In this episode Sal, Adam & Justin cover five steps to becoming a "muscle mommy."
   The origins of this term and beginnings of this trend. (1:34)
   The two components of what makes this movement so empowering. (9:20)
   Defining Muscle Mommy. (11:24)
   Five Steps to Becoming a Muscle Mommy.
   #1 - Lift heavy weights. (12:19)
   #2- Go on a bulk (Put Why Women Should Bulk). (23:39)
   #3 - Throw away the scale. (27:26)
   #4 - Avoid “workouts for girls.” (33:44)
   #5 - Prioritize strength (0.5 bench, 1 squat, 1.25 dead). (36:15)
   The ultimate Muscle Mommy programming package. (38:41)
   Related Links/Products Mentioned
   Visit Sleep Breakthrough by biOptimizers for an exclusive offer for Mind Pump listeners! **Promo code MINDPUMP10 at checkout**
   Special Promotion: MAPS Anabolic / MAPS Strong / MAPS Powerlift 50% Off **Code MM50 at checkout**
   Mind Pump #1647: Ten Female Fitness Lies
   Mind Pump #1565: Why Women Should Bulk
   How Much Protein You REALLY Need to Build Muscle & Maximize Health – Mind Pump TV
    Why The Scale Is Not Always The Best Way To Measure Progress – Mind Pump Blog
    Mind Pump #1057: How To Get Stronger For Fat Loss & Muscle Building
   Mind Pump Podcast – YouTube
   Mind Pump Free Resources

If you want to pump your body and expand your mind, there's only 1 place to go.

Mind Pump, Mind Pump with your hosts, Sal DiStefano, Adam Schafer, and Justin Andrews.

Oh man, in this episode, we give you the 5 steps to becoming a muscle mommy.

We actually just learned this term the other day and we figured out what it was and we know how to get you there.

So we know you're gonna love this episode.

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In this episode, we talk about strength training.

Of course, you want to be a muscle mom, you got to build some muscle.

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Ladies, in today's episode, we're gonna talk about how you can become a muscle mommy.

That's what we're talking about in today's episode.

I just learned that this term even existed the other day.

it a day, it came from a caller and then like what, instantly we heard somebody else ask a question related to it within the same day.

Yeah, so this is, I guess, this is what it's like to be middle-aged.

Terminology, you find out about it later,

Well, here's what I think is really neat about this is that I think this is an example of what the changing of the tide or the shift in the culture of, I think, more and more women are understanding the value of having muscle and lifting weights.

I think for the previous decades, it was all about being lean and tone and skinny.

And muscle was something that you don't want because it makes you bulky or

And so I think that that is changing so much that you have terms like muscle mommy that are floating around now that are becoming popular that you have, uh, you know, women saying, Hey, I, I do want muscle.

I want to have great strong arms and built legs and glutes.

I think that's becoming more and more popular.

I wanna say that the beginning of this trend, because I mean, we train people for a long time.

I started training people over 2 and a half decades ago.

And I've been preaching this, I know you guys did as well, I've been preaching this for a long time.

But once the female clients started to see the results and feel it, then they were sold.

It would typically take me 60 to 90 days, and then I'd have a disciple, and they were like, okay, I see what you're talking about.

My metabolism's faster, I look way better, I feel way better, this is way easier than what

I don't have football traps like I thought.

Yeah, This is way easier than what I used to do.

Yeah, this is way easier than what I used to do when I used to just try to sweat every calorie off and I had to eat super low calories.

Now I'm eating more and I'm leaner and et cetera, et cetera.

But I remember, I wanna say that this trend started when crossfit, female crossfit athletes started to gain some traction on social media.

Because they were like strong and fit, and this is before crossfit got extreme, and a lot of women looked at those women and said, wait a minute, like, that looks great.

And then these women are like, well, we're dead lifting, we're squatting, we're benching, we're overhead pressing, we're cleaning.

Like we're doing these bodybuilder weightlifting, powerlifting movements.

And a lot of women were like, huh, this is interesting.

You know, you see that and they're strong and, um, you know, doing, doing explosive movements and, you know, are very athletic.

And so there's definitely, there was an appeal in that direction.

Um, you know, besides just the physique, which I know was selling it a lot.

Now, if you guys were to go back and recall those, because obviously communicating this today, a bit easier because of the popularity of terms like this that are coming around.

years ago, when we were communicating this to your average female client, is there an order of operation or is there certain things you try and drill home first like when you think about communicating this information?

Yeah, as a trainer, you guys know this, 1 of your jobs is to sell and be very effective at selling the ideas that you're trying to get your client to partake in.

Because if you can't sell them, you don't have buy-in, they don't do it, and then forget it.

So there were 2 celebrities that I would use, because Back in those days, you know, we're talking about the 90s, early 2000s, we didn't have a lot of female representation for like strength training.

It was bodybuilders and nobody wants to look like a bodybuilder.

Like these are women that do look like dudes in terms of muscularity.

So I'm like, I'm not going to use them as examples.

