The Exercise Crisis Destroying Women's Metabolisms (And How to Fix It with Just 2 Workouts)

This is for metabolic health. This is so you don't die. So why does this matter so much more in menopause? We don't like to be vulnerable. You have to move muscle in order to boost metabolism. We need to get good at the basics before you go on to do more. If you want to boost metabolism and you want to boost bone density, it doesn't have to be complicated. It's about being able to carry your own luggage when you travel, get up and down from the floor to play with your grandkids, maintain your balance and prevent falls, live independently in your own home. Let's talk about the metabolic magic. Let's do the math together. You don't have time not to do this. You're going to wish when you're 85 that you had scrolled a little bit less and strolled or done HIIT or resistance training a little bit more. We have to get back to what are your goals? And it's never too late. You still got it, girl. Hey there, I'm Debra Atkinson, and welcome back to the Flipping 50 Show. If you're new here, this show is for women who want to age with strength, energy, and independence. And you're inevitably in some stage of peri or post-menopause. But for those of you who were invited here or found us because you are premenopause, you are giving yourself the very best head start to fewer or reduced symptoms and greater longevity later. So welcome. Today I'm sharing a statistic that is going to stop you in your tracks, and then I'm gonna give you the solution. Over the next few weeks, we're changing the format of the podcast ever so slightly. We're moving to a new platform, potentially making a name change, Although some of you have given me a little resistance about that. We don't like to move the cheese in our audience, apparently. I love to hear from you. So whether you're a longtime listener or you're new here, reach out via the website or find me most easily personally until it explodes. I am easily in my own DMs on Instagram @Flipping50TV. 80% of women are not meeting the minimum exercise requirements for metabolic health, according to the CDC. Now, here's why that is really alarming because this is based on self-reports. So if we know self-reports, people tend not to respond if it's a negative answer. So that number might be greater, right? So why is that so important? But we'll talk about that for the bulk of the podcast, but Listen, that is 8 out of 10 women. And if you're listening, I really do hope that you're among that 20%. Potentially, you're among the 80%, and maybe you're stuck getting motivated. Maybe you've lost your sense of that and you can't figure out why. And it's not all your fault, by the way. It's not discipline or that you lack willpower. It's not. So stop saying those things if you're telling yourself that. But we're going to pull a quick poll in the show notes. So if you're inclined, if you're listening on Spotify or iHeartRadio or Amazon or you're hearing it somewhere else, I would really love you to come over to the show notes at the Flipping 50 site for this one because I'm going to put a link to a very quick poll because we want to know, are the listeners for the show already doing at least twice-weekly resistance training or not, because that'll help us serve you better. I will know where you're at and what it is that you want and need from me. So here's why this statistic is not just disappointing, it's devastating. It's devastating for our futures. But first, let me tell you about our sponsor for this one, the Flipping 50 Metopause Fitness Specialist. And if you're listening, depending on where and when you're hearing this specific podcast, it is going to be relevant no matter what. But in October of every year, it is Menopause Awareness Month. And if you're in midlife, as if you aren't aware of it, right? However, so much goodness is happening this month. We're doing something special across social media platforms this month. There's a new post. We're giving a new tip, a new trick, some way that you can benefit. So tune in, follow us, whether you prefer Instagram, Facebook, or YouTube. We're going to be dropping a little bit of extra content this month. So for those of you that are still on the free bandwagon, somewhat random, we'll be there for you too. For those of you that are already in a program or all the way in and you are our VIP members, you've got extra things coming in the back end as well. And we're hoping that we will extend invitations out to friends, sisters, colleagues of yours so that we can grow and women all over can thrive in their older age. But the Flipping 50 Menopause Specialist Fitness Specialist is all about that training health coaches and trainers who already are out there helping women but really want to niche down and know more, know more about the science, but also know more about the gap. Still think that we're facing, which means some of the research that seems black and white, some of it seems to say that women are not that different than men. And yet, is that true, or is it just that we don't have enough research yet to tell us? But inevitably, I have women show up in our community, and now that I can say I have thousands of reps, thousands of repetitions, which is really what it takes to become an expert at anything, And I've seen women who don't fit the subject that was in a study. They're finding that the exercise that's based on the science still isn't working for them. We have to know when and how to pivot, and that's what we train you to do in the Flipping 50 Metopause Fitness Specialist. So whether you want to be a health coach, you want to coach someone, even though you're not necessarily wanting to program and teach exercise specifically, I've got you covered. You can go through, and there are ways that we help you with referrals to programs that do train women physically. But if you're a fitness trainer and you're finding, I need to coach the rest, I need to know a little bit more about rest recovery, I need to know about sleep and about hormones, not because you're going to prescribe them, of course not, but because you will be able to help a woman know what her options are and when and why might be the time to ask. So reach out to us. I will share a little bit and we'll share links in the show notes for that as well. And we have so many things coming up, including 10 and 12-day challenges that help you reset your metabolism if you're still struggling. And in fact, if you are doing all the things and it's not working in all the ways that you want it to, we've got ways that we can help there. Now, back to that statistic that should have you sitting up a little straighter, paying a little bit more attention. The 80% reality. Let's start with what 80% actually means. We're talking about exercising the minimum of twice weekly, doing total body sessions for all major muscle groups. So we're really talking resistance training. Under that resistance training umbrella goes strength training with dumbbells, strength training with machines, could be strength training with body weight. I often get asked, is that good enough? I can reach fatigue with that. Here's why. I don't love bodyweight alone because I think it's very limiting. What are the go-to things you're going to think about? Well, you can do squats with bodyweight, but are you going to fatigue in any given small repetition range? 