The Bible for Exercise Guidelines Update: Here’s What It Means

All right. Potentially, if you've been online at all, you've been on social media and you are flirting with the idea that you need to start exercise or you are exercising, you've heard this. You've heard this little bit of buzz about the exercise guidelines update and wonder potentially, what does it really mean for me? What does it mean for us collectively, women in midlife and beyond? Is it the same for everybody? All about it in this episode. You're in perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause, and you're not slowing down. You're just getting started. But the old rules don't apply anymore. The workouts that worked before, they're working against you now. The advice you've been given, incomplete at best. I'm Debra Atkinson, and I'm the founder of Flipping 50, the pioneer in fitness for women in midlife. For more than 40 years, I've been in the trenches with women just like you, and for the last 12, right here on this podcast, and, and the founder of Flipping 50: The Stronger Way app and membership. Welcome to Flipping 50: The Stronger Way, where science meets strength, where you'll find the tools, research, and real talk to build the body and the life you want in your second half. Each week you'll get evidence-based exercise and nutrition strategies, conversations with leading experts, and honest answers to the questions your doctor didn't get answers to in medical school and doesn't have time to answer in an appointment. This is your show. Let's get stronger. Okay. First of all, buckle your seatbelts. This is going to be big, packed with a lot of information, and I really don't have time to do it right now because I've got to teach a masterclass to some of our fitness professionals and 30 minutes, but I'm going to try to jam some of it in and I might have to come back and do the second half later. But I am so excited to relay this. Number one, I think the question of what does this really mean for us, for all of us individually in our own workouts when we go to work out, what should we be thinking? But also health and fitness professionals, young adults and older adults. The good news is that They've simplified things with these guidelines or intended to dramatically. And this is huge nod to the need to get more people exercising regularly at the bare minimum to impact their health. No longer is resistance training optional. This is what the guideline is. So the American College of Sports Medicine actually has a lot of position statements and guidelines. For different age groups, different health risk groups. And this is one of those areas that is more niche than all-inclusive. So it's not just what type of exercise should everybody be doing, including mobility, flexibility, kinds of things, stability, strength training, and cardiovascular. This is really isolated in in resistance training. So it's kind of one of a family of things, but it's isolated and updated well because of the obvious, really, right? We are not thinking that anymore that it has to be done in a gym. It's not necessarily even gotta be weight training. Maybe for you it's bands and tubing. Daily life activities matter. Shovel your snow, lift your bags of dog food and salt pellets, carry your own groceries, pick up those grandchildren. If you're going through a move, I can attest to the fact that on both ends you're going to do a lot of lifting and more than you want to. So you can drop the guilt over not doing the workout or getting there because you are doing the workout. And hey, this is why we did the workout. So we're strong enough to do the thing. For decades, just to give you a little backstory, the American College of Sports Medicine, or ACSM, Their position statements have been the Bible for determining exercise recommendations for fitness professionals, exercise physiologists, physicians. ACSM has a number of position statements. So this one in particular is the position stand on resistance training for healthy adults. So this study specifically, I want you to know, did not look at women in menopause. And so very often we cover that and we disseminate information to you on that. Stay tuned till the end of each of these sections, and at the very end, and I will talk to you about how does that pertain, how do I interpret that for you based on the dozen years that we have literally specifically looked at what is true for studies with subjects who are women over 40, 50, 60 in some stage of menopause. What is the difference between men and women, or is there? Do we need to make a big deal out of it or is it something else? So realize that this study was more inclusive than simply women alone. And we'll get to how does then that get interpreted for you or me. It takes a significant amount of time, energy, and resources to make change. And changes like this, when there is a big board, there's a lot of people, there's a lot of opinions. And so a huge nod to ACSM for getting this done. Do you remember food guide, food pyramid changes? And I don't mean recently, but I mean, you know, over a decade ago, 15 years ago even. We thought, "Oh, good. You know, those results, they're coming." And then we got the results and it was like they dotted a few i's and crossed a few t's. They barely made any changes at all. No meaningful ones. Came about. So again, huge kudos and respect to the people who sat on this board and contributed and got it done. So, you know, what we got back then was people got back from a multi-day long meeting, you know, and not a lot had happened, but the cost of that meeting was probably hundreds of thousands of dollars to bring those people together, secure them. They're away from their own businesses and they're teaching positions, you know. And so to have a meaningful change happen makes it all really very worthwhile, and