want you guys to take this stuff seriously. I took care of my grandmother, you guys know this from episode one, I shared my journey and all the things that I did. And I took care of my sick grandmother, I lived in our home, I took care of her in the morning, I got her a dress, helped her do her hair, showered her, bathe her.

11:00I did this for a multitude of patients. When I worked in a nursing home, I wiped their butts, right? Like, I did all of these things to help care for them. And I, it's like that Tony Robbins, what he says is like, you can look at a body and understand how they live their life. And so I knew when I looked at women's bodies, I was taking care of them and want to be my grandmother that she didn't work out a day in her life. Or maybe she did work out a day in her life, like, let's not take it literal here.

11:31But she didn't incorporate strength training for a consistent amount of time in years, right? So what it amounted to was her having a weaker body, her having to use a walker at first, and then having to use a wheelchair because therapy wasn't really helping as much. And like all of these things, she had to sit back. Like, she would, dude, if you guys knew my grandmother, she was a nurse too as well. And she was always on her feet, so active. Like, I joke about this because my grandfather didn't know how to break, how to crack an egg or cook an egg at age 80 when I was living with them.

12:08Because she literally did everything to the house for him, laundry, dishes, cleaning, like, was all over the place. And so to have to watch my grandmother sit back and watch my younger cousins run around and have fun and her not be able to be involved in that sucked. Hey, hey, just want to drop a huge appreciation to you guys listening to the show. It 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.

12:39I'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. And I could see how, like, the life in her face just was like, it wasn't her, you know? She wanted to run around. She wanted to do all of the things. And so literally, like, the difference of the two. So there's this one avenue, right? It's like, let's say you don't strength train. Let's say you don't eat all of the right foods. This is what's going to happen. Like I said, think about your body at 70 years old.

13:11Muscle is the organ of longevity. So like, if you're not doing all of the things, muscle mass decreases, higher percentages of all these things, chronic disease, hip fractures, all of these things are to happen, okay? So flip it now. You have that avenue. Flip it. There's the opposite that you do strength train. You do eat all the right types of foods. You do take it seriously. You do it consistently. You're eliminating, not eliminating, but like you're lessening the amount of cardio that you're

13:42doing. You're stopped focusing on like eating in a deficit for so freaking long because you're so adamant about, you know, getting skinny or, you know, you're not focusing on strength training, all of this stuff. And so like you're doing the opposite of that and you're doing strength training, you're eating all the right types of foods. And so the opposite of what I just explained happens. Ladies, are you feeling frustrated with body changes you're experiencing during menopause?

14:17It's time to take control. If you're between 45 and 65 years old and tired of struggling with body fat and muscle loss, Warrior Babe is here for you. At Warrior Babe, we've helped over 18,000 women just like you lose body fat, build toned muscle, and understand their bodies better with personalized plans based on hormone and thyroid testing and more. Imagine knowing exactly what your body needs to see real results and results that last. Look, don't wait anymore.

14:47Take charge of your health and join our community of strong, empowered women. Visit warriorbabe.com forward slash apply today to start your transformation. That's warriorbabe.com forward slash apply. All right, let's get back to the show. And to bring it back to the fall example and like fracturing your bones and weaker bones, if you do fall, you're more likely to have bones strong enough to withstand that fall.

15:23Why? Because you're doing the strength training. And what do you think that helps to do? Stronger bones and then stronger muscles around the bones. So if you do fall, you're more likely to have strong enough bones to withstand the fall. And also, you're more likely if you do break anything to have a quicker, easier recovery, because you've been so active prior. Okay. And so that is a little light on the falling example that I used. If you do strength train and if you do eat right, it's going to be a little bit easier.

15:56Right. But I also want to speak to the osteoporosis, which is the condition that gets worse following menopause, as I spoke to, because bone density decreases, bones become weaker. And well, in a way to help that you guys is to do the things of strength training to have a nutrient dense diet to, you know, do weight bearing exercises to help prevent further bone loss and rebuild bones, but most importantly, build muscle around those bones to make them

16:28even stronger. Okay. So to wrap up that, why I believe that muscle is building muscle is so beneficial and marrying those two images together, muscle is the organ of longevity, you know, going on the rants of if what could happen if you don't, what could happen if you do, you know, obviously think about your body at age 70 and what you do right now matters so much.

