POD #39: How to start lifting weights after 40 (& fit it into your busy life)
[00:00:00] Welcome to 40 plus fitness for women. I'm Lynn, your host. And today we are going to talk about how to start weight training after 40. And we will go through some considerations. That you should think about before you get started some scenarios for getting started, because not all of us have the same amount of time and resources at our disposal.
And then also what you can expect really, when you first get started. So it's always great to hear from customers, especially when they have kind of insights as they've been listening to my podcast and, and then started doing things differently. I had one. This woman who purchased my learned lift at the gym program, she's been doing body pump classes at her gym, and she said that she's noticed that that there are some issues with the weights that they use in the pump classes.[00:01:00]
If you haven't been in a pump class before the format is that you have, I think it's like nine or 11 different songs that will play. And for each song, you do a certain muscle group. And one of them is one where you will do things like straight legged deadlifts and then upright rows and shoulder presses all with the same barbell without changing weight.
It's in between, you know, those exercises and she noticed that actually what happens is that the weights that she puts on there are too low for her straight like a dead lifts and yet too heavy for the shoulder presses. So what does she do? She ends up like Getting too much for her shoulders, too little for her glutes and hamstrings.
And yeah, so based on this, she wanted to really start training them [00:02:00] separately from one another so that she could actually pick the weight that made sense. And so she started the program and, uh, and I'm really glad that she did and she's been quite happy with it so far. Anyway, so on to today's topic. So the three things that we want to look at first is the considerations before you start weight training after 40.
And one big consideration really is what is your goal? With weight training, this is all part of this piece of how are you going to do this? But like, what is your goal? Is your goal right now to maintain muscle as you age, or maybe even grow a little bit of muscle, or maybe you are going into a calorie deficit and
you've heard that you can lose 25 to 30 percent of the weight that you lose from your muscle mass.
When you're in a calorie deficit and you would like to lose the weight [00:03:00] from your fat stores rather than from your muscle. So you want to weight train at the same time. Or are you somebody who really like, I want to look totally different, transform my body by next summer. And I want to do it, you know, all in and I'm willing to commit.
So what, what is really the goal that you have? So that's important for you to know. And the second thing you need to think about is what is your current health and fitness status. So, you know, in midlife, it's very likely that you've had some kind of injury that comes along or maybe there have been some changes to your body.
Like some people have already started to see some arthritis. I have one client who's. One ankle will not flex as far as the other. So you may have considerations like that, that you need to keep in mind when you're starting the weight training or another client who [00:04:00] has dislocated her shoulder several times, actually in group fitness classes and in just random situations.
And so she needs to. Think about training her shoulders in a little bit less. Yeah. Standard way. So for her, for example, she gets her shoulder exercises from her physical therapist and the rest of her body exercises for me. And and then, of course, what is your overall physical fitness? Are you somebody who's been.
Are you really active for your whole life and you're close to your ideal body weight at your ideal body weight, maybe even below ideal body weight, or are you somebody who has not really been into physical fitness before this, or have you got some health issues already, high blood pressure, pre diabetic, you know, these kinds of things.
So you need to take that into account when you're thinking [00:05:00] about how you're starting your fitness, your weight training. When you're over 40, then another consideration is where are you going to do this weight training? So do you have access to a gym? Is it a gym that's equipped with the standard machines as well as some dumbbells and cable machines or are you too far away from the gym?
So really you'd like to be training at home. So where are you going to do it and where's your space at home? For example. And probably the most important question to ask yourself like considerations before you start is how much time
do you really have for this? You know, we have a tendency to be kind of all or nothing about things and now we need to really be realistic.
Are you somebody that already spends two hours a day at the gym and you just want to kind of shift your [00:06:00] focus from doing group fitness activities? To being in the weight room, or are you somebody who's like, on the total career path or working really long days. Plus you have the children to take care of, and you might even want to spend some time with your significant other and your friends.
