I’m Coach Nate, owner here at Steel Strength Training, and over the last decade, we’ve coached over 1,300 clients across four locations—and the vast majority of those clients have been women in their 50s and 60s.
Here are five scary truths you need to know if you care about getting strong and healthy (and at the end, we’ll discuss what to do about it):
- Walking alone isn’t enough
- The things you did in your 30s and 40s likely won’t work now
- Most programs fall into one of two categories, and neither is helpful
- You’re so busy taking care of everybody else that you forget to take care of yourself
- Your strength, muscle, balance, and bone density will never be better than they are today if you don’t make a change
Walking alone isn’t enough.
I am a huge advocate for walking. I recommend our clients walk 6,000 to 10,000 steps per day if at all possible, and I like to see them doing this every single day.
Walking is insanely good for your health, mental health, stress levels, and so much more.
But the reality is, even though walking absolutely contributes to better health, walking alone isn’t enough. Walking simply doesn’t provide enough of a stimulus to build and maintain strength and muscle.
I’ve talked to hundreds of women who have been walkers their whole lives, but as they enter their 50s and 60s, they still notice a decline in their strength and muscle.
So please, by all means, keep walking every single day! Just know that walking alone shouldn’t be the only type of exercise you do.
The things you did in your 30s and 40s won’t work anymore.
If you were someone who did work out in your 30s and 40s, my guess is you did a lot of cardio or group fitness classes, boot camps, etc.—and I bet you saw pretty good results from them!
The reality is that it was never the ideal way to train—even then. But it was better than doing nothing, and your body could tolerate the stress from those styles of workouts.
At some point, usually in your 50s or 60s, your body can’t tolerate that same level of stress. You need a better workout program. More on this later. Just know that a moderate-to high-intensity mix of cardio and weights isn’t the best solution for pretty much anybody, and it’s definitely not the right answer for you today.
Most programs fall into one of two categories, and neither is helpful.
One of the biggest issues our clients had before joining us was finding a program that actually made sense for them—the program that was going to be both safe and effective.
Most programs out there fall into one of two categories: either they baby you, and while you might stay safe, they just won’t push you hard enough to get you the results you want.
On the other end, you’ve got programs that will work you hard. But quite frankly, they overdo it. They treat you like a 20-year-old athlete, and this is a recipe for disaster.
You don’t need to be babied—your body is perfectly capable and needs to work hard. However, you don’t need to put your body through the wringer to get results.
You need a middle ground. The sweet spot. What you need is something precise—something that gives you the right exercises that allow you to train hard, pain-free, and with the right amount of work. Enough to stimulate progress, but not so much that you’re overdoing it.
Despite it feeling like this type of program doesn’t exist, I assure you with 1000% confidence that it does.
You’re so busy taking care of everybody else that you forget to take care of yourself.
The vast majority of the women I speak to are caught in the middle of taking care of older parents, their own children, and their grandchildren. Most of these women absolutely love it. They love their family, and they love that they get to keep showing up for every generation, but it’s a lot sometimes. Sometimes it’s more than a lot—sometimes it’s insanely overwhelming.
And you just keep going, and you just keep showing up like you always have. But you’re starting to notice things are a little harder than they used to. Not enough to make you stop, but when you really slow down to think about how you’re feeling—and if you’re honest—things aren’t the same. You notice your strength declining, you don’t have as much energy as you used to, your joints are hurting a little bit more, and you’re feeling a little more out of shape than you used to.
But I just want you to stop and breathe for a second. Sit with this for a second.
I know you’ve probably spent your whole life wearing yourself out for the people around you. And honestly, I can’t think of anything more beautiful. But at some point, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
The most kind, generous, selfless thing you can do is invest a couple of hours per week into your health so that you can continue to do the things you love with the people you love for years and decades to come.
If you refuse to take action, things will not improve.
If you refuse to take action, then your strength, muscle mass, balance, and bone density will likely never be better than they are today.
Here’s the stone-cold reality you don’t want to hear, but you need to hear it:
Today is as strong, as fit, and as healthy as you’ll likely be if you don’t make a change. Things will only get worse from here. And that decline might be long and slow—it might be sharp and fast—but the decline is going to happen.
If you’ve been thinking about making a change so that you can get strong and healthy, it’s no different than what they say about planting a tree. The best time to do it was 20 years ago, but the second-best time is today.
Don’t put it off any longer. The longer you put it off, the easier it’s going to be to keep putting it off—and the longer it’s going to take to reverse the decline.
And if I’m being honest, I’ve talked to women who decided to put it off until next month, next year, etc.—and they never take action. And when we talk years later, their health is in a much darker place than they imagined it would be, much sooner than they expected. And they regret the fact that they hadn’t started sooner.
I don’t want this to be you.
So what should you do instead?
But I have some good news for you. I’m not going to leave you in this place.
With a fairly small time investment, you can radically change your health, your strength, your muscle mass, your muscle tone, and your energy levels.
We’ve packaged this all up neatly in our 12-week program, which we’d love for you to join. But regardless of whether you work with us or not, here’s what you need to do:
Number one, strength train two days per week for 45 minutes. Focus on using good form, pushing each set close to failure while maintaining that good form, and adding weight and/or reps every chance you get.
Second, make sure your nutrition supports your training. Most people we work with don’t need an overhaul of their nutrition—they just need some minor tweaks. A little more water, a little more protein, and a little bit less processed food and wine. No need to go extreme here—small adjustments, combined with everything else in the plan, are usually more than enough to start dropping fat and getting the most out of your workouts.
Third, stay active outside the gym. Typically, we recommend walking, but if there’s another form of cardio you enjoy, you can include that as well.
And that’s it. That’s all you need to radically change your body, health, and lifestyle. Seriously—you’ll be absolutely shocked at how much better you look, feel, and perform within a few months of starting the process. And you’ll even start seeing and feeling some changes within the first few weeks.
Don’t expect a miracle here. But if you show up consistently, you’ll be amazed at who you become and how you feel.
Now, as an added bonus, the real secret sauce of our program is the coaching and accountability we provide. It’s the strength training, the nutrition, and the activity outside the gym that change your life—but it’s the coaching and accountability that ensure you actually follow the plan, that the plan is completely tailored to what you need, and that you’re doing it correctly.
If you’re ready to prioritize yourself, join our 12-week program today.
Just click here, then click the consultation button and fill out the form. We will reach out to you within 24 hours to schedule your phone consultation to see if we’re a good fit to work together.