The Three Primary Components to Achieve Muscle Growth (and they are all equally important)
By Cheryl Coppa
In the photo: trainer Cheryl Coppa
Once you hit the mid-life years and beyond, you might start to notice that your body is craving strength, especially if you haven’t engaged in strength training prior. The aches, the pains, the low energy levels, feeling sluggish, maybe even feeling depressed and unmotivated, are all signs of your body wanting and needing that strength.
So how do you get stronger at this time in your life? How do you build muscle after 40, 50, 60, and beyond?
There are three components to achieve muscle growth/ mass and they are all equally important.
1. Strength Training
Strength training (or also called resistance training), is a must.
In order to get stronger, you need to put the muscles you do have under pressure, make them work, and feel the burn! I love the image below, and I always think of this when I strength train.
What does it mean to strength train? Strength training is using your body weight, hand-held weights, or resistance bands to put pressure on your muscles to make them work harder. Strength training is not going for a walk, running on a treadmill, going for a bike ride, sitting on a rower machine, the elliptical, or swimming. While those are all forms of fitness training, they are not strength training and will not increase your muscle mass.
“Strength training is not going for a walk, running on a treadmill, going for a bike ride, sitting on a rower machine, the elliptical, or swimming. While those are all forms of fitness training, they are not strength training and will not increase your muscle mass.”, Trainer Cheryl Coppa
Do you know that burning feeling you get when you do a certain exercise long enough? This is what you are going for when you strength train and don’t stop when it burns. This is the feeling you want when building muscle. Too often women will stop once it starts to burn, embrace the burn! Once you learn an exercise and you know you got it right, you want to make sure it is working. It is a “workout” after all, right?
Take a squat for example - You learn the basics of how to perform this exercise safely using just your body weight. Once you get it and it feels pretty easy, and is not causing a burn, then you add resistance bands or hand-held weights.
Let’s say you start with 5 lbs in your training. Once you can easily complete it and you don't feel that burn or you don't feel like you are “working”, this is because you are now stronger and ready for a heavier weight, so now you can bump it up to 8 lbs and so on.
You will hear the phrase “progressive overload“ when you are trying to build muscle. Progressive overload means gradually increasing your weight, intensity, or time doing an exercise. You ultimately want to continue to challenge and stimulate your muscles. This can mean heavier weights, but eventually, you will max out on what weights you do use.
Back to the squat - we are most likely not going to be using 50 lbs weights when we are squatting at home, so once you have reached your max weight, (whatever that may be), there are still ways to progress. Other ways to have this progressive overload (continued challenge and stimulation) can mean working on a better form to make an exercise more challenging, combining it with another movement (compound exercises), or doing an exercise longer than you did before with time or how many reps you do, holding the position, or adding pulses. There are many things that can be done to make an exercise more challenging.
This is also another benefit of working with Ola Ka Ola, your trainers can see you are progressing, and will encourage you to go heavier, or even give you different options to make sure you keep progressing. Many times without this little push, many women will not progress in their strength. They will keep doing the same thing with the same weights and the same rep range, and this is when your body will stop progressing.
When you are stronger, you will need more of a challenge. With this continued challenge, our body is forced to adapt by getting stronger, increasing muscle size, and improving overall fitness. It is also very motivating and empowering to see and feel this measurable progress.
It happens rather quickly too! For comparison, think of a rubber band that you stretch and release repeatedly. With each stretch, the rubber band adapts and becomes more resistant to the force applied. This is similar to what is happening when you strength train. Putting stress/resistance on your muscles, this is causing microscopic tears to your muscle fibers (that burning feeling or when you feel a little sore the next day). But just like the rubber band, your muscles adapt and come back stronger, and more resilient. Your muscles have a remarkable ability to repair and adapt themselves. You can experience how quickly this happens once you start strength training. Over time, this leads to increased muscle mass, increased strength, improved muscle fiber recruitment and enhanced neuromuscular coordination.
Remember, it doesn’t always mean your weights have to get heavier, they certainly can and should, but you can still increase your muscle mass and definition using lighter weights and your body weight. At Ola Ka Ola, we have all these options. If you attend any Strength class, you have the opportunity to go heavier, if you join any of our ‘one of a kind‘ HIIT classes (cardio/strength/mobility/endurance training ), you can see how we use just 5 lbs weights to deliver the burn. You can also experience a variety of body weight training classes, yoga, barre, and pilates.
“Do you know that burning feeling you get when you do a certain exercise long enough? This is what you are going for when you strength train and don’t stop when it burns. This is the feeling you want when building muscle. Too often women will stop once it starts to burn, embrace the burn!”, Cheryl Coppa
Personally, I always suggest doing ALL FORMS as it continuously challenges your body in all forms of strength training. Always challenged and never bored. To see and feel the results, a minimum of 3x a week is ideal. Of course, anything is better than nothing, and you can still experience increased strength with 1 or 2 training sessions a week. But, to really see the difference, 3x min is best. You might find (like many of our members here at Ola) your body and mind start to crave more and the results start to motivate you even more, so you start to train even more. I train 5 days a week. What your training should look like all depends on how many days a week you work out and what specific goals you have. It can feel overwhelming and confusing how to draw up the best plan for you, this is why there are professionals that can do it for you.
