October 28, 2025 • 55 mins
Want to feel stronger, steadier, and more capable for the next 30 years? In this episode, I sit down with strength coach Megan Dahlman to map out a clear, science-backed path for women 50+ to build real-world strength—without injury, confusion, or intimidation.
We bust common fitness myths (“just lift heavy,” “bash your bones,” “jump every day”) and replace them with smarter, safer strategies that protect joints, support bone density, and build lasting confidence. Megan shares how to train around arthritis, osteopenia, or joint replacements, use bodyweight and posture work to create balance, and why core control and rotation are key for mobility and pain relief.
From pickleball prep and agility drills to simple movement snacks you can do anywhere, this conversation gives you practical tools to move through life’s decades with strength and ease—so you can keep traveling, playing, and living fully without limits.
Website where you can find Megan's masterclasses, group training, and podcast.
https://www.vigeofit.com/about
https://www.instagram.com/megandahlman/
_________________________________________
1:1 health and nutrition coaching or Faster Way - Reach me anytime at mailto:mfolanfasterway@gmail.com
If you’re doing “all the right things” and still feel stuck, it may be time to look deeper. I’ve partnered with EllieMD, a trusted telehealth platform offering modern solutions for women in midlife—including micro-dosed GLP-1 peptide therapy—to support metabolic health and longevity.
https://elliemd.com/michelefolan - Create a free account to view all products.
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🎤 In addition to coaching, I speak to women’s groups, moderate health panel discussions, and bring experts together for real, evidence-based conversations about midlife health.
Transcripts are created with AI and may not be perfectly accurate.
Disclaimer: This podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your qualified healthcare provider with any questions regarding a medical condition.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Michele Folan (00:00):
The holidays are coming fast, and if you're not
careful, it's easy to loseyourself in the shuffle.
So this year, what if you didthe opposite?
What if you built a healthyfoundation before the chaos
hits?
I'm Michele Folan and my 21-daymetabolism reset is designed to
help you do exactly that.
We'll tackle sugar cravings,dial in your nutrition, and get
(00:22):
you moving in a way that fitsyour life.
Beginner, I've got you.
More advanced, there's plentyto challenge you to.
This is your chance to holdspace for you to reset,
recharge, and finish the yearfeeling strong, not stressed.
Join me now.
The link is in the show notes.
Let's build momentum together.
(00:43):
Health, wellness, fitness, andeverything in between.
We're removing the taboo fromwhat really matters in midlife.
I'm your host, Michele Folan,and this is Asking for a Friend.
Starting an exercise program inyour 50s, 60s, or beyond can
(01:08):
feel overwhelming, especially ifyou're dealing with arthritis,
osteoporosis, hip or knee pain,or if you've never picked up a
weight before.
Where do you even begin and howdo you know what's safe?
That's exactly what we'redigging into today with strength
coach Megan Dahlman.
Megan is passionate abouthelping women build strength the
(01:30):
right way with proper form,smart progressions, and
strategies that keep you mobileand confident for decades to
come.
She's here to cut through theconfusion, calm the fear of
injury, and show you how to moveyour body so you can stay
strong, active, and out of thenursing home well into your 80s.
This isn't about chasing skinnyor trying to look 30 again.
(01:53):
It's about creating the bodythat will carry you powerfully
into the second half of life.
Megan Dahlman, welcome back toAsking for a Friend.
Thank you so much for having meback, Michele.
I'm so excited to be back.
Well, I am excited to have thisconversation.
We were together on episode 93.
(02:15):
Yeah.
We're into the 170s now.
So that gives you an idea ofhow long it's been since we've
connected.
But Megan, I see some of thesame things that you're seeing
out there.
And primarily when it comes tomidlife women, we're being told
to lift heavy, lift heavy.
And there are some veryprominent voices out there that
(02:39):
are saying this, but they're notnecessarily talking about the
how.
Megan Dahlman (02:44):
Yeah.
So I'm super excited to havethis conversation today because
there tends to be a chasmbetween guidance and
recommendations, especially whatwe're hearing from doctors and
from the research.
But how does that show up inyour everyday life?
Like when you walk into yourworkout space, or maybe you've
(03:04):
never done any strength trainingor anything, and you're like,
how do I implement and put intopractice all of this really
important information thatpeople are telling me I need to
do?
And that's where a coach and aproper trainer can come in and
fill that gap and tell you andcoach you through how to
(03:25):
implement safely with nuance therecommendations and guidelines
that are being told.
And so hopefully we can clearup a lot of that today in our
conversation.
And you've been coaching womenfor years.
How long has it been now?
I started coaching women in2006.
So we're coming up on year 20right now.
(03:46):
So professionally as a strengthand conditioning specialist.
And I started with traininghigh-level athletes right out of
college.
That's what I wanted to do witha degree in exercise science.
I thought, you know, the fun,flashy, exciting thing is to
train high-level athletes and,you know, fast forward to where
(04:06):
we are now, where my career isnow, it's it's training women in
midlife.
And I love to take midlife andbeyond, truly, because a lot of
the women I coach are in their70s or 80s, even.
And so it's training the, it'staking the knowledge that you
have of how does a highfunctioning body operate?
(04:27):
What do we know is needed for abody to operate really well at
its best, to not have anylimitations?
And how can we apply that tothe everyday woman who, you
know, wants to be able to pickup her grandkids no problem, who
wants to have energy as shegoes about the day, who wants to
be able to climb down on thefloor and get back up again well
(04:49):
into her 90s?
What does that look like in hereveryday workout program?
And how can we do that in avery approachable way?
Michele Folan (04:56):
What myths about midlife fitness drive you the
craziest?
Megan Dahlman (05:03):
Oh boy.
I like this question.
You know, there are so manymyths out there, but but really
most of them are rooted in somebit of truth, you know.
So we have the recommendationsto lift heavy, to, to jump every
day, or the bone bashing myth.
That's the one that bothers mea little bit because it just
feels so negative.
(05:23):
Or wear a weighted vest toprevent osteoporosis, or, you
know, even something likeintermittent fasting.
So there's an element of truthin all of it.
That's where it kind of startsfrom.
It's someone reads a study orsomeone creates this
recommendation.
But where these recommendationsgo wrong is typically the
extreme nature of them or thelack of nuance.
(05:44):
You know, yes, lifting healthy,lifting heavy is very helpful
for building muscle and bonestrength.
But that doesn't mean we gofrom nothing straight into being
like an Olympic power lifter.
That's not what that shouldlook like.
So, really, the myths thatdrive me the most crazy are the
extreme nature of takingsomething that is real and and
(06:08):
has some truth to it, but thengoing to the extreme with it.
Yeah.
That's what's the mostbothersome.
Michele Folan (06:15):
Yeah, but you know, that gets, that's what
gets clicks, right?
It's the having this um, it'sthis black or white type of
mentality when it comes tofitness.
You have to do this, you haveto do this.
Well, that's great to getfollowers and for people to, you
know, click through your yourpost or whatever, but it's not
(06:38):
really being fair.
Right.
And let's let's talk aboutMegan.
If someone is coming to you andthey have arthritis, they have
knee replacements, uh, thatthere's limited mobility.
How do you first of all reframewhat fitness even looks like?
Megan Dahlman (06:57):
So we have to start by looking through the
lens of what we know are thehealthiest and most important
aspects of fitness for a woman'sbody as she ages.
So understanding, like, okay,yes, muscular strength, very
important, cardiovascularfitness, very important.
But we don't stop there.
(07:18):
Balance, very important too,flexibility or mobility, very
important, coordination, power,all of these aspects are really
important.
So we have to look through thatlens and then say, okay, cool.
What can you do now?
So of all of those things, youknow, of the muscular strength,
(07:40):
cardiovascular stamina, thebalance, the mobility, you might
not be doing six months fromnow what you can do today.
What you can do today mightlook very different than what
that evolves into six or 12months from now.
So, what can you do today thatstarts to move you in that
direction?
(08:00):
I work with a lot of women, andI hear a lot from a lot of
women in on social media too.
I'll I'll show an exercisedemonstration.
And unfortunately, a lot ofwomen will say, Well, I have
arthritis or I have a kneereplacement, so I can't do that.
What else do you got?
It's like, well, you might notbe able to do that yet.
So let's expand, and that mightbe the challenge to everyone
(08:24):
listening is like, let's notrule anything out yet.
Let's say, okay, with throughthe lens of I know what is going
to create the healthiest bodyfor myself.
What can I do today?
And start there and just seewhere that goes.
I've worked with so many womenwith knee replacements that are
like, yeah, I can climb down onmy hands and knees, no problem.
(08:46):
I can I can do things with mynew knees.
That's the point, right?
You get new knees.
Yeah.
I can do so many more thingswith my new knees than I could
ever do before.
My life has grown and expandedrather than become more limited.
And that's the idea.
Yeah.
Michele Folan (09:03):
You know, and I've had my knee issues.
And I will say the more musclethat I have built around my
knees, my thighs, a lot of thatpain has dissipated.
So I think we sometimes have tokind of get over some of that
initial.
(09:24):
Am I gonna make it worse beforeit feels better?
But it's really aboutsupporting the joints, right?
Megan Dahlman (09:32):
The joints are very complicated.
So, especially the knee jointin particular.
Knee joint is a verycomplicated joint.
There's a lot of articulatingsurfaces, the hip joint is very
complicated.
Your spinal joints arecompletely different.
Those are not hinge or ball andsocket joints.
Those are very different.
So pretty much all the jointsin your body operate slightly
(09:54):
differently, but they all havebone surface and they all have
cartilage that covers that bonesurface to help create good
articulation.
But as you age, often,especially with poor alignment,
maybe you've always had slightlyknocked knees, or you've always
had knees that were a littlebowed.
Over time, that's going tocreate some like undue wear and
(10:17):
tear, and perhaps that cartilagestarts to wear away.
Some women might say, Yeah,I've got bone on bone now.
But what's cool is that there'sso many other things, there's
so many other ingredients towhat supports that knee and
makes it healthy.
The ligaments, the tendons thatare connecting your muscles to
the bones, the synovial fluid inthe joint.
(10:40):
I know the last time we had aconversation, we talked a lot
about that synovial fluid, whichis so interesting.
It's basically like oil, it'slike greasing uh like a hinge
joint.
You can put some grease in it,and it just is gonna articulate
so much better.
So as you get healthier, sure,we might not be able to replace
(11:01):
some of the cartilage you mayhave lost, and that's part of
the aging process, very normal.
But the more muscle you have,the healthier your synovial
fluid, the better the all ofthose connective tissues around
the joint, we can make your kneeor hip or whatever the joint
is, we can make it start movingand articulating without pain
(11:22):
and with so much more strengthand stability.
So something that might havelimited you a year ago, it might
not even be an issue anymore.
Michele Folan (11:29):
Yeah.
And I know a lot of women rightnow are loving hearing this
because we let some of thoseaches and pains really hold us
back.
And let's let's talk about that50 plus woman who hasn't lifted
a dumbbell ever.
She's brand new to working out,but she's she's heard loud and
clear that she needs to startbuilding some muscle in order to
(11:51):
protect her mobility as shegets older.
What is step one for her?
Megan Dahlman (11:56):
Step one is understanding that not all
exercises are the same.
So you sure we could put adumbbell in your hand and just
do some bicep curls or simplearm movements or some basic,
basic movements.
But what you really need ismovements that mimic the type of
(12:17):
motions you need to encounterin everyday life.
So something like a squat or asplit squat, you know, that's
going to impact your ability tobe mobile for many years, your
ability to easily climb down onthe floor and get back up again.
