12 Strength Training Mistakes in Menopause Robbing Your Results

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Good night.

I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you knew to ask them. The goal to help accelerate your results. With science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman, and it's not just about you, but the 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert, and an international speaker, to founder of the first and the only exclusively made-for-menopause-and-beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week I interview experts behind the scenes and the science of optimal hormone-balancing fitness and longevity and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality and the energy that you want, need, and deserve.

I'm going to jump right into content right now. So the first of these 12, this dozen, if you will, mistakes that are frequently made in strength training by women over 40, and I would say potentially our likelihood of making these mistakes is even greater over 50 and over 60, because we have a different history of conditioning. And I don't mean conditioning from the shoulders down, I mean from the neck up. We've learned certain things and we've acquired certain beliefs that, even though not true, we hold on to them, and we have this incongruence, and it's difficult to change our patterns. So please don't go away if you're a woman over 40, you need to hear these things. And if you're a trainer or a health coach who works with them, I've got something for you too that may turn your clients around. Number 1: overworking small muscle groups. Now, you know who you are. You're probably my listeners who— I want toned arms, so I'm going to make sure I do arm exercises every day, maybe at the detriment of time and energy you could be spending where you will get much greater and significant benefit from doing something else. Your triceps and bicep curls will not lead to super sculpted arms, not by themselves. So those sets of exercise could rob you time and energy better spent on your major muscle groups if you aren't getting the adequate volume there. So that's key. Volume comes from not more days a week, not necessarily. Comes from a minimum of 2. Gotta stimulate those muscle groups twice. And I know some of you are out there, very few of you are out there saying, I only do them once. But here's the thing, you and I are probably borderline risk of injury, of overstressing and over-fatigue if we're doing just one time a week strength training. Because imagine how hard, how intense that has to be if we're just doing one time a week hitting a muscle group. Number one, you're gonna be super glad that you're recovering for another 6 days before you ever have to do that again. And again, think of it like medicine, you know. I mean, I don't know any medicine— very few anyway— that you're going to take once a week, right? So generally, if you need to get over something, you need some stimulus to support you. It's 2 or 3 times, or at least once a day. Think of your exercise in this way too. It needs to be a little bit more regular, but the volume comes from a number of sets and the amount of weight more than the number of repetitions. Hear that again for the people in the back. Volume comes from, most importantly, the amount of weight we lift and the number of sets we do per muscle group. So if you're only doing one chest press, you know, there probably needs to be 4 or 5, or maybe on a rare occasion even 6 sets of that exercise in order for you to create enough stimulus in that single workout. You need fewer of these small muscle group exercises in your routine if you prioritize the major muscles like your chest press and your back trapezius and latissimus dorsi that you would work in, say, a bent-over row or a machine row, standing cable row, a pull-up, a bent arm pullover. If you're working those The secondary muscles, which are your biceps and triceps, they are not meant to play anything but a supporting role. Those muscles get a workout in that supporting role. So I'll tell you one thing I've noticed my biceps more than I ever have in 43 years of personally doing strength training, and that is pull-ups. So even when I was swimming on a, on a regular basis in training— and by the way, I'm going to get into that again very quickly, very in a very near future because I'm training for something. And you know, then doing a lot of back exercises, pulling exercises, to actually gain the strength that you need because you're not pushing, you're pulling when you're swimming. So the stronger you are in a pull, the stronger that stroke, more water you push behind you, and the more you propel yourself forward. The biceps and the triceps are going to get a workout doing those things. Can you also isolate them? Yes, but we have a limited amount of time and energy, so I want you to think about this. Arm flab or fat doesn't respond to exercise alone. Your insulin resistance and your blood sugar control require more attention to food and to sleep here in the arms specifically. So number 2 is skipping the warm-up. Right? So if you are skipping the warmup to get right to the good stuff, we want to go right to the good part. Anybody else? Nearly a decade ago, I posted a video and I still, still go back to it again and again. You will find this, I believe, on my YouTube channel, but there are 5 components of a workout that should never ever disappear. And let's say you're only doing a 10-minute longevity snack and you're in our membership where you have access to those or in our Stronger program where we've gifted you