5 Exercises You May Be Getting Wrong After 40!

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What are you waiting for? Good night. Even with the best of intentions, but armed only with the knowledge we got decades ago, or even yesterday on YouTube or AI, we could be getting it all wrong. Look, you're not getting the results that you want and think you deserve for the effort you're putting in, or in fact you have a little niggle, a little hint of an injury coming, this is for you.

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 am so excited for this episode. I'll bite one thing and I'll give you a little warning. My voice today has been very unpredictable. So whatever it is about this current season, there is something here I can't seem to get rid of. My energy is fine. The rest of me is great, but nah, there's that. So I'll give you a warning. You may feel or hear like, did you pause? Did you miss something? It probably would be, I paused, I coughed, I cleared, and we turned it back on. So just so that you know, that might be coming. Okay. So I opened with this, but it is certainly with the best of intentions as always. But if we're armed with the knowledge we got from decades ago, yesterday on YouTube, or AI, we could be doing it all wrong. Exercises like these that many women are getting wrong after 40, and it's pivotal after 40. So there's a reason why— why is this after 40? Sometimes I'll get asked that. Why are you saying for women at this age? I'm saying because the percentage of women that this matters for is higher, because the percentage of women that are doing it wrong at this age is higher, and that is because We did learn more. We did. And so if some of the trainers or the coaches that you've been exposed to knew more, knew better when you got started, potentially you didn't go down this road. But for the rest of us who've been exercising maybe 30 or 40 years, we learned once what often is really hard to kick to the curb. The beliefs kind of lodge in there, you know what I mean? We hold on to them even if we're not getting results. So this is for you, this is for me. And if we improve on these exercises and stop or avoid making these mistakes, or avoid because you've heard it today before it even happens, you could change the trajectory of your aging and not only be giving desired results but taking time and energy that could be placed somewhere else for far better results. I shared this with our community members, our subscribers, months ago because the reactions were significant. I wanted to share them here. So I want to give you a little insight as to why you may not be getting the results that you want, but getting the opposite of those desired results. Number 1 knee strengthening exercises that you may be getting wrong after 40. What you think is the problem is weak quads. Oh my gosh, and if we could just stop you right there, we could solve a lot of problems. What really is probably the problem is weak glutes or weak hamstrings. Though some amount of knee isolation in very limited range of motion extension can be helpful, and I'll share a resource that won't hurt and may help you. It's 3 things that are often the issue with knees: tight hips, weak glutes, or in other words, weak hips, and poor quad to hamstring ratio.. And listen, when I say poor quad to hamstring ratio, the problem is almost never too weak quads. It's too weak hamstrings in relationship to quads. So I know that this is true. I mean, I reinforce it every week, if not day, in our community. I hear people say, I don't know how you do those hamstring curls. You do those hamstring curls so easily. I can't do those hamstring curls. You should have seen me. I fell off the ball in those hamstring curls, you know, and that is just an illustration of what happens. And I also, I intuitively know because I've instructed so many instructors, I've taught and trained so many instructors, but I've also seen so many bodies, right, doing things in a group exercise class in a smaller group training class, in a one-on-one session. I know the mistakes that people are going to make because I've watched it over 41 years now. So the echo is, you know, this hurts my hamstrings, this hurts in the back of my knee. I'm like, are you letting your knee go straight? Yes. Stop it. Right? So stop it. I know what's going on. So trust me just for a minute on this one. To target tight hips, what do you want to be doing? You might try something like a pigeon pose in yoga, or sitting upright, you take your ankle, you cross it over the opposite knee, you press the knee out to the side, not with your hands, but you're pressing it outward, and then you sit forward, hinge at your hips, you come toward that knee. That's a good piriformis stretch for the deep muscle in your hip. Pigeon pose will also do it, but if you're unfamiliar with that. That's an easy one to look up. If you have a power plate or whole body vibration of a different kind, I'll do my pigeon pose on my vibration plate for kind of an extra benefit. It increases the circulation. To target weak glutes, small isolated exercises are your first stop. Now look, I wouldn't tell you to squeeze the glutes 100 times over and over. Forever. That is not the goal. I want you to be able to do squats, want you to be able to do deadlifts, want you to be able to do lunges, want you to be able to hike up a mountain and come down. But if we can't wake them up first, that is not what's going to be doing the work. And doing those other exercises may actually rush you to an injury. I'm going to say that again for the people in the back. This is really important. Doing squats will not necessarily help you target your glutes if