Lifting Q&A for Women Over 40: Supersets, Tempo and Cardio

Nikkiey: What's up, everybody? Nikkiey here, and welcome to our WarriorBabe Wednesday. Like we did last week, we're going to be doing it a little bit differently because I am hosting this live Q&A on my Nikkiey Stott Facebook page. So if you're tuning in from the Nikkiey Stott Facebook page and you're followers of mine, you're going to get a little bit of an inside look, like you did last week, at how I do the WarriorBabe Wednesday live Q&A session.

So welcome to you guys. I'm super excited to be here with you. Welcome, WarriorBabes. What's up, WarriorBabes? Excited to be here with you for our Wednesday live Q&A time together at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. We're here in PA and we've got about five inches of snow outside so far. As you're joining this live session, comment and say hey, what's up, or give me the wave emoji. The more you comment underneath this video right now, whether you're a WarriorBabe or tuning in from my Facebook page, the more that, if you're inside the community, the WarriorBabes are going to see that we're live and click on the video inside the community to watch. If you're tuning in from the Facebook page, the more you comment, the more it's going to put it in front of other women who would be interested in watching this live Q&A with me.

So as you're joining, comment and say what's up. What's up, Yana? What's up, Jodi? Hey, Allison. Awesome. If you're a follower of mine from Facebook, you're literally watching how I do my live Q&A with my WarriorBabe Revolution community. I do these every single Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. I come live to the Facebook group and I'm now also hosting it on the Facebook page. So you're going to get a gist of how I do it with everybody. This is open to anybody who wants to ask me questions about macros, workouts, mindset or lifestyle. This is what I do every single week with the WarriorBabe community, so you're getting in on this live Q&A. Take advantage of it.

What's up, everybody? Kate, what's up, babe? Hi, Anita. What's up, Emily? Jodi, you're on it already. If you're tuning in at a later date or time after this is done live, use the hashtag replay. My girl Kate, our community manager, will come into this live Q&A video after it's been recorded and answer any questions that were left unanswered. So make sure you comment your questions. If you want to start firing off your questions right now, we'll get started in just a few seconds. Jodi is on top of it. She's somebody who really takes advantage of these weekly live Q&A sessions. So if you have questions, comment in the comment thread and I'll start our Q&A session in just a few minutes.

First of all, to my community, to you WarriorBabes, I want to give a huge welcome to all of the new babes who joined us this past week. You are part of a community of thousands of women who are getting toned and becoming stronger, more confident versions of themselves. I'm super excited that you're here and a part of this community. WarriorBabe is where strong is the new sexy. You're part of a community of thousands of women who are not only working towards a similar goal, but everyone is so supportive, so motivating, so inspiring, so uplifting. It's so cool to see how our community interacts and the way everyone picks each other up and pushes everybody towards the focal point, which is the goal. That's so important right now, especially with everything we're going through with COVID: coming together as a community like we do inside the WarriorBabe group and encouraging everybody to stay the course, focus on their goals, hit their goals, do the workouts, do their macros. That's what I love about our community so much. I love you, WarriorBabes, you all rock. So welcome to all the new babes in our group.

If you have a question, I see you firing it off in the comment section, so we're going to kick off this live Q&A right now. If you have a question about macros, workouts, mindset, or you need some tough love or support along your journey, anything you need clarification on, I'm happy to give it. Remember, there's no silly or stupid question while you're here live with me. I'm here to help you and give you clarification on whatever you need moving forward. This is one of my favorite nights of the week, coming live and hanging out with you guys. And now that we're doing it on the Facebook page and bringing it into our community, so many more women get to hear the WarriorBabe message and be a part of the WarriorBabe journey. Hopefully after watching these live Q&As, they'll join us inside our Facebook group, focusing on the goals we're all focusing on.

All right, let's kick off this live Q&A. Jodi, you're first up, babe. If you have questions, comment them in the comment section and I'll go in order as they come through.

