Muscle Building Phase for Women: Who It's For and How Long

Nikkiey: What's up everybody, Nikkiey here with WarriorBabe, and in today's video I'm excited to chat with you about what a building phase is. Being in a building phase can be very daunting for a lot of women, so I hope that I'm able to squash that here with you today.

In this video we're going to talk about who the building phase is and who it is not for, the ultimate goal that you want to accomplish with being in a building phase, what kind of changes you can expect when you're putting your body through a building phase, and the recommended time to spend in this specific phase.

You're going to feel better by the end of this video knowing what to expect and the goals that you're striving for, and be reminded of that so that you continue to follow through with this, because this is a very important phase for specific people, and then the ideal time that you want to spend in this phase. Let's get to it.

Who this is for. If you are somebody who solely wants to focus on building lean muscle, this is for you. If you're over 50 pounds overweight, this isn't for you. If you need to lose 30-plus pounds, this isn't for you. You want to go through that weight loss first, and then think about doing the recomp to your body.

It's not for everybody because, on a mental level, you have to be okay with your body looking a little bit softer. You have to be okay with gaining a little bit of weight, and you have to be okay with eating a lot of food. The average woman doesn't want to go through that, but it is extremely necessary to go through it if you want to build a lot of lean muscle.

I put my body through multiple builds. It was probably the most uncomfortable point of my journey. I was like 25 pounds overweight. My clothes weren't fitting me, but I was reminding myself of the long-term goal that I was striving for. In the moment of going through all of this, I knew that it was only temporary, because it was going to get me to the goal that I wanted to get to. The goal that you have is sometimes going to require uncomfortable effort and putting yourself outside of your comfort zone.

Let me throw in a story here about one of my babes who's 58 years old that I coach inside of our WarriorBabe VIP program. She put herself into a build for over nine months. She gained upwards of 30 pounds in this phase. Not only did she put on 30 pounds of weight, she's also putting on muscle. At the same time, she's getting her metabolism to understand what eating 3,000 calories is like. And yes, she was eating 3,000 calories.

Now, because she put her body through that, she then went into a cut where we decreased her calories. She was anywhere upwards from around 2,000 calories and still dropping and losing weight. She then lost upwards of 20 pounds, but she preserved that muscle while decreasing the body fat around it.

Things that you can expect from your body. It's going to be uncomfortable. You're going to gain weight. Your body's going to look a little bit softer, but you're increasing your muscle mass. You're increasing your strength. And you're doing everything for the long-term version of who you want to be and the body composition that you want to have. It's only temporary, but it's going to serve your long-term goals of recomping and changing your body composition.

The ideal time that I recommend in this phase is anywhere from three to six months. But that lower end of three months really depends on your current body composition. If you're somebody who already has a decent amount of muscle mass and you just want to increase your muscle mass a little bit more, then you can spend a shorter time in a build.

But if you're somebody who needs to put on muscle, who needs to build that muscle, because ultimately that is what's going to change your body composition, having more muscle on your body, then you're going to want to spend anywhere from six months plus. I even sometimes recommend a year. You can build so much and change so much in a year's time frame, which will save you from five years of going from maintenance to cut to maintenance to cut to maintenance to cut, and then ultimately seeing your body composition change after three to five years of doing that.

In one year, you can do so much, and that's why for some people I really do highly recommend being in a build phase. It really depends on your consistency. A lack of consistency or slow responses are going to require more time in this space. But if you do it the right way and you have somebody helping you along the process, the time it takes is going to vary.

I hope this video brought you tons of value. That's a little bit of what you can expect from a building phase: what the ultimate goal is, the changes that you can expect with your body and with your mindset, really making sure that you're ready and understand the process that you're about to go through, and then the recommended time to stay in this space, depending on where you're at in your journey.

If you want to be sure that you're following the right macronutrient program, eating program or workout program for your individual needs, head over to warriorbabe.com, where you can find tons more resources around this subject to help you build that lean muscle, get the toned body that you want, and keep your results forever. I'll see you guys in the next video. Bye.