Curious about where you are on your journey to becoming more muscle and less fat? Wondering about your bone health? In this episode of Ask Holly, I answer three of your questions that could really unlock the next level of strength and wellness for you. If changing your body composition was easy, then we would all have no problems doing it! That’s why I love hearing your biggest struggles so we can get the variables that really matter into alignment and get you the body, vitality, and health that you crave. The first question is about how to calculate your body composition. The first thing to understand is that body composition is the totality of your current body weight according to gravity on Mother Earth. Your body composition is the total body weight of your body fat, lean muscle mass, and bone mass. It's so important to get a professional assessment over an online calculator because they have the highest percentage of error. I focus on muscle mass over body fat percentage for a more accurate picture of health. To calculate it, I take the body fat percentage that's given to you from your DEXA assessment. I take that number and subtract it from 100%. So if your body fat percentage is 30%, then your adjusted lean muscle mass would be 70%. This however, does not take into account bone mass. These scans are so important for getting the clearest picture. Body composition assessments divide an individual's total body mass, that's your body weight according to a scale, into the relative proportions of fat mass and fat free mass. The next question is about the best ways to strength train after receiving an osteoporosis diagnosis. Unfortunately, the advice for how to handle this diagnosis is often not handled well. If you search “bone,” I have a lot of very specific episodes on this topic but for now, let me say that walking is a great place to start if you’re out of the exercise habit. From there, you can begin strength training. Start slow, twice a week with moderate weight,s and increase the volume over time. The last question is about how to strength train if you have an injury. Let me first say that your next workout is only as good as your recovery from your last workout. Assess how well you recover. I’d also recommend concentrating on very gradual progression in your workouts. Each week should really only be a tiny bit more than the previous week. If this all feels a little too calculated, another thing I often tell my clients is to leave every workout wanting more and let the goal be to leave your workout feeling great. Don't push. Don't overdo it. You may be tempted to think that improving your body composition is an impossible task, but the truth is, it's pretty formulaic and all about finding the right programming that works for your body!I hope you enjoyed this episode! You can get FREE access to my 4-week Strength Without Stress program right now! This program will help you reduce the systemic inflammation that’s caused by overly intense or lengthy workouts. It’ll help you build and maintain valuable lean muscle without the fatigue from other programsTo get free access to Strength Without Stress, post a Review wherever you’re listening. Grab a screenshot of your review before you post it and upload at: https://www.hollyperkins.com/review This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197–grab it while you can for lifetime access.Topics covered:(05:09) Q: What is the best body composition calculation method?(11:50) You control your body composition!(15:50) Q: What’s the best way to strength train after an osteoporosis diagnosis?(24:21) Impact exercises aren’t the best place to begin if you have osteoporosis(26:11)...
Curious about where you are on your journey to becoming more muscle and less fat? Wondering about your bone health? In this episode of Ask Holly, I answer three of your questions that could really unlock the next level of strength and wellness for you. If changing your body composition was easy, then we would all have no problems doing it! That’s why I love hearing your biggest struggles so we can get the variables that really matter into alignment and get you the body, vitality, and health that you crave.
The first question is about how to calculate your body composition. The first thing to understand is that body composition is the totality of your current body weight according to gravity on Mother Earth. Your body composition is the total body weight of your body fat, lean muscle mass, and bone mass.
It's so important to get a professional assessment over an online calculator because they have the highest percentage of error. I focus on muscle mass over body fat percentage for a more accurate picture of health. To calculate it, I take the body fat percentage that's given to you from your DEXA assessment. I take that number and subtract it from 100%. So if your body fat percentage is 30%, then your adjusted lean muscle mass would be 70%.
This however, does not take into account bone mass. These scans are so important for getting the clearest picture. Body composition assessments divide an individual's total body mass, that's your body weight according to a scale, into the relative proportions of fat mass and fat free mass.