Jodi asks: how do you know when it's time to move from a cut to a build? This is so individual for every woman. It's not a one-answer-fits-all. As you go into a cut and you're decreasing calories and doing more intensity with your workouts, you'll hit a point where your body gives you signals: you're tired, you're fatigued, you're hungry, you're not sleeping enough, you're irritable, your period stops. Those are some signals you could be getting if you're too deep in a cut. For example, one of the babes in the Blueprint program had her monthly period stop. And I was like, all right, girl, time to pull back, time to increase calories, bring it back up. And that's what we did. Listening to that signal is where I'd recommend somebody turns it around and brings it back up into maintenance. And then if your goal is to build, go into a build.

That's scenario A, listening to body signals. Scenario B is you've hit your goal. If you've decreased the amount of body fat and weight, you're happy with the way your body looks and you feel amazing, that's where I'd turn it around and bring it up into maintenance. Start increasing your calories and watch how much better you feel with energy and sleep and all of that just by bringing up calories a little bit. Your body is probably still going to maintain at that. The goal is to maintain the weight you've gotten down to, if you just want to maintain. Now, if you're focusing on building muscle, you're going to go up into a surplus. That's a different story. So those are the two scenarios: A is listening to body signals, B is you've reached your goal.

Another one from Jodi: supersets are often the same body part, for example chest press and chest flies. I always thought this was not okay. I'm sure it is okay since it's programmed that way, but why? Just curious. Yes, it is okay, and here's why. The chest press hits a specific angle of your chest muscle. The chest fly hits a different angle than the chest press. So those two go together. You're not going to superset chest press with chest press, because that's just silly, it's the same movement. But by just switching your hands, you're hitting the muscle at a different angle. That's the benefit of supersets. You think you're fatiguing the muscle with the first exercise, but you switch the angle a little bit and fatigue it even more with the second exercise.

Yana asks: let's say you have one arm stronger than the other. How do you work that? Both arms the same weight, one feeling easy and the other challenged, or challenge both arms? Like 20 pounds for one arm and 25 pounds for the other. Yes, that totally makes sense. I'll use myself as an example. I tore my ACL twice, so my left leg, my quad, is a lot weaker than my right leg. You can do this with any body part, upper body or lower body, same moral of the story. You're going to work the weaker leg at the weight it can do, and then do that same exact weight on the stronger leg. Yes, the stronger leg isn't going to be super challenged, but you're working the weaker leg up to be as strong as the strong leg. So whatever is challenging for your weaker body part, do that, and then do that same weight on the stronger body part.

Amanda says: hey Nikkiey, I'm a new WarriorBabe, first time on, just saying hey. Awesome, Amanda, welcome. And Jackie is pretty awesome too. Yeah, Jackie is our Blueprint community manager. You're watching my live Q&A from my WarriorBabe Revolution. The Blueprint is my way more in-depth program. There's more coaching available, and we actually talk to you on the weekly Q&A calls. So cool. And Kate is our community manager for the Revolution. Welcome, Amanda, I'm happy you're here.

Melissa asks: what's a good example of a pre-workout meal idea, carb and protein, please? Girl, I've got tons. Pre-workout, you've got rice cakes and a protein shake. Not egg whites and a protein shake, those are both protein, but you can do egg whites with rice cakes, or egg whites with English muffins. You can do protein shakes with some carbs. What I like to do sometimes is a Pop-Tart. Those rice cakes and Pop-Tarts are on the simple carbohydrate side. Or you can go more on the complex side. The difference is fast-acting versus longer-digesting. A simple carbohydrate is fast-acting. You can have it 30 minutes out from your workout and go crush your workout. It's an instant release of energy and sugar. If you want more of a complex carbohydrate, you can do oatmeal mixed with protein. I literally cook the oatmeal and then mix my protein powder into it, and it's freaking delicious. That's going to give you longer, sustained energy for your entire workout, and usually you want to eat that about an hour to 90 minutes out from your workout. You can also do fruit as a simple carb with a protein shake before you hit the gym.

Anita says: I'm getting over sickness. What's the best way to start back workout-wise? Lighter weights, or light cardio like walking? Getting over COVID here. I definitely wouldn't hit it hard with cardio, because your lung capacity is probably super weak right now. I would only do weights and not necessarily any cardio right now. Hit the weights a little bit lighter and listen to your body, listen to the signals you're getting from it. If you're gasping for air after a couple of sets, take a breather and then get back to it. But still challenge yourself. The best answer I can give you is listen to your body and challenge yourself as much as you can. You're probably going to find that you're doing lighter weight, and that's okay. It's challenging to you in the moment.

