Whether you're in your 40s or approaching them.. what can you expect when it comes to your fitness and how you need to workout versus when you were in your 30s (and 20s). Or does anything need to change?
Here's what happens to your body and how to make sure you stay fit, healthy and looking younger!
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Kindal Boyle has been a personal trainer for nearly 20 years focusing on women's strength and fitness. She'll teach you how to combine strength training and cardio for a hybrid approach to build the fittest body and life no matter where you are in your fitness journey.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to a new episode of the fitments
weekly podcast.
This is your first time tuning in.
Welcome to the show.
I hope that you find something in this
episode that makes you want to go back
and listen to previous episodes because you all
there are over 600 or even better.
Make sure that you subscribe so you don't
miss out on future episodes.
(00:21):
Now, if you guys haven't heard the news,
I am officially in my 40s in April.
I turned 41 and with that comes a
lot of I don't know self reflection, not
only for myself, but I've had a lot
of people ask me questions along the lines
of my fitness.
How much longer am I going to be
pushing my body in this way?
What are the biggest difference between training in
(00:43):
my 30s versus training in my 40s?
And because I've gotten that question multiple times,
I thought that it would be a really
nice episode for one, me to kind of
put my thoughts out there and kind of
reflect on myself.
What those changes are.
But also, if you have wondered that maybe
you're approaching your 40s and you want to
know what's going to happen or maybe you
(01:05):
are with me in the 40 club and
you can relate.
I thought that it would be a really
nice thing to have it here as part
of our podcast space that I could drive
people to next time I get this question.
So we're going to be talking about that.
What are the differences that I've realized between
working out in my 30s versus working out
in my 40s?
(01:25):
Now, the one thing that I do want
to stress here is that I've been working
out consistently since I was 20.
So it's not as if I started my
fitness journey or I was a beginner in
my 30s.
I was well into my fitness at that
point and worked out consistently for that decade.
And I'm anticipating I'm going to be working
out consistently throughout my 40s, but with a
(01:47):
few little changes.
Now, have I noticed anything huge already when
it comes to my workouts?
Yes and no.
Okay.
And we're going to talk about this from
a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint.
And then from the physical standpoint, I want
to also talk about biology and what are
the things that are naturally happening as we
get older.
(02:07):
Because one thing that I will go ahead
and say is that women in their 30s,
that is when we are at our prime
fitness.
Our bones become strongest around 35.
We've kind of gotten past the 20s where
it was all about like, what do I
look?
And you do get that itch, at least
I did, to be as physically fit as
humanly possible.
(02:28):
Whether that was with my strength or with
my speed and my running.
I thought that in my 30s, I was
like, this is the time for me to
be the ultimate athlete.
Now, does that mean now I've just kind
of given that up?
Absolutely not.
But I do think that that's a really
important thing to focus on is that our
body's ability to be the best we could
be is oftentimes at our late 20s or
(02:50):
in our 30s.
And then things kind of start to change
after that.
So one thing that I have personally noticed
is my mindset.
Again, in my 30s, I was like, I
am still able to crush this.
I can go out and do all the
things.
I can, you know, go do interval sprint
work in the morning and then come back
and do an insane MetCon in the afternoon.
(03:12):
And it's not going to affect me too
much.
My body is going to be able to
recover quickly.
What I've noticed is that now I am
also able to listen to my body better.
And I use that quote all the time
since I've owned a studio.
I've always said, listen to your body, listen
to your body.
And that is something that comes with age
(03:33):
and experience, the ability to actually listen to
your body.
When we're in our 20s, we tend to
kind of push off the signs and symptoms
and we kind of say, I'm young, right?
I'm young.
I have this ache and pain, but it's
going to be fine.
And then it's not fine because eventually it
catches up with you.
But you're able to kind of push through
and be like, oh, that was a learning
(03:54):
experience.
And then in your 30s, you start to
be able to listen a little bit more,
but you're still young, right?
30s are still very, very young and you're
still thinking, I don't need to do that.
I don't need to warm up.
I don't need to cool down.
I can still push my body a little
bit beyond its limits.
It's going to be okay.
And for a lot of us, it is
(04:15):
until again, it's not.
And as you start to learn those, it's
not experiences.
Then you are able to listen to your
body and actually be able to make smarter
decisions.
In my 30s, I could listen to my
body.
I knew what I should and shouldn't do.
But just because I listened to my body
didn't mean that I was actually taking action
and doing the things that I knew my
(04:37):
body wanted me to do.
Now in my 40s, I'm finding myself a
lot more responsive to those requirements.
So I'm giving myself more grace now so
I can listen to my body and say,
okay, this is what my body is telling
me right now.
And I'm actually doing those things.
And for me personally, that means cutting back
(04:58):
a little bit on the intensity.
I've noticed over the past year, even without
me making that conscious decision, I'm just doing
it a little bit more naturally.
I can tell that on the weekends, if
I'm not feeling up for a crazy workout,
I used to work out y'all.
So Saturday mornings have always been a long
run for me and that still is the
case.
But throughout my 30s, I would work out
(05:20):
with a group of women for an intense
workout right after my run.
I would finish a 10 mile run, rest
for about 30 minutes, and then my group
of girlfriends would meet up with me and
we would do an intense stadium workout.
And it was fabulous.
I loved that time, but because one, my
job is fitness.
So Monday through Friday, I'm working in the
(05:40):
Filmin's Weekly Live Studio and then I'm also
keeping my Saturday run.
That is important to me mentally and physically.