That simple action, so manywomen struggle with just
(12:37):
climbing down on the floor andgetting back up again.
And so step one with buildingstrength for someone who's never
lifted a dumbbell in her life.
We do not need to go straightto dumbbells.
In fact, I don't recommend it.
Step one is making sure thatyou do know how to do basic body
weight only movements first.
(12:58):
Spend some time learning how topush and pull and balance your
own body in those activitiesthat mimic how your body needs
to work in everyday life.
And it's so much easier if youdo that without the distractions
of equipment.
So a squat, let's take a simplesquat.
You have to squat to get in andout of a chair.
(13:18):
You have to squat to get downand up off of a toilet.
That's like in and out of acar.
Like most of those squats are alittle bit offset too.
Like your feet aren't perfectlyparallel.
So we have to do them inslightly like staggered
positions.
So it's so much better to startwith those exercises that's
(13:39):
going to mimic your everydaylife, but don't have any weights
in your hands.
Just start doing a squat.
Start doing staggered squats,progress it to a split squat,
you know, where it kind ofstarts to look like a lunge a
little bit.
Once you feel confident withthe technique, you're like,
yeah, I could do this all day.
Like this feels start, this isstarting to feel pretty easy.
It doesn't hurt any of myjoints.
I feel confident.
(14:00):
I've got full range of motionhere.
Then we can start to put someweight in your hands and start
to load it up a little bit.
But that's where you're goingto notice the direct correlation
to what you need to be strongfor.
Michele Folan (14:13):
Got it.
Now, Megan, we're gonna take aquick break, and when we come
back, I want to talk aboutosteoporosis specifically.
Midlife can feel like you'vehit a metabolic brick wall.
You're doing everything right,eating well, moving daily,
managing stress, and still yourlabs or your energy tell a
(14:35):
different story.
That's where peptides come in.
We're not talking quick fixesor miracle shots.
These are science-backed toolsthat can help support metabolic
health, longevity, and bodycomposition when paired with the
right nutrition, training, andrecovery.
As someone who helped launchthe first GLP1 therapy years
ago, I've seen firsthand howpowerful these pathways can be
(14:58):
when used responsibly, butlifestyle will always be the
foundation.
If you've been curious aboutGLP1s or other peptides that
target inflammation, energy, ormuscle preservation, this might
be the time to explore youroptions.
I'm happy to connect you withmy trusted medical resource so
you can learn more and make aninformed choice.
(15:20):
All right, we are back.
I've been very open about myown osteoporosis diagnosis.
The first thing I did after Iwent through the emotions of, oh
gosh, this is really bad news,you know, being worried, then
(15:42):
I'm going, oh my gosh, what dowhat can I lift?
What can I do without hurtingmyself?
I did go to a PT and go througha whole couple sessions with
her to ensure that I was liftingcorrectly, my form was good,
all of those things.
So highly recommend people dothat.
(16:03):
For women worried about hurtingthemselves, specifically with
osteoporosis.
What are some of those keysafety guidelines to keep in
mind?
And I guess we should also kindof define, you know, if it's
osteoporosis in the lumbar,maybe, you know, negative 2.5,
(16:23):
negative three.
Maybe we're not talkingnegative six.
Maybe it's osteopenia in thehips.
How do you how do you navigatethat?
Megan Dahlman (16:32):
So it is so valuable to understand that it
is a sliding scale.
So it's a gradient, right?
So when you first get thatdiagnosis, that can be very
scary, but it doesn't mean thatyou suddenly went from like
perfectly dense bones, likehealthy 18-year-old woman bones,
all the way to frail95-year-old bones.
(16:52):
Chances are you're probablysomewhere along that spectrum.
And what's beautiful is that wecan, before a certain point,
like once your bone loss hasgotten to a certain point, then
it is very difficult to reversethat level of bone loss.
You're kind of at the pointwhere it's like, let's just
maintain what we've got.
Like, let's make sure that thisdoesn't continue to progress.
(17:13):
And so whenever you get thatdiagnosis, like, yes, that
should be your top mostimportant thing in your mind is
like, whoa, let's make sure thatthis progression of bone loss,
like we stop it in its tracks.
I don't want to lose a singlecell of bone more.
You also can reverse some ofthat bone loss and start to
build it back up with certaintypes of movements.
(17:34):
But some things to keep in mindjust to keep you safe, is when
you start exercising, or let'ssay you haven't been exercising
at all, and maybe that's whatled to the osteoporosis, that's
often not the case.
I know, like in your case,Michelle, you're like, I've been
working out, like I've beentreating.
So it's important that theexercises that you are going to
(17:55):
do, you feel confident in them.
You feel like you have fullcontrol through the full range
of motion.
Because the last thing youwant, if you know, okay, my
bones aren't quite as dense,this means that if I do lose my
balance and fall, I am at agreater risk of having an
unnecessary fracture here.
(18:16):
For some women, depending uponwhere they're at along the
spectrum of the bone density, itcould be very catastrophic.
For many women, if it's acatastrophic fracture, like a
fracture of their femur or afracture in their pelvis, quite
often that is the beginning ofthe end.
And for many women, it is thebeginning of where their health
(18:37):
declines very dramatically andwithin a few years they do pass
away.
And so we just want to makesure that you don't put yourself
in a situation, whether it's ineveryday life or in your
workouts, that you are at riskof falling unnecessarily.
So that's step one.
That's the first thing you needto do with your workouts is
(18:58):
make sure that you feel youalways feel like you're in
complete control.
So if you're working onimproving your balance, which
you should, we now know that youare at greater risk of losing
balance or of hurting somethingif you do fall.
So building balance isimportant.
Also, your coordination isimportant as well.
Make sure that when you'repracticing those, you're in a
(19:19):
situation where you're rightnext to a wall, you're right
next to a couch where you canhold on to something real quick
if you happen to lose controland you don't go down.
So that's important just tokeep you safe in your workouts.
With specific exercises, it'sgenerally recommended to avoid
twisting movements.
(19:40):
Okay, but once again, there'snuance here.
So twisting movements,especially for the spine, a
fragile spine is going to be atgreater risk of spinal fractures
with twisting movements.
Now, there's a big differencebetween doing like rotational
slams with a 15-pound medicineball against a wall where their
(20:01):
spine is rotating fast whileunder load, versus a slow and
controlled rotational reach.
I would argue that the slow andcontrolled rotational reach
that improves the posture ofespecially your thoracic spine
is very beneficial for someonewith osteoporosis, and they
(20:22):
should do that to make sure thattheir posture doesn't slowly
decline as they get older.
So we don't want to have a lotof heavy load with twisting
rotational movements.
Make sure that when you'retwisting, you have full control
and you're going slow and smoothand controlled.
So those are kind of the bigthings that, okay, yeah, I can
do that.
That feels good.
(20:43):
That feels like I can now beconfident in my workouts.
Michele Folan (20:46):
And there are some yoga moves that I know are
kind of contraindicated withsevere osteoporosis, some of the
ones where you would like archyour back, that sort of thing,
right?
Megan Dahlman (20:59):
Yeah, and honestly, there's a lot of moves
in yoga, even for someone witha healthy spine that are
contraindicated as well.
So you just need to understandam I someone who already has a
very healthy spine and healthyjoints?
And I have a knack for beingmore on the flexible side, then
you would probably do reallygreat in yoga.
You might be someone that needsto be a bit more careful with
(21:22):
doing really heavy weightsbecause you're someone who has a
little excess mobility.
Someone who has a little extramobility, who's like always been
a flexible person.
There's probably not as muchstability around your joints,
especially your spinal joints,and they could slip out of
position a little more easily.
(21:43):
So you're not someone thatshould be doing super heavy back
squats or super heavydeadlifts.
Doing some weight training isvery important for you to build
up some of that joint stability.
But there's also some peoplethat really have a knack for
doing really heavy back squatsor heavy deadlifts, those types
(22:04):
of, they're just a reallystrong, stable person.
They might not do great with ayoga type of movement.
So there's nuance in all of it.
So you can't say yoga is greatfor everybody or yoga, nobody
should do yoga.
Same with like heavy lifting.
I wish there was like acrossthe board, but it's really where
(22:25):
is your body at and and what isgoing to feel good and be
productive when you're actuallyexercising.
I just thought of something.
You know, pickleball has gottenvery, very popular.
Very bad.
Have you played?
Uh, just randomly.
I want to.
It's so fun looking, but um,I'm I'm I can't say that I'm a
(22:47):
pickleballer.
Michele Folan (22:48):
Yeah.
No, no, and I I'm definitelynot.
I've I've only played once, butbut I'm watching a lot of women
my age pick it up for the firsttime.
And they're not maybe previoustennis players, right?
We are really challenging ourmuscles and joints in to move in
(23:08):
a whole different way.
Yeah.
Talk about that a little bitwhen we start something so brand
new like that.
Megan Dahlman (23:15):
Yes.
So with pickleball, especially,and we can use that as a good
example, it's a sport whereyou're not focusing on your body
movements.
You're focusing on the ball,you're focusing on hitting the
ball in the right spot.
So you have to trust that asyou move across the court, your
body is going to do the rightthings.
And the only way that you cantrust that your body's gonna do
(23:37):
the right things, meaning yourankle is going to be stable when
you cut and push it out to theside and move back the other
direction real quick.
Or trust that your knee is notgonna buckle when you run
forward towards the net andpause real quick, or trust that
your spine is gonna hold outwhen you're doing this really
strong, hard, fast hit from theback of the court.
(23:59):
The only way that you can trustthat you know your body's gonna
just do the right things is tobe following a really good
training program separately.
So making sure that you aresupporting your pickleball or
golf or tennis or whatever theactivity, whatever the sport is,
(24:20):
you always wanna be supportingit with good quality, full range
of motion, full movementtraining and mobility
separately.
So I do not recommend someonewho's a woman in her 50s or 60s
who's been completely sedentaryto suddenly go pick up
pickleball.
That's a recipe for an ankleinjury, knee injury, back
(24:42):
injury, shoulder injury.
Um, suddenly, you know, yourshoulder, as we know as women in
midlife, are the shoulder isreally susceptible to high
levels of inflammation.
And usually it's an injury thattriggers something like frozen
shoulder.
So we have to train smart.
(25:03):
We we no longer can afford justpicking up a brand new sport
and going and doing it.
We have to be smart about theway that we move our body.
Michele Folan (25:13):
Yeah.
And I've seen some nastyinjuries.
So I I don't discourage anyonefrom playing.
I mean, I think it's great.
It's great movement, it'swonderful exercise.
But I was I was at a friend'shouse last week and one of the
women said, Well, I play gentlepickleball.
I said, Well, define gentlepickleball.
Gentle is Carla.
(25:34):
And she said, We don't we don'tdo any backward like pedaling,
right?
If a ball goes out, it goesout.
And because that's where a lotof people are getting hurt.
They're they're blowing out theAchilles, you know, going back
for these balls, or they'retripping and falling backwards
and and doing back injury.
So anyway, I just I had I justhad to bring that up after last
(25:58):
week's conversation.
Megan Dahlman (26:00):
Yeah, and you know, like all of that can be
trained.
Like that's okay.
Like maybe not do that yet andsay, okay, I I know my physical
limitations right at this atthis moment, but what what else
can I do to supplement to makesure that eventually, you know,
a few months from now, I can bemore aggressive with pickleball.
(26:20):
And I don't have to worry thatI'm gonna hurt my Achilles.