So it's like, how are you going to fit it into that puzzle? So really think about what is realistic for you. This is not an all or nothing endeavor. You can absolutely start weight training even if you have smaller amounts of time to spend. So I noticed that actually a lot of coaches are offering, you know, four days a week programs, but I have to say, even I, who I'm very, very motivated to be doing weight training four days a week is quite tough for me right now.
Okay. Last year, I made it happen because I [00:07:00] really wanted the transformation. I had a huge motivation. Now that I'm at a place where I'm quite happy. And of course, want to continue to improve over time, but not, you know, such a drastic pace necessary than four days a week. It's, it's, uh, it's more than like, it's stressful for me to think about that much training.
So really think about what you have. So for example, I had a client who started out with a three days a week program, an and What she noticed was that that was just too much for her schedule and for her stress level right now and for being in perimenopause and not sleeping so well and all, all the other things going on in her life.
And the thing is, when you set yourself a very high target of how many times a week and how much you're going to train, then. The very, [00:08:00] very human thing to do is that when you're not able to achieve that, you sort of throw in the towel and we don't want to be doing that because that leads us to doing nothing, right?
And so rather set a smaller target that is absolutely achievable, or you're like 90 percent of the time you're going to be able to achieve that. That is a huge amount better than a too big a target, which is going to cause you to throw in the towel. Right. And even training twice a week, you know, half an hour to an hour is going to be a lot better than nothing.
I mean, honestly, a lot better. So there are really different scenarios of how you can get going. And here are some examples of just how we've been able to fit
weight training in. For people who are not kind of just here, I have an empty calendar. Just tell me when to show up and [00:09:00] what to do. Right? So let's take a 1st scenario, which I think is very, very, very common among the women that I know, and the women that I talked to, which is that they.
are into fitness, but they love their running or they're spinning or dance classes or whatever it is, some kind of cardio. They really love that or their yoga or their Pilates. It makes them feel really good and they don't want to get that up. I get it. I a hundred percent get it and you don't need to give it up.
So let's think about how you can fit weight training with that. So at the very minimum level, what you could do is that before you go into that Pilates or aerobics class or whatever, when you're at the gym, anyway, you come a little bit earlier and you do a quick warmup and then do two [00:10:00] exercises. in the gym.
You can do one upper body exercise, one lower body exercise, take a break, do the upper body exercise, lower body exercise, take a break, upper body exercise, lower body exercise, then head off to your class. Okay. Even that is better than nothing. It really is. And it'll get you feeling more comfortable in the weight room.
It will start to develop your strength. And if you want a concrete example, so you go to the weight room at your gym before your dance class and do. Lat pulldowns, so lateral pulldowns with a bar and alternate that with leg presses. So you do one set of lateral pulldowns, lat pulldowns. And then while you're taking a break, like letting your upper body take a break, you go to leg press machine.
A seated leg press is really easy [00:11:00] because you just, you know, put the pin in the right leg. Good. Amount of weight. You don't have to deal with moving any plates or anything like that. So the setup is quick and easy. Then you do leg press. Then you take like a two minute break. You do your lat pull down again, walk over to the seated leg press machine, do a second set of seated leg presses and again, take a two minute break and then do one more round and then.
While you're doing those things track, right? Even if you're just doing those two exercises Get the tracker you can download it from me so that you remember what weight you were at and how many reps you were able To do last time so that you can make sure that you're applying progressive overload over time And then when you've done those two exercises Could do them twice a week when you come into the gym, maybe even three days a week but You need to leave a day of rest in between.
So I don't know how often you're going to the gym, but do that. And then [00:12:00] after about 10 or 12 weeks, you could swap to two other exercises. Or you can continue to do those for a while, right? So let's not overcomplicate this because the main point is to get going. And so scenario number two is, let's say you have a gym in your building or at work, but you don't have much time.