I have realized that my body just can't
handle that Saturday and I tried to push
through a lot, but I've decided to back
off of that.
And now what we've done, and again, it
(06:00):
wasn't even like that conscious decision.
It was my girlfriends and I met up
one day and said, you know what, I'm
just not feeling it.
Why don't we go for a walk?
And now we've been doing that for over
a month and it is the highlight of
my week.
So listening to your body and giving it
grace, that's actually doing more for me, filling
up more of my cup than trying to
(06:21):
do insane stadiums and doing insane track work
could ever do.
Because what I've learned now, and I feel
like if you're in your 40s, you can
probably relate.
The relationships that you have around you are
so much more important.
And so instead of just working out with
my girlfriends where we don't really get to
have that like one-on-one time together,
it's just us crushing our souls, giving each
other a high five and going our separate
(06:43):
ways.
Now we are meeting on a beautiful Saturday
morning.
I live in Charleston, which is one of
the most gorgeous cities.
We grab a coffee and we just go
walking.
And so we are still moving our bodies,
but we're actually able to talk with one
another and have meaningful relationships with one another.
And I've let that part of my friendship,
(07:06):
and you know we live in a time
where we're in a loneliness epidemic and I
work by myself, like right now, by myself
every day of the week except for the
weekends when my husband is home.
And so even though I was around girlfriends,
I wasn't having those meaningful relationships and now
I get to fill my cup with that,
and that is doing more for me physically
(07:27):
and mentally than any track workout ever could.
So that's one of the huge differences that
I've noticed now in my 40s.
I'm okay bringing back the intensity and doing
things that are just as healthy for me
just in different ways.
I hope my girlfriends feel the same way,
but like we've talked religion and business and
(07:47):
family and personal experiences that we're going through
that we weren't able to get into those
kind of conversations when we're just go, go,
going for an hour to see how high
we can get our heart rate up or
how many burpees that we could get through.
So that's probably been my biggest thing, is
actually listening to my body and then taking
what it's telling me and doing what it
(08:08):
needs to do.
So that's with me personally, but there are
some other things that I'm focusing on.
You know, we keep hearing things of, here's
what you should be doing as a woman
in your 40s.
This is what you need to do.
Well, what's true and what's actually not.
So let's kind of take this idea, 20s
and 30s, peak fitness.
We are able to push our bodies to
the grind and then just hope we stay
(08:30):
healthy that we can maintain our fitness moving
forward.
But here are the things that happen to
your body as we do start to get
a little bit older.
We're starting to get a little bit towards
that menopause state.
We are in perimenopause.
One thing that happens after 30 or after
40 is that our O estrogen levels start
to decrease.
That is a form of estrogen and that
(08:51):
is also the one that is most related
to our bone health.
So after 35, our bone health naturally starts
to decline and our bone density goes down.
So that means that if we haven't been
prioritizing strength training, this is the time that
we need to really be bringing it into
our life.
And I don't mean prioritizing it over other
types of fitness.
(09:12):
And I think that's one of the biggest
elements that people are getting wrong in the
fitness world today, saying you need to prioritize
strength training once you turn 40.
It needs to be a priority, but so
does cardio health.
And we'll get there in just a second.
However, let's get back to this bone health
for a second.
After the age of 35, our bone health
starts to naturally decline.
(09:32):
The best thing that you can do is
two different things, putting external load onto your
body because that impact onto your bones is
what causes them to go, oh, I got
to stay strong and causes them to build
up and increase your bone density.
You can get stronger bones after the age
of 40.
We are not all destined to have osteopenia
and lead to osteoporosis.
(09:53):
So start focusing on that right now.
Another thing that you can do to help
with your bone density is called plyometric exercises.
Plyometric exercises is just a fancy way of
saying jumping exercises.
So lunge jumps, squat jumps, plyometric or things
like box jumps.
So that's a very dangerous move.
If you're not comfortable doing it, don't do
(10:15):
it.
But you can start small.
Jump rope is a plyometric exercise.
That pounding and that bouncing up and down
again helps with our bones to go, oh,
I got to build myself up so that
I become strong.
So plyometric exercises is a very powerful thing.
Not only for our bone health, just a
side note, but plyo exercises helps our brain
and our body connect so that you become
(10:37):
just a healthier individual that can lead a
more independent life so you're less likely to
fall.
You have better proprioception, which just means a
better understanding of where your body is in
space.
So first part of getting older is our
bone density goes down because of that decrease
in estrogen.
The next thing that's also going to go
down is after the age of, and I
(10:59):
have this specific, where did I write this
down?
After the age of around 30, of course
it's all different for each person depending on
where your fitness life is, but bone mass
also starts to decrease and it decreases very
quickly.
We're talking about three to eight percent per
year.
(11:19):
Now, the science also shows that that's not
just because of hormonal changes or just because
we're getting older.
For a lot of us, as we get
older, we use that as an excuse to
start slowing down.
We start saying, I'm now 40 years old,
I can't pick up the weights that I
used to be able to, and when you're
not prioritizing that street training or you're changing
(11:40):
your fitness from one type to another, maybe
in your 40s you're like, I can't lift
any weight, so I'm going to go to
a bike instead and just prioritize my cardio.
That's going to obviously decrease our muscle mass
at a more rapid pace because that is
not built to help us increase our muscle
mass that's there for just your cardio fitness.
So make sure that no matter where you
(12:01):
are in your fitness journey, that your strength
training is a priority to help limit that
decrease, and then also we want to try
to fight it as much as possible because
no matter what, it is your body's natural
tendency to decrease muscle mass with age.