6 to 30 is the number that we give. We want you to fatigue within that. You do more than 30 repetitions, you're kind of just doing some wear and tear on joints, right? And so it can get a little hard to do that. But the other thing is the only thing for chest is really push-ups. And, you know, I don't want to say to you here— I'm not saying that women over a certain age shouldn't do push-ups or that they're bad for you or harmful for you. It's not what I'm saying. But I will say that probably 90% of people who attempt to do a push-up have really poor form, and there are a lot of things that can go wrong. Your shoulder is one of those joints, your knee is the other, that after 40 we want to be more cautious about. There is sadly a time in our lives where we don't take for granted that we can just go do something we want to do. We start thinking about, if I wear those high heels, am I going to be at risk for falling? Or my— is my bunion going to hurt? Or am I going to struggle to walk? And if the floor is a little wet or slippery, will that be a problem? We start thinking, should I really go downhill skiing? Because I never do that. And if I just go that once this year but I get hurt and then I can't do my my Zumba or my pickleball and the other things that I do to keep healthy? Is it really worth it? There is that moment. Have you had it yet? It comes for all of us. And I will tell you that my, my son was in his 20s, I was just over 50, when both of us had that awakening. It's like, you know, here we are in Colorado. He'd come to see me, and it is It's just like picture perfect. Should we go to the slopes for Christmas? And they're like, you know, how could we not? How can we not do this and have this memory? But he was a golfer. In D1 schools, they golf fall and spring. And it was like, are we putting you at risk here? Like, you're on a golf scholarship. Okay, if you lose the scholarship, we're still going to send you to college, but are we taking you out of doing something that you love, like, most days of the year to do this one thing? And similarly, I was training for Ironman triathlon still— swimming, biking, running, loving doing it, thriving. I'm going to go and do this one thing on an epic day But is it worth it? So I think we'll all come to that point in time where we do get a little more careful. You know, while I'm recording this, we just lost Robert Redford, right? One of the greats and just such a great humanitarian and environmentalist person as well as an actor. And maybe because he was such a great person, he was such a great actor. But I saw a quote from him literally speaking it, and he said as much. He said, you know, I think it's sad when we get old, there is that point where we no longer are just taking for granted that we do things, but we start to become cautious. And I said, he said, I think that's sad. And he said, I think in another quote I saw, he said, I think most of life is sad. There are happy moments, but between those really happy, extraordinary moments, life can be somewhat sad, somewhat lonely. And I thought, really, how profound, number one, because I think any of you who might be listening who deal with that— and I don't think that means you or I are depressed— I think though sometimes we struggle to actually just acknowledge that that is that is true. And instead we put on a happy face and pretend it's great. When somebody says, how are you? What do you say? You know, FINE. FINE is an acronym that I can't say out loud on a family show because I don't know you well enough, but you might know what I mean. But the point is, you know, realism is, I think, really important. But we're talking about just 2 times per week strength training. 80% of us aren't doing that. Not even that. And that is not about getting arms that are worthy of going sleeveless, by the way. You do that by putting on a sleeveless shirt. That's it. And then you have them. Similarly, with a bikini body, put on a bikini. Someone this weekend said something to me like, "Are you going to the pool party?" at the end of a conference. And I said, "You know, actually, no, I'm skipping out." It was in my hometown. I said, I'm gonna go pick up the dog before the kennel closes. I'm gonna pick him up from boarding so he doesn't have to spend another night. And she said, oh, that's too bad, I bet you look great in a bikini. And I thought, huh. And I'm like, well, I don't know if I do or I don't, but I think the whole thing that really captures attention about anybody wearing a bikini is the confidence to put on the damn bikini. And I will tell you, I was never happier than when somebody in our community said, you know, I, on vacation, we went out on a boat and I wore a bikini. She said, not because I necessarily feel like my body was perfect, but I just had the confidence to do it. And that That is the win right there, because there are a lot of really beautiful women who you and I would probably say they are flawless in a bikini who don't think they are. And there is nothing attractive about that, having to pump up somebody's tires the entire time, right? We've been there, right? It's, it's often the most beautiful who are the most vulnerable. So if, for instance, that's you, we see you. Okay, you've got this. All right. So let's talk about two entities that really are kind of Bible writers for me. ACSM, which stands for American College of Sports Medicine, and National Strength and Conditioning Association, NSCA. They're two very well-respected, reputable fitness associations that provide guidelines and position statements in their own rights. ACSM has more historically been known as the, the epitome. ACSM has faculty and staff, and there are a lot of physicians actually that belong to that, but they create these, and in agreement with the CDC, Center for Disease Control, in case you're wondering, they claim 2 times as the minimum. But this is not for sleeveless or athleticism or reaching the Olympics. This is for metabolic health. This is so you don't die. This is like flossing your teeth or maybe brushing. It's more critical. So why does this matter