So there you could just do a quick 30 minute session twice a week. Right after work, right before work, whatever, maybe at your lunch break, just go down there and, and do that quick session. In fact, I had a client whose employer allowed them to spend 15 minutes a day paid time in their gym at the office.
And so we designed a program for them, which had like a quick five minute warmup and then a couple of exercises. [00:13:00] For each day and then just made sure that they were hitting each of their muscle groups twice a week with that design for sure. With weight training where there's a will, there's a way you can figure out how to fit it into your calendar.
What you do want to be sure of, regardless of whether you're doing this in like 15 minute or a 30 minute increments or, you know, whatever is that you have a program. So you have a plan of what exercises you're doing. You are tracking so that you're sure that you can apply the progressive overload. And if you don't know about progressive overload yet, then please check out podcast 18, by the way.
All this information is in the show notes. Like when I'm referring to another podcast or the tracker, for example, there are links in the show notes for you. Okay. And now let's talk about like what you can expect when you actually get into the weight room or start lifting weights at home. So, [00:14:00] progressive overload is important and I also talk a lot about going to failure or close to failure.
So, if you've been listening to this podcast, you have been hearing me say you need to push your muscles. You need to be like really challenging them. Now, in the very start. This is not going to happen right in the very start. You are going to be having a lot of neurological learning by your body. You're going to be learning the exercises.
And what you'll notice as you track on your tracker is that you'll probably see very quick progress as far as being able to do more reps and even being able to increase your weight. Be patient at this phase, the workouts will feel a bit easy to be honest, because you won't be at the point yet where you are like, when you pick up the weight, you're gonna be like, Oh, this is heavy for me because you're still building to that point.
[00:15:00] And The other thing that's going to happen is you're likely going to be really sore, even though you don't feel like you've done much of anything. And that has to do with the phenomenon that soreness is actually usually a response to having something new going on with your body. And since weight training is new, your body will respond by being sore.
And that'll happen throughout your weight training career. When you swap exercises, go back to something you haven't done in a while and that kind of thing. And by the way, it's fairly individual. Some people get more sore than others. And then there's some ways of training like doing very slow reps, which can cause some people to get more sore.
So there are some factors like that, but you want to slowly go up in weights. while you keep your form good. So even though I spend a lot of time talking about, Hey, you need to keep pushing yourself and pushing yourself and pushing yourself. It is always with the caveat that you [00:16:00] need to preserve good form and take those form videos, video yourself doing your workouts.
Review those videos, and if you have a coach, then send those videos to your coach to review because you want to be sure you've got the good form. Another thing that you will notice, especially if you're somebody who has been doing a lot of training, you've been running, you like to challenge yourself, you go to spinning classes, you, you, you do, you exercise, you push yourself hard is what you'll notice is that this seems easy.
Right. You may walk out of your workout, your training session, not sweaty, especially if your gym is cool or at least not hot. You may walk out of there, not sweaty. Your fitness watch will tell you that you barely burned any calories. Your fitness watch will show you that your heart rate barely moved. [00:17:00] And those will feel depressing in the beginning.
I remember when I shifted over to doing the weight training after I'd gotten used to like, Oh, yeah, it's so great to look back at, you know, my heart rate monitor. And yeah, I'm up there at the very top and on the red and, and all the calories. And then I go weight training and my heart rate monitor is telling me that, Oh, this was a nice relaxing thing for you to do.
And I'm like, I was not relaxing. Well, one of the problems is that the heart rate monitors don't really know how to measure weight training, even if you put it in as weight training. But the other thing is that you don't want to be increasing your heart rate a ton in weight training. It will start to go up more as you start to lift heavier and you'll notice like in your lower body, especially because you've got big muscles with your thighs and your glutes, your hamstrings.
And when they get activated and you have long sets and you're pushing heavy weights, then you will notice [00:18:00] that your heart rate goes up and then it'll go back down during the rest period. Then it'll go up when you're, when you have your set and like that, but in the beginning compared to the kind of.