Sean says: I recently watched one of your YouTube videos where you said during a build to rest one to one and a half minutes between compound movements and 45 seconds on accessory sets. Is that correct? I've been doing one and a half minutes throughout the entire build workouts. I want to make sure I'm doing the build right. I'm 50 years old. When I speak on social media or YouTube, I'm trying to speak to a broad audience. When you're inside my programs, it's way more individualized. If you're 50-plus, I recommend a 60 to 90 second rest period between sets, so that you haven't fully recovered from the last set but you're not putting your body under too much stress. If you're fully recovered after a minute and a half, bring it down to 60 seconds. But I wouldn't go any less than 60 seconds if you're 50-plus and doing the 50-plus strength workout in my Blueprint program.

Joanne asks: what's the best way for a female over 50 to lose weight and get in shape who has limitations like arthritis and has a hard time adjusting to change, as in dieting? Joanne, honestly, babe, why is it hard? Is that just a story you're telling yourself? Is that your programming? Is that your conditioning? That's the first thing I'd ask you. Are you making it hard, or what's so hard about it? Anything new you do, a new workout program, a new lifestyle, is going to require change. Obviously you're not happy with where you are right now and you want to make that change, so you're going to have to go through that change. That's something you just have to accept.

My best recommendation is to nail down your nutrition habits and nail down your consistency. Like I've said multiple times, you have this goal you want to hit, sure, but it's about the systems you put in place to get that result. You've got to be consistent. You've got to put in the work. You've got to track your macros. You've got to sleep well. You've got to drink enough water. Those are the systems that have to be put in place to get you to lose weight and get in shape. That's the goal. But for the systems to be put in place, you've got to change. You've got to make a lifestyle change, approach it with a different mindset, and fall in love with your journey. So ask yourself why you're making it hard, get out of your own way, and start making the necessary changes.

Jen, what's up? Good to see you live, Nikkiey. Thank you, babe. Kathleen: Philly in the house. Let's go. Yeah, baby. I wonder how much snow you guys got in Philly. The suburbs are probably around five or six inches right now.

Kathleen asks: if you have bad shoulders that often hurt and easily fatigue, what do you recommend to get through the upper body workouts? Get to the root problem. Do you stretch? Do you warm up properly? Do you get them warm, or do you go right into your workout? Stretching is going to be a big deal, and so is warming them up and making sure they're warm as you go into the actual movements of the workout.

Another thing, Kathleen: maybe it's not necessarily bad shoulders, but something is overpowering the movement. Maybe your traps are overpowering, or other muscle groups are taking over the movement, and that's why they fatigue easily. That's where I would actually lower the weight. For me, my traps overpower every single shoulder movement. Only recently did I have a come-to-Jesus moment with myself, and I was like, Nikkiey, you've got to do something about this. Your traps are just going to get bigger and bigger if you keep training this way. That's how they got so big up to this point. So I was like, all right, Nikkiey, lower your weights.

The other day I discussed this with my VIP community. VIP is one-on-one coaching: you have your own application and you work with a coach directly. Every week I go live with that community and talk about a specific topic. Yesterday's topic was soreness, and I talked about tempo and slowing down the movement so that you're actually engaging the right portions of the muscle. For shoulders, what I was doing is coming up explosively and then using a tempo on the way down. Whenever the muscle is under tension, you want a longer, four-second motion. I was doing shoulder presses, explosive up for two seconds and coming back down for four seconds, and I was just doing 15 pounds and I was so freaking sore. You could do this with five pounds. So the moral of the answer to your question, Kathleen, is get to the root problem. Are other muscle groups overpowering, or are you not stretching and not warming up the muscle before you hit the exercise?

Jennifer says: I'm in week five and I noticed my weight going up again and fat coming back on my stomach. I'm strict, I messed up two days last week, but I feel I'm gaining the fat back somehow. This is hard for me to approach in the Revolution, because I don't have your pictures. What I experience in my Blueprint and VIP is women telling me this, and I look at their photos and I'm like, you guys are your own worst freaking enemies, because your photos look great. There are so many variables that could come into play with you feeling a little more bloated. Did you get enough sleep? Did you have enough water? Were you consistent? Did you use different food sources? Is it that time of the month? It's hard for me to really approach, and it sounds more like a statement than a question, Jen. I don't know your pictures or your stats, but typically when this happens, you're your own worst enemy and there really is change.

