Stop Chasing The Burn

Stop chasing the burn… and start training with intention. 💪🔥

In this episode of Beautiful Chaos, Tammy sits down with fitness coach and strength expert Meri Galvan to talk about the truth behind “toning,” muscle building, fat loss, and why workouts that leave you exhausted aren’t always the ones that create results.

They dive into strength training for women over 40 and 50, how menopause changes fitness goals, and what really works when it comes to building a strong, healthy, sculpted body.

If you’ve ever felt frustrated doing “all the right things” without seeing results, this episode is for you.

#BeautifulChaosPodcast #StrengthTrainingForWomen #WomenOver40 #WomenOver50 #FitnessAfter50 #MuscleAndMetabolism #HealthyAging #StopChasingTheBurn #MeriGalvan #WomenHealth

Sponsored by seranova.com use my code TAMMY01873

Transcript

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SPEAKER_02 0:05

Let's talk about that burn. You know the one where your muscles are on fire and you feel like if it doesn't hurt, it doesn't work. Or if you remember that saying, no pain, no gain. For years I believed that's what it took to get toned. But what if that burn isn't actually building muscle? What if it's just making you tired without giving you the results that you want? Today I'm sitting down with Mary TD Galvin to break down the truth about strength training, especially for women over 50. Because I'm 60. I've built muscle. But losing fat and really toning, that's been a different story. So if you've ever felt like you're doing everything right, but not seeing the results, this conversation is for you.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

It's a beautiful chaos. This roller coaster ride. The ups and downs has been all around inside. It's a beautiful chaos. Sometimes I love, sometimes I hate.

SPEAKER_02 1:54

So I'm here with Mary TD Galvin. Thanks so much for joining me today.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

Yes, I'm excited to be back on the show chatting it up with you. We've got a fun topic today.

SPEAKER_02 2:05

We really do. And uh I'm totally leaning on you to educate me because I feel like truly this is like something that I'm struggling with. So um let's talk about the burn. Um I feel like it there's so many of us that believed for years that if we didn't feel this really intense burn that we weren't getting a good workout, right? Like if you're not doing an aerobics and dying and everything's hurting, or you're lifting and you're just like to that, oh, I can't do anymore. So you didn't feel like you got a really good workout, but can you break down what that burn actually is and why it doesn't necessarily mean we're building muscle?

SPEAKER_00 2:58

Yeah. Yeah. And I think um, like you mentioned, we've kind of been taught that that's what a really productive workout should feel like. Right. You know, and it's I think it's just that year, those years of doing a lot of cardio and doing HIT classes and like doing that sort of style of exercise that we're from a lot of women are more familiar with. And that's the feeling that you get. So you think, okay, I've got to be like dying, I've got to be sweating, I've got to be breathing like crazy in order to get a good workout. But you know, there really is a difference, and I think this is starting to become more clear as women are starting to get more familiar with strength training and building muscle, that there's a distinct difference between feeling the burn and actually making change to your body. And so I want to kind of talk about like what that is. The burn itself, that is actually just the lactic acid that's building up in your muscles as you're moving your body. So, you know, that's just a sensation that's being created by your body converting energy. And so, you know, it may feel at the time at the time like, okay, yeah, I feel the burn. This is what it's supposed to be.

SPEAKER_02 4:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:05

But that is not actually the process that it takes to build muscle in the body. So they're two separate things. Um, you know, you'll get that burn when you're doing a lot of high reps, if you're doing cardio, you're doing like circuits where you're going through a bunch of different things, um, you know, where maybe your breast is really short. That's a common um feeling that a lot of us have been familiar with, but it's a different process to actually build muscle. So um, you know, those two things, they both are different forms of exercise, really, is what it comes down to in different ways that your body is using muscle. Um, and an example is like you could do like a hundred arm lifts, you know, like pumping your arms up and down, up and down, up and down. You're gonna feel the burn. You're maybe gonna start sweating and like your heart rate's getting up. But at the end of the day, that's not gonna build your shoulders. That's not gonna change your physique and change your muscle. And so I think for women, we need to acknowledge that there's a difference there and make the shift from just like craving and searching for that burning feeling and thinking that that's a good workout to actually doing the type of training that's gonna change your body and build muscle because that's what we need for our long-term health.

SPEAKER_02 5:16

Right. And I I do know that I have felt so much better because it's been uh over a year that I've been strength training and um I feel stronger, 100% feel stronger. I have lost lots of inches, I've dropped sizes, all the things, but I still have a little bit of fat. I still have these arms that I can't get rid of. And um I do feel like that since we've switched things and I went from five days to three days has made a difference. Because I think that um a a lot of it for women, the difference between women and men is I feel a valid point to look at. When we get into stress mode, we have all these hormones that start attacking us and going, yeah, we're stressed out, so we're gonna hang on to every fat we can.

