Strength training is an essential component in making any kind of body composition changes. So many women fear becoming too bulky if they lift weights, but that won’t happen to your body unless you make very intentional training decisions. I’m joined by coach Becca Failla to talk about strength training, being kind to our bodies, and the nutrition and fitness hierarchies.

 

The Fitness Hierarchy

1. Nutrition
2. Strength Training
3. High-Intensity Interval Training
4. Pure Cardio

 

About Becca Failla

Becca Failla is a full-time coach at FitFarm in Omaha, a personal trainer, group fitness coach, and nutrition & lifestyle coach. She has a Masters in Social Work & Public Administration and has worked with women in recovery from drugs & alcohol for five years before fitness and nutrition coaching. 

Becca has been in the CrossFit world since 2009 and coaching since 2014. She was a competitive CrossFit athlete for four years before stepping back in 2018 to focus on coaching. 

Becca has been a nutrition coach since 2016. She studied with the Functional Nutrition Academy & is Precision Nutrition Certified. Her education in counseling and experience working with addictions has given her a huge edge in nutrition & lifestyle coaching. 

“My health and fitness help me be the best version of myself physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. I strive to lead by example and help others uncover the best versions of themselves.” 

Outside of the gym, she spends her time with her husband, Andrew, their daughter, Violet, and pups, Shooter and Ralph. Becca’s coaching expertise includes nutrition, exercise, body composition, body positivity, body acceptance, muscle gain, fat loss, and exercise consistency.

 

Strength Training for Women

Becca joins me today to discuss the truth about strength training for women. So many women are afraid that if they focus on strength training, they’ll become bulky and “look like a man.” But the truth is that to bulk up that much takes a lot of serious dedication, specific nutrition and eating, and consistent heavy training.

Another reality is that genetics plays a role in how your body responds to strength training. Some bodies add muscle easier than others. Other bodies might have a harder time shedding excess weight.

 

The Nutrition & Fitness Hierarchies

Both Becca and I encourage you to stop wanting to trade your body. Your body is yours; you can work to change it, work to love it, and work towards body neutrality. Becca shares how she developed an attitude of body neutrality and positivity and what changed for her when she did.

Becca talks about the two pyramids she focuses on with her clients. The nutrition hierarchy is generally the same for everyone, but how you apply it to your goals is different. Becca explains how to tweak your nutrition strategy to complement your body composition goals.

The fitness hierarchy starts with nutrition. You can’t out-train a bad diet. From here, it’s important to focus on strength training, high-intensity training, and then pure cardio. Becca explains why solely focusing on cardio won’t help you get to your body composition goals.

What kind of car is your body? What does it look like? What does it do? Describe your body like a car in the comments on the episode page.

 

In This Episode 

• The reality of women, strength training, and bulkiness [4:00] 
• The role of genetics in what your body can do [8:00]
• How to stop wanting to trade your body [12:30]
• The nutritional hierarchy for different goals [18:00] 
• What you need to know about the fitness hierarchy [23:45]

 

Quotes

“It’s my passion to share my experience and knowledge and help other women get to that point where they get to embrace who they are, and they’re focused on becoming the best version of themselves and the strongest version of themselves without letting that outside influence of what society is telling them they should be or look like.” [3:10]

“Why do we, as women, always feel like we have to shrink ourselves or fit ourselves into a specific petite, dainty mold? Not just physically, but emotionally and mentally, shrink our voices, shrink who we are? … Why do you have that fear? Where is that fear coming from? Let’s just focus on being strong, badass women and let our bodies do what they’re naturally meant to do.” [5:41]

“I don’t have negative thoughts anymore because I was very intentional with what I was allowing in, but then very intentional about where my thoughts were going and starting to rewire those.” [14:38] 

“Ultimately, you can’t out-train a poor diet. Depending on your goal, you can not ever exercise and lose weight. But if you want to increase and change your body composition, you can’t just change how you eat and expect your body composition to change. You have to lift weights. You have to do strength training and resistance training. You can’t eat your way into better body composition, but you can eat your way into weight loss.”  [24:32]

 

Resources

31 Days of FIT.  Learn more HERE.

Muscle Maintenance During Fat Loss. Waitlist HERE.

Fit Woman Collective™. Learn more HERE.

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Ali Novitsky MD, this podcast, and podcast write-up are NOT providing medical advice

 

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