Like, let's make sure that I doall the mobility and the
strengthening work, I work on mycoordination, you know, do some
more of these athletic type ofagility drills in a controlled
environment where I'm notfocusing on a ball.
Yeah.
So I'm really focusing on myfeet and my foot, you know, the
(26:42):
foot quickness and I work on thebackpedaling and I practice it
again and again and again sothat when you're on the court in
a play setting, your body hasthe muscle memory to do it
properly.
And then how much, how fun isthat?
You know, so like you don'thave to worry about your body
and you can play a little bitmore aggressively and you feel
(27:03):
really strong and powerful too.
Michele Folan (27:05):
Well, and I think what you're also saying is that
there's the brain-muscleconnection.
And we're not just training ourbodies, we're training our
brains.
Megan Dahlman (27:15):
Yes, that is a huge, huge piece of training.
And I think that's what getsoverlooked a lot.
Um, you know, going back togetting started with a training
program, a lot of it is trainingyour brain to tell your muscles
how to activate properly andwhich ones and at what pace and
(27:38):
at what intensity.
Um that's coordination.
So it's you know how difficultit is when you first start
trying to like rub your bellyand pat your head.
Like you feel ridiculous, butif you continue to practice it,
now your brain has the abilityto send totally opposite signals
(27:59):
to different body parts.
At first, it's hard.
And so you don't want to besomeone that's like, oh, I can't
do it right now, so I guessI'll never be able to rub my
belly and pat my head at thesame time.
It's like, no, it's somethingthat you can keep practicing.
It's like juggling.
So all of those things are, itcan all be taught, but you have
(28:21):
to respect the progression andrespect, like, okay, if I'm
someone who can't juggle yet, Idon't have the coordination or
the brain and the musclecommunication to juggle.
I'm not gonna try juggling withfiery wands, you know, that
would be foolish.
I'm gonna start with like twolightweight tennis balls and
(28:43):
then build up from there.
And that would be wise trainingto be able to do that.
So the same thing exists whenit comes to strength training
and training our bodies.
Michele Folan (28:53):
You brought up something a little bit earlier,
and I I forgot to tie it inthere with the osteoporosis, but
I want to go back to thejumping or the impact.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we talk about this allthe time on Instagram with the
bashing of bones and that sortof thing.
Define what bashing of bonesmeans and how we're gonna do
(29:16):
this safely.
Megan Dahlman (29:17):
So we know that applying some impact to the
bones, so jumping is a form ofimpact, and you can do that with
like running or plyometricstyle training, something like
pickleball has some impact.
We know that applying thatimpact to your bones does
(29:39):
stimulate your bone cells torecreate more.
So it does cause some more bonecell deposits.
We know that.
It's well researched and it'sreally good for your bones to
have some of that impact.
What's cool though is that'snot the only way that your bones
can get stronger.
So So with jumping andpounding, it's not just your
(30:05):
body's not just an emptyskeleton.
Yeah.
We have we have muscles, wehave tendons, we have ligaments,
we have fascia.
So we have all of theseconnective tissues that are also
undergoing the impact.
And the older we get and theless estrogen we have in our
(30:25):
system, the more susceptible weare to inflammation in these
connective tissues.
And so if we aggravate thoseconnective tissues, like your
plantar fascia, let's say youjust start a jump training
program, every time you bounceyour planner fascia, the fascia
on the bottom of your foot, allthe way up through your ankle
(30:48):
into your Achilles.
That Achilles is a giantconnective piece of tissue.
All of that is undergoing thesame amount of stress and load
that your bones are.
And so if those aren't strongenough to handle it, we suddenly
developed plantar fasci.
So we traded out, you know,maybe a healthy plantar fascia
(31:08):
for maybe stronger bones, butlike for for what?
Now you can't walk, right?
So it's like at what cost?
So the cool thing is that wecan build strong bones too,
without having to jump.
And I actually prefer itbecause with strength training,
we don't run the risk of thosesoft tissue injuries.
(31:29):
And when you strength trainthrough full ranges of motion,
everywhere that your muscles areconnected to your bones, they
don't connect in like one tinyspot.
They connect along like a wholelike line and at different
angles and they pull against thebone in different angles.
So now we're creating load onthe bone in all of these
(31:52):
different angles along the fulllength of the bone, not just
vertically up and down fromjumping.
And so we get to stimulatethose bones in a more
three-dimensional way with agood strength training program.
Yeah.
Michele Folan (32:07):
I, you know, I I love the fact that there are
options here because yeah, and II do some jumping, but I didn't
just like just start jumping.
Yeah, I I mean, I've done a lotof stuff up into that point.
But yeah, I I I like the factthat we don't have to do any one
thing that there's there'soptions there for us to be able
(32:29):
to to build bone at this point.
Do you think we're ignoring thecore here and the importance of
our core?
Megan Dahlman (32:37):
Well, we definitely shouldn't.
The core is huge.
I mean, it's rightfully named.
The core is where everythingstems from.
So everything we've beentalking about, it makes me think
of like legs, maybe shoulders,a little bit too.
But to be honest and veryfrank, it doesn't matter how
(33:00):
strong your ankles are if yourcore is weak.
Um, it doesn't matter howstrong your wrist is or how
strong your shoulder is if yourcore is weak.
A lot of extremity problems, soa lot of problems in the arms
and the legs, all the way downto the feet and the ankles, they
really start and stem from acore that's not functioning
(33:22):
properly.
Because if your if your pelvisis wobbly every time you step,
if your spine is wobbly everytime you step, if you don't have
a really strong, stable core,then everything out from there
has to work a way it was neverdesigned to work.
And so it good core trainingshould be the core of your
(33:47):
program.
Like every time you show up towork out, you should be training
your core somehow.
Michele Folan (33:52):
Yeah.
And I brought this up becausethese conversations always go
into leg strength and shouldersand arms and muscle, but I just
feel like the core kind of getsignored.
Yeah.
And it's it is super important.
You you have to have a good,healthy core if you want to get
up off the floor.
Megan Dahlman (34:14):
Yeah.
And we and maybe it's becauselike as we get older, we kind of
shut the door on ever havingsix pack, you know.
Really?
I think we're like probably notin the cards.
And so we forget about itaesthetically too.
(34:34):
And it's it's really fun tostart to see shoulder muscles
and shoulder definition.
It's really fun to see calf andquad definition.
And so I think a piece of us isstill driven a little bit by
our own aesthetics, and that'smotivating.
You know, it's motivating tosee your muscles start to
appear.
And you, you know, coremuscles, they just aren't that
(34:55):
pretty.
Like it's just not somethingthat you see a lot to be like,
oh wow, she's got really stronglumbar spinae muscles, like her
spinae vectors are reallystrong.
Michele Folan (35:06):
Like, look at her transverse abdominis.
That's not usually something webrag about.
You should see my lumbarmuscles.
They're they're so hot.
Megan Dahlman (35:17):
Yeah, and I think even as we get older, we still
get guilty of prioritizingmuscles that we see.
And at the expense ofoverlooking ones that are the
most important.
So your pelvic floor is part ofyour core.
We know that's very, veryimportant for all sorts of
(35:38):
functions.
Your diaphragm, it's the top ofyour core.
That's really important.
Then all of the muscles thatwrap in and connect directly to
your to your spine.
If you have spinal osteoporosisor even osteoporosis in your
pelvis, doing core training on aregular basis is the very best
thing you can do.
Very, like, put everything elseaside and prioritize a strong,
(36:03):
stable core, and it's going tochange your life.
Michele Folan (36:06):
Yeah, this is such great advice.
I want to talk about everydayergonomics.
Oh, yeah.
And the the reason why I wantto talk about this.
So I've worked for some bigmajor corporations where we
would have to take these testsand courses on ergonomics,
whether it's how you hold thesteering wheel of the company
(36:28):
car to the placement of yourmouse on your desk, the height
of your chair, right?
Right.
But I think this getsoverlooked quite a bit, kind of
like the core, gets overlooked abit in terms of how our daily
habits are affecting how wefeel, like knee pain, shoulder
(36:49):
pain, back pain, neck pain.
We call it, remember, we callit tech neck when we when we
spoke the first time.
Yes.
How do we make people a littlebit more aware of just how
they're behaving day to day andhow that can affect their
outcomes?
Megan Dahlman (37:06):
Bottom line is that a joint or a muscle that
doesn't move, it's going tostart losing its function and it
will start to hurt.
So I don't care how perfectyour ergonomic setup is, if you
have a chair that is at theexact proper height, if your
elbows are hanging at theperfect position, if you're, if
your computer monitor is at theexact same height or at the
(37:28):
right height for like zerotechnic, whatever, if you're
not, if you're staying in onespot for longer than a few
minutes, like those joints andmuscles, they'll they'll
eventually hurt anyway.
So the more important thingwhen we think about daily
ergonomics, think about more of,yes, if you are going to be in
(37:51):
a position for a little while,like let's say you're driving in
the car for a while, or you dohave to sit at your desk for a
while, let's optimize that.
But make sure that you aremoving as often as you possibly
can.
So, like here in my office, Ihave a high-low desk.
So I have a really cool likeuplift desk that goes up, it
goes down.
(38:12):
I have a chair, like this wholetime we've been talking, I've
been like moving aroundconstantly.
So getting up, not staying inone position for very long is
probably the most importantthing that you could do for the
health of your overall body.
It's gonna keep you mobile fora long time.
I think it's a danger that weencounter as we age is that we
(38:32):
just stop being quite so activein our daily life and we start
to look for chairs everywhere wego.
We start to look for theclosest parking spots in the
parking lot.
Yeah.
The elevator.
And we just start to look forall these ways that we can move
a little less, and it it justcompounds.
So it's like the less we move,the more it hurts to move.
(38:54):
So we start to lose, move alittle bit less and less and
less and less.
And pretty soon we're we'reconfined to a wheelchair.
And so improving your mobilityabout around the day or
throughout the day is not aboutergonomics, it's about moving
throughout the day.
That's the most important thingyou can possibly do.
Michele Folan (39:12):
I call them exercise snacks.
Yes.
Yeah, you know, put a set youryour phone, you know, to your
alarm clock on your phone to gooff every hour so that you get
up, because we all can get soentrenched in what we're doing.
And do do 10 squats, go to thebathroom, take the long way
(39:34):
back, go take some stairs,whatever it is, but just get up
and move because your jointswill feel better.
Yeah.
Megan Dahlman (39:44):
I have a bunch of like really simple little
masterclasses.
Um, they're totally free.
They're like a balancemasterclass, a posture
masterclass, a hip flexorstretching masterclass.
So each of those come with likefive different exercises that
you can do.
Like, pick one, pick one oflike a balance exercise and get
up and just do it at one randommoment throughout the day.
(40:04):
Pick one of the postureexercises.
I love like diagonal armswings.
They feel so good.
You could just get up and juststretch your shoulders out at
one moment of the day or a hipflexor stretch, like these
little movements.
Sometimes we just don't knowwhat to do.
Like, yeah, I want to move, butI don't know what to do.
Right.
And so having some directioncan be really helpful and
(40:26):
motivating to say, yeah, I wantto do the exercise snacks, and
now I know, like, okay, I'mgonna do this posture stretch,
and the next time I'm gonna dothis one, and then I'm gonna do
this balance move.
And so you've got you get thatvariety and something to
actually do.
But yeah, I love the idea ofexercise snacks.
Michele Folan (40:42):
One other little tip that I this was
self-discovery kind of thing,but I'm short.
And a lot of times I don't havethe opportunity to sit in
chairs where my feet are flat onthe floor floor.
