Ep 25 - How To Build It - Great Guns!

Sun's out, guns out! 

In this episode, we continue our How To Build It Series with Allison and Jo explaining how to build great guns. 

We discuss the anatomy of having sculpted arms, what exercises are most important for building out your arms, and how having great guns can help create a more symmetrical, hourglass shape. We also explain the role nutrition plays in building out your guns and how to avoid injury.

If you have always wanted to show off amazing arms in your tank tops, dresses, and other favorite summer clothes, listen up!

Want to get started toning up your arms? Join our August Challenge - Hustle For The Muscle. Sign up here: https://view.flodesk.com/pages/62be332d671efdd43f115f64

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Transcript

Unknown: 0:08

Welcome to the Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30 Podcast. I'm Joe. And I'm Allison and we're your co hosts and the founders of Couture Fitness and Lifestyle Coaching. We're on a quest to help women design lives they love and bodies they adore. We were fed up with the dieting industry and decided to create something different. We're starting a calories up revolution where women are nourished, their metabolisms are healed and their bodies and brains start working for them in the battle against weight loss. If you feel like your metabolism is wrecked, and you want to lose weight once and for all, you are in the right place. Oh, everyone, well, you've got Joe and Alison today on the podcast. And we are going to continue our how to build it series and talk about how to build great guns or arms. But first, let me tell you a little bit about what's going on at Cateura fitness. Our next challenge is coming up in August. And it will be all about building muscle and resistance training, we'll include a link to join that challenge in the show notes. And all you need to do is go to the link, sign up for the challenge. And then what you will get is some resistance training workouts that you can do throughout the month. The challenge is to do two resistance training workouts through the month. And then we'll also provide you some education about why resistance training is so important. And why strong is really is the new sexy. And that's sort of a great segue into this podcast episode because we're gonna talk about how to build great guns. But maybe first Allison, any current physique goals that you are working on, I don't have a super concrete physical right now. So if you guys have been listening to our podcasts for a few months, you know that back in the spring, I said I was starting a cut and I wanted to lose a couple of pounds. And the reason was Joe and I took some more brand photos that you might see on our website and in our social media. So I wanted to lose a couple of pounds for that. And I honestly pretty much failed at my at my cuts, I stuck with it for a few weeks and then went on vacation and I just didn't have the motivation honestly, which I'm I'm fine with. So I will say probably for the next nine months, I am just going to continue to focus on generally getting stronger, probably most mostly upper body I just carry a lot more of my naturally more weight and muscle in my lower body. So I have to work really hard to put on muscle in my upper body. So probably focusing on that focusing on keeping calories high. I'll be going on a Cancun vacation in a few months, and I do not plan to cut calories at all before that trip. So really just getting stronger in general upper body most back I always am trying to put muscle on my back. Honestly my biggest I would say fitness goal is just working on my tennis. I can't even tell you guys how obsessed I am with playing tennis. I would play every day if I could. So mostly my goal this year is going to be working on my tennis game. Awesome. Yeah, well, I have a big goal of adding five pounds of muscle, I've challenged some of our clients to focus on the same thing about adding muscle rather than just changing the skill weight. So last month, I moved and was pretty preoccupied with moving and getting my old house ready for sale and I lost some muscle in that process. Due to scale, I had to scale back on some training and resistance training. And my nutrition wasn't totally on point wasn't terrible, but it wasn't great. But I did lose some muscle. So I'd like to gain that back. And then I think I just have gotten myself to a point of conditioning that the only way anything is going to change is I'm going to have to just add some muscles. So that meat is going to mean having to eat more and challenge myself in the gym. But I'm good with that. And I'm excited to see how it goes. And it will probably mean the scale going up. But like I said, I think I'm okay with that. I mean, at this point, I know it's the healthiest thing I can do for myself and I will turn 49 in a month or so. And as I roll into my 50s The most you know, the healthiest thing I can do for myself is to pack muscle onto my body. It's literal