7 reasons you’ve stopped seeing results after years of training

 

If you’ve been lifting consistently for years but your progress has stalled, your strength feels the same, your body looks the same, and your motivation is fading, this episode is for you.

You’re doing everything “right”: tracking your macros, showing up for your lifts, sleeping, recovering… yet somehow, your body isn’t responding the way it used to. The truth? You’re not broken, your body has simply adapted.

In this episode, we’re digging into what’s really going on when your progress plateaus after years of consistent training, and more importantly, what to do about it. You’ll learn what’s happening neurologically, hormonally, and physically when the results stop showing up, and how to reignite growth without overtraining or burning yourself out.

Here’s what we’re diving into:

  • How your brain’s “efficiency” in movement can secretly limit muscle activation

  • Why nervous system fatigue often looks like low motivation — and how to recover from it

  • How shifts in estrogen and testosterone affect your strength and recovery

  • The real reason your body isn’t responding (hint: you’re probably under-fueling)

  • Why recovery has to evolve with your training, or you’ll stay stuck in micro-fatigue

  • What happens when dopamine-driven progress slows and training feels flat

  • How to finally break the “work harder” mindset and train smarter for long-term results

If your workouts have started to feel flat and your body isn’t changing, this episode will help you understand what’s going on beneath the surface, and give you the tools to start seeing results again.

If you loved this conversation, you'll also love Episode 38: Getting Off Your Fitness Plateau with Progressive Overload 

If you want more from me, be sure to check out… 

Transcript

00:00

Hey there, beautiful human, you're listening to Embrace your Real with me, julie Ledbetter, a podcast where I empower you to just be you. With each episode, I dish you a dose of real talk and actionable advice for building your confidence, honoring your body and unconditionally loving your authentic self. Stay tuned. If you're ready to embrace your real, let's get in, let's get it, let's go. Hello, hello and welcome back to another episode on the Embrace Real podcast. All right, I'm a little bit nervous about today's episode, because this one hits close to home, like it's one of those topics that we don't really talk about in the fitness space, even though so many women are quietly experiencing it. And today we're going to be unpacking something that I hear women all the time tell me, and that's I've been lifting for years, I'm consistent, I track my macros, I sleep, I recover, but nothing is changing anymore. You've probably said that or thought that at some point, and that feels frustrating. It's such a frustrating feeling you feel and that feels frustrating. It's such a frustrating feeling Like you feel like you're doing everything right, but your body just won't respond like it used to. So, with that being said, maybe you've wondered like am I not training enough? Or hard enough? Do I need to switch out my workouts? Is my metabolism slowing down or something else going on inside my body that I'm missing? The most important thing to know while listening to today's episode is that this isn't about training harder or eating less. My goal today is to help you understand why your body hits plateaus after years of consistent lifting, what's happening hormonally, neurologically, physically, and how to make smart, science-backed changes that reignite progress without burning yourself out. By the end of today's episode, you're going to hopefully understand why your body stops responding to the same workouts years after year after year, what actually is happening in your nervous system and hormones, how under fueling quietly sabotages your strength and recovery, the difference between being consistent and being strategic, and exactly what to do to break through those plateaus the right way.

02:02

Before I dive in, though, I want to share this review. It comes from Gabs30. She gave a five-star review and said hi, julie, I found you through Pinterest and let me say I love you. You are the kindest human. I appreciate all the information that you share. I am a lot like you and have a very similar story. Thank you for your podcast and thank you so much for sharing openly. I'm so grateful. Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to send in this review. All of your reviews really do mean the world to me. So if you had a specific episode that maybe just hit you, or just episodes in general, I would love to hear it. So you can scooch over to Apple Podcasts. Leave that rating interview. That would mean the world to me and our team. Just know how these podcasts are helping you. All right, let's get right into it.

