Timestamps: Defining ‘Muscle Mommy.’ (2:13) Why women need to understand the benefit and power of PROPER strength training. (3:50) The myths preached to women surrounding strength training. (7:07) Cut the cardio, lift heavy, eat more, and LOSE body fat. (8:55) Muscle adds shape. (12:26) Building muscle balances your hormones. (13:09) Breaking down the MAPS 15 Muscle Mommy protocol. (15:00) What to expect when you follow GOOD strength training programming. (22:18) 60% off today! (25:15)
You asked for it. Here it is. Our
program, MAPS Muscle Mommy. Easily the
most popular MAPS program we've released
in a long time. Here's what we did. We
created a MAPS Muscle Mommy 15 version.
What does that mean? You work out 15
minutes a day. Now you can become a
muscle mommy with minimal time invested.
We're going to talk about the program
and how you can get a body that you
want, a muscle mommy body. It's only 15
minutes a day.
>> Basically, we combined the two most
popular programs in the last probably
two years.
>> Yeah. Well, let's smash them together.
>> Let's take a step back. So, someone
tuning in right now might might not know
what's going Okay, so muscle mommy is a
term that uh it was it's online and and
women use it to
>> You don't have to be a mommy.
>> No, no, no, no.
>> It just it's it's it's women who want to
build muscle. Yeah. Who want to get
stronger and who want that kind of a
sculpted physique. I'm glad you brought
this up because there was a bit of a a
push back and backlash. We had people
that
>> felt excluded because they're not a mom
that they couldn't buy the program. It
has nothing to do I know it's called
muscle mommy,
>> but it's a term deemed for just women in
general that want to build muscle.
There's young girls that are teenagers
that don't even muscle muscle.
>> In fact, I believe the young girls that
don't have kids started the term. That
was where the term came.
>> Yeah. At least that's where it came
across for us. We were I remember we
were interviewing and had or and we had
multiple live callers uh call in and
>> someone said that I want to be a muscle
model.
>> Yeah. A couple of them did and they were
young girls that didn't have kids and so
it's not a term that you means you have
to have kids in order to follow it.
>> No. And what's cool about this just
again to take a step back is what's
really fun for us. We've been doing this
for a long time, right? So we were
training people in gyms. I mean I
started in the late 90s. Okay. So it's
been a long time. It's a uh it's been a
long time where we've seen the trends in
the fitness industry and for a for
decades I mean even when we first
started the podcast this was like a
focus. was like women need to understand
the benefit and power of proper strength
training
>> cuz for a long time women have been
marketed to and lied to essentially by
our industry that they need to work out
a particular way to accomplish a body
that you can only really get through
proper strength training. And so what a
lot of women thought was I don't want to
lift weights. I don't want to build. I
don't want to get big and bulky.
>> That's not what happens. uh you know, in
other words, if you want a body that's
shaped and sculpted, you know, round
glutes, good posture, uh nice arms, uh
you want to be relatively lean, you want
to be functional. The best way to
accomplish this is with traditional
strength training. And for for a long
time, this was a big conversation
>> with a lot of my clients. This was a
conversation when I would run seminars
in my gyms. This was uh a very popular
topic on the podcast for a long time.
>> It was an uphill battle. I mean uphill
battle.
>> Yeah, there was a lot of I mean
convincing that needed to be done
especially with clients when they'd
first come in and you'd introduce them
to strength training and the perception
was oh man I don't want to train like a
guy like I want to look a certain way
and so yeah I had to talk him out of it.
It's not just that. We also had to
overcome because Okay. So, what you're
you're taking us all the way back to
like late 90s where it was like almost,
you know, taboo or like you just didn't
talk about lifting heavy weights uh with
a lot of we were trying to communicate
that but it wasn't very popular. Um and
then even when it became popular, the
type of exercise programming that was
done for women was was terrible.
>> Yeah.
uh they they you know light weight, lots
of reps, these isolation exercises
um it was just terrible as far and so we
had to also overcome that. So it was the
the first I mean we've been doing this
for long enough that we were doing it
before it was popular at all and then
when it became kind of popular it was
these these terrible programs these
circuitbased type stuff like isolation
exercises and I only feel like it's been
a short period of time I'd say in the
last five maybe maybe eight years
longest
>> maybe
uh you know that we we've made it really
popular and we've attribute a lot of
that to CrossFit. I think CrossFit did a
really good job of getting women to
deadlift and squat and do these
incredible movements that build and
sculpt the physique. Uh that really
started to in introduced to the masses
of those movements. But we had been
screaming from the rooftops for a long
time. That's what we were training our
clients. So if I had a client who hired
me, I took them through those movements.