that in itself is a big deal. So with the exercise guidelines, ACSM did something we should all welcome. They made it easier. To give you a little bit more context in its importance, I want to give you this. ACSM gathered or partnered almost 2 decades ago now with the American Medical Association. That's pretty big. Both prestigious organizations in their own right partnering to realize exercise is medicine. They coined that term. So, and first, before I go any further, let me acknowledge a few names that you too may recognize. So in the list, and I am citing the reference in the show notes so you can go and get it if you're a prove-it-to-me girl as well. But there are 3 names that should stand out, at least 3. There's a little bit more to me. I go a little bit deeper with recognition because I've studied this for so long, 4 decades. And any study with muscle and with protein and with strength and resistance training results and protocols in it often has any one of these people in it. But you will recognize the name, potentially, Brad Schoenfeld. Abby Smith Ryan, Stuart Phillips, all prior guests on the Flipping 50 and, should we say optimistically, future guests. So I'd love to do a roundup. I know right now they're all making the rounds, so my odds of getting them right away are not great. I'll do this one solo and then we'll see what we can do. But those were among authors, committee members involved in this update and have been here. So we've already given a nod and a shout out and great respect to the work that they're doing. So this update to the previously 2009 position statement, and if you're doing math, that's 17 years ago, consider why it's been so important to do this one. The emergence of science and conversations around muscle mass and strength, protein synthesis, the impact on aging and immunity mainstream in the last 4 to 5 years on the heels of the pandemic. The pandemic revealed so much about the facts that those with greater muscle and higher fitness level avoided severe complications from COVID-19 and had more optimal outcome than the deconditioned did when and if they got ill. Those lower in muscle did not do well. So as we go into the update and findings, I want you to know, again, the position statement is based on scientific evidence, a lot of it that includes but doesn't isolate you and I. It doesn't isolate women in menopause. So I'll offer my insight and interpretation. And I want you to know something. I mean, I don't stand to gain anything by telling you otherwise. And I'm 62 almost. On the cusp, and I want to know and apply. And this is how I'm interpreting for me. It's all about me, but it's all about you as well. So here's what we've got. This doesn't precede the ACSM position statements about exercise for older adults, generally intended and aimed at adults over 65. When changes due to age or are more cumulative and recommendations get more specific for two reasons. Many people over 65, at least right now, need to start exercise. And many of those over 65 now have cumulative losses in muscle and in bone. So my hope is that the position statement for older adults will change in time, and it may take a couple of decades. If you and I do our part, if we play out our older adulthood differently and more actively than others have, then that elevated fitness and ability will be reflected in the science and it has to change position statements. No longer will it be as conservative as it might appear to those of you who are listening who are extremely fit. And have been active for decades. However, I also nod to you if you are dedicated, you've been consistent, and you've also been slapped in the face by hormonal changes that just shocked and surprised and insulted you. I get that. Sometimes your expectations, what you've earned and done, is sideswiped based on midlife hormonal changes. It's happened. Not every woman's journey is exactly the same, and we cannot say that you're going to avoid all menopause symptoms, you're going to avoid weight gain or muscle loss and bone loss just because you're more fit or more consistent. Are the odds in your favor? Yes. Are the odds in your favor that your symptoms will be less frequent, less severe? Yes. But there's also that, that anomaly. And so I hope it's not you and me, but we don't know it. So this updated ACSM evidence review looked at 137 systematic reviews covering more than 30,000 participants that included healthy adults 18 or over to answer a practical question. What parts of resistance training matter most for getting stronger building muscle, and improving function. And that's really it. So hear that question again. The question they were going to answer is, "What parts of resistance training matter most for getting stronger, building muscle, and improving function?" And the answer— spoiler alert, I know, but you're going to want to stay for the rest— resistance training works no matter how it is done. We could say, you know, if we were talking at the people and the subjects, we could say there are no non-responders. But the better way to say this is there is no exercise that would have non-response or no response or impact at all. So comparing with doing no resistance training, doing resistance training of any kind improves muscle strength, muscle size, power, muscular endurance, contraction speed, gait speed, balance, chair stand performance, that's a standard test, timed up-and-go performance, that is beyond the stand, it's walk around cones, come back, and broader physical function. So, P.S., I could go on about another list of all of the metabolic and the endocrine and the neural improvements. Too, but I'm going to stick here with ACSM's position statement for this episode because it's all related to what physical change, what physical benefits are there from resistance training. The bigger update is far fewer