those as well. It doesn't mean that doesn't have a warm-up. You have to do some kind of a warm-up on the front end. But here's your motivation for doing that: if you don't do it, you don't have as much energy expenditure, because energy expenditure in exercise or any effort is about oxygen consumption. Energy expenditure is another way of saying how many calories did you burn. And look, Your fat storage or fat burning is not completely dependent on calories in, calories out. You know that by now really well, right? Those of you that have dieted within an ounce of lettuce, right? No, this doesn't work. It doesn't work because the hormones get depleted, they get stressed. You're taxing your system if you're not taking in enough food and/or you're exercising, and worst of all, you're trying to do both. Right? Over-exercise and under-eating, bad combination for your hormones, and you are probably storing fat. You're gaining visceral belly fat, and you're seeing it everywhere. But the warm-up may need to shrink like an accordion or expand according to the time. But here's why you want it. It's not just about injury prevention. So those of you who feel like, I'm fine, my joints are good, I have great mobility, and I don't need this Oh yes, you do. All right, one thing you will never see skipped if you go to a collegiate sports practice or you see elite athletes in a workout or in a training session, you may be very surprised to find that elite athletes actually, their whole workout may to you look like a warm-up. They're taking care of the little things. They did not skip it. This is really important for all of us to learn. The more and the sooner that there is an increased blood circulation, your blood is just delivering oxygen to working muscles, right? The more oxygen delivered to those extremities— caloric expenditure is directly related to your caloric availability or blood availability to oxygen consumption. And this is super, super important for you to understand. Good, all right, I'm trying to type at the same time. Nice, okay, so your oxygen consumption, or oxygen consumption by your working muscles. So the blood delivers oxygen. That's one part of energy expenditure. The other part of that energy expenditure is actually your cells extracting it for their use. You get better at that when you do it. And we get better at something that we've never done before when we go slow, right? We learn something much slower than we might actually do it when we know it well. So again, back to the warm-up. Your body at the cellular level even is learning things. It's not just about the movement and the patterns that you might be doing in a warm-up that you're going to do harder when you reach that point. So in addition to reduction of injury risk, that's a big, bigger concern when we are, you know, losing estrogen. We don't have as much collagen breakdown. Your joints, your ligaments, your tendons, all of those are going to be problematic. But there's increased energy expenditure. Exercise feels more comfortable, and therefore you are potentially going to work out longer, work out harder without it feeling longer and harder. A bonus, right? So you're going to be doing more work at your capacity. So having something while you're exercising feeling hard and actually working up to your potential are two very different things, and we've confused them, convoluted them in the last 20 years. You know, we can make HIIT feel really hard by not giving you any rest and recovery in between, but you know that those consecutive repetitions, the intervals that you'll do that are the third and the fourth and the fifth, your performance will start to— pardon my French— start to suck. You're not actually working at your capacity. It just feels hard. And this is true for some of you who are fasting because there's no energy there. It just feels hard. If you ever watched a figure competitor or a bodybuilder in the final stretch to competition, they're they're walking on the treadmill generally early in the morning to burn calories and they don't have anything in their system, they're miserable. And then they're trying to nap later or can't do their jobs. You know, I've had many personal trainers who like to do bodybuilding competition. They want to test themselves. And, you know, I'm like, look, you got to show up with some energy here. So think about your job, your activity, you're moving more during the day. You may not be the average person that wants to follow a plan based on someone who sits all day at work. So we're going to change things a little bit if you want to keep your job, right? So I don't need to tell you that, but let's go reviewing really quickly. Number 1, if you're overworking your small muscles instead of paying attention to maybe doing another set or another exercise for a major muscle group, that's a showstopper. Number 2, skipping your warm-up. Not a good idea, not ever, and you will regret it. And sometimes we have to get to that point where we've got an injury or we've got some pain limiting now what we can do until we get there. Don't let that be you. Number 3 is not resting between sets long enough before repeating. Rapidly moving from one exercise to the next has had its day, and I alluded to that a little bit with HIIT, but it's not so much that as those boot camp kinds of things. So that was yesterday. It's day— that's right, those metabolic conditioning workouts is what they're called— are a nice anomaly, a change of pace, right? Where you might be going from station to station. I'm gonna do a battle rope, and then I'm gonna do jump rope, and then I'm gonna do