16:59Building muscle is so beneficial and is literally the organ of the longevity. As I said, to your life, it is the key. And I will so boldly say this. It is the key to living longer from being able to withstand a fall as the example that I explained, but also to lower the risk of you having any type of chronic diseases that may run in your family. Okay. So I believe so much, not just some of the aesthetics of what muscle can do for your body

17:31and the look and, you know, a signature of strength and power and empowerment and boldness and that you live a healthy life. And it being sexy is also so beneficial for your overall health and trajectory of your life. It is the key to living longer. Muscle is the organ of longevity. And again, that was quoted from Dr. Gabriel Lyons. And for all of the decades after you turned 30 years old, your muscle mass decreases by 3 to 8%.

18:01Okay. So 30 to like, let's say then 60. That's three decades of your muscle mass decreasing. And why women's bodies are so fragile post-menopause plus all the things that happen during menopause internally. That is why just like every single day, just like think when you're 70 years old, do you want to look back and be like,

18:32I did everything the right way that helped me to be where I am today for my body and for my health? And so if you're not doing that right now and you're not incorporating strength training and you're not eating right to feel those processes to happen, then I challenge you to take it more seriously because I want you to live longer. And most importantly, I don't want you to be how my grandmother was. I want you to be the grandmother that is running around with your kids, having fun with your kids, playing with them in the backyard,

19:05being able to engage in those memories more. Okay. So that is why I believe that building muscle is so freaking beneficial. Now, really quick. I just want to talk to the common mistakes that people make when they're trying to build muscle and how you can avoid them. Now, a couple of these are like more mindset related and some of the things that I already just spoke to. But I think they're so important because if you can't get your mental game to be on board with you building muscle and to almost eliminate all the things,

19:43like I said, the beginning, all the things that you grew up with or tried or had done, it clearly aren't working for you and you need to switch the mindset to a more supporting, like new things to try. Because building muscle is not like all the things you think it is, how you grew up. Like you can't do all those things that you did and then expect to build muscle. You have to eat more. You have to strength train. You have to challenge your body. You have to do more than just like the cardio and all the things that people think it is. And if you can't get your mindset on board with that, then like the rest isn't going to follow.

20:17Okay. So three, maybe four things here. The main one. And it is like trying to teach an old dog new tricks. And this isn't a woman's fault here, right? Like I had mentioned, growing up for you guys, it was all about being skinny. It was all about looking skinny. It was all about eat this diet to get skinny. Eat less, do more cardio. Weight Watchers, Jenny Craig. Like all of that marketing is engineered or ingrained in 45 plus women's brains, 50, 60 year olds.

20:54And it's sad because that's all you guys know, right? And as I already mentioned, all of that. And you guys think that eating less is the answer. Like that is the main thing that I always hear is a problem for women is that they are not eating enough food. And it's slowly becoming more apparent how that's not the take on things anymore and how food is feel and how strong bodies and that you need food to build a muscle and et cetera, et cetera. And like I stand behind that message so freaking much.

21:26And so a mistake that I see is women just being stuck in that old mentality of eat less and needing to eat less to lose weight and stuck in this cardio machine mentality. And like, you know, all of that stuff that you guys grew up with and you're stuck in that mentality. So that's the big, that's one of the biggest mistakes that I see women make when they're trying to build more muscle. And again, it's not a fault to you guys, but you guys have to break that pattern. You have to be so open to like food is fuel and wanting to eat more and like knowing the picture that I just shared with you and painting that picture a little bit more in order to get to have a strong body at 70.

22:09You have to do all of these things. And I'm saying of eating more strength training, like eat the right types of foods, pay attention to that stuff. Um, so that's the main one that I see. And like, we got to create a mental shift to get you guys to get women to trust that eating 2000 calories is okay. And then it's needed when wanting to build and put muscle into your body to, to make you feel stronger, to make you be healthier. Right? Not even just aesthetics. Like let's look, let's just focus on health right now. Okay.

22:39So that's, that's the biggest mistake I see. Another mistake I see is being stuck in that cardio machine mentality. Too much cardio works against you trying to build more muscle, especially if you aren't eating enough, which, like I said, is majority of people that is like their biggest struggle point. And so to avoid this, you obviously still need to incorporate cardio into your routine. I'm not saying to completely nix this out because your heart is a muscle and your heart needs to have cardiovascular exercise to it to make it strong too as well.

23:14But too much cardio works against you, right? So you don't want to be doing cardio six, seven days a week for an hour long or like, you know, running a shit ton of miles and not backing it up with the proper nutrition. So you need to find, you know, the perfect balance of the two, but make sure you're doing more strength training than cardio and eating enough to feel both of those types of activities. So if you're somebody that loves to run, that's amazing. Make sure you're feeling your body for both strength training and your cardio activities.