programming details seem essential than older guidelines, prior guidelines suggested. So it was very nuanced before, now it's not. So listen to this. A lot of variables that people worry about did not actually consistently change results most. Did they? Could they be beneficial? Yes. But do we absolutely have to have them or you're screwed? No. Pardon my French. So what changed from the older guidelines to the newer guidance? And I'm going to, Yeah, I'm, I'm going to kind of break this into and say it more than one time in different ways just to make sure it resonates with all of us and we really own it. The older ACSM style thinking emphasized this: 2 to 3 sessions per week were needed. Now it's 2 or more. So it's kind of like, okay, it's easier. We can just do 2 or we're good. Prior recommended 8 to 10 exercises per session. Now it's 10 or more, by the way, and this is 10 or more sets per exercise. 1 to 4 sets per exercise. Now it's 2 to 3, cutting down your workload. 8 to 20 repetitions per all set. Was he old? All repetition ranges work. Between 6 and 30 is a general range that was put out by National Strength and Conditioning Association, but all rep ranges work. You can go light, moderate, or heavy as long as you do it. 2 to 3 minutes of rest. Actually, that just kind of disappeared. It's dropped. So basically feeling ready is individual and unique. And so if you're feeling rested and ready after a set, go again. Specific load zones— we got very specific. You know, it's still goal-dependent, and that would mean, you know, we used to say for strength, for hypertrophy or muscle growth, or for muscle endurance, it's this and this and this. We still really say that. So You will gain strength at all of those, probably to a greater degree within one of those specifically, and definitely after you're no longer a beginner. However, all have benefits, and if you have a very specific goal, then you probably have to get a little more specific with your exercise prescription. We're not overlooking that. We just relaxed it a little bit. Structured progression. So the old vibe was there should be, "Ah," and then, "Ah." And here's what that looked like. So I can remember, you know, my first weight training class, really organized one in college. And you kept a book. And where did you start? And you tested at the beginning. And then each week, incrementally, you were going to increase by 5%, but no more than 10% over 2 weeks. And it was like you had to write it down, what percent, what's the weight you're supposed to lift. And, you know, there's a lot of people still doing that, and you really don't have to. It was kind of replaced by, are you reaching muscle fatigue? Is it heavy? Are you lifting and feeling like you've overloaded compared to normal? And I want to backtrack just for a moment because that was out of my mouth before I caught it, but reaching muscle fatigue, that even is being contested and Do you have to? You don't actually have to come all the way to muscle failure. You can get close and that's good enough. That's what we're finding right now. Old guidelines, variation, periodization, they are key programming features. Now they work, but they're not mandatory. So, you know, I would say as a coach, I don't want you to do the same workout over and over and over for 3 months. I would want you to vary that a little bit. Do the same exercises, but flip it around, go in reverse order, do something slightly different. You're going to benefit, and mentally you're not going to check out of that workout. But in a few weeks, you probably will. But it's not dependent. You're not dependent on that. For making progress. And last one that I'll go over here before we dive in a little deeper is it was fairly detailed rules about how training should look, like what should it be, how organized. And now the guidelines are pretty loose. It's pretty loose. So as long as you're doing 2 or more sessions a week, you are getting 2 to 3 sets per exercise. You know, you might go and do a set over here during the first part of your workout. You do another one in the middle and you do another one at the end. You might do 1 and 2 early in the workout and then not get the 3rd until later. It's okay, right? You don't necessarily have to have it as organized. Now, I will argue this point. Mentally, I think it helps to— here's my sequence. I can stay on track. I can follow, and I'm coming back to the place I was. And I think the brain likes puzzles. ABC, ABC, ABC. I'm done with that. I'll move on to the next. I think mentally there may be an advantage, but physiology-wise, your muscles will still respond. The new evidence says resistance training still matters, but many different approaches do work. The clearest variables that improved outcomes were fewer and more specific. To improve strength the most— strength versus hypertrophy versus endurance, that's where we're going. So if now we want to get specific and you want to say, I, you know, I can't even open the dang peanut butter jar or, you know, almond butter if that's what you're doing. But you're feeling like, I need to be stronger. Like, I've lost it. I used to pick that up fine. Now I can't. Heavier loads help more for strength. They help the most. So we're talking at equal to or over 80% of a 1-rep max. What is that? You might be saying. Somewhere between probably 8 and 12 repetitions. So 10, 12 repetitions is probably right about there. Full range of motion, much better than partial range of motion. I think we could have figured that one out by our own. 2 to 3 sets is better than, say, 1 to 2 sets. Now, the only difference would be if you're a beginner, but if you're a beginner, you're not yet going for true strength. We've got to build a foundation, then we earn it. At least 2 sessions a week. Yes. Exercises placed earlier in the workout improve strength the