Honest Review: What Happened When Cathy Tried My 7-Week Program Strong and Vibrant at Home

Today I am interviewing Cathy, a participant in my "Strong and Vibrant at Home" program - a 7-week strength training and wellness course designed for Christian women in perimenopause and beyond. 

Our conversation captures Cathy's experience as a 67-year-old participant in my fitness program, highlighting both the practical details (equipment, structure, costs) and the personal benefits she experienced. I appreciate how Cathy so kindly emphasizes the program's unique positioning for midlife and beyond women, and her strong endorsement based on her positive results. 

About Cathy: 

Cathy is an active 67-year-old with experience in kettlebells, yoga, water exercise, and former CrossFit. She's a daily exerciser who prefers 15-30 minute sessions and values listening to her body over pushing through fatigue. 

Cathy's  recommendation: "If you're on the fence, just do it." She says this is the only program she knows designed specifically for this age group by someone who truly understands the demographic.

You'll hear in this episode:

1.  Why Cathy Trusted the Program 

2.  Cathy's Experience with Strong and Vibrant (what worked well, initial challenges)

3.  Program Structure 

4.  Equipment Investment 

5.  Who Should Consider This Program 

Learn more about Strong and Vibrant at Home

Episode Links:

The surprising connection between fascia, chronic pain and overall wellbeing with Melt Method founder Sue Hitzmann

Adjusting and Thriving in Empty Nesting with Retired Empty Nester Cathy Lawdanski

Connect with Cathy:

Instagram: @retired_empty_nester

Join Cathy’s Newsletter

Nourished Notes Bi-Weekly Newsletter

30+ Non-Gym Ways to Improve Your Health (free download)

Connect with Amy:
GracedHealth.com
Instagram: @GracedHealth
YouTube: @AmyConnell

Transcript

Graced Health Podcast for Christian Women Over 40

Host: Amy Connell, Graced Health

Guest: Cathy Lawdanski, Retired Empty Nester

Amy: Hey Cathy, welcome back to the Graced Health Podcast.

Cathy: I'm so happy to be back.

Amy: Okay, we talked about a year, a little less than a year and a half ago, because I invited you on to talk about empty nesting. And so here I am, a year later, into empty nesting and both of my kids are home. They sure are! But I really valued your wisdom from that episode. And if I have any empty nesters listening or if some of your kids just launched, then definitely go back and listen to that.

I'm thrilled you're here, Cathy, because you were part of my pilot program for Strong and Vibrant at Home—and I have the longest subtitle in the history of courses, which is "Strength Training and Wellness for Christian Women in Perimenopause and Beyond." I invited my email list only to join as a pilot program, and part of the pilot program was that there were going to be some kinks, there were going to be things to work out. And thanks to feedback from you and other people, we have done that.

But when I was talking with you and you were providing me some feedback—and you were so gracious to get on Zoom and we just kind of talked—you had said, "Hey, if you would like, I'd be happy to come on the podcast and share my experience." And I said, "Sold. I would love that." So thank you for coming on.

Let's start here, which I think used to be a very standard question to ask people, but I'm going to go ahead and ask—as you said I could—do you mind sharing your age so people listening can get a sense of where you are?

Cathy: So by the time this drops, I will be 67. My birthday's in a couple of weeks.

Amy: Okay. And I ask that because you are the "beyond" part of perimenopause and beyond, right?

Cathy: Yeah.

Amy: You're post-menopause. And it really is designed for women in this life stage. And so that's just an encouragement to women who are listening—really wherever you are—that this is definitely an option for you.

So I'm curious, Cathy, what were you doing either before or in conjunction with Strong and Vibrant at Home? Because everybody kind of comes in at their different spaces and their different activity levels.

