71-How It All Fits Together: Strength, Cardio, Power, and Walking After 40

In this episode of MilesFromHerView, Kat of KatFit Strength delves into the essentials of fitness for women in midlife, focusing on the importance of strength training, cardio, and power. She debunks common myths, addresses hormonal changes, and provides actionable strategies for building a balanced fitness plan.

 Kat emphasizes the benefits of progressive overload, the advantages of non-exercise activity (NEAT), and the practical barriers that women face. She offers a beginner-friendly guide to incorporating strength and cardio into a busy lifestyle without chasing perfection. Perfect for women looking to improve their fitness journey with authenticity and resilience.

00:00 Introduction: Finding Balance in Fitness

00:40 Welcome to MilesFromHerView

01:30 The Importance of Strength, Cardio, and Mobility

02:48 Understanding Hormones and Midlife Fitness

04:18 Progressive Strength Training Explained

08:42 Incorporating Power and Plyometrics

11:13 Cardio: Beyond Running

16:19 The Role of NEAT in Everyday Fitness

20:44 Overcoming Barriers to Consistent Fitness

22:31 Actionable Fitness Tips

23:31 Conclusion: Embrace Your Strength

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Transcript

0:00

If you've ever felt stuck between lift heavy and do more cardio or thought walking only counts if you wear a weighted vest. This one's for you. Today, I'm breaking down muscle bone. What lifting heavy actually means. Why cardio matters, how power keeps you quick and safe, walking neat, and what the best fitness plan looks like for women in midlife. We'll also be talking about the barriers that often stop you from staying consistent, plus some other considerations after 40 no gimmicks. Just a real plan you can run with this week.

Kat: 0:40

Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience. I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultra marathon runner and a strength trainer in her forties with nearly two decades of experience. I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes. This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood. All while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness. Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you. Let's dive in.