The next question is about the best ways to strength train after receiving an osteoporosis diagnosis. Unfortunately, the advice for how to handle this diagnosis is often not handled well. If you search “bone,” I have a lot of very specific episodes on this topic but for now, let me say that walking is a great place to start if you’re out of the exercise habit. From there, you can begin strength training. Start slow, twice a week with moderate weight,s and increase the volume over time.
The last question is about how to strength train if you have an injury. Let me first say that your next workout is only as good as your recovery from your last workout. Assess how well you recover. I’d also recommend concentrating on very gradual progression in your workouts. Each week should really only be a tiny bit more than the previous week. If this all feels a little too calculated, another thing I often tell my clients is to leave every workout wanting more and let the goal be to leave your workout feeling great. Don't push. Don't overdo it.
You may be tempted to think that improving your body composition is an impossible task, but the truth is, it's pretty formulaic and all about finding the right programming that works for your body!
I hope you enjoyed this episode!
You can get FREE access to my 4-week Strength Without Stress program right now! This program will help you reduce the systemic inflammation that’s caused by overly intense or lengthy workouts. It’ll help you build and maintain valuable lean muscle without the fatigue from other programs
To get free access to Strength Without Stress, post a Review wherever you’re listening. Grab a screenshot of your review before you post it and upload at: https://www.hollyperkins.com/review
This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197–grab it while you can for lifetime access.
Topics covered:
Resources Mentioned:
Follow Me:
Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins
Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com
Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness
Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.
Holly Perkins 00:00
If you're on a quest to become more muscle and less fat and are curious how to do some math at home to know where you are and where you should go, I'm going to share my quick and dirty exercise for getting some clarity. And if your bone density isn't where it needs to be for optimal protection and you want to strength train safely and effectively, this episode of Ask Holly is for you. You'll get my answers to these questions and more. So keep listening.
Holly Perkins 00:35
Hello and welcome. Thank you for being here. If you are new, hello, I'm Holly Perkins, and I help women—mostly over 40—to improve body composition so that you are at least 70% lean muscle, so that you can reduce your risk of disease and stay in the game of life and out of the rocking chair. Because simply being fit isn't good enough, in my opinion. If you want to weather the storms of life that are ahead, I believe that we need to be strong, both inside and out. Because life really throws the curveballs of all kinds. And when you're resilient on a very deep level, nothing will rattle you.
Holly Perkins 01:25
And if you're over the age of 40, you know that it gets trickier each year to know what protocols you should be following to get the best results—or really, to get any results at all. So many women are really struggling in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, and really beyond. I think sometimes life is just a struggle for us ladies. And thankfully, the truth is, I know the female body very well, and I've got some incredible tools in my tool belt to help you.
Holly Perkins 01:55
So from time to time, I think it's really interesting to hear the questions that other women are asking. And one of my absolute favorite things is to be able to hear your question and give you my answer. Because if you're struggling to get as lean as you desire, there's a reason. And if you are trying and working hard and following my advice but you're still not getting exactly what you want, I guarantee we need to adjust or tweak some of the variables in your programming—whether that's meal timing or meal size, or heart rate during cardio workouts, types of protein that you're relying on regularly, or even the actual progression of your strength workouts.
Holly Perkins 02:46
So today I'm answering your questions in this episode of Ask Holly. Often you say it best, and I love supporting the listeners of this podcast for free. So today, I've got three really interesting questions that might just touch upon some of the things that you too are struggling with. In this episode, you'll hear my advice to three listeners who shared their burning questions: what to do if you get an osteoporosis diagnosis, exactly how I calculate body composition so that you can become at least 70% lean muscle mass, and how to build muscle and become stronger while also navigating injuries.
Holly Perkins 03:35
I realize that you might be a bit confused about how to actually improve your health and body composition. And in truth, if it were easy, it would be easy, right? But it's not. And I can tell you this: after 30 years of practice, consulting, and coaching women week after week, I will tell you that it is possible to get the body and the health that you want. Please hear me loud and clear, because every week I hear from women, and I hear the doubt in their voice. They have really crystal-clear goals and intentions, but there's a part of them that's like, Is this even possible? I hear it all the time.