we can't wake them up. I know it's called gluteal amnesia. I know some physical therapists will roll their eyes when they hear that term, but I'm telling you, it's a real potential thing. We have muscles that have really gone to sleep a little bit, and they're not functioning because other muscles have taken over. Something is inhibiting. So you've got a muscle, potentially a hip flexor, inhibiting the action or the response of potentially a hamstring or your glute. And we know this happens, and we know it happens pretty easily because we sit a lot. We as, as ladies— don't know if you're guilty of this, but I am guilty of crossing my leg. I notice it more and I irritate myself on a plane. Cross my legs. And then if it's a long flight, I'm like, pretty soon I'm uncrossing, crossing to the other side. And I'm like, I know this is not good for me. Why am I doing this? But I keep doing it. So we'll talk about my, my therapy later. All right. So to target your small groups, those small isolated exercises are your first stop, not your last one, but your first one, meaning we need to wake them up. We need to help your brain connect to those muscles when you're not doing much so that when you are doing squats we already called them to attention. We know we've got them firing. So if you just go for squats or deadlifts or lunges or step-ups without strong glutes, or at least wake-up call, the Wi-Fi signal from your brain to those muscles being a little bit stronger, the wrong muscles will continually be doing work you don't want them to do. You'll be reinforcing poor movement patterns. So don't be afraid to back up a few steps do some real work. Even if you can lift heavy, it doesn't mean we always should. I'm gonna say that one again. Even if you can lift heavy, you've proven it, it doesn't mean we always should. To isolate your hamstrings, strengthening them is important. Try some very small movements, shorter range of motion with lighter weight, potentially even just your leg to begin, maybe the first thing you do. Second thing to do might be put an ankle weight on. And I am continually asked, what about ankle weights? Never, ever, ever while you're walking, okay? That's not why they're designed. And if you're running, even more, like fivefold what I just said. No, and no, and no, and no. However, isolating them can be very good if you're doing, say, long straight leg lifts from the hip, you're trying to activate the glute, or you're bending the knee at 90 degrees and you're doing a small lift in that way. But again, go back to the drawing board. Let's just figure out where are we, where is the real need? Because if you can't get good form, feel the squeeze, feel the glute with nothing, with no weight, you're going to be using something else to take over if you add any additional weight. Even a small ankle weight is as small as 2 or 3 pounds could be problematic for you. So I'll demonstrate a couple of things that come from our glute challenge. And actually, our glute challenge was built out in like 4 different phases, you know, and the fourth one really means you're, you're entering all the things that you thought traditionally, like the squats, the deadlift, the, the lunges, all of those things were it. But again, they're not it if you're not firing them. So you have to go back to the drawing board and we start with some very small movements. You may be insulted by the thing I started with, but I can tell you that, you know, having designed this originally when I had done, say, 6 different Ironman and going back, and this was, uh, information content that was placed in a Flipping 50 TV episode. You'll find all those episodes, by the way, at flipping50.com. Free, free access. There's 39 of them. I realized this is pretty effective, right? So my cameraman would go home and the rest of the afternoon, we always filmed on Tuesdays, and on Wednesday I would be like, oh my goodness, feeling my butt. I haven't felt that for a long time, right? And even as a runner running in the mountains, didn't feel that. So every once in a while we all need that. I, it's, I gotta do something new. I just need to know, do I really have fitness like all around? So I'm testing something right now. I've been using it now for about a month and a half. I have traveled several times. I've had breaks. This last time I traveled, I traveled for about a week. I didn't really like the travel away from this tool because I need to stay consistent and I can tell it being away from it for a week, I, the, the thing I was working on to improve Got a little worse. You know, I felt it sneaking back in, felt it when I went walking, definitely felt it when I went walking on the beach. So if you are, if you two are out of alignment, which is a lot of times the reason why our hips are rotated, so our lower back is getting a little torque, the knee is giving you a little status. It doesn't matter if it's your right knee or your left knee. It is, we're gonna use this apparatus on our left leg. To engage that hamstring, and that is going to help to realign you, and your brain takes care of the rest. So you're never going to put it on your right leg and do the exercise. I know that seems strange to some of you, and probably to many of you who are fitness instructors, but this is a legit science coming back to what's the domino effect that happens in the body? What does the brain need in order to turn on better alignment and stop the rotation at the hip, which stops the imbalance from occurring. So a big issue for many is in strength training in the hamstrings is the hip flexors have a reciprocal activation. So basically they turn on and they're like, no, no, I'm gonna do the work. And