02:44

Your brain stops firing the same way that it used to. You know those first couple of years when you start lifting and everything just clicks like you get stronger. Week by week, your body starts changing. You can see all the work paying off. That early progress isn't just because you're finally lifting weights. It's because your brain and your body are learning how to work together for the first time. At the beginning, your brain is in overdrive. Every time you pick up a dumbbell, it's figuring out how to communicate with your muscles, which fibers to recruit, how to stabilize your joints, how much force to use and how to do it all without you falling over right. That's why your first year or two of you in the gym or in your workouts, you feel like a rocket ship of progress. You're not just getting physically stronger, your nervous system is learning how to fire more efficiently. Your brain and your muscles are finally learning how to speak the same language. Then, once that connection becomes strong, your body starts to build more and more muscles right. Your lifts go up, you start feeling confident in your form, and that's when you hit that sweet spot, the one where everything feels good. Your progress is steady and you can see the changes happening in the mirror. But here's the part that no one really talks about. Eventually, your body's going to get comfortable and after a few consistent years, your brain doesn't have to think anymore. It's mastered those patterns. It knows how to squat, it knows how to hinge, it knows how to press, and so it starts doing something sneaky. It gets efficient.

04:05

Now, efficiency sounds great in life, but in training, too much of it means your brain isn't firing as many muscle fibers to do the same lift. You're still showing up, you're still pushing, you're still sweating, but under the surface, your nervous system is doing less work than before, and that's why progress slows down, even when your effort stays high. You might notice that lifts feel easy, but the results aren't showing up, you're not sore, your muscle definition isn't changing much or the scale and measurement haven't budged in months. That's not because you're doing anything wrong. It's just your brain doing its job too well. It's because it's become so efficient that your muscles aren't getting the same growth signal that they used to.

04:39

So how do you fix that? You have to remind your body how to learn again. That doesn't mean throwing out your program or starting over. It means reintroducing new challenges for your brain. So I want you to slow your tempo so that your mind has to focus on every inch of that lift. I want you to change your stance or grip slightly to alter the movement pattern. I want you to maybe swap a barbell or just dumbbells. I want you to switch your accessory lifts to hit different angles. Add maybe a unilateral movement, something like a single leg or a single arm. Work to force your brain to stabilize and engage more muscle fibers. Those small changes might not look dramatic, but they're powerful. They make your brain pay attention again. They increase communication between your nervous system and your muscles, and that's what reignites growth. Think of it like refreshing your body software. You're not deleting everything you've built, you're just installing an update so that it can run better.

05:32

Number two your nervous system is fatigued, not your willpower. Okay, I want you to really, really really listen to this one, because it's one of the most common reasons I see women hit walls. You think that you've lost motivation, or maybe you tell yourself you're being lazy, but most of the time it's not your mindset that's the problem, it's your nervous system. Here's what I mean. Every time you train intensely, especially with heavy weights or high effort, your central nervous system, your CNS, goes to work. It's not just your muscles doing the lifting, it's your brain and spinal cord coordinating every rep, every contraction, every ounce of force. And to do that, your CNS releases hormones like those stress hormones like cortisol and adrenaline. That's normal. That's how your body gets focused and ready to perform.

06:15

But here's the catch your nervous system doesn't just reset when your workout's over. It also has to recover, just like your muscles do. And if you're training hard, you're juggling work. You're juggling family, kids, deadlines, poor sleep, caffeine all day long and stress from every direction in your life. Your nervous system never really gets that chance. It always gets stuck in go mode and when that happens, your body can't differentiate between stress and training. Stress, it's all the same to your nervous system. So, even if your muscles feel fine, your performance starts dipping. You might feel unmotivated, your lifts feel heavier than usual or your recovery takes longer. You might notice mood swings or restless sleep, or that wired but tired feeling where your mind won't shut off even though your body's exhausted. That's called nervous system fatigue. And here's the important part the harder that you push when your CNS is drained, the deeper the fatigue goes. It's like trying to charge your phone while scrolling TikTok with 3% battery left. You're technically plugged in, but you're still draining power faster than you can recharge. So if you've been showing up training hard and feeling flat instead of strong, your nervous system might need a reset.