Cathy: Right. I just did a couple of online things. I had a kettlebell program that I worked with because I really just love kettlebells, and I did yoga, which I liked. Last summer, just for something different, I took water exercise at the Y and I love that. I like to kind of change it up—I get bored. And I really like strength training. I don't really like aerobics anymore. You know, you live where I do and it's just too darn hot to walk a lot of the year.

Amy: Isn't it? It's so true. You and I are neighbors on opposite sides of the city.

Cathy: Yeah.

Amy: Okay, so you were fairly active and then you came in and you wanted to do that strength training. So what drew you to purchasing Strong and Vibrant? Because if you like strength training and you're used to doing things online, then you have a lot of options and you seem comfortable with it. What was it that you were really interested in doing this particular program?

Cathy: Well, because I know you and your work. I mean, we never met in person, but I listen to your podcast and I've received your newsletter for several years. So I had a lot of confidence. I felt like I knew you well enough to know what I was getting—I was getting a product with somebody who knew what they were talking about and what they were doing, and it was geared to older women and was weight neutral.

I just really trusted you in what you were going to provide, because it's more than just some things you go online where you have some young girl doing crazy moves and heavy weights, and it's not geared at all towards women with older bodies. I just felt confident that I would get something that would be valuable and I would be safe doing it.

Amy: I cannot thank you enough for that, and thank you for trusting me with your body. That is not something I take lightly, and it is hard to do in a one-to-many situation rather than one-to-one, like when I have my personal training clients. But I appreciate that, and it really does warm my heart that I've earned your trust. Thank you for that.

Okay, so as we go through—and just for people who are not totally familiar with it, I want to give a super high level—Strong and Vibrant is, like this subtitle says, a strength and wellness program. It is seven weeks of not only strength training, but also workouts like what I call Core, Balance and Stretch. So we work on those specific areas. There's another one called Be Complete, which is different than the individual Be Complete that you can purchase, but it is the same theory in that it focuses on your balance, your core, your smaller muscles, stretching, and traversal exercises, which are kind of going across your body. We have some stretch days. We have what I call InstaCare on some of the deloading weeks or rest and recovery, which are kind of smaller, gentle movements between five and eight minutes.

Every week you have day one through day five and you just hit play on the app, follow along, and do what you can. With that said, Cathy, as you know, I invited people just to commit to what they wanted to do—whether that was strength or maybe it was all five days or somewhere in between. What was your commitment to yourself? Because obviously I'm not holding you accountable, but what was your commitment to yourself as you went in saying, "This is what I want to do as part of the program"?

Cathy: Well, I'm a daily exerciser. That does not mean I do something hard every day—like it may be 15 minutes of yoga one day, and I usually never do more than 30 minutes. So for probably the first four weeks, I did the five days, and then I took the rest of the sessions and alternated this program with some other things that I was doing.

So I've done it all. I've done all of the exercises because that's just how my body responds to that. But I never felt like—because you were really good about talking about this—if I woke up... this is a thing in perimenopause and beyond, you'll have nights that you do not sleep. That is not the day to... because I come from a CrossFit background from many years ago where I thought I had to do an hour CrossFit workout, you know?

And I really learned to listen to my body and be in tune with that. I just feel better when I operate that way. And I've learned that you do not have to kill yourself every day to gain strength and to be healthy. So I really appreciated that.

Amy: Yes, preach it, sister! I come from the same mentality of like, "I've got to go hard every day." But just as I've gotten older, I've learned to appreciate those recovery days and really receive them as part of getting stronger—having the recovery days or having a gentle movement day rather than like, "No, I have to do something hard. I have to break a sweat every day." It's not necessary. I mean, I like to move every day, but I'm not breaking a sweat unless I'm going outside in the middle of summer.

Cathy: Yeah, walking to the mailbox!

Amy: Yeah! And the other thing I liked about it too—we know that strength training is so important and, you know, if I had my druthers, I would just do that all the time. But the other things you're talking about as we age—the balance and the stretching and mobility—I would not make time for that if it wasn't kind of forced upon me in this workout. So I was doing one of them today that had all three components in it, and that balance was just in the middle of it. So I just did it, and I know I need to do it because I'm at an age where I have grandkids that I have to get up and off the floor with and pick up and go up and down stairs with. Balance is a big deal, you know.