they basically won't mind their own business and they won't let your hamstrings actually be activated. So you have to kind of activate by isolating and like really truly isolating. So that makes it challenging when we have that reciprocity going on to improve hamstring strength because the stronger and the tighter hip flexor is always gonna interfere. Case in point, you go to the gym and you get on the lying hamstring curl. Or even the seated hamstring curl for that matter, doesn't matter. I prefer lying hamstring curls to seated, always have. But even though you've got the lift through your center, your hip flexor is right there as a pivot point and amount, it does not deactivate your hip flexor. Your hip flexor is actually more directly anchored and able to fire in that position than if it were flat, oddly enough. So that's going to make it really hard. That's what made my experience so far with Protonix so important. So you too probably sit for hours at a time unless you've managed to figure out walking, standing, or you have a more active job. Physicians, for instance, you know, are in and out of patient rooms moving, and they, they put in a lot of steps, and they're up and they're standing and they're moving. I mean, that is really a good thing thing. Um, similarly, the Amazon delivery person driving, yes, but they drive, they stand, they go to the back of the truck, they get a box, maybe it's a heavy box, they carry it to the door, back to the truck. They are moving all day is the real truth. They're not statically sitting. So those are great jobs. We always used to test, we had corporate relationships with, uh, UPS And whenever the UPS guys would come in to test, I was the fitness tester. I would do the step test with them, the resting heart rate, the body composition. I did all of it. They were always, when they came in, when they were starting their membership, they were already in better shape than 90% of the community that was in the gym already working out because they had an active lifestyle. It was really interesting, and this was back in the late '80s when that was kind of my role. You know, every day, all week long, I was fitness testing everybody. It was like, wow, you're already in great shape, right? This is good, and they haven't even been working out. So it was a great thing. Okay, so that was number 1, right? Knee strengthening exercises. And I started with knee because I truly believe knees are one of the biggest obstacles for many people. Level, and they have been trapped. They're a victim between your ankle, which is a planted— like planted on the ground— and your hip, which is a ball and socket joint that has a little bit more give and go. And your hinge joint, that knee, is kind of trapped between the two. So it does take a lot of beating, a lot of impact, and it takes a lot of torque where it potentially shouldn't. I started there. I'm also going to do a full knee episode in coming weeks, so you can watch for that if this is a challenge for you. Number 2 is glute exercises that you may be getting wrong after 40. And this I emphasize in the knee discussion, glutes are very, very important, especially for females. We have a wider hip box, meaning you know, the width from the outside of your right hip to your left hip, and then you think about the width from the outside of your right knee to your left knee, we come in like a V, right? So we're wider at the hips, we're more narrow at the knees, and means our knees take a little beating. The alignment isn't as great as a, as a male whose the difference between hip width and knee width is far less. They're much more vertical. So this, I emphasize, the big exercises that we think about in terms of glutes, like squats and lunges and all those things, they may not be recruiting enough of the right muscles if you haven't got the neural activation optimized. That is the signal from your brain to those muscles. So for our members, we put the glute challenge inside the Flipping 50 membership. And it pairs really well with any of our 12 strength training workouts. So if you feel you've got a weak length, you can still be doing a little, say, extra credit for your glutes, and you're not going to be overtraining necessarily. And in fact, by the end, you'll probably get better results because you're reinforcing— there's a wake-up call when you go to do those squats. You're going to feel the muscles you should be feeling and know where you shouldn't. So it's going to reinforce results for you if your glutes are a weak link. And I would hesitate to say this, but not hesitate for very long— we all probably have weak glutes, period, right? If you're not a member yet, it's a perfect time to join, or you can find the glute challenge right here. Low back exercises. So we've started with knees right, and went to glutes and now lower back exercises. What you think is the problem, in my experience in working with the general public, we think the problem is a tight low back and weak abs or core. So almost immediately the response we have is, I need to work my core, I need to do ab work because I have a lower back issue. I've heard that said a million times. In the last 41 years, I would, I would guess. Okay, maybe I exaggerate a little bit, but a lot. Okay, the real problem, I've already said it: tight hips and weak glutes and an overburdened lower back are the end result of these. So do you hear this common denominator? Tight hips, and weak glutes, right? If we could fix those two problems. So if you could right now just walk away from this, you, you're done with me, you, you have to move on. A little bit of yoga, if not regular stretching, whatever it takes to get you to do regular