body armor that will protect me against so many things like insulin resistance, diabetes, it will boost my immune system. There are just so so many benefits of having a lot of muscle tissue on your body. So that's that's my goal. I would guess it will it could take me the rest of the year to put that much muscle on. Oh yeah, that's a ton of muscle especially for somebody who's already been lifting regularly. That is not an easy feat, that's for sure. So that's what I'm up to. But I really that's what I really really love sort of about weight training is that it really can be like a lifetime hobby or endeavor and always work on building out a body part. Adding muscle getting stronger and it only is good for you. It's not like running in a race of others. sports where you can like I'm sure you can injure yourself if you are going about it the wrong way, but it only benefits you to add more muscle and get stronger. Okay, so let's get to our topic of the day which is building great guns personally, that is my my arms are my favorite part body parts of work and I naturally have really broad shoulders I'm actually a couple sizes larger on my upper body than my lower body is let me have like the exact opposite bodies to you and I until I started lifting weights I and even though my shoulders are sort of naturally broad, I had zero definition in my shoulders are upper body and arms. So when we are talking about having great guns, Allison, what is the look we are talking about. So I think it might be best to give an example Joe and I are both big fans of the show, Ted lasso. And several of our clients are as well. They need to release the new season by the way we've been checking in they need to get their new season out there. But if you know who if you watch that show, the character Rebecca from Ted lasso has the ultimate guns. And I'm going to tell you guys what her the actresses name is Hannah Waddingham. She is 47 years old. Her arms and shoulders are absolutely amazing. She's got nice round shoulder caps, all of the heads of her deltoids are built out to like the side of her shoulder, the front of her shoulder, the back of her shoulder. When we talk about good guns, it's honestly more about the shoulders than it is the biceps and triceps really building those delt muscles is what's gonna give you that really nice arms. Look, she does have definition in her biceps and triceps, but it's all about her shoulders, she looks really really good. And her suits and her sleeveless tops because of her awesome arms, great guns are just going to make you look amazing in any sort of summer clothes, tank tops, summer dresses, and it's really a signature of being fit. It is not something that happens by accident. I don't think like Joe, you said you naturally are more broad on your upper half. And you're not going to have definition just by having a certain body type it isn't you could not have those defined shoulders without working for them. It does not just happen by accident. So that's why I think it's a really good sign. If somebody's got good, strong shoulders, you know, they're working out and they're lifting weights. Yeah, agree, probably why they are so sought after to because it takes work to get them. Okay, let's talk about symmetry and aesthetics and of building out building great guns and how building out your arms and shoulders will help with your so like having an overall fit, physique and looking fit and toned. Yeah, so having a really great physique is really all about being symmetrical. So if you're larger on the bottom, or maybe have that pear shaped body, which is me naturally, you absolutely want to be building up your upper body to help balance out your physique. So if I were somebody who just you know, if I didn't work out, I would probably be much bigger on the bottom than I am on the top. I really, like I said earlier, I have to work hard to put muscle on my upper body, I also tend to if I'm going to gain weight, it's going to be in my lower body first, when I lose weight, I lose it in my upper body first. That's just how I'm built. So building out the shoulders, it's also going to make your waist look smaller, which I think everyone no matter what your body type is probably once that sort of hourglass look. And then I'm going to talk about bodybuilding for a minute here. So in the bikini division, which I would say is probably the least bodybuilder looking division that there is it's a little bit softer. I mean, they still work really hard to put on their muscle, but it's not as extreme as maybe some of the other categories. What they're looking for there is those built out shoulders built out glutes and it gives you a really, really nice hourglass figure. I think it's kind of like the fitness model type look when I think of the bikini division and Joe you have recently in the last two years, you've done two competitions and competed in bikini Can you tell us a little bit more about how you have worked to create that hourglass shape? Yeah, so that's not really my