#133: Aging Well Starts with These 3 Kinds of Exercise

If you want to stay active, independent, and thriving into your 50s, 60s, and beyond — the type of exercise you do matters.

In this episode, I walk you through the three types of exercise every woman should include in her routine: strength training, cardio, and balance.

These three types of movement work together to help you protect your body, keep you functional, and enjoy the lifestyle you want for the decades ahead.

You’ll learn:

• Why having a “bank of muscle” is essential for aging well and staying independent
• The simple sprint interval training formula
• How to sneak in balance training without adding anything extra to your to-do list

Enjoy the show!

Resources mentioned:

• POD67: Sprint Interval Training
• POD90: Balance

Transcript

#133: Aging Well Starts with These 3 Kinds of Exercise

[00:00:00] Welcome to 40+ Fitness for Women. I'm Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, your host, and I'm a certified menopause fitness coach, and today we are gonna talk about three things that are really important. The first is strength training, surprise, surprise. Second is balance, and the third is cardiovascular fitness.

So I am empty nesting right now, or let's say my nest is getting emptier as this past weekend I spent. Moving my daughter into her new apartment up at university. She'll be starting, in a couple weeks and we wanted to get her all set up and oh my God, this girl has stuff. I don't know if any of you have daughters who are teenagers, but I don't know if it's the TikTok generation or what, but it's like stuff is the currency, right?

You've gotta have clothes. Millions of different kinds of makeups. I think she has like 15 mascara. Nail [00:01:00] polishes, all kinds of things. And you know, toiletries, different face products. I mean, I mean, really I look at what I have, I look at what she has. But anyways, we were moving her up north and we were trying to figure out how the heck do we get her stuff there.

It's about an eight hour drive from here, and shipping is quite expensive here. So we decided that we would drive. Well, last minute my hip started acting up and I thought, oh my God, I cannot sit in a car for eight hours on Saturday and then another eight hours on Sunday coming back. So what we decided to do was take my ex-husband's car, he would drive his car packed full of all her stuff that we could fit in there.

And then my daughter and I would take the train and we would take. Huge suitcases, stuffed with as much as we could take. 'cause on the train, they don't have any weight limits on the suitcases. So we went up there and I have to say, this was another example where [00:02:00] I am so glad. I am strong. These suitcases were huge.

They would not be allowed on the airplane for sure. 'cause they're over, you know, overweight. I know there's an overweight category, but these were just really, honestly. Heavy and I felt so proud every time I could pick 'em up and move 'em onto the train, move them through the train, lift them into the luggage compartment on the train.

Nobody is there helping you, right? You have gotta manage on your own. Then getting them into the apartment and all the things moved around the apartment. And also emptying my ex-husband's car, you know, carrying all that stuff upstairs. Yes, there was an elevator, but it was still getting the stuff in the car into the elevator and then down this huge long haul to her apartment, and I felt so happy that I could just as many.

Bags as I [00:03:00] could fit on my body. That was my limiting factor. It wasn't that, oh, this is too much for me to carry. It was like, I don't have another hand, shoulder, arm or something to hang something on because I knew if I could get it strapped on me, somehow I could get it to the next place. So it made me really, really happy that at age 54, I was absolutely not in this.

Home move situation limited in any way by my strength. And so it was funny that I came back from this weekend, which was, by the way, an amazing time with my daughter too. I mean, moving can be wonderful. And, and we really worked well together to like get everything unpacked and, and all that. So she's, she's set up ready to go back a week from now and, and finish it off on her own.

Anyway, so I get back, and I was commenting on [00:04:00] a menopause Nutrition Coast coach's post where she said, why is everybody always comparing like to what they were when they were younger? Why is that the ideal? You know? And, and she was kind of criticizing this idea and I said. Well, you know, as far as strength goes, I certainly want to be as strong as what I was when I was younger, if not stronger.

And, and her response was like, why would you wanna be as strong as what you were when you were younger? And it really stopped me in my tracks. I was like, who on earth? Wants to actually be weaker. I mean, does anybody want to all of a sudden realize, oh, I can't actually get off the toilet seat. I can't actually carry in my groceries, or I gotta make two trips instead of one.

Or, I need to ask for somebody's help because I wanna move piece of furniture from one side of the room to the other. It is so liberating, to be able to [00:05:00] do these things yourself and also besides that, like, okay, yes, lifting heavy things is totally cool and, you know, lifting suitcases onto the overhead compartment on the train, for example.

All the things. I think it's just fun to be able to do it and it feels good to be able to do it myself, but then, um. Then there's also the part that, you know, your body just functioning right, that you can get up on a, onto a higher step, like getting on the train. It's narrow and the steps are quite high.

so it is challenging for some people who really have to hold onto the handles and pull themselves up onto the train. And, and I don't have to, so I just, I just feel like who could ever question the reasons why somebody would want to have their body stay in the [00:06:00] same kind of shape that it was when they were younger?