Holly Perkins 04:20
So if that's you, today's episode is really going to resonate. My most successful clients are doing it every single week, at every single age, and that tells me that you can do it too. Things like your weekly volume of strength exercises, your exact macronutrient strategy, how well your protein sources match your blood type, and the ratio of minutes spent during cardio versus strength all matter. All of these details really matter. And once we get these variables in alignment, your body will actually change very quickly. And yes, you can even become a powerhouse—if that's what you want. So let's jump in.
Holly Perkins 05:09
Today's first question is so relevant and comes from Amy C. Amy says: “I loved listening to your episode The Muscle Tipping Point, and my goal is to definitely achieve your prescribed lean muscle mass and body fat balance. To give myself a starting point, I surfed the web to find a way to calculate these numbers. I discovered that I am 21% body fat and 75% lean muscle mass. But these numbers don't add up to 100%, so I'm not fully trusting their calculation. Help! Could you provide your calculation method so that I can have a trusted source for these key health measurements?”
Amy, I love you.
Holly Perkins 05:54
Such an incredible question, and I really want to underscore the fact that it isn't easy to get accurate data on this information. There are a variety of testing sources and ways to find out your body composition that are more accurate than others—that's really the truth. So the first thing to understand is that body composition is the totality of your current body weight according to gravity on Mother Earth. Whatever that number is, it doesn't even matter. But your body composition is the total body weight that is:
Holly Perkins 06:43
So let's not forget, there's a part of your body weight that is just bone. So Amy, the missing 4% refers to your percentage of bone mass. And in my experience—a lot, I would say—the majority of women are between 3% and 4%. So I will tell you, those numbers do add up, and I would say they are as reliable as they are. Now, knowing nothing about your current height or your weight, I can't tell you if those numbers are actually accurate to your body.
Holly Perkins 07:17
If you are actually 21% body fat or not. But I will say that in my world, 21% body fat equates to 79% lean muscle mass, which is excellent. Now you might be saying, "Wait, that’s funny math—79 plus 21 equals 100. What happened to that 4% of bone?" We're going to get to that in a moment. And I do hope these numbers are accurate for you, but here is what you need to know and how you can know for sure. First and foremost, it's really important to get a true professional assessment, rather than using an online calculator that references your body weight and your circumference measurements. That's how most of these online calculators do it.
Holly Perkins 08:04
So those are going to be the least accurate of all in terms of percentage of error. Now, if you're not able to get a DEXA scan—which really is the gold standard, it's the most accurate—with the DEXA scan, you're looking at about a 1% margin of error. But if you can't get that, which a lot of people can't, do a search in your area for an “InBody,” which is just a different form of technology. A lot of times, you can find them, depending on where you live, for either free or very low cost. That is most likely going to be more accurate than a bathroom scale or any kind of online calculator.
Holly Perkins 08:47
So here's the thing to understand—and this is very unusual—something I do in my community that needs to be understood: All of the different measuring devices, assessments, and reports for body composition are a little bit different. I get reports that are in Italian, I get reports that are done in Canada, I get reports from universities. Every single report kicks out different information. The only metric that is the same on every single report is body fat percentage, because that seems to be the metric that the world is obsessed with.
Holly Perkins 09:26
Now, if you're a listener of mine, you know I'm trying to change that conversation so that we're not so body fat–obsessed and we are a lot more muscle mass–percentage obsessed. But because I live in the world that is still focused on body fat percentage, here is how I calculate body composition in my community—to help my women be able to level the playing field, but get concrete information to improve their body composition.
So what I do is: I take the body fat percentage that's given to you from your assessment, and we take that number and subtract it from 100%. So if your body fat percentage is 30%, then your lean—really, what I call “adjusted lean muscle mass”—would be 70%. And that is how I arrive at adjusted lean muscle mass percentage.
