Why Your Muscles Aren't Growing (And How To Fix It) - 5 Tips

00:00If you're not consuming enough calories or you're not consuming enough protein, your body may not have the necessary resources to build the muscle that you want. What's up, you guys? Welcome back 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'm your host, Nikkie Stott, and welcome you guys to episode number 30 today. Dang, 30, let's go. We're climbing on up there.

00:37But today we're going to talk about why your muscles aren't growing and how to fix it. And I'm going to give you five tips and we're going to just dive right into it. So the first one is, most likely, you are incorporating in inconsistent or ineffective training. And so this is one of the most common reasons for lack of progress, you guys, in building muscle and losing body fat. If you're not following a well-structured workout routine, or if you're not pushing yourself hard enough during your workouts,

01:11you probably will not see the results that you're looking for. Your muscles, they're not receiving the necessary stimulus to grow if you're not challenging yourself in every single workout that you do. So a couple of things here. Losing body fat requires a consistent and effective workout routine that includes both cardiovascular and exercise strength training. So cardiovascular, as you guys have maybe heard me say in previous podcasts, helps you to burn calories and increase your overall energy expenditure.

01:45But strength training helps to build muscle and to increase your metabolism. So if you're not following a well-structured workout routine that includes both of these types, and like, I don't mean cardio and like running or getting on the treadmill and doing X amount of miles or like spending hours on the Stairmaster, you can incorporate maybe three of those sessions into your week, like on this one's on the Stairmaster, two on a treadmill, at like an incline on the treadmill, like five and a speed of like four. And like, it's just fast paced walking zone two kind of stuff.

02:15And I mean, like, you know, you don't have to go and kill yourself with doing a shit ton of cardio, but it's important to incorporate some type of cardiovascular exercise, mainly for the health of your heart. You got to remember that your health, your heart is a muscle and your overall just well-being, you know, with your health lifestyle. So if you're not following that well-structured routine, like that includes both of these types of exercise, you may not see the fat loss results that you're looking for. You need to incorporate some type of cardiovascular exercise, whether it be 10K steps a day, a couple of days on the treadmill,

02:48one day or two days on the Stairmaster, whatever, plus doubling that with strength training and having like four to five days of strength training in your routine. If you're not doing this, you probably will not see fat loss results that you're looking for. And it's also important while we're speaking about strength training, you guys, to progressively overload your muscles over time. It is so important to focus on that. If you have never heard whatever progressive overload is, it means that you're gradually increasing the difficulty of your workouts to continue challenging your muscles.

03:26If you're not increasing the weight or the intensity of your workouts over time, your muscles may not continue to grow or adapt. And I actually dove a little bit deeper into progressive overload, what it is, how to incorporate it into your routine over a cycle period of time, like six to eight weeks in episode number 16 of the podcast. So like, if you're like, light bulbs are going off, oh, I want to learn more about this, definitely go back to episode number 16 and check it out. Because you're going to learn just from that episode, exactly how to incorporate more progressive overload strategies into your workout routine.

04:04And that alone, you guys can be one of the ways that you see more results with, with growing your muscles and building more muscle and decreasing your body fat. Okay, so that's number one. If you aren't, if your muscles aren't growing, then you're more likely or not inconsistent with your training or your training is ineffective. It's one of the most common reasons, like people don't challenge themselves enough and like calling you out here. But like the way you're going to have a successful challenging workout is if you work the workout.

04:38You go in there, you're not just going through the motions, you're going in there and you're like putting, it's the weight on the bar that's pretty challenging, not sacrificing your form. But by the end of a set, the last three reps of that set should be challenging to some extent. You're making some ugly faces, maybe you're grunting and it's challenging to push up the bar, whatever you may be doing or squatting, whatever. X, Y, and Z, shoulder presses, bench press, squatting, deadlifts, whatever, even isolation movements. The last three reps should be challenging.

05:08If not, you're just going through the motions. So increase your weight. All right. So number one, inconsistent or ineffective training. Number two is poor nutrition. If your muscles are not growing, you most likely have some type of poor nutrition routine. It is another major reason why people struggle to make any type of progress when they're trying to build muscle and lose body fat. Period. End of story. So like in order to build muscle, you guys, you need to know this. Your body needs a surplus of calories and nutrients, specifically protein, to repair and to grow that muscle that you're breaking down inside of your workouts.