punching a bag, and then I'm gonna blah blah blah, right? So heart rate up, heart rate up, heart rate up. Or you're going to a renegade row, you go into a chest press or a push-up or squats and then jump squats. So you're alternating between this and between that. Doesn't even matter. And it does feel hard. We alluded to this earlier, but being challenged just by rapid movement and being told, oh, you're going to torch 600 calories a session, you know The marketing literally goes there, and it, and it's very hard not to be sucked into that conversation. That can cause an elevation of cortisol while you're exercising that unfortunately remains after. So in most exercise of any intensity, your cortisol does rise. However, it rises and then comes down below where it was when you started. So you're— you are feeling more resilient, feeling more energetic. You've removed that bit of roadblock by purging a little bit of stress and energy, but it backfires if there's an elevation of stress hormones that then don't come back down. They're up, they're elevated, and there's other reasons why this occurs. I'll talk a little bit more into that in a minute, but rest between sets of strength training is super important. Reach complete muscle fatigue or within 2 reps of it. So we say 2 in reserve if you're feeling like— I get vulnerable, I don't like to be like at failure, I totally get it— 2 in reserve is close enough. Okay, but if you do HIIT, separate the sessions so you can get the best benefit from it, and separate the intervals so you've recovered 100 percent. You need to, you need to actually reach muscle fatigue but then not come back to that specific muscle group until you're completely recovered. That window is anywhere between 1 and 3 or 4 minutes, but that doesn't mean you're sitting down scrolling, right? So I'm a big advocate for getting the most efficient time, right? So getting the biggest benefit from the least amount of time spent. So I will do major muscle groups. But then in between, making sure I'm getting— and I prefer about 2 to 4 minutes of recovery and rest because I'm going heavier. The heavier we go, the more time we need between for full recovery. So I will do a balance exercise. I may do an opposing muscle group or opposing body part, meaning from upstairs to downstairs. I'm going to get a little bit more recovery there than if I did chest press and back still upper body. So it's a little less recovery than if I were to do, say, a chest press and work in lunges in between, or deadlifts or squats. I got a little bit more rest for the body part, and then I might then put in either a core exercise for a minute or a balance exercise, dynamic balance exercise. Now it's a good 2 minutes before I'm back to that same muscle group. So think about, are you doing enough rest That may be all you need to change so that you can go heavier and again come back to your capacity. Next up, this mistake is no organized plan. Those of you who are going, but I'm working out today, I'm going to do a strength training workout, I'm due, and then you go to YouTube and you do, you know, a workout that you find, or you do a favorite workout. This is my favorite workout. Yeah, well, your body probably thinks it's a favorite too because it's getting to cheat. It already knows what's coming, it's adapted, and you're not doing what, what we call progression. So as a strength and conditioning coach, I would never ever ever think that I could work with one of the world champion triathletes in Boulder, where I was stationed for like 6 and a half years. So I would never think I could just randomly do a workout, and I would maybe see on an app or in a magazine, that's a great exercise, I'm going to try that next time. No, right? First of all, you need to be choosing great exercises for you based on your limitations, your range of motion, your movement, your goals, your hormonal status. This is really important. But also, you need to say, the relationship I have with this workout today needs to be based on the workout I did just previous to it and the workout I'm going to do the 2 days, 3 days after it. How are they related? There is a relationship. And if you are randomly saying, I like that workout, I like that workout, I'm going to go back to these, and, and missing that progression, or you don't know how to regress when stressors get high in your life, this is a problem. If you have an organized plan, you can always take a detour, right? But you start with that GPS in your phone, and you may have her, Siri, say, you know, if you take another route, it's 5 minutes faster. Gives you the option. Do you want to do that? But it had to have the route in the first place to give you that, to give you that. And you can make changes, but you've got to have the base. What's the roadmap? Where are you going first? So have an organized plan. You need to know, as a 12 weeks, you know what you're doing from week 1 to week 2 to week 3, and you know why it's diverse, and yet it also builds one on the other. Somebody has planned this really closely, by the way. So when you think about how many sets should you do, how many repetitions, what exercises, what sequence should those exercises be in, how do you progress next week so that the volume is there but the diversity and variety is there as well? We change the sequence of the exercises, we change the emphasis when we do that of which muscles we're really focusing on, and the amount of rest between the exercises in a very mysterious way, potentially to you. You may not see there's any rest there because you're doing something next, but there's always rest