SPEAKER_00 6:07

And it feels like that, doesn't it?

SPEAKER_02 6:10

It does. That's what it feels like to me. So I guess that um let's let's back up and look at muscle versus fatigue, because yeah, I I feel like that. Well, when we first started this for for me, and I'm just gonna go by what I know, I felt like I was fatiguing my muscles and I would come out and then I'd be a little sore, but I wasn't like overly sore, and I was doing more reps and um and all the things. So let's talk about muscle fatigue, muscle growth, because I do know that I've built muscle and I've I have a Hume scale even that says that I my muscle mass has increased. So um let's talk about muscle fatigue and muscle growth, and um, how can women actually tell if they're doing the right kind of strength training that leads to toning versus just feeling tired?

SPEAKER_00 7:03

Yeah. So, I mean, really what that is, is if you're if you're trying to grow muscle, which all of us should be, because as we age, we're naturally gonna start losing muscle unless you're fighting to maintain it or build it. And so there's this is how the body is going to build muscle, and this is how it's different. To build muscle, we need to have tension on the body, and so that's where the resistance comes with the weights. That tension and that resistance is gonna create little tiny microscopic tears in the body, and so it sounds terrible. Like we're damaging the muscle by putting it under strain. So we have to have weight that's heavy enough to actually do some damage to the muscle. And I'm not talking about injury here. This is what's supposed to happen in your body. The second part of that, okay, you were you've lifted heavy, right? So now your muscles like it's all shredded, right? The second part of that is the recovery piece, and so that's when your body actually is going to, sorry, my kitty's coming into the picture. Hi, kitty. Um, so the recovery part is where your body's actually going to repair and build new muscle. So as you put that strain on your body, you're gonna tell it, okay, I need to repair and build this in a better way so that next time we do it, I'm stronger. And so it's that recovery point. And this is where it's important for women to really focus on recovery too, because it's not just what we do in our workouts, but then how we recover also. And um, like we just handle stress differently, differently than men do. And so recovery is very, very important for us. We need more of it, we need better sleep, we more need that rest time in between. And that's when your body's gonna rebuild itself stronger and grow a little bit of muscle. Um, and you know, the other thing that's super important with this is progression. And I think this is one feature that um a lot of people that are lifting weights are maybe missing this key piece, and that is the progressive overload. And so what that does is your body's repaired, right? It's built new muscle, it's stronger now. Well, if you never give it that same stimulus of pushing it hard again, it's not gonna change. So if we stay with the same weights, for example, and we're always lifting the same amount of weight over and over again, we're doing it the same number of reps, we don't change and put more um stress on it by pushing a little bit harder, we're not gonna give it a reason to change. It's just gonna stay the same. And then as we're aging, we're likely losing muscle too. So um, we really have to fight hard to try to build and keep building muscle, even after you know, you've started lifting weights. You really do need to progress. And what that is, is it's thinking to yourself, am I getting stronger each week? Right. Well, how do you know that? You test it, right? You either do a couple more reps or you increase the weight a little bit, and it's slow and progressive. So, like when we started with you, for example, we had higher reps, lower weight to start. Yeah, we were doing more days per week, and really what we were doing is conditioning your body to get used to the stimulus. So, a lot of times for beginners, I mean, you start with what you're ready for. So that might be little like tiny weights. That's okay. Start with that, but we don't stay there. And our goal really is to progress each and every time that you're doing your strength training to give your body that tension again and give it an opportunity to grow and build. And it doesn't feel like what you think it's gonna feel. I mean, sometimes we're sore, sometimes it does burn. Yeah, but you really, if you've got good recovery and you're progressing slowly and consistently, you're not gonna be sore all the time. And even throughout like the end of my workouts, yeah, I'll go really heavy and push myself in my workouts, but I don't really get that sweaty, unless it's a late day, maybe. And I don't like I'm not breathing hard out of breath, trying to catch my breath. I'm, you know, lifting heavy weights and I'm trying to progress each week and go a little bit more. And, you know, but I'm also giving myself adequate rest time in between the exercises, and I'm giving myself rest days in between my workouts as well. So all those things kind of come together, and that's what um is different, I think, than what a lot of women are doing. A lot of women are working out really hard, they're pushing themselves really hard, they're doing all the things, right? And so it feels like, oh, I'm trying so hard. I'm doing everything that you know we're supposed to be doing. I'm I'm lifting the weights, but why am I not seeing the progress? And it's that progression of each week I gotta get stronger. I gotta push myself a little bit more. And eventually you kind of get to that point where you're like, okay, this is as heavy as I want to go. And so then you can give yourself your body a break, you know, go light for a couple of weeks, give yourself some rest and recovery time, and then start that process again. You'll come in stronger the next round.

