#134: How I’d Start Strength Training If I Were 49 Again

If you’re a woman in your 40s or 50s thinking about starting strength training (or trying to figure out why it’s not working the way you hoped), this episode is for you.

At 49, I realized that the workouts I’d been doing for years - BodyPump, bootcamp, and follow-along "strength training" videos - weren’t enough to build real muscle or get the toned, athletic look I wanted.

In this episode, I share:

• The biggest mistakes I made when I first tried to build muscle in midlife
• What finally made a difference (and why my results came faster once I changed my approach)
• How you can skip the trial-and-error and start seeing better results now

If you’re still stuck doing random workouts or not sure what “proper strength training” actually looks like, listen in — and then join my free Lift-Off! 🚀 challenge  to try it for yourself.

Resources mentioned:

• Join the free challenge > 
• Learn more about the Midlife Fat Loss Formula > 

Transcript

#134: How I’d Start Strength Training If I Were 49 Again

[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 I wanted to share a little bit about my learnings in strength training and how I started strength training and the mistakes I made, which actually slowed down how quickly I could have gotten to my results if I knew. Then what I know today, I could have transformed my body in a year rather than closer to two years. So yeah, there really is a better and a worse method for doing these kinds of things.

So this story actually starts back in 2012 when I joined a fitness center near my house. Up until then, I had been doing running and then, uh, a Pilates, yoga type of course at a studio. [00:01:00] So I didn't have a gym membership, but in 2012 I ended up joining the gym and starting to do group fitness classes.

And oh my God, I loved them. Back then here in Finland, there weren't that many different classes. So I was going to what they had and they were, you know, sweaty. Um. Not always just aerobics classes. Sometimes we were doing things like walking lunges across the, room and this kind of stuff. So there was some, some strength.

Uh, I'm putting that in air quotes, strength training kind of elements built into it. But I did that for many, many years and. I remember thinking, when they started to have the LesMills classes and I started to go to BodyPump, that, okay, now I'm really taking care of my muscles because I am working out with weights every week, two or three times a week.

And I knew, [00:02:00] I knew that you needed to work out twice a week with weights in order to maintain what you had, and three times a week in order to build. Now these are things I have since learned are not true, but back then that was what I quote unquote knew. And so I went three times a week to Body Pump. I worked my little tail off.

I would be sweating like crazy and I mean, I did look great. This was when I was in. Pre menopause, perimenopause, and even to some extent post menopause. All right, so for years I was doing this and feeling like, yes, I'm doing the right thing. And I was going along really, really happily. And then I remember at the end of one summer I saw pictures of myself in a bikini and I was like. Wait a second. Is that what I really look like? And I started to notice, um, I [00:03:00] actually had this one moment where I was brushing my teeth and, you know, I wear tank tops a lot.

Like if you're watching me on YouTube, you can see I'm in a tank top. And in most of my reels and videos and things, I'm in tank tops because I always liked the way my arms looked, you know, they were defined, toned, nice. And especially when you brush your teeth, you can kind of see your muscles moving and all that.

And I remember one time I was there and I saw myself. You know how you sometimes like catch a glimpse of yourself and you see yourself from a third person perspective? And I caught that kind of glimpse of myself and I was like, holy cow, I no longer have toned arms. And that was kind of my wake up call, and this was happening while I was still doing all the body pump classes.

I was also going to things like booty classes, boot camp, really tough, tough classes which had for a really long time, kept me in good shape. [00:04:00] So I was, you know, desperate, like, what the heck is going on? I don't want to start looking like not toned. I don't wanna start looking like blobby. And so I started to really investigate what do I need to be doing to start looking toned and muscular?

And sure enough I needed to do something different strength training, not the LesMills BodyPump classes and other group fitness classes that I was doing, at my fitness center. 'cause gym to me says like the weight room, but yeah. But anyway, at my fitness center, so what I did was the following January, so this, this was in the fall that I had this revelation, and then in January.

I paid to join this online fitness program that claimed to be real strength training to build muscle and tone you up. And these were follow along [00:05:00] classes and they were live every day. Nowadays they've developed the model a little bit. A little bit of a different direction, but in any case, I started with those and basically it's like follow along where the instructor's in the front and on any particular day, there would be certain muscle groups that we would be hitting, let's say, shoulders, quads, calves, biceps.