and recovery included. So sometimes it's more and sometimes it's less on purpose. Not random. It's an important distinction. Next up, not in the weight room, not sleeping enough, or I'm going to flip this, not changing the workout when you don't sleep. If you're not sleeping well and you're trying to just— I— this is what it says on my sheet, I should do this. I am— I'm following this because I'm a Type A, I'm an overachiever, and it's us, we're the most guilty. Right, I'm gonna hit this one. And sorry about that, I kind of yelled, but it's very important to realize that your body is under a certain amount of stress because you are sleep deprived, or because mom is passing and you're a caregiver, or something else is going on. Those stressors have to be factored in. So I'm using sleep in this case, and sleep is crucial. Sleep is crucial to your health as a woman, but sleep is crucial to any fitness benefit taking place, right? Because if you are not sleeping, your immune system is depleted. Your immune system is a big part of your reaction and response to exercise. Cytokines are released afterward. Your immune system, for a short period of time after a workout, especially a tough one, is depleted. Until you can allow that storm to come in and for it to overcome— your body to overcome that. But it doesn't have all the tools in order to do that if you're sleep deprived. So that's a really important one. Treating soreness or being worn out as an indication of a good workout is really a mistake, and it works both ways. If you never feel sore, it doesn't mean you didn't get a great workout. If you always feel sore, it doesn't mean you've got a great one. And, and I was asked this just the other day. If your muscles are sore, if I'm sore, does that mean I shouldn't do the next workout? And I said— she used the word pain, actually— and I said, is it really pain or is it muscle soreness? So there's, there's got to be a big distinction here, and there's got to be a continuum that we're thinking about, both of us, so we're communicating really well. If you are feeling, I've got a little bit of muscle soreness, I'm still aware of those muscles I worked the other day, if your workout will be other than a repeat of the same one, you're probably fine and maybe better off to go ahead and do that. It's fairly mild, it's an awareness, and you're not going to repeat the same thing that made you excruciatingly sore, meaning we caused lots of microtearing in that previous workout, but instead it will be different. You're probably just fine. If on the other hand your assignment is to repeat a workout that you just did and it made you really sore then you would wait another day, but you would be active. So active recovery is very important and much more efficient and effective than passive recovery. So that means don't just lie on the couch, but it also means don't just take a bath with Epsom salt or go to a masseuse and have them rub you out. Now, those things may be lovely and also will help, but more helpful will be you moving. Go for a walk if your legs are sore. Go for a walk and then come back and stretch them. If you're— if it's your upper body, if you can go for a swim, do a little boxing and/or some planks even to get blood flow to your upper body so that you're moving. So very important that you realize this: anything brand new is going to make you a little bit sore, even if you're extremely fit to start out with. So if you've not done lateral work like side lunges or unilateral work, you know, single leg deadlifts, you're more likely to feel that after an unusual or new workout. We can take buff trainers and football players, we can put them on a Pilates reformer, just as an example, and they will feel it the next day. We, as Pilates instructors, if you can identify with It's kind of fun to— we can make them cry, right? They can think, oh, this is going to be so easy. I'm seeing this from the window and yeah, it looks like a passive mamsy-pamsy workout. And then we get them in there and they're like, yeah, really? Okay, how you feeling about that now? So anybody can deal with that or have that response. There are two genes associated with soreness, and you may either be predisposed to be sore or not be sore. It's not a good indication of whether you worked hard enough. So if you reached muscle fatigue, you did your job, right? You reached muscle fatigue or temporary muscle fatigue within 2 of getting to the point where I can't do anymore. That's a better gauge of this is a good workout. Soreness can be hinting that your micronutrient density, that intake of carbohydrate or protein that combination is not adequate, by the way. So you may find you don't have as much soreness if you actually eat adequately. So this has been true for a very long time, but this is something that we notice. Soreness also can be more likely if you're sleep deprived. I noticed this when I got a new puppy, you know, about 18 months ago now as I record, and I got after a very active summer, feeling in top condition. I'd gone to the Grand Canyon, and that's a tough, steep out, about 9 miles straight up in the, in the heat. You're already depleted energy-wise, but also a little dehydrated. I know, of course I was a little bit sore the next day, but actually really fine after that. I was more sore in the first probably 6 weeks of having a puppy because I was sleep deprived, right? So it was a big shock to my system and to my ego, but it's truth. Next mistake, dependence on supplements and negating balanced whole foods. I'll be the first one to admit, we at Flipping 50 believe most women and men for that