And what I was noticing, I wasgetting some knee pain.
And like I sit at our barstools around the kitchen
(41:04):
island, and my knees are at aweird angle.
Uh, but now, like right now, asyou and I speak, I've got my
feet up on a like an eight,nine-inch stool that keeps my
knees more aligned and keeps myknees from hanging because I'm
short.
But uh but but paying attentionto cues.
Megan Dahlman (41:28):
Yes.
Michele Folan (41:29):
Why do my knees hurt?
What did I do today?
You can do the same thing withshoulders.
Oh, well, my neck hurts becauseI I was on my cell phone all
day today, scrolling onInstagram.
But start thinking about yourdaily activities and how that
may be contributing to some ofyour aches.
Megan Dahlman (41:48):
100%.
Yeah, it's connecting the dotsand noticing, like, oh, I'm not
just getting older.
I think we just say it's easyto say that excuse and be like,
oh man, it's just getting older.
It's like, no, you've beensitting in a weird position all
day long, or you've been lookingdown at your phone all day
long.
No wonder your body is crankyabout that.
(42:08):
So yeah, I love that tip ofjust paying attention to what
your body is in throughout theday, how are your hips?
The big joints that I like tohighlight, and the ones that
actually lose the most mobilityas we age, um, are your ankles,
your knees, your hips, and yourshoulders.
So those four big joints losemobility the most.
(42:32):
So ankles, knees, hips, andshoulders.
So if every day you just didsomething to move your ankles a
lot, did something to move yourknees, like do full deep knee
bends up and down, do that'sgonna get your hips too.
So, or do some hip circles, dosome shoulder circles, move your
shoulders through their fullranges of motion.
That is going to help keep youso mobile.
(42:54):
This is where a lot of womenwill get kind of stuck if all
they have is like a walkingprogram.
Walking is excellent fitness,but unfortunately, it doesn't
move these big joints throughtheir largest, fullest ranges of
motion.
So you start to feel likeyou're losing your mobility a
little bit as you get older.
Michele Folan (43:13):
Yeah.
Megan Dahlman (43:14):
So I just want to highlight like those are the
big joints that we need to keepmoving.
So if you need to startsomewhere, like think about
those ones.
Michele Folan (43:23):
And the beauty of this, Megan, and your advice is
always so wonderful.
Even if you work in an office,you can move these joints.
Yes.
Right?
I mean, it's just not, it's notjust for those of us that are
working from home.
You can do this anywhere.
Megan Dahlman (43:39):
Yeah.
And even if you've already losta lot of mobility, that's okay
too.
Start where you're at.
You know, it's kind of what wewere talking about in the
beginning.
It's like, well, what can youdo?
Let's say, you know, I justmentioned a minute ago, like do
a full deep knee bend, like afull squat all the way down and
up.
Someone probably listened tothat and said, Well, I can't, I
can't do that.
I can't, I can't go all the waydown.
It's like, well, well, can yougo halfway down?
(44:00):
Can we do like a littleperching squat, like almost
pretending like you're sittinginto a bar stool and then
standing back up?
If that's what you've got,let's do that.
Let's optimize that, make surethat we maintain that amount of
mobility.
And then over time, as yourmuscles get stronger, those
joints start to lubricatebetter, you're gonna realize,
like, wait a second, I'm nowgoing a little deeper than I was
(44:21):
before.
And it's just gonna continueand continue and continue.
And so don't rule anything outbecause you don't, your, your
body's not done.
Like it's it's not doneimproving, you know, it's not
all downhill from here.
We can go uphill, you know,like in a good way.
Michele Folan (44:36):
We can improve no matter how old you are.
Amen.
I love that.
Yeah, speaking of which, who isthe oldest client you've ever
coached and what was her story?
Megan Dahlman (44:47):
Oh, you know, 80s, definitely.
I've worked with so many womenin their early 80s, and someone
comes to my mind.
Um, I have a woman right now inher early 80s, and she'd never
strength trained before.
It was totally new.
She'd done a little bit ofgolfing, a little bit of tennis
in the past.
Um, but she just was never whatshe would call like an athlete.
(45:11):
Like it just wasn't even partof the the culture then.
And most of the women she knewgrowing up, growing up, like you
just didn't move very much.
That's what the men did.
They were the athletes.
And so what I love about her isthat she has a growth attitude.
It's the the health of her bodyis really stemming from the
(45:31):
attitude that she has, where shehas a really coachable spirit,
and she's coming to the tablewith like, I don't feel good, I
don't know what to do.
So just tell me and I'll I'lldo it.
And I'm willing to try.
And so having that attituderather than the attitude of
like, I can't do that.
(45:52):
Uh-uh, I can't do that.
I can't, like, it's hard to getanywhere with someone who has
an attitude of I can't.
Right.
And so she has such a beautifulattitude of like, I'm willing
to try.
And I'm, and she's encountereda few movements along the way
that she she just can't do rightnow.
And that's okay.
And we work on somemodifications, but where she is
(46:15):
now physically compared to whereshe was even just six months
ago, it's night and day.
Like even her entire family,her her children who are in
their like 60s are thanking me.
They're like, you've given herher life back.
Like she's able to now be apart of our family activities in
more ways than than she wasable to before.
Michele Folan (46:36):
Oh, I'm sure it shows up in how she presents
herself, how she walks.
I mean, I'm sure her gait hasimproved, her posture.
I mean, all these things thatthey're they're not to be
overlooked.
Megan Dahlman (46:47):
Yeah.
And what's so fun, and what Ilove to tell every woman that I
coach is like, you don't trainto be good at training.
Like you don't work out to besomeone who's really good at
working out.
You work out, you train yourbody so that you can experience
it in the wild.
You know, like I know you andI, Michelle, we both went to
(47:08):
Italy this last time.
So yeah.
Like the Italy is not a flatcountry.
No, like you go to these smallhill town, like you're climbing
upstairs, you're you're walkingon cobblestones, and it's
beautiful and the eventadventures there.
And I know you got to visitsome other countries too.
And like that is your strengthin the wild.
(47:30):
Like everything that you do inyour workout is so that you can
go out and do all of thoseadventures for as long as you
possibly can.
Whatever is whatever's thething on your bucket list, you
still are able to do, and yourbody is not going to prevent you
from doing that.
That is the purpose of workingout.
You're not working out to be aprofessional worker out.
(47:52):
It's working out so that youcan experience your body in the
world.
Because that would be a reallyshitty job.
Michele Folan (48:01):
Sorry.
Not in my job, yeah, but butyou help other people
differently.
Megan Dahlman (48:07):
Yeah, it's it's not not everybody needs to have
this as their passion either.
And that's okay.
Like you just need to do thethe bare necessities to make
sure that your body is nevergetting in the way of anything
you want to be able to do.
Michele Folan (48:27):
You know, when you said that, it made me think
of that trip I took with mydaughter because, oh my God, I I
want to be able to do that 10years from now.
And I still want my daughter tosay, oh my God, you kicked my
ass on that hill.
And and I felt so good afterthat trip, knowing that I never
(48:52):
held her up, right?
She was the one kind of laggingbehind a little bit at times.
And and you know, that felt itwas very um self-affirming, I
guess, that all this hard workthat I've been putting in for
years is is paying off.
And I want that for the women Iwork with.
(49:14):
I know you want that for thewomen you work with.
And we we talk, we we talkabout, you know, staying out of
the nursing home, being able toget off the toilet, all those
things, but those are just base,those are the basics.
Megan Dahlman (49:29):
Basics.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I want to experience life aslong as I can, you know, as long
as I have the blessing to wakeup every day and see the sunrise
and have the opportunity tospend moments with my kids.
Like, I want to do what I needto do for my body to ensure that
I can do those things for aslong as possible.
(49:51):
I mean, you talking about beingable to travel with your
daughter, it brings tears to myeyes.
Like, like it's that's thebigger why.
And that's something I alwaysask any anyone who ever comes
into my programs, it's like,what is your why?
We we rarely stop to actuallythink about why this is
important.
And the moment you can connectthose dots of like, why am I
(50:12):
even here?
Why am I even doing this?
It's like, oh, so that nextyear I can go back to Italy with
my daughter and I can stillkick her butt going up those
hills so that the year afterthat I can do it again.
And so when you get reallyclear on why this even matters
to you, why is this valuablelike and how does it impact you
and your family and yourrelationships, like suddenly it
(50:34):
all comes into focus and itgives you motivation and it
makes it so much bigger thanjust like seeing your shoulder
muscle.
Yeah, like that's fun too.
But like it it reallyhighlights the value of what it
is and and why we're doing whatwe're doing every day.
Yep, for sure.
Michele Folan (50:56):
And so talking about clients, yeah, how do you
work with clients?
You I know you have a coupleprograms, correct?
Megan Dahlman (51:05):
Yes, and actually for many years I did one-on-one
coaching with women and I Itrained them in person and then
started training them online,and now um there's so many.
And so over the years I'veshifted so that all of my
coaching is available onlinethrough courses that anybody can
(51:25):
take at any moment in time.
So we have clients all over allover the world.
So I have a handful of membersin the UK and in New Zealand and
in India and South Africa.
So, what's beautiful about thepower of the internet is that
you can have access to goodquality coaching, smart training
(51:46):
from the comfort of your ownhome, no matter where you live.
So, all of my courses areavailable online and they're all
full follow-along videos, justplug and play.
You don't have to overthink it.
It's like, I know it's it canfeel so overwhelming just to get
started.
And my goal from day one withcreating these programs was to
(52:07):
completely remove that feelingof being overwhelmed so that you
can't get to that point whereyou're climbing those hills in
Italy with your daughter.
Michele Folan (52:15):
And and maybe going to the gym, you know.
Yeah, I do see some women thatare older than I at the gym, and
it always just makes me sohappy.
Like, I'll go up to them, like,how old are you?
I just I love that you're here,right?
And it it's so, but I know ittakes it takes some courage to
get there, and um, and maybeworking with a coach like you,
(52:38):
Megan, that can build thatconfidence as they go.
Yeah, yeah.
A personal question, and I Imight be able to answer this
one, but what is one of yournon-negotiable self-care
practices?
Megan Dahlman (52:52):
Oh, yeah.
Well, on topic, definitely,it's just to move every day
somehow.
And you know, the last coupledays, this is a crazy week.
We're recording right now inthe beginning of September.
My kids just went to school.
I've got a high schooler thisyear for the first time and a
middle schooler, and and there'sjust been a lot of busyness.
(53:13):
And Monday, Tuesday, I didn'thave the time to do a real deal
workout.
But that didn't matter.
I still went for a walk.
I still did a couple stretches.
And so it it's connecting thedots between I just feel better
when I move and knowing that Ifeel so much better when I move,
it motivates me to just movesomehow every day, even if it's
(53:36):
just a little exercise snack.
Even if it's just one of those,it's still important to do.
How wonderful if I do get afull workout in, it does feel
really good.
I was able to get one in thismorning, but it doesn't happen
every time.
And that's okay too.
So I just try to move somehowevery day.
Michele Folan (53:54):
If you could put one billboard up for every woman
over 50 to read about fitness,what would it say?
Megan Dahlman (54:03):
It would say it's never too late to be strong.
unknown (54:07):
Yes.
Megan Dahlman (54:09):
Yes.
And it it brings tears to myeyes when I say that, but like
it's so true.
And don't write off thepossibility of you being a
really strong woman, evenphysically.
And it's never too late to bestrong.
Michele Folan (54:30):
Ooh, this was such a great way to wrap this
up.
So where can people find you,Megan Dolman?