stretching for your hips, and some isolated hip or glute exercise. Don't do it randomly. Have a plan. The hip joint is supposed to be a mobile joint. It's a ball and socket joint, and most of us sit so much, and then we may be attempting to exercise, you know, go us, but we're weekend warriors. We're not releasing tight hip flexors and getting optimal strength and stretch in the hip or in the hamstrings. So the lower back is more or less a victim because any torque created due to lack of hip mobility and glute strength, you're going to pay for it in your lower back. Okay, next up, this one, not necessarily the exercise and the way we've been in alignment with them, but running versus walking for exercise. What we think we should do to get in shape faster? Running, right? What may work better during peri- and post-menopause? Walking. Yep. And you're hearing a lot about it, are you not? I mean, it's really become very sexy, which is so very cool. Calorie for calorie, minute to minute, running wins. I mean, hands down, we have to say, if we were looking at I want to burn the most calories and I want to do a 20-minute workout. Should I run or should I walk? You should run. Now, I'm not saying that actually gets you what you want in the end result, but I'm saying based on the question you ask, burning the most calories, if we have the same time frame, then running would win. However, things change a little bit, and when we get to be over 40, we punch that ticket. Most of us are in some phase of perimenopause, whether we're being bothered by it, you know, with hot flashes or night sweats or unexpected and unexplained weight gain or belly fat or other symptoms that you may be having. We're probably there. So what happens is we are declining in the level of estrogen that we've had compared to in our reproductive years, and we're increasing the amount of cortisol we have. That's kind of a balance game that your body plays automatically. And remember, I've mentioned before, if you're new here, potentially haven't heard this, but the increase in cortisol is almost the body's attempt to say, well, I'll just make more cortisol, and then from that I'll convert it into estrogen. It's not very effective if doing that can do a little bit of that, but it's not an effective way to do it. And the damage still is done. We have more cortisol. Cortisol is stress. Stress and cortisol break down muscle, put us in a state where we have less muscle instead of more. Not nothing good happens then. So running in the middle zone, which is really what happens if we start out slow most of us still will have what we call cardiac drift. Your heart rate drifts. And even though you may feel good because you've kicked in all those endorphins and serotonin— now, this is for you, those of you that like running. Those of you that don't like running, you all know this is not happening, right? I know you. But those of us who like running, we can very easily get caught and say, well, I wasn't, I wasn't working all that hard. I still felt really good. And yet you're elevating your cortisol level negatively. And if you stay at it for 45 minutes or so, you've probably tipped that bucket and that negative effect on cortisol is gonna stick with you the rest of the day. It doesn't go away, and that is not so good. So consider what happens if you love running. It feels good, puts joy in your heart. There is a way to include it, but I would stick to shorter runs, less frequent, you know, so maybe you do a 30-minute run a couple of times a week and do some interval training with your runs. It's a great way to get the fix of running and the feel of being a runner and, and maintain some of the body aspects, the body positive aspects that you enjoy about being a runner without throwing your cortisol under the bus with those longer extended runs that, you know, that there seems to be a sweet spot where a lot of people like, I like to go for a 5 or 6 mile run. That's probably 45 minutes to an hour, and that's where you start to get in trouble. So for women, the biggest roadblocks to weight loss are a lack of protein and overall calories to support the muscle, too much cortisol worsening either anabolic resistance that is your resistance to holding on to or gaining lean muscle mass, and long-duration cardio sessions. So there you have it. So if you can keep it under where it's actually— it's cardiovascular beneficial but you're not breathing hard, then you're probably not also elevating your cortisol level. It's a much better place to be, and it is sometimes the accumulation of those steps that actually is biggest needle mover for women when it comes to weight loss, decreasing belly fat, because what is really happening is we're decreasing your stress level. High-intensity workouts you may be getting wrong after 40 as well. And this is the last one. How could you be getting that wrong? Because you've probably been hearing, but that's fat burning. That's what I need to do for visceral belly fat, isn't it? And it's actually not that. So if you're going to boot camp and you really are not getting the results you want after 40, I would say just stop. Do strength training. And if you are a good match for high-intensity interval training, meaning you have no adrenal fatigue, you feel good, your energy is good, you sleep well, you have a good libido, you have a good appetite, but you don't have cravings, you function really well. You don't rely on caffeine. Okay, now you're a good candidate for HIIT. Any of those other things? Okay, so let's start there. But if you're doing it, do your HIIT sessions and do your strength sessions separately. They're in separate locker rooms.

We're segregating.