But when you looked at everybody else
that was training in the gym or what was
online or was in the magazines for the
workouts, it was a lot of these crappy
isolation circuit training classes types
of routines for women to build muscle
and it's just a terrible strategy.
>> Let's quickly touch on the myths uh
around strength training. Like myth
number one, I'm going to get really big.
Uh first of all, building muscle is
hard. It's slow. And you could train
like a bodybuilder for years and
99.9999%
of women would never look anything like
a bodybuilder. They would actually get a
very sculpted shaped physique that they
think that they would accomplish doing a
lot of cardio for. That's what they
think. If I run, this is what I'm going
to look like. No, actually, you have to
lift weights to look that way. So, the
fear was I'm going to get all this
muscle. Number two, well, let me focus
on building after I lose a bunch of body
fat. Well, building muscle helps with
fat loss a lot. It speeds up the
metabolism. In other words, it makes you
burn more calories at rest. Who doesn't
want to do that, right? It also shapes
the body. Uh I could target focus when I
want to develop. So even if your body
fat percentage didn't go down, which it
would, but if it didn't, you look leaner
because your body has uh better shape.
So those are the two big myths. And and
another one is that well, let me just
eat as little as possible. Um which is
also a big myth. you have to fuel the
muscle growth to cause all the things
that you're looking for. So, this was a
really difficult discussion to have
because it's so counter to the messaging
that have been out uh for so long. But I
think I know now that women are figuring
this out. Now, when I go through fitness
media,
>> yeah,
>> you're seeing a lot of uh female
trainers saying, "No, this is the way
you need to train." And now people are
figuring this out. And why are they
figuring this out? Because they're
trying it. And once you try and you do
it right, you never go back because
suddenly I'm doing a little bit of work
and I'm getting great results. Whereas
before I felt like I was working out all
the time. I was sweating my butt off. I
was barely eating anything and it just I
I would just plateau and not get uh
great results. By the way, backing up to
the metabolism boosting effect of muscle
building, if you build muscle and get
stronger and you follow good traditional
strength training programming and you
fuel that with a with a, you know,
nutrition that is sufficient, enough
calories and protein, when you do it
that way, your metabolism starts to
boost. And it boosts in big ways. I
mean, really big ways. like uh it it
wasn't uncommon for me to take a female
client and get their metabolic rate to
go up by 800 calories. Like that's a
that's a pretty normal amount of
calories that I would be able to take
the typical woman who was used to
restricting and trying to run her butt
off. It wasn't hard to get her metabolic
rate to go up by about 800 calories. 800
calories, everybody, every day,
>> it's a lot more room for flexibility
>> that your body is just going to burn on
its own is a lot. You know how much
cardio, you know how much you have to
run to burn 800 pounds?
>> That's my favorite comment and review of
the Muscle Mommy program has been the
women that say that they want to lose
10, 20, 30 lbs of body fat, and have cut
out cardio, increased calories, and are
leaner than they've ever been, right?
>> Which is so cool. And I remember this
when I've told this story if you've
listened long enough when Katrina and I
first started dating uh you know she
exet background uh collegiate level uh
basketball player uh had trainers before
but a lot of it was like endurance
stamina training explosive plyometrics
and you know her method of getting in
shape or losing weight was you know cut
out the pizza run tons of miles and she
kind of did that yo-yo back and for the
first like three to four years of our
relationship. That was kind of like her
way of kind of maintaining her weight.
And uh I remember when she finally let
me get a hold of her diet and her
training. And it took that long of her
watching me to trust me to tell her
something that was so counterintuitive
to everything that she had known, seen,
or done in the past. And I remember the
disbelief of, okay, I want you to cut
out all that running and cardio. Um
we're going to eat more. we're going to
focus on getting high protein and then I
want you to lift heavy and get strong,
long rest periods, no circuit stuff, no
running. And I remember her looking at
me like, "This is crazy. This is not
going to work." And then fast forward,
you know, months later, her going like,
"Oh my god, I've never like trained at
at at in her eyes at a lower intensity
because she wasn't doing circuits and
sweating like crazy. Uh, and done at no
running whatsoever to have the body that
I have right now and eating the amount
of food that I'm eating more.