so much more in menopause? Because we're only talking about somewhere between about 60 and 90 minutes total per week, not per session. So about 40 to 45 minutes per time, and that accounts for your warm-up and the cool-down. Now, if you're going to do it like that, you better be organized. You need to know what exercise, which order, how many sets, how much rest between, where am I going, what am I doing. You have to know, or you're probably going to be following a video with me, or you're going to be following the plan, and you're going to a gym where you're sure you can get on the equipment. It is— I will tell you this, much easier to do at home because nobody's in your way. You go to the gym and they don't really care what your plan was, right? And they're parked sometimes. So a little tip on that: there's nothing more intimidating than a 50 or older woman, uh, 50-year-old or older woman who is standing beside you as you're doing your exercise with her arms crossed waiting. It's very very effective, just to say. All right, so now if you were 25, maybe you could get away with not resistance training because we, we reach peak muscle mass at 25. That's not a recommendation, by the way. The girls, the women, young women who are listening, and the guys too, for that matter, because I think guys, more young men, and I mean young adult men, late 20s, early 30s, are struggling with anxiety more than they ever have historically. I think a lot of it is due to diets. I think it's due to culture, maybe lifestyle at that point, you know, right before kids when you still go out and party and you have not realized yet that 8 o'clock and 9 o'clock at night is really your ideal bedtime because you'll be getting up multiple times at night. You know, when you have that realism happen to you, it gets a little easier. You probably start eating a little better, taking a little bit better care of yourself. But when you're at peak muscle mass, there's nothing looking you back in the mirror. And I think whether we like to admit it or not, most of us are first prompted by the reflection in the mirror or the way our clothes fit in the closet while we're pulling them on. And those are our wake-up calls after 40, during perimenopause and post-menopause for women, this not doing resistance training becomes life-threatening. You don't realize it yet, but it is the reason you can't get out of your chair by yourself at 85. It's the reason that you're more prone to a fall, and that first time you fall makes you more likely for the second time you fall. So here's what happens to your body when you don't meet the minimum 2 times weekly resistance training. And let me be clear on that for a moment first. Your 2 times a week resistance training may look different. What I recommend to most women who are not doing anything right now, not any resistance training, or who are really tight on time or tight on energy— we only have so much to spend. Those are our 2 highest priorities in life, time and energy, even above money, right? Are those 2 things. So your total body might look like one total body on Monday, another total body workout on Thursday. It could be the same one. You want to change that over weeks, not do the same one forever and ever. But it could also look like a total body on Monday and then splitting it up on Thursday and Friday. You do the upper body only and then lower body only. Probably going to get a little more volume, and that is total number of sets if you do it that way, because really what you've done is now you have 3 workouts You're not just going to take that workout you did Monday, cut it in half and say upper and lower. You're going to throw in another set because you've got a little bit more time and maybe another exercise and multiple sets of that. You've got a little more time to play with to still get a good workout in, in say 45 minutes. Perfect. But your total body could also, if you have the energy and if you have the time and the desire, desire to spend it in this way? Lots of things. You could do upper body and lower body Monday, Tuesday, and upper body and lower body Thursday and Friday, or something similar. So you've got plenty of rest and recovery in between. You're stimulating all major muscle groups twice weekly. That's the point. There are more than one way to solve a problem. There always are. So here's that. So here's what happens to your body when you don't meet that minimum. There is a domino effect, right? The first domino, so from 3 to 8% per decade, all right, muscle loss accelerates to 1% a year when we're talking peri- to postmenopause. And we're also talking time. So this is— not mandatory based on age, but metabolism stays pretty much in a holding pattern from 20 to 60. New research came out, and I believe it was around— it was during the pandemic, which is a blur, of course, but I think it was about 2021, and it was everywhere. So you've probably read it, you've heard it. It stays about the same. So the only excuse that we have is that we're really trying hard not to support our metabolism. We're becoming very sedentary from our 20s to our 60s. That's going to slow your metabolism. But that's not because of age. It's not even because of menopause. It's because you got sedentary and you're not moving. You have to move muscle in order to boost metabolism. It also is because you potentially haven't been resistance training because resistance Resistance training specifically is like interest on somebody paying a loan back and you are getting it. You get the interest. And what I mean by that is you expend energy when you're doing resistance training, but it's a two-for-one. You keep the benefit for 48, sometimes 36 hours. You still have this elevated metabolism as your body is doing all the repair work. It takes more energy to repair your respiration, your circulation, your endocrine system, and repair those minor muscle tears that happen during a workout. That takes energy. And there is greater oxygen consumption that happens in the repair work time from resistance training than from cardio work. In fact, cardio is like, nah, we're done. What have you done for me lately? You have to do it again in order to get benefits. So it's like done and over. So is your energy expenditure. Done and over. But what you've done also with the resistance training is you've increased major muscles. So you have more muscle mass, more muscle fibers. Those fibers are firing better. That means greater energy expenditure. Around the clock. And I'd love to say for the rest of your life and happily ever after, but that's only true if you continue to regularly resistance train. But you don't have to escalate. It doesn't have to get longer. It doesn't have to get more frequent. It just needs