I find that women over 40, when they feel like they should start exercising, sometimes they choose the wrong exercise. It really breaks my heart to go into a big box gym and see every treadmill filled with a woman reading a magazine or watching ‘Friends’ on TV.
They’re spending a lot of time and not getting a lot of results.
I really want to make sure that you’re getting results for the investment of time that you’re taking to exercise.
Now a lot of people think that their metabolism tanks around the age of 40. They think it’s just that magic number that causes her metabolism to tank.
It’s actually not the number or the age so much, it’s what’s happening between the ages of 30s and 40s that makes for a tanking metabolism.
A lot of times our composition has changed and so what happens is, even if we are the same body weight (and I would guess that not everybody is the same weight at age 42 is they were at age 32) composition has changed such that ladies have less muscle tone.
So I want to talk about what kind of training is really important for you whether you are turning 40, or even if you’re well into your 60s. The right kind of exercise is actually the fountain of youth for you.
Exercise and the type of exercise that I’m going to explain to you is going to help you lose your menopause belly.
Tip number one is to stop steady state cardio.
Now by steady state cardio, I mean long and slow cardio. Now if ‘long cardio’ takes you to your happy place, you should absolutely do it, but don’t think that you’re going to get the body of your dreams doing the long slow treadmill plods or marathon runs. I have nothing against marathon running if that’s what you love to do, but make sure that’s why you do it and don’t expect that you’re going to get a hot body just from doing this sort of cardio.
This long cardio takes so much time, it can potentially cause a lot of repetitive use injuries, particularly of the lower body. It’s not necessarily a balanced work out because it’s typically lower body based, so you’re not addressing half your body: your core, your upper body and your arms and back. So the long steady cardio is not going to give you the body of your dreams.
What I would suggest doing instead of long cardio sessions instead is cardio ‘bursts’.
Doing cardio bursts together with resistance training is the answer.
You don’t need to go out and buy a ton of equipment for this type of exercise. You can be using bodyweight exercises for resistance training and the bursts. You don’t need to have a treadmill or any kind of cardio machine because you can be doing bodyweight moves like squat jumps and planks and push-ups and scaleable bodyweight exercises.
You only need to get a good sweat on for 15 minutes. You don’t need to take forever because you don’t have forever! I know how busy you are.
To recap, steady state cardio tends to take longer and it doesn’t build the body of your dreams. It doesn’t build that lean sexy muscle, where is resistance training does. A lot of times when you do cardio, you could lose weight but when you look in the mirror you tend to look like just a skinnier version of your former fat self. That’s a mean way of saying it, but that’s the honest truth. A lot of people have lost weight before doing cardio, then they’re not happy with how they look in the mirror. It’s not the number on the scale that is important, it’s really what you look like in the mirror that is more important.
When you do metabolic resistance training, you can raise your metabolism and it will keep it raised long after your your workout is done. It’s called EPOC or exercise post oxygen consumption which is just a fancy way of saying you’re burning more calories even after your exercises done. With steady state cardio on the treadmill, you might be burning calories, but is soon as you step off the treadmill, when you’re doing those long slow plods, the calorie burning ends when you get off the dreadmill.
Watch the video for more tips on the best exercise for women over 40.
Click here for your BEST bet for a program that will help you lose your menopause belly and get your sexy back with exercise that is gear specifically for the needs of women 40+.
Also, please meet me on Facebook in a private group I’ve created called: ‘Healthy Secrets for Women 40+‘ You’ll find a ton of great information there for you along with support and motivation from other women just like you.