Plus, it's just week five. Keep going. Your body is probably still getting used to everything. It's adapting to the training and adapting to the macros, and it's only week five. So keep going. Compound effect, you guys. The work you put in right now will lead to the change in the result in six months. What I say is get obsessed with your journey and fall in love with the process. And I know this doesn't have to do with your statement, Jen, but for everybody listening, fall in love with the process. It could be six months, 12 months, 18 months until you really get to that goal, that result you're seeking. It's not going to happen in three weeks, six weeks or seven weeks. You may see some slight change, but the big result is going to happen in six to 12 to 18 months. You've got to stick to it. That's the only thing. And what I hear so many women say in the WarriorBabe community, now that we've been a brand for about two and a half years, is that this is the longest thing they've stuck to. I appreciate those women so freaking much because they've committed themselves to it, and they're the ones who see the results a year to a year and a half later.

Sean, you're welcome. Kathleen says: thank you, going to try lower weights even though it's hurting my pride. Girl, look, you see me, right? You know what my body looks like. I'd take off my sweatshirt, but it's freezing in here. I'm doing 15-pound shoulder presses. Come on, put the ego aside. It doesn't matter about the weight. Over time, progressing and getting stronger with the weight matters, sure. But what matters most is the resistance you put on the muscle. When I was doing side laterals, I was doing five pounds. I was holding little baby weights, five pounds in my hand, and my muscles were burning. So keep that in mind. Let the pride go, put the ego aside and hit it.

Jamie says: month 11, complete body composition change at the same weight. Yes, Jamie. Yes, baby. Thank you for chiming in. Seriously, take it from the babes, especially my VIPs and the Blueprint babes who have been in the program for a long time and committed to it. Like Jamie: complete body composition change at the same weight. That's another topic for another day, but I've said this so many times. You cannot get hung up on the number, because you're building muscle, and muscle is way more dense than the fat on your body. Composition change is what you should all be striving for. I know it's hard, because you want to have a number in mind. That's why I say pull back and fall in love with your journey. When you start getting rid of the numbers and all that, it becomes so much smoother, easier and more enjoyable.

Laura says: curious, what are those behind you? I'm going to pick one up and hit you over the head if you don't listen to me. No, I don't know. I'm in a conference room right now, so they're just pretty design things. I have no idea.

Brittany asks: what's a good goal for weight loss each week? Again, this varies so much by individual. There's no one-answer-fits-all. Everybody's body responds differently. Some people may not lose any weight but are dropping inches. Some people's weight isn't moving but they're changing in photos. So if I were to answer broadly, the same for everybody across the board, I'd say anywhere from half a pound to a pound and a half would be a good metric for healthy weight loss. Some people who are really overweight can lose five pounds in one week because they've dropped a lot of water. But broadly speaking, healthy and appropriate could be anywhere from 0.5 to 1.5.

Next: do you have to get mega tiny to see muscle definition? No. What I strive for with women is not the skinny fat approach. Nutrition is so important when you're trying to lean out and be more toned, because you're eating a significant amount of protein, which will hold onto your muscle mass while you decrease body fat and body weight. So no, you don't have to get mega tiny. Broadly speaking that's my answer, but it's also: what does your body frame look like? Are you petite? Are you tiny? Do you actually need to put on some muscle before you do a cut to reveal muscle definition? It can go a lot of ways. The goal would not be to get mega tiny. The goal would be, if you need to lose the weight, lose the weight, and then come on up, increase your calories and focus on putting on some muscle.

Joanna asks: how much water per day should you be drinking? Do you recommend starting a new exercise program and dieting at the same time? Do you see results from exercising even though you have about 60 pounds to lose? To answer your first question, I drink a gallon of water a day, and that's what I highly recommend. Sometimes I even recommend people drink two gallons. But no matter what, you should be hitting at least one gallon. That's the answer to that question.