most. Absolutely. Right, because you're freshest. And so you want to choose the key core— we call them core workouts, core exercises. We're not talking for the belly area. We're talking they're core exercises, meaning compound exercises for major muscle groups. Generally, there's more than one joint involved, like a squat. And these are push, pull, and hinge. So a squat, lower body, a push like a chest press and/or a row, bent-over row or lat pulldown. To improve muscle size, this is known as hypertrophy, you'd go higher weekly volume. So you'd try to get the third or the fourth if you can. Energy-wise, recover matters most. You're going to do equal to or greater than 10 sets per muscle group per week. So we're talking a lot more time potentially for you, and I might be talking about a lack of recovery opportunity. Eccentric overload can also help with hypertrophy. So that means you're lifting it quickly and then you're very slowly lowering it down. Eccentric contractions are usually those going downhill, putting the weight down. Gravity is doing it, but you're basically putting on the brakes. My comments. So, um, whoops, power. Let's not forget that. So let's talk about power. And I think I mentioned earlier, slip of the tongue, endurance. We don't really have to worry about endurance. We stay pretty good at endurance as long as we're moving our whole lives. But power is the last, and power is so important because we lose it first, twice as quickly as we do slow-twitch muscle fibers as we age. To improve power the most— so we've talked strength, we've talked size, and power, explosiveness— moderate loads work best, meaning not heavy. 30 to 70%. 30 is really pretty light, by the way. That's lowering the boom even beyond where 40% used to be kind of the lowest we'd talk about. But at 30 to 70%, this is where you're doing some of that, you know, rapid movement. Lower to moderate total volume. It doesn't take much to work on power. So you could sneak in a little power workout here and there throughout the week without having to spend a dedicated hour. Fast concentric intent. So it is like boom, push, right? You take a medicine ball and you power it. You've done some power, right? You push it across the room. Olympic lifting style or power-focused training. So that is one and the same kind of synergistically. We're talking about the same there. Olympic-style lifting is like, a cling. Um, it is like going into the weight room in a D1 school where the athletes are, where you've got the bars and you've got the platforms. Now, nothing wrong with that. For those of you who've done cross-training, is it safe for older adults? As long as you've earned it. But I would say that of teenagers and young adults as well. Not right away. You don't go in and start doing that. When we teach it, we teach it in a Division 1 strength and conditioning studio or, or gym, we teach them with PVC pipe, right? So it's not heavy. We teach them, pull it up, jerk it up, and then push it to the ceiling. We teach them the hinging, the movement first, the quality move, and then gradually we'll add a lighter bar, and then gradually we'll put plates on the bar. So it's one step at a time for anybody, not just older adults. Is that safe kind of work for older adults? You'll find out how far you can go and how much load makes sense. Because if you start to feel achy, you start to feel like, uh, my shoulder kind of talking to me, you can back off and you don't go further. And so we stay safe by doing that. So I'm going to start next with my comments about each one of these a little more elaborately about how that pertains to you and to me. As women over 40, potentially over 50, over 60, and 70. True confessions: I love pajamas and robes and slippers. All things cozy, yes please. Look, there is nothing better than the luxury of a slow morning with a warm cup and time to wiggle your toes in cozy slippers. And a college roommate wrote that practically word for word in a Christmas card decades ago. I've never forgotten it. I think it's such a meaningful sentiment most women share. It's the little things that really do make day-to-day life richer. I am thankful I never stopped giving my own mother pajamas and robes for gifts. 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Okay, I want to give you my comments and how this correlates with a smaller world, our world here at Flipping 50, the Flipping 50 programming that we do, but basically for anyone who is programming for women over 40, how does this coordinate and correlate to what's happening? So we personally always at Flipping 50 place the most important foundational exercises first following warm-up, because if you're short on time and that is all you do, you'll still get some real benefit. So we are directly, you know, in correlation, in agreement that it's always been the most important part of the workout comes first while you're fresh following warmup. So adequately warmed up, and then we do compound exercises featuring major muscle groups. And generally we follow these rules. A push, a pull, and a hinge. Generally, that is a squat, sometimes a deadlift if deadlift is appropriate. The prior guidelines suggested 6 to 8 sets per muscle group. And, you know, I think when you look at ACSMs, it— and, and this is other research, but ACSMs looked at, you know, 8 to 10. Now, for hypertrophy specifically, they've isolated that 10 or greater if you want that muscle growth. And really, don't get paranoid or scared by bulk. This is not the same thing. We're talking fiber size. And will your muscles appear bigger? Potentially yes and no. Not bigger, but more prominent. You'll have much more muscle tone, muscle development visible, because as you increase size, hypertrophy, the muscles are more active metabolically. They boost your metabolism. You will be Changing body composition, more