So I liked that it had all of those components in it because a lot of times when you're doing some kind of online program, it'll be just strength or just yoga. And this had all of the components I felt like in a good, balanced way.

Amy: Good. Well, thank you. And I am kind of the same way. I mean, I know how important the stretching is. I know how important the balance is, but that's just not where my mind goes. So I need to have it forced upon me where I've already set it for myself in the program, and so now I'm going to do it. And I've heard that from a lot of people. Like, "I know I need to do this stuff more." I mean, aside from the strength training, which people join because they know they need to strength train, but they don't necessarily know what to do—I mean, that's the case for a lot of people. And even aside from that, "I know I need to be stretching and balancing and working on my core, but you know, it's hard to make myself do that." So that was one reason why I wanted to incorporate that in.

I'm wondering, Cathy, if you wouldn't mind sharing maybe anything that—I'm just going to kind of make this an open question and you can respond however you want—but was there anything that you wish you would have changed? Anything that was kind of weird or awkward, at least at the beginning or maybe the whole time? Anything that just didn't quite feel right that you think would be helpful for someone who might be considering Strong and Vibrant to know?

Cathy: Well, the only thing I can think of—and this is going to be with anything you're doing online—so if you were in a group fitness or a personal training session, you have the instructor right there that can keep up with how you're doing and the pacing of it for you. But when you're doing a video, the person teaching can't see you—they see the camera and they're teaching to a lot of different people and different body types.

So sometimes I felt at the beginning like, "Oh gosh, I wish she would slow down." It wasn't slowing down the exercise, but like going between things, like getting up and off the floor. Maybe that was just me, but I kind of got used to it. I remember at first, I just felt that was kind of frustrating, but that's probably going to be with a lot of things that you do online or anything that is not in person.

Amy: You bring up a good point because when I'm training my clients one-on-one, whether they're in person or over Zoom, I can see them and I can see when I need to add a little bit of extra time. It's funny, just for a little sneak behind the curtain—I'm up here in my home office slash gym for Strong and Vibrant, all by myself doing these workouts. I have a timer where we're doing it for this long, and I'll say before, like, "Hey, we're doing this for 40 seconds. We're having a 20-second break—40 and 20." And if I don't adhere to my timer, all bets are off because then I've lost control of everything. So that's some of it too.

And you're right, it is a bit of a quick pace, but I'm glad to hear you say as time went on you got more comfortable with it. Because some of that too is probably you just getting used to my cueing, you getting used to the up and down, which is intentional. I do want us getting up and down from the floor. That's part of our functional fitness as we get older.

So yeah, I can totally see why that felt like a quick pace and quick transitions, and I'm glad to hear that it's something that you got used to as you went along.

Cathy: Yeah.

Amy: I'm wondering if you would mind—and this feels like a really kind of awkward question to ask because I designed the program—but were there particular parts of the program that you really liked or appreciated?

Cathy: Well, I liked that it gave me some variety—we used both the loops, which I had used before, and the bands, because there's so many different things that you can do with those. So I just need variety. So I really liked that. And the other thing I liked about both of those things is that from my background, I just felt like I had to lift a heavy barbell. Like for a deadlift—that could kill your back sometimes. And I was noticing the other day, we were doing the Romanian deadlifts with the bands, and I was getting the exact same workout and not hurting my back, and I could adjust it easily if I needed more or less. And I would have never known that.

So I think the different elements that you bring in give variety, but they also show a different way to accomplish the goals safely for a midlife-to-beyond body. Because we need that—we should never be getting hurt when we exercise. The older you get, you do not recover from those easily, and then you can't exercise at all.