So make sure that you're getting in those
two to four strength training programs per year,
and it is possible to get stronger.
(12:22):
Y'all, in my 40s, I'm still hitting
PRs.
I hit, I think, two strength PRs last
year with pull-ups and deadlifts and maybe
chest press as well.
I don't remember, but I'm thinking I hit
quite a few pretty cool PRs.
So just because you're getting older doesn't mean
that you have to slow down, which is
why a lot of doctors say that women,
(12:43):
when they get older, should start prioritizing more
heavy lifting where you're staying in that four
to six rep range when you're lifting weights.
That I do not necessarily agree with.
If you have a strong background in strength
training, then yes, it is fine to go
into a period of training where you are
lifting that heavy, but I think that's also
important to focus, and I've talked about this
recently.
(13:04):
There are different types of strength training.
You have those different, you have like the
four to six rep range.
You have the eight to 12 rep range
for hypertrophy.
You have like the 13 and plus for
endurance, and you should be playing around in
all of those different intervals of strength and
of your rep ranges.
(13:25):
Now, what I also want to stress is
that, you know, I say like, oh, this
is your endurance area.
That myth has been busted where as long
as you are progressing with how you are
pushing your body, it doesn't matter what rep
range you're in.
Your body is still able to build strength
and build muscle mass.
So if you stay in a period where
you're lifting 15 reps for every set, as
(13:47):
long as you're changing the weight that you're
using, you're making it harder on yourself, you
can still get some amazing gains.
So that is the biggest thing, is not
necessarily how much weight you're using, but what
is the level of intensity that you're pushing
your body?
Progressive overload is the key here.
And so, yes, saying that four to six
heavy rep range is going to put more
(14:07):
load onto your bones to help with that
bone density that we talked about, but that
is also a very dangerous rep range for
a lot of people.
If you have no experience lifting or you've
never lifted that heavy before and all of
a sudden you pick up a weight that's
so heavy, you can only do four reps,
you're most likely going to end up hurting
yourself.
Your form is going to give, something's going
(14:28):
to happen.
So make sure that you have that background
or that you are training with someone to
build up the confidence that you know that
your form is good before you try.
And then stay in each section.
You know, you can go through periods of
about eight to 12 weeks where you're kind
of more in the endurance zone, more in
that hypertrophy range, and then more in that
power slash strength range.
It's fine to play around, it's fine to
(14:48):
mix match.
Just make sure that you're finding a trainer
that's going to help guide you, which, if
that is something that you're on the lookout
for, my next session of the Ignite 30
program is open.
It is a 30-day program to help
get you started, to help build a consistent
routine with your strength training and with your
cardiovascular health.
You're going to get one-on-one coaching
(15:09):
from me.
You're going to get micro coaching tips throughout
the week and challenges throughout the week for
30 days.
This is a very intimate, personalized coaching program.
Spots are very, very limited.
I will put the link down below if
you're interested, but we're just a few weeks
from getting started on that.
I don't know how many more Ignite sessions
I'm going to do.
So, if you're like, yes, I need help
(15:31):
with everything that you're talking about, go join
me for the next Ignite 30 session and
join an amazing group of women that are
going through it with you that will help
hold you accountable and make you successful.
Now, that's going to take me to the
next thing.
We're talking about strength, strength, strength, strength.
And this is what breaks my heart because
I feel like all the fitness pros out
there are saying, when you turn 40, you
(15:52):
got to prioritize your strength, which you do.
But that, again, doesn't mean you're de-prioritizing.
Is that a word?
Other types of fitness.
In my 30s and maybe into the 20s
as well, cardio was my thing.
Actually, I know for sure in my 20s.
It was all about how many calories could
I burn in a certain workout.
Now, that strength should be a huge priority
(16:14):
does that mean that you need to take
your foot off of the pedal and not
focus so much on cardio?
No, absolutely not.
Your cardio workouts are what's going to help
you with your heart health, with your lung
health, with your mental health, with your anxiety.
If you are an overthinker like me and
have issues with anxiety, my cardio is what
helps keep me sane, but it also helps
(16:36):
keep me healthy.
We all know that cardiovascular health is one
of the major issues for disease and for
death here in our country.
So it's not something that we just give
up on.
You should not be focusing on cardio or
strength.
You need to be prioritizing both of them.
(16:56):
And that means getting about two to three
sessions per week of your cardio in.
Let's see.
And then the last part of what's the
difference between training in your 20s and your
30s?
Flexibility and mobility.
This one I cannot stress enough because I
was there.
Trust me.
In my 20s and 30s, I was like,
I don't need to warm up.
(17:18):
I don't need to cool down.
I can go from one thing straight on.
I can go from my workout straight into
living life without thinking about it.
I don't need to stretch.
I've always been a flexible person.
We live in a time where we sit
down a lot and our posture is not
always great.
We experience tight hip flexors from sitting down,
a lot of low back pain, and it's
(17:41):
also just part of aging, y'all.
I hate to tell it to you.
I really, really am.
But women lose flexibility at an average of
about 0.6% a year with the
sharpest decline coming after, you guessed it, 40.
So a lot of things that I said
recommended stretching for about 15 to 20 minutes
(18:01):
per day.
I don't have time for that, especially when
I'm already telling you we need to prioritize
our strength training and our cardio, right?
Because that takes time out of our day.
And then we have to add 20 to
more minutes just to stretch.
No.