07:22

I want you to try this Deload every six to eight weeks. Right? This doesn't mean sitting on the couch. It means reducing your training intensity and volume for one week. So you're still moving just that 60 to 70% of your normal load. This is going to give your body and your brain time to recalibrate. I want you to sleep like real, consistent sleep. Seven to eight hours is an extra credit. It's required. That's when your CNS repairs itself and restores the hormones that make you strong.

07:50

I want you to check like really check your caffeine habits. If you need coffee or an energy drink just to function, your adrenals are probably begging for a break. I want you to try cycling caffeine down for a few days and see what happens even up to a week or a couple of weeks. And then, lastly, I want you to manage your stress outside the gym. I want you to walk, journal, pray, breath, work, simply saying no to one extra thing. Those are not weak strategies. Those are performance strategies. When your nervous system is recharged, your energy comes back, your workouts start feeling powerful again and, most importantly, your body can finally adapt the way that you've been asking it to. So the next time, if you feel off in your training, don't automatically assume that you've lost your edge time. If you feel off in your training, don't automatically assume that you've lost your edge. It might not be motivation that you're missing. It might just be recovery, like true, deep, deep CNS recovery.

08:37

Number three estrogen and testosterone shift how your body responds to training. Okay, I want to talk about something that doesn't get nearly enough attention when it comes to strength training, and that's your hormones. You've heard me say this before, but your hormones are not the enemy. They're actually one of the biggest tools when it comes to building strength and recovering well. But the problem is most of us were never taught how much they affect our training results. Here's kind of a quick breakdown.

09:00

So estrogen is not just the female hormone that controls your period. It actually plays a major role in muscle repair, tendon health, strength. It's anti-flammatory, helps you protect your joints and even supports how your body uses carbohydrates for energy, and that's why many women notice they feel stronger and more powerful during the middle of their cycle, and that's when estrogen peaks right. Then there's testosterone. Women have it as well, just in smaller amounts.

09:26

Testosterone is the hormone that helps you to build and maintain lean muscle mass. It also helps to improve recovery and gives you that inner drive to push in your workouts. So when either of these hormones start to dip whether it's from chronic stress, it's from under eating, it's from birth control, it's from postpartum, it's from perimetopause your body starts to respond differently. Your recovery time gets even longer, your motivation dips, you might feel puffy, you might feel inflamed. The same workouts that used to build muscles suddenly just feel like they're maintaining, and if you've been pushing harder to fix that, it can even backfire even more If your hormones are already taxed. More intensity just adds more stress to the system, and that stress drives your estrogen and testosterone even lower. It's this vicious cycle that keeps you spinning your wheels, but not all is lost.

10:11

You can work with your hormones instead of against them. Here's kind of how. So I want you to prioritize protein. I know I sound like a broken record on this podcast, but I am telling you and I will continue saying this because it is that important I want you to aim for 0.8 to one gram of protein per pound of body weight. Protein is going to support your hormone production, stabilize your blood sugar and give your muscles what they need to rebuild after every workout. I also want you to manage your stress. I know this is easier said than done, but this is where your hormones live or die. High cortisol from constant stress suppresses both estrogen and testosterone, which is why women who go hard all the time oftentimes see slower progress over time. I also want you to train with your cycle, so when you're menstruating, you'll notice your energy and your strength fluctuate throughout the month. That's normal when estrogen is high, usually in your follicular phase. Right after your period, your lifts should be heavy. I want you to go for PRs.

11:07

When your progesterone rises and your energy dips, usually in your luteal phase, focus on the slower tempo recovery work or lighter training, and if you're in perimetopause or beyond, your strategy just shifts. It becomes about maintaining muscle and supporting recovery through nutrition, sleep and resistance training, not endless cardio or restriction. Your hormones are like your internal training partners when they're supported, your body performs better. When they're ignored, everything feels like a struggle. So, instead of blaming yourself for lack of motivation or slower progress, start asking yourself what is going on hormonally, because sometimes the fix isn't a new workout plan. It's giving your body what it needs to feel safe again to build again.

