Building muscle is crucial to me as a new mom. I recently had a baby, and lost about five pounds of muscle mass in the postpartum process. Of course, this is to be expected because postpartum is a time for recovery and repair, but once I hit the six month postpartum mark, I felt ready to commit to a routine for building back that lost muscle.
Muscle is the tissue of longevity, and unfortunately, we begin to naturally lose muscle as we age. Not only is muscle important for your overall strength and the physical benefits that come along with being strong, but it also improves metabolic processes like insulin sensitivity, which is responsible for boosting energy, fighting chronic disease, and keeping our cells healthy. So yes, muscle is basically the fountain of youth, and unfortunately, it gets harder and harder to build muscle as we age.
It’s valuable for me to gain these five pounds back not only for the immediate improvements it will have on my energy levels and body composition, but also for its short- and long-term effects. I hope to have more children in the future, so building muscle now will help to successfully set me up for my next postpartum experience. Plus, recouping that muscle loss now will benefit me far into the future, allowing me to live a healthier, independent life with my new little family.
My career as a physical therapist led me to change my fitness routine.
After working as a physical therapist and seeing firsthand the injuries and pain caused by overtraining or ineffective fitness programs, I saw the need for a more sustainable and effective fitness method. So many of my patients came to me burnt out and broken down from their fitness routine, and for a long time, my own routine mirrored that of my patients. I prioritized sweating, burning calories, and HIIT workouts, thinking that the harder I worked, the better results I would see. Not only was this approach to training not changing my body, but even worse, I ended up with chronic pain. After 10 years of being a group fitness class junkie, I switched gears to find a routine that promoted longevity over intensity.
This journey led me to start Evlo Fitness, an online fitness platform designed to build muscle and strength through workouts that actually feel good. The routines on my platform are designed to build muscle, improve cardiovascular health, and boost recovery, while also remaining sustainable for joint and overall health. These are the actual workouts I do, which have allowed me to see better results with a more gentle approach to fitness than I took in the past. Today, I feel stronger, more energized, and am pain-free.
My current routine combines strength training and cardio.
These days, I’m implementing consistent strength training into my fitness routine, along with some light to moderate cardio. For strength, I do five days a week on Evlo (I teach two classes a week and take three a week myself). For cardio, I aim to fit in around 150 minutes of walking or a steady-state cardio per week, along with one cardio class on Evlo. While the cardio portion of my routine isn’t specifically designed for building muscle, it does help with my cardiovascular health.
This is the current weekly routine I follow:
Monday: 35-minute upper body strength class & 15-minute steady-state cardio class
Tuesday: 35-minute lower body strength class & go for a walk
Wednesday: 35-minute full body strength class (core, upper, and lower body) & go for a walk
Thursday: 35-minute full body strength class (using heavier weights) & go for a walk
Friday: 35-minute full body strength class
Saturday: Long walk & 10-minute sprint interval training class
Sunday: Long walk or 15-minute steady-state cardio class
I also love that you don’t need a fancy gym or much equipment to follow along with a straightforward strength training routine like this one. I recommend having an assortment of dumbbells at home to help assist you in gaining muscle mass. There are even adjustable dumbbells that are great for those short on space or storage!
These four things are key to my strength transformation success.
Throughout this process, I’ve gained some key takeaways that have helped me optimize my routine and get more effective results.
1. Training close to failure
Prior to my journey of building muscle, I focused on counting reps instead of continuing my set until I got close to failure. However, I quickly noticed that when I began training close to failure, I saw much better results in terms of muscle growth. My advice is not to focus on the number of reps; it doesn’t matter whether you’re doing six or 26, just keep going until you get close to failure. However, if you can easily do more than 30 reps, that’s a sign that the weight you’re using is not challenging enough and it’s time to reach for something heavier.
Pro tip: You’ll know you’re close to failure when you have a decrease in velocity (the speed at which you’re able to complete a rep). Your last rep should be very slow and very hard.
2. Nixing combo moves
While combination moves have their place in the fitness world, it’s best to ditch them if your goal is to build muscle. For example, if you’re doing a lunge with a biceps curl, only one of the muscle groups might get close to failure; the other one gets cheated. Separating the two exercises to focus on working both of those muscle groups close to failure is a more targeted and effective approach.
3. Focusing on structure and consistency, not burning calories
Many strength training workouts don’t burn a ton of calories, so it’s best not to focus on how many you burn. It’s not always indicative of your progress—in fact, calories burned is usually not a good marker at all. Instead, focus on the structure and consistency of your workouts. A routine that is gentle but consistent will provide you with better results than an intense, yet inconsistent workout routine.
The truth is, sometimes I’m tired and can’t lift to failure. Sometimes I skip part of the workout. But I always show up, even if it’s not perfect. Once you develop a consistent routine, it’s imperative to work each muscle group around two times a week on non-consecutive days—you need about a 24-hour recovery period if you are working your muscles close to failure.
4. Fueling my body with a high-protein diet
While incorporating consistent strength training has been key to building muscle, I’ve found that nutrition is equally important. I aim to eat around one gram of protein per pound of body weight per day to help with muscle growth.
Here’s where I’m at with my progress today.
So far, I’ve successfully gained 1.7 pounds of muscle in just amount one month. I haven’t had another DEXA (a scan that tells you how much fat, muscle, and bone density you have) since the one month mark, but I’m confident my progress is continuing in the right direction and will rescan again soon.
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