And the other thing is you have so many modifications for different things—like if you have sensitive knees or for anything—and you show how to modify. So that's one thing. I got a good workout and I was never worried that I had to go heavier or do something that felt a little strenuous that maybe I shouldn't have been doing, and still get the same results.

Amy: Good. I'm glad to hear that. Let me expand on that just a little bit for people who are like, "What do you mean? What are loops and bands?" So loops are—and every trainer is going to call these something different, so this is my vocabulary for these things—loops are like really big rubber bands. They are a couple inches wide, and they're probably 12 inches in diameter or so. And the beautiful thing about those is you can get a package of five for less than $10.

Then what I use are bands, and there's one particular set of bands that I highly recommend anyone get. I will tell you upfront, they are typically around $40, maybe $45, and you get a package of five with some handles. And what I like about them is they are interchangeable. And Cathy, you know all of this—you use those bands that I recommend.

So you can interchange them with the handles and you can double them up. So you can use two bands with one handle and you can adjust the resistance very easily once you get a handle for it. Sometimes it's a little awkward once you start using it because you're like, "Well, I don't know which color should I use," and all of that. But you figure it out and that's why we write it down and track it together.

Those are just around $50 of an investment where you can get a lot of resistance for not a lot of money, and that doesn't take up a lot of space in your house because most people do not have a lot of room to be having tens and fifteens and twenties and all the dumbbells and kettlebells and all of that. So anyway, I wanted to make it very accessible too, and I'm glad you brought that up.

I was funny—I was talking with someone at church the other day and she was like, "Well, what happens if the bands pop on you?" I was like, "Well, the bands that I recommend actually have fabric over them. So if they pop"—because over the course of 10 years or so, I've had a couple different sets and if they pop—"then they're staying encased in the fabric and not snapping you on the belly or on the face." So that's a little bonus of the bands.

So you liked them. Were they difficult for you to get used to?

Cathy: No. But you would always say, you know, "Here's a way you can do it. It's an art, not a science. It doesn't have to be perfect." No, they weren't hard.

Amy: Okay. That's good to know. Okay, last question, Cathy. Who do you think is an ideal candidate for this program?

Cathy: I would say anybody perimenopause and beyond. You could almost be a beginner or have not exercised for a long time and do this program. But there's enough in there that if you are a daily exerciser and you have had regular exercise for a long time, there's plenty in there. It's something for everybody.

Because by the time you're in your mid-forties, you're going to have some aches and pains and some injuries, and this is very adaptable to no matter what your situation is. I know a lot of the exercises you give two or three options on ways to do them depending on where you are. So if you haven't exercised in a long time, you're not going to get this and say, "I can't do this." Everything is very doable. If you are really in great shape, you're not going to get in there and say, "Oh, this is so easy. It's a waste of time," because everything is customizable.

And the other thing I really liked about it too, that you talked about—which I don't remember having a lot of instruction in this before—is you talked about the intent of the exercise. For example, "This exercise could work these three muscles, but our intent is to work the hip flexors." That's what I did today. And so you're thinking about why you're doing it, which really helps you focus on the right thing for the exercise.

The other thing I really liked—because this is new to me—every time I've ever done strength training, we have been focusing on big muscle groups, and you've had some focus on smaller muscle groups that I didn't even know I had and why they were important. So I got a lot of education about that. So there's something for everybody. This is really a good program.

Amy: Thank you for that. So I do, on the strength workouts, a lot of functional movements. So for those who are familiar with that, that's your pushing and your pulling and your squatting and your hinging, and giving alternatives, particularly for the lower body if you can't do that. But then we also do spend time in what I call the "mini muscles," which I think you probably are referring to—a lot of the smaller muscles in the glute region. We've got smaller muscles up in our shoulders and trying to strengthen those up as well. So it's a combination of both of those.

And I learned the hard way that just doing a bunch of squats and lunges without focusing on those mini muscles will result in some sort of injury or strain or something. So yeah, I'm glad you brought that up.