muscle, less fat. So of course they will be more visible. That doesn't necessarily mean bigger. All right, just for clarification's sake. So that's a change in body composition, particularly for postmenopausal women. This concurs with prior research that says what works for premenopausal women and to some degree even perimenopausal women won't be enough to overcome anabolic resistance for postmenopausal women. We've got two things working against us: a significant decline from the beginning of perimenopause to then early stage postmenopause. Let me say that again to make sure I said the right word. From early stage perimenopause to early stage postmenopause, there's a significant decline in estrogen level and What else has happened? We've aged. And when you hit that mile marker 60, there is some research to say metabolism holds pretty true from 20 to 60, then we have to really fight it tooth and nail to hold on to it. So it doesn't mean that— and certainly to you virgins out there who are— I don't mean JJ Virgin, by the way, but to those of you who are virgins to exercise and don't start till later in life, you may actually have an edge because you're newer at it, you're going to make lots of gains fast. It's a pretty exciting time for you. So I'm not by any means inviting anybody to wait till now to start, but if you do, you will make significant gains. So you have to overcome the anabolic resistance that occurs post-menopause for those twofold—decrease in estrogen and age. I mean, nothing we can do about that one. To accomplish this, it may take a third session a week. So think about 10 or more sets per exercise. And really what we're talking is not per exercise, but per muscle group. So you'd either have to do 2 sessions of 5 sets each, or you then do 3 sessions so you can spread the wealth out a little bit and your sessions don't get quite so long. And that can work as well. So you do 2 or 3 sets, and you do 3 or 4 sets, and you do 2 or 3 sets. You're going to make it to 10 pretty easily and still hopefully have time for recovery. And that is the biggest question. If you increase from 2 to 3 sets and you're not recovering, you have to realize just putting in the time or the repetitions is not going to gain you the benefit. You have to be recovering. If those muscles don't have time for repair, or suddenly you're couch compensating, you've defeated the reason that you're probably exercising in the first place. More energy is not coming to you. Then that's a sign you want to take a back step for a minute anyway until we look at— is it gut health? So you need to absorb better the micronutrients and the goodness that you're eating, or overall eating more and better foods that are coming in. So the rhythm I love for postmenopausal women, self-included, is— and I don't always get this done myself, by the way— is 3 workouts that consist of 1 total body workout, and then at the end of the week, doing 2 days back-to-back of an upper and a lower body session. That will give you 3 days a week 2 days of upper, 2 days of lower body, but you have a little more time then to play with. So you're not just taking a workout, cutting it in half and saying, okay, just do the total or the upper body workout exercises on these days, lower on these days. You have a little time to throw in an additional set, throw in another exercise for a same muscle group and do a couple sets of that. Now you have more volume overall without a lot more time. Really. Power. Let's talk about this one. Power is the combination of strength and speed, and it is lost twice as quickly with age, specifically the muscle fibers that create power, fast twitch muscle fibers. And if you remember, I really did a blitz of a media tour in all over the United States, really from one coast to the other coast, a little bit in the Midwest even, in 2018. 19, before the pandemic hit, certainly. I mean, I was traveling 60 out of 90 days, 30, 30 days, 30 nights I slept in hotel beds. It was a little much, but it was such news. We have a predominance of loss for those fast-twitch muscle fibers. Type 1 are your endurance fibers. We maintain them really well because we move pretty slowly. Throughout the day regularly. Type 2 are your explosive type that fatigue, and though they also recover quickly. And then you have some that can be trained to swing either way, right? They're swingers for sure. They can go to endurance or power depending on how much you're training. So if you were, for instance, doing a lot of training for endurance running and training for a marathon, not a suggestion by the way, you'd probably be training those fibers to switch over to more endurance mode. But if you train explosively and you do more jumping, more power movement, more sprinting, and/or more heavy lifting with a little bit of speed in that concentric, the lifting phase, you are training them to become more powerful. Your aging 85-year-old self will thank you for that, by the way. For optimal aging, we need power. The gains can occur at significantly lighter weights though. This is really good news, right? So for those of you who can't lift heavy for one reason or another, you may be able to accomplish the power that successfully helps boost aging by backing way down. So we said 80% of a one-rep max, and that was anywhere between, say, 10 and maybe 12 repetitions. It's about right there. Well, we want to back down to 30 to 70% of a one-rep max to do power work. Now that's really quite low. So what, what is that? What does that feel like? That actually might feel like trying to jog through water. It might feel like you lifting a weight that you can actually lift, you know, 25 to 30 times and actually more, but with some power. So you are going to reach fatigue if you're doing that. And that is really nice. This isn't new, but it is new to state it in the ACSM guidelines. They're