#138: FAQs Beginners Ask About Strength Training After 40

Starting strength training can feel confusing with so much conflicting advice online. In this episode, I answer the questions women most often ask when they’re just beginning their lifting journey after 40.

You’ll learn:

• If women over 40 can build muscle without a calorie surplus
• Whether one set of dumbbells is enough to get started
• How often to switch exercises for real results
• What to prioritize if you only have an hour to exercise

Resources mentioned: 

Progressive overload: Episode #114

Adjustable dumbbells I recommend

Transcript

#138: FAQs Beginners Ask About Strength Training After 40

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and today we are gonna do a Q&A session, and I have particularly chosen questions and actually lies that I see online there are just so many. Untruths out there, I guess I can call them lies, or let's say misinformation, people who aren't quite up to speed on the latest information, and then others that are just telling lies to get attention.

Anyway, so that's what we're gonna do today. But before we get started, I just, I just had to share because I was in the weight room yesterday, not an unusual sight anyway, and it had gotten really late. I'd been working very long, um, setting up this new program that I have, and it was like eight [00:01:00] o'clock when I was at the gym, and it was fairly empty.

But the people that were there were mostly middle aged women and men, the few of us that were there. And as I looked around the room during my breaks between sets, it occurred to me that actually we all looked like. Not very happy. Okay. Uh, I mean, and this was such a marked contrast to the previous day when I had been at a dance class and, you know, people were like, excited, enthusiastic, you know, they've got the instructor up there and she has amazing energy.

And after the class people are like sweaty and they're feeling good. They've been moving to the music and, and, and then here I was the following day with all these. Other people lifting weights, looking like we're just not having any fun. And I thought to myself, you know, I'm not actually [00:02:00] enjoying myself either.

You know, none of us look like we're enjoying ourselves. And, but that's the thing, um, that, you know, I was there strength training because I've made this commitment to myself to go at least three times a week. And to maintain my muscles, to maintain my health because this is important to me. And, and I think that everybody else who was there was kind of along the same path because, you know, it was late, we'd already had a long workday behind us.

Everybody looked like they were using their last energy to get their sets done. And it occurred to me that. The, the kind of stick-to-it-ness that it requires to go, even when you don't feel like going to do it, even when you don't wanna do it, and you're not having fun that day. [00:03:00] It is actually a very good life skill, um, because life is not always about just doing fun things and, and having a great time and, and I think it does do us a lot of good to learn to do things that we don't particularly enjoy.

And I was thinking back actually at my own life and like, why am I like this? That, that this is okay for me that I come here even if it, it got later than I expected it to. And even if I'm tired and, and you know, this would not be like my first choice. If you had asked me before I left home that what do you wanna do right now?

It would not have been, oh, I wanna go to the weight room. So. I think it really comes from, you know, the discipline that I, I, uh, learned when I was younger and was a, an athlete, you know, in a team, in a sports team that like, you go, you [00:04:00] go to practice because you have a team relying on you, right? Uh, you're a team is only as strong as its weakest link and you kind of learn to just suck it up and do it anyway.

Um, and. I think that now that even though I don't have the team, I have that skill to be able to do it even when I don't wanna, and I know not everybody has that skill. And so I will say to you that. If you're having one of those days where you feel like, oh, I do not wanna go, I'm super tired. Like, oh, I mean, of course there are gonna be those days where you feel like you've, you've got something, you're coming down something, and then, you know, maybe you do stay home or you really got three hours of sleep last night and you need to catch up on your sleep, then go to bed early.

Don't stay up scrolling though, right? No, no Netflix marathons that night, but. [00:05:00] Most of the time, I would say more than 95% of the time going in will make you feel better, right? At least afterwards, if not in the moment, and at least go in and do the minimum. And when? When I do my programming for all of my members and for learn to lift members as well, I. I lay out the daily program so that you've got the primary exercises, so there are like two or three exercises. There might be four on a full body day, so two for upper body, two for lower body. That are the must dos. Okay, so go in and do the must dos. So yesterday for me, I went in and I was like, okay, I'm gonna do the must dos, which is three different exercises for me right now.

I've had to modify my training a little bit because of my hamstring issue. But when I'd done the three must dos, I was like, okay, I have these kind of optional [00:06:00] exercises in there. And then I did, you know, one or two sets of each of those. And then I left. I could have stopped earlier, but my point is that it's still better to go in.