Do I recommend starting a new exercise program and dieting at the same time? Yes, you can totally do that. It depends where you're coming in from. If you need a little more attention on nutrition to get that down first, put your attention there before you hit it hard with the workout program. In my Blueprint program, in week two we get you set up with nutrition and honing in on your macros, which is actually a week before I even pay attention to workouts. My strategy is that you'll be eating enough, and the right amount, for one whole week before you really hit the workout program, because you're going to need the energy, the carbs and the stamina for the workout portion. So there's somewhat of a strategy there. You can start them at the same time, but it depends where you're coming in from. Do you see results from exercising even though you have about 60 pounds to lose? Yes, a hundred percent. Yes, girl. Don't worry about the number.

Laura, I just answered that. Laura asks how long we need to stay in a caloric deficit and how often we should change our calories for fat loss. I answered this at the beginning of the video; it was actually the first question. Scenario number one: if you're in a caloric deficit and you're experiencing body signals, like losing your period, being irritable, fatigued or hungry all the time, that's when I would pull out of the deficit and start increasing your calories and macro breakdown appropriately. Scenario number two is you've hit your goal. If you're in a deficit and you've hit your goal, then I'll pull you out.

But your question is how long to stay in one. I don't recommend staying in a caloric deficit for a long period of time without any breaks, like eight months to a year, and I'm pushing it with eight months. It depends how hard of a deficit you're in. If you're going hard in a deficit and eating really low calories and macros for a long period of time, you will eventually get your metabolism to adapt to that intake, and it would be really hard. Your body will kick into survival mode and be like, okay, we're going to conserve calories right now, because this woman is pretty active and doing a lot of activity. We're going to hold onto the calories so she has enough to sustain her energy throughout the day. You're going to get your body to recognize that low caloric intake. That's why I say pull out of that and bring your calories up to 1,500, 1,600, 1,700, whatever fits best for you, so that you're giving your body enough of what it needs.

And how often do you change your calories for fat loss? Again, it depends. This is my thing: if you're making progress at a specific calorie and macro range and you're steadily losing, trending down or seeing results in photos, don't change it. Keep it the same. It's working. Don't think, oh, I need to eat less and less and less to keep getting results. No, girl, it's working right where you are. If you're trending downward, seeing results and feeling really good, stay where you are. Some people don't need to make an adjustment for three, four or five weeks. Sometimes people don't make adjustments for eight weeks. It's very unique. That's why I built my WarriorBabe Blueprint program, so it's more in-depth on the macro range and knowing how to adjust your macros.

Now, if you're not making progress and you stall or plateau, I wouldn't necessarily make any changes right at that plateau mark. If it's just one week where you're not making progress, it's just one week. You're still making progress. So push it for another week. Maybe by the second or third week there are still no results, and that's where I'd say okay, let's turn it around. Let's cut you down a little more, pull back on carbs, pull back on fats, increase the protein. It really depends on your situation and how your progress is going.

Andrea asks: if you do more than one workout a day, or an extended day of bike riding, how much should you increase your calories? If you're going over an hour of cardio activity, doing long runs or extensive cardio at any point in the day or week, you should increase your carb count by about 15 percent. It's usually just the carbs you want to increase.

And keep in mind, I talked about this on last week's Q&A about cardio. I'm not pinpointing you, Andrea, I'm speaking broadly. There's a fine difference between cardio and wanting to build muscle, you cardio bunnies. If you're doing a lot of activity that requires very little strength and muscle, which is cardio, that activity burns a lot of calories, and your body is going to start to adapt to it. Your metabolism is adapting. Your body recognizes, hey, we're burning a lot of calories during this activity. We need endurance. We don't need a lot of muscle and strength. So let's learn how to conserve calories by turning down muscle stores. Muscle is a part of your metabolism, so your metabolism slows down. You become more efficient at endurance. You become more of an efficient cardio machine.

How many people do this? You go onto the treadmill at the gym and look at the calories being burned. But it doesn't matter how many calories you're burning in that moment, because if you keep doing that cardio every day, every week, over time your metabolism slows down to adapt to being a cardio machine, to being an endurance athlete. Your body is conserving calories by turning down muscle and turning down your metabolism so that you're more efficient at endurance.