Now I can totally understand this kind of unrealistic expectation. I think this is a big discussion that's going on right now about looking like, you know your face that you shouldn't age. There shouldn't be wrinkles, you shouldn't have any laxity in your neck and everything. And that is a totally different topic, I think, and that is, I think, a matter of taste.

I hope that there isn't undue pressure. I know in my group of friends there is one woman who has already had two face lifts and she's, not much older than I am, and it's honestly something that I never even thought about. All,

so, yeah. Anyway, I digress. And so today I wanted to talk about, what are the things that you can do in order to make sure that you stay strong and fit and capable as you age [00:07:00] and the kinds of things that you know, I can do too. And I know that I need to improve on some of these things, so, you know, but I wanted to share them anyway.

And I think there are three main things that you really wanna pay attention to as your aging. The first is strength training, surprise, surprise. Second is balance, and the third is cardiovascular fitness. 

So we'll talk about each of those in turn and, and with strength training.

Okay. I know a lot, a lot of people started because they notice that they're losing their muscle tone and they want to look better. And honestly, I think more and more I'm seeing women who are really concerned about aging well, being able to do the things they want to do, not get feeble, and that's becoming more of a motivator for strength training as women understand that that is the way they're going to stop themselves from getting feeble.

So it is really, really [00:08:00] important. For getting up off the toilet, all the things that I mentioned on the trip with my, daughter and, you know, I have clients and customers who are so excited that, for example, they can pick up their grandkids without their backs hurting anymore. And imagine picking up your grandkids, okay.

The day they were born, they weigh not that much, but they quite quickly start to weigh more and more. To keep up with that, you know, requires you having strength. 

Another thing to consider and this is something that I think doesn't get discussed very much, is it is kind of your insurance when you get sick.

Because here's the thing, muscle is a tissue that we start to lose very quickly when we don't use it, use it or lose it. And when you are carrying just enough muscle to get through your day to day, struggling a little [00:09:00] bit on the stairs, having to push yourself out of chairs, get a higher toilet seat, these kinds of things. Then you really are at risk of not being able to maintain your independence if you get sick. Okay? Because when you get bedridden. You lose muscle very quickly. This is something that they have studied because in a bedridden state, you're lying down, you're not really doing anything, and the muscle atrophy starts, quite quickly.

here in Finland. I was reading in the paper, about elderly people who had been able to manage living on their own until they got sick. Like they got the flu, they got a cold, they got COVID and that. Got them to the point where, you know, in that week or two weeks that they weren't able to move around like they normally do. They lost so much muscle that they actually weren't able to anymore live independently. 

I mean, think about [00:10:00] that one flu, one bad cold where you're not doing your normal thing. Could be the difference between you being able to live independently and not. So for that reason, I think it's really important for us all to be a little bit stronger than we actually need to be, to get through our day-to-day lives, 

yes. You might be able to get up the stairs by, pushing on the handrail a little bit or get off the sofa by pushing on the armrest but recognize that if you let your body get to that point. You don't have much muscle in the bank in case you get sick. And what they did, they ran this experiment actually here in Finland, is that they had, some, physical therapists, personal trainers, visit these, these elderly.

And they weren't even that elderly. I mean, they start talking about elderly when you're 60, [00:11:00] and I don't think that's very elderly. Anyway, they, they started visiting them and gave them strength training programs and they were able to rebuild their strength. But wouldn't it be better that you could just know that, hey, when I'm better, I will still be able to live on my own?

And, in the newspaper article, what was kind of alarming is that this had been a trial program and they didn't actually say that they were gonna continue it because that just seems to me like a no-brainer, right? If you've got elderly who are sick and they can't manage on their own and all they need is a little bit more muscle, like that just seems like way cheaper for society than putting them into an old folks home.

But anyway. Okay, so strength training, that is super, super duper important. And when you think about the kinds of muscles that you need to be strengthening, your lower body is really important. Your glutes need to be strong. I know my father was having some trouble. He's 80. Two. Now, he was [00:12:00] having some trouble with walking and with his lower back, and we went to see a physical therapist and the things that he really needed to strengthen.

And so these are things that are really important to keep strong. Are he needed to strengthen his glutes. That lets you stand upright your glutes are keeping your hip hinge straight rather than you hinging forward a little bit, right? If you're constantly leaning a little bit forward, you can imagine that's, that's a constant strain on your lower back, and that can get really painful.

Plus, if you're leaning forward, think about how much harder it is to put your feet out in front of you. Like to lift your feet properly so that you're not tripping on, some unevenness in the pavement or a, tree root or something like that if you're on a path. So keeping that upright stance is really important. So your glutes help you with that. 

Then your calf muscles are [00:13:00] important for you to be able to actually roll through your foot to walk properly. So that was another thing that, he was given to do was calf raises. They're boring, but I know in my programming, I make sure that people are doing them. So we keep those in good shape. And by the way, if you're somebody who has Achilles issues, I have noticed that when I keep my calf muscles in good shape, then my Achilles tendons just don't have issues. It's when I neglect my calves that I start to have problems. And then your hamstrings and your quads. So basically your whole lower body is important. 