matter need to supplement. But I need you to understand that my stance on this is First of all, those supplements need to be high quality. You need to actually figure out, do I have a deficit with food alone, and what is that if so? But then if you're willing to— you're too willing actually to jump into use of essential amino acids or branched-chain amino acids, which I would tell you not necessarily necessary or helpful for a woman who's not eating enough. You, you can't overcome if you're not eating enough. There's a wide variety of micronutrients nutrients coming in from food. There's a very specific and narrow— only essential amino acids. Now, that's a good thing and a bad thing. Some of you though who have a diet mentality and still think less is more, you're thinking, oh, but those essential amino acids don't have any calories, so I can take those in and keep my muscle while still losing fat. Don't get too bold with that. Don't get too anxious to give up the micronutrients and calories that you actually need so you can work harder at your capacity, because fitness occurs, muscles occur because you're strong, you're vibrant, you're able to work at capacity. So you need to think food first and then allow supplements to pull in and close the gaps to take you the rest of the way. I don't love to count calories or points. I didn't really— resisted steps for a very long time, but I know see the value of it, and research is pointing that there is some value. But a snapshot, I find, of counting can be very helpful for checking in, knowing where you're at, and knowing that you're eating too little. We really— we're terrible at it. And terrible not in the way that most people think, that, that people are overweight or obese because they're eating too much. Maybe eating too much of the wrong food. But in general, with women I've worked with, and even some men, when they get in better shape, they don't realize, I'm now an athlete and I have to eat more, not less, than where I was before. Women aren't good at doing this, and we overestimate that we're eating enough, and/or we think still that 1,200 calories is enough to sustain a decision-making badass mover and shaker of a woman, and it is not. So if you're not eating at least 2,000 calories a day, if you are somebody who is an athlete, you're moving 4 or 5 times a week on purpose in exercise, not just going for walks, but in exercise, you're going to need some of those calories. The less you eat, the more you slow your metabolism because you're telling your body burn less, so it will. The more you eat, the more you boost that metabolism, as long as it's the right kind of food and the right timing. So more about that in a moment. If you want some help, we have a Metabolism Makeover 2.0. It is ready for release probably as you're listening to this. It's already out, but it is at a stinking ridiculous price. Originally, we offered this in 2020. For $699. I did a live coaching group with it, and here you're gonna get this for $49. It's do-it-yourself. You'll have access to it for as long as you like, or as long as I'm here. I, I can't say forever or lifetime, that's just too ambivalent, but you will have access to it to come back to it again and again and to do it on your own, or the option to upgrade and get some support if you want it. But it's It's all right there. And many of the things we're confused about, you know, are simply because years and decades of conditioning. So you'll really get an idea of what slows a metabolism and what makes a metabolism go. For many who are undereating, your first goal will be to increase calories so you can turn on that amazing metabolism again. It wants to work in your favor. And just like returning from a winter vacation, turning the heat back on, it will take a little time to get things heated but it will happen. Next, taking too much advice or too little from too many people. So you see where I'm going with this. If you have too many voices in your head— I've experienced this really recently— you're trying to do one program that is about maybe diet and nutrition, or working with a functional doctor who also tends to be giving you advice on nutrition, and you're working with somebody else, or exercise, and you're working with someone else or me? And then I'm suggesting to you, right, that, you know, potentially for what you're trying to do, you may not be taking in enough protein. You know, you have to decide, who am I listening to and what's my status right now? If you are struggling with adrenal fatigue, you should be working with someone who will directly work with you on adrenal fatigue and not necessarily working with somebody who's going to teach teach you how to do intermittent fasting better, all right? Because that may not be a good match for where you are now. You have to love doctors like Vonda Wright and Mary Haver— Mary Claire Haver— sharing their own menopause journeys. And yet, you know, we need more women like them. However, you know, they're open. They didn't know what they didn't know about menopause, even as physicians, and they transparently shared that. But many experts will say, do HIIT fasted. They were HIIT fasted fans. They lifted, but they didn't combine high protein with heavy strength until they began to age, right? Or see parents who suffered and nothing else worked, and they weren't measuring body composition or skeletal muscle mass until they really had to. And looking at sarcopenia and osteoporosis, and how you've actually got to have more muscle mass, and potentially way more, in order to help yourself. So start course correcting now. You know, at 