With strength training, you're doing workouts that don't really burn many calories but require strength and muscle. Now your body says, let's build this muscle. And guys, muscle is what gets you toned. Muscle is what changes your body composition. Muscle is tone. I need to put that out there because a lot of women say, I want to get toned, and then they say, but I don't want to get bulky. Muscle is tone, and as women we cannot get bulky. The only way you're getting bulky is if you're taking steroids. So if you're doing workouts where you're not burning many calories but you're using your muscle, which is metabolically active tissue and a part of your metabolism, it's constantly burning. I'm burning calories right now talking to you because of my muscle mass. When you do those workouts using strength and muscle, your body says, let's build muscle, and we can be less efficient with calories and speed up the burn.

I hope that makes sense to my cardio bunnies who are listening. You don't need to be doing tons of cardio. You shouldn't be doing tons of cardio if your ultimate goal is to get lean, be toned, have a beautiful muscular physique and look strong. I don't mean none. I mean about 30 minutes, three to four times a week, at a very slow, steady state. None of this HIIT, none of this boot camp, none of this let's go run on the treadmill for 30 minutes.

And I'm not saying, Andrea, that you can't mountain bike. Let me pull this back in. I'm not saying change your lifestyle completely. I get the cardio high. I get the running and all that. You can make it work. You just have to make sure you're eating enough. That's where you want to increase your carb count by about 25 to 50 grams, depending on how many hours you're out there mountain biking. So about a 15 percent increase in your carb count.

Thank you, you're amazing. Thank you, babe, I appreciate it. Someone says: cardio works against us, tough concept to learn. Yeah, what I just said is probably a mind-f***. It was for me when I was doing two half marathons as a cardio machine, thinking that was what was going to get me the body I wanted. I didn't know that strength training was the way. It's so serious: you really have to put resistance on the body and do the strength training workouts, and then you're going to be doing the right things.

All right, I'm going to be closing down this Q&A in just a little bit, five or ten more minutes. So now is the time. Fire away with any last questions you want to drop in the comment box before I tune out.

Martha says: I'm not moving at all. I feel awful inside and out. Martha, kind of what I said to somebody earlier who brought this up: this is your programming. This is your conditioning. This is your mindset. If what you're doing isn't working for you right now because of the mindset you're approaching the situation with, you are the one who has to change that. You're the one who has to approach it differently. It sounds harsh, I'm just very blunt. This is how I am with all of my coaching and the way I help and transform people. It's not just from the physical standpoint, it's from the mental as well. Change happens of one's own accord, so you have to want to be the one to do it.

And just as Yana said, you've got this. This is your journey. Cool, and you're not offended. I love that, because what's really going to get you to move is the blunt truth. So how bad do you want it? How bad do you want to turn your life around? How bad do you want these goals? And here's another thing: if you want your goals but you're still in that limbo of not moving, your goals aren't big enough. Make them bigger. Make them exciting. Make them worth getting up for and really taking action.

And look, the starting point is the hardest point. You're going to meet so much resistance. Your ego is going to get in the way. You're going to be held back by your current identity, because you really are making a shift. You're shifting to be healthier, to have a better lifestyle, to do workouts, which is something you either haven't done or haven't done in a while. So you really have to shift your perspective and think from the end. Think of the goal you want to accomplish and think about how that person would respond right now. If you're already at the end, you can envision that person. What is she doing? She's not making excuses. She's getting her ass to the gym. She's eating healthier. She's being more positive. She looks at her body as it's changing and she's happy about it. The moment you start putting that into place is where you'll start being able to take the actions necessary to get you to that goal.

Is it okay to do 10K steps every day to increase your NEAT? Absolutely. I love walking along with my workouts. I recommend it, especially now with a lot of people working from home with COVID. Definitely hit at least 7K to 10K steps.

Heather asks: if I don't lift on a cheat meal day, is that bad? With Christmas next week, I won't lift on Friday. Should I switch my days that week? No, that's totally fine.