SPEAKER_02 12:07

I really like that. And I think that the the other thing that I might add is that I think it's also in how we're measuring what we are thinking or have been taught what what we're strength looks like or what fit looks like. And um I do know this. I may be like my number on the scale is kind of staying at the same spot, but my muscle mass is increasing, and I've gone from eight pounds weights in my bicep curls to 15 pounds, and and then I'm gonna be going up from that because already it's like, oh wow, I I could do all of those, and I do, you know, the slow up and slow down, I can do all those, and it's the very last one that I'm like, and so I feel like that if you start measuring yourself a little different, maybe you'd give your body a break as well in your mind. But I do think that the rest and the recovery is so huge, like you're saying, that's probably the one thing everybody is working hard, but as women, if we're caretakers of anybody other than ourselves, we're less likely to pause and slow down and give ourselves some self-care that we need. So yeah, I agree.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Definitely, it's harder for us to take that moment. Well, and and you know, a lot of times when we're doing our workout, we are like trying to hurry and get it over with, too. Yeah, we gotta hurry up because we gotta it's like, okay, I'm not gonna rest. I'm just gonna hurry and crank through this thing, but you're really diminishing your results when you do that. Right. And how it should feel like you mentioned, those last couple of reps should feel really tough, right? And I I just posted a video online of me failing at an exercise in the gym. And it was like, I thought I was ready to progress to the next heavier dumbbells, and so I went to go try, and it was like, nope, not gonna happen, right? So there might be moments when you're like, okay, I'm just not ready to do that yet. Give your body extra time to continue to develop, but focusing on getting stronger, right? So you're pushing yourself each time and then giving yourself that adequate rest, even in your workouts, you need to have rest. And this is one way to test the difference whether you're in muscle building or fatigue, is in the middle of your workout. Because I think I personally train in the gym as well as online coaching. And so when I'm in the gym, I can control what my people are doing and how long their rest is. And you know, like I have my hand in it a little bit easier than when they're doing it online by themselves. But um I always set a timer in the app too with the workouts, and it's like this is the recommended amount of rest. Hit that timer and actually rest. Because if you are ready to go, let's say it's a minute of rest, is what you're supposed to have between each set of 10, let's say. So you do your 10, and if you're ready to go after like 10 seconds, you didn't go heavy enough. No, that's muscle fatigue. Like you got tired, maybe burned a little bit, but if you can jump right back into it and crank out another 10 after just 10 or 15 seconds, that is an indication that you have built that lactic acid. You felt the burn, you had fatigue, you got a little tired, but you didn't put enough tension or stress on whatever body part you're doing in order to need that rest and recovery. You should feel like you need that rest and recovery. And I'm talking like a minute to two minutes between rounds, that's fine. But if you're ready to go after 10 seconds, that's a signal, right? That I am exercising, but I'm not in that muscle building realm, right? So it should feel a little bit different. It should feel like, okay, if I wanted to go right now, there's no way I'd get another 10 reps. I need that rest, I need that time to recover, to let that flush out of my body and you know, give myself a chance to try again.

SPEAKER_02 16:09

Yeah, that's that's good to know. That's uh, and I do when I follow along with the app, I take the rest when it says to rest, um, for sure. And I do feel like my body, my body needs it. This episode of Beautiful Chaos is sponsored by Sarah Nova. I've been using their micro needling infusion anti-aging kit for about six weeks now. And honestly, while editing our podcast videos, I've noticed my skin looking healthier, smoother, and some of my fine lines are definitely softening. And those saddlebags along my jawline that were starting to form have started to tighten up. What I love most about Serranova is that it's simple to use. You can use it at home, it's non-evasive, and Serenova even offers a refund policy, which makes trying it a little less intimidating. So if you want to check it out yourself, you can use my code at serranova.com backslash Tammy, all capitals, T-A-M-M-Y 01873. Talk about um throw age in there and this menopause. Oh my word, so statistically, we lose like six to seven percent of our uh muscle after menopause every year, and that's a lot, like you said, if we're not building it, we're losing it. And sometimes I do feel that way because I'm 60, so I want to talk about how this looks 50 and over. Um, and I know I've built muscle, I am having a harder time losing fat than I had previous. There's something about 60 that's just your body says, No, we're gonna make this a little hard on you. Because even just two years ago, I could lose the fat a little easier or lose the weight, my stomach would flatten, all the things. But so it feels harder, the toning portion feels harder. So, does the way we strength train need to change after menopause? And if so, what are the biggest adjustments we should be making?