>> Yeah. More than she ever been. And
what's been so nice is once she made
that switch to maintain a healthy fit
physique now, you know, she I would tell
you I've been with her for 16 years now,
her out of shape or her worst shape
today, even postkid is the is better
shape than the best shape of her method
of, you know, getting in shape in the
past.
>> And it just blows her mind. And that
that's a testament to all the muscle
that she's built on her body and how
much that impacts your metabolism, your
metabolic flexibility, the ability for
you to kind of go up in calories and
down in calories yet still maintain a
physique. Also, what what muscle looks
like on the body, how much denser and
shapely it is compared to body fat, like
completely changed uh her physique and
her diet for the rest of her life.
>> Yeah, you mentioned dense. So, uh, a
pound of muscle will take up, uh, little
bit more than about 3/4s of the space of
body fat. So, in other words, if you
lost 10 lbs of body fat, but but gained
10 pounds of muscle, although the scale
would register the same, you would lose
about almost a fourth of the size on
your body. But, but also, it adds shape,
right? Because muscle when you build
muscle, it's not a it's not on your
belly. It's not on the areas that you
want to lose body fat. It's on the areas
you want it. Yeah, it's not it's not a
blob anymore.
>> No, it's on your hamstrings and your
glutes and your upper back and your
shoulders. And so it just looks very
different. And then again, such so much
uh easier with a fast metabolism.
Today's giveaway is this super bundle.
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comments section. Also, brand new
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>> It also is great for your hormones,
everybody. Like muscle is metabolically
active.
>> So I I I have to this is just part of
this story that I actually I'm glad you
went this direction because I've shared
Katrina's story probably many times on
the podcast over the years. But one of
the things that I mean, you know, I hope
she doesn't get mad at me, but uh that
she was always uh having a hard time
with was she had back acne before. And
when she got her got built all that
muscle, it must have balanced her
hormones out in a way that it went away
for the rest of her life.
>> And I think that just is from the
probably overtraining, underfeeding the
body what it needs, probably had enough
of an imbalance hormonally for her.
That's how her body was responding with
the acne. Getting her her muscle built,
getting the protein intake balanced out
more like that balanced went away for
the rest of her life. Never had an issue
with that again.
>> Yeah. And this is like this is u pretty
well documented, but and you know what's
cool about this now, we have doctors
like Dr. Gabriel Lion who talks about
this all the time, just the benefits of
building muscle and how it's such a
healthy tissue. But it's very insulin
sensitive. So you build I mean you don't
have to build a ton of muscle by the you
add 3, four pounds of muscle on your
body, you'll look different, feel
different, great metabolism. Uh, but
your insulin sensitivity goes through
the roof. Uh, which is great. Makes you
feel good. And then there's downstream
effects of that. It helps balance out
estrogen, progesterone. Your body
increases androgen receptor density. So,
you get more receptors for the
testosterone that you have. And yes,
ladies, testosterone is in your body as
well. It's just as important for you as
it is for men. It's just less. But now
that testosterone has more places to
attach to. So, you get more of the
testosterone benefits. Uh, which what
does that look like? Higher libido, more
energy, more drive, uh, you better
focus. So, building muscle is the name
of the game. And then here's the other
side of it that's amazing.
>> Building muscle properly doesn't require
a lot of time in the gym.
>> Yeah.
>> It's it's it's a phenomenal form of
exercise for modern life because, well,
first off, modern life is hectic and
busy and you have all these
responsibilities. Can't live in the gym.
Uh, so what can I possibly do that's
going to give me this great effect?
Well, strength training is just sends a
stimulus. Like if you send the right
stimulus, you leave it alone. The body
does the rest. That's what ends up
happening. Other forms of exercise, the
adaptations follow as well. But a lot of
the benefits are because I'm doing the
work. I have to work the calories off. I
have to move, move, move. With strength
training, it's like I do the workout,
I'm done. Then my body starts to change
and shape through this adaptation. And
again, from an aesthetic perspective,
muscle is very aesthetic on both men and
women. Of course, men carry more muscle,
a lot more muscle than women do, but
when women have more muscle, they just
look shapely and healthy. Uh, and
strength training is the fastest way to
do this. So, I I guess the follow-up
question to this is, well, how much
strength training do I need?
>> Not a ton.
>> Yeah,
>> not a ton. In fact, it's less than you
think.