But there was Sarah Connor from Terminator

Yeah, where she was doing the pull-ups and a lot of women were like, wow, I wanna look like

Where Demi Moore, and she looks really fit, and women were like, wow, I wanna look like that.

So I used those examples and I'd say, well, they lifted weights to look like that.

And then I would sell it by saying, by talking about metabolism boosting and fat loss.

And I'd say, look, you could try burning the calories off.

You know, an hour of cardio is gonna burn like 300 calories.

I could get your body to burn 300 calories a day on its own extra.

So imagine doing cardio every day, but you're not how much easier is that's going to be.

And then I would say, uh, Look, we are trying to build muscle.

You're not going to wake up tomorrow with all kinds of muscle all over your body.

So if we ever get to the point where you're like, that's enough, Sal, you tell me, and then we'll change your workout routine.

And I knew, and that would sell them to try and then they get the results and they'd feel it and they'd be like, oh, this is great.

Yeah, did you guys use similar strategies?

Yeah, I think also, I think sharing on what it does metabolically to them to add muscle, right?

Because I don't care if you're male or female, everybody likes the idea of being able to have a glass of wine or a little bit of dessert or have the Friday night dates and not feel like the food or alcohol sticks right to you.

So I used to love to use that and explain like the value of, man, if we really go on this muscle building journey and we actually add 5 to 8 pounds of muscle on your frame.

1, it's not going to look like that sounds.

Like 5 to 8 pounds of muscle distributed over your entire body is going to be very, very small amount that you'll even be able to tell a difference as far as like looking muscular and what that will do for you metabolically.

And what that will do as far as your freedom with nutrition.

I said, man, that in itself is so rewarding because I think a lot of both men and women can identify with that or relate to that feeling of, man, I just, that 1 day I ate that and I woke up and

If your calorie burning is tied to you having to move, the second you stop all that movement, It's gone.

So you go on vacation, you stop doing all that cardio, it's gone.

And now you're eating more calories, you're going to gain more body fat.

If the calorie burning is not stuck to your movement, but rather the amount of metabolically active tissue that you have, and you know, your body's burning it on its own.

Okay, you're not doing some of your workouts, but the workouts don't burn many calories anyway.

It takes a long time for you to lose muscle if you stop working out.

You come back, oftentimes you feel great because you needed the rest, and you're shocked at the fact that you didn't gain any body fat.

Maybe Doug can look up and see what the number is today or not, but I remember being totally surprised by this number.

Like, I think it was like the average woman gains weight on like 1, 700 calories.

I know it was under 2000, so it was a low number.

And so that's why I like, just imagine that.

Like you barely eat 1700 or 2000 calories you put on body fat.

Well, I mean, that was a commonality with most of my female clients, is just they were always running a deficit.

It was just like, it was never a fed situation.

So just to shift that a bit and then also focus more on strength training was such a drastic shift of what they've ever done.

So it was like, it didn't take long to kind of convince, if they stuck with it, again, you have to like sell it a lot and you gotta kind of paint the picture for them to adhere to it.

But it's like, man, almost immediately within a few weeks, they would see changes of their body.

Yeah, and there's a couple of things to consider.

So it takes up roughly, a little less than this, but roughly about a quarter of less space as an equal amount of body fat.

So 10 pounds of muscle versus 10 pounds of body fat.

If you were to lose 10 pounds of body fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle, you'd be smaller.

You would lose close to about a quarter of the size.

So you've lost inches, but you weigh the same.

And then you mentioned something, you mentioned it was empowering.

There's 2 factors here or 2 components of what make this so empowering.

The first 1 is women oftentimes because of how they've been conditioned, because of the way that fitness is being communicated the wrong way.

They're constantly trying to eat as little as they can.

And you know, I should feel hungry all the time.

It's this thing that they have to go through and they have to deal with, right?

Well, how empowering is it that you can eat when you're hungry and not gain body fat because your metabolism is fast?

How many times did you have a female client who never strength trained, watched their strength go up, and then come to you and tell you, I feel independent and empowered.

I had a female client, I'll never forget, she was an executive at a tech company, never lifted weights, all she ever did was group X classes in yoga.

I convinced her to lift, to do strength training.

She used to travel to China all the time.

She was petite, she was tiny, she was like 5'1".

And she comes back from her trip, and she's like, Sal, she goes, this doesn't sound like a big deal to you, but to me, this is a big deal.

For the first time in I don't know how long, I put my bag in the overhead compartment of the plane.

I always have to ask a guy to help me on the plane, a random person.

She's like, I don't have to ask anybody anymore.

Do you understand how great that feels, how empowered I feel?

Well, that's what it feels like when you get strong.

And that's what strength training provides.

We went on social media, we looked it up.

Basically, it's a woman that's not afraid of building muscle and strength.

Someone who loves the bench press, deadlift, squat, and overhead press.

Those lifts, by the way, were specifically listed when I looked this up.

Like women who like to bench, squat, deadlift.

I definitely have seen it a lot in women's powerlifting movement as well.

