Why You're Not Seeing Workout Results Yet After 40

Nikkiey: When women say this isn't working, what you are usually meaning is this doesn't feel good yet, because you want that instant feel good, that instant result. Confidence comes from staying when it's boring. I've heard so many times over the years of being in the industry, women get their program for four weeks and by the fourth week they're bored. So what? If you stay through that and you don't go into the gym and say, I'm going to do a different workout program this week. It's boring for a reason. When things are unclear, when progress isn't happening and you still stay and follow through, that's confidence being built. You stay when it's unclear.

What's going on, everybody? Hey you guys, welcome back to another episode, and I believe this one could hopefully improve the way that you continue to move through your fitness journey. If you're new to this podcast, my name is Nikkiey Stott, I am your host, and typically 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. So in today's episode, I'm talking about this concept called the wall.

The one where you start a program, you're consistent, you're super excited, you're motivated, you're doing everything right. And then somewhere, maybe around week three, week four, maybe week five or six, something in you feels like nothing seems to be happening. The scale is not moving the way that you expected it to, you don't look different, you do not feel that dramatic shift that you thought you would by now.

And so then this voice becomes so overpowering in your mind, and it gets louder and louder and louder, and it starts to say, this is not working. What if I told you that the moment you quit is almost always the moment that your body was just about to respond? I have literally seen this happen in upwards of 10,000 women, maybe even more, that have come through WarriorBabe.

They get to this point, and then they start to think it's the program, and thank God we have the people in there. The people in their corner are like, look, this program works. I know you're working it right now. This program has helped so many women. They have testimonials they can fall back on. It's like, all right, let's look at your day to day, or let's just give it a little bit more time, right? And then all of a sudden, they see this dramatic shift. And that's what I'm going to talk about tonight. Okay, so let me walk you through what is actually happening in your body during these first four to six weeks.

Weeks one and two, this is where the neurological adaptation is happening. In the first weeks of a new training program, the majority of what is happening has nothing to do with your muscles. It has everything to do with your nervous system. So basically what I mean by that is your brain is learning. It is mapping out new movement patterns. It's establishing new neural pathways. It's recruiting muscle fibers more efficiently for the types of movements that you are doing in your program.

So this is the movement patterns, the cues, even the way you map out your workout inside of the gym, going from one piece of equipment to the next. This is all called neurological adaptation. And it's happening before any meaningful muscle tissue changes occur. This is why you may feel stronger almost immediately when you start a new program. Not because you've built muscle in the first two weeks, but because your nervous system got better at using the muscle that you already have on your body.

That strength gain is real, but it's not from you building muscle just yet. Okay, so I want you to keep that in the back of your mind for when maybe you're six weeks in, or two, three weeks in, and you don't see any physical changes happening in your body, but you feel this, and you're thinking, why don't I see it? This is just your body getting better at using the muscle you already have. And just to piggyback off that, it doesn't show up in the mirror.

It doesn't show up on the scale. To someone looking from the outside, and to you looking in the mirror, nothing appears to have changed, right? So that's what's happening week one, week two, maybe even going a little bit into week three. And then weeks four to six, this is that visible shift. And to tell somebody that it might take them four to six weeks to see it is not something sexy to say. I've said that before. Marketing promises you something in six weeks. It promises you a 21-day fix.

It promises you X, Y and Z in 30 days. Weeks four through six, we're talking way past the 30-day window. Some people may not even see these changes. I'm giving a ballpark range. You may not even see it until day 90. That's three months. But this is the window. If you have stayed consistent with your training and with your nutrition, then the visible changes start to emerge. The inflammation from that initial training stimulus has now reduced because your body's getting used to it. It's adapting.

The water retention has normalized. The nervous system is fully adapted. And the muscles are beginning to genuinely develop in response to your training. And now the scale starts moving more predictably. Your measurements, if you're taking measurements of your body, which I would highly recommend doing on top of also using the scale as a tool, those things start changing. Your clothes start fitting differently. The strength gains that were happening neurologically start actually being backed by actual muscle tissue change.

