#121: Are You Strength Training - or Just Working Out with Weights?

There’s a lot of noise out there about “strength training” — but are you really doing it?

If your workouts involve dumbbells, sweat, and a fast pace… you might just be doing cardio with weights. And if you’re not following certain key principles, you're missing out on the true benefits of strength training.

In this episode, I break down:

• The key differences between strength training and working out with weights
• What proper strength training looks like
• Why workouts like BodyPump or random YouTube videos often miss the mark
• How to tell if you're applying progressive overload (and why that matters)
• The surprising truth about heart rate, rest periods, and combo moves

This one’s a must-listen if you’ve ever wondered whether what you’re doing “counts” - and what to change if you want stronger bones, better blood sugar control, more muscle, and greater independence in midlife and beyond.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• My free 10-day Lift Off strength training challenge >>
• Learn to Lift programs >>
• Strength training membership >>

If you’re ready to stop spinning your wheels and actually get strong — this is where to start.

Transcript

#121: Are You Strength Training or Just Working Out with Weights?

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach, helping women to get started and keep going with strength training. And today I am gonna talk about one of my pet peeves because this has really been on my mind lately, and it is one of the big reasons that I am running my free fitness challenge, which is starting on June 4th, and it is because there's so much confusion over what is strength training and what is not strengths training.

So my question today to you is. Are you strength training or are you simply working out with weights? So my free challenge that I mentioned a minute ago, I am working with a coach to get that set up because I've never done a free challenge before and I thought, okay, I want this to be a success.

How do I do [00:01:00] this? You know, how should I be delivering this? All the things. So I'm in this coaching group and there are other women there as well. And most are, you know, doing Pilates and these kinds of a little bit different forms of exercise and some are mindfulness coaches and finding your inner strength and whatever.

But the common theme is doing free challenges. Anyway, it just so happens that there are two women in that group who are, um, they have their own fitness studios, which is great. So they teach group fitness classes in their fitness studios and they have mostly middle-aged women as their clients. And both of them are running free fitness challenges that are strength training.

And if you look at what they are doing versus what I am doing, they [00:02:00] are two totally different animals and yet they are calling theirs strength training. And so it is no wonder women out there are so confused about what is strength training because what they are offering are these follow along classes that change every single time that use dumbbells?

And they're like, well, people don't wanna get bored. I make up my choreography on the spot that day. And yes, they're using weights and they're calling it strength training, but it's not true Strength training. So I thought I would make a little list of questions to ask yourself about, you know, what is the thing that you're doing?

And if you answer these questions a certain way, you'll start to notice that, hmm, maybe this isn't true strength training, like proper strength training. [00:03:00] And I mean, before we even go into this, like why do you even care if you're doing proper strength training? Okay. The reason you care is that if your goal.

Is to get the benefits of strength training and having more muscle on your body, then proper true strength training is going to be the fastest, most effective route to get to that point. So what are these benefits I'm talking about? I'm talking about looking toned again, because you have muscle on your body.

I'm talking about getting your bones stronger because you don't wanna have osteoporosis. Or maybe you already have been diagnosed with it and your doctor has said start strength training. Like you need to be doing proper strength training, not just working out with weights. If you're pre-diabetic and you wanna put on more muscle, because muscle is a glucose sink and [00:04:00] pulls glucose out of your bloodstream to help regulate your blood sugar, you need to be doing proper strength training.

If you want to be able to lift your grandchildren, like get your whole body stronger, you need to be doing proper strength training. I mean a whole host of things. And uh, actually it was amazing to read the reasons why women are joining my free challenge.

I feel like, ugh, I have caught exactly the right women joining me because they're like, I feel like I'm getting weaker. I want to get stronger. I want to be able to lift my grandkids. Those groceries are feeling heavier. I wanna avoid osteoporosis. I want to age strong. I don't wanna be a burden on my children. That is what I help with. Like those are exactly the things that you get from getting stronger with proper strength training.

So let's go [00:05:00] into the list. Okay. So question number one, when you're doing the workout, are you just going, going, going the whole time or is it like you do something and then you take a break and then you do something and you take a break? Because if you are just going, going, going through the whole time.