Megan Dahlman (54:38):
Come find me over on Instagram.
Just search my name.
It's just at Megan Dalman.
I'm posting four or five videosthere every single day of
simple little exercise snacksthat you can do to just get you
rolling.
That's the best way to justcome say hi.
If you're not on Instagram, youcan find me on my website, just
Vigaofit.com.
Michele Folan (54:58):
All right, I will put all that in the show notes.
Megan Dalman, I knew this wasgonna be a robust conversation.
It's great to have you back.
Thank you so much, Michelle.
I enjoyed it every minute.
Thank you for listening.
Please rate and review thepodcast where you listen.
And if you'd like to join theAsking for a Friend community,
click on the link in the shownotes to sign up for my weekly
(55:20):
newsletter where I share midlifewellness and fitness tips,
insights, my favorite finds, andrecipes.
The holidays are coming fast, and if you're not
careful, it's easy to loseyourself in the shuffle.
So this year, what if you didthe opposite?
What if you built a healthyfoundation before the chaos
hits?
I'm Michele Folan and my 21-daymetabolism reset is designed to
help you do exactly that.
We'll tackle sugar cravings,dial in your nutrition, and get
(00:22):
you moving in a way that fitsyour life.
Beginner, I've got you.
More advanced, there's plentyto challenge you to.
This is your chance to holdspace for you to reset,
recharge, and finish the yearfeeling strong, not stressed.
Join me now.
The link is in the show notes.
Let's build momentum together.
(00:43):
Health, wellness, fitness, andeverything in between.
We're removing the taboo fromwhat really matters in midlife.
I'm your host, Michele Folan,and this is Asking for a Friend.
Starting an exercise program inyour 50s, 60s, or beyond can
(01:08):
feel overwhelming, especially ifyou're dealing with arthritis,
osteoporosis, hip or knee pain,or if you've never picked up a
weight before.
Where do you even begin and howdo you know what's safe?
That's exactly what we'redigging into today with strength
coach Megan Dahlman.
Megan is passionate abouthelping women build strength the
(01:30):
right way with proper form,smart progressions, and
strategies that keep you mobileand confident for decades to
come.
She's here to cut through theconfusion, calm the fear of
injury, and show you how to moveyour body so you can stay
strong, active, and out of thenursing home well into your 80s.
This isn't about chasing skinnyor trying to look 30 again.
(01:53):
It's about creating the bodythat will carry you powerfully
into the second half of life.
Megan Dahlman, welcome back toAsking for a Friend.
Thank you so much for having meback, Michele.
I'm so excited to be back.
Well, I am excited to have thisconversation.
We were together on episode 93.
(02:15):
Yeah.
We're into the 170s now.
So that gives you an idea ofhow long it's been since we've
connected.
But Megan, I see some of thesame things that you're seeing
out there.
And primarily when it comes tomidlife women, we're being told
to lift heavy, lift heavy.
And there are some veryprominent voices out there that
(02:39):
are saying this, but they're notnecessarily talking about the
how.
Megan Dahlman (02:44):
Yeah.
So I'm super excited to havethis conversation today because
there tends to be a chasmbetween guidance and
recommendations, especially whatwe're hearing from doctors and
from the research.
But how does that show up inyour everyday life?
Like when you walk into yourworkout space, or maybe you've
(03:04):
never done any strength trainingor anything, and you're like,
how do I implement and put intopractice all of this really
important information thatpeople are telling me I need to
do?
And that's where a coach and aproper trainer can come in and
fill that gap and tell you andcoach you through how to
(03:25):
implement safely with nuance therecommendations and guidelines
that are being told.
And so hopefully we can clearup a lot of that today in our
conversation.
And you've been coaching womenfor years.
How long has it been now?
I started coaching women in2006.
So we're coming up on year 20right now.
(03:46):
So professionally as a strengthand conditioning specialist.
And I started with traininghigh-level athletes right out of
college.
That's what I wanted to do witha degree in exercise science.
I thought, you know, the fun,flashy, exciting thing is to
train high-level athletes and,you know, fast forward to where
(04:06):
we are now, where my career isnow, it's it's training women in
midlife.
And I love to take midlife andbeyond, truly, because a lot of
the women I coach are in their70s or 80s, even.
And so it's training the, it'staking the knowledge that you
have of how does a highfunctioning body operate?
(04:27):
What do we know is needed for abody to operate really well at
its best, to not have anylimitations?
And how can we apply that tothe everyday woman who, you
know, wants to be able to pickup her grandkids no problem, who
wants to have energy as shegoes about the day, who wants to
be able to climb down on thefloor and get back up again well
(04:49):
into her 90s?
What does that look like in hereveryday workout program?
And how can we do that in avery approachable way?
Michele Folan (04:56):
What myths about midlife fitness drive you the
craziest?
Megan Dahlman (05:03):
Oh boy.
I like this question.
You know, there are so manymyths out there, but but really
most of them are rooted in somebit of truth, you know.
So we have the recommendationsto lift heavy, to, to jump every
day, or the bone bashing myth.
That's the one that bothers mea little bit because it just
feels so negative.
(05:23):
Or wear a weighted vest toprevent osteoporosis, or, you
know, even something likeintermittent fasting.
So there's an element of truthin all of it.
That's where it kind of startsfrom.
It's someone reads a study orsomeone creates this
recommendation.
But where these recommendationsgo wrong is typically the
extreme nature of them or thelack of nuance.
(05:44):
You know, yes, lifting healthy,lifting heavy is very helpful
for building muscle and bonestrength.
But that doesn't mean we gofrom nothing straight into being
like an Olympic power lifter.
That's not what that shouldlook like.
So, really, the myths thatdrive me the most crazy are the
extreme nature of takingsomething that is real and and
(06:08):
has some truth to it, but thengoing to the extreme with it.
Yeah.
That's what's the mostbothersome.
Michele Folan (06:15):
Yeah, but you know, that gets, that's what
gets clicks, right?
It's the having this um, it'sthis black or white type of
mentality when it comes tofitness.
You have to do this, you haveto do this.
Well, that's great to getfollowers and for people to, you
know, click through your yourpost or whatever, but it's not
(06:38):
really being fair.
Right.
And let's let's talk aboutMegan.
If someone is coming to you andthey have arthritis, they have
knee replacements, uh, thatthere's limited mobility.
How do you first of all reframewhat fitness even looks like?
Megan Dahlman (06:57):
So we have to start by looking through the
lens of what we know are thehealthiest and most important
aspects of fitness for a woman'sbody as she ages.
So understanding, like, okay,yes, muscular strength, very
important, cardiovascularfitness, very important.
But we don't stop there.
(07:18):
Balance, very important too,flexibility or mobility, very
important, coordination, power,all of these aspects are really
important.
So we have to look through thatlens and then say, okay, cool.
What can you do now?
So of all of those things, youknow, of the muscular strength,
(07:40):
cardiovascular stamina, thebalance, the mobility, you might
not be doing six months fromnow what you can do today.
What you can do today mightlook very different than what
that evolves into six or 12months from now.
So, what can you do today thatstarts to move you in that
direction?
(08:00):
I work with a lot of women, andI hear a lot from a lot of
women in on social media too.
I'll I'll show an exercisedemonstration.
And unfortunately, a lot ofwomen will say, Well, I have
arthritis or I have a kneereplacement, so I can't do that.
What else do you got?
It's like, well, you might notbe able to do that yet.
So let's expand, and that mightbe the challenge to everyone
(08:24):
listening is like, let's notrule anything out yet.
Let's say, okay, with throughthe lens of I know what is going
to create the healthiest bodyfor myself.
What can I do today?
And start there and just seewhere that goes.
I've worked with so many womenwith knee replacements that are
like, yeah, I can climb down onmy hands and knees, no problem.
(08:46):
I can I can do things with mynew knees.
That's the point, right?
You get new knees.
Yeah.
I can do so many more thingswith my new knees than I could
ever do before.
My life has grown and expandedrather than become more limited.
And that's the idea.
Yeah.
Michele Folan (09:03):
You know, and I've had my knee issues.
And I will say the more musclethat I have built around my
knees, my thighs, a lot of thatpain has dissipated.
So I think we sometimes have tokind of get over some of that
initial.
(09:24):
Am I gonna make it worse beforeit feels better?
But it's really aboutsupporting the joints, right?
Megan Dahlman (09:32):
The joints are very complicated.
So, especially the knee jointin particular.
Knee joint is a verycomplicated joint.
There's a lot of articulatingsurfaces, the hip joint is very
complicated.
Your spinal joints arecompletely different.
Those are not hinge or ball andsocket joints.
Those are very different.
So pretty much all the jointsin your body operate slightly
(09:54):
differently, but they all havebone surface and they all have
cartilage that covers that bonesurface to help create good
articulation.
But as you age, often,especially with poor alignment,
maybe you've always had slightlyknocked knees, or you've always
had knees that were a littlebowed.
Over time, that's going tocreate some like undue wear and
(10:17):
tear, and perhaps that cartilagestarts to wear away.
Some women might say, Yeah,I've got bone on bone now.
But what's cool is that there'sso many other things, there's
so many other ingredients towhat supports that knee and
makes it healthy.
The ligaments, the tendons thatare connecting your muscles to
the bones, the synovial fluid inthe joint.
(10:40):
I know the last time we had aconversation, we talked a lot
about that synovial fluid, whichis so interesting.
It's basically like oil, it'slike greasing uh like a hinge
joint.
You can put some grease in it,and it just is gonna articulate
so much better.
So as you get healthier, sure,we might not be able to replace
(11:01):
some of the cartilage you mayhave lost, and that's part of
the aging process, very normal.
But the more muscle you have,the healthier your synovial
fluid, the better the all ofthose connective tissues around
the joint, we can make your kneeor hip or whatever the joint
is, we can make it start movingand articulating without pain
(11:22):
and with so much more strengthand stability.
So something that might havelimited you a year ago, it might
not even be an issue anymore.
Michele Folan (11:29):
Yeah.
And I know a lot of women rightnow are loving hearing this
because we let some of thoseaches and pains really hold us
back.
And let's let's talk about that50 plus woman who hasn't lifted
a dumbbell ever.
She's brand new to working out,but she's she's heard loud and
clear that she needs to startbuilding some muscle in order to
(11:51):
protect her mobility as shegets older.
What is step one for her?
Megan Dahlman (11:56):
Step one is understanding that not all
exercises are the same.
So you sure we could put adumbbell in your hand and just
do some bicep curls or simplearm movements or some basic,
basic movements.
But what you really need ismovements that mimic the type of
(12:17):
motions you need to encounterin everyday life.
So something like a squat or asplit squat, you know, that's
going to impact your ability tobe mobile for many years, your
ability to easily climb down onthe floor and get back up again.
That simple action, so manywomen struggle with just
(12:37):
climbing down on the floor andgetting back up again.
And so step one with buildingstrength for someone who's never
lifted a dumbbell in her life.
We do not need to go straightto dumbbells.
In fact, I don't recommend it.
Step one is making sure thatyou do know how to do basic body
weight only movements first.
(12:58):
Spend some time learning how topush and pull and balance your
own body in those activitiesthat mimic how your body needs
to work in everyday life.
And it's so much easier if youdo that without the distractions
of equipment.
So a squat, let's take a simplesquat.
You have to squat to get in andout of a chair.
(13:18):
You have to squat to get downand up off of a toilet.
That's like in and out of acar.
Like most of those squats are alittle bit offset too.
Like your feet aren't perfectlyparallel.