Holly Perkins 10:21
Now listen, it's not accurate, because it's not taking into account bone mass. But here's the thing: this is the easiest way to level the playing field—to say, let's just divide your body weight between fat and muscle, and let's just look at it that way. It also makes it easier when we're talking body fat percentage. Some people might hear me say that 30% body fat is the initial target, and some people might believe 30% body fat is high. And historically, according to what we have believed to be true, that would be true. But once you really understand the history of the BMI, and what people have been estimating as body fat percentage...
Holly Perkins 11:04
The truth is: 30% body fat is higher than we really want you to be for health, but it's actually super-duper common. So in my community, I want you to achieve at least 70% lean muscle mass. Then, once you've achieved that, so that you're in the clear in terms of your risk of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, then we’ve got to put our eyes toward 75%, to even 78%, or maybe even 80% lean muscle mass.
Now Amy, if those numbers that you determined through an online calculator are right, you're on the money, my friend. You're exactly where I want you to be.
Holly Perkins 11:50
So you get to decide: are you happy with your current body composition, or would you like to improve it? Now listen, a person can become more fit, stronger, and increase lean muscle mass and keep their body composition the same, regardless of what your body weight is. So the good news is: the ball is in your court, and you get to decide. But at the end of the day, I would encourage you to make sure you've really got an accurate, reliable assessment so that we truly do know what your current body composition is.
Now, for those of you that are newer to this conversation, let me explain exactly what body composition is. Body composition assessments divide an individual's total body mass—that's your body weight according to a scale—into the relative proportions of fat mass and fat-free mass.
Holly Perkins 12:45
Now see, fat-free mass incorporates bone mass. And so, in its most general sense of the equation, we really are only looking at fat-free mass and fat mass. But the fat-free mass would normally be divided up between lean skeletal muscle and the other tissues. Fat-free mass comprises muscles, bones, organs, ligaments, tendons, and water. So you can see how sometimes the conversation gets a bit murky.
Holly Perkins 13:16
The quantification of fat, muscle, bone, and water are highly informative in the diagnosis, management, and treatment of several nutrition-related conditions that impact individual and population health. I have linked this research for you below in the show notes, just to demonstrate why I believe that Amy's question is so relevant. I recently asked my community what your top goals are right now. I sent out a survey, and the responses were both super interesting and so clear. Most of you—the vast majority—said, "I want to lose body fat. I want to build muscle. I want to age strong." That was the vast majority.
Holly Perkins 14:03
And that really resonates with me because I know how frustrating it can be when your body just isn't responding the way that it used to—or even the way that you want it to. This is a really common theme. You're working hard, you're doing, quote-unquote, "all the things," but why isn't your body where you want it? So this month's lab is dedicated to these exact goals, and it's called The Midlife Muscle Fix, and it is happening live on Wednesday, June 25 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time. In this 90-minute lab, I'm going to teach you why your results may have stalled and exactly how to adjust your workouts, your nutrition, and your recovery to finally see some visible change.
Holly Perkins 14:53
You'll learn how to lose the layer, how to build lean muscle mass, and how to actually feel amazing again—personally, or maybe even feel good for the first time—without chasing the scale, and certainly without overtraining. It's just $20, and I will leave time at the end of the lab to answer all of your specific questions so that you can get coaching directly from me as it pertains to your body. It's a high-level, deep dive into this important topic.
Holly Perkins 15:24
And yes, if you can't make it live, I encourage you to sign up, because you will get the recording and it's yours to keep forever. If you've been feeling stuck, soft, or just like your efforts aren't adding up, this lab is for you. You can grab your seat now at hollyperkins.com/lab. Again, that's hollyperkins.com/lab—L-A-B—and I can't wait to see you there. Up next, I'm answering Diane's question about how best to strength train following an osteoporosis diagnosis. Stay with me. But first, the next really good question comes from Diane S., and she asks,
Holly Perkins 16:10
I was recently diagnosed with osteoporosis. This was totally unexpected and took me by surprise. I had been doing workouts four to five times weekly and had just gotten back into weight training. How do I safely incorporate weight training and weight-bearing exercises? I've been watching many videos, some of which have been helpful—others, not so much. Diane, I am so glad that you asked this, and thrilled that I finally have the chance to answer and give you some research.