But I am an advocate for getting at
least five minutes of stretching in per day.
Pick just two or three of your favorite
stretches.
(18:22):
Do them for 60 seconds before you go
to bed.
Do them 60 seconds when you wake up
in the morning.
And then every couple of days, change up
what stretches you do to make sure that
you're focused on hamstrings, quad, lower back, even
your core.
Shoulders, especially, and your pecs.
I think that a lot of times we
neglect our upper body because when we think
(18:42):
about stretching, we think about downward dog.
We think about just touching our toes in
a forward bend or doing the butterfly stretch
or the pigeon pose.
But if we are sitting at a computer
or on our phones, our shoulders are hunched
over.
That pulls a lot of tightness into our
pecs and that needs to be loosened up
as well.
So doing a lot of upper body stretching
(19:03):
is just as equally important.
And then, of course, you can also help
with that by working on your mobility and
with foam rolling.
Foam rolling and stretching are not the same
things.
Foam rolling helps to get knots out that
are already there.
It helps to bring blood flow into the
muscles.
But then taking your muscle through an actual
stretch after you foam roll is going to
(19:23):
help keep those knots out.
I really like the example that I believe
Jill Miller told me when I had her
on the podcast.
And she said that if you just foam
roll, it's kind of the equivalent of pulling
a knot tight.
Whereas if you foam roll and then stretch,
it's like pulling that knot and then making
sure it's out for good.
(19:45):
Like if you think about a shoelace, right?
If you have a knot in a shoelace
and you pull it really tight, it just
becomes worse.
So this is the equivalent of we're trying
to get that knot out and then keep
it out.
So you do need to keep both in
there.
So focus on, here are the elements of
now that we're in our 40s, this is
what you actually need to do.
Strength train, two to four times per week,
(20:06):
okay?
Doesn't need to be long sessions.
We're talking even five minutes.
New science has shown can make a big
impact on your physical health.
So five minutes minimum on those days where
life just gets away from you, but do
the best that you can.
In Filman's Weekly Live, I offer a 30
minute strength session per day and a 60
(20:27):
minute.
Then you want to make sure that your
cardiovascular health is extremely important as well.
Get that running in there two to three
times per week, nothing crazy.
Again, stop doing so much, stop putting so
much pressure on yourself where you're like, well,
they tell me I need to do 40
minute sessions.
If you have 40 minutes, great.
But if you don't and you're not doing
(20:48):
anything, a 10 to 20 minute cardio session
is better than nothing.
So do what you are able to do.
Third, prioritize your social relationships.
I am much better off going for my
walk with my girlfriends than I am pushing
hard for an hour, getting in an extra
workout.
It's better for my mind.
It's better for my body.
And then fourth, work on your flexibility and
(21:09):
mobility.
Gone are the days that you can just
warm up or just say one, two, three,
go workout and be done.
Spend five to 10 minutes.
It doesn't take long warming up your body,
getting your muscles primed for exercise, taking them
through a range of motion, like arm circles
or hip rotations, doing a couple of simple
stretches.
(21:30):
I love doing like just squatting, like a
toddler squat, what's also called an Asian squat.
I don't feel like, I just don't like
that term, but sitting like a toddler for
about 30 to 60 seconds and then do
your workout and then spend some time also
cooling down, helping those muscles to relax, helping
the blood flow, return to normal throughout your
(21:51):
body before you just get back to life
and then spending five minutes minimum, stretching most
days of the week and your body will
feel so much better because here's the really
cool thing.
A study found that eight weeks of training,
just eight weeks, can change your biological age
by three years.
So think about it now, even if you're
(22:12):
not doing a consistent, like perfect routine, if
you start now, you can take up to
a decade off of your age just by
moving your body.
And y'all, if that ain't the truth,
that is one thing that I will say
is, I'm sure some of you guys can
look at this and go, no, Kendall, you,
sorry, you look 41.
But when I see some of the people
that I grew up with or went to
(22:33):
school with posting pictures and I look at
them and then I go, I feel like
I look a lot younger.
I contribute to a healthy diet.
I contribute it to healthy movement through all
of these years and not letting my age
define what I can and can't do.
That's the biggest thing.
Do I change the exercises that I do?
(22:54):
No, I'm still doing the same work that
I was doing.
When I am working out and I'm supposed
to be doing an intense workout, I'm pushing
at the same intensity that I did when
I was 30 years old.
In fact, people ask me, do I think
that I could out fitness a 20-year
-old?
And I think by general stances, absolutely.
I mean, over 40% of the American
population is overweight.
(23:15):
So if I'm going to go up against
the average 20-year-old, then yeah, I'm
in pretty good freaking shape.
And I find a lot of pride in
that and I hope that you guys do
too.
So I would love to hear, what are
the biggest differences between training in your 30s
versus training in your 40s?
Did I leave anything off?
And what are your favorite exercises now that
maybe you hated in your younger years and
(23:39):
vice versa?
What are moves that you used to love?
And now you're just like, eh, that's not
really my thing.
I'm trying to think for myself.
I still love pull-ups.
I still love dumbbell snatches.
I actually like burpees.
I will say I used to love sprint
work and I just don't anymore.
I don't know if that's part of, because
I'm coming off of an injury from last
(23:59):
year.
I just find it very hard for my,
it takes me a long time to warm
up for something like that.
So I have backed off a little bit
of doing intense sprint work, but who's to
say that I don't get back into it
eventually?
We'll see.
All right, guys, thanks for hanging out with
me.
