"Ugly" Lifting Face = More Gym Gains?

Fuel Your Strength

Steph Gaudreau

Fitness, Health & Fitness, Nutrition

4.8 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 August 2025

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Ever wonder if you’re lifting enough weight to truly see progress? You’re not alone – this is one of the most common questions in the gym, especially among athletic women over 40 who want to keep getting stronger without wasting time on unchallenging workouts. In this episode, you’ll learn a simple, almost foolproof way to gauge your lifting intensity – one you’ve probably never considered before – plus how it stacks up with other methods like RPE, reps in reserve, and bar speed.

We’ll explore what the science says about how your body (and face) signal effort, why “playing it safe” too long can stall your gains, and how to use these cues to choose the right weight every time. Plus, we’ll address the appearance-based fears that sometimes hold lifters back and reframe what really matters for strength, longevity, and performance as we age.

What you’ll learn in this episode:

A surprisingly effective visual cue to know if your weights are challenging enough.
How facial expressions connect to effort and fatigue – and what research shows.
Other key indicators like bar speed, RPE, and reps in reserve to cross-check your effort.
Why small, strategic weight jumps are more effective than big, intimidating increases.
The bigger trade-off when fear of wrinkles or “ugly lifting face” prevents pushing yourself.

Studies:

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25435786/

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/30562370/

Enjoyed this episode and want more?

If you want a lifting program that tells you exactly what to do, try 7 days of Strong with Steph here >> https://stephgaudreau.com/workout

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Transcript

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0:00.0	If you're wondering, am I lifting enough weight to actually see progress?
0:04.5	This is a very common question and one that I hear all of the time.
0:08.9	On this episode of the Fuel Your Strength podcast, I'm diving into one very specific and yet
0:14.1	dead simple way that you can tell the answer to the question, how do I know if I'm using
0:19.5	enough weight?
0:20.6	And I bet you you haven't thought of it
0:22.0	before. If you're an athletic 40-something woman who loves lifting weights, challenging yourself
0:31.1	and doing hard shit, the fuel your strength podcast is for you. You'll learn how to eat,
0:40.4	train, and recover smarter so you build strength and muscle, have more energy, and perform better in and out of the gym. I'm Strength
0:47.2	Nutrition Strategist and Weightlifting Coach, Steph Goddrow. The Fuel Your Strength
0:51.7	Podcast dives into evidence-based strategies for nutrition, training,
0:56.6	and recovery, and why once you're approaching your 40s and beyond, you need to do things
1:02.3	a little differently than you did in your 20s. We're here to challenge the limiting industry
1:07.4	narratives about what women can and should do in training and beyond.
1:13.0	If that sounds good, hit subscribe on your favorite podcast app and let's go.
1:21.7	What's going on, my friend?
1:23.0	Thank you so much for being with me today on the Fuel Your Strength podcast.
1:26.7	I'm really excited to talk
1:27.9	about this topic of how do I know if I'm lifting enough weight? The very specific thing I'm
1:32.8	going to talk about today is not one that a lot of people consider. And when I first shared
1:37.6	this on my Instagram stories, I got a bunch of responses from people. So I knew that I wanted to have this as a podcast episode so we could dive into it a little
1:48.2	bit more.
	...

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