Do something, then skip it all together. And also you teach yourself, you know that you can do things even when you don't want to. Plus you keep a promise to yourself. And I remember one of my psychology professors back at Dartmouth was like, you know, it's really a bad thing to make yourself a promise and break it.

Because you basically teach yourself that you're a liar, right? And once you break a promise to yourself once, it's easier to do it the next time and the next time, and the next time, and the next time because you don't expect yourself to hold onto that promise. So yeah. So anyway, that got a little bit long, [00:07:00] uh, but I wanted to share that because that.

That was a a, just something that I was thinking about and I would love to hear your thoughts on it. So if you have some thoughts on your own kind of resilience and ability to go through and do it, even when you don't feel like doing it and what's helped you with that, I would love to hear, just reach out to me through Instagram dms.

I always love to chat with my podcast listeners. Okay, and now let's go into the. False information, and a lot of these actually come from things I've seen on Instagram and Facebook, but I'm mostly maybe on Instagram and then in Facebook I'm in a lot of these women who lift weights groups and, and these kinds of things. And you'll have women who are brand new to strength training who come in and they ask questions and oh my God, the answers they get.

Sometimes I'm just like, this is embarrassing. Or the things that they tell [00:08:00] that they're. Own trainers have advised them to do, and I'm just thinking, when was the last time that trainer looked at any of, any of the new information that is out there? Because we are constantly learning more about how to build muscle, how to recover, and all, all these kinds of things.

And especially about like what's appropriate for midlife women. 

So let's start with, can a woman over 40. Build muscle without being in a calorie surplus. So you have probably heard the concept of a bulking phase and a cutting phase if you've been following any kind of influencers online. And the idea there is that you know, you spend your life either eating in a calorie surplus, in other words, forcing yourself to eat more than what your body actually needs.

And during that [00:09:00] time, that will make it like an ideal situation for your body to put on more muscle. And then of course, since you're eating more than you actually need, you also put on fat. So then what do you do after that? You go into a calorie deficit. So you go into a diet to get rid of that extra fat that you just put on so that you can actually see that muscle that you have created.

Now, I did a whole episode on this and whether I think that 40 plus women need to be doing this, and my answer, here's spoiler alert is no you, you absolutely do not need to be doing this. There is plenty of research out there that shows that you can gain muscle. Even in maintenance, which means when you're eating at a level where you're not gaining weight and you're not losing weight, and particularly if you are new.[00:10:00] 

So this kind of bulking and cutting phase that really is something that bodybuilders and those who are competing and going on stage are gonna do, um, because they're kind of at their genetic. Limits, you know, they've built as much muscle as is easy to build. So they have to start doing like special things to get like another pound of muscle on their body or to get it just a little bit more.

So they've come up with this kind of thing. And who on earth really wants to put on more weight, get fatter on purpose. Because nobody enjoys dieting or if you're the person who enjoys dieting, I wanna meet you and interview you. But like, honestly, the, the struggle of dieting. And it's funny because one of these influencers, um, that's online who I would guess that [00:11:00] probably if you're on Instagram, you have run across her.

So she's, she's really, really inspiring. She started out selling makeup and now she's selling, uh, microdosing of GLP-1s. But in any case, she was doing a bulk, uh, just a little while ago and. Lo and behold, when she got to the end of her bulk, she's like, oh yeah, now I gotta cut. And that is when she got into the microdosing of GLP-1s because she realized that dieting is not fun and uh, it's a lot easier if you can use a GLP-1 to help you out.

And then she became an advocate of GLP-1 microdosing, and now she's making tons of money getting other women hooked on GLP-1 Microdosing. So my point here is don't put yourself into that situation where you need to start dieting because you've eaten too much. If you are a woman over 40 midlife, really any age, if [00:12:00] you're getting started, strength training, if you've been doing it, I would say for.

Less than four years in a serious, serious fashion where you're doing progressive overload, where you are lifting heavy, you're going close to failure, you're being consistent, and at and, you wanna get on stage and compete. If you're at that level and you are like, oh, I need to get more muscle and I can't get more muscle, then maybe try this bulking cutting thing.