30, if you did this, you don't get to 50 or 60 with insulin resistance. We saw it coming, you know. Don't we wish we didn't? But our 30-somethings will. So you have at your fingertips you know, access to women who learned the hard way so you don't have to. But don't jump in the middle. Know where you need to start, know what you need to do first, and where you ultimately— I want to go there. That's okay, you just need an on-ramp. Ignoring your nutrition needs. So we've alluded to this a little bit, but the talk is still calorie deficit, need to be in a calorie deficit. Yet an estimated but not exaggerated 80% of women in our community under eat for their mere existence. That's resting metabolism. Like sitting here just working or lying on the couch is resting metabolic rate. But if you are up all day, you're moving, you're— and I mean moving like you're packing and moving things, or you're moving people and you're on your feet waiting on people, you're exercising intentionally— you have a far greater need Many women— hear me— are under-eating for their even basal metabolism. And that means, remember, you're shutting off your metabolism, you're slowing it down. You need to figure out your calorie needs. Use an app, track your actual intake for 3 to 5 days. You may be shocked to see what are you taking in, what is the amount of protein and fat and carbs that you're getting. And it could be that alone is skewing your results. What if you didn't change your calories but you changed the protein and the fat and carb combinations or ratios? Super easy things. And if you want more on that, the Metabolism Makeover would be a great opportunity for you to learn more and do what we all need— take you through it step by step, right? So you know those things are out there, but you may not get to them unless you have somebody say, okay, here's the small bite of homework for this week. Just do this. And that's what we'll do there. All right, couple more. Hang in there. Thinking small, skinny, or in numbers that don't matter instead of those that do. Your size and your weight on the scale do not tell the story of your fitness and your health, and they don't tell the story of your energy level and your libido, your ability to fire decision-making processes in your mind. If you choose your skinny jeans over the ability to safely pick up grandchildren from a crib or live independently through your 90s, we don't have much in common. You may right now be stopped listening, right? And I think potentially I can't help. And I know that it's a strong pull because we've always probably been praised for when we look thin or slim. Right? We've been praised for when we look pretty. Nobody compliments me when I show up with no makeup on social media, when I have been made up by someone else. And recently I've had the opportunity to do that more times than I've ever done it before in my life, like, because I've never done it before in my life except high school plays, right? Thank God it's changed. Makeup has changed since then. But we get praised for looking pretty or beautiful or thin, right? And so that hasn't gone away, and it probably in our lifetime won't. But we really have to stop measuring our own level of success. Measure your muscle. Don't sacrifice your muscle. Measure your energy. It's subjective, but you know how you feel. Measure your mood. And potentially do this, you know, if you work in any industry, time tracking is a thing. We keep track of time, how much time, because we know how efficient you are and if you're actually doing the right things for your role. How much time do you spend thinking about food? Thinking about rules that you have in your head for what you will eat and what you won't eat today? It's a legit question, and I'm leaving a little pin drop pregnant moment for you to think about that one. Lifting too heavy to start— if you're too heavy to begin with, the first 6 to 8 weeks, absolutely. And there's a little bit of proof suggesting that now that's up to 12 weeks of your resistance training program, just getting started. The benefits are due to our neural connection, the brain connecting with the muscle, because, you know, if you've never done a chest press, you've never done a bent over a row where you have to think about weight should be on my heels, my knees should be slightly bent, my hips should be back, I should have a slight arch in my back, my chest is slightly lifted higher than the hips, but my head is down, I'm squeezing my shoulder blades back together. Do you know how many things that was? What, 7 or 8? You got to think about all of them at the same time. You're not going to do that really well. Your brain is just going to pick up on a couple, and then you're going to say, my lower back hurt. I'm like, like, you know why? You didn't have your weight on your heels and your arch in the back was gone, right? So I will know the why, but we can't rush it. So if you say, I want results right away, I have this vacation coming up, I have this class reunion coming up—

it's so often the case—