natural shape. I'm probably more of a rectangle and like I said my shoulders are much broader than my hips and glutes so maybe more like a triangle on top and so what I actually have to do or what my coaches work on for me is we actually have to build out my glutes a little bit to match my shoulders and doing so I don't have much of a waist I don't have a tiny waist it just kind of doesn't go in. It's not like it's big or anything it's just not like a you know curvaceous shape. So because of that we still work on adding muscle to my shoulders and glutes to create the illusion of a waist but I'm fine with that. I think you know it's for me what it results in is a very athletic look. And I love having defined arms and shoulders probably because I that doesn't come to me naturally. Like I said my shoulders are broad. It's very very hard for me to lean out in my upper body. So when the when that does happen, I love the look of it and I think it looks amazing. So let's get to the how of this tell us, Alison, how you go about beginning to build great guns. Yeah, so let's first talk about the muscles that are involved. So it's the deltoids, which are the shoulder muscles, and then a little bit of the biceps and the triceps. So the big the biggest muscle involved here is the deltoid. And you're going to make sure you want to work a lot on your shoulders. So some of those pressing movements include a shoulder press, like an overhead shoulder press, a chest press, yes, that is, is primarily a chest movement, but it's going to work the front of your shoulders as well. A lateral shoulder raise, front raise a rear delt fly, all of those different types of pressing movements are what you are going to want to focus on. And then you will want to also do some not a ton of accessory work for your biceps and your triceps. I personally, I work my shoulders two times a week, I live four days a week, two of those days, I work on my shoulders, and I really only do anything for my biceps and triceps, one day a week, usually, maybe one exercise for each, maybe two, so I don't do a ton on my biceps and triceps, they kind of get used along the way in lots of other movements. When you're working your chest, you're going to work your triceps, when you're working your back, you're often going to work your biceps, so I don't do a lot of focus work just on my biceps and triceps, I will say you are not going to get great guns just by doing a bunch of bicep curls with three or five pound weights, that is going to be a huge waste of time. So if you're putting together an ideal workout for great guns, I think it might look something like this, you might do like an overhead shoulder press, a chest press, a side lateral raise a rear delt fly, maybe a front raise, and then maybe a couple sets of bicep curls, and then maybe some sets of like tricep kickbacks or skull crushers or something like that. And through all of this, you want to lift heavy, obviously, you want to keep good form, you don't want to hurt yourself, you don't want to be using momentum and having to like swing the weights up with your by moving your entire body, but you want to be going heavy while still keeping good form. And I say you don't want to be doing things with three or five pound weights, it is okay. Certainly on some of these exercises, if you do need to start out with three or five pound weights, if you have not been lifting before, especially if you're a female most females who have not been trying to do any sort of strength training are just bury naturally weaken their upper body. And so for you five pounds might be heavy, if you need to do your very first set of shoulder presses, maybe you're shooting for like 15 of them. And all you can do is five pound weights, that is fine, that is heavy enough for you, you will progress if you are consistent, and eventually you will be able to do more weight, but you want to be lifting heavy for you. You shouldn't feel like you can do 50 reps of some given exercise, if you can do 50 shoulder presses with whatever weight you're using. That is way too light, I would say focus on if you're newer to weightlifting, maybe focus on that 12 to 15 rep range. If you're more advanced and you feel like you can go heavier, maybe do something in lower rep ranges like eight to 10. But you want to be lifting heavy for you. If you want to progress to build muscle. That's what you're that's what you have to do. Okay, sounds good. So another question if I want let's just say I really want to have those these great guns and have amazing looking arms and shoulders. What if I just focused on that and skipped like lower body day? Would that be a good strategy? sounds tempting, but no, that would not be a good a good strategy. So you definitely want to keep doing the big lifts for your lower body such as squatting movements, lunges, deadlifts. Also, you do not want to neglect your back developing those muscles. It's just going to help you get stuck, get and stay lean overall, if you if you continue to focus on those