05:48But if you're not consuming enough calories or you're not consuming enough protein, your body may not have the necessary resources to build the muscle that you want. Guys, you cannot expect to be, you know, eating 1200 calories if you're like, you know, five, six or five, eight. It's it's it's it's normal. Maybe if someone's five, five, two or five foot having a low calorie intake because they don't need that many calories. But like if you want to build muscle, you're five, eight and you're eating 1200 calories or 1000 calories a day. Dude, you are not going to build that muscle.

06:20Right. Similar sense to as well. Like if you want to lose body fat, you need to be in a caloric deficit, meaning that you're burning more calories and you're consuming the day. But if you're not consuming enough calories, your body may enter into a state of of catabolic state where it begins to break down muscle tissue for energy instead of burning more body fat. Guys, this can be completely counterproductive to both body fat loss, to losing fat loss and to building muscle.

06:50So like if you're not eating in a surplus or at least at your maintenance level and doing like a lean type of bulk, you're not and you're not eating enough protein, you're not going to be able to repair and grow muscle tissue. If you're not in the opposite sense, you're focusing on losing body fat and you're not putting yourself into a caloric deficit consistently over time. And you're not or you're not consuming enough calories to be where you need to be in an appropriate deficit. Dude, all of these things are counterproductive for fat loss and for building muscle.

07:23And most importantly, you guys, when you're doing both of these things, the quality of the food that you eat is just as important as being in a caloric deficit or being in a little bit of a surplus to build more muscle. You have to have a balanced diet of good quality protein, good quality healthy fats, good quality carbohydrates. That is so important for fueling your workouts, for repairing and building muscle tissue and supporting overall health. But most importantly, having quality food in your day.

07:54You cannot, please don't be that person that like I need to get more protein in and you're downing three protein shakes and a protein par in a day. Dude, that is not quality food. And I don't remember what episode this was, but it was an earlier episode where I explained how all protein is just not created equally. And there's like processed proteins, there's unprocessed proteins, there's protein bars that don't have all the nutrients in it that you're going to get the same nutrients from having, you know, chicken, meat and all of those other things that give you those types of nutrients.

08:24So you got to make sure that your nutrition is on point, that you're being consistent and effective with your nutrition, that you're eating enough for whatever type of goal you're trying to accomplish. Because if you're not, that's why you're not seeing your muscles grow. That's why you're not seeing your body composition change. Okay, so that's number two. Number three is a lack of sleep. And I've talked about this recently in the podcast. It was podcast episode number 25. Getting enough sleep is critical.

08:57It is crucial for recovery and muscle growth. If you're not getting at least seven to eight hours of quality sleep each night, your body may not have enough time to repair and to rebuild muscle tissue. Okay, it's and I went a little bit deeper inside of episode number 25 around sleep giving you guys like specific strategies to implement into your nightly routine to help you get better quality sleep. So definitely check it out episode number 25. But I want to explain a little bit more why lack of sleep may be hindering the building muscle process for you.

09:36And like having the overall wanting to see this change happen in your body. When you're getting a lack of sleep during sleep, your body releases hormones that help to repair and to rebuild muscle tissue, including like hormones like growth hormone and testosterone. And if you're not getting enough sleep, you guys, your body may not have enough time to produce those hormones, which can slow down your progress and building more muscle. And two, on top of this, lack of sleep can disrupt your hormone levels, like particularly cortisol.

10:10Which is a stress hormone that can break down muscle tissue and increase your fat storage. It is like deemed the fat storing hormone in the in the fitness space. And so when you're sleep deprived, your cortisol levels may increase, which can have a negative impact on your body composition goals. Plus, on top of all of this is why it's like, if there's anything I talked about sleep when I did a whole podcast on it. And then I also talked about it in the top five strategies for discipline and implementing self discipline and flexing yourself discipline muscle.