So we have to do them inslightly like staggered
positions.
So it's so much better to startwith those exercises that's
(13:39):
going to mimic your everydaylife, but don't have any weights
in your hands.
Just start doing a squat.
Start doing staggered squats,progress it to a split squat,
you know, where it kind ofstarts to look like a lunge a
little bit.
Once you feel confident withthe technique, you're like,
yeah, I could do this all day.
Like this feels start, this isstarting to feel pretty easy.
It doesn't hurt any of myjoints.
I feel confident.
(14:00):
I've got full range of motionhere.
Then we can start to put someweight in your hands and start
to load it up a little bit.
But that's where you're goingto notice the direct correlation
to what you need to be strongfor.
Michele Folan (14:13):
Got it.
Now, Megan, we're gonna take aquick break, and when we come
back, I want to talk aboutosteoporosis specifically.
Midlife can feel like you'vehit a metabolic brick wall.
You're doing everything right,eating well, moving daily,
managing stress, and still yourlabs or your energy tell a
(14:35):
different story.
That's where peptides come in.
We're not talking quick fixesor miracle shots.
These are science-backed toolsthat can help support metabolic
health, longevity, and bodycomposition when paired with the
right nutrition, training, andrecovery.
As someone who helped launchthe first GLP1 therapy years
ago, I've seen firsthand howpowerful these pathways can be
(14:58):
when used responsibly, butlifestyle will always be the
foundation.
If you've been curious aboutGLP1s or other peptides that
target inflammation, energy, ormuscle preservation, this might
be the time to explore youroptions.
I'm happy to connect you withmy trusted medical resource so
you can learn more and make aninformed choice.
(15:20):
All right, we are back.
I've been very open about myown osteoporosis diagnosis.
The first thing I did after Iwent through the emotions of, oh
gosh, this is really bad news,you know, being worried, then
(15:42):
I'm going, oh my gosh, what dowhat can I lift?
What can I do without hurtingmyself?
I did go to a PT and go througha whole couple sessions with
her to ensure that I was liftingcorrectly, my form was good,
all of those things.
So highly recommend people dothat.
(16:03):
For women worried about hurtingthemselves, specifically with
osteoporosis.
What are some of those keysafety guidelines to keep in
mind?
And I guess we should also kindof define, you know, if it's
osteoporosis in the lumbar,maybe, you know, negative 2.5,
(16:23):
negative three.
Maybe we're not talkingnegative six.
Maybe it's osteopenia in thehips.
How do you how do you navigatethat?
Megan Dahlman (16:32):
So it is so valuable to understand that it
is a sliding scale.
So it's a gradient, right?
So when you first get thatdiagnosis, that can be very
scary, but it doesn't mean thatyou suddenly went from like
perfectly dense bones, likehealthy 18-year-old woman bones,
all the way to frail95-year-old bones.
(16:52):
Chances are you're probablysomewhere along that spectrum.
And what's beautiful is that wecan, before a certain point,
like once your bone loss hasgotten to a certain point, then
it is very difficult to reversethat level of bone loss.
You're kind of at the pointwhere it's like, let's just
maintain what we've got.
Like, let's make sure that thisdoesn't continue to progress.
(17:13):
And so whenever you get thatdiagnosis, like, yes, that
should be your top mostimportant thing in your mind is
like, whoa, let's make sure thatthis progression of bone loss,
like we stop it in its tracks.
I don't want to lose a singlecell of bone more.
You also can reverse some ofthat bone loss and start to
build it back up with certaintypes of movements.
(17:34):
But some things to keep in mindjust to keep you safe, is when
you start exercising, or let'ssay you haven't been exercising
at all, and maybe that's whatled to the osteoporosis, that's
often not the case.
I know, like in your case,Michelle, you're like, I've been
working out, like I've beentreating.
So it's important that theexercises that you are going to
(17:55):
do, you feel confident in them.
You feel like you have fullcontrol through the full range
of motion.
Because the last thing youwant, if you know, okay, my
bones aren't quite as dense,this means that if I do lose my
balance and fall, I am at agreater risk of having an
unnecessary fracture here.
(18:16):
For some women, depending uponwhere they're at along the
spectrum of the bone density, itcould be very catastrophic.
For many women, if it's acatastrophic fracture, like a
fracture of their femur or afracture in their pelvis, quite
often that is the beginning ofthe end.
And for many women, it is thebeginning of where their health
(18:37):
declines very dramatically andwithin a few years they do pass
away.
And so we just want to makesure that you don't put yourself
in a situation, whether it's ineveryday life or in your
workouts, that you are at riskof falling unnecessarily.
So that's step one.
That's the first thing you needto do with your workouts is
(18:58):
make sure that you feel youalways feel like you're in
complete control.
So if you're working onimproving your balance, which
you should, we now know that youare at greater risk of losing
balance or of hurting somethingif you do fall.
So building balance isimportant.
Also, your coordination isimportant as well.
Make sure that when you'repracticing those, you're in a
(19:19):
situation where you're rightnext to a wall, you're right
next to a couch where you canhold on to something real quick
if you happen to lose controland you don't go down.
So that's important just tokeep you safe in your workouts.
With specific exercises, it'sgenerally recommended to avoid
twisting movements.
(19:40):
Okay, but once again, there'snuance here.
So twisting movements,especially for the spine, a
fragile spine is going to be atgreater risk of spinal fractures
with twisting movements.
Now, there's a big differencebetween doing like rotational
slams with a 15-pound medicineball against a wall where their
(20:01):
spine is rotating fast whileunder load, versus a slow and
controlled rotational reach.
I would argue that the slow andcontrolled rotational reach
that improves the posture ofespecially your thoracic spine
is very beneficial for someonewith osteoporosis, and they
(20:22):
should do that to make sure thattheir posture doesn't slowly
decline as they get older.
So we don't want to have a lotof heavy load with twisting
rotational movements.
Make sure that when you'retwisting, you have full control
and you're going slow and smoothand controlled.
So those are kind of the bigthings that, okay, yeah, I can
do that.
That feels good.
(20:43):
That feels like I can now beconfident in my workouts.
Michele Folan (20:46):
And there are some yoga moves that I know are
kind of contraindicated withsevere osteoporosis, some of the
ones where you would like archyour back, that sort of thing,
right?
Megan Dahlman (20:59):
Yeah, and honestly, there's a lot of moves
in yoga, even for someone witha healthy spine that are
contraindicated as well.
So you just need to understandam I someone who already has a
very healthy spine and healthyjoints?
And I have a knack for beingmore on the flexible side, then
you would probably do reallygreat in yoga.
You might be someone that needsto be a bit more careful with
(21:22):
doing really heavy weightsbecause you're someone who has a
little excess mobility.
Someone who has a little extramobility, who's like always been
a flexible person.
There's probably not as muchstability around your joints,
especially your spinal joints,and they could slip out of
position a little more easily.
(21:43):
So you're not someone thatshould be doing super heavy back
squats or super heavydeadlifts.
Doing some weight training isvery important for you to build
up some of that joint stability.
But there's also some peoplethat really have a knack for
doing really heavy back squatsor heavy deadlifts, those types
(22:04):
of, they're just a reallystrong, stable person.
They might not do great with ayoga type of movement.
So there's nuance in all of it.
So you can't say yoga is greatfor everybody or yoga, nobody
should do yoga.
Same with like heavy lifting.
I wish there was like acrossthe board, but it's really where
(22:25):
is your body at and and what isgoing to feel good and be
productive when you're actuallyexercising.
I just thought of something.
You know, pickleball has gottenvery, very popular.
Very bad.
Have you played?
Uh, just randomly.
I want to.
It's so fun looking, but um,I'm I'm I can't say that I'm a
(22:47):
pickleballer.
Michele Folan (22:48):
Yeah.
No, no, and I I'm definitelynot.
I've I've only played once, butbut I'm watching a lot of women
my age pick it up for the firsttime.
And they're not maybe previoustennis players, right?
We are really challenging ourmuscles and joints in to move in
(23:08):
a whole different way.
Yeah.
Talk about that a little bitwhen we start something so brand
new like that.
Megan Dahlman (23:15):
Yes.
So with pickleball, especially,and we can use that as a good
example, it's a sport whereyou're not focusing on your body
movements.
You're focusing on the ball,you're focusing on hitting the
ball in the right spot.
So you have to trust that asyou move across the court, your
body is going to do the rightthings.
And the only way that you cantrust that your body's gonna do
(23:37):
the right things, meaning yourankle is going to be stable when
you cut and push it out to theside and move back the other
direction real quick.
Or trust that your knee is notgonna buckle when you run
forward towards the net andpause real quick, or trust that
your spine is gonna hold outwhen you're doing this really
strong, hard, fast hit from theback of the court.
(23:59):
The only way that you can trustthat you know your body's gonna
just do the right things is tobe following a really good
training program separately.
So making sure that you aresupporting your pickleball or
golf or tennis or whatever theactivity, whatever the sport is,
(24:20):
you always wanna be supportingit with good quality, full range
of motion, full movementtraining and mobility
separately.
So I do not recommend someonewho's a woman in her 50s or 60s
who's been completely sedentaryto suddenly go pick up
pickleball.
That's a recipe for an ankleinjury, knee injury, back
(24:42):
injury, shoulder injury.
Um, suddenly, you know, yourshoulder, as we know as women in
midlife, are the shoulder isreally susceptible to high
levels of inflammation.
And usually it's an injury thattriggers something like frozen
shoulder.
So we have to train smart.
(25:03):
We we no longer can afford justpicking up a brand new sport
and going and doing it.
We have to be smart about theway that we move our body.
Michele Folan (25:13):
Yeah.
And I've seen some nastyinjuries.
So I I don't discourage anyonefrom playing.
I mean, I think it's great.
It's great movement, it'swonderful exercise.
But I was I was at a friend'shouse last week and one of the
women said, Well, I play gentlepickleball.
I said, Well, define gentlepickleball.
Gentle is Carla.
(25:34):
And she said, We don't we don'tdo any backward like pedaling,
right?
If a ball goes out, it goesout.
And because that's where a lotof people are getting hurt.
They're they're blowing out theAchilles, you know, going back
for these balls, or they'retripping and falling backwards
and and doing back injury.
So anyway, I just I had I justhad to bring that up after last
(25:58):
week's conversation.
Megan Dahlman (26:00):
Yeah, and you know, like all of that can be
trained.
Like that's okay.
Like maybe not do that yet andsay, okay, I I know my physical
limitations right at this atthis moment, but what what else
can I do to supplement to makesure that eventually, you know,
a few months from now, I can bemore aggressive with pickleball.
(26:20):
And I don't have to worry thatI'm gonna hurt my Achilles.
Like, let's make sure that I doall the mobility and the
strengthening work, I work on mycoordination, you know, do some
more of these athletic type ofagility drills in a controlled
environment where I'm notfocusing on a ball.
Yeah.
So I'm really focusing on myfeet and my foot, you know, the
(26:42):
foot quickness and I work on thebackpedaling and I practice it
again and again and again sothat when you're on the court in
a play setting, your body hasthe muscle memory to do it
properly.
And then how much, how fun isthat?
You know, so like you don'thave to worry about your body
and you can play a little bitmore aggressively and you feel
(27:03):
really strong and powerful too.
Michele Folan (27:05):
Well, and I think what you're also saying is that
there's the brain-muscleconnection.
And we're not just training ourbodies, we're training our
brains.
Megan Dahlman (27:15):
Yes, that is a huge, huge piece of training.
And I think that's what getsoverlooked a lot.