movements, and it will help you keep that symmetry I know for years, because I naturally have like bigger legs. I was like, Oh, well I don't need to do leg day I can just run shows how much I knew. And just like you know, do some upper body moves, because I naturally have bigger legs. Well, what I didn't realize is I had a lot you know, I carried a lot of fat in my legs, but they weren't necessarily strong. So you definitely do not want to neglect any body parts. That's not to say you can't maybe focus more on a specific body part that you're trying to build. But you don't want to skip a muscle group completely. So Joe, why don't you explain a little bit more how you train for your bodybuilding shows? Yeah, I think I mentioned this in the last podcasts like I don't really have carry a lot of fat in my lower body my legs look pretty muscular and quote unquote toned most of the time as do my glutes. So the real challenge for me is to lean out in my shoulders and upper body so yes, I used to think like you know, I should just do I should not even bother with lower body day but that's not really how it works. I spent equal amount of time on shoulders and upper body and then my glutes and lower body ironically, like you just mentioned, it's working all the big muscle groups. And that is just going to actually build muscle all over, it's going to stimulate muscle growth in your body, that's what you're going for. And you need to hit all of the big muscle groups. And when you do that, you're going to build muscle all over. And it's going to help you lean out all over like you just mentioned. So you don't want to skip a main body part. That's just not how building a great physique works, what you're aiming for is strength all over. And that is what is going to give you that toned look that most women talk about wanting. I think the other corollary to this is we've had women say, well cut out the you know, raises for me are cut out, I don't want to work on my legs, because they're already big. And I think that, you know, lifting weights is just going to make them bigger. And I could have said the same thing about my shoulders. That's not how it works. either. You want muscle all over your body and putting muscle on and all those areas is you're not going to get too big. But that's just not really even possible for women. And you also do not want we'll talk about this in a minute. In terms of injury, you don't you want symmetry and sort of how you're building strength to prevent injury, you want your whole body getting stronger. So you just want to make sure you're programming. If you want to build out your arms and have great guns, you just want to make sure you have solid programming for that. And like you said, you're not wasting a bunch of time doing tricep kickbacks and bicep curls. So that's why that's my thoughts on that. Okay, I have another question for you. Does nutrition play a role in building great guns? Absolutely. You guys all probably knew I was gonna say yes. So yes, we're talking about the process of adding muscle tissue to your body. And in order to do so you need two stimuli. One is adequate nutrition, you need to be eating enough calories, you need to be eating enough protein. Most people probably are also not eating enough carbs in order to build muscle. So you need to be eating enough and then to you need exercise that tells your body to add muscle and you can work out like crazy until the cows come home. But if you are not fueling yourself properly, not eating enough protein, you are just going to shortchange yourself. I feel like I personally was stuck in that world for many years. So I started lifting weights in high school as part of a weightlifting class. That's when I fell in love with lifting. And I did it like, kind of off and on through college. Not anything structured, but I did. I did lift somewhat regularly. But even when I started competing in bodybuilding, I was lifting like five days a week. But I was under eating all year long, not just when I was cutting for a show all year long. And I probably did not gain any muscle during that time of lifting, literally five days a week lifting heavy five days a week because I just wasn't eating enough. So nutrition is absolutely critical. Yep, I agree. Okay, anything else we need to consider about building great guns? I would say one other thing you want to think about is injury prevention. It's very easy to injure your shoulder or that shoulder joint. You can hurt your rotator cuff. There's tennis elbow, shoulder impingement. So let's talk about injury prevention for a bit. So Joe, I know you've had a lot of shoulder injuries. Do you want to talk about some do's and don'ts for hopefully preventing shoulder injuries? Yes, and that's true. I have you ever had strained rotator cuffs? Terrible, terrible bout of tennis elbow? I've had shoulder impingement. So so I've done all the things to my shoulders that you don't want to do. And you didn't like tennis? Right? You got it from lifting. Right? Yeah, it was