23:49Okay. And that is hard to do because if you're doing both of those, you're probably going to be needs eating a decent amount of food to fuel for those activities, to fuel for all of the organs in your body to make sure that they're, you know, actively running to as well. Remember, a lot of this stuff in your body is active tissue and the way that it operates fully and functionally and doing all of the things is by giving it energy. And the way you give your body energy is by and through nutrition and eating the right types of foods. Okay. So that's mistake number two that I usually see when people are trying to build more muscle is cardio and just doing a crap ton of it.

24:27Another mistake that I think that I see is that women are just so afraid to get bulky and women think that if they strength train, they're going to get bulky and they're going to look like a man. And so this mistake, this thought process, like it literally stops women in their tracks from wanting to touch a dumbbell, from wanting to touch a barbell. And so therefore they end up being skinny fire. They end up, you know, so much so to say the paint of the pictures that I painted for you guys.

24:59Right. Okay. I want you to eliminate this freaking false statement from your mind. I absolutely hate that this thing runs around in the industry, this statement that if you lift weights, you're going to get too bulky or where women think this comes from. I think it mainly comes from seeing men being huge because all they do is strength train or women that may be on PEDs, which is performance enhancement drugs. And seeing those images and thinking that's going to happen to you too.

25:29Dude, look, guys, please understand that those people that you may fear that's going to happen to you are taking PEDs and have higher levels of testosterone in their body than just a normal folk like you, me or like women listening to this. Right. Okay. So just like eliminate that freaking statement from your brain and thinking that it's going to make you too bulky. Muscle is sexy.

26:00Muscle is the organ, the organ of longevity. So be okay with going to lift a dumbbell and going to lift a barbell. You're not going to get bulky. So please just eliminate that thought process from your brain. So those are a couple of the common mistakes I see. Another big mistake that I see, and I think I want to save this for like a future podcast and breaking it down a little bit more, but it's that scale. And I know so many of you guys freak out by seeing the number on the scale increase.

26:37Let me just plug this in here that when I first started my journey back in 2015, I weighed 140 pounds. To this day, eight years later, I weigh 155 pounds. That is a 15 pound increase. Do you guys think? And first of all, my body looks completely different from 2015 to now because I have more muscle mass to my body.

27:07And muscle mass is more dense than body fat. They weigh the same, but muscle is more dense. So therefore it takes up less space than body fat does. And that's why I can weigh 140 pounds then and 155 pounds now yet look completely different because I have more dense lean muscle to my body than I do body fat. Okay. So do you guys think along my journey that clearly not because I'm still going, right?

27:43But as I saw the scale going up, right? 145, 148, 150. I had to break down so many behavioral patterns with that number on the scale, which I think is better for a full podcast that I want to elaborate on and how I got myself to not emotionally attach myself to that number anymore. Because if I had, I would have not continued on my journey to be where I am today, to have the body composition I do have, seeing that scale continue to go up, right?

28:18If I had not broken down all these behavioral patterns that I had and emotional attachments that I had, just seeing that number on the scale. So that's a big mistake that I see. It's like women associate themselves so emotionally to that number on the scale that if you do, it will literally stop you from making the type of progress that you want to see if it comes to building muscle to your body. If you are somebody who wants to build muscle to your body, you may not be in the boat of like, I want to drop 10 pounds or I want to drop 15 pounds or I need to drop 20 pounds.

28:56You may drop five and then you may build more muscle and then you may be 10 pounds heavier, yet your body looks completely different and your clothes sizes and all the things like your waist is smaller and clothes size are down. Okay, so fuck the scale. Like literally, please, like just, and I think I will, I'll bring the deeper podcasts around this, but like that thing does not serve you if you are so emotionally charged from it, especially if you want to build muscle. Because if you want to build muscle, the scale may not change and it may increase.

29:31Okay, so those are a couple of the mistakes that I see when women try to build muscle and some ways to avoid them. Okay, so to encompass this whole podcast, which I freaking love. So if you guys enjoyed it, please let me know. Screenshot it, share it to social media, tag me. I love seeing that feedback. Rate, review this podcast if you guys haven't done that already. I don't run any ads to this podcast, so it just totally grows organically. And because of you guys, we have been like the top 20 since launch day in January of 2023.

30:05So please rate, review it if you haven't done already. This helps, by you guys doing that, it helps get the podcast in front of other women who need to hear this message too as well. So that wraps up the podcast. Why building muscle is so freaking beneficial. All of the things muscle related. How it just gives you literally the key to living longer. Muscle is an organ of longevity. And then the common mistakes they see when women are trying to build more muscle and how to avoid them.

30:35So I hope you guys enjoyed it. Peace out. I'll see you in the next podcast. 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 10 seconds. And it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

This transcript was generated automatically and may contain errors.