really acknowledging what we need for functional life. So this can accomplish, you know, be accomplished by lifting quickly in the first phase called the concentric phase of a contraction, doing an explosive lift that fall under Olympic-style lifting. And by the way, I'm not against those, but if you're new to exercise, it's really quite advanced. It needs to be earned. Don't just jump into that. The majority of my listeners, probably Olympic lifts are probably not something you're interested in or seeking for the goals that you have. Done too soon, they may lead to injury. However, they can be safe. And this isn't a matter of should you do it at your age, it's a matter of your exercise age and the foundation that you have. And that said, life requires power at times. Can't you agree? I think that we can all You know, recognize that this is true. Adding power with jumping, hopping, leaping, as well as lifting are other ways to incorporate it into your routine. Alternately, medicine ball throws or slams to the floor or to a rebounder are additional means of employing power. You get a small bit of power if you're hitting a ball back to somebody or powering the golf ball down the fairway. It may not be enough to increase your bone density when done like that, by the way, but it is a combination of resistance and speed. And by the way, if you heard that noise, I just slammed my earphones into the microphone. Sorry about that. Progression— the thinking progression is not linear and has always been present. And what I mean by that is If you want to get better, make progress, we kind of expect it to be like going upstairs. We're going to go to step 1 and then step 2 and then step 3 and then step 4. And if we're climbing to go upstairs, we're going all in one time. You know, we're not going to take 3 steps, sit down, and then a little while later we'll go up. But that, in fact, is what happens with exercise. Progression won't be linear. You can't start with 5 pounds and then go to 7.5 and then go to 10 and then 12.5 than 15 and just expect that's going to happen just like I said. Yeah, good luck with that, right? Because you will have times when you're sleep deprived, when you're just getting over the flu, you're just getting the flu, you're tired from exams or from, from life events, energy, sleep, what you've done recently, stressors. They are not going to allow a logical increase in weight over time. Not consistently, but from beginning of the year to the next year, yes. From beginning of the year to the next quarter, will we see trends improving? Yes. We still have to focus on bringing muscle overload, and it may not happen with the same weight or that heavier weight that you think goes in your, your exercise training log really nicely. It's not just math, unfortunately. It's human life. And real. So what seems less important according to the science that many people thought was true? The review by the committee who did this for ACSM found that these variables I'm about to mention did not consistently improve outcomes. Training to muscle failure, that means you have to get to the last one and you can't even press it up. It just won't go. You don't have to get that close. Machines versus free weights. There is no battle. And whichever camp you're in, because if you're in a camp, you are like, no, no, no, that's machines are cheating. You have to use free weights. Or you're on the other side. Free weights, you know, don't allow you to lift enough weight. You should do machines. I mean, whichever camp you're in, No, doesn't matter. Sorry. Exercise complexity. This is one I am praising up and down. You're going to see this all over the place. Exercise that seems to be exercise for variety's sake. And I'm all for, you know, someone saying, you know, "To stay motivated, I need to change it up." Okay, great. Change the sequence, change the sets, change the protocols. But the exercises that your joints can do can't get all that creative. And as soon as you start combining things so it looks like a nice, pretty routine you could post on social media and people really love it because your body is really cute, you know, if it doesn't work, it doesn't work. And, you know, one thing to be true, I would have to say, if showing that online gets somebody to do something consistently, probably they're going to have better results than they did. But as soon as we get really complex with either a single exercise and what you're doing or the exercise routine and the workout, and you've got 19 steps and it's got a whole plan and you have to consult your phone app every 2 seconds so you can do their workout, that's where we're getting carried away. Set structure, it really doesn't matter all that much. So even going in and using of what was available might be beneficial. But I would say you have to come back to rule number 1 earlier: do the most important compound exercises for major muscle groups first. So whether you do the push or the pull or the hinge, the leg press, meaning, or the squat first doesn't matter in terms of set structure. So time under tension Matters less than people used to think. Now I'm going to comment on this one. Time under tension doesn't matter as much, but I do want to clarify this one. We sometimes call this tempo training where we just apply a creative way to use that lightweight that you feel you can't go any heavier with or you're going to be injured. And that will happen. That will happen to all of us at some point. When you reach that point, what you need to realize is that it's extremely important that you say, okay, how do I get creative? Not creativity for creativity's sake, but how do I still overload my muscle? And there are ways to do some repeat at short range of motion within the full range of motion exercise you're doing. Spending more time under tension, or simply