11:48

Number four you're probably under fueling the muscle that you have worked so hard to build. This one is huge and it's honestly something I see all the time, especially in women who've been lifting for years. Here's what usually happens you start your fitness journey with a fat loss goal right. You track your macros, you dial in your workouts, your nutrition, you start lifting and boom, you're starting to see results. You lose body fat, you feel stronger, you start to see that build and see and start to build that lean muscle. But here's the thing that no one tells you.

12:15

Once you build that muscle, your body changes. Your metabolism actually increases, because muscle is a metabolically active tissue. It burns calories even when you're not moving. That's a good thing. It means that your body's becoming more efficient at using energy. But many women keep eating like they're still in that first cutting phase. They're stuck in this mindset that less is better less food, less, fewer carbs, smaller portions, and at first maybe that works. But now your body is stronger, more active and metabolically demanding, and those same low calories that used to create results are barely maintaining you now.

12:49

So what is happening? Your body is adapting. It starts conserving energy, slowing your metabolism, just to keep you functioning, and that's when you hit that wall. Your workouts start feeling flat, your progress stalls. You can't figure out why your strength, your muscle definition, has stopped improving. It's not that your training isn't working. It's that your body doesn't have enough fuel to respond to the work that you're doing.

13:08

So I want you to think of it like this Muscle is expensive for your body to maintain it. It needs protein to rebuild, carbs for glycogen storage and enough total calories to keep your hormones balanced If you're constantly under eating, even by just a few hundred calories per day, your body will start pulling back. It will protect what it has instead of building more, and that's why women who've been lifting for a few years oftentimes start feeling tired, moody or like they're doing everything right but spinning their wheels. It's not a lack of discipline, it's a lack of energy availability in your body. So here's how to fix it.

13:40

I want you to start by increasing your calories gradually. Start with 100 to 150 extra per day for a few weeks, especially from carbs. I want you to focus on whole food sources, so rice, potatoes, fruits, oats. Carbs are not the enemy, they are your training fuel. I want you to keep your protein consistent around 0.8 to 1 gram of protein per pound of body weight so that your body has the building blocks that it needs to repair and grow. And I want you to watch your performance.

14:07

If your lifts start feeling stronger and your recovery improves, you're on the right track. Your muscle tissue is metabolically active. It wants energy, and without enough glycogen stored in your muscles, your training will feel sluggish, your recovery will drag and your hormones will take a hit. So if you've been lifting for a few years and still eating like, you're in a calorie deficit. It might be time to reverse that, and that's why I'm such a believer in learning how to eat for your current body, not your past one, and that's exactly what I teach inside my Macroconomy and Simple Online Academy. We'll teach you how to calculate your true maintenance calories, how to reverse out of a deficit safely and how to give your body the fuel it needs. To keep changing, because here's the truth you can't build your strongest body on an empty tank.

14:52

Number five your recovery system hasn't adapted as fast as your training. This one's a hard truth for us to hear, but it's so important. As women, we're really good at doing more. We train harder, we lift heavier, we add sets, we stack new goals, and that's amazing. What usually doesn't grow alongside of all that effort is our recovery. What usually doesn't grow alongside of all that effort is our recovery. You've improved your output, but most women never improve their input. And here's what I mean. Every time you lift weights, you're intentionally creating those tiny amounts of damage inside your muscles, and that's what's going to stimulate growth. Your body responds to that stress by repairing those muscle fibers to make them stronger and thicker. But that repair doesn't happen during your workout. It happens after, and that repair process requires two things that most women undervalue deep sleep and adequate nutrition.

