Defining Heavy Lifting

We talk a ton about strength training! But, we have never really taken the time to explain what we really mean when we say you should be lifting heavy. In this episode we will elaborate on what we mean a little more. 

If you have questions, or topics that you want to hear about, head over to our Instagrams https://www.instagram.com/bayleethedietitian/ or https://www.instagram.com/brianna.dietitian/ and send us a DM! You can also follow the podcast https://www.instagram.com/mocktailminutes/

Featured Mocktails: 

Recess 

Gorgie 

Click play, sip back, and be empowered.

Transcript

Baylee: 0:23

Hello everyone. Welcome back to this week's episode of Mocktail Minutes. This is Bailey

Brianna: 0:28

and this is Brianna.

Baylee: 0:29

this week I am drinking, I dunno, are these called Gorges? They're G-O-R-G-I-E. I would say Gorge. I, I wanted to call'em Gorgie, but I feel like it needs an E

Brianna: 0:43

I think it's Gorky like gorgeous. Like, Hey Gorge. I don't know.

Baylee: 0:48

Oh. GoGy GoGy. It's that drink. It's a sparkling pink lemonade flavor. It's like an energy drink. Has green tea, caffeine. So this would go really well or not so well because I have a headache right now. But I mean, ingredients are pretty good in it. There's 150 milligrams of caffeine, no sugar, no rool or superlo, which is great. It's got some L-theanine, which is great for focus, but it tastes pretty good. I like this one.

Brianna: 1:16

Where'd you get it?

Baylee: 1:18

I don't remember.

Brianna: 1:20

I'm gonna look for

Baylee: 1:20

I think I might've got it from Whole Foods, honestly.

Brianna: 1:24

Okay. I'm doing a recess, magnesium, and adaptogens.

Baylee: 1:29

Your adaptogens.

Brianna: 1:30

My adaptogens. This is the only adaptogen drink that I feel like doesn't taste earthy. cause, what did I have the other day?

Baylee: 1:37

I just avoid everything with ashwagandha. I can't stand it.

Brianna: 1:40

It was like a roomy or whatever. It was so bad. It literally taste like I was licking dirt. I was like, I can do this.

Baylee: 1:49

Yeah,

Brianna: 1:50

Yeah, I got it.'cause I was like, Ooh, that looks fun. I'm gonna do it on the podcast. And I was like, I'm not gonna do

Baylee: 1:56

they sucker you in with the cans and then you drink it.

Brianna: 2:00

And they're like, delicious. Whatever tastes, I'm like, I literally feel like I just put a grass clog. In my mouth and

Baylee: 2:06

It's like when people are doing the greens on TikTok, you're like, oh, it's so good. I'm like, eh,

Brianna: 2:11

love how it tastes. I'm like, no you don't. It tastes like wheatgrass.

Baylee: 2:14

have you ever like ate an apple? Probably is better.

Brianna: 2:17

yeah. You wanna it, you know what I mean? Not.

Baylee: 2:22

Yes. Well, today we are talking about heavy lifting. We talk about heavy lifting quite a bit, but we realize we haven't really defined like what true heavy lifting is. Everyone says that, oh, we're working out, we're restraint training, we're lifting heavy. But so many times when we dive in a little bit deeper, you're not lifting as heavy as you might think you are.

Brianna: 2:44

Mm-hmm.

Baylee: 2:44

So, I mean, lifting heavy, it can mean different things to different people, but true heavy lifting has a definition. It's going to refer to loads that are at or above 80% of your one rep max. Meaning you could only do like four to eight reps with good form before reaching failure.