>> Uh, effective strength training, you
don't need a lot at all. So, Adam
mentioned our other very popular program
called MAPS 15. MAPS 15, if you listen
to the podcast, you've heard us talk
about this. It is 15 minutes a day. So,
6 to 7 days a week, you're doing two
exercises a day. So, rather than doing
two or three hour workouts in the gym,
you're doing two lifts every day, which
should take you about 15 minutes. Number
one, uh it's easier to stay consistent
with a routine like that. So, I don't
know about you guys, but I know that uh
it's easier for me to carve out 15 or 20
minutes a day than it is for me to carve
out a full hour two or three days a
week. Number two, it encourages
consistency because it's a daily habit.
And number three, if I miss a workout or
two, I didn't miss training a whole area
of my body. So, if I'm doing 15 to 20
minutes a day, you know, six or seven
days a week and I miss two workouts, I
didn't miss a ton. I really didn't miss
a ton. So it just works uh from a
consistency perspective. And so what we
did is we took muscle mommy which was
strength training designed for what
women typically are looking for. So what
do I mean by that? There's more glute
focus. There's more back and posture
focus and there's more delt focus and a
little bit less focus on the areas that
women aren't so interested in. So what
does that typically look like? Just to
give you like a basic example. If
there's a day where you're working your
chest and shoulders, general strength
training methodology would have you hit
chest first, shoulders second, because
women generally more interested in their
shoulders. You'll hit your shoulders
first, hit your chest, your chest second
because women are typically interested
more in delt development than they are
in chest development. There's more glute
focus, more lower body focus uh
generally with this uh strength training
program. So, we took the muscle mommy
programming that was so popular and what
we did is we plugged it into a 15 to 20
minute a day uh muscle mommy 15
protocol. So, you're doing two lifts a
day and you're getting phenomenal
results.
>> Really good at these lifts. Yes. Which
is another byproduct. It's uh it's an
interesting thing where you cut out a
lot of that excessive amount of volume
when you have this long workout. You
know, you have all these other exercises
to accomplish. Well, now you can really
center yourself around these two
exercises, squeeze out the maximum
potential of them, work on getting
better and improving on those exercises,
recover uh that much more effectively,
not have any fatigue be involved for the
most part. So, uh, the one thing too I
think with a lot of my female clients,
like there was a a little bit of an
aversion to adding and and increasing
load weight. Uh, where now if there's
just two exercises that are main focus,
it's like, you know, we have that
opportunity to be diligent and really
focus on how can we squeeze our maximum
potential out of this and how can we,
you know, increase the weight and and
feel comfortable and confident in that.
And I really think the 15 works great
for that. I you know I'm going to add a
fourth point S that I think I've really
come to realize throughout this last 10
years that we've been running this
podcast more so than I think I ever
realized as a personal training personal
trainer and I don't know if that's just
because of the sheer volume of people
that we help now and get to talk to
because of how we get so many callers
and we help so many people online and so
I get get to talk to a lot more people
or have things changed that much in the
last couple decades, but it does seem
like 15 MAPS 15, Muscle Mommy 15, that
type of a protocol seems to be a much
more appropriate amount of volume for so
many people.
>> I mean, when you go if you just go I
mean, we had live callers earlier today.
>> Stress must be a factor
>> and and we almost always recommend
somebody reducing their volume, go
follow our math 15 type of a protocol.
And you know, is is that uh just because
are are women working more today? Are
they carrying more stress than what they
did before? I mean, and just in general,
I feel like
>> getting good sleep.
>> I feel like that's something I mean,
we're we're doing more. I know what all
the what all the studies say like we we
do more today with our time than what we
did just 20, 30 years ago. And so, is
that causing this kind of low-level
stress all the time that people are
hitting plateaus when they're trying to
go in and crush it in the gym all the
time with these hour-long workouts? I
think that's part of it. I think the
other part of it is we've overestimated
for a long time, including us uh on just
how much strength training you need to
produce the result.
>> Yeah.
>> That you're looking for. And uh you
know, to be quite honest, you guys, the
clients that we trained, if you looked
at the total volume we did with them, it
it breaks down about the same. Like when
I train female clients and got great
results, it
>> just spread out.
>> It [clears throat] was just spread out.
Now, when I train clients, you don't
train clients every day for 15 to 20
minutes. That's not how personal
training works. They would come see me
twice a week. Yeah.
>> And it was typically 45 minutes of
strength training, 15 minutes of maybe
some mobility. So, so two days a week of
strength training. If I looked at the
the volume that I did with my female
clients that got great results that were
consistent and I took that total
workload and spread it out over the
whole week, it looks like
>> maps 15. It looks just like that. And we
figured this out as trainers because
when you're training people for a long
time, I mean, you could have all kinds
of ideas on what's effective, but if you
train people for 20 years, you figure
out what's effective. And little by
little by little over the years of
training people, I realized I was just
doing too much, too much, too much. And
I eventually scaled it down and kind of
found this this perfect dose. Um, now
the data actually supports this now.
