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What is the difference between exercising and training?
Answered by Nikkiey Stott and her guests · Updated
The short answer
Exercise is any movement: walking, running, a class at your gym, or a fun workout you found on Instagram. Training has intention behind it. On The WarriorBabe Show, Nikkiey explains that training means working toward a specific adaptation, like building muscle, and measuring whether that adaptation is actually happening over time.
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Nikkiey on why exercise isn't the same thing as training
Plays from 6:40 · Ep. 387: How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?
Why training needs a desired adaptation you can measure, with an athlete example
Plays from 7:43 · Ep. 387: How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?
What adaptation feels like by the end of a structured training block
Plays from 10:57 · Ep. 387: How Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?
The full answer
Nikkiey is clear that there's nothing wrong with exercising. Moving your body is incredible, and walks, runs, classes and random fun workouts all count. The shift happens when you have a specific goal. If you've said you want to be leaner, more defined or more toned, she points out that you're really talking about building muscle. Once that's the goal, you're not just exercising anymore. You're training.
On Ep. 387, she breaks down what makes it training:
- It has intention behind it.
- There's a desired adaptation you want to happen over time.
- You can measure whether that adaptation is actually happening.
She compares it to how athletes work. Imagine a basketball player refusing to practice free throws because they've already done them and want something new. Nobody at that level trains that way, and the same logic applies to you in the gym.
In practice, this looks like a structured program laid out over four, six or eight weeks with progressive overload built in. Nikkiey describes how it usually feels: the first week is hard and you may be more sore because you're calling on muscle fibers the last block didn't use as much. By the end of the block, you know the routine, and the exercises feel better even though the load should still make them hard. That's your skill developing and adaptation happening. If you've been hopping between workouts because new ones feel more effective, it's not that you lack discipline. It's that a plan built for training gives your body the chance to actually adapt.
From Nikkiey Stott and WarriorBabe's coaching. For education, not medical advice: talk to your doctor about your own health.
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Strength Training for Women
How often should I change my workout program?
Most of the time, run a program for four to eight weeks before changing it, and never less than four. Nikkiey's rule is to change for a reason, not because you're bored. Keep any lift that's still progressing, and don't run the same program unchanged for six months.
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Strength Training for Women
Does being sore mean I had a good workout?
No. Nikkiey says soreness is not an indicator of a good workout or of progress. It mostly means the stimulus was new to your muscles. A good workout is one where the last few reps of each set are challenging and where, over weeks, you add reps, sets or weight.
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Strength Training for Women
How do I break through a strength plateau in the gym?
Usually the fix is to train harder on the plan you already have, not to switch programs. Nikkiey explains that a few weeks in, you've likely just learned the exercises. Track your lifts, push the last three reps of each set, go heavier when you can, and look honestly at your recovery and how much you're eating.
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34 minHow Often Should You Change Your Workout Routine?
Episode 387 · Aug 14, 2026