Just a reminder, if all of this resonates
with you and you're like, okay, but I
(24:19):
need help getting started, go get all the
information for the Ignite 30 program.
It is down below.
Hit that subscribe button so that you don't
miss out on future episodes.
And thanks for hanging out with me.
Bye.
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Welcome to a new episode of the fitments
weekly podcast.
This is your first time tuning in.
Welcome to the show.
I hope that you find something in this
episode that makes you want to go back
and listen to previous episodes because you all
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(00:21):
Now, if you guys haven't heard the news,
I am officially in my 40s in April.
I turned 41 and with that comes a
lot of I don't know self reflection, not
only for myself, but I've had a lot
of people ask me questions along the lines
of my fitness.
How much longer am I going to be
pushing my body in this way?
What are the biggest difference between training in
(00:43):
my 30s versus training in my 40s?
And because I've gotten that question multiple times,
I thought that it would be a really
nice episode for one, me to kind of
put my thoughts out there and kind of
reflect on myself.
What those changes are.
But also, if you have wondered that maybe
you're approaching your 40s and you want to
know what's going to happen or maybe you
(01:05):
are with me in the 40 club and
you can relate.
I thought that it would be a really
nice thing to have it here as part
of our podcast space that I could drive
people to next time I get this question.
So we're going to be talking about that.
What are the differences that I've realized between
working out in my 30s versus working out
in my 40s?
(01:25):
Now, the one thing that I do want
to stress here is that I've been working
out consistently since I was 20.
So it's not as if I started my
fitness journey or I was a beginner in
my 30s.
I was well into my fitness at that
point and worked out consistently for that decade.
And I'm anticipating I'm going to be working
out consistently throughout my 40s, but with a
(01:47):
few little changes.
Now, have I noticed anything huge already when
it comes to my workouts?
Yes and no.
Okay.
And we're going to talk about this from
a physical standpoint, from a mental standpoint.
And then from the physical standpoint, I want
to also talk about biology and what are
the things that are naturally happening as we
get older.
(02:07):
Because one thing that I will go ahead
and say is that women in their 30s,
that is when we are at our prime
fitness.
Our bones become strongest around 35.
We've kind of gotten past the 20s where
it was all about like, what do I
look?
And you do get that itch, at least
I did, to be as physically fit as
humanly possible.
(02:28):
Whether that was with my strength or with
my speed and my running.
I thought that in my 30s, I was
like, this is the time for me to
be the ultimate athlete.
Now, does that mean now I've just kind
of given that up?
Absolutely not.
But I do think that that's a really
important thing to focus on is that our
body's ability to be the best we could
be is oftentimes at our late 20s or
(02:50):
in our 30s.
And then things kind of start to change
after that.
So one thing that I have personally noticed
is my mindset.
Again, in my 30s, I was like, I
am still able to crush this.
I can go out and do all the
things.
I can, you know, go do interval sprint
work in the morning and then come back
and do an insane MetCon in the afternoon.
(03:12):
And it's not going to affect me too
much.
My body is going to be able to
recover quickly.
What I've noticed is that now I am
also able to listen to my body better.
And I use that quote all the time
since I've owned a studio.
I've always said, listen to your body, listen
to your body.
And that is something that comes with age
(03:33):
and experience, the ability to actually listen to
your body.
When we're in our 20s, we tend to
kind of push off the signs and symptoms
and we kind of say, I'm young, right?
I'm young.
I have this ache and pain, but it's
going to be fine.
And then it's not fine because eventually it
catches up with you.
But you're able to kind of push through
and be like, oh, that was a learning
(03:54):
experience.
And then in your 30s, you start to
be able to listen a little bit more,
but you're still young, right?
30s are still very, very young and you're
still thinking, I don't need to do that.
I don't need to warm up.
I don't need to cool down.
I can still push my body a little
bit beyond its limits.
It's going to be okay.
And for a lot of us, it is
(04:15):
until again, it's not.
And as you start to learn those, it's
not experiences.
Then you are able to listen to your
body and actually be able to make smarter
decisions.
In my 30s, I could listen to my
body.
I knew what I should and shouldn't do.
But just because I listened to my body
didn't mean that I was actually taking action
and doing the things that I knew my
(04:37):
body wanted me to do.
Now in my 40s, I'm finding myself a
lot more responsive to those requirements.
So I'm giving myself more grace now so
I can listen to my body and say,
okay, this is what my body is telling
me right now.
And I'm actually doing those things.
And for me personally, that means cutting back
(04:58):
a little bit on the intensity.
I've noticed over the past year, even without
me making that conscious decision, I'm just doing
it a little bit more naturally.
I can tell that on the weekends, if
I'm not feeling up for a crazy workout,
I used to work out y'all.
So Saturday mornings have always been a long
run for me and that still is the
case.
But throughout my 30s, I would work out
(05:20):
with a group of women for an intense
workout right after my run.
I would finish a 10 mile run, rest
for about 30 minutes, and then my group
of girlfriends would meet up with me and
we would do an intense stadium workout.
And it was fabulous.
I loved that time, but because one, my
job is fitness.
So Monday through Friday, I'm working in the
(05:40):
Filmin's Weekly Live Studio and then I'm also
keeping my Saturday run.
That is important to me mentally and physically.
I have realized that my body just can't
handle that Saturday and I tried to push
through a lot, but I've decided to back
off of that.
And now what we've done, and again, it
(06:00):
wasn't even like that conscious decision.
It was my girlfriends and I met up
one day and said, you know what, I'm
just not feeling it.