Holly Perkins 16:41
First of all, it's so important to understand that you are so not alone. I can't tell you how frequently I hear this. In fact, just this week, I spoke with a woman who was diagnosed with osteoporosis at the age of 30. And guess what? She exercises. I'm seeing this more and more because the conversation about bone density is coming to light, and people are now not waiting until they're 62 to get their bone scan.
Holly Perkins 17:11
So this is very common territory. And I know that it can be a scary diagnosis, and I know, sadly, a lot of our medical professionals aren't super helpful because many of them don't have the right information on the right exercise modalities to treat this. The common solution is to give you either prescription medication or tell you to do, quote-unquote, "weight-bearing exercise," like walking a few times a week—which really is very short-sighted.
Holly Perkins 17:43
Now, when you look at the research, you'll see numerous citations of weight-bearing activity like walking. And while that's fine, it's not good enough. One study I looked at, linked in the show notes, suggested that patients should avoid forward flexion—which, in the industry, we call "unsupported forward flexion of the spine." So imagine if you are in the shower and you bend over to pick up something that you dropped, or you drop a spoon in your kitchen and you bend over to pick it up. That's called unsupported forward flexion of the spine, and that is when people start to get into trouble.
Holly Perkins 18:23
This study also suggests avoiding side-bending exercises or lifting heavy objects because pushing, pulling, lifting, and bending activities compress the spine, leading to fractures. Now listen, that is all true—but it's nuanced. It's so important to understand how human movement happens. If you are at risk of bending forward and getting a fracture, we've got some work to do. Because are you planning to go about the rest of your life,
Holly Perkins 18:52
never side bending, never lifting a heavy object—which is relative; is your 30-pound pet considered heavy? It depends. Or do you plan on never going about life bending over to pick up something off the ground? It's just not realistic. And I don't think this old-school medical advice is really helpful when you can strength train safely. And we now know, looking at more research, it really is the more impactful remedy and modality for improving bone density. I have several podcast episodes on this. I hope you will take a look around—do a search on my website.
Holly Perkins 19:33
Come to hollyperkins.com/blog, and you can do a search for the word "bone," and you'll find all of my podcast episodes that are related there. So Diane, here is what I recommend in your specific situation. If you've been off track with exercise for more than six months, walking is a good place to start. And yes, it is weight-bearing.
Holly Perkins 20:12
So for anyone that is deconditioned or has extreme osteoporosis, walking is a wonderful place to get started and to gradually increase. I recommend walking even five or ten minutes every other day and then gradually increasing that to 10–15 minutes every other day. Eventually, work yourself up to 20 or 30 minutes of walking every other day, and then you can start to introduce walking every day. Walking is one of those things that we're not too worried about overtraining—unless you're doing a lot of super fast walking at a higher heart rate, not usually common with this type of territory. And as you progress from there, then you're going to want to start to begin some strength training.
Holly Perkins 20:52
Now, if you are already back to being active and you are ready to progress, strength training is where it's at. And it is going to provide the stimulus that tugs against the bones to stimulate the osteoblast cell activity so that your bones will start laying minerals to improve that bone density. And yes, it's absolutely possible—provided you are consistent and you do it in a conservative, moderate, progressive way. Here's what that means: start with just two brief strength training workouts each week where you're completing maybe two to three different exercises for two to three different muscle groups, starting with 10 repetitions using weight loads that are moderate. They're mostly comfortable, but they're not easy.
Holly Perkins 21:48
Now, this is going to sound very conservative—and it is—but it's important to start slow and then eventually ramp up. Over time, you're going to want to increase the total volume during each of those workouts, similar to what I just described with the walking. So, two times per week during your strength workouts, each week you can add a little bit more volume to each workout. Volume is the total number of sets, reps, and weight load that you're using.