You see some definition start to show up. This is when it starts to look like something is actually happening. And most women who quit never get to this point. You cannot keep doing the same thing over and over and over again. You have been going from program to program to program, or diet to diet to diet, and expecting the results to be different. That is the definition of insanity.

That's where the majority of you have been for 20 years. And this is also what makes that wall so cruel. It tends to hit right at the moment when the newness of being in this program has worn off and the results have not yet arrived to replace it. Let's say you did a training block for six weeks and at the end of the training block, the results aren't there yet. Weeks one and two, you're energized by starting something new. You were so excited.

Weeks three and four, the energy of that newness starts to fade. You're in this mundane routine. You're doing the same thing over and over again, and some of you can't do that. And the results are not there yet to carry you through, because physiologically they're not going to be there yet. There is nothing holding you in place except you deciding and understanding, which is what this episode is trying to give you. Helping you make the decision to keep going

and understand what I'm explaining to you here about holding out, because internally a lot of things are changing, and you've got to stop doing what you've been doing for so long. Because here's what I know from working with thousands of women: the ones who transform are not the ones who never hit the wall. Every single one of the women inside of WarriorBabe and VIP coaching, and we've had 21,000 women work privately with our coaches, has hit a wall. They just have somebody in their corner telling them,

hey, yeah, you've hit the wall. It's okay though. Keep going. Do you know how much weight that takes off of somebody trying to do this all on their own? A lot. You hear that and you're like, okay, now I can just worry about the next email I've got to send at work, or the soccer practice I've got to get the kids to, or the dinner I've got to make at night, and just keep going, right? But if you're constantly trying to do this yourself and you're guessing, you're like, this isn't working.

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Until you fall off. That's the problem with doing this all alone and by yourself. So if you're somebody that needs a one-on-one coach, or to work in our VIP program, then I would highly recommend you check out that process and apply to be inside of it. Or, what I'm doing every single Thursday is hosting a free training at 7 p.m. Eastern. It's free. We hang out for 90 minutes. I talk to you more in depth about what I'm talking about here on this podcast. I'm going to link how you can register for that training in the description below. But what I'm saying is every single woman is at that wall. But the ones who don't quit are the ones who have somebody in their corner that knows the wall is there,

and they know that they've hit it, and they're going to keep going anyway. When women say this isn't working, what you are usually meaning is this doesn't feel good yet, because you want that instant feel good, that instant result. Or, this isn't giving me instant reassurance. And what it usually means, and what people need to develop more of, is that this is requiring patience. And guess what? Patience is uncomfortable, especially if you've spent years starting and stopping over and

over and over again. But your body doesn't change on your emotional timeline, my friends. It changes on a biological one. And what that biological timeline requires is for you to be consistent, for you to create that safe environment within your body and your mind, and time, which so many of you hate. And let's be real. Just be real and honest with yourselves there. Patience is hard.

Just accept it. Call it what it is and name it. Okay? Now, I also want to dive into the scale for a second, because this is where a lot of women emotionally unravel. You start doing things right. You eat more consistently. You're eating enough to fuel your body and the internal processes to start shifting things. You're lifting weights. You're drinking your water. You're resting when you're supposed to. You're getting enough sleep at night. And sometimes when you step on the scale, the scale stalls, doesn't do anything, or goes

up, or it fluctuates. It goes up and down. And your brain, ladies, panics. And again, it emotionally unravels you. You step on the scale in the morning, and if it goes down, you're emotionally charged by that. You go on being like, I'm going to get my workout, I'm going to get my steps, I'm going to drink my water today, I'm going to eat my macros, because things are working. You step on the scale the next day, and it goes up, and you're like, screw this. This isn't working. And you just start to unravel.

Your brain panics, right? But let me just remind you, the scale doesn't measure the glycogen replenishment that you're giving your body with carbs. It doesn't measure muscle inflammation from hitting a big muscle group hard in your workout the day before. It doesn't measure your hormonal shifts if you are still someone that gets your period on a monthly basis. It doesn't even measure the cortisol when you're stressed out. And at that point, when you start panicking, you start questioning the entire process.