my when my first show. Yeah. And I'll talk about that in a second. So the do's I would say is embrace getting strong all over. This is going to help with injury prevention all over your body just focus on getting strong, not you know, dissecting body parts and that sort of thing. Just focus on you know, hitting those big muscle groups and getting strong all over. And so I think for shoulders and guns, what this really means is strengthening your back muscles. So what happened to me is after I did my first show, I developed a terrible terrible case of tennis elbow. But in classic Jo fashion, I kept pushing and pushing and thought, oh, I'll just push through the pain, no pain, no gain, until I couldn't it got to the point I couldn't even like grip my fist or move my wrist without excruciating pain all up through my forearm and elbow and so I could not do any shoulder or bicep work and this went on for like two years but I finally resolved it with lots of physical therapy and technique called dry needling. But what I should have done when this all started is backed off the weight and maybe not necessarily the exercises I was doing but backed off the weight and really focused on form and UNbuilding supporting muscles like my upper back and rotator cuff muscles so I could load properly through my shoulder that what was going on and as I sit at a desk all day, so I have the rounded shoulders that most people who sit at a desk have and so my upper, back and rotator cuff muscles were very Week and my form, you know, was off. So my elbow bore the brunt of all the weight I was lifting and I really paid dearly for it. The other thing I will say is that all through these injuries, I was under eating like 1800 calories a day and my body just would not heal. So adequate nutrition is also going to help prevent and helping you heal from any injuries, I would say consistency in your resistance training is also going to help with injury prevention. One thing we see a lot is what I call weekend warriors, where we have people who haven't lifted or done any sort of exercise, maybe their entire adult life or for actually this, I see this more in people who used to be like high school athletes or college athletes, then they're gonna start working with us, they're gonna hit it hard, they're gonna get there, you know, they're gonna get back in shape, and they hit the gym, they've been hitting the gym sporadically, they come and decide they're gonna hit it hard and get this taken care of, and then they get injured. And so you don't want to do that, you know, you slow and steady wins the race. And I will say that every dumb injury I've I've had was fueled by impatience, being inconsistent and sort of out of desperation to fix something or to look a certain way and it just doesn't work, take it slow. If you've never lifted before, you're gonna see progress really quickly. And there's no reason there's no race here. That's what I would say. So our old adage of patiently focusing on consistency in both nutrition and exercise and getting strong all over is really true for injury prevention and healing as well. So that's why I have to say about injuries. And I have one last question for you. What role does cardio play in building great guns? I remember in college, I wanted to get really toned arms, and all the fitness magazines I read that I needed to read more. Was that good advice? Well, no, but I followed the same type of advice. I used to do those like typo and kickboxing videos all the time. And I was like, Yeah, I'm punching the air. I'm sure this is like, you know, gonna make my arms look nice and toned. Oh, what a waste. What a waste of my life. Honestly, of doing those running in particular is not going to do a thing for your arms. You might it might speed up the muscle loss. Honestly, there is a place for cardio we kind of you know, we hate on cardio. And we don't hate cardio. Like I play tennis that is my cardio. I play tennis many times a week Joe does lots of walking. We don't hate cardio, but it is very, very often overdone and it is used I think incorrectly. So you are not going to say I'm going to start running and I'm going to get these great arms. That's not going to happen if you spent a long time building up your your shoulders and your arms. And when I say a long time, I don't mean like 12 weeks. I mean like we're like a year, if you've really really built up those muscles to where you truly have a decent amount of muscle tissue in your delts and your biceps and your triceps. Adding in some cardio will help you along with the you know when an appropriate diet will help you lean out and maybe you can see those muscles more that you built but without building them first, you're not going to get that look. So cardio plays a very very minor role in building great guns it's almost not worth mentioning. So if you want great guns, you have to eat and you have to lift weights and then maybe maybe at the end at the very tail end adding in a little bit of cardio will help speed up the leaning