SPEAKER_00 18:14

Well, I definitely think that strength training becomes more important and needs to be more intentional as you get older because of those factors that you mentioned. So your body's changing, right? You are at risk for muscle loss, you're at risk for bone density loss, your metabolism is slowing because of the shifts in hormones. Um, you know, all those things are factors as to why strength training, as you get older, becomes more and more important, right? And so when we're young, we're more we are more resilient. Like our bodies can bounce back a little bit quicker, they're more responsive. Like we can put them through hell and they're gonna be fine the next day. Like we all have had those moments when we look back into our 20s and we're like, how in the heck did I survive that?

SPEAKER_02 19:01

But yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

But it gets it becomes less forgiving, which means that your intention with your body and your workouts needs to be more intentional, right? You need to be doing the right things and not just going through the motions or just kind of nil willy-nillying through it. And this is where that progression with strength training, I think, is more important the older that we get because we're fighting those natural things that are happening in our body. And yeah, you know, it will feel like it's harder to lose weight. And part of that is the metabolism changing, right? Part of that is that natural decrease in muscle, even if we're building and trying to maintain muscle, like we still have that um, you know, that natural effect of our body as we age, becoming less resilient to that. Um, also, we just tend to move a little bit less. And I this is my theory, but I think that naturally our bodies want to hold on to a certain amount of body fat for preservation, also. And so, like, if you think about it as you get older, and this is one way to be like okay with a little bit extra fluff on your body, but like if you get sick or something and you're very, very low body fat percent, you are at a high risk for you know having more serious complications if you're hospitalized or something like that, for example. Um, and that's just your body's protective layer, right? So it's giving you things, your body something to feed on when it needs extra energy. And so, you know, I think naturally as we get older, it's like our body's trying to give ourselves a little bit of a buffer to help with something like that that might happen, um, which can be frustrating too, because then we're like, no, I want to look like shredded and you know, I want to be jacked in my 60s. Yeah, yeah, you can still manage that, right? You can still focus on, you know, doing those intentional workouts. I think for your 50s and beyond, starting to think about the goal shifting from I want to get thinner, smaller, to I want to get stronger. And if you make that mental shift, and that is your focus as you're going through your workouts, I'm not working out so that I get skinny. I'm working out so I get strong. If that is your goal and you're thinking that every single time you're doing your workout, as you're working through the years as you get older, you are going to be setting yourself up for success. You're gonna be having stronger bones, you're gonna have a stronger body, you're gonna be leaner. Those things will start to happen as you're pushing for that strength instead of worrying about being smaller. And you know, I think that's just the way we've been trained in diet culture, and you know, you look at the media even now, it's coming back. That ultra skinny look is back in style, which is just ugh, yeah. I don't know frustrating. Yeah. I was talking about because it's not healthy, right?

SPEAKER_02 21:58

Right, exactly. And that's what I Was telling my friend because I do believe, like, I want to be stronger. Yeah, do I look in the mirror every now and again and go, Wow, I really wish that this pooch wasn't there? Sure, but you know what? I think back and I'm like, even at 110 pounds, I had a little big baby pooch. I'll always have a little pooch. But I was telling my friend who's um older than me, and she's like, Well, I just have all this this in my belly and my hips. And I'm like, Yeah, but you know what? I I just heard that there's some research that says if you fall and break a hip within a year, you'll die. Like the percentage is like 87, something crazy that high, right? Yeah, there's an 87% chance that you're gonna die. And I said, So maybe this is our body is protecting us because if we fall, we got a little bit of cushion that's gonna protect our bones. So maybe they won't break. Break break, I mean, they won't break, we'll just kind of roll with it. So I, you know, so going back to what you were just saying, if you're sick, you might need that extra body weight on you to get through that time and to heal. Same thing with if you fall, maybe that's what it's there for. And I do think that changing the way that we measure ourselves in our minds, going by strength, not by how we look, and um building on our strength and measuring ourselves by our strength. Like I went from eight to 15 pounds that I'm curling. That's to me, that's a big thing. I can lift things that I used to say, here honey, can you lift this? Because I'm too weak and I can't lift it. And now it's like, nope, I got it. Go. So yeah, I think that we need to all of us women need to start measuring ourselves in that way because longevity, that's what it's gonna take, is strength, right?