But that's like a whole nother level. And I think if you're listening to me, me on this podcast, then that's not you. So please understand that you can. Gain plenty of muscle, do a lot of great body recomposition, just eating and maintenance. 

Now the one place where you might have trouble building muscle is if you [00:13:00] are kind of in a perma diet. So your body is constantly. In a state of having too few calories on board. So I do advise staying in maintenance mode and strength training and. If you wanna look at your nutrition, the first thing that I would really look at is how much protein you're eating and make sure that you're consuming least a hundred grams a day of high quality protein.

If you're a vegetarian, it's gonna be harder to get all of the amino acids in there and, uh, and then, maybe increase the amount of protein that you're eating till you're at about one gram per pound of body weight. So instead of worrying about bulking, worry about increasing the, the amount of protein out of your total calories.

Alright, so that was question number one.

 Next question

 [00:14:00] Let's talk about what equipment you need to get started. So the question is, is one pair of dumbbells enough to start strength training and see results? Okay, so this is, I think, a great one to unpack first of all, I wanna say that absolutely start with just the one set. If you just have one set, get your hands on a program, a good program, and get started.

 But I'm gonna be honest with you, which is that you are going to need bigger dumbbells soon, like really soon, especially if you are doing a progressive strength training program. And that is what you should be doing.

If you are still using that one set of dumbbells a month from now, then there's something wrong with what you're doing. Okay. A month from now, you should be stronger than you are today 

So if you are a woman who. You know, you have [00:15:00] your two sets of dumbbells or three sets of dumbbells at home, and you have been working out with those for months or years and, and it's been the same weights you're not progressing, you're not getting stronger. You're not going to build muscle that way.

 So start with whatever you have. Get your first program, have the dumbbells that you have in my challenges. For example, you could start with two water bottles filled with water, okay? But the point is to get started, but you will notice if you're doing a progressive program, that you will need heavier dumbbells. Quite soon, and you can get them on the used dumbbell market. You can get them on Amazon I'll put a link in the show notes to, some less expensive and some fancier adjustable dumbbells that I recommend.

And yeah, it's an investment to get the [00:16:00] dumbbells, but there's no point in just. Working out with the same weight week after week, month after month, year after year. That is not gonna do anything with for you. So no. You cannot get results by working out with one set of dumbbells. You will need heavier weights as you get stronger.

All right. And then let's look at another myth, which is around muscle confusion. So do you need to be changing your exercises every few weeks in order that your muscles won't get used to them and stop developing? Actually, if you wanna build muscle, you should be doing the same exercises for, I would say a minimum of eight to 10 weeks and then swap them out.

Now, why would you do that? Okay, well, because. The way that you build [00:17:00] muscle is to apply progressive overload, and I've done podcast episodes on that and you can check them out, links in the show notes.

So what progressive overload means basically is that as you get stronger. You increase the resistance or the load on your muscle, and you can increase that by either asking it to do another rep or increasing the weights and the thing is that you can't progressively overload if you keep swapping out the exercises. The first few times that you do a new exercise or that you switch exercises in your program, you are going to see some soreness because it's new and you're going to see some strength gains as you learn to do that exercise or remember how to do that exercise, right? So your [00:18:00] body kind of gets its act together and it's like, oh yeah, I need to do like this to move that weight.

Right. After that, you start to actually be able to challenge the muscle better and to push that muscle, and you can start applying progressive overload. Now, if you swap out after three weeks, you're kind of just at the point where you're getting going with that progressive overload.

I mean, I think about myself. I took glute thrusts back into my. Rotation, I think it was five weeks ago, and. You know, I have been strength training for a little bit longer, but it's taken me a few weeks of building up 'cause you don't immediately wanna throw huge weights on there. I am an err on the side of caution type of trainer, so I slowly build up on that piece of equipment, even though I've done [00:19:00] heavier weights and RDLs and hyper extensions and other glute exercises, I want to build up slowly and gradually, uh, on my new exercise. So it has taken me, you know, two, three weeks to get to the point where I'm really challenging my muscles, right? And then I start to actually see a lot of progress at that point.

 And I'm on week five, I definitely haven't gotten to, you know, where I can go with this.

I'm like just kind of getting started in really challenging my glutes with this movement pattern. And if I were to have swapped out of this after three weeks, I wouldn't have even gotten any results from that. So stick with the same exercise for about eight to 10 weeks, and it can even be longer than that.