you can't pick up heavier weights and rush to results without, you know, building a house on sand is what you're doing, and it is going to cave. You're going to have an injury. We've created a weak link if we do that. We have to lay the foundation not only for the neural connection, but what we're doing is strengthening your joints, your ligaments and tendons, so that you've got the stability that you actually need and want. So we in the fitness industry need to be more careful with you, with our clients, and all things that we do, because we sometimes have lost our way in regard to where to start Where to start, people? All people are not created equal. They don't have the same life experience or exercise experience or stress or hormone status. And women are not small men or mice, to borrow a statement from Dr. Stacy Sims, is really where that came from. I like to say you're not a mouse, you're not a man, and you're not a young woman. You're not even your younger you. Your hormone status right now is very different than each of those three. So we can't equate anything that works for somebody else to where you should start right now. So you need someone being able to help you understand the criteria for starting yourself, or help you actually say, here's your first week or two, this is what that looks like, here's the criteria where you progress, here's when life explodes and throws things at you, where to regress. And there's nothing wrong with that word. Regressing at the right time can help you keep and increase your fitness level even while doing less. And as an important distinction, regression is not settling. It's not. So it's important that you realize that. Don't waste another year losing muscle strength, power, and, and that strength that is so important. Set yourself on the course for body composition optimization and insulin sensitivity you need right now for a strong future, for that bucket list of things that you're going to do. This is so very important. Here's the last one: you add something but you don't remove something else. I've experienced this temptation to do this myself, right? When I started training for triathlons at about 40. You know, it was just that for me, I was just post-divorce, and I think I was looking for something to maybe fill the gap of, you know, so many things— the role, the identity. And I was someone who always loved exercise and loved endurance exercise, but doing shorter sprint distance triathlons, I mean, you complete one of those in, you know, an hour to hour and a half, you know, and I was on the latter side, certainly starting even the short ones. I was a runner, you know, and a runner runs. Those of you who are runners, you know, or were runners, you get it. And there's nothing that quite replaces the thing that you were really attached to. So I was identifying as a runner, but it's also how I dealt with stress. It's like, it was like brushing my teeth for me. I almost said flossing, but I don't do that, so I should say brushing. I do that. My coach gave me a swim or gave me a bike ride. I still felt like I needed to run. I wanted to run. And so for a little while, I continued to do that. But then, you know, I was also teaching some fitness classes 3 times a week at noon in addition to that. The, my own running, the addition of the exercise, the, the coaching fitness classes. And I was doing it with them to a, to an audience of lesser fitness level than me, but I still didn't take anything off, you know, and the fatigue began to catch up with me. So honestly, the first thing that I did was I started doing a little bit less running and realized it actually felt better when I was running if I took those breaks. I quit teaching the classes. Because I wanted to hang on to the running on my own a little bit more. And the teaching of the classes was something I enjoyed, but certainly wasn't something that was bringing me an economic status that was anything more than buying me lunch. And honestly, it interfered with me eating lunch, and it required that I was kind of icky and sticky the rest of the day because I didn't have time for a proper shower afterwards. So But I point that out to say, even now, you know, we take on things and say, I'm going to do a pull-up challenge, or I'm going to do a glute challenge. Is there anything that needs to come off your plate so you can make time and energy for that? We need to be asking those things. So certainly if you're doing strength training, you've added that, but you're still trying to go to barre class and your Pilates class X amount of times, you may be interfering with your ability to recover fully and the full results. Doesn't mean that those can't come back in smaller doses, but you really have to look at what's important to me right now. What's my biggest problem or challenge right now? For most women over 40, and it increases with every decade, our biggest challenge is anabolic resistance— the inability to maintain the muscle we have and/or to gain muscle we don't have and need. To increase our metabolism, to increase our strength and increase our power, and decrease our risk of disease. Because we have a blood sugar reducing machine when we have muscle. And blood sugar issues are related to inflammation, to cancer, to heart disease, and need I go on, to Alzheimer's, which is like type 3 diabetes, as well as diabetes. So when we talk blood sugar, it's synonymous. All right, for all the references that I've used in today's episode, you'll find it in the show notes, and that will be at flipping50.com/12-strength-training-mistakes-in-menopause. I invite you to join us for the Metabolism Makeover 2.0, and even more effective potentially if you do this and not necessarily even coach with me or one of our Flipping 50 specialists, but do it with a friend, going through it and really having conversations about what you're learning and what the resistance is that you're experiencing. Because many of these things related to metabolism are related to our beliefs about what we're doing. We're not intentionally sabotaging our metabolism, but often we are are sabotaging our own metabolism.

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