1:28

Welcome back to MilesFromHerView. I'm Kat, and in the world of fitness, it really often feels like strength training, cardio and mobility cannot exist in harmony. It gets framed like an either or situation. Here's the truth. All of it matters for your health, and no, you do not have to do it all perfectly and it can fit into a chaotically filled life. The industry influencers make it feel so cumbersome, like only do zone two cardio. If you don't get 10 K steps a day, you're failing. Only walk with a weighted vest. And if you pick a weight too, that's too light, you suddenly feel like a failure. And see, the thing is all those things can't be farther from the truth, the mindset that actually stops you from taking consistent action. So today we're gonna be covering nitty gritty of strength training, cardio power, what the acronym NEAT stands for, and also really defining what midlife is and what you need in this time period. Also, there are barriers that we all face as women in this midlife. And if you have any questions, you can always message the podcast. I respond to them directly. All right, let's talk hormones. It's no secret. Our hormones are always fluctuating. Why strengthen cardio and the impact they have after 40 is so important has to do with estrogen primarily. So estrogen does more than just regulate your cycle. Your bones, your muscles, your connective tissue, all respond to it. Enduring midlife, estrogen levels shift estradiol. The protective form in your reproductive years starts to decline while ESTRO becomes more dominant. Post menopause, this change affects muscle maintenance, bone density, fat distribution, and overall metabolism. So during perimenopause, ES should dial swings. Trends downward. So what you tend to feel is it's, harder to rebuild muscle and it's easier to lose muscle bone loss starts to increase and fat shifts more to the abdomen area. Even if your routine has not changed. I don't wanna stress here, you are not broken. The rules just change and training is how you adapt. Let's dive into that training. I know that was a super, super light aspect of hormones, but we're gonna really make this about the actual fitness side of it, muscles and bone only adapt when you give them a reason. So that is why progressive overload or progressive strength training helps with this. You gradually increase the challenge through load reps, set range of motion, tempo, and shorter rest. Without that progression, your body just maintains. And with it, your body will upgrade. So think about if you've been doing the same workout, the same amount of reps the same, weight year after year. Your body isn't going to change. Your body is fantastic at adapting. So when you first started that routine, it will. Change because you gave it a stimulus, you gave it a reason to start to change. And with progressive overload, when we, change the load, the reps, the sets, the range of motion, the tempo or shorter rest, this is where we continue to see results. When I tell clients I do progressive strength training, we work on increasing the weight, it can get confused that. If you're starting at five pounds in a year, and we increase, let's say five pounds every four weeks, you're going to wind up lifting, super insane amounts of weight. But that's not the case. We're focused on, and what I change in my clients programs at the end of each four week cycle is maybe rep range sets. Range of motion, the tempo they're lifting, changing with the, rest in between sets and exercises. And then the load is maybe how we're carrying the weight. It doesn't mean always increasing the weight. We do increase the weight every four weeks, but there are other variabilities that I can change to. Increase the intensity or the challenge of that strength training program so that the client is going to continue seeing results. In the programming we are training so that we are feeling better in life, we're feeling stronger. We're easing those aches and pains. We're tapping into that strength that we have in our body and improving upon it. I use big movement patterns and they do carry over into everyday life. When I put together a plan, there are some primary movements, so like a push. We're doing bench press, pushups, overhead press, and it's focused on postural awareness. We're doing hinges. Romanian deadlift, trap, bar deadlift, kettlebell swings, hip thrust, pulls. One arm rose, lap pull downs, assisted pull-ups. Carries, grabbing dumbbells or kettlebells and we are carrying weight as we're walking. And then there's rotational movements and anti rotational movements like pallof press, cable chops, side planks. So those movements all factor into life. Think about carrying two grocery bags. At your side. If you have to pull something with one arm, you're reaching into the backseat and you have a heavy bag to pull or you have to push or lift overhead, a suitcase into the overhead compartment. Picking up a child, there is a lot in everyday life that we want to mimic in the weight room so that we are set up for success and we have a resilient body when we are moving through everyday life. So how heavy is heavy? Lifting heavy is it is unique to each person. And when clients start a program, you wanna choose a weight that for six to 10 reps, it challenges you while you can maintain good form and you are staying safe, if you can do five more easily. When you finish, a set of six or of 10 then that means you can increase the weight on the next set Building that strength is one factor and that helps our muscles. Increase, or we maintain that muscle mass and we build on it, but how do we build bone density? How do we maintain our bone density so we are not at risk for osteoporosis or osteopenia? Power. We need power, we need plyometrics. Power is strength expressed quickly. So think about this. If you ever had a kid, primarily a toddler, that just bolts. You have to sprint after them. That is strength expressed quickly. If you start to trip and you try to catch yourself, that is strength expressed quickly. So this is why we need that power and plan metric aspect in our workouts. It does not mean deep box jumps jumping up on a 36 inch box or. What it can look like is like my ball, chest