These are women that are strong, fit, and here's my favorite part, healthy.

They're definitely lean, but they're not like emaciated or so lean that they lost their period or the hormones are off or they look terrible.

These women are fit, strong, healthy, and lean.

And this is what they're talking about when they say muscle mommy.

Now, I hope it doesn't get distorted and crazy like many fitness movements do.

But as of right now, we're totally support of this.

So the first go-to move for me was, and still is to this day, is to introduce lifting heavy.

For a year, for decades, women have been marketed to that, you know, lightweight, lots of reps, circuit training, curves, bullshit, heart rate, body pump classes, turbo kickboxing.

I mean, this has been the cornerstone of how to attract women into the health and fitness space.

And it's a bunch of bullshit, first of all.

And 1 of the best things that you can do to start to shape and sculpt their body and or speed metabolism up, burn body fat, all the things, is to get them to start lifting heavy.

And what I love that is that it almost always is so novel to that client that their body, before I even manipulate anything else, automatically just starts responding just from lifting heavy.

The lightweight, the pink and purple dumbbells of circuit training, the equipment that's marketed to women that tones but doesn't build type of deal.

That has its roots in the marketing of the gym industry.

So the gym industry, when it first started, they were gymnasiums.

So these were people that, like a lot of them were gymnasts.

Then it evolved and became kind of these bodybuilder type havens.

And at the time, the only known bodybuilders was people like Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Women didn't go to gyms when they were first kind of emerging.

I don't want to look like these big sweaty dudes.

So gyms, in order to become successful businesses, realize we need to attract the other sex.

We have to attract the largest consumer base.

Most products, by the way, the consumer base that's the largest are women.

If you want to build a successful business, you want to be able to attract them.

So gyms are like, okay, how are we going to do this?

We've been talking about how lifting weights makes you look big, veiny, and scary.

Don't lift anything heavier than 2 pounds.

Don't rest in between sets, that's what makes you big and bulky.

It's almost so effective in not building big bulk muscle that you build no muscle.

The very first gym I worked in was an old 24-hour nautilus.

And then they had switched to 24-hour fitness.

I think it first opened, I want to say 1983.

Back in those days, that was 1 way that gyms attracted women.

I just signed up with the new Golds over...

Oh yeah, the new Golds over in Gilroy has a woman's only room.

I was so surprised, out of a gold gym, I was so surprised to see that.

Yeah, well, I mean, there's some market demand.

Back in those days, it was a huge market demand.

No way a woman would work out next to a bunch of dudes.

All the chicks were out in there where everybody else was.

I mean, they might've converted like a different like grocery store or something, and then they just left it like that.

maybe they bought an old gym and then just-

Yeah, maybe someone thought that was a good idea, but I was blown away to see that.

And it's a trip, if you guys get a chance to go there, because it's a nice, it's actually a nice Gold's gym.

But that room, I've only seen a couple times, 1 or 2 people in there.

And then all the chicks are over in the then they actually have a dedicated which is really cool a dedicated leg room Which is by the way twice the size is the woman's little fitness room is this huge?

Leg room that it's got all the the leg press squats hamstring stuff that has 4 squat racks and platforms

So I used to work out at this 24 hour Nautilus as a kid in the mid 90s.

And then when I got a job there as a personal trainer, I finally worked there.

And back in those days, 24 hour Nautilus or fitness was open 24 hours, except for Friday, Saturdays and Sundays, it would close.

So it was like midnight on Friday, 10 on Saturday and 8 on Sunday, I believe.

And so I was there closing the gym 1 day and I was like, oh, I wonder what the women's, because I never walked in the women's only workout area, I'm like, I wonder what that looks like.

And I walked in and I remember as a trainer, I was like, okay, there's dumbbells in here, the differences, these are coated in whatever that polyurethane, you know, vinyl, purple materials, purple and pink.

The machines were identical to the machines that were on the general area.

The difference was the upholstery was pink or purple.

So they were like, here's your female equipment, we changed the color for you, how condescending, right?

And I remember being like, this is ridiculous.

Now, of course, since remodeled and got rid of that, but that's how they marketed.

And so for a long time, the myth was promoted that, and then of course you have female bodybuilders who are genetic freaks.

They make, they're like, they 0.001% of women can even build muscle like that.

And then they're on top of that, they're on male hormones.

So women look at that and that's evidence, oh, that's what'll happen to me if I...

The truth is this, you wanna get the benefits of strength training, the sculpt, the firmness, the fast metabolism, the hormone benefits, the shape.

You got to work out like the bodybuilders do.

You got to work out like the powerlifters do.

Lifting heavy, your body tries to adapt to the stress.

The reason why your body changes with exercise is what it's doing is it's trying to get better at what you're asking it to do.

And the way that your body gets better at lifting heavy weights is by building more muscle.

So if you want to see visible change, you have to embrace heavy lifting.

Now, I do want to say this, heavy is relative.

I think sometimes people think heavy, like I'm going to hurt myself.

That means you're lifting too heavy for yourself.

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2105: How to Become a Muscle Mommy