You start switching gears. You start switching gears to a new plan. I need to cut more. You start switching gears to following a new plan, a new program or new rules: I need to cut carbs, I need to fast, I need to... Your mind is racing, and that's okay. That's just how we're wired. But every time you do that, you're giving your brain more reason to believe that I don't finish what I start. I mean, how many of you have started and stopped? And that's not a fitness issue. That's not a program issue.

That's not a workout issue. That's an identity issue. That's a you issue. I'm just going to say that with love, because I just want to call it what it is. I want you to start stopping the start, stop, start, stop cycle. Say that 10 times fast. Because this part matters. Every time you quit, even quietly, you're reinforcing a belief that I can't trust myself. I don't follow through on things. Sometimes, unconsciously, and you may not even notice this is happening, there's a conversation going on in your brain. When you're about to start a new program, you have to go tell your husband that you're

going to start a new program. You don't even want to bring up that conversation, because you know what your husband's going to say. He's going to call you out and hold you accountable, because he's going to be like, another one? And it's true, because you're reinforcing that every time you give up, because you're allowing the scale, or something else, to dictate whether you're making progress or not. And over time, that belief becomes heavier than the physical weight that you're trying to lose. Because the thing is, and I've said this so many times, the confidence that you are trying to build for yourself doesn't come from you being perfect.

Like I said earlier, it doesn't come from you showing up on a program and being perfect every single day. You're going to burn out. Confidence comes from you following through, even if the follow-through looks like you're at 30% on the day. That was me on Tuesday last week. I was at 30% on my day, maybe 40%, because 4,000 steps out of 10,000 is 40%. I still showed up, though. I still did something as best as I could that day. Confidence comes from staying when it's boring. I've heard so many times over the years of being in the industry,

women get their program for four weeks, and by the fourth week, they're bored. So what? If you stay through that, and you don't go into the gym and say, I'm going to do a different workout program this week. It's boring for a reason. When things are unclear, when progress isn't happening, and you still stay and follow through, that's confidence being built. You stay when it's unclear. When it doesn't make sense. You stay when you don't feel rewarded yet. I think everyone would be accomplishing their goals if at the end of every single day they received some type of reward, right?

But with fitness and working out and changing your body composition, you don't get a reward every day in terms of what a lot of people want to see. You get a reward from completing, from consistently following through. Yes, that's where confidence comes from. It comes from you staying when you don't feel rewarded yet. You do get some type of reward from crushing your workouts, if you want to look at it that way. But a lot of people look at it like, am I making progress?

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For most of the women listening to this episode, the search for the right answer has been going on for years, maybe even decades. I've coached women who have been stuck for 20, 30 years. You're doing program after program after program. You're having coach after coach, diet after diet. And every time something new comes along that feels different, that seems like it might finally be the thing, there is this brief window of hope, followed by the familiar

pattern of it not quite working out the way that you imagined it would. And the quiet conclusion that forms over years of that cycle is, maybe I'm just the problem. Maybe it's me. Maybe it's the execution, I just can't follow through. Maybe I'm the one who just cannot do this. Maybe other women can, but I can't. Look, I need you to hear this clearly. That conclusion is wrong. But it is also not entirely your fault that you reached that point.

Because you've been looking for the answer in the right places. You're looking for the right nutrition. You're looking for the training. You're looking for the accountability. But you have been waiting for those things to do something to you rather than deciding to do something with them. That is a massive difference. It's like the woman waiting to be saved. She's looking for something external to produce an internal result. The right program to make her disciplined. Oh, this just feels right.