pass, overhead throw, rotational throw. It can look like quick little ankle pops, so you're picking your feet up and little hops on the ground or hopping back and forth with a line there. These things. Help build that explosive power. They also put load on those bones that is going to help with that resilience in the bone density. So with PIOs, we're not going to be doing a ton. Even when I was an athlete in my prime in college, it wasn't like I had a massive diet of PIOs where we did 30, 40 minutes of it. No, you want to keep the volume low, but the quality high. So when I was in college, these are the same metrics that you're gonna follow. Here is one to two sessions per week, and what we vary there is. The actual exercise, the depth of the jumps, the quickness of the jumps. Are we jumping down off a box and holding it to absorb it? Are we jumping off of a box and exploding back up? Are we doing little hops off the ground for quick repetition? So there are many different ways to manipulate how we're doing the power and the plyometric in those sessions Now. If you have osteoporosis, pelvic floor issues or joint pain, you're going to start in very controlled manner because these are considerations we need to take into. They're not limitations where you won't be able to build that power or plyometric aspect in your programming, but we need to take this into consideration so that we're meeting. Your body where it's at and elevating it so that we can continue to, build on that resiliency. And take a little breather and we're gonna transition into cardio cardio trains your heart, lungs, and helps with the efficiency of your blood, your veins, your blood vessels. We want a good, healthy working heart, lungs, and blood that can efficiently pump around our body. So training helps build and maintains those muscles, which is going to help that metabolic response. Cardio training is going to help your longevity. It's going to help your heart, your lungs, and your efficiency with. Moving the blood around in your body. It also helps make strength sessions easier, and you don't need to run in order to see cardio benefits. I am a big runner. If you're a long time listener to this podcast, you know, I run. But walking is the most underrated form of cardio, and it is getting bashed as well as it's getting its time in the spotlight. Some things to debunk here with walking, you don't need a weighted vest to walk, I would argue. If you are new to walking, if you are new to strength training, please do not start with a weighted vest. If you are someone who has osteoporosis, osteopenia, pelvic floor issues, joint issues, please do not start walking with a weighted vest. This doesn't mean that you won't ever be able to. I want you to build. Strength and postural integrity in your body, as well as deep core strength so that you are not hurting your lower back, adding more compression around that thoracic part of the spine. So around your chest area. These things, if you do not have good core control, good core ability, if you already have joints that there is pain in joints, whether you have arthritis or any other sort of, joint, challenges, pelvic floor issues as well. We are going to exacerbate this and it could put you out of commission for walking. My biggest goal for anyone, whether I train you or not, is I want you to be moving for life. I want you to be active in enjoying things, and we need to meet our bodies where they are now and elevate them so that they're getting stronger for tomorrow and the subsequent decades. So. Ditch the weighted vest. It's not a precursor to being able to go outside and walk. If you've been walking with a weighted vest and it's working for you, fantastic. If you've been strength training for a while and you're just curious if a weighted vest will make a difference, sure. It's not a requirement. Walking, there's many different variations that you can increase the intensity to help continue to see those quote unquote gains. You can walk at a faster pace. Maybe it's put on some music, preferably, make sure you're aware of your surroundings. Use one earbud, especially if you're walking on a trail so you can make sure that you hear people passing or cyclists coming by you. Walk up hills. Hills are a fantastic way to get that heart rate up as well as challenge your body. Your muscles load the body in a different way. The other way that you can increase the intensity with your walking is having intervals where you walk at a faster pace and then you decrease that to a recovery so those are a few ways that you can. Change the variation walking at a leisurely pace definitely has its place, but we want to challenge ourself by walking at a faster pace. Picking hills to walk up and adding little intervals in there so that we're getting the range and working our cardiovascular system. Cycling and spinning is another great form of cardio. It's joint friendly and. Accessible at home. There are regular spin bikes and then there's the Peloton spin bikes, and do 30 to 45 minute ride. You can do interval rides on them. They do help increase that cardiovascular system. Other options, if you are a swimmer. Fantastic form of cardio, rowing, hiking. We want to get this all in the recommended and, evidence-based research is 150 minutes of moderate cardio. So we're getting our heart rate up. You still can talk. Maybe there's some bouts in those intervals where you're not able to talk, but. We want about 150 minutes of that cardio specific movement per week. If you don't have any in your week now, don't start next week saying, I'm getting 150 minutes. Start with 30. 