to be done. In fact, for those of you who've thought the more days a week that I lift, the better, the more sets, the more I do, the better, you may be desperately wrong because you have to have recovery time in between. So the first domino is muscle loss will accelerate from 3 to 8% of muscle loss a decade on average to 1% every year after menopause and at the age of about 60 when there is that change in metabolism that is age-related that we can't do anything about, we can't change our age is what I mean. We can't change that, obviously, but we can say, "Aha, I saw you coming. I saw the candles on the cake coming. I saw that party and I'm going to take better care by eating more protein, getting more sleep, and resistance training with more volume, adding another set." I may add another day a week if I've got good energy and the time to do it. So again, we still have to go back to if you're tired all the time, we would not throw that one in there. So the second muscle or the second domino— lost muscle equals a slower metabolism. You saw that one coming. The third domino— a slower metabolism equals stubborn weight gain. And the reason for that is when our metabolism slows, what do we tend to do? We tend to stop eating as much. We tend to diet. What does that do? Yeah, you may be surprised to know that doesn't stop weight gain. It doesn't cause weight loss. Actually, it slows your metabolism further. Everything that you're doing, trying to exercise more and trying to eat less, putting stress on your body and stress on your body. And if your body's in stress, it's, it's threatened. And when you're threatened, it's shutting down everything. If you were a woman who was 30 or 35 trying to get pregnant, it would not do it for you because it perceives you're under, you're under attack. And so we're going to shut down all of the extracurricular things and just try to preserve you, meaning store fat, but certainly not procreate. And so you're no longer there. My guess is, unless you're going for the National Enquirer, you know, but that means that fatigue is more likely, brain fog potentially more likely, and just getting stuck on that hamster wheel of feeling like you're doing all the things, but you're not getting all the results from the things. So the fourth domino is actually weight gain, which leads to insulin resistance. And this is really an important thing to tie in here. I've never stated this quite this way before, but when you experience what I just described, your body perceives you under threat because you're exercising more and you're eating less. And it thinks, okay, there's not enough here to go around, so I'm going to keep this stored fat in storage. It's not going to burn it, which is what most of us hope will happen. In that case, it doesn't feel safe. It's not going to do that. You're actually going to do the opposite. You're going to gain weight. But because, again, you have this sympathetic nervous system reaction. It's like you're tense all the time. You may be getting alarms on your watch, like, relax, this is a relaxation reminder. You might want to take a few breaths because you're a little uptight. I was on stage presenting the other day and that came on, like, not right now. Sorry, it's not your time. But if you get those relaxation reminders frequently, pay attention. It's detecting and picking up that you don't feel safe in that moment, you're not burning fat. You're probably getting really good at storing it. So pay close attention to your recovery numbers. The ranking of are you really ready to exercise or should you take a recovery day? Seeing it on the watch or in print sometimes is very helpful. But weight gain will result in insulin resistance because the longer you go with elevated insulin, It's like there's a crowd there, and this is like living next door to a train, train tracks. Have you ever done that? I did that when I was a senior in college. We moved out to this apartment. We thought we were all big stuff and cool, right? It was a brand new apartment building, which also felt very cool, but it was right next to the train tracks. And I think initially we all thought, how are we ever going to get sleep? You know, pretty soon friends would come over, my mom would come stay for parents weekend, and they'd ask about it and we're like, we don't even hear it anymore, right? You just don't. And I'm sure that's— it's something like that living in New York City. And if you're traveling from the farm in the middle of the Midwest, you notice it, but otherwise you don't. Well, insulin has to be released in greater and greater amounts to accommodate blood sugar levels that are there because you're stressed because you're dieting and you're stressed because you're exercising and you're just stressed because you're a woman in midlife. And that elevates blood sugar levels. It kind of releases it because your body is in this fight or flight. It doesn't know that it's not needing to run away from a tiger. It kind of feels this the same way as if when you do. That means that you've got all this insulin constantly coming in, and because it's there, your body doesn't even perceive the insulin is there, like the train. So it has to be something louder to get your attention. You're insulin resistant because there's been so much insulin there so prevalently that now it takes more more. And that means you're in fat storage more and more, and you won't be able to get out until you can reduce that insulin level. So that's a really important thing to be aware of. We have to start controlling our blood sugar levels so that the insulin doesn't need to be released. One of the fastest ways to do that is stop snacking so frequently. Eat 3 meals. Don't eat at least 12 hours between dinner and breakfast. That's a baseline, good starting point. The final domino is you're on the fast track to frailty, falls, and loss of independence. And that might sound strange because I'm painting the picture that you probably are gaining weight, and it's true, but you can still be overweight and frail and have poor bones. Yeah. So, and let me tell you, that's not a good combination. Overfat, or obesity, and frailty. We call that loss of muscle, remember, sarcopenia? Well, putting the two of those together is called sarcobesity. Yeah, maybe fun to put two words together, but that's not a fun instance. And that's where a lot of our population is right now. So why is it women aren't exercising enough? I've heard every excuse, and I'm going to bust through the top 3 that I hear most frequently right now. So number 1, I don't have time because none of us does, right? We really don't. We make time. We do. And you will make time easily when you realize how good it makes you feel. The difference that it makes in your ability to fire on all cylinders is the way I like to put it. You think better, you function better, your mood is better. We release neurotransmitters like serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin if you're taking your dog and he's not pulling. That— so that excludes Moses. But it also is, let's say you're walking with a friend, you're listening to music, there may be other perks that are releasing oxytocin. BDNF, that's brain-derived neurotrophic factor, is released from exercise, and it helps you focus, concentrate, fire on all cylinders, and be a little sharper. So all of those things are great, but this time thing is a big one, right? I hear this constantly, but let's do the math together. 