#143: Beginner strength training over 40 what you need to get started

You want to start strength training, but where do you actually begin?

If you’ve found yourself asking this question (maybe in a Facebook group or while staring at some dumbbells), this episode is for you.

I break down the five essentials you need to start strength training successfully. This isn’t rocket science, but you do need to have the right pieces in place to get the results you're after.

Enjoy the show!

Resources mentioned:

 • Learn to Lift program

 • Lift-It mini course

Transcript

#143: Beginner strength training over 40 what you need to get started

If you're interested in starting strength training and you're not really sure how, 
and you've been asking around like, how do I even get started? What should I 
do? Then this is the episode for you. I'm gonna go over the five things that you 
need to get started. It is not rocket science, and you can do it
If we haven't met before, my name is Lynn Sederlöf-Airisto, and I'm a certified 
menopause fitness coach, and I am here to help women like you get started 
strength training, so you can be stronger, fitter, firmer, and crush the decades 
ahead. 
All right, so let's get into it.
First of all, you wanna get started with real strength training. So don't be fooled 
by classes that claim to be strength training or follow along videos in YouTube 
that claim to be strength training. You wanna do proper strength training if you 
want to get the most bang for your buck, so the best results and the fastest. 
There's a reason why Arnold Schwarzenegger was not in a group fitness class 
and was not at home in front of his TV doing YouTube videos because it just 
doesn't work. He was there pumping iron, following a program and working 
with progressive overload. And even if you are not interested in stepping on 
stage, it is those very techniques. That are going to get you to the result that 
you're after. This is such a well studied field. How do you build muscle? How 
do you build strength? And there are certain things that you need to do to make 
it happen, and it's not happening in those follow along classes. It's not 
happening if you change your workouts every week. Okay? So get a strength 
training program and start doing proper strength training.
Second, you probably are wondering about equipment. Do I need dumbbells? 
Do I need a bench? Do I need a barbell? Do I need a squat rack? What do I 
need? That depends on whether you wanna be training at home or at the gym. 
So that's kind of the first decision that you need to make. If you happen to have 
a gym membership, then the gym is a great place to start because you have tons 
of equipment, all kinds of weights, all kinds of options on how to train your 
body.
But I know it can be super intimidating to go into the gym. I know that was not 
my choice when I first started strength training, when I was feeling blobby, 
when all my muscle tone had disappeared after menopause. So I started at home 
and you can definitely make that choice too. And if you start at home, all you 
really need are some dumbbells and enough room to lay out a yoga mat. Okay? 
So it doesn't require any huge investments. In fact, I got started with some 
dumbbells that were gathering dust under my bed, and if you have some that are 
laying around the house, then get started with those. Now, I will say that you 
will quickly outgrow those. If you're following a good program and doing 
things right, those won't last you forever. But let's not overcomplicate things. 
Let's just get started.
The other thing you need to decide is how many days a week you want to train, 
twice or three times a week is plenty. The biggest difference between twice and 
three times a week is that when you train twice a week, you're gonna do two full 
body days. That is because you want to hit each of your muscle groups twice a 
week to stimulate them so that you get the increases in strength and muscle size. 
When you train three days a week, you can spread that out more. So for my 
clients that train three times a week, I do an upper body, lower body, and a full 
body session.
Now, once you know whether you wanna be at home or at the gym. And how 
many days a week you wanna train, then you need to get your hands on a 
program that is designed for that place and for that frequency of training. And 
the program is a really important piece here, and it is, I think the thing that most 
women really, really skimp on, they think, oh, I'll just get something free off 
YouTube or from some Facebook group.
But I'll tell you, I've looked at so many of those free programs and they just 
overcomplicate things like 95% of the time. They are longer than they need to 
be. They have too much redundancy in the exercises, too many sets, too long. I 
mean, they're just overwhelming. It's no wonder that women quit.
What I love to do is to be super efficient and effective and get the most bang for 
your minute of time that you're spending. And that does take knowledge of 
biomechanics. What exercises hit, what muscles, and programming, especially 
for two days a week, can be quite challenging. So if you're gonna invest in 
something, I would definitely invest in a good program because that will get 
you from point A to your result faster.
Once you've gotten all these pieces in place, just be consistent, trust the 
process. Show up for yourself. Be it two days a week, or three days a week, 
whichever you've decided. Follow that program. And we're talking about doing 
the same exercises, the same program for weeks on end.
Because in order to build strength and muscle, you need to apply progressive 
overload. I talk about that in other episodes, so you can listen to those. I'll link 
in the show notes and. That can't really happen if you keep swapping up your 
exercises. So you wanna be consistent as far as following the same program for 
at least eight to 12 weeks.
And then also making sure that you're overall consistent in training, that it's not 
like you do it one week and then you take four weeks off and, and then you do it 
again. So if you're consistent following a good program, then you will. Start 
feeling and maybe even seeing results in as little as 10 weeks.
And you can really transform your body to be stronger, firmer, more toned. Get 
rid of belly fat, especially the visceral fat, which starts to move when you start 
strength training properly in six to 12 months. But you need to get started.
So those are the big rocks for getting started. You wanna be doing proper 
strength training, not cardio with weights, not some group fitness class, not 
some free things. Follow alongs online, but proper strength training. You need 
to decide whether you're gonna train at home or at a commercial gym and at 
home all you need are dumbbells. Then you need to decide on your frequency. 
So will you train two or three days a week, or maybe even four? But if you're a 
beginner, I recommend two to three days a week.
Then get your hands on a program that is designed to be used two or three days 
a week at the gym or at home, depending on what you've made the decision to 
do, and then start doing that consistently. And really, those are the things that 
are gonna move the needle the most. There are also a lot of other things that you 
can tweak and you know, they're the smaller rocks, but the big rocks, the big 
pieces that you need to put into place are those and just get started.
And if you still feel like, oh, I don't know, and you wanna test out strength 
training, I have a little mini course available now.
It's called Lift-It!, it is a 10 day mini course where you get mini strength training 
sessions that you can do at home, even with a couple bottles of water if you 
don't have weights around. So you can see kind of what. This is all about. 'cause 
I know if you've never done strength training, it may feel like, taking a trip to 
Mars where you just wanna understand what the heck is it gonna be like, you 
know, there.
So that's what Lift-IT! is for, and I've priced it super economically. It's. Only $7 
for the 10 days and it is proper strength training and it also has some education 
in there so that you can feel more confident and comfortable with really getting 
going. After that link is in the show notes. 
And with that, I hope that helps you to get started with your strength training.
It really does not require more than those things that I talked about today. Get 
going. You will thank yourself a month from now, two months from now, a 
year from now. I am so grateful that I got started and so are so many hundreds 
of other women who have gotten started with me over the years. So until next 
week, I wish you happy training