Now, we see studies on how much strength
training you actually need and uh you're
going to you don't need a lot to elicit
great results. In fact, doing more than
what is going to elicit results. Often
times, when you combine it with the fact
that these aren't just, you know, these
aren't people that have nothing else to
do. They have jobs and lives and kids
and other things going on. Many people
having hormone issues on top of it that
if I do more than is necessary, uh it
actually stresses the body out more. And
so the the result of that is kind of
fatigue,
>> soreness,
>> plateau, like I'm not getting stronger.
So here's what happens when you follow
>> this is what happens when you follow
good strength training. Unless you've
been doing this consistently for 5 years
and you're experienced and you're dialed
in. If this is what it should feel like,
it should feel like you get stronger
pretty consistently. That's it.
Literally, you're going to the gym and
relatively regularly you're getting
stronger. and you'll get stronger for
like a few years, like this is what it
looks like. It's it's totally this is a
very conservative thing that I'm about
to say right now. But if you're if you
haven't followed good strength training
program for a while, you're just getting
into it or you're doing something but it
doesn't look like strength training.
You're like, I'm going to try this and
you feed yourself properly. I got to add
that, right? You got to feed yourself
properly. So, you have to give yourself
sufficient calories and protein because
another challenge is someone will follow
a program like this, but they're taking
too little calories, not enough protein.
You [clears throat] have to feed the
body to see the strength gains. It is
totally within the realm of expected
that at the beginning of the year versus
the end of the year following a program,
you'll double your strength. This
episode's brought to you by Massimes,
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[snorts]
double your so whatever you started with
with your deadlift or your squat you
could pretty much expect to do twice as
much by the end of the year that when
you get stronger you're building muscle
it's pretty much guaranteed you're
building muscle now there's a lot of
it's more complex than that but it's the
strongest coralate so in other words if
you followed a program like this and fed
yourself properly you can expect to get
stronger stronger stronger stronger
pretty consistently maybe not week over
week but pretty consistently and if you
feed yourself properly what it looks
like is your body's shape starts to
change. And before you ever lose a pound
on the scale, people are going to
comment on how much weight it looks like
you lost. This is how you know you're
moving in the right direction. This was
a comment, a very common comment that
I'll get from my female clients like
month two or three of training with me.
They're like, you know, I only lost 5
lbs on the scale, but everybody thinks I
lost like 15 pounds. Like, what's going
on? Like, you look different. You've
built some muscle, burn some body fat.
And then as the muscle builds, the
metabolism boosts, fat loss becomes way,
way easier. So that's what you can
expect with good workout programming.
And I know it sounds like a lot of
people like 15 minutes. Yeah, it's it's
six days a week or seven. There's a
seventh optional day. And you're doing
these lifts and you can expect to get
stronger. Now, you you're going to also
want to be active on your own. Now, what
does that look like? I don't know, 8,000
steps a day. That's about it. So, make
sure you walk throughout the day. Hit
your target body weight in protein. Eat
it first. Follow this program. It will
blow your mind at how effective it is.
And it's not going to feel like you're
beating the crap out of yourself. It's
not going to feel like
>> you're fatigued and you're killing
yourself and I'm sore all the time. What
it's going to feel like is, "Oh my god,
I have more energy and oh, I'm doing
this exercise again that I did last
week. Whoa, I think I could do five more
pounds. What's going on?" I'll tell you
what's going on. You're getting in shape
and it's working. So that's what this
program is. It's it's it's maps muscle
mommy 15. And because we're in the
middle of a Black Friday sale, we
typically don't launch a new program
during our Black Friday sale because
that means it has to be 60% off, but
we're going to do that right now. So,
you can get MAPS 15 Muscle Mommy for 60%
off. 51 bucks. 51 ducks bucks gives you
the full program. By the way, what's
included in this are supplement
recommendations that are specific to
women and nutrition guidance. So, we're
going to add some stuff in there about
like protein and how to kind of reverse
diet and all that stuff. And so, here's
what you do. If this is something you're
interested and you want this, you want
the 60% off, you go to
15musclemommy.com. So, that's
15musclemommy.com.
You put the code Black Friday. Boom. You
got the full program. $51. It's launched
right now. Let's do it.
[music]
>> [music]