3 Mistakes I Made When Training in my 20's and 30's

Similar to many of my clients and many of you who have shared your stories with me…I get it, and that’s why I am here, imparting knowledge that I’ve come to learn over years of trial and error and formal education.

Like many of you, I spent YEARS trying to eat and train in a way that would help me build muscle and look lean.

But there were three technical things I was doing very wrong for a long time:

1. Not eating properly for my goals

2. Not training intensely enough for my goals

3. Not recovering enough

   
   

Let me elaborate on each.

Diet and Nutrition: Protein and Protein Timing

Eating healthy has always been a part of who I am. I grew on a farm where home-cooked food was a staple. Lots of meat and potato style meals, cereal for breakfast and in high school cafeteria food for lunch (because it was not cool to bring a lunch :))

My point is that, I, someone with an early motivation to build muscle ( I made my own "step" for VHS step aerobics that I did in my basement starting in grade 9 and discovered the high school weight room in grade 10) would be the first person I’d expect to achieve her goal.

Instead, I spent years working my ass off training and dieting to attempt to transform my body into what I thought would be the body that brought me confidence and happiness.

I constantly dieted. I constantly tried to look athletic and toned, which led me down a path of training too much, eating too little, and not recovering enough! It took me YEARS to understand that this is not how it’s done and a coach to show me that you don’t build quality muscle when you just aren’t eating enough. It’s as simple as that.

While I loved meat, I definitely didn’t eat enough protein throughout the day with a carb based breakfast or maybe an egg or 2 with toast, some sort of protein at lunch and dinner but nothing post workout for sure.

Training: Intensity & Programming

When it came to training, now having made a profession out of it, I realize I was doing THAT wrong too. I was training consistently but never seeing results (i.e. growth!) In hindsight, I now know exactly why: I did to much cardio and didn’t push myself hard enough in my sessions… I didn’t “flirt with failure” in my sets and I certainly didn’t track my weights and progressively overload them every couple of weeks!

In fact, I don’t even think I had a training program until I was in my 40's and working with a coach myself!

Think about this: How many times do you stop a set when the burn gets too intense? Do you track your reps and sets and progressively overload your weight from week to week and month to month?

These are things you MUST do if building muscle is a priority. Training close to failure, where the last 2-3 reps are nearly impossible to complete with good form is essential. Tracking your weight and being intentional about repeating the same workouts over and over again for a period of time, while simultaneously trying to progress that weight (make it heavier, increase the volume, increase the intensity) is imperative.

Rest and Recovery

On top of all of the above, I was training 6-7 days a week (again, because I was desperate) and not allowing my body any time to rest and recover. Every time you lift, you’re creating micro-tears in your muscle tissue. But the growth happens in the hours and days afterward—when you sleep, what you eat, how well you recover. We build muscle in the hours and days that we AREN’T training….remember that.

If you never give your body the chance to rest, it can’t do the job you’re asking it to do. Train HARD in the gym - push your muscles to near failure, but recover even harder.

What I’ve Learned

All of the struggles I’ve experienced in my fitness journey have led me here. My love for protein came from a desperate need to understand it, so that I could, like many of you, build a body that I was proud of and felt strong and confident in.

My attention to exercise programming, exercise selection, training intensity, and recovery has been carefully and thoughtfully developed over the past 8-10 years, through formal education and personal trial and error. I realized that low protein doesn’t get you where you want to go in the long run, especially if muscle development is the goal.

• My hands-on approach with my 1:1 online coaching program is designed to be a fully personalized coach-client experience that includes:

  • A full diet and lifestyle assessment

  • A nutrition plan tailored to you by me

  • Personalized workouts for your goals

  • Weekly check-ins to track progress

    
    

  If you’re interested in working with me personally, please feel free to apply here!

  If you are not ready to commit to 1:1 coaching then get inside the Lift Yourself LEAN FB group for free resources, monthly challenges and weekly pep talks HERE