Brianna: 3:06

Yeah, so if you're. Technically trying to lift heavy and you're able to do 10, 12 plus reps pretty easily. You're not lifting heavy. You should feel like. I'm almost going to max every time, or I have like two left in the tank of, I could maybe do two more reps controlled. But absolutely no more than that. You can't really hold a conversation, especially when you're in the middle of your set. Like if you're squatting and you're like, oh, I love that chatting. You are not lifting heavy'cause you should feel like you're focusing on your breathing to get that weight up. Your form will slightly like slow down or start to break down, like not fully. Like you just all of a sudden horrible form, but you start to feel like, okay, this next, this next rep is not gonna be pretty. And then you need two to three minutes of rest before each next set. And that, I feel like that kind of changes, but I think at least one, like, I know sometimes people like 30 seconds, but you gotta give your body time to like. Recover and be able to do that same effort again.

Baylee: 4:09

Mm-hmm. If you're just going back to back to back to back, it's probably'cause you're not lifting heavy enough. And I know it can be challenging because not everyone's able to join a gym or afford a membership. So if you're working out at home, totally fine. And I understand you can't just keep buying more weights'cause they do get expensive. Number one, you could buy'em as you need them. Number two, slow down with your workouts. It's, it actually makes a big difference. I always think, are you checking boxes? Are you being intentional with this workout? So that could be helpful, but, and I think it's, I talk to a lot of people too that they do. 15 reps and they just like pump'em out. They're like, this is, this is how we're supposed to do to build this muscle. I'm like, it focuses more on size. I would say, when you're doing higher reps, if you're really trying to burn fat and build muscle, then you gotta do lower reps and higher wheat, and it's not gonna make you big and bulky. And I know everyone's like, if it makes me bulky,

Brianna: 5:13

Yeah.

Baylee: 5:14

maybe you have a hormone issue then.

Brianna: 5:16

yeah, I'm like, you're probably not gonna get, you're not gonna look like Arnold Schwarzenegger. You're just not. That's not how it works.

Baylee: 5:22

And yes, there's some women out there that lift weights and maybe they do have more of a bulky form that you don't want. I'll say any woman that I have seen like that their job is like they are a personal trainer or they're a bodybuilder, they're in bodybuilding competitions. Their whole job is to look like that. Your average person? Nope.

Brianna: 5:48

They're probably eating in a surplus. They're probably getting a little bit of hormone help, whether it be growth hormone, a little more testosterone, you know, the women, just physiologically, hormonally, we are not just gonna build muscle like that and be jacked. I hear that a lot. Women are like, I'm so scared to look bulky, but. You won't. And a lot of times women are not eating enough to even do that or lifting heavy enough. But yeah, if you, I would say if you're trying to figure out like, I'm at home, do I need more weight? Do like two sets of 10 and then on your last set, see how many you can do. If you can do way more than 10 and you're on 20, you can absolutely go up. I would say.

Baylee: 6:35

Mm-hmm.

Brianna: 6:35

Five pounds maybe. I don't know. Because your last set in theory, you should be tired. There's no way you're like doing 20 and 30 reps. And that's kind of how I recommend do it and get one at a time, like one weight at a time and work one side of your body, right? Like if you're stuck between like 12 and a 15, get 1 12, 1 15 and work one side and switch it.'cause they are expensive. But, or like you said, slow down. Maybe add an extra set. So like you're doing four sets. It's not optimal, but it's better. But lifting heavy is totally relative. But if you're able to do those things like above that we were talking about, you're just not lifting heavy. And I've had to more and more ask people like, what does strength training mean to you? Like they're like, yeah, I'm strength training. I'm like, explain it to me.

Baylee: 7:21

Yes. And we don't say it to be like jerks. We're trying to get you the result that you want. And I've said this before, like especially if you're a mom, think about your kids. If you were lifting up a 25 pound child, but you're only lifting 10 pound weights.

Brianna: 7:36

Yeah.

Baylee: 7:38

You're not

Brianna: 7:38

can lift more. Yeah.