Why don't we go for a walk?
And now we've been doing that for over
a month and it is the highlight of
my week.
So listening to your body and giving it
grace, that's actually doing more for me, filling
up more of my cup than trying to
(06:21):
do insane stadiums and doing insane track work
could ever do.
Because what I've learned now, and I feel
like if you're in your 40s, you can
probably relate.
The relationships that you have around you are
so much more important.
And so instead of just working out with
my girlfriends where we don't really get to
have that like one-on-one time together,
it's just us crushing our souls, giving each
other a high five and going our separate
(06:43):
ways.
Now we are meeting on a beautiful Saturday
morning.
I live in Charleston, which is one of
the most gorgeous cities.
We grab a coffee and we just go
walking.
And so we are still moving our bodies,
but we're actually able to talk with one
another and have meaningful relationships with one another.
And I've let that part of my friendship,
(07:06):
and you know we live in a time
where we're in a loneliness epidemic and I
work by myself, like right now, by myself
every day of the week except for the
weekends when my husband is home.
And so even though I was around girlfriends,
I wasn't having those meaningful relationships and now
I get to fill my cup with that,
and that is doing more for me physically
(07:27):
and mentally than any track workout ever could.
So that's one of the huge differences that
I've noticed now in my 40s.
I'm okay bringing back the intensity and doing
things that are just as healthy for me
just in different ways.
I hope my girlfriends feel the same way,
but like we've talked religion and business and
(07:47):
family and personal experiences that we're going through
that we weren't able to get into those
kind of conversations when we're just go, go,
going for an hour to see how high
we can get our heart rate up or
how many burpees that we could get through.
So that's probably been my biggest thing, is
actually listening to my body and then taking
what it's telling me and doing what it
(08:08):
needs to do.
So that's with me personally, but there are
some other things that I'm focusing on.
You know, we keep hearing things of, here's
what you should be doing as a woman
in your 40s.
This is what you need to do.
Well, what's true and what's actually not.
So let's kind of take this idea, 20s
and 30s, peak fitness.
We are able to push our bodies to
the grind and then just hope we stay
(08:30):
healthy that we can maintain our fitness moving
forward.
But here are the things that happen to
your body as we do start to get
a little bit older.
We're starting to get a little bit towards
that menopause state.
We are in perimenopause.
One thing that happens after 30 or after
40 is that our O estrogen levels start
to decrease.
That is a form of estrogen and that
(08:51):
is also the one that is most related
to our bone health.
So after 35, our bone health naturally starts
to decline and our bone density goes down.
So that means that if we haven't been
prioritizing strength training, this is the time that
we need to really be bringing it into
our life.
And I don't mean prioritizing it over other
types of fitness.
(09:12):
And I think that's one of the biggest
elements that people are getting wrong in the
fitness world today, saying you need to prioritize
strength training once you turn 40.
It needs to be a priority, but so
does cardio health.
And we'll get there in just a second.
However, let's get back to this bone health
for a second.
After the age of 35, our bone health
starts to naturally decline.
(09:32):
The best thing that you can do is
two different things, putting external load onto your
body because that impact onto your bones is
what causes them to go, oh, I got
to stay strong and causes them to build
up and increase your bone density.
You can get stronger bones after the age
of 40.
We are not all destined to have osteopenia
and lead to osteoporosis.
(09:53):
So start focusing on that right now.
Another thing that you can do to help
with your bone density is called plyometric exercises.
Plyometric exercises is just a fancy way of
saying jumping exercises.
So lunge jumps, squat jumps, plyometric or things
like box jumps.
So that's a very dangerous move.
If you're not comfortable doing it, don't do
(10:15):
it.
But you can start small.
Jump rope is a plyometric exercise.
That pounding and that bouncing up and down
again helps with our bones to go, oh,
I got to build myself up so that
I become strong.
So plyometric exercises is a very powerful thing.
Not only for our bone health, just a
side note, but plyo exercises helps our brain
and our body connect so that you become
(10:37):
just a healthier individual that can lead a
more independent life so you're less likely to
fall.
You have better proprioception, which just means a
better understanding of where your body is in
space.
So first part of getting older is our
bone density goes down because of that decrease
in estrogen.
The next thing that's also going to go
down is after the age of, and I
(10:59):
have this specific, where did I write this
down?
After the age of around 30, of course
it's all different for each person depending on
where your fitness life is, but bone mass
also starts to decrease and it decreases very
quickly.
We're talking about three to eight percent per
year.
(11:19):
Now, the science also shows that that's not
just because of hormonal changes or just because
we're getting older.
For a lot of us, as we get
older, we use that as an excuse to
start slowing down.
We start saying, I'm now 40 years old,
I can't pick up the weights that I
used to be able to, and when you're
not prioritizing that street training or you're changing
(11:40):
your fitness from one type to another, maybe
in your 40s you're like, I can't lift
any weight, so I'm going to go to
a bike instead and just prioritize my cardio.
That's going to obviously decrease our muscle mass
at a more rapid pace because that is
not built to help us increase our muscle
mass that's there for just your cardio fitness.
So make sure that no matter where you
(12:01):
are in your fitness journey, that your strength
training is a priority to help limit that
decrease, and then also we want to try
to fight it as much as possible because
no matter what, it is your body's natural
tendency to decrease muscle mass with age.
So make sure that you're getting in those
two to four strength training programs per year,
and it is possible to get stronger.
(12:22):
Y'all, in my 40s, I'm still hitting
PRs.