15:41

Hard training triggers inflammation. Let me say that again. Hard training triggers inflammation. That's normal. It's part of the adaptation process. But if you never fully recover between sessions, that inflammation becomes chronic. Your muscles cannot rebuild properly, your joints ache, your energy dips and suddenly you're wondering why your workouts feel harder, even though you're doing everything the same. When recovery doesn't match intensity, you start accumulating what I like to call micro fatigue. It's this not full-on burnout. It's the subtle exhaustion that builds when you're not giving your body enough time or resources to repair. So you might still be training well, but underneath your system is operating in the red.

16:15

I want you to think of it like paying interest on a loan. You're constantly giving a little bit of energy back, but never enough to catch up. Eventually that debt adds up and your progress slows to a crawl. So what can you do? You have to treat recovery like a part of your training plan, not something to earn after it. Here's kind of how you can do that. I want you to plan rest intentionally. A good rule of thumb is one full rest day for every two lift days. So if you train four to five days a week, that means two to three days where you're either resting or doing light movement.

16:46

I want you to use active recovery more wisely. This isn't about doing more cardio. It's about movement that helps your body reset Things like walking, pilates, stretching, gentle mobility work. These activities increase blood flow and help clear out inflammation without adding stress. I want you to nourish recovery. You cannot rebuild muscle without the right fuel. Prioritize that protein and carbs post-workout and stay hydrated with electrolytes to support that muscle function. And, last but not least, I want you to support your system. Omega-3s and antioxidants are going to help to reduce that inflammation and support your joint health. And don't forget that magnesium that's another huge one for muscle relaxation and sleep quality.

17:26

Here's the biggest takeaway Recovery should be part of your strategy If you want to keep progressing year after year. You can't just train harder, you have to recover as much. Growth doesn't happen during the workout. It happens in the space that you give your body. Afterward Number six, your brain's reward system changes. So in the beginning training feels electric. Every week brings a new personal record. Your body's composition is changing. You can see proof that effort and that the effort is working. Those early wins give you big bursts of dopamine, that brain chemical that reinforces reward and motivation. But once you've been training for a few years, those easy dopamine hits fade. You're not hitting new PRs every month, your visual progress slows and the rush of I'm improving starts to level off. That can make motivation feel flat, not because you don't care anymore, but because your brain isn't getting the same chemical payoff that it used to.

18:17

This isn't a discipline issue. It's pure neurochemistry. Your brain adjusts to what it already knows. The novelty is gone, and dopamine loves novelty. It fires when we do something new, when we experience progress, when there's uncertainty and excitement in the outcome. Once your workouts, though, feel predictable, your brain simply stops rewarding you the same way. So instead of relying on motivation, you need to train your brain to find new forms of reward.

18:46

I want you to create new markers of progress. So, instead of chasing the same old look leaner. Goal, I want you to shift your focus to what your body can do. Aim for your first pull-up. Try hitting a sprint time. Add five pounds to your squat. Your brain loves those measurable progresses. Add a novelty. Strategically, this could mean learning a new lift or joining a group challenge or simply changing the environment where you train or even the time that you train. Novelty reignites dopamine and helps you feel engaged again. I want you to track those small wins. So every time you show up when you didn't feel like it, every time you recover smarter or feel better, that's a win. Write them down. Seeing proof of growth retrains your brain to associate your consistency with reward. I want you to find purpose beyond performance.

19:32

The women who stay consistent long-term are the ones who connect with their training to something deeper Strength for motherhood, longevity, mental clarity, confidence. When your why expands, your motivation follows. So if your workouts have started to feel dull, don't assume that you've lost your spark. Your brain just needs something new to get excited about. Progress doesn't always mean heavier weights or visible changes. Sometimes it's about creating new ways to fall in love with the progress and process again. And last but not least, number seven you mistake exhaustion for effort. So this one might sting a little, but I say it with love more always isn't better.