Like in a circuit class, like in a body pump class, like in a lot of other workouts that you're watching online, that is working out with weights. True strength training is you do an effort, a set, and then you take a break and then you do another set. You take a break, sometimes you can do two exercises back to back.

That's called super setting, and then you take your break. But the breaks are an essential part of the [00:06:00] workout, and in fact, you may spend more time in your breaks. Then you do working out, especially when you get more advanced. So like for me, lifting heavy as I do now that I'm in year four, my sets are six to eight reps and that doesn't take very long.

And then I rest for two to three, and. In some exercises, like when I'm doing my unassisted pull-ups, I may wait rest as long as five minutes. So how long does it take to do three pull-ups? Mm, not very many seconds. And then I wait three minutes before I try it again. So you see there's, there's a big difference in what that exercise session looks like.

Okay. What about your heart rate monitor? When you turn that on and you look at your graph after it's done, does it look like, you know, you've got these peaks up towards the top, so [00:07:00] you're in zone three, four, or five on your heart rate monitor? Or does it look more like you haven't done anything at all? Right,

So Really, if it's looking like they're up there, up high, you are doing a cardio session with weights. If it looks like you've barely done anything. Yep. Welcome to proper strength training. That is what it'll look like. Yes. When you get heavy weights and you start doing like longer sets, your heart rate may go up a little bit.

I mean, it will go up somewhat, you know, if you're doing some. Heavier squats or, or something like that. Leg presses, yes, but it is, it will look significantly different. If you're watching this on the video. I'm gonna screenshot actually what it looks like when I do a body pump class versus what it looks like when I do a strength training workout, and they are very, very different.

Okay. [00:08:00] Third thing, is, are you applying progressive overload? Now, this is one of the key things you need to be doing in order to get results. Remember, progressive overload simply means that as you get stronger. You start pushing your body to do a little bit more, and I've often talked about like if you were going to go running, you wouldn't just run around the same block over and over again at the same speed for years on end.

You would start running a little bit faster or, or doing maybe two blocks twice around the block or start doing 10 Ks because you push yourself a little bit more as you get in better shape for running. And the same thing applies for weight training. Don't just pick up those same dumbbells and do the same amount of work, or even just picking up the same dumbbells for year after year.

You are not applying [00:09:00] progressive overload. Now when I was in my body pump classes, I was working, and I've told this story so many times. I was working out and, using those same five kilo dumbbells for my bicep curls. for years and it burned and it was hard and I was exhausted by the end. But that was not proper strength training.

That was endurance. Muscular endurance. So yeah, my, my biceps learned how to endure. And when I switched to proper strength training, my biceps started to grow, my arms started to look firm again and I started to be able to pick things up more easily again 'cause I got stronger because it was proper strength training.

So progressive overload is super important, but the thing is that it is pretty near impossible to implement unless you are doing kind of systematic following a program strength training. [00:10:00] So then the question is, are you doing the same exercises week in, week out? So you could even apply progressive overload, because if you're not doing the same exercise, you're not gonna be able to do progressive overload,

Are you tracking your sets and your weights? So that's certainly not something you do in a body pump class. And I think even, and I won't use her name, but there is a woman who I run across all the time. People ask me what's the difference with her stuff because she has like quote unquote strength training on YouTube and she has millions of women doing those, routines and they love it. But the thing is her programs are changing all the time, and she does encourage you to pick up bigger weights over time, but there is no system to it. Like you're not writing down what you use this time and then using something different [00:11:00] next time and trying to do a little bit more.

So it'll get you somewhere certainly further than if you're sitting on a couch. But it won't get you anywhere near where you are going to get when you do proper strength training. So if you're somebody who likes to be efficient and effective, then just get to the proper strength training.

Another question, are you switching weights for each exercise? And this is important because each of your muscles is a little bit different in how strong there are. In each of the exercises. too. Okay. So if you are using the same one dumbbell or two dumbbells for everything that you do, you are likely not proper strength training.