2 workouts per week, and let's say they're tops 45 minutes each. That's 90 minutes max to get these 2. How much time did you spend scrolling social media yesterday? And I know just now I probably felt offensive and you might have gotten on the defense, so let's back up a minute and not be there. But I ask you that because I think each of us should reflect on it. Somebody needs to nail me to the wall on that one too. You know, I will sometimes come in here. I'm in the office. My Solo Sauna from Sunlighten is in here too. And this, it just happens to be that's the best room in the house for it. So it's not in a guest bedroom and I didn't want it in mine. But I will come in here and do the sauna, which should be ideally a relaxing time. And instead of turning on the app for, say, a meditation, I will scroll. I— there, I said it. True confessions. Okay, I'm not Catholic, you're not a priest, but maybe you are. Probably an anomaly if so. But I can spend too much time scrolling. It's so very easy to do, and there is a little research that tells us there's something positive that can happen. We can, females particularly, feel a little connected by watching social media, especially if you're not finding, say, your people. In your local environment, so near you for support. Maybe you find a sense of support on social. So there can be some, some busy, but being busy, you know, not productive. Here's the truth: you don't have time not to do this. You're gonna wish when you're 85 that you had scrolled a little bit less and strolled or done HIIT or resistance training a little bit more. So when you're 75 and you can't get off the toilet without assistance, when you fall, you break a hip because your bones are brittle, when you can't carry your own groceries or play with your grandkids in a really playful way— I'm talking about really not have to think twice before you go play with them in the yard or shoot baskets. You're going to have all the time in the world in a nursing home being dependent on someone. Is that what you really want? Barrier number 2, I hear this one too, I don't know what to do. And honestly, I hear this one less because I think nobody wants to voice this out loud. We don't like to be vulnerable or admit we don't have all the answers. Is that just me? But there is something very freeing about being over 60. It has really done it for me more than over 50. In fact, in my 50s, I think I felt like I should have had it all figured out, but I was actually really starting over and I didn't. And so I had to get good at asking for help. And I wasn't. I sucked at it at first. It took a long time. But now I'm like right and left and I'm asking for help. Saying, I don't know this, where do I find this? I need some help. Who knows the answer to this? Who do I need to know? Because I'm like, I have a sense of urgency here and it's time that I figure this out. And my hope is that you do too. So I get this one. The fitness industry has overcomplicated everything and you don't know honestly if you have a real fitness educator. Giving you advice, or you have a fitness influencer who's only ever trained herself and worked with another coach. And, you know, even if you've been someone who has gone one-to-many, meaning the camera was on you as you talked to many and you were somebody who was the spokesperson, the brand icon, for a huge, a huge iconic brand, shall we just say that, that delivered programs, fitness programs to millions of women. That individual still doesn't have many reps herself or himself, if, if that were the case, because she hasn't actually seen bodies do it. She's only seen her own in the mirror. Think about that for a minute. We're in a really vulnerable place where that is what you're getting when you go online and buy online programs. If someone has not had the repetitions with people one-on-one and partners in groups, small groups, big groups, they haven't been able to cue as many times as they needed to, to become an expert. Think about how many times in a day, in a week, and a year you see different people, right? And you've got to do the math. There are a lot of trainers and fitness instructors who've said, you know, I'm— I've been doing this for 30 years. The question I think we all have to ask about that is, is that like 2 to 5 hours, 10 hours a week, or is that like this is your full-time gig? You were doing this around the clock every day, all day for those 40 years. There's a big difference there, my friends, and we're in a vulnerable era right now. So know what you have beyond how that individual looks. What can they do for you is the question, not what have they done for themselves. Yeah, not the question, but here's what you need to know. Simple works. I've been doing this for 41 years and there are a lot of really elaborate, creative moves I'm seeing online. And, you know, some of it is we have to get back to what are your goals? If their metabolism and their bone density— let me just tell you that it is the basics that get the best results. And not a lot of trainers want to tell you that because they want you to believe it has to be something complicated. It doesn't. And I will say that exercise programming is not simple. There are a lot of components like, yes, the exercises, but they don't change. If I taught you right now 8 to 10 exercises, they're the ones I'd want you to do a year from now, 5 years from now, and 10 years from now. They're not going to change. But I want you to know the techniques and the 5 or 6 different cues about those so that I give you the cues before you know to ask the question about why that bothers you, or where should I be feeling this, where don't I want to feel this. You need to know a trainer or coach or fitness instructor is doing that for you. But beyond that, we hear and we see, oh, that's, that's just, you know, that's not what you need to do. You need functional movement, you know, and they're going to be very convincing because they were convinced because they bought the training that, that taught them