30 minutes throughout a seven day cycle, build from there. And build up to that 150 minute of moderate cardio. Like I said, it's all about meeting yourself where you're at, which is going to help you stay with it longer. So neat is the quiet driver here. What is neat? Neat is an acronym that is non-exercise activity thermogenesis, and that refers to everyday movement activities that are not planned, structured workouts. So this is standing, walking, doing chores, fidgeting. This is where the 10 K of steps come in. That is a tool, not a rule, and it's the small consistent movements like five minute breaks at work, walking during calls, taking the stairs and adding a couple 10 minute post-meal walks. It all adds up. When I work with clients, where I like to start with them first is how much are they moving throughout the day? Most of my clients do work a job where they are sedentary. It's a desk job, and I want them to incorporate more breaks in. If I can get them to increase more movement throughout the day, there's gonna be better blood flow. They're going to start to reduce some stress if they can step away from work. Feel the sun on their face outside. If they can quickly step into the hall and if there's a stairwell, do a couple up and down the stairs. If they can sneak outside after a lunch to get that walk-in, it's going to help boost mood. It's going to help boost circulation. It's going to increase overall movement. This is one area. If you're like, I don't have access to a gym, I'm not. Confident in my ability to strength train and I walk with friends every morning and that feels great, but I wanna do more. Well look at your every day. Look at where you can add in more movement. In that nine to five and sprinkle it through. Or if you're someone like, I really wanna. Walk more. I'd love to do a 30 minute walk per day, but I don't have 30 minutes. Well break it down. Maybe you have five minutes throughout the day that you can spread that 30 minutes throughout the day. So get creative with it. It's consistency is going to be perfection any day of the week evidence shows us the more consistent you are at showing up at moving your body every day, every week, every month, every year. If you're more consistent at doing half strength training workouts, half cardio workouts, and if you can only get in, half workouts every week, but you're getting in two to three workouts every week, but you're not completing them, that is still going to help you see results. Again, perfection is not needed to see results. We need to define the results. If you wanna train for bodybuilding, well that's gonna require a different energy load. If you want to run a sub four hour marathon, that's going to demand a different type of training load. So it's understanding where you are at, what your goals are, and what you can do to make it happen. I trained for ultra marathons. I didn't start out training for them, and one of the things I needed to do when I went into it, it demands a lot of time and energy. I have two kids. I run a business and I jumped into it and ignored. Yes, I'm in the business. I needed to take my own advice. I ignored basic things like stress recovery, proper nutrition, maintaining a consistent strength training routine. Mobility was really great at getting runs in, but I started ignoring the other things because I didn't have, dare I say this word balance in that. And what I was suffering from was perfection. It was if I couldn't do the whole strength training workout, I'm not doing it at all. And when I started. Put the other aspects in. Sleeping better eating better stress mitigation, mobility, taking rest and recovery and time off. My training has improved. I got rid of. Brenda makes some pains. I'm sleeping better, I'm feeling better, and I can focus more with my clients, with my work being present with my children. So start where you're at, really understand what you wanna do. And this kind of segues into there are genuine barriers that every woman faced. There's time constraints. You have a family, a household, good career. There's competing priorities. Motivation, I always say don't put stock in motivation, but it does help you get into a workout. We need to also understand that it can be hard and overcome and push and show up. Fatigue is real. Joint pain, menopausal symptoms are real. Pelvic floor issues are real. And then. I will not shy away from this, but they can be cost and access and, infrastructure barriers. Therefore, not being able to strength train, cardio, have great places to walk, et cetera. And social barriers. There's limited support. And the psychological barriers, it can be intimidating to start a strength training program. As well as feeling like you tried everything and nothing will work, and why will this work this time? So these are things that all my clients have felt, and I help them through this. This is exactly what I do. I build programs that are one-on-one specifically to you to help women in midlife combine strength, cardio, mobility, and balance. Whether you have a home gym or a commercial gym, whether you're a beginner or seasoned. I meet you where you are and move you forward. There are links in the show note and I'm currently taking on new clients. I'd love to chat with you. So if you wanna take action today, here's what I will give you. If you wanna start strength training, here's what your routine can look like. Try to get one to two strength training sessions in per week and a long walk. If you're already strength training or if you choose to start strength training, choose a weight that will challenge you. You want to move that weight, whether you're pushing, pulling, rotating with good solid form. Add a power move at the start of the session. Little tiny hops. If you do not have any joint issues, look at your neat and do two 10 minute walks after two different meals. Keep protein consistent and drink water. We're not here to chase perfection. We're chasing repeatable. All you need is the basics done consistently. To be honest, that is all you need. You want strength training that keeps you capable and cardio that keeps you durable and power that is going to keep you quick and safe.

Kat: 24:44

Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength. If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself. Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes, and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space. Your feedback fuels this podcast and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into Next. You can connect with me on Instagram at KatFit or share this episode. Road with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength. Remember, fitness isn't about perfection. It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey. Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time.