As far as ideal candidates, I will say the one caveat is, in my opinion, the resistance bands are a critical component of getting that challenge and having success in finding the right resistance. Because if you just are walking into this workout and you've got one band that you picked up at Target a while ago, you're not going to get the challenge that this is designed to give you. And so having those bands I think is really important. I so wish I could find the owner of the company and see if I could purchase a bunch at cost, but I just couldn't find any of that. So unfortunately we just have to resort to Amazon, but you'll get them a lot quicker.

Cathy: Well, and here's the thing. I've learned this, not just with this program, but with a lot of things—if I'm going to invest the money in a program for anything, I'm going to go ahead and just get what you say to get. I've done the cheap thing, and like the foam roller that you recommend was very pricey. And I have two foam rollers and I really almost didn't get it, but this one is so different and far superior and worth the investment.

So if I believe in you, I'm going to do what you tell me to do. I mean, you know, so many times I've just tried to do it on the cheap and I usually end up buying what they say to buy anyway. So these are all good investments forever. They're going to last forever.

Amy: Oh, that foam roller is gold. I have recommended that to so many of my clients. This is the MELT Method foam roller. Sue Hitzmann was on the show, gosh, a couple years ago talking about our connective tissue and our fascia, and it's not inexpensive. It's about $80. And I recognize that that is not in everybody's budget, but if you can afford it, it is so worth it. And exactly what you're saying, Cathy, is what every single one of my clients has said: "I didn't think I needed it, but boy, I got it and it's amazing." So I'm glad you brought that up.

Cathy: Well, and you know, I have one spot that I should foam roll every day, but I don't because it hurts with my old hard ones. It doesn't hurt with the MELT Method one, but it's so much easier on me that I am more likely to do it. And I didn't even know there was one like it. It's a softer foam roller that gets the job done.

Amy: Yes. Well, the way that she has explained it that I have borrowed is it's kind of like if you were to take your arm and grab your arm—so it's soft and then firm. So it's kind of like your forearm—you've got some softness, but then it does get firm. It's not like you can just... it's not like a pool noodle, which is kind of what I thought it was for a while. It's nothing like that. And it's just well designed. I have no affiliation with it other than having an Amazon link, and I do love it. So I'm glad you brought that up because it's worth the investment.

Cathy: Yeah.

Amy: Well, Cathy, I really appreciate your time. Thank you for coming on. I am going to leave you with a kind of an open question and then we'll get into my final question that you know what it is if you've listened to the podcast. But I guess I would say any final thoughts for anyone who is on the fence about this? And I would also like for you to tell people where they can get in touch with you. I know you have a wonderful platform. Tell everybody where they can connect with you.

Cathy: I'm on social media, on Instagram. I'm Retired Empty Nester. I talk to retired women about thriving in the retired empty nest years through service, learning, and having fun. So I just talk about all the things I'm doing in those areas and give suggestions and encouragement for that.

Amy: And how can people sign up for your Retired Empty Nester newsletter?

Cathy: I'll send you a link. You could put it in the show notes for that.

Amy: Sounds good. Okay. And then any final thoughts on Strong and Vibrant?

Cathy: If you're on the fence, just do it. You have nothing to lose. And I don't know of any other program for strength that's designed for someone in this age group by a woman in this age group who works with women in this age group. So that brings a lot of value to it.

Amy: Yeah. And we're women who end our workouts in prayers, which we didn't even talk about.

Cathy: Exactly. We get to be good stewards of our bodies, and this is a way to do it.

Amy: Yeah. Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for that. Okay. I am going to let you have the final say. What is one simple thing you would like everybody to remember about our conversation? Big or small?

Cathy: Moving your body every day will make you feel good, and it adds to your longevity. So whether you do this program or not, get up and move.

Amy: Amen. Okay, that is all for today. Go out there and have a graced day.