do holds. We'll take longer to get to the top, hold at the top, longer to come back down into eccentric and hold it. That is where it still does make sense. If you've reached your capacity for increasing weight, we do have to get somewhat creative with additional ways to make sure you can still overload. So blood flow restriction. So for many of you who are in our program, certainly, and listening to a podcast for a long time, you've heard me talk about blood flow restriction bands. They are useful when resistance training isn't possible, and I think they will continue to be. The one of the greatest uses or assets of them has been people who are at bed rest, say preparing for a joint replacement, can't move as much, recovering from that joint replacement, ill and/or immobile for other reasons. You know, this can be really important. Combining exercise with resistance bands is probably what they're saying is not important. This really doesn't matter too much. Right? But if you're at bed rest and/or you have a long period of time where you're immobile, you have to be sitting, you have to be still, it may be beneficial to you then. And certainly probably better than not doing anything at all and just sitting. So I am going to kind of hang in there with this one. Those especially at bed rest, post-op, pre-op, restricted in movement. And last but not least, also deemed not really important, periodization. So this is one we refer to as rotating schedules of intense versus maybe moderate and light work. Didn't seem to be quite so important to consistent results. And I would say this about this, and if I'm thinking specifically about you, my friend, and me, women in midlife or beyond, periodization may not be as important overall. However, repeatedly doing the same sequence, same intensity without variation may both miss some potential gains and also increase risk of injury with a lack of an undulating hard, easy, moderate rotation. So life sometimes can impose these Necessity to— you're going to have to go light. You don't have weights, don't have access to weights, and you're just moving, and that is the workout. So maybe you will get this self-imposition, and that is okay. I think that's a benefit. But if it doesn't, we should be conscious of our need to vary structure, protect our connective tissue from loss of estrogen that makes it less resilient, and that can increase our risk of injury. So I like work hard, yes, but also recover as hard. The decline in estrogen for women means decreased resilience and capacity for exercise recovery. That can be tricky. Both longer preparation for exercise, more time spent doing mobility and cycling through regular times of pushing and backing off can help the body continue to respond to stimulus with the least amount of injury. Or adrenal fatigue. So what this means for consumers, right? So interpreting the ACSM guidelines, which, you know, that is a governing body for fitness professionals, physicians even, and academics. But consumers read and listen, and here you are listening. So what does it mean to you? It should mean this: resistance training does not need to be complicated. You do not need a highly specialized plan to get meaningful results. Number 2, perfect programming matters less than actual training. Many forms of resistance training improve outcomes, including standard gym-based training, circuit training, that is moving from one exercise to the next to the next to the next to the next and maybe repeating them or maybe not. Elastic band training, home-based training. And generally home-based training is going to be done with either body weight or with dumbbells. Velocity-based training for some outcomes, and that means quickly with speed. You don't need to train to failure. And, you know, I think we learned this with the term reps in reserve or RIR. For beginners, you can be 5 or 6 reps away from really reaching muscle fatigue. And that's not failure. That is the last one you feel maybe like you're cheating. You don't have to get all that close if you're a beginner because your body hasn't done anything. You're a virgin exerciser. You're going to get lots of results, right? It's amazing when you're a virgin. And then going to the point where you cannot do another rep They found not required for better strength hypertrophy. When you're a little bit more advanced, you have to come within maybe 1 or 2 of that, but again, not to complete failure. Home training counts. Home-based resistance training proves strength, endurance, some aspects of function. We've seen it during the pandemic, was the first time we really had to test it against anything else because there was nothing else. We saw it improve bone density. Within 7 months. That's a pretty big deal. Elastic bands do count. Elastic band training improves strength and hypertrophy compared to doing nothing. And I want to make sure this is clear, and, you know, I'd like to say I don't discriminate, but I probably do. I don't love band and tubing training simply for this reason, and that is that plastic tubing has unique property, and there's better and there's worse. But no matter what, In the middle of that range of motion where your belly of the muscle is already strong, you have the most optimal resistance. At the beginning, it is too little resistance. At the end, it is often too much, so maybe too much for the joint involved. So you've got only one-third of that muscle, the muscle part that is already strongest, getting the best result. Beginning and end points, too little and too much. That is the reason I don't love it. And some properties, some resistance tubing and plastics are better than others. So just be careful, know why you're doing it. Sometimes for rehab, prehab, or strengthening a specific muscle, it is warranted. It is actually a beneficial tool, but I think some exercises and