It's just the way we're doing it. You do not want to do a little strength, I'm going to go do cardio now, uh, and I'm going to do a little more strength, I'm going to do a little cardio. That washes out the benefit of both camps. You don't actually reach true muscle fatigue based on the capacity to lift to your heaviest or to true muscle fatigue. You're just tired overall, and you don't actually get to the highest level of speed or resistance with that aerobic interval. It's actually an anaerobic interval, but you don't reach the same speed. You're just tired again from having not recovered from the last thing you did. So what it is is a frenzy. It's like a frenzy of this to that, and that's where the intensity is. The intensity should be this exercise— I'm going to do this hard to fatigue, muscle fatigue, and really get there. And then over here, when it's time for me to do my interval training, I'm going to go as hard as I can to breathlessness within 30 seconds, and then I'm going to totally and completely recover. I'm not going to mess them up. I'm not going to put any mud in the middle. It's going to be very clear. I'm either working or I'm recovering. And that is one of the biggest assets for women. There are a lot of boot camp-like facilities that market and target women who want to burn fat. They're telling you You're going to torch 700 calories in an hour. They're telling you you're going to burn fat. This is great for visceral belly fat. You're going to, you're going to go really hard. This is great. And they're shouting at you and say cheering. And it seems all really well and wonderful, but it potentially is not actually helping you reach potential with either one thing. So body composition is not really improving for the better. So I hope that was helpful for you. It's great to love them. And if you do love those kinds of workouts, It's okay to throw that in. It's like having dessert once in a while. That's okay too. Just don't do it every day. Don't do it for breakfast, right? Just do it once in a while, realizing this is not the absolute best thing for me, but it sure was fun, right? And then be done with it for a bit. Okay. All right. We mentioned a lot of resources in this episode and it went fast. I'm gonna do a quick recap of these 5 mistakes, and they're the major ones that I see across the board in women over 40, within and without, and before, online and offline. It's, it's throughout. And number 1 is knee strengthening exercises. We often think we need to go right to the knee. Probably not. The second thing was glute exercises we may be getting wrong. The next thing is low back exercises. Then it was running versus walking. And last but not least, high-intensity workouts and how are we getting those wrong. So if you would love further explanation, you want to learn a little bit more about metabolism, I'm putting links to all of the things I alluded to. The glute challenge, if you're interested in that, you know, you've got weak glutes, they're not firing. And maybe you know that because of your knees or of your lower back, not necessarily your glutes or your hips telling you, but low back and knees are the clues. Protonics, what I'm using to improve my challenges with my right knee. Your challenge could be with your left knee, doesn't matter, but it is kind of the same deal. So I'm really struggling with this and it's really bothering me. I'm somebody who— I'm 61 you know, almost. And very proudly, you know, will say, um, except for being thrown off of a horse, you know, and having a fluke torn foot muscle, torn muscle deep in my plantar, plantar muscle, my foot, you know, I really have not had any chronic injuries from exercise. And I've done a lot of exercise, did a lot of overtraining. Before we were wise enough to realize that was overtraining and not a good thing. But Protonix has been a game changer for me, and I think it might also be for you. And it's really pretty exciting that we can get this in an affordable way into more of our hands at home for use by us and anybody in our household. So I'll put a link to that. And the Metabolism Makeover I mentioned, and that is really great for continuing education, for going through it. As you do each module, treat it as if we're live. We're not, so it's very convenient for you. But if you treat it like it's live, you will do one module and then move on with me to the next one when you've done that homework, and you'll be making progress all the way through and learning a great deal. And as some of our members do, once you purchase this, you will have the opportunity to go back and to use this as a resource for years to come until we have better science— and it's coming— featuring women in menopause. What are you waiting for? Let's start Flipping 50 today.

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So go and listen right now. Hey, real quick, if you're here and you need help and you really want, want more, maybe then it's possible for you to do right now. I have something really special. Our members inside our Flipping 50 membership already have access to this. It's called the Metabolism Makeover 2.0. Years ago, we did this as a group. It was about $700. It was about 6 weeks. And I've gotten rave reviews from people who are still using it as a resource almost 5 years later. So I'm doing it over. Calling it a mulligan, not because it wasn't effective, but because it was. And because I realized I want my members to have something more updated, something fresher. There's a lot of carryover, but there's also a lot of new and fresh and angles that we can take from more recent research. And the more we know, the more we can do right or stop if it's wrong. Look, it's only $49 at a regular rate. So if you want in, you get access right now. I'll put the link in today's show notes.

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