Um, you know, going back togetting started with a training
program, a lot of it is trainingyour brain to tell your muscles
how to activate properly andwhich ones and at what pace and
(27:38):
at what intensity.
Um that's coordination.
So it's you know how difficultit is when you first start
trying to like rub your bellyand pat your head.
Like you feel ridiculous, butif you continue to practice it,
now your brain has the abilityto send totally opposite signals
(27:59):
to different body parts.
At first, it's hard.
And so you don't want to besomeone that's like, oh, I can't
do it right now, so I guessI'll never be able to rub my
belly and pat my head at thesame time.
It's like, no, it's somethingthat you can keep practicing.
It's like juggling.
So all of those things are, itcan all be taught, but you have
(28:21):
to respect the progression andrespect, like, okay, if I'm
someone who can't juggle yet, Idon't have the coordination or
the brain and the musclecommunication to juggle.
I'm not gonna try juggling withfiery wands, you know, that
would be foolish.
I'm gonna start with like twolightweight tennis balls and
(28:43):
then build up from there.
And that would be wise trainingto be able to do that.
So the same thing exists whenit comes to strength training
and training our bodies.
Michele Folan (28:53):
You brought up something a little bit earlier,
and I I forgot to tie it inthere with the osteoporosis, but
I want to go back to thejumping or the impact.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Because we talk about this allthe time on Instagram with the
bashing of bones and that sortof thing.
Define what bashing of bonesmeans and how we're gonna do
(29:16):
this safely.
Megan Dahlman (29:17):
So we know that applying some impact to the
bones, so jumping is a form ofimpact, and you can do that with
like running or plyometricstyle training, something like
pickleball has some impact.
We know that applying thatimpact to your bones does
(29:39):
stimulate your bone cells torecreate more.
So it does cause some more bonecell deposits.
We know that.
It's well researched and it'sreally good for your bones to
have some of that impact.
What's cool though is that'snot the only way that your bones
can get stronger.
So So with jumping andpounding, it's not just your
(30:05):
body's not just an emptyskeleton.
Yeah.
We have we have muscles, wehave tendons, we have ligaments,
we have fascia.
So we have all of theseconnective tissues that are also
undergoing the impact.
And the older we get and theless estrogen we have in our
(30:25):
system, the more susceptible weare to inflammation in these
connective tissues.
And so if we aggravate thoseconnective tissues, like your
plantar fascia, let's say youjust start a jump training
program, every time you bounceyour planner fascia, the fascia
on the bottom of your foot, allthe way up through your ankle
(30:48):
into your Achilles.
That Achilles is a giantconnective piece of tissue.
All of that is undergoing thesame amount of stress and load
that your bones are.
And so if those aren't strongenough to handle it, we suddenly
developed plantar fasci.
So we traded out, you know,maybe a healthy plantar fascia
(31:08):
for maybe stronger bones, butlike for for what?
Now you can't walk, right?
So it's like at what cost?
So the cool thing is that wecan build strong bones too,
without having to jump.
And I actually prefer itbecause with strength training,
we don't run the risk of thosesoft tissue injuries.
(31:29):
And when you strength trainthrough full ranges of motion,
everywhere that your muscles areconnected to your bones, they
don't connect in like one tinyspot.
They connect along like a wholelike line and at different
angles and they pull against thebone in different angles.
So now we're creating load onthe bone in all of these
(31:52):
different angles along the fulllength of the bone, not just
vertically up and down fromjumping.
And so we get to stimulatethose bones in a more
three-dimensional way with agood strength training program.
Yeah.
Michele Folan (32:07):
I, you know, I I love the fact that there are
options here because yeah, and II do some jumping, but I didn't
just like just start jumping.
Yeah, I I mean, I've done a lotof stuff up into that point.
But yeah, I I I like the factthat we don't have to do any one
thing that there's there'soptions there for us to be able
(32:29):
to to build bone at this point.
Do you think we're ignoring thecore here and the importance of
our core?
Megan Dahlman (32:37):
Well, we definitely shouldn't.
The core is huge.
I mean, it's rightfully named.
The core is where everythingstems from.
So everything we've beentalking about, it makes me think
of like legs, maybe shoulders,a little bit too.
But to be honest and veryfrank, it doesn't matter how
(33:00):
strong your ankles are if yourcore is weak.
Um, it doesn't matter howstrong your wrist is or how
strong your shoulder is if yourcore is weak.
A lot of extremity problems, soa lot of problems in the arms
and the legs, all the way downto the feet and the ankles, they
really start and stem from acore that's not functioning
(33:22):
properly.
Because if your if your pelvisis wobbly every time you step,
if your spine is wobbly everytime you step, if you don't have
a really strong, stable core,then everything out from there
has to work a way it was neverdesigned to work.
And so it good core trainingshould be the core of your
(33:47):
program.
Like every time you show up towork out, you should be training
your core somehow.
Michele Folan (33:52):
Yeah.
And I brought this up becausethese conversations always go
into leg strength and shouldersand arms and muscle, but I just
feel like the core kind of getsignored.
Yeah.
And it's it is super important.
You you have to have a good,healthy core if you want to get
up off the floor.
Megan Dahlman (34:14):
Yeah.
And we and maybe it's becauselike as we get older, we kind of
shut the door on ever havingsix pack, you know.
Really?
I think we're like probably notin the cards.
And so we forget about itaesthetically too.
(34:34):
And it's it's really fun tostart to see shoulder muscles
and shoulder definition.
It's really fun to see calf andquad definition.
And so I think a piece of us isstill driven a little bit by
our own aesthetics, and that'smotivating.
You know, it's motivating tosee your muscles start to
appear.
And you, you know, coremuscles, they just aren't that
(34:55):
pretty.
Like it's just not somethingthat you see a lot to be like,
oh wow, she's got really stronglumbar spinae muscles, like her
spinae vectors are reallystrong.
Michele Folan (35:06):
Like, look at her transverse abdominis.
That's not usually something webrag about.
You should see my lumbarmuscles.
They're they're so hot.
Megan Dahlman (35:17):
Yeah, and I think even as we get older, we still
get guilty of prioritizingmuscles that we see.
And at the expense ofoverlooking ones that are the
most important.
So your pelvic floor is part ofyour core.
We know that's very, veryimportant for all sorts of
(35:38):
functions.
Your diaphragm, it's the top ofyour core.
That's really important.
Then all of the muscles thatwrap in and connect directly to
your to your spine.
If you have spinal osteoporosisor even osteoporosis in your
pelvis, doing core training on aregular basis is the very best
thing you can do.
Very, like, put everything elseaside and prioritize a strong,
(36:03):
stable core, and it's going tochange your life.
Michele Folan (36:06):
Yeah, this is such great advice.
I want to talk about everydayergonomics.
Oh, yeah.
And the the reason why I wantto talk about this.
So I've worked for some bigmajor corporations where we
would have to take these testsand courses on ergonomics,
whether it's how you hold thesteering wheel of the company
(36:28):
car to the placement of yourmouse on your desk, the height
of your chair, right?
Right.
But I think this getsoverlooked quite a bit, kind of
like the core, gets overlooked abit in terms of how our daily
habits are affecting how wefeel, like knee pain, shoulder
(36:49):
pain, back pain, neck pain.
We call it, remember, we callit tech neck when we when we
spoke the first time.
Yes.
How do we make people a littlebit more aware of just how
they're behaving day to day andhow that can affect their
outcomes?
Megan Dahlman (37:06):
Bottom line is that a joint or a muscle that
doesn't move, it's going tostart losing its function and it
will start to hurt.
So I don't care how perfectyour ergonomic setup is, if you
have a chair that is at theexact proper height, if your
elbows are hanging at theperfect position, if you're, if
your computer monitor is at theexact same height or at the
(37:28):
right height for like zerotechnic, whatever, if you're
not, if you're staying in onespot for longer than a few
minutes, like those joints andmuscles, they'll they'll
eventually hurt anyway.
So the more important thingwhen we think about daily
ergonomics, think about more of,yes, if you are going to be in
(37:51):
a position for a little while,like let's say you're driving in
the car for a while, or you dohave to sit at your desk for a
while, let's optimize that.
But make sure that you aremoving as often as you possibly
can.
So, like here in my office, Ihave a high-low desk.
So I have a really cool likeuplift desk that goes up, it
goes down.
(38:12):
I have a chair, like this wholetime we've been talking, I've
been like moving aroundconstantly.
So getting up, not staying inone position for very long is
probably the most importantthing that you could do for the
health of your overall body.
It's gonna keep you mobile fora long time.
I think it's a danger that weencounter as we age is that we
(38:32):
just stop being quite so activein our daily life and we start
to look for chairs everywhere wego.
We start to look for theclosest parking spots in the
parking lot.
Yeah.
The elevator.
And we just start to look forall these ways that we can move
a little less, and it it justcompounds.
So it's like the less we move,the more it hurts to move.
(38:54):
So we start to lose, move alittle bit less and less and
less and less.
And pretty soon we're we'reconfined to a wheelchair.
And so improving your mobilityabout around the day or
throughout the day is not aboutergonomics, it's about moving
throughout the day.
That's the most important thingyou can possibly do.
Michele Folan (39:12):
I call them exercise snacks.
Yes.
Yeah, you know, put a set youryour phone, you know, to your
alarm clock on your phone to gooff every hour so that you get
up, because we all can get soentrenched in what we're doing.
And do do 10 squats, go to thebathroom, take the long way
(39:34):
back, go take some stairs,whatever it is, but just get up
and move because your jointswill feel better.
Yeah.
Megan Dahlman (39:44):
I have a bunch of like really simple little
masterclasses.
Um, they're totally free.
They're like a balancemasterclass, a posture
masterclass, a hip flexorstretching masterclass.
So each of those come with likefive different exercises that
you can do.
Like, pick one, pick one oflike a balance exercise and get
up and just do it at one randommoment throughout the day.
(40:04):
Pick one of the postureexercises.
I love like diagonal armswings.
They feel so good.
You could just get up and juststretch your shoulders out at
one moment of the day or a hipflexor stretch, like these
little movements.
Sometimes we just don't knowwhat to do.
Like, yeah, I want to move, butI don't know what to do.
Right.
And so having some directioncan be really helpful and
(40:26):
motivating to say, yeah, I wantto do the exercise snacks, and
now I know, like, okay, I'mgonna do this posture stretch,
and the next time I'm gonna dothis one, and then I'm gonna do
this balance move.
And so you've got you get thatvariety and something to
actually do.
But yeah, I love the idea ofexercise snacks.
Michele Folan (40:42):
One other little tip that I this was
self-discovery kind of thing,but I'm short.
And a lot of times I don't havethe opportunity to sit in
chairs where my feet are flat onthe floor floor.
And what I was noticing, I wasgetting some knee pain.
And like I sit at our barstools around the kitchen
(41:04):
island, and my knees are at aweird angle.
Uh, but now, like right now, asyou and I speak, I've got my
feet up on a like an eight,nine-inch stool that keeps my
knees more aligned and keeps myknees from hanging because I'm
short.
But uh but but paying attentionto cues.
Megan Dahlman (41:28):
Yes.
Michele Folan (41:29):
Why do my knees hurt?
What did I do today?
You can do the same thing withshoulders.
Oh, well, my neck hurts becauseI I was on my cell phone all
day today, scrolling onInstagram.
But start thinking about yourdaily activities and how that
may be contributing to some ofyour aches.
Megan Dahlman (41:48):
100%.
Yeah, it's connecting the dotsand noticing, like, oh, I'm not
just getting older.