how to do that. And yes, you need functional. But let me tell you, when you're 85, functional is getting out of that chair. Do you know what that mimics? That's a squat. It's pretty basic. We need to get good at the basics before you go on to do more. If you want to boost metabolism, and you want to boost bone density, it doesn't have to be complicated. In fact, I would say the opposite. It has to be simple. Squats, deadlifts, pushes, pulls— these are basic human movements we need to do. You don't need 47 different exercises or the latest TikTok trend, even if the body demonstrating is a body you covet. Just enjoy watching. Don't go get it. Number 3 is, "I'm too tired." So this is the most ironic excuse because proper exercise will actually give you energy. I want you to treat "I'm too tired" like a symptom. It is telling you something you're doing right now isn't working. And it could be the exercise, but it could be not that you're overtraining, but that you're under-recovering. Not enough days between or not enough downtime in the rest of your life. If you live a high-stress, adrenaline-junkie-based kind of a life, you're not recovering from your exercise, period, end of story. So you're already exhausted. You wake up in the morning and you feel, I got a good night's sleep as far as hours go, but I still don't feel rested. It's probably your adrenals crying out for a little help. They may need a vacation, to tell you the truth, and maybe time away from the stress, the mental stressor that you're dealing with right now. But exercise does create more mitochondria. That is energy central. But it's not just that. This is not— mitochondria is not just about, oh, now I have more energy. Mitochondria is about every cell in your body needs it to function. To function, right? Like, no mitochondria, no function. That's not good. So it makes them more efficient, more energy, not less, when you're doing the right exercise for you right now. And there is a moment in time where you may need just a reset. We do a metabolism reset called the 10-Day Hot Not Bothered Challenge. As you might guess, it's for females in in life. And it is the opportunity to step back, take a minute to learn a little bit more about the relationship between exercise and hormones. And by the way, it's not magical. It was always there. It was there in your 20s and 30s. And in fact, the two biggest key hormones that we talk about are insulin and cortisol. Not because all of a sudden there's a problem with cortisol— we need it— but exercise at the wrong time of day, exercise if you already have chronically elevated cortisol can be problematic, and we see the signs and symptoms and teach you about it. We'll put the link in the show notes to that one too. But when you're not exercising, your muscle mitochondria, your cellular powerhouses, literally they shrink. We, you and me, we can't afford that to happen anymore. So now that I've hopefully demolished your excuses, let me give you the solution that can change your life. So why is less actually more? So here's what revolutionary thoughts really, I guess, need to come out of this approach. We're not asking you to do more. I am in fact asking you to do less. And for a lot of you, probably 50% of you, that's hard because you're used to pushing, you're used to going, and you love exercise. It's released in the past, at least It's released your stress and relieved it. But I'm asking you to do less, not more. We've just gotten into this murky, muddy area where we do more, but it's not actually the good stuff. You just have a bunch of junk, right? You're kind of going at it and it never feels great. You feel flat while you're doing it, and then you kind of feel tired after you've done it. You're probably relying on sugar or caffeine to either get up to go and do it or to recover afterward. If you're honest, just say most women think they need to exercise every single day to get results. I disagree, but I'm distinguishing between exercise and movement. Movement is moving around between appointments, between podcasts, between meals, getting up after a meal, taking the dog outside after a meal, walking to the mailbox. Breaking up sedentary time and just getting steps in. So literally, I like to go for a 30-minute, sometimes a 60-minute walk if I have time and I haven't, you know, waited too long, and so it's not too hot outside here in Phoenix where I am right now. But those walks, sometimes they can't happen, so I'm just doing intermittent movement during the day and breaking that up. We don't have to, quote unquote, go to a workout, do that moderate intensity, which is actually the nemesis of midlife women right now. You don't need to go and do that 45, 60-minute workout. And by the way, that might be what's keeping the belly fat on. So think about that. Gently just put— during menopause, your recovery level is different. So your hormones are different, your stress response is different. Is different. And that's why, say, Monday, Wednesday, Friday could have been your habit in your 20s and your 30s as far as resistance training went. Maybe— I know some of you are fitness instructors out there— you used to do 2 a day, so you had to substitute or you were gonna lose your job. Or you were teaching 3 or 4 days a week and you loved it, and yet it's potentially not serving you right now because you're up there doing every rep with them and you can't back off, or so you think. You can't just pretend with a lighter weight and just do it to demonstrate. And by the way, that's— I'm calling a little BS. You can, you just don't. But if you're over-exercising, constantly moving all day, you're gonna struggle, and that's probably problematic for you, not a part of your solution. You need more recovery and you'll get more fit by taking it. 2 strategic sessions for resistance training per week can be more effective than 7 random workouts or 4 total body sessions or 4 upper body, lower body, upper, lower body. If your endocrine system is exhausted, it's not going to help you too much. So first, Let's talk about strategy. What makes a session really strategic to help you? It includes compound movements. So compound movements mean more than one joint is moving, and that means muscles which cross joints are more engaged, more of them. So let's look at the difference between, say, a squat, or if you're at the gym, a leg press, same movement, just you're in a different position, versus a leg extension machine, right? So in the leg extension, you'd be sitting in a chair essentially and extending your legs, falling down to the floor, and then extending your lower leg straight out. That's one single joint action and really focused on quadricep muscle. In a squat, we have joint movement at the ankle and