And please practice all the time, be conscious of, hey, when you're gonna get off your sofa or get up from a chair, don't use your hands, right? Just keep your hands in your chest or like in the air or whatever, but just use your legs

okay. And if you're not strength training yet, then I have [00:14:00] wonderful Learn to Lift programs where you can get started even two days a week at home with dumbbells. So I really wanna lower the bar for people to get started. 

All right. And the second thing that I would really work on is your balance. This is something that gets worse and worse with age and falling is one of the things that you should be afraid of as you age, because well falling and especially if you have, weak bones you don't wanna fall. We heal much worse than we did when we were younger.

And balance is really gonna help you with this. And I have a whole podcast episode on balance. There are some great ways you can just incorporate it into your everyday life. I mean, obviously if you go to yoga classes or something like that, then you work on balance there, but you can incorporate it into your everyday life by doing things like getting dressed, standing up. I know a lot of people like to sit down as they're pulling [00:15:00] on their underwear or their pants or their socks.

But start doing it standing up in the beginning. It is going to be hard. You're gonna be wobbling, so make sure you have something you can grab onto as you lose your balance. But, start practicing that. And in a few weeks time, it'll all just work really, really easily. You'll be able to do that, no problem.

And then you can do balance exercises while you're watching tv. You can stand on one foot or while you're brushing your teeth, you can stand on one foot and then the other, 'cause you're supposed to brush your teeth, I guess it's two minutes or is it three minutes? So you could stand on one foot for half that time and the other foot for the other half of that time.

So there are things you can incorporate really, really easily into your life. So it doesn't take any extra time. 'cause I know if you're anything like me, you are super busy and even the thought of adding another 10 minute something into your life is like, yeah, I already am trying to get enough [00:16:00] sleep here so I can't do another 10 minutes something.

Cardio. I know I don't talk about it a ton on this podcast because I've been really focusing around strength training, but absolutely you need to be doing cardio. Preferably two to three times a week. And sprint interval training is great, but our heart health is important and it also helps with our brain health.

All exercise helps with our brain health. And what I say is do something that you love. I mean, that's the low barrier to entry. Do something that you love. If you love to dance, dance, if you like spinning glasses, do that. If you like to play tennis, do something that you love. And then if you wanna get really optimal about things, then go ahead and do sprint interval training one to two times a week.

And I have a whole episode on that. I'll link it in the show notes on how to do the sprint interval training. But don't neglect your cardio and. Walking. I don't [00:17:00] consider it to be cardio unless you can really raise your heart rate. But, hopefully something where you're actually sweating, breathing hard, pushing your body a little bit to its limits.

And I think this is something that it's easy to kind of fall out of the habit of doing. And then it feels hard to get back into, but go ahead and find something fun. There's so many different things you can do nowadays. I mean, that is exactly the kind of thing where you choose something online, some YouTube person who does these, whatever kind of cardio.

It can be dance, cardio, jump cardio, whatever. Um, jump rope, whatever you wanna do, and just do some cardio.

 All right. So for healthy aging, I would say those are really the three big pillars. So you've got your strength training, taking care of your balance and making sure that you're taking care care of your cardiovascular health. And between the three of them, [00:18:00] you will be taking care of not just your body, but also your mind. So. Get started on them if you haven't already. 

And if you're looking for a good strength training program, then my Learn to Lift programs are available. And if you're already strength training and you want a program to follow, we've got my monthly membership in addition. I have a podcast episode on sprint interval training, so if you wanna give that a go, it is very straightforward.

So the quick recipe for sprint interval training is to do a five to 10 minute warmup because you don't wanna start going all out on like a cold body. So for example, if I'm doing spinning for my sprint interval training, then I'll do five to 10 minutes of just. Spinning. Then you start to do the sprints, and the sprints are all out.

So you shouldn't be able to sprint for more [00:19:00] than 30 seconds. Very, very maximum. 40 seconds. I did a sprint interval training, session yesterday. I think I got to about 35 seconds, but my legs were starting to slow down by then. And it's not so much about like how long can you sprint for? It's more that you're going over 80% of your maximum heart rate. You're really pushing your body. And then you take a break, okay? You let your body, your heart rate come back down. So that can take anywhere from a minute and a half to three minutes, and then you do another sprint and rinse and repeat. You don't need to do many of those sprints. Start out by doing maybe two.

They really are very, very tiring. So two in a session could be your starting point. Then add [00:20:00] one, you know, and work up to maybe six sprints in a session and. Then really because you are going all out, it is not meant to be a long session. That's then like endurance training. This is sprint training so do the sprints, three to five, maybe six times.

If you are like, if you've been doing it for a while and that's it, then you're done. So very, very quick.

All right, and with that, I will leave you till next week and ask you to think about what is your motivation for exercising, and if it is to age powerfully to. Be able to do the things that you want to do , or at least not become frail and dependent in your old age . Then keep these three things in mind, strength training, so you can get up off the toilet seat and carry your own stuff. Manage around the [00:21:00] house. Your balance to stop you from falling and also your cardiovascular fitness. 

Alright, and with that, I wish you great rest of the week ahead and happy training.