I think we just say it's easyto say that excuse and be like,
oh man, it's just getting older.
It's like, no, you've beensitting in a weird position all
day long, or you've been lookingdown at your phone all day
long.
No wonder your body is crankyabout that.
(42:08):
So yeah, I love that tip ofjust paying attention to what
your body is in throughout theday, how are your hips?
The big joints that I like tohighlight, and the ones that
actually lose the most mobilityas we age, um, are your ankles,
your knees, your hips, and yourshoulders.
So those four big joints losemobility the most.
(42:32):
So ankles, knees, hips, andshoulders.
So if every day you just didsomething to move your ankles a
lot, did something to move yourknees, like do full deep knee
bends up and down, do that'sgonna get your hips too.
So, or do some hip circles, dosome shoulder circles, move your
shoulders through their fullranges of motion.
That is going to help keep youso mobile.
(42:54):
This is where a lot of womenwill get kind of stuck if all
they have is like a walkingprogram.
Walking is excellent fitness,but unfortunately, it doesn't
move these big joints throughtheir largest, fullest ranges of
motion.
So you start to feel likeyou're losing your mobility a
little bit as you get older.
Michele Folan (43:13):
Yeah.
Megan Dahlman (43:14):
So I just want to highlight like those are the
big joints that we need to keepmoving.
So if you need to startsomewhere, like think about
those ones.
Michele Folan (43:23):
And the beauty of this, Megan, and your advice is
always so wonderful.
Even if you work in an office,you can move these joints.
Yes.
Right?
I mean, it's just not, it's notjust for those of us that are
working from home.
You can do this anywhere.
Megan Dahlman (43:39):
Yeah.
And even if you've already losta lot of mobility, that's okay
too.
Start where you're at.
You know, it's kind of what wewere talking about in the
beginning.
It's like, well, what can youdo?
Let's say, you know, I justmentioned a minute ago, like do
a full deep knee bend, like afull squat all the way down and
up.
Someone probably listened tothat and said, Well, I can't, I
can't do that.
I can't, I can't go all the waydown.
It's like, well, well, can yougo halfway down?
(44:00):
Can we do like a littleperching squat, like almost
pretending like you're sittinginto a bar stool and then
standing back up?
If that's what you've got,let's do that.
Let's optimize that, make surethat we maintain that amount of
mobility.
And then over time, as yourmuscles get stronger, those
joints start to lubricatebetter, you're gonna realize,
like, wait a second, I'm nowgoing a little deeper than I was
(44:21):
before.
And it's just gonna continueand continue and continue.
And so don't rule anything outbecause you don't, your, your
body's not done.
Like it's it's not doneimproving, you know, it's not
all downhill from here.
We can go uphill, you know,like in a good way.
Michele Folan (44:36):
We can improve no matter how old you are.
Amen.
I love that.
Yeah, speaking of which, who isthe oldest client you've ever
coached and what was her story?
Megan Dahlman (44:47):
Oh, you know, 80s, definitely.
I've worked with so many womenin their early 80s, and someone
comes to my mind.
Um, I have a woman right now inher early 80s, and she'd never
strength trained before.
It was totally new.
She'd done a little bit ofgolfing, a little bit of tennis
in the past.
Um, but she just was never whatshe would call like an athlete.
(45:11):
Like it just wasn't even partof the the culture then.
And most of the women she knewgrowing up, growing up, like you
just didn't move very much.
That's what the men did.
They were the athletes.
And so what I love about her isthat she has a growth attitude.
It's the the health of her bodyis really stemming from the
(45:31):
attitude that she has, where shehas a really coachable spirit,
and she's coming to the tablewith like, I don't feel good, I
don't know what to do.
So just tell me and I'll I'lldo it.
And I'm willing to try.
And so having that attituderather than the attitude of
like, I can't do that.
(45:52):
Uh-uh, I can't do that.
I can't, like, it's hard to getanywhere with someone who has
an attitude of I can't.
Right.
And so she has such a beautifulattitude of like, I'm willing
to try.
And I'm, and she's encountereda few movements along the way
that she she just can't do rightnow.
And that's okay.
And we work on somemodifications, but where she is
(46:15):
now physically compared to whereshe was even just six months
ago, it's night and day.
Like even her entire family,her her children who are in
their like 60s are thanking me.
They're like, you've given herher life back.
Like she's able to now be apart of our family activities in
more ways than than she wasable to before.
Michele Folan (46:36):
Oh, I'm sure it shows up in how she presents
herself, how she walks.
I mean, I'm sure her gait hasimproved, her posture.
I mean, all these things thatthey're they're not to be
overlooked.
Megan Dahlman (46:47):
Yeah.
And what's so fun, and what Ilove to tell every woman that I
coach is like, you don't trainto be good at training.
Like you don't work out to besomeone who's really good at
working out.
You work out, you train yourbody so that you can experience
it in the wild.
You know, like I know you andI, Michelle, we both went to
(47:08):
Italy this last time.
So yeah.
Like the Italy is not a flatcountry.
No, like you go to these smallhill town, like you're climbing
upstairs, you're you're walkingon cobblestones, and it's
beautiful and the eventadventures there.
And I know you got to visitsome other countries too.
And like that is your strengthin the wild.
(47:30):
Like everything that you do inyour workout is so that you can
go out and do all of thoseadventures for as long as you
possibly can.
Whatever is whatever's thething on your bucket list, you
still are able to do, and yourbody is not going to prevent you
from doing that.
That is the purpose of workingout.
You're not working out to be aprofessional worker out.
(47:52):
It's working out so that youcan experience your body in the
world.
Because that would be a reallyshitty job.
Michele Folan (48:01):
Sorry.
Not in my job, yeah, but butyou help other people
differently.
Megan Dahlman (48:07):
Yeah, it's it's not not everybody needs to have
this as their passion either.
And that's okay.
Like you just need to do thethe bare necessities to make
sure that your body is nevergetting in the way of anything
you want to be able to do.
Michele Folan (48:27):
You know, when you said that, it made me think
of that trip I took with mydaughter because, oh my God, I I
want to be able to do that 10years from now.
And I still want my daughter tosay, oh my God, you kicked my
ass on that hill.
And and I felt so good afterthat trip, knowing that I never
(48:52):
held her up, right?
She was the one kind of laggingbehind a little bit at times.
And and you know, that felt itwas very um self-affirming, I
guess, that all this hard workthat I've been putting in for
years is is paying off.
And I want that for the women Iwork with.
(49:14):
I know you want that for thewomen you work with.
And we we talk, we we talkabout, you know, staying out of
the nursing home, being able toget off the toilet, all those
things, but those are just base,those are the basics.
Megan Dahlman (49:29):
Basics.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I I want to experience life aslong as I can, you know, as long
as I have the blessing to wakeup every day and see the sunrise
and have the opportunity tospend moments with my kids.
Like, I want to do what I needto do for my body to ensure that
I can do those things for aslong as possible.
(49:51):
I mean, you talking about beingable to travel with your
daughter, it brings tears to myeyes.
Like, like it's that's thebigger why.
And that's something I alwaysask any anyone who ever comes
into my programs, it's like,what is your why?
We we rarely stop to actuallythink about why this is
important.
And the moment you can connectthose dots of like, why am I
(50:12):
even here?
Why am I even doing this?
It's like, oh, so that nextyear I can go back to Italy with
my daughter and I can stillkick her butt going up those
hills so that the year afterthat I can do it again.
And so when you get reallyclear on why this even matters
to you, why is this valuablelike and how does it impact you
and your family and yourrelationships, like suddenly it
(50:34):
all comes into focus and itgives you motivation and it
makes it so much bigger thanjust like seeing your shoulder
muscle.
Yeah, like that's fun too.
But like it it reallyhighlights the value of what it
is and and why we're doing whatwe're doing every day.
Yep, for sure.
Michele Folan (50:56):
And so talking about clients, yeah, how do you
work with clients?
You I know you have a coupleprograms, correct?
Megan Dahlman (51:05):
Yes, and actually for many years I did one-on-one
coaching with women and I Itrained them in person and then
started training them online,and now um there's so many.
And so over the years I'veshifted so that all of my
coaching is available onlinethrough courses that anybody can
(51:25):
take at any moment in time.
So we have clients all over allover the world.
So I have a handful of membersin the UK and in New Zealand and
in India and South Africa.
So, what's beautiful about thepower of the internet is that
you can have access to goodquality coaching, smart training
(51:46):
from the comfort of your ownhome, no matter where you live.
So, all of my courses areavailable online and they're all
full follow-along videos, justplug and play.
You don't have to overthink it.
It's like, I know it's it canfeel so overwhelming just to get
started.
And my goal from day one withcreating these programs was to
(52:07):
completely remove that feelingof being overwhelmed so that you
can't get to that point whereyou're climbing those hills in
Italy with your daughter.
Michele Folan (52:15):
And and maybe going to the gym, you know.
Yeah, I do see some women thatare older than I at the gym, and
it always just makes me sohappy.
Like, I'll go up to them, like,how old are you?
I just I love that you're here,right?
And it it's so, but I know ittakes it takes some courage to
get there, and um, and maybeworking with a coach like you,
(52:38):
Megan, that can build thatconfidence as they go.
Yeah, yeah.
A personal question, and I Imight be able to answer this
one, but what is one of yournon-negotiable self-care
practices?
Megan Dahlman (52:52):
Oh, yeah.
Well, on topic, definitely,it's just to move every day
somehow.
And you know, the last coupledays, this is a crazy week.
We're recording right now inthe beginning of September.
My kids just went to school.
I've got a high schooler thisyear for the first time and a
middle schooler, and and there'sjust been a lot of busyness.
(53:13):
And Monday, Tuesday, I didn'thave the time to do a real deal
workout.
But that didn't matter.
I still went for a walk.
I still did a couple stretches.
And so it it's connecting thedots between I just feel better
when I move and knowing that Ifeel so much better when I move,
it motivates me to just movesomehow every day, even if it's
(53:36):
just a little exercise snack.
Even if it's just one of those,it's still important to do.
How wonderful if I do get afull workout in, it does feel
really good.
I was able to get one in thismorning, but it doesn't happen
every time.
And that's okay too.
So I just try to move somehowevery day.
Michele Folan (53:54):
If you could put one billboard up for every woman
over 50 to read about fitness,what would it say?
Megan Dahlman (54:03):
It would say it's never too late to be strong.
unknown (54:07):
Yes.
Megan Dahlman (54:09):
Yes.
And it it brings tears to myeyes when I say that, but like
it's so true.
And don't write off thepossibility of you being a
really strong woman, evenphysically.
And it's never too late to bestrong.
Michele Folan (54:30):
Ooh, this was such a great way to wrap this
up.
So where can people find you,Megan Dolman?
Megan Dahlman (54:38):
Come find me over on Instagram.
Just search my name.
It's just at Megan Dalman.
I'm posting four or five videosthere every single day of
simple little exercise snacksthat you can do to just get you
rolling.
That's the best way to justcome say hi.
If you're not on Instagram, youcan find me on my website, just
Vigaofit.com.
Michele Folan (54:58):
All right, I will put all that in the show notes.
Megan Dalman, I knew this wasgonna be a robust conversation.
It's great to have you back.
Thank you so much, Michelle.
I enjoyed it every minute.
Thank you for listening.
Please rate and review thepodcast where you listen.
And if you'd like to join theAsking for a Friend community,
click on the link in the shownotes to sign up for my weekly
(55:20):
newsletter where I share midlifewellness and fitness tips,
insights, my favorite finds, andrecipes.
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