And, um, yeah, so definitely three weeks, way, [00:20:00] way, way too fast every week. Way, way, way too fast for you to really make progress and we're talking about doing things efficiently and effectively so that we can achieve our goals, which for midlife, women really need to be about building more muscle mass because it is so important for our metabolic health and getting stronger. Okay, because that is what is gonna strengthen our bones, our muscles, our tendons, our ligaments, you know, our whole body. So stick with the exercises for longer than three weeks.

So I think the next question is an amazing one. So. If I only have one hour, should I spend it walking or strength training? Now everywhere you will hear about the benefits of walking and walking is wonderful. Don't get me wrong. But I think one of the reasons that it is so [00:21:00] emphasized is that we have a huge population of people who are doing no exercise at all.

They don't like the idea of sweating. They don't have access to a gym and we just wanna get them off the couch. And walking has enormous appeal in the sense that anybody can do it at any age. You know, you don't need to have a gym, you don't need any equipment. You can do it any time of day. Um, you can do it pretty much anywhere.

So I think it is a great, you know, overall message that get up off the couch and walk and that will already bring you a lot of health benefits. But now where I find a little bit of an issue is when women are like, okay, well I wanna take care of my fitness and I have an hour, so what should I do? And, and this was in particular one woman who was like.

Um, I've [00:22:00] been now spending that hour walking, but should I actually be doing something else? And my answer is, if you're ready to do some exercise, some real exercise, then skip the walking and do the exercise. Alright? And if I had one hour a day to spend exercising, then I would do two to three days a week of strength training with that hour and then

two to three days a week of some kind of cardio fitness. Okay. And then take two recovery days, which would be then maybe just walking, and then on the days where you're doing. Strength training or cardio. I would try to just get more movement in, and this is like small habits that you could change. All right?

I mean, I know the goal that they talk about out there is 10,000 steps a day, but already at 8,000 steps you get a. A [00:23:00] ton of the benefits, the difference between 8,000 and 10,000 is not, uh, like huge as far as what they've been able to research, like the amount of, benefits. But even if you're going from 500 steps a day to a thousand or to 2000, that's already a huge increase.

So you can do things like pace while you're on social media. Fold laundry while you're watching TV or pace back and forth in the living room or, or maybe do some side stepping, any kind of movement, right? Is. Going to count. They talk about steps because that is the easiest in a way to count. Um, but it, what they really mean is that you move. Okay. And yes, I know there are benefits to like going outside, getting fresh air, just walking in nature, just walking in general. I don't wanna discount that and that is amazing, but.

I know that we have such [00:24:00] limited time. I'm just thinking of myself too. At one point I, I thought to myself, okay, I need to get in my 10,000 steps and it might be nine o'clock at night and I'm going out there in the dark to walk for an hour and I'm completely stressed out because I really need to still clean the kitchen and fold the laundry and, you know, and I'm heading out to walk and, uh, you know, it just starts to get so much.

Anyway, I am digressing here. But my point is that if you are committed to exercising and you have about an hour a day to do that, then I would definitely not spend that hour walking. I would. Twice a week or three times a week, spend that hour strength training because we are losing our muscles.

We need those muscles, we need our strength, we need our bone density. We need those things to age well. And then on top of that, I would add in [00:25:00] cardio. And if you can do high intensity cardio, fabulous. It's quick, painful, it's not so pleasant, but it's quick and really effective, and then maybe two of the days spend that hour just walking. Okay. And do your outdoor walks and then the other days when you're doing the strength training and the cardio, I would. Just focus on moving more over the course of your day. Pacing, taking little breaks to walk around the office, walk to the kitchen more often to get some water.

You know, don't go to the bathroom that's closest to you. Go to the one on the other end of your house. I've started going down to the basement to use the bathroom rather than the one upstairs, just to get in a little more motion. Okay, so that was about walking versus doing other kinds of exercise with your hour,

so I hope that I was able to clear up some misconceptions that you may have had, and if [00:26:00] you know somebody who is maybe starting strength training or thinking about starting strength training. And might be looking for tips and tricks online and might be sub subject to some of these false, um, pieces of information.

Then please share this episode with them and share my podcast in general and let's help them get some results from what they're doing with weights. Until next time, as usual, I wish you happy training.