Feeling you get from doing those tough aerobics classes. It's going to feel like, what did I even do anything right? Don't worry. As long as you're applying the progressive overload, you know, going up in weights, gradually keeping your form good. And then. After about a month or so, you're going to be able to be pushing closer to failure.
You're fine. Don't worry about it. Now, of course, if you're somebody who hasn't really worked out before, then this could be very different for you, right? If your body is not used to physical exertion, then this is gonna. Possibly feel quite hard for you. And that's why also, I think it's important that you maybe don't like go 200 percent into it with, [00:19:00] I can train for two hours, you know, three times a week, four times a week, but start slower and let your body get used to it.
It can be really tough if you haven't been doing any kind of workouts. And then another thing to say about what it's like to start weight training is that you are not going to notice results overnight. Muscle is not built overnight. If it were, there would be a heck of a lot of people with six pack abs on every beach and at every pool.
And if you look around, There really aren't those six pack abs are mostly on Instagram, right? It takes a lot of effort and it takes time to build those muscles and especially visible change will take time. And if you have a layer of fat under your skin that's hiding those muscles, then you won't necessarily see the muscle.
But I had the [00:20:00] most amazing male from one of the podcast listeners last week. And she is a 62 year old woman who has been listening to the podcast and started weight training. And it was so exciting to hear that even after two months now that she started applying progressive overload. So Pushing her muscles more.
She has noticed differences in her everyday life that she can get up off the floor more easily, pick up her groceries, go up the stairs, all those things. And I mean, that's what this is about, right? And she knows that eventually it will show too, but she already has these early indications that something's happening.
And I think that's so exciting. Such a great story. Now, I have a lot of podcast episodes that talk about the things you need to be doing to build muscle. But if you want the quick summary of the five most important things, then I do have a download for that. So you can check the link in the [00:21:00] show notes.
It's called five things you need to do to build muscle. You can also find it on my website at www. befitafter40. com slash build muscle. And I also have a podcast episode, which talks about those five things and that's episode number five. Okay. And if you are inspired by this to actually start weight training, even twice a week, then I do have those self study courses and they absolutely offer a two day a week option because I know there are so many women out there who don't have time for more.
So you can train at home or at the gym twice a week. The course includes the program, instructional videos for how to do each exercise, and also videos about the things that you need to do [00:22:00] to be successful in weight room. So for example, and these are very, like, I really try to be concise in these videos.
So much less rambly than me here on my podcast. But for example, before you actually hit the weight room, you should listen to five videos or watch five videos. And those will take you a total of 27 minutes to watch. If you were at, watch them on normal speed. And of course you can watch them on faster speed if you want to.
So to summarize, there are some things to consider before you get started in the gym, your goals. Do you have any health or fitness issues that you need to keep in mind? Where are you going to do that weight training and how much time do you really have? Because you want to set a realistic expectation so you don't just give up.
And then I went through some examples of how you can fit it in. If you're going to the gym to your beloved aerobics classes that you could do [00:23:00] a quick weight training session before that. Or how you can do some shorter sessions, maybe at the office, or if you've got a gym in your building or something like that, or even at home, if you have some dumbbells.
And then we went through what you can expect when you get started. And that was things like, it's not going to feel that hard in the beginning. You're not going to be able to train to failure right at the start. And for those of you who have been. training a lot and are in very good cardiovascular shape and are used to kind of whipping your body, it is going to maybe feel quite easy for you.
And that results will take a little bit of time, but you know, get started. Because without starting, you are not going to get the results. So that was it for this week and looking forward to seeing you again next week. I can't believe the end of the year is [00:24:00] so near. It's kind of scary. Anyway, with that, I will bid you a wonderful rest of the week and happy training.
It really is a comprehensive package for you to get started. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of 40 plus fitness for women. If you're enjoying the podcast and want to show your appreciation, please hit the subscribe button. That helps me to reach more listeners because it signals to the podcast algorithm gods that this is a good show.
Talk to you next week.