Now I will. I say there's a caveat to this, which is that when you are very first starting out, don't stress about [00:12:00] everything being absolutely perfect. If you have two sets of dumbbells at home, you know one lighter, one a little bit heavier, and you're getting started on a home program. Of course it's not gonna be perfect right from day one, but I would hope that after two months you have started collecting a few more dumbbells or getting some adjustable dumbbells so that you can really, pinpoint the right weight to be doing for each of your exercises.

And this brings me right into, are you doing combo exercises? Because combo exercises are so ineffective, especially because often they combine a lower body element and an upper body element. Okay? So you might be doing, let's say a split squat and then a shoulder press coming up out of the split squat.

And don't get me started on how many things that is doing. That is suboptimal. Well, let me start on some of them. [00:13:00] So your lower body has big muscles in it, and so you are going to get stronger over time on your lower body than your upper body. And then when you're doing your shoulder press, coming up from the split squat.

First of all, you are getting momentum helping you in getting those weights going so it's not even your muscles doing the work so you want to separate those two exercises. You wanna be doing your shoulder presses separate from your split squats, because otherwise your lower body is not going to get challenged over time 'cause it is going to be limited by how strong your shoulders are.

If your shoulders can't, you know, lift more than, let's say five pounds, I can tell you your lower body pretty quickly is going to be able to lift more than five pounds. But if you're doing a combo exercise, your lower body is never going to be [00:14:00] challenged to the point where it's going to build muscle.

Muscular endurance. Yes. Muscular strength and power. No.

Okay, so I hope that this has helped you to understand that strength training is really a totally different animal from endurance training. And those workouts that claim to be strength training workouts, they often are not. They are cardio with weights. And now just to finish off, I wanna bring up one more point because this, I've run across as well, usually as women commenting to me on various posts that I have.

Or they'll send me an email, you know, they've been listening to the podcast and they'll say, wow, you know, I've been strength training at home for a long time. But I was never applying progressive overload. So they might have been doing sets and taking breaks, [00:15:00] but they were missing that critical piece of actually pushing their body to do a little bit more and a little bit more.

So that could be missing from your workouts as well, even if you're not doing the high heart rates. Stuff or you know, even if you're doing the same exercises week in and week out, you need to be applying the progressive overload. And like I said, I had an episode just a few weeks back that once again explained what is progressive overload.

And if you haven't tried out real strength training, if you've been listening to this list and you've been like. Ooh, you know what? That thing that I thought was strength training that I've been doing isn't actually strength training. Then join my free challenge. It starts on June 4th, but I. It is not something that you can't jump into partway through.

So even if it's past June 4th, when you're listening to this episode, [00:16:00] go sign up. I will leave the link in the show notes, come join us. It is a 10 day challenge, but I give you longer than 10 days to complete it. So even if you start late, it is not a problem. Okay? And come test out what real strength training is like.

It's got mini workouts so you can try it out. Like honestly, just test it out at home and if you've got dumbbells, then use those. But if you don't, just fill a couple of water bottles and use those. 'cause the point is to kind of understand, I mean, I feel like by trying it, you'll understand how this is fundamentally very, very different from those cardio with weights classes that you might have been doing online or at your gym.

Alright, so I hope this helped and whew, it helped me at least to get a little bit of my angst off my chest because it really bothers me that [00:17:00] this has been made so confusing for you because I know online everybody who's a menopause expert, health fitness expert, gynecologists are even learning this too. That strength training is really important for us women in midlife, but strength training is not the same thing as working out with weights, okay? It's a subset of working out with weights. So start strength training for real.

And as always, I do have my learn to lift programs. They're available for you anytime you are ready to start. And then when you've done the Learn to Lift program, you can join my membership. Or if you're somebody who's already started Strengths training a little bit on your own and you want a program to follow so you can just focus on walking in and doing your workout either at home or at the gym. Then join my membership and you can train two, three or [00:18:00] four days a week in either of those, and my most popular is two days a week at home. That is amazing. That will get you strong.

So until next week, I wish you a wonderful spring and happy training.