I hit, I think, two strength PRs last
year with pull-ups and deadlifts and maybe
chest press as well.
I don't remember, but I'm thinking I hit
quite a few pretty cool PRs.
So just because you're getting older doesn't mean
that you have to slow down, which is
why a lot of doctors say that women,
(12:43):
when they get older, should start prioritizing more
heavy lifting where you're staying in that four
to six rep range when you're lifting weights.
That I do not necessarily agree with.
If you have a strong background in strength
training, then yes, it is fine to go
into a period of training where you are
lifting that heavy, but I think that's also
important to focus, and I've talked about this
recently.
(13:04):
There are different types of strength training.
You have those different, you have like the
four to six rep range.
You have the eight to 12 rep range
for hypertrophy.
You have like the 13 and plus for
endurance, and you should be playing around in
all of those different intervals of strength and
of your rep ranges.
(13:25):
Now, what I also want to stress is
that, you know, I say like, oh, this
is your endurance area.
That myth has been busted where as long
as you are progressing with how you are
pushing your body, it doesn't matter what rep
range you're in.
Your body is still able to build strength
and build muscle mass.
So if you stay in a period where
you're lifting 15 reps for every set, as
(13:47):
long as you're changing the weight that you're
using, you're making it harder on yourself, you
can still get some amazing gains.
So that is the biggest thing, is not
necessarily how much weight you're using, but what
is the level of intensity that you're pushing
your body?
Progressive overload is the key here.
And so, yes, saying that four to six
heavy rep range is going to put more
(14:07):
load onto your bones to help with that
bone density that we talked about, but that
is also a very dangerous rep range for
a lot of people.
If you have no experience lifting or you've
never lifted that heavy before and all of
a sudden you pick up a weight that's
so heavy, you can only do four reps,
you're most likely going to end up hurting
yourself.
Your form is going to give, something's going
(14:28):
to happen.
So make sure that you have that background
or that you are training with someone to
build up the confidence that you know that
your form is good before you try.
And then stay in each section.
You know, you can go through periods of
about eight to 12 weeks where you're kind
of more in the endurance zone, more in
that hypertrophy range, and then more in that
power slash strength range.
It's fine to play around, it's fine to
(14:48):
mix match.
Just make sure that you're finding a trainer
that's going to help guide you, which, if
that is something that you're on the lookout
for, my next session of the Ignite 30
program is open.
It is a 30-day program to help
get you started, to help build a consistent
routine with your strength training and with your
cardiovascular health.
You're going to get one-on-one coaching
(15:09):
from me.
You're going to get micro coaching tips throughout
the week and challenges throughout the week for
30 days.
This is a very intimate, personalized coaching program.
Spots are very, very limited.
I will put the link down below if
you're interested, but we're just a few weeks
from getting started on that.
I don't know how many more Ignite sessions
I'm going to do.
So, if you're like, yes, I need help
(15:31):
with everything that you're talking about, go join
me for the next Ignite 30 session and
join an amazing group of women that are
going through it with you that will help
hold you accountable and make you successful.
Now, that's going to take me to the
next thing.
We're talking about strength, strength, strength, strength.
And this is what breaks my heart because
I feel like all the fitness pros out
there are saying, when you turn 40, you
(15:52):
got to prioritize your strength, which you do.
But that, again, doesn't mean you're de-prioritizing.
Is that a word?
Other types of fitness.
In my 30s and maybe into the 20s
as well, cardio was my thing.
Actually, I know for sure in my 20s.
It was all about how many calories could
I burn in a certain workout.
Now, that strength should be a huge priority
(16:14):
does that mean that you need to take
your foot off of the pedal and not
focus so much on cardio?
No, absolutely not.
Your cardio workouts are what's going to help
you with your heart health, with your lung
health, with your mental health, with your anxiety.
If you are an overthinker like me and
have issues with anxiety, my cardio is what
helps keep me sane, but it also helps
(16:36):
keep me healthy.
We all know that cardiovascular health is one
of the major issues for disease and for
death here in our country.
So it's not something that we just give
up on.
You should not be focusing on cardio or
strength.
You need to be prioritizing both of them.
(16:56):
And that means getting about two to three
sessions per week of your cardio in.
Let's see.
And then the last part of what's the
difference between training in your 20s and your
30s?
Flexibility and mobility.
This one I cannot stress enough because I
was there.
Trust me.
In my 20s and 30s, I was like,
I don't need to warm up.
(17:18):
I don't need to cool down.
I can go from one thing straight on.
I can go from my workout straight into
living life without thinking about it.
I don't need to stretch.
I've always been a flexible person.
We live in a time where we sit
down a lot and our posture is not
always great.
We experience tight hip flexors from sitting down,
a lot of low back pain, and it's
(17:41):
also just part of aging, y'all.
I hate to tell it to you.
I really, really am.
But women lose flexibility at an average of
about 0.6% a year with the
sharpest decline coming after, you guessed it, 40.
So a lot of things that I said
recommended stretching for about 15 to 20 minutes
(18:01):
per day.
I don't have time for that, especially when
I'm already telling you we need to prioritize
our strength training and our cardio, right?
Because that takes time out of our day.
And then we have to add 20 to
more minutes just to stretch.
No.
But I am an advocate for getting at
least five minutes of stretching in per day.
Pick just two or three of your favorite
stretches.
(18:22):
Do them for 60 seconds before you go
to bed.
Do them 60 seconds when you wake up
in the morning.