the knee and the hip. So we have activation of the glutes, the quadricep in front, the hamstrings in back, the calves to a small extent. A lot of major muscle groups working all together. So the compound exercise is always going to be the winner. Let's say you have 10 minutes to work out. You would not choose the leg extension if you have a goal of metabolism. You're going to choose the squat. So you want to think about it that way. Absolutely. So second, your strategic move is it's got to challenge your muscles with progressive overload, gradually increasing difficulty. So we can talk about that in two ways. If I say to you, I want you to aim for between 8 and 12 repetitions— and by the way, I wouldn't say that to you unless you had already started at some point with probably 15 to 20 and then gotten strong over time and increased your weight load that it takes you to get there. And then I said, okay, we're going to maybe go 12 to 15, and now we're at 8 to 10. So if you're doing that, reaching muscular fatigue, if I have you doing between 8 and 10 now or today, and then 3 months from now it takes the same exact Wait, we haven't really progressed. So you should reach muscular fatigue, but over time you're probably going to add 2.5, 3 pounds, 4, 5 pounds to that total. So maybe you start with 10 pounds is what it takes now. By 3 months from now, it may take 15. That's really progressively overloading, continually being sure I'm challenged, I'm reaching muscular fatigue. Third is you're allowing proper recovery between sessions. Now, some of you have the gift of being sore after workouts. I, I say that tongue-in-cheek, but others of you don't. And for you, if you don't get sore, sometimes that is harder because you don't have a cue that I need a little more time. I need a little bit more recovery in order to get this done. That's a really important distinction to make. So take the break whether you feel the need for it or not. And here's a rule of thumb: 48 hours between resistance training sessions is the minimum. It's not the recommendation, it's the minimum. As an older adult, over 40, so we're older than we were at 20, right? Over 50, over 60. The older we get, the more likely you're going to do better with greater recovery time between working those same muscles. So that might mean Monday and Thursday is smarter than doing even Monday, Wednesday, Friday, even though, yes, we've dropped a day out. That could be not just okay, it could be advantageous when you go to work, you're gonna work. You have it to give. If you're doing it more frequently, sometimes you're not actually working at your capacity. Oh, oh, it feels hard, and oh, it's making you tired, but you're not actually recovered 100%, so you're not actually getting the results. And by the way, don't forget you have a life. So do the workout, go to fatigue, recover completely and then have it to put somewhere else for the long bike rides you love or the fast sprints up the hill you love to challenge your partner to when you're hiking. Whatever the thing is that you're loving, you've got more energy to pour into it. Everything in your life should not be about your exercise. Pour yourself into brief bouts of exercise, recover between, and then pour yourself into your life. And enjoy it. So those are ways to make things strategic when you're working out. Let's talk about the metabolic magic. When you strength train, your metabolism stays elevated for up to 48 hours. I even mentioned earlier, up to 36, depending on how hard you work. Second, it challenges your muscles with progressive overload, so gradually increasing the difficulty that means maybe you start going to the store, you pick up the groceries, and you used to have, you know, Sonny carry them out to the car for you. Well, no longer do you need to. When they say, do you want me to carry that? You're like, yeah, I think I've got it, thank you. So, you know, this is, you know, an important lifestyle. You're not limited by anything. And So also, that is called, by the way, EPOC. It's excess post-oxygen consumption. That extra— it's called afterburn in lay terms. You're burning calories long after the exercise session is done. Remember, you don't get that from cardio. She's a diva. She just is like, let's do it again. What have you done for me lately? So, two well-planned— that's an important distinction— sessions of resistance training give you metabolic benefits 6 days per week. Are you with me? If you were a financial planner, that's pretty good ROI, right? So real talk about results. In the 41 years in the fitness industry, I've seen this work for more than 275,000 women, and that's only in the last 12 years since we started flipping 50. The women who commit to doing this minimum see improved body composition, reversed bone loss, better energy, enhanced markers of longevity. I could go on. Improved libido. Because if you're just exercising all the time, I can, I can tell you when I was marathon training or even doing even more, which was endurance training for triathlon, you know, libido was not really on my list. It was okay, but it was like, yeah, take it or leave it, you know? And I used to joke with my girlfriends. I remember going to a Christmas party distinctly, and I had just come back from doing an Ironman in Cozumel, and they're like, wow, you look great. And I'm like, yeah, I Thank you. You know, I just got back from the race and I was telling them, and they're like, wow, you're amazing. I, you know, you guys have sex, I have to have something, you know, because at the time I was single. And I'm sorry if it's a family show, by the way. Are you blushing? All right, so here's what happens if you don't make this change. If you're not resistance training and you're, you're not thinking, "Okay, I want to, I need to, I gotta get started." I need you to picture this with me. It's 20 years from right now. You're trying to get out of a chair. So for me, I'll be 81. You rock forward once, twice, and you need to use your arms to push yourself up. That is sarcopenia. A, age-related muscle loss in action. 1 in 3 women over 50 will experience a fracture due to a fall from having osteoporosis. One of the first things that leads to osteoporosis is weak muscle. Muscle pulls on the bone. Muscle and having strength and power enables you to do the things that will help you with bone density. Falls are the leading cause of injury-related death in older adults. But here's what the research shows: just 2 strength training sessions per week can prevent this. And for those of you who are saying, "Is it 2? Is it 2 or is it supposed to be 3?" If you're not doing 2, please focus on the lowest-hanging fruit. 