This is going to make me more disciplined. Or the right motivation: this is going to make me consistent. Or the right circumstances: this is going to make it easier. But look, the one that shows up, the one that saves herself, understands that the internal result has to come first. Again, the decision to be someone who does this thing. Who sets the standards for herself. Who makes the commitment. Who makes a decision that I'm going to do X, Y and Z this week, because taking the action is ultimately going to keep me in line with the goal of this program, or with

this busy season that I'm saying I can get through, right? It comes before the external things can work. Not after. You understand the internal result has to come first. You have to be the one to work the thing, right? You have had access to information your entire life. You've had access to information around nutrition. You have access to training information. You have access to things that you need to know about how to eat and how to move and how

to work out that are freely available. That is not what has been missing. What has been missing is the moment that you just decide. Like you really decide. Not that you hope or you wish or you want or you intend or you try. It's that you are someone who does this. I can't emphasize this enough, because I remember when I first started my journey, I had absolutely no idea what I was doing, but you know what I did? I decided to get a coach, and I decided to listen to what he was saying immediately.

What I've learned about myself, with anything that has come my way in terms of the empowering actions I have to take, is: okay, you need this? Okay, here it is. This is what you're asking me to do? Okay, here it is. And obviously it has to be aligned with me, but you know what I mean? It's like, I'm making a decision to be someone who does this. Even if it may not be optimal, maybe it's a busy season, I'm still going to figure it out. That is not optional. That is a version of you on the other side of this.

That is not a fantasy. It's literally a direction. You are going in that direction starting today. Once you make a decision, not because everything lined up, but because you decided. Does that make sense? So let me talk about what this actually feels like, because I think most women have made intentions and called them decisions, but they're not the same thing. An intention sounds like, I'm going to start eating better, or I'm going to get back to the gym. I'm going to be more consistent this time. I'm going to make this a priority.

This is what a decision sounds like. This is happening. Not when I feel ready. Not when it gets easier. Not after the holidays or the birthday or the stressful month. Now. This is who I am. This is what I'm going to do. This is something I committed to. Okay. This is the check mark along the way to get to X goal. I'm making a decision to follow through on everything that is necessary to get me to that goal. The door is closed on the version of me that is going to negotiate with this every single Monday. An intention leaves the door open.

A decision closes that door. And here's why that matters practically. Because when the door is open, quitting is still on the table as an option. Your brain will find a way to walk through it every time the going gets hard, because your brain is wired to conserve energy. It will always find the most reasonable exit, and it will make that exit feel justifiable. If you had a bad week, if you had a stressful month, if you had the holiday season, you have an injury, you have a plateau, all of it becomes permission to just walk through

the door that should have been closed. But the women who stop starting over are the ones who close that door, who genuinely decided that this is not something they are trying anymore. They're not just dabbling, one foot in the door, one foot out the door. It is something that they are doing. And the bad weeks are a part of it. The hard months are a part of it. And what I mean by that is in those seasons, maybe a four-day workout week looks like a

two-day workout week, but you still made it happen. You can find two hours in a week to dedicate to yourself, even in the bad seasons, even in the hard months. None of it is permission to stop, because stopping is no longer an option on the table at this point. That decision, you guys, is available to you right now. It's not only available to you in January. Not when the season changes, or when the kids are back in school, or when work settles down, or when things get a little bit less stressful.

If you can build this type of decision-making process in a busy season, you're going to be able to handle an easier season more easily. If you want to hear me talk about this when it comes to your macros and your muscles and your mindset, and putting this whole strategy into play, really that mindset pillar side of things, every week I go live and give you exactly what you need to help you put this into practice. And it's completely free.

So that link is in the description below for you to register. Come hang out. It's a 90-minute training, and you get so much value that maybe some light bulbs will go off, or maybe it will be the best conventional advice that you've ever received in a 90-minute training. All right, guys, I hope this episode helped you. If it did, just let that sit with you, right? Don't have any type of emotional reaction to it. Just hear the truth behind what I'm trying to portray to you, which is that you are the only

one that can make the decision for you about the trajectory of your health and your fitness and that whole journey. All right, guys. Love y'all. I'll see you in the next one.

Hey, really quick before you go, I have one small favor to ask. If 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 the difference in helping more women discover the tools they need to transform their 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.