Baylee: 7:40

like I could bend down and pick Gannon up with one arm showing me I could pick up 20 pounds. I mean, he's almost 25, but that doesn't, I shouldn't be doing 10 pound weight cent if I can pick up a child that's squirming and moving all around. So think about your kids. I can lift'em up and put'em over my head a couple times. 25 pounds kind of just to give yourself an estimate. If you are doing these things and you want to work on more functional movement, think about those things. Think about, okay, weightlifting, it's not just about, okay, I look better. Yeah, it's a great perk, but it's also very functional. Every time you go up the steps, every time you're moving things around your house to Christmas and all the holidays are coming up, when you're getting down the decor off the top shelf, if you have. More strength in your upper body. You don't need your husband to go get it for you. You can just like do things on your own without creating a disaster.

Brianna: 8:36

All of those, like hinging, squatting, like reaching movements or movements that you wanna be able to do well into older age. And so really understanding like what strength training is, am I doing it? Am I doing it like effectively? That's the type of strength training that we're talking about that's gonna like build strength, preserve and increase muscle mass, improved bone density, increased metabolism, sort of thing.

Baylee: 9:00

You wanna be intentional with every area of your life. Brianna and I were just talking about it just like personal life things that we want to. Do to be more intentional? I mean, it applies to everywhere I think about this anytime with anything I guess, that I'm doing. Like after I change Gannon diaper, if I'm sitting on the floor, I'm gonna pick them up and I focus on like, I don't know how to even explain it, but like I get up without using my hands. Like I'm not falling over the place trying to pick them up. So doing different movements that. Keeps my muscles intact. If I'm going up the steps, I engage my glutes to do that because I don't know, it's, it's not gonna make me have a big butt by just going up the steps once a day doing it, but, you know, helps.

Brianna: 9:47

Oh yeah, it helps You might as well. And that's what I tell people, you might as well'cause you're already doing these things, right? Like you're

Baylee: 9:54

You're just enhancing it.

Brianna: 9:55

Yeah, you're already going to the gym. You're already get the most out of it. You're already doing the hard things every day. You're already, you're already doing it. So get the most out of it. That's how I kinda look at it.

Baylee: 10:07

Yeah, so just as a little check-in, like how do you know if you're actually lifting heavy? Number one, check on your effort. If you're one to two reps away from total failure, that's a good spot. Like your effort should be about like an eight to eight to nine. That's a good point. Check in, check in on muscle fatigue, not joint pain. You feel like the burn and the muscle not stress on your joints. There's a difference there.

Brianna: 10:34

Yeah.

Baylee: 10:34

Thinking about your speed. The rep slows down because of load, not just because you're getting lazy with it.

Brianna: 10:42

Yeah.

Baylee: 10:42

And kind of like how Brianna mentioned, like you can't keep the same weight for over 15 reps if you can not heavy enough for strength training.

Brianna: 10:50

Yeah, exactly. And if you've, you've been doing it a while'cause I think we get into routine. Yeah. Like, oh, I go and I'm gonna do

Baylee: 10:56

You're just going through the movements. Yeah.

Brianna: 10:58

I always do the tens. I'm gonna grab a pick up a different weight. Yeah, Exactly. But lifting heavy and having a plan and following a plan is so, so important with your health goals, but also your weight loss goals. And we talk, I, that's why I'm glad we did this episode.'cause we talk about string training all the time, but I'm like, are people actually doing it? After listening to this episode, if you still have questions about like, what is lifting heavy? Am I kind of doing it right? You can always reach out and ask us. This isn't like our forte, you know, I'm not some sort of like fitness professional. I live with hon, so this is why I kind of know some of this, but really try to understand like while I'm dialing these things in, while I'm working on my nutrition, on my exercise, on my movement, am I doing everything? To the utmost potential. I mean, at the end of the day, any movement is good. Any workouts is good, but like we say, random workouts get you random results. Maybe, maybe my, my husband's staring at me. Maybe we'll have my husband come on and give us a little bit more of a breakdown on hypertrophy, building muscle, that sort of thing. But anyways, we hope you guys have enjoyed this week's episode. Meet us here, same time, same place next week for a new episode on a brand new topic. All right, everyone. Bye.