And then every couple of days, change up
what stretches you do to make sure that
you're focused on hamstrings, quad, lower back, even
your core.
Shoulders, especially, and your pecs.
I think that a lot of times we
neglect our upper body because when we think
(18:42):
about stretching, we think about downward dog.
We think about just touching our toes in
a forward bend or doing the butterfly stretch
or the pigeon pose.
But if we are sitting at a computer
or on our phones, our shoulders are hunched
over.
That pulls a lot of tightness into our
pecs and that needs to be loosened up
as well.
So doing a lot of upper body stretching
(19:03):
is just as equally important.
And then, of course, you can also help
with that by working on your mobility and
with foam rolling.
Foam rolling and stretching are not the same
things.
Foam rolling helps to get knots out that
are already there.
It helps to bring blood flow into the
muscles.
But then taking your muscle through an actual
stretch after you foam roll is going to
(19:23):
help keep those knots out.
I really like the example that I believe
Jill Miller told me when I had her
on the podcast.
And she said that if you just foam
roll, it's kind of the equivalent of pulling
a knot tight.
Whereas if you foam roll and then stretch,
it's like pulling that knot and then making
sure it's out for good.
(19:45):
Like if you think about a shoelace, right?
If you have a knot in a shoelace
and you pull it really tight, it just
becomes worse.
So this is the equivalent of we're trying
to get that knot out and then keep
it out.
So you do need to keep both in
there.
So focus on, here are the elements of
now that we're in our 40s, this is
what you actually need to do.
Strength train, two to four times per week,
(20:06):
okay?
Doesn't need to be long sessions.
We're talking even five minutes.
New science has shown can make a big
impact on your physical health.
So five minutes minimum on those days where
life just gets away from you, but do
the best that you can.
In Filman's Weekly Live, I offer a 30
minute strength session per day and a 60
(20:27):
minute.
Then you want to make sure that your
cardiovascular health is extremely important as well.
Get that running in there two to three
times per week, nothing crazy.
Again, stop doing so much, stop putting so
much pressure on yourself where you're like, well,
they tell me I need to do 40
minute sessions.
If you have 40 minutes, great.
But if you don't and you're not doing
(20:48):
anything, a 10 to 20 minute cardio session
is better than nothing.
So do what you are able to do.
Third, prioritize your social relationships.
I am much better off going for my
walk with my girlfriends than I am pushing
hard for an hour, getting in an extra
workout.
It's better for my mind.
It's better for my body.
And then fourth, work on your flexibility and
(21:09):
mobility.
Gone are the days that you can just
warm up or just say one, two, three,
go workout and be done.
Spend five to 10 minutes.
It doesn't take long warming up your body,
getting your muscles primed for exercise, taking them
through a range of motion, like arm circles
or hip rotations, doing a couple of simple
stretches.
(21:30):
I love doing like just squatting, like a
toddler squat, what's also called an Asian squat.
I don't feel like, I just don't like
that term, but sitting like a toddler for
about 30 to 60 seconds and then do
your workout and then spend some time also
cooling down, helping those muscles to relax, helping
the blood flow, return to normal throughout your
(21:51):
body before you just get back to life
and then spending five minutes minimum, stretching most
days of the week and your body will
feel so much better because here's the really
cool thing.
A study found that eight weeks of training,
just eight weeks, can change your biological age
by three years.
So think about it now, even if you're
(22:12):
not doing a consistent, like perfect routine, if
you start now, you can take up to
a decade off of your age just by
moving your body.
And y'all, if that ain't the truth,
that is one thing that I will say
is, I'm sure some of you guys can
look at this and go, no, Kendall, you,
sorry, you look 41.
But when I see some of the people
that I grew up with or went to
(22:33):
school with posting pictures and I look at
them and then I go, I feel like
I look a lot younger.
I contribute to a healthy diet.
I contribute it to healthy movement through all
of these years and not letting my age
define what I can and can't do.
That's the biggest thing.
Do I change the exercises that I do?
(22:54):
No, I'm still doing the same work that
I was doing.
When I am working out and I'm supposed
to be doing an intense workout, I'm pushing
at the same intensity that I did when
I was 30 years old.
In fact, people ask me, do I think
that I could out fitness a 20-year
-old?
And I think by general stances, absolutely.
I mean, over 40% of the American
population is overweight.
(23:15):
So if I'm going to go up against
the average 20-year-old, then yeah, I'm
in pretty good freaking shape.
And I find a lot of pride in
that and I hope that you guys do
too.
So I would love to hear, what are
the biggest differences between training in your 30s
versus training in your 40s?
Did I leave anything off?
And what are your favorite exercises now that
maybe you hated in your younger years and
(23:39):
vice versa?
What are moves that you used to love?
And now you're just like, eh, that's not
really my thing.
I'm trying to think for myself.
I still love pull-ups.
I still love dumbbell snatches.
I actually like burpees.
I will say I used to love sprint
work and I just don't anymore.
I don't know if that's part of, because
I'm coming off of an injury from last
(23:59):
year.
I just find it very hard for my,
it takes me a long time to warm
up for something like that.
So I have backed off a little bit
of doing intense sprint work, but who's to
say that I don't get back into it
eventually?
We'll see.
All right, guys, thanks for hanging out with
me.
Just a reminder, if all of this resonates
with you and you're like, okay, but I
(24:19):
need help getting started, go get all the
information for the Ignite 30 program.
It is down below.
Hit that subscribe button so that you don't
miss out on future episodes.
And thanks for hanging out with me.
Bye.
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