Holly Perkins 22:22
The easiest way to think of this is: each week, add one more set to what you're doing. Eventually, you're going to add a new exercise so that you're doing three or four different exercises. You want to increase the number and the amount of work that you're doing in those two strength training workouts, and increase the volume first until you get up to about 15 total sets per workout, twice per week. So that's a total of 30 sets per week. Once you hit that, it's time to add a third workout each week.
Holly Perkins 23:03
After a couple of weeks, you're then going to want to slowly increase the weight load of the exercises that you're doing, keeping that weekly volume. What we do know that's most important is that, over time, you are using heavier weight loads. In my opinion, and in my practice, my clients get the best results when we focus on keeping the volume relatively consistent so that you can increase—incrementally—the weight loads that you're moving each week. Now again, depending on where you are in your current activity level, if you are just getting back on track with your strength training, I recommend that you keep your exercises to simple, single-joint exercises.
Holly Perkins 23:48
This could be a bicep curl, tricep kickback, dumbbell lateral raise, hip extensions, lying side abduction for the glutes, leg extension, leg curl. These are simple, single-joint exercises, and they are great to build a foundation. Once you've mastered those, and you're up to your weekly volume and you're ready to get more complex, then you can start to incorporate more compound exercises like bodyweight squats, or maybe bench step-ups, or maybe a supported Bulgarian squat.
Holly Perkins 24:21
These types of exercises use multiple joints in the movement and therefore incorporate and recruit a number of different muscles. Now, the one thing I will say that's really important for people with osteoporosis is you're going to hear at some point someone recommend impact exercises like jumping, leaping, and bounding—and even running. Impact exercises are great for bone density, but you must have a strong foundation of strength first. This is not where you want to start. This is where you want to progress to. And I would say you really should be at least 70% lean muscle before you begin to incorporate impact exercises.
Holly Perkins 25:05
And when you do, you're going to want to start them very gradually—maybe one or two minutes of impact exercises once or twice per week—gradually increasing the number of minutes that you're spending in these leaping, jumping, bounding, plyometric-type exercises. Diane, I hope this helps, and I hope you will reach out and let me know how you're doing, and if you have any further questions.
Hey, if you love this format for the Holly Perkins Health Podcast and have your own burning questions, come over to hollyperkins.com/askholly and submit your question.
Holly Perkins 25:47
Nothing is off-limits, although you probably don't want my advice on knitting or how to achieve work-life balance—because I definitely don't know much about either one of those. But if you promise to keep it relevant to this podcast, I'd be overjoyed to help you out. So come on over to hollyperkins.com/askholly and ask away.
Holly Perkins 26:11
The next question comes from Beth:
Hi Holly. My question is about strength training during an injury. I have had issues with my hip—likely bursitis, but seeing an orthopedist soon—and my shoulder. I'm going to physical therapy, which helps, but I want to keep up strength training while honoring my healing process. I do your Strength Without Stress program, and I LOVE it. I feel like I'm ready at times to progress to higher weights, but if I overdo it, I can have a setback.
Holly Perkins 26:42
So what do you recommend for those like me who are dealing with an issue around being injury-prone but also want to continue to build muscle? For context, I'm turning 53 next month and feel like I'm fairly fit, but I know I need to get more focused on building muscle. I love your show and the work that you do.
Thank you, Beth, and I hope I'm able to help you out here, because it is so frustrating when you just start to feel like you're out of the gate, and if you accelerate even a little too quickly, then you have yet another setback. Now, this is a complicated topic for a number of reasons, and I will speak to what I see in my practice with my clients.
Holly Perkins 27:24
First and foremost, I am so with you, Beth, and it's important—it's so important—to honor and respect your healing journey. Because if you don't command a real understanding of how you work with your body now, you'll never get past this. It's really important to listen to your body, listen to the cues, and when it tells you to stop or take a day off, I believe that's really important.