For example, it might be the four muscles that we're hitting that day. And then she would lead us through exercises that challenge those particular muscles. And of course, it's a follow along class. She never really taught us, you know, what weight we should use, but she did say you should use a weight that feels hard for you, and that it feels hard, particularly towards the end, but because it's a follow along class.

 you know, she would have certain amount [00:06:00] of time that we would do that exercise. And so, it could be that at the end of that time you still had a lot of reps in you, like you weren't even close to reaching muscular failure or it could, that you were done before she was so. It was a little bit inconsistent on whether you actually were training close to failure or not, and there was no real way, like we weren't tracking.

I, I would try, I mean, I actually started writing down like, okay, for this particular exercise. Whatever it was. Um, let's say we're doing bicep curls standing up that day, I would write down that I used five kilos or whatever it was that I used, because otherwise it was really, really confusing to remember, oh, what, what did I use last time?

And to find the right weight and. And, and be able to train like that. And then of course, it wasn't the same [00:07:00] workout each time, right? So one day we might use one exercise to do our, biceps. And then the next time it might be another exercise, like maybe we'd use rubber bands. Or maybe we do a different speed of doing the exercise or you know, because of course it's a follow along class.

So there is a kind of a need to mix it up each time. Each lesson needs to be a little bit different. 'cause what else are you paying for? But for the variety. But as I was simultaneously studying, how to build muscle, personal trainer kind of things. And also biomechanics. I was realizing that this was actually not a very effective way of challenging my muscles and getting results because I was basically swapping exercises every time.

I wasn't [00:08:00] necessarily, hitting each muscle group at least twice a week. I wasn't. Going to failure. I didn't know my baseline from last time, so I didn't know like, Hey, I know I'm capable of this, so this time I'll try to push myself a little bit more. It was. It was, I mean, I will say it's better than nothing.

It got me, to actually pick up weights, but I very quickly realized that this was not going to be an efficient and effective way because my kind of superpower and my obsession is with doing things. Effectively and efficiently. So, so what I ended up doing at some point, because I, you know, I was paying for this monthly follow along videos that she had.

There was that in the end I was turning on the workout that she had and I'd be doing my own thing, [00:09:00] right? I had my own little program written down. And then she would just be playing in the background and it actually was unrelated to what I was doing, so it got a little bit ridiculous.

But I think this experience really highlights the challenges of these follow-along programs. They want to entertain the audience. I mean, why on earth would you do a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday follow-along program? If they're all exactly the same. In reality, most efficient, effective way of building muscle, you want to be repeating the exact same exercises and progressively overloading them, and it just, it doesn't really lend itself very well to this kind of follow-along system that a lot of these programs are. So anyway, I just quit that [00:10:00] and started strength training at home. I would make my own programs and start strength training.

so my mistake there was I basically wasted about six months doing this follow-along online program, which was not allowing me to progressively overload and challenge myself and really move forward at the pace that I could have done. So when I finally switched to following my own programming and applying progressive overload, it was like I finally started right. Because all that time that I was doing that online program, it was pretty much the same as if I had just continued going to BodyPump except for you didn't have the amazing music and the group experience and all that, that's so much fun in BodyPump.

I do miss doing that 'cause I love to do this choreographed with [00:11:00] other people around thing. But nowadays I do that in dance classes instead. And so, so that was my first lesson, and what I would really say to you is skip that not really strength training kind of working out because yes, if you've done nothing, if you've been sitting on a couch or just doing aerobics or running or whatever, then yeah, you're gonna notice that you're getting stronger, of course, because you weren't able to lift a pound before.

Now you're doing that a little bit, but do yourself a favor and just get to the result a lot, lot faster by just. Getting yourself, a proper strength, training a program, and starting to progressively overload. So if I had, just started then I would be so much happier anyway, so, so fast forward. So I'd started in January with this follow along program and [00:12:00] about June I started really doing my own program.

And that is when things really started to happen, I really started to build more muscle faster and get stronger much faster, and. By the following spring, so I guess it was around April. So I was having, um, body recomposition happening this whole time. And, I wasn't in a diet, I was just eating the same way.

I've always eaten. My weight was staying the same. And since I was gaining muscle, then obviously something had to be disappearing. And it wasn't like my skin, it wasn't my bones, so it was my fat. So my fat percentage was going down, my muscle percentage was going up, so I was having body recomp, but I really wanted to reveal my muscles that I've been working so hard for.