10:43Sleep is a form of self discipline, like policing yourself to go to bed to wake up at the same time, getting quality sleep, shutting down things, not paying attention to things that are going to trigger like, you know, your eyeballs thinking that the sun is awake, like light screen time. But on top of all of this, having poor sleep can affect your energy levels and the motivation to even want to go and exercise, which obviously, if you have low both of those things, it's going to impact the quality of your workouts daily.

11:13If you're feeling tired and you're feeling sluggish, you will probably not perform at your best during your workouts, which can hinder your progress in building muscle and losing body fat. Point blank. Okay, so make sure you're overall that you're getting good quality sleep. It is essential for achieving your fitness goals. You guys, it's essential for building muscle. It's essential for changing your body composition is essential for decreasing body fat, all of the things. Aim at least for seven hours, I say seven to eight, but at least seven.

11:46If I'm pulling teeth asking that from someone who only gets five, please focus on at least getting seven. Um, and you want to make sure it's uninterrupted and you have control of being able to set up some things that will help it be uninterrupted before you go to bed and the way your whole nightly routine starts before you rest your head down on your pillow. So you have that control. Will it ever will it totally help? Probably not. There's some things that maybe you have to dive a little bit deeper into why you may not be getting good quality sleep. But some of these things I've shared here and in previous podcasts are some things that you can be in control of before going to bed.

12:23Um, and doing that having uninterrupted sleep, it's going to support muscle growth. It's going to support hormone balance. It's going to support your overall freaking health. Okay. 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. 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.

12:53Let's get back to the show. Okay, so let's get into number four, stress. Stress is probably a reason why you aren't seeing your muscles grow, why you're not seeing the results that you want with changing your body composition, with losing body fat. Chronic stress has a negative impact on your body's ability to build muscle and to lose body fat. When you're stressed, your body releases cortisol, which I just mentioned the same way when it does when you have poor quality sleep.

13:25But it releases cortisol, which is a hormone that increases fat storage and also can break down muscle tissue. So one major way that stress impacts your body composition goals is by increasing your appetite and your cravings for wanting unhealthy foods when you're stressed out. And when you have poor quality sleep too, you may see that in the next day that you're wanting to, you're craving the things that you know you shouldn't have or you're feeling more hungry.

13:59And I've talked about this in the podcast that I said that I shared with sleep too as well. But when you're stressed, your body may crave like high fat foods, it's going to crave high sugar foods, which can lead to you indulging in that impulse and overeating, which is then going to cause more fat gain. And two, having stress, oh my God, I've seen this so many times in clients, it causes your body to have digestive problems, which can obviously impact your body's ability to absorb nutrients from food.

14:30I have when people are when I've worked with people and like our coaches, I worked with people when they're stressed out, dude, they have like inflammation all throughout their body just because they're stressed out, just because all of these things are kind of out of walk. Hormones are going crazy. Cortezol is elevated. And you can tell that nothing outside of their nutrition or workouts has changed. We haven't adjusted macros in a couple of weeks. Their workout program is still the same. Yet in their weekly check-in, they are inflamed because they had a stressful week.

15:01I can't tell you how many times I have seen this. And so this is you and you're not seeing the progress that you want because you're chronically stressed out. You need to figure out some ways to manage this. And some ways that you can manage this is just prioritizing self-care activities, going to get a massage, taking a relaxing bath, being with yourself and alone with yourself for a little bit of time, putting on some relaxing meditation music. Meditating is a very good.

15:33And I know you guys are probably like, dude, I can't sit alone for five minutes. I challenge you to sit alone for five minutes. You totally can if you put your mind to it. You can do anything that you possibly put your mind to if you're willing to at least try it. Yeah. Is it hard? Yes. You're probably going to wander for the five minutes. You're probably going to be uncomfortable for the five minutes. But the more that you do it, you will get better at doing it. And there's studies proven that it can help to reduce stress levels.

16:04Going to do yoga can help to reduce stress levels. Deep breathing exercises through day. Just like if you're stressed, just take a deep breath. Take a couple deep breaths. That will, if studies have been proven, it will help to just relax you and like alleviate some stress you may be experiencing immediately in the moment. Spending some time out in nature. Going for a hike. If you have a dog. Getting outside. Going for a hike with them. Dude, all these things are so important when it comes to reducing stress levels.

