Stop Grabbing The Same Dumbbells

Episode 6: If you've been going to the gym consistently and your body still looks exactly the same as it did six months ago — this episode is for you. And before you blame your genetics, I need you to ask you one question: are you grabbing the same weights every single time?

In this episode I'm breaking down progressive overload — what it actually is, why your body stops changing when your workouts stop getting harder, and why most women are stuck in a loop of showing up without actually progressing. We're also talking about why women specifically fall into this trap, why comfortable workouts are keeping you small, and what it looks like to actually push yourself without going overboard.

If you'd like my help with this, apply for my 1:1 coaching program! Link in bio at my IG: @andreamartinez.fit

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https://www.instagram.com/andreamartinez.fit/

Transcript

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Hey guys, welcome back to another episode of Batty in Progress podcast. I'm excited for this episode because I feel like you will learn a lot. But before I get started, I'm gonna open up my Olipop. I'm gonna I'm literally gonna crack it like right in front of the mic. Ooh, that was good. I hope that I didn't hurt your ears. I'm gonna take a sip really quick. Oh my god, I'm like obsessed with Olipops. They should seriously sponsor me or something. The cherry cola flavor is my favorite. I mean, if you follow me, you probably already know that. But yeah, um I don't know if you guys have been watching the World Cup, but it has been crazy and a lot of fun. I never imagined that I would actually have this much fun watching a World Cup ever, because honestly, to be completely honest with you, I feel like soccer is really boring most of the time because they're just always running around and they never score, you know, at least in just like regular seasons, it's not as intense as it is right now, obviously, during the World Cup. So it's just like a different energy, and it's been a lot of fun. Um, but yeah, so my I've been busy watching it, um, and just hanging out with friends, but also I'm just enjoying this time, and yeah, we are gonna get into this episode. Um, the episode is gonna be about progressive overload, and now before I scare you off, if you don't know what that word means, it is actually very simple, and you'll you will learn what it means by the end of this episode. But just to give you a very quick and clean definition of what this word even means, progressive overload is just when you gradually increase the weight, the frequency, or the number of reps that you're doing in your strength training. So when you go to the gym, that can look like increasing your weight, so the dumbbells you use, or increasing your amount of reps, or increasing your amount of sets. So that's just gonna be a general definition, just so that you kind of walk into the rest of this episode, kind of knowing what I'm gonna be talking about. But before we get into all of that, I do want to mention that the reason I am even talking about this topic is because I know that there's a lot of women that go to the gym and they've been using like the exact same dumbbells or the exact same weight as they have been for like the past six months, and that is not what you want to be doing if you are planning on really changing your physique and getting results. So if you've ever found yourself in a position where you know you're going to the gym, you're showing up consistently, but you keep grabbing the same dumbbells that you did for like the past six months, for the past year, for the past three months, doing the same reps and then leaving the gym wondering why your body hasn't even changed over those last six months. It's because you're not working out the way that you're supposed to. What you're doing is you're working out at maintenance, babe, basically. So you're you're just working out to the point where you can maintain the current physique that you have, but if you want to change it, you do have to be increasing either the amount of weight that you're using, the amount of reps that you're doing, or the amount of sets that you're doing as well. So you need to be increasing at least one of these things. I know that you've probably heard that phrase, nothing changes if nothing changes. And that's I mean, literally true as hell, but that goes the same for your body as well. Like if you're not actually changing anything, your body's gonna stay exactly the same because you might not realize this, but your body is super smart, it adapts very, very quickly to anything. Um, so if you're curling, for example, let me give you a good example. When I first started in the gym, oh my god, it was like it's like embarrassing to even say this. But you know, some of you might be in this position, so I'm just gonna mention it. When I first started in the gym, I couldn't even lift like a five-pound dumbbell, I couldn't even bicep curl a five-pound dumbbell without struggling. Like I literally had to lower down. Oh my god. But, anyways, point is now I can curl about 20 pounds, and I can probably do even more than that if I really tried. Um, but right now I'm okay with sticking in that range. Maybe in a couple weeks I'll try a little bit more. But anyways, so when I first started, I couldn't even curl five pound dumbbell, I had to start with like 2.5 pounds, and then eventually that got too easy for me, so I had to move up to five pounds, and then after a couple weeks, that got too easy for me, so I went up to 7.5 and 8 pounds, and then eventually got to like 10 pounds, right? And this is all over like a couple of weeks, depending on how your training could be like a couple months, but that's totally depending on you and your schedule. But, anyways, I just wanted to give you an example of like your body adapting, right? Your body, your muscles adapt pretty quickly, and this is one of the ways that you can actually tell that you're making progress, even though you can't always see the progress visually. The way you know that your body is making progress is by noticing your strength, changes in strength, like you feel more strong, you're able to increase your weight without really