2. The difference in significant change between 2 and 3 resistance training sessions a week, whether we're talking about bone density or we're talking about lean muscle mass for metabolism, is minimal. So focus on 2. You can, of course, always increase, but if you're struggling with the time or the energy and, and getting started, focus on 2. Make it easy for yourself. Let yourself get across the finish line before you move it again. Let yourself be successful. We don't have to make it so hard that we can't. So the independence factor is also going to be a thing. It's not just about looking good in a bikini, although you can and have the confidence to do it. It's about being able to carry your own luggage when you travel, get up and down from the floor to play with your grandkids, maintain your balance and prevent falls, live independently in your own home. I think to me that one is huge. So what does it look like practically? Let me give you your action plan, and I'm going to challenge you. So this week's non-negotiables would be I want you to commit to just this week, 2 strength training sessions. I don't care if they are 10 or 15 minutes long and that is all. Don't think about next month, even next week or next year. Just this week. And let me tell you something, if you don't decide which days this is going to happen on, it won't happen. And if you already have yourself saying, "Oh, but I have this and I have that," yep, so do I. Enable yourself to do it better. Schedule them just like doctor's appointments. Put them on your calendar and keep your appointment with yourself. Each session should include about a 5-minute warm-up at the very least. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, something that is a specific condition, you want to take a little longer to do that. By the way, a 20 to 30 minute of strength training. That's not long, but it is long enough. That gives you either 2 different 10-minute groups where, say, you could do 3 exercises 3 times. That takes about 10 minutes with the rest and recovery between. You can do a nice full total body session in that time. And 5 or 10 minutes of cooldown. That's it. Nothing fancy. The compound movement foundation. You're going to focus on these movement patterns. Your squat— think like sitting in a chair and standing. Hinging— and you can think, pick something up off the floor. By the way, keep your back nice and long. Push— like pushing a door open, pushing a lawnmower. Pulling— think about opening a heavy door, pulling it toward you, or bending and picking something off the floor and pulling it to your chest. And carry— think about groceries, luggage. I always think salt pellets, it's where my mind goes. And then progressive overload. We have to make sure that we're getting you there. Every week I want you to make it slightly harder than it was the week before. Add more weight or do more repetitions if you feel a little vulnerable with any more weight. Hold the position longer, and that means You're going to lift up, extending the arms. I want you to hold it there and pause for 2 seconds, and then lower down and hold it at that end for 2 seconds. And that more time under tension can make the weight you're using feel a little heavier and challenging. Your muscles need to be challenged in order to grow, don't forget that. And then recovery has always got to be a part of your plan. So rest days are not lazy days, by the way. They're growth days. That is when the magic happens. In fact, if you don't have recovery days, you're probably just getting tired. Potentially, you're not gaining muscle. You're actually maybe losing it, but the quality of it is also going down. This is when your muscles actually rebuild, repair, and get stronger. So honor that as much as you do your workouts. Before we wrap up, I want to address the elephant in the room. Did you see it there? So I want you to stop thinking about exercise as punishment for eating or a need to burn calories or earn them. Stop thinking about it as something that you should do and think about it as something that is the most important investment that you have in your future. If you're listening to social media at all, doing any of that, nameless, mindless scrolling, you're hearing that there is nothing that compares to the benefit to your longevity as exercise for your brain, for your muscle, for your bone density. We can't beat that, and it's pretty economically available to all of us. So Every squat is an investment in being able to get off the toilet independently. Every deadlift is an investment in picking up a grandchild or a puppy. Every push-up is an investment in getting up from the ground. Women who thrive after 50 aren't the ones who had perfect genetics, by the way. They're the ones who made their health non-negotiable. They're the ones who stopped making excuses and they start making changes. So here's my challenge for you this week. I want you to schedule those 2 sessions. I would love it if you're listening, if you will go to Instagram, if you DM me— that's a direct message, I'm still answering those— I want to see which 2 days are you doing your resistance training. I want you to move your body with intention and purpose every day. A little bit on purpose. If you have a job, get up frequently, go down the hall to the restroom and come back, volunteer to go get the mail, walk with somebody to lunch. I want you to invest at least 90 minutes in your future independence with the resistance training sessions. Next week, we're going to deep dive into something else, and that is kind of piggybacking off of this. We're going to talk about bone density. And when is it too late to increase your bone density? We'll talk about that. We'll talk about the relationship between it and cortisol and calcium. And you may be surprised by some of the things we said. Remember this: 80% of women are not meeting this minimum 2 times weekly resistance training. But you are not here to be average, are you? So if you are lifting weights, do a friend a favor and take her to the gym. There is no better time to get another woman started strength training, and it's never too late. You still got it, girl. Now go prove it to yourself. You will find all the resources that we talked about in the show. We have some special links, and if you're a fitness professional and and you want to specialize in menopause fitness, there's never been a better time. There's never been a greater need than right now. I will link to the Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialist certification course. We're open. We have something extra juicy special for all of you who need and want to get started in the month of October, Menopause Awareness Month. So until next time, keep flipping your mindset and your metabolism. This is Debra Atkinson, and I will talk to you next week.