And so after strength training, properly with progressive overload, following [00:13:00] my own program. From about beginning of summer till the following. I think it was March, so it was early spring. 'cause I actually had a college reunion coming up and I thought, okay, well I would like to look my best for that, don't we all?

So I decided I will do my diet at that point, and I went into a calorie deficit, and it's actually the exact one that I teach in my midlife fat loss formula, the mini course that I have. So I did that diet and over the course of eight weeks. I ended up actually running the diet a little bit longer than that, just 'cause I got in the habit and so I just kept going.

But anyway, so during that time I lost 10 pounds and the muscles really, really started to show. So if you see my before and after pictures, like on my Instagram pages that is from the summer and before I started strength [00:14:00] training and noticed that, oh my God, I'm starting to look really blobby.

And then the after is after that, about a year of strength training, plus 10 weeks of fat loss. And it really was a huge, huge difference. My body looked so different and the thing that I learned along the way, and where I would say to you is, you know, I think we as women, we are very, very hesitant to invest. We wanna get, free programs online and there's a lot of free information online. But the thing is, our time is also very valuable and strength training, building muscle takes time and you are going to get to that result so much faster if you do it applying the right methods

 and I am guilty of that too. You feel like, oh, I should be [00:15:00] able to figure this out. This can't be that hard. There's so much stuff online, and the thing that we forget is that we have a limited amount of time and we want to get to the results. Everybody wants the results in 12 weeks. Strength training, you're not gonna get the results in 12 weeks, but you don't have to wait two years. I mean, it took me almost two years to get to my results because I didn't invest in a proper program and imagine how much is saving half a year of time worth to you, right?

And, and I mean, I finally got on track because I was studying this stuff, there are women who have joined my program who say. They've been, quote unquote strength training for years, and they've never really gone beyond, eight pounds. And then they started doing my program, and they noticed that, wow, they've just been leaving so much on the table as [00:16:00] far as their strength and building muscle so don't make the mistake that I did

and then the other part that I would say about this is, with the dieting. So many women say, okay, I'm just going to eat clean and, try to lose the weight that way. Eat healthy. But what you really need is a calorie deficit, like a proper calorie deficit if you want to get results.

And there too, there is a method , if you want just the recipe for how to lose fat, how to track, how to calculate your macros, how to make sure you're hitting your protein goals, how to plan your feeding schedule, you know, all these things. I've got it in the midlife fat loss formula because what I want is for you to be successful. What we know is that it is really. [00:17:00] Important for us to have a lot more muscle on our body and to keep our bodies strong so that we can age strong as well as feel amazing in our bodies. I mean, midlife, it should not be the time when we are becoming invisible. It is a super fun time. We have more time for ourselves as the kids start to leave, right? Understand ourselves a lot better and once you get the menopause symptoms under control, hopefully. With, well, for me it happened very well through HRT. Then you can really start to thrive and you want to feel like you look good, right? And that does help you to go do stuff and be brave and live your best life

alright. So I hope this helps somebody to take a brave step towards following a true strength [00:18:00] training program. I know for me, I had really, I, I mean, even though I had been in a weight room before and trained through college and after college I didn't wanna go straight back into her weight room. I was feeling blobby. I was like, I can't go there when there are all those people with muscles who know what they're doing, and I don't remember how to do these things and I haven't done them in years. It was wonderful for me that I could do it at home with just dumbbells and that's what I offer for you. Get started at home with just dumbbells. You can continue to train at home with just dumbbells or you can later shift into the gym. It is kind of fun, I think, at the gym because there's just more variety with the machines and, and I don't know. I like the energy of the gym.

And by the way, if you're still a bit unsure about, what does that mean, that proper strength training, like how does that look different from what I'm doing right now? Then join Liftoff. [00:19:00] It is my free 10 day challenge where I give you strength training, workouts to do so you can see what it's like, test out how that feels different and whether that might be your thing. Also education on. the key things that you need to know to get results because of course this podcast has a lot, a lot of information for you, but in LIft-Off!, I distill it down to, you know, you need to know these particular things and then do this type of workout to get the most results.

Alright, so join me in the challenge. I would love to see you there. You can find the link in the show notes, but it's also on my website, www.befitafter40.com. And if you wanna go straight to the registration page, then add slash liftoff to the end of that web address. [00:20:00] And with that, I leave you until next week and wish you happy training.