struggling too much. That is one of the ways that you can tell that you are making progress, you just probably don't see it visibly yet, and that's okay, it just takes a while to get there. But anyways, so we talked about our body adapting, and let's talk about why progressive overload is essential. So, progressive overload is honestly just making your workouts slightly harder over time, and we do this because our body's adapting, right? So, we wanted to continue adapting and adapting over time with more weight, more reps, and with better form, obviously. So you're just constantly adding challenge to your body, and under that challenge is where growth happens, right? So that's where you actually create those tears in your muscles. We talked about that in an earlier episode, but yeah, you want to continue to let your body adapt, but you also want to keep continuing to break down those muscles so that you can see more and more progress. I hope that made sense. Um, I think it was episode two where we talked about how muscles are formed. Um, so go ahead and check that episode out if you haven't yet. But I basically explain how muscles grow over time. So if you don't know that, I would go check that out. But next, I want to talk about why women specifically get stuck here in this position where they've been using the same dumbbells for like the past three months and not making any changes in how much weight they're carrying, how many reps they're doing, or how many sets they're doing either. There's usually two reasons. One, they're afraid to go heavier because they're afraid to get bulky, which is just a huge myth. Um, women literally cannot get bulky. And we also just talked about this in a previous episode. I think it was in the Pilates episode. But yeah, um, honestly, I wish more women knew this, but lifting heavier isn't gonna make you bulky, it's actually gonna make you more toned. So let's not be afraid to lift those heavier weights. What actually makes you bulky is the amount of body fat that you have on your body, it's not the amount of muscle that you have. Having more muscle on your body actually makes you a lot leaner and appear a lot leaner as well. So, yeah, like I said, don't be afraid to reach for those heavier weights. But let's talk about the second reason. The second reason is also that usually you have just never been taught to track anything, whether that's you know, your reps, your sets, your weights, your food. I mean, food is like a whole other thing, but we're just talking about progressive overload today. If you don't know what weight you lifted last week, then you have no idea if you're even progressing, you're kind of just guessing at this point, and guessing is not gonna get you results. So I would recommend tracking the amount of weight that you're carrying and the amount of reps that you're doing, just so that you can see where you can improve on the next week. For example, uh, let's keep it really simple. If you did about three sets of 10 reps and you used a five-pound dumbbell last week, then maybe this week you could try doing 12 reps for those three sets, or you can even try increasing your weight by like 2.5 pounds. So instead, this time you can do like a 7.5 pound dumbbell and maybe see how many reps you can do there. Um, but yeah, that's it. Very easy, small, intentional, consistent progress. Um, and over weeks and months, that honestly compounds to a completely different physique. Where most people go wrong is that they like to stay in their comfort zone. And comfortable workouts are not gonna change your body. If you finish a set and you feel like you could have probably done 10 more reps, then you're basically leaving your results on the table. The last two reps should be pretty hard. You should get pretty close to failure, not anything dangerous where you could seriously hurt yourself, but you should at least like struggle a little bit, you know. Um, that being uncomfortable, being under pressure, being uncomfortable, that is what changes your body. Um, so yeah, try maybe adding in a little bit more reps or increasing your weight. That's like one of the best ways that you can do this. Um yeah, and tracking, making sure you're tracking the amount of weight, the amount of reps that you're doing so that you can challenge yourself in the next week so that you can see if you're making any progress. And it doesn't have to be anything fancy either. You can just do it like on your notes app, on your phone or in a journal. But nonetheless, you do have to be tracking this because you want to know where you can challenge yourself the next week. It honestly just gives you like a good gauge of what you need to beat the next time. Walking into the gym without a plan is why you've been going to the gym for like a year or whatever, and nothing has changed. You need to be going into the gym with a plan, knowing where you can improve and actually challenging your muscles if you want to see any kind of real results, if you're trying to lose fat, if you're trying to get more toned. I can even help you with this, by the way, because I am an online fitness coach. You can always apply for my program at my link in my bio. And if you don't follow me, my Instagram is Andrea Martinez.fit. There's a link in my bio to my application if you want to apply, and we can help you get your dream body together. But aside from that, I just wanted to close out today's episode with talking about progressive overload as not just being a gym concept, it's also a life concept. I feel like you grow the most when you're challenged and when you're uncomfortable. I mean, I'm sure you guys have heard the phrase get out of your comfort zone. And that's honestly for a reason. When you're out of your comfort zone is when you grow the most. And the same goes for the gym, but it also applies in your life as well. You grow the most as a person, whether that's mentally, physically, whatever, when you're put under challenge. So I hope you learned something in today's episode. I hope the next time you go to the gym, you reach for that dumbbell that's just a little bit heavier, or maybe you do a couple more reps with the one you're currently using. Thank you for listening to Batty in Progress podcast, and I'll see you guys in the next episode.