And to give you a little bit of hope, I can also say that I was once in your shoes. In my 30s, before I really understood solid principles, I was constantly dealing with different kinds of injuries. I had debilitating knee pain that became debilitating hip pain, that became shoulder issues and lower back issues.
Holly Perkins 28:13
So I know. I've been there. And I'm proud to say that now, at the age of 53, I'm pretty much bulletproof—and I know that you can do it too.
Now, if you're interested, for a good read, I've linked to an article called The Fundamentals of Resistance Training Progression and Exercise Prescription by one of my mentors, Bill Kramer. It's a great read if you're interested. It's linked in the show notes. And I'll give you the high-level 411: the first thing to understand—which is tricky—is that your next workout is only as good as your recovery from your last workout. If you're able to assess how well you recover...
Holly Perkins 28:55
And I know that's kind of murky territory, but what I would say is, if you're doing a strength workout on Monday, you should be 100% ready to go by Wednesday. And if you're feeling any muscle soreness or any fatigue on Wednesday, that's an indication that either your recovery is impaired or you're doing too much on Monday.
Personally, I always think it's better to scale back to using the amount of exercise—the volume during each workout—that you are able to recover from in about 24 to 48 hours, rather than getting super sophisticated on recovery. If your workouts are the right volume, the right intensity, and the right duration, you're going to recover very quickly, provided your nutrition is solid.
Holly Perkins 29:46
The second thing to understand is this concept of progression. So, in some of my other podcast episodes, I've talked about the acute-to-chronic workload ratio. I'll be talking about this more in my upcoming book Muscle and Bone, which comes out in 2026. Now I know you don't want to wait until then for my answer, so I'm going to give you the shortcut.
Basically, what this means is the human body is only able to do a little bit more in every successive bout of exercise.
Holly Perkins 30:17
Sometimes what I see in my practice is women will start to feel better, so they'll show up for their next workout, and they will do way too much more than what their body is actually prepared for. This is called your chronic ability—what you've been doing on the regular and what your body is trained to. And so, it becomes very important to just incrementally increase either the volume of your workouts (that is, the total number of sets, reps, and weight load), or the total length of your workout, or the frequency of your workouts.
So frequency, duration, and volume are super important in terms of calculating the total amount of work you're doing in each workout.
Holly Perkins 31:05
And so, each week, you should only be incrementally doing a little, teeny-tiny bit more—and that number is approximately 20%. And so, let's say you're doing a total of 20 sets of strength exercises in your strength workouts this week. That means next week, you really only should do about 20% more next week—and that would be 24 total sets of strength exercises.
Now, even that can be a little aggressive if you have any other competing issues in your recovery, and so it's 20% at the maximum.
Holly Perkins 31:51
If this all feels a little too calculated and mathematics-driven for your brain, another thing I often tell my clients is: leave every workout wanting more, and let the goal be to leave your workout feeling great. Don't push. Don't overdo it. Don't crush your workouts. The name of the game here is slow, steady, gentle, moderate, definitive progress—week after week after week. And if you do it slow and steady, you will see the progress—without the injury.
Holly Perkins 32:32
And if I haven't made it abundantly clear yet, you definitely want to focus on incrementally increasing your weight loads on the same exercises that you're doing week after week, and just let progressive overload, in terms of weight loads, be the goal.
Beth, I hope this helps, and I hope you will keep me posted.
And there you have it—one of my favorite episodes of Ask Holly. You may be tempted to think that improving your body composition just seems to be an impossible task, but the truth is—as you can see from my episodes—it’s really just formulaic and finding the right programming that works for your body.
Holly Perkins 33:16
I hope you enjoyed this episode. As a reminder, you can submit your questions over at my website: hollyperkins.com/askholly (linked in the show notes). And if you want to spend some quality time with me and learn how to lose the layer, build lean muscle, and finally feel amazing again, I hope to see you at this month’s lab: The Midlife Muscle Fix.
Grab your seat now at hollyperkins.com/lab, and stay tuned for another brand-new episode on Tuesday of next week.
Stay strong, my friend.