16:40And like I said, if you're not seeing the progress you want, yet nothing has changed with macros and nutrition or, you know, eating right or working out. And you lead a chronically stressed lifestyle. This is what's hindering your progress. Point blank. A hundred percent. All right. So do ways. Do some things that will manage this. I promise you it'll help. You just have. You're in control. You have to implement that kind of stuff. Okay. The last one as to why you're probably not seeing your muscles grow is lack of recovery.

17:12Is that you're probably overtraining. And I talked about this in previous podcasts too as well. If you're training and doing too much, you're overstimulating the body. You're stressing out the body even more, which pulls from the stress one I just talked about. You're not giving your body the ample amount of recovery time that it needs. And for example, you could be training sick. I don't even recommend people to train six days a week anymore. But if you're training six days a week and you're not seeing any progress that you want, you're probably doing too much.

17:43You're overtraining. You're spending three hours inside the gym. You're doing five cardio sessions per week for like 30 to 45 minutes. If that is you and you're not seeing the progress that you would probably expect, you're doing too much. In this case, I'd love to say less is more. You need to schedule rest days. And I know that the concept of rest days sometimes is very hard for some people to incorporate into the routine. But if I can't drill this into your home, into your mind more than I've already probably done

18:13in previous podcasts, you're breaking down muscle inside of the gym. And the time outside of the gym, the rest periods that you're going through, the 24 hours, 48 hours in between workouts, your scheduled rest days, you're building back the muscle. You're building the muscle that you want to have. So if you're not seeing the progress that you want and you're overtraining or you find yourself doing too much, you're lifting too much or doing too many cardio sessions, you're not giving yourself the recovery time that your body needs in order to build the muscle

18:45and to grow the muscle that you want to have. Recovery, you guys, is just as important as training. And your body needs time to repair, to build muscle, to have the time of rest so that your body can heal and grow. Okay? So if you're not seeing the progress that you want to see in building muscle and you're trying to figure out all of the ways that you want to be able to fix it, those are five ways that you could fix it. So if your muscles aren't growing, you're not progressing the way you want to be progressing, make sure you have consistent and effective training programs to follow.

19:18Make sure your nutrition is on point for whatever goal you may be in. Make sure you're getting good quality sleep, at least seven to eight hours of quality sleep each night. Make sure you're managing your stress. I can't stress that one actually enough because like I said and use those examples, you could be doing all of the other things the right way, but if you're chronically stressed out, you will have a hindrance to your progress.

19:48So find ways to manage your stress. Deep breathing, yoga, meditation, getting outside, getting massage, taking a relaxing bath. And then the last one is recovery. Make sure you are giving your body the ample time to recover. If you are chronically stressed out, you should only be training four times a week. If you have a lesser stress level, then you can train four, five times a week. Okay, you can maybe do a little bit more things. If you're stressed, I talked about this too. If your stress reserves are full and you're not getting enough sleep or you're not eating

20:24right, you're tipping your body over and that's why you're not seeing progress. So if your stress levels are a little bit less, then you can do a little bit more. But if you're stressed, less is more in this case. All right, so those are the five things you guys, if you're not seeing your muscles grow in the way that you want them to, and you think that you should be progressing a little bit more, really self-check yourself in these five areas. Which one could you get better at doing and implement being better at it? And I promise you, you will see the results you guys want to see.

20:57All right? Hope you guys enjoyed this podcast. Again, if you guys could please rate or review this podcast, I would appreciate that so much because we don't run any ads to this. You guys are what makes it naturally grow. And we've been sitting in like top 20 for the fitness podcast in the US. And I want to keep us there. Oh, I want to keep us good. I want to get a little bit higher. And by you guys rating or reviewing it could easily help this podcast get in front of somebody else that needs to hear these messages too. So you could easily be impacting positively another woman's life while she's on this journey

21:29that she's on with getting more toned, building more muscle, and changing her body composition. I would so appreciate you guys if you just took like two minutes to just write a review. All right, guys. Thanks so much. And 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

22:0110 seconds and it will mean the absolute world to me and may change the world of someone else.

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