tools are better than others. So what is easier now thanks to the guidelines? Based on the update, what may feel easier for the average exerciser, and by the way, I would never call you average. You do not need to train to failure. You do not need highly periodized— periodized program's a hard word to say. You do not need complicated set structures. You do not need to obsess over tempo or time under tension. No gym or full equipment needed. You do not need one perfect style of lifting to make progress. In fact, you probably do need to mix it up. The main message is this: progressive resistance training works in many forms. By progressive, all we mean here is that you're going from a lighter to a more moderate to a heavier load. And that could be resistance training, could be you from your knees to doing a push-up to your toes, to doing push-up to your toes on your ottoman, doing a push-up, that's progressive. The way to know it's working for you is measure, right? So you're measuring your skeletal muscle mass, and you're also measuring in by picking up a heavier weight than when I started, or doing more repetitions than I started. So when your goals become more specific I will say this, then you may need more specific training matched to them. If you were going to go out, say, and say, "I want to train for triathlon and I want some strength training to help me do that." Well, the strength training that you would do, you would probably want it more than a generalist program. You want strength training that is going to counter the posture that you sit in for hours at a time on a bike. You want strength training that is going to help you be a more powerful swimmer but not overuse your shoulders. You want strength exercise that's going to help you be a more powerful biker but not beat up your legs so that you can't run, right? So there's very specific needs involved. For trainers and coaches, I think there is a choice by many. They prefer to train the motivated, the want-to-work-hard clients. And unfortunately, as we've seen over the last dozen years, the fitness industry trainers jump from 250,000 certified trainers to 750,000 trainers. Now, these are the ones that are certified and actually qualified, having taken tests. But we have not changed the statistic of individuals in the active population by any percentage. 40 years ago was 80% not doing it. Today it's still 80%. It's maybe 77% at best. So why, with a huge jump of more trainers— and that doesn't even account functional health coaches, of which there are many, and there was never any prior to that. Why are we not making a bigger impact? Something's not working. In a classroom in a university I taught, a student told me once, "I want the motivated ones. I want the ones who really want to work. That's who I want to work with." You know, I don't know if I said it out loud or under my breath, but I know I was smiling inside. I said, "Good luck with that." Because, again, exercise is not as easy for everyone. And if you're listening to this, I don't know, But I suspect you're probably one of the more motivated ones listening for the slightly deeper edge on what can I learn and how can I get better. And it is you, friend, that we all count on to take the next person to the gym, for a walk, on a hike, to do something active because she's not. She's not as motivated or as into it as you until she is. So what is that saying I love so much? When you give a mouse a cookie, when you're giving a woman a weight. Can we do that, please? So when your goals become more specific, you may need to get more specific, and that can come later after you've been lifting. So in a, in a classroom, I hear this very frequently, but what we need is to motivate the ones who are not yet believing, thinking it's too hard, too complicated. And that is who these changes may actually have helped the most. For coaches and trainers who will listen and use these things, it will help. For those who want to say that their program is ideal and here's the exact exercises I use to follow this and here's how many, you know, it's probably falling on deaf ears and somebody won't listen until they need to. The best practical takeaways. You know, a major ACSM update found resistance training improves strength, muscle power, and physical function. And many of the details people overfocus on matter less than previously thought. The biggest wins from the study are this. Resistance training improves strength, muscle power, endurance, and function. At least 2 sessions per week help strength, but maybe not more. Heavier loads are best for strength. Moderate loads moved fast are best for power, which, AKA, we need for age. Higher weekly volume helps muscle growth, meaning size or hypertrophy. Full range of motion helps strength most. Training to failure is not necessary. Machines and free weights are both work. Home-based and band training also can work. It sounds really like we're not discriminating against any type of resistance training. So the bottom line is doing resistance training consistently matters more than chasing complex training details. So if you love the way you're training and you love the results you're training, keep it up. If you're not training yet, start. Find a simple, super easy program to follow and do it consistently. Commit to that and you have gold. The information shared on Flipping 50 the Stronger Way is for education educational and informational purposes only and not intended as a substitute for medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or qualified healthcare provider before beginning any exercise program, making changes to your diet, or adjusting any medications or supplements. Individual results may vary. Debra Atkinson and Flipping 50 are not responsible for any injury or adverse outcomes resulting from information presented on this podcast.