Joanna asks: is this going to be on replay? I just clicked off and came back on and heard the end of what you were saying about cardio and strength training. Yes, babe, it will be on replay. Take note of where you clicked out, minute-wise, so you can go back and listen, because I just dropped some bombs. You should never tune out. You never know what I'm going to say next, and you could really need to hear it. That's what I say to my Facebook groups, the WarriorBabe Revolution, the Blueprint and the VIP. I have these calls weekly. I have my Blueprint call in 15 minutes. I have my VIP call once a week with that entire community. And I'm like, guys, plug in. Listen to everything I'm saying, because at some moment there's going to be an aha moment. It's going to be what you needed to hear. I do this every week at 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Plug in. Be here. Show up. I'm hosting this through my Facebook page, so it's free. You're getting free knowledge right now. So show up.

Lisa says: lifting hard daily, alternating upper body and lower body for three months. Not much of a change. Help. We change our workout programs every month. And guys, look: how are your macros? Are your macros dialed in? Are your macros consistent? If not, they need to be changed. Some things need to be moved. I also talked about this in my VIP program yesterday. Being sore is not an indicator of your progress. Progress is an indicator of your progress. If you're getting stronger over time, that is progress. So if you feel stronger, Lisa, and you feel good, and you're lifting heavier on a weekly basis, you are progressing. If your nutrition isn't dialed in, get your nutrition dialed in.

Lisa asks: any suggestions for mobility? I think I could lift heavier but feel limited by mobility. I am so bad at this. I've tried, and I don't know why I can't. It's something I need to break through, to just sit down and stretch. Stretching is so boring. Until somebody figures out how to make stretching fun, I know I need to do it. What I was doing was morning yoga for about 15 minutes. And I just asked my parents for a bunch of foam rollers for Christmas, so maybe that will make me do it. But it comes down to stretching and making the time. That's probably the first thing I would need to do: make the time to do it.

Beth says: Lisa, I can tell you, I didn't see any change for a long time, even doing the workouts, macros and so on, for about four to five months, and then all of a sudden it hit me. I'm getting ripped. Yay. For real, guys. That's why I'm so adamant about saying you may not see the results you think you're going to see until six months, 12 months, 18 months. It will just hit. It's a compound effect. It is a legitimate, hands-down compound effect.

Look, guys, if this is resonating with you, if you've been on this entire time and everything I'm saying makes sense, share this. I'm just one person, but there are 40, 50-plus of you tuning in right now. Share this with other women. Put it on your page so other women can hear it. This needs to get out there: the cardio, the lifting, the macros, changing your body composition. It is not preached in the fitness industry, especially in the women's world. Guys have the truth. But for us, I'm trying to bring it to women so they know: you've got to eat more. You've got to do less cardio. You've got to put the time in. You've got to let it sit for six months. You've got to allow the compound effect to really set in. So share this right now. Hit the little share button.

It will happen. Don't give up. Yes. Thank you, Beth, babe. So good to hear. And I'm sure Cheryl will chime in. What's up, Cheryl? If you didn't get to watch my most recent interview with a current WarriorBabe, Cheryl, in our most recent YouTube video, go check it out on the WarriorBabe YouTube. Cheryl is 56 years old and is now eating 485 grams of carbs; in that video she was at 435. It's really cool. It's really good to see other women saying this, because I can preach it so much since I'm living proof of it, and I've helped thousands of women transform their bodies, but it's really dope to hear on this Q&A that you guys get it too. And you sharing that with other women helps and encourages them. That's what I'm all about: support, encouragement and being real. It's not going to happen overnight. It's not going to happen in two weeks or three weeks. But I guarantee you, if you come back a year from now and talk to me, you're going to be seeing changes if you've been consistent and put in the work. It's a legitimate compound effect.

All right, I've got 11 minutes until I have to hop on my Blueprint Q&A, so I'm going to close down the Q&A here. It's been so much fun hanging out with you. I appreciate you all. Thank you for tuning in, my followers on Facebook and the WarriorBabes in the community. You all rock. Keep up the good work. I'll be here next Wednesday, which is the day before Christmas, to do another Q&A with you all. So be here and plug in. That'll be a good time to talk about the holidays: how to approach them, what to do, how not to feel guilty and how to get right back on track. That will probably be the whole premise of next Wednesday. 6 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. Show up, guys, plug in. All right, have a good rest of your day. See you guys. Bye.