20:10

After years of being consistent, it's easy to believe that the only way to break through a plateau is to push harder. Add more sets, train six days a week instead of five stack cardio on top of your lifts. And yes, sometimes adding intensity can help, but only to a point. Here's the truth your body doesn't grow from what you do in the gym or in your workouts. It grows from how well you recover from what you do in the gym or in your workouts. And if your recovery hormones are constantly suppressed, if your cortisol is high, your sleep is short, you never take a break. Your body isn't in a building state anymore, it's really in survival state. So when cortisol, which is your stress hormone, when that stays elevated for too long, it's gonna block muscle repair and keeps your nervous system on high alert. At the same time, hormones like growth hormone and testosterone, the ones that support your muscle recovery, repair and fat metabolism, they stay low. That means, even if you're training perfectly, if you're eating clean, you're being consistent, your body simply doesn't have the environment that it needs to grow. But physiologically, your body sees it as stress and when your system is overloaded with stress, it stops adapting. So how do you fix it? You have to learn to balance intensity with recovery.

21:18

I want you to understand overload versus overtraining. So overload means pushing your body just enough to trigger adaptation. Slightly heavier weights, slightly more volume, slightly less rest. Overtraining, on the other hand, means that you're doing every single day without enough time to recover. I want you to plan your rest before you burn out, so don't wait until you're exhausted to take a break.

21:40

Like I mentioned, schedule that deload week every six to eight weeks. Take one to two full rest days a week. Those aren't off days, those are growth days. I want you to reframe your mind. They're not off days, they're growth days. I want you to cycle your training so you don't have to go 100% all year long. This is exactly why my Movement With Julie app has structured workouts from week to week. It intentionally cycles intensity so that your body stays responsive instead of being worn out.

22:08

And I want you to check your stress outside the gym or your workouts. Sometimes you're not overtrained, you're just overstressed. Work, lack of sleep, emotional load, underfueling all count towards your body's total stress bucket. Empty it regularly. Here's the bottom line. Discipline isn't about seeing how much you can endure. It's about knowing when to push and when to pull back. The women who see results year after year after year aren't the ones who are grinding the hardest. They're the ones who are recovering the smartest.

22:37

All right before we wrap up, let me recap what we talked about today, because I know it was a lot. Your body adapts to training. Variety and progression keeps it growing. Nervous system fatigue can look like laziness but it's actually burnout. Hormonal changes can impact recovery and performance, especially with age and stress. Under-fueling is one of the biggest reasons that results stall. Your stronger body needs more fuel. Efficiency isn't always progress. Challenge your body in new ways. Remember, overtraining is depletion and sustainable progress comes from smart programming, recovery and proper nutrition.

23:13

If this episode hit home, I want you to know that you don't have to figure this out alone. My Movement with Julie app gives you dumbbell workouts that are built for you. All you need is a few pair of dumbbells in a small space. You have five brand new workouts every single week a 30 minute, a 60 minute, depending on your time constraints. And then also my Macro Academy and Simple Online Academy is going to teach you how to fuel that progress. You can find both of those by clicking the link in the show notes below. I will go ahead and link both of those so that you can easily go check those out. And also, if you love this episode, I know you will also love episode I think it's 68, getting Off your Fitness Plateau with Progressive Overload. I will go ahead and link that in the show notes below so that you can easily go check that out.

23:54

All right, if you could leave a quick rating interview, that really helps more women find the show. But that is all that I have for today's episode. Go lift, go fuel, go live confident. I love you so dang much. I mean it and I'll talk to you in the next one.

24:14

All right, sister, that's all I got for you today, but I have two things that I need you to do. First first thing if you are not already following me on the gram, be sure to do so. Julie A Ledbetter yes, it's with an A in the middle for that daily post-workout real talk, healthy tips and tricks and honest accountability to keep your mind and heart in check. The second thing be sure to subscribe to Apple Podcasts to never miss an episode. Thank you so much for joining me. It means the absolute world, and I'm going to leave you with one last thought. The most beautiful women that I have met in my life are the ones who are completely confident and secure in being authentically themselves. Remember that beauty goes so much deeper than the surface. So go out there and embrace your real, because you're worth it.

 
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