Ola Ka Ola can give you a plan for any goal/level you may have.
We have a very simple easy start program that is for brand new beginners called “LET’S START'' where you learn the foundational exercises, so when you are ready to progress, you have the foundation and the confidence to do it safely and effectively.
2. Protein
It is just as important to feed your muscles as it is to work them! Muscles NEED protein to grow. If you are not feeding your muscles, they will break down. Feed the machine! :) Unless you track your protein, you are most likely not getting nearly enough. Especially as we age, this is something you will want to target to keep your muscles around. I can even say for myself, until we had our Protein Challenge in our Private FB Group, I was way low on my protein intake. You might be alarmed by how much protein you need, but even just being aware of it and trying to increase it, will help you. I asked Ola Ka Ola’s in-house Dietitian-Nutritionist, Maryann Gallucci, what is the generic protein recommendation for women over 40. According to Gallucci, the ideal protein intake for active women over 40 is approximately 20 to 30 grams per meal (that's around 3 to 4 ounces of meat or around 3 eggs). To help build muscle, aim for about 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight per day, say Gallucci.
“The ideal protein intake for active women over 40 is approximately 20 to 30 grams per meal (that's around 3 to 4 ounces of meat or around 3 eggs).”, Dietitian-Nutritionist, Maryann Gallucci,
An effective way to hit these numbers is to eat protein with every meal - aim for 20-30 grams of protein per meal. You will also find as a bonus this will keep you satisfied and you will have less cravings to snack throughout the day! Spreading your protein out throughout the day will also help balance blood sugar. So many wins here and you GET TO EAT. No need to be discouraged! Even if you are way off, you are now conscious of it, and can work on increasing your protein intake. Do keep track of your protein, so you get the hang of what you need!
Here are a few of my go-to protein snacks:
Another tip to help hit your protein numbers is to eat breakfast. No skipping breakfast! Check out this BLOG post from our Dietitian-Nutritionist, Maryann Gallucci, on why you want to stop skipping breakfast and for some more protein tips!
Overall, this is great news, right?!?! You get to eat. Feel satisfied. Have fewer cravings, and are fueled mentally and physically.
3. Sleep
Probably the most underrated tool You know you love your sleep, ditch the phrase ‘I will sleep when I’m dead’. Your sleep is so important for so many reasons. There are times in our lives when sleep is scarce, especially as moms and caretakers, and not much we can do about those times in our lives. Our bodies do adapt to help us get through those times, but let's keep them seasonal when we can.
At my stage in life, I have teens and a 10-year-old. I tell my 10-year-old he has to go to bed, so I can go to bed! The teens is another story. I’m an early riser, so I need to go to bed early. When you sleep, your body undergoes the process of recovery and repair. Those micro-tears we talked about while strength training? This is when they are repaired, so you can indeed come back stronger. Without the repair process, you will just be continually breaking down muscle and not building up. Sleep is also responsible for our hormone regulation. Including growth hormone and cortisol, which play a big role in muscle development. And as you can imagine, sleep affects your energy and performance levels.
Giving yourself the proper rest so you can push yourself and put the stress on your muscles to have effective, safe, and successful training sessions. When you start strength training, you will also notice your sleep getting better. Everything just goes so well together when you start giving your body what it needs! “Sleep is the golden chain that ties health and our bodies together.” - Thomas Dekker. So there we have it!
“Your trainers in Ola Ka Ola are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. The women training in our community are in their late 30s, 40s, 50s 60s, and 70s! And what a community we have. The best!! It’s hard to explain, something you really have to experience, this special connection you develop when you train with like-minded women day in and day out.” Trainer Cheryl Coppa
All you need is Sleep - Protein - Strength Training!
You get to eat protein. Add that protein in with every meal for a start. Even if it is not the suggested amount, just start and build from there. You will see, but you will still notice a difference.
Get some shut-eye! “Your future depends on your dreams, so go to sleep.” - Mesut Barazany
Strength Train! This doesn’t have to be overwhelming, have a guide on how to strength train, how often, and when to progress. No stress, no wasted time, do what works for your body now, at this stage of life, you are in.
It is very different how we train after 40 compared to your 20s, and this is exactly what we do here at Ola Ka Ola. Your trainers are in their 40s, 50s, and 60s. The women training in our community are in their late 30s, 40s, 50s 60s, and 70s! And what a community we have. The best!! It’s hard to explain, something you really have to experience. The special connection you develop when you train with like-minded women day in and day out.
They become a part of your everyday life and your biggest motivators and supporters. Every new member who joins us is welcomed with open arms, and we can’t wait for you to experience this support, confidence, and renewed strength. We hope to see you in class at Ola Ka Ola and help you build those muscles for longevity!
About Cheryl Coppa