SPEAKER_00 23:54

Yeah, and you know, uh, that shift in mindset, it's not gonna happen overnight. You know, you're you might always have those moments when you look back and you're like, oh, but then I want to diet right now. Yeah, I want to get a little skinnier. I mean, that's it's fine, but really you need to not really look at it as the end goal, right? The end goal is especially when you're like, what is the purpose of my workouts? The purpose of the workout is not to make you smaller, the purpose of the workout is to make you stronger. Right. And you know, if you can kind of get that mental shift going, it's gonna be so much better for you. And and you're gonna start training in the right way, you know, and and part of that is not doing random workouts, like having some structure. That's definitely something I would um recommend. Um, you know, also that progression. So track your weights. Like I you can write it down in a notebook, you can track it in an app, but see where you started and have that reminder each week when you go and repeat those workouts because you're doing the same workouts all over and over again, right? But you're not doing it the same way. So the next week you look at it, oh, I did 10 pounds and eight times. Well, this time I'm gonna do 10 pounds and 10 times. You know, watch that progress, track it. Um, the other thing is to be focused when you're working out instead of just going through the motions. And um, I know you've talked about like the speed and like really being in control and thinking about what muscles are working, that's gonna make a big difference. Um, and then consistency. I mean, as boring as it is, like what you do most often is what's gonna make the biggest difference. And, you know, this is what's gonna make you stronger is doing it every single week over and over and over again, pushing yourself each time. If you only do it for two weeks and then you're a couple weeks off, and then you're back on and back off, that's not gonna be enough consistency to really get you the good progress that you want. You know, and being toned, this is another thing with body fat percent. Being toned starts with muscle. So you have to have the muscle first, and then once you have muscle, dieting becomes a little bit easier. You can then drop your body fat down a little bit, you know, to reveal what's underneath your layer of fat. That's when you show the muscle. But if you don't have any muscle built to begin with, and you just go into fat loss and you lose weight, you're gonna lose muscle, bone, you know, all those things. And you're gonna get smaller but weaker. So, you know, I think that's so important is that muscle factor. Like keep working on that. Whether you're dieting or you're just maintaining, you really do need to keep pushing yourself with the strength training. And honestly, it's more important when you're dieting than when you're just trying to maintain because your body's got to take that energy from somewhere and we don't want to eat in your muscle. You know, we want it to burn body fat. And you're gonna look better too if you actually have something underneath instead of just being kind of frail and you know, sad, saggy.

SPEAKER_02 26:46

Yeah, looking like some of the some of the stars that they show that have used the GLPs and got so skinny that they look like walking skeletons.

SPEAKER_00 26:55

Well, and you know, that's the point of taking it just a little bit too far. You know, that's that balance, right? You want to look healthy, you want to look lean, but you know, you also need to have something left besides just bones. Right, right.

SPEAKER_02 27:08

Well, we've talked about some really good things. We've talked about that you don't have to feel the burn to build the muscle, you just and consistency. I love that, you know, and that that's why I started the five days a week because I'm the type of person that if I'm gonna create a habit, I have to do it every day. Yep, and so then when I do the three-day a week strength training, the other two days I'm walking or you know, doing something, dancing, something that's fun, that's getting a little bit of movement in. So um, so I'm not just sitting, and I think that's important. The more you sit, the more you need to get up and move.

SPEAKER_00 27:49

Yeah, it is. And you know, a lot of us have seven sedentary lives where you know, we're at a desk, or you know, if you're at work, or you're even if you're at home and you're just relaxing, it's like you're in the recliner. Um, you know, and if you aren't intentional about getting up and moving, you can just sit your life away. That's for sure. And you know, the more you're up and moving, it doesn't have to be an intense strength training session every single day. I honestly think three or four days per week is great for women. But then on those other days, still move your body, those recovery days, get your steps up, take a walk outside, like do some stretching, work in the garden, whatever it is that brings you a joy through movement, that's what those other days are there for. So that you're building that consistency of using your body in that way, you you know, that's enjoyable, but then also you're building the strength that you need to sustain that.

SPEAKER_02 28:44

Yes, I love that. Well, thank you so much for joining me today, Mary. I've uh really enjoyed myself and enjoyed the conversation and learned, still have learned. I always learn from you, and I appreciate it.

SPEAKER_00 28:57

You are so welcome.

SPEAKER_02 28:58

Okay, thanks so much.