out process to you know see see all that muscle you work to build but you can't mix up that order. You've got to build the muscle first. Okay, that sounds like good advice. Okay, anything to add anything else to add about building great guns? Yes. And it's something we say all the time for so many different things. You just have to be patient. So building muscle is a long haul game for sure. Yes, you can progress in a few months but really think about it in terms of where do I want to be next year if you start really focusing on you know, building those guns for next year. You will have amazing guns by next year. If you are consistent I can promise you that. So don't be short sighted that having great guns are definitely worth it. Like we said earlier it's a telltale sign of people who are truly fit and strong you will love them. And though all of that work will be worth it one thing that all of our clients who have really stuck with this and embrace this calories up lifestyle and embrace the resistance training that they have bragging rights about it is that their guns all look amazing. We have so many examples of clients that we can show who have been at this for quite a while they've been patient and they look amazing. They do have awesome gun so it is definitely worth it but it's not going to usually be a quick journey. Bad but true sad. I always say also, you know along the way, you might just learn to love a lifestyle. So give it a try. Exactly. You have to enjoy the journey because the destination is it's kind of silly, right? I mean if you've got to enjoy the journey. Yeah, I agree. Okay, I think that's all we have about building great guns. Let's wrap things up in our usual way. Are you able to fit into your macros these days? And what are you loving Alison? So my macros are high again because there's you know, I bombed my diet like So let's just go right back up to eating a lot of food again. So I'm right around 2000 calories a day, not quite as high as I was this winter, but I plan to get there again. So I've got two things that I am loving this summer. So one of them if you guys have not tried the pickle ranch salad from Costco, I think that's what it's called. It is so freaking good. It comes it's like it's the one of those package deals where like, you get the salad. It's got like a lot of cabbage in it, and it's chopped, which I like but then it's got this like dill pickle ranch dressing, and it comes with this special like, seasoning that you put on it that makes everything taste even more like pickles. And it's got these good croutons, so I eat that a lot. And then I'll put like chicken or something on it. So just like salads in general, but specifically that pickle salad. And then we've been doing a lot of popsicles in our house, not the cheap sugar and water things that cost like two cents per popsicle, but like the really good ones that actually have fruit in them. We like the outshine brand. I don't know we get it at our local high V, which is a Midwest changing thing. But when it's really hot out, I love a really good like sour, fruity popsicle. So those are my two things right? Now. What about you? Yeah, I'm just honestly loving that I'm not on a diet or restricting calories for a show or anything. And I'm able in moderation to pretty much enjoy all the summer treats. We were on vacation at the end of June, beginning of July. And it was just nice not to have to worry about, you know, what I was going to eat or whether it was going to fit in with some sort of restrictive macros. So I'm just enjoying all the things barbecue when that's, you know, on the menu, a lot of fruit like melon, peaches, those sorts of things. Ice Cream occasionally. So just all the things I personally think summer would be the worst time to diet. It's when all my favorite foods are in season. So I'm just happy not to be dieting. And if you followed us, you know that that is something that we preach that you really only want to be dieting or restricting calories for a very, very short part of the year. And it's not like a an all year thing. So I'm glad to be in a maintenance slash building phase and enjoying all the things way more way more everything. Everything is my answer and fitting everything in. Well, I think that's all we've got for you today. Like we said at the beginning of the show, check out the show notes and sign up for our next monthly challenge. We will give you workouts that yes will include some exercises for your guns, so you can start building them up. That's all we got. Have a great day. Thanks. Bye, everyone. That's what we've got for you today about how you can invest in your metabolism and start losing weight by eating more and exercising less. Trust us you aren't too old and it's never too late. If you want to learn more about this topic, head over to our Facebook group Boost Your Metabolism After Age 30. You can also follow us on Instagram or Facebook at Couture Fitness Coaching. And if you want to work with us, join us for our next 12 weeks session.