Latest / The Diva Details / Get Dialed in and Lift Smarter, Not Harder: The Midlife Strength Reset

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Get Dialed in and Lift Smarter, Not Harder: The Midlife Strength Reset · The Diva Details

0:01
Welcome to the Diva Detail. Welcome to the Diva
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Detail, where bold, confident women embrace life
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unapologetically. From love and sex to
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wellness and reinvention, we keep it raw,
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real, and powerful. No filters, no limits,
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just fearless conversations to help you thrive.
0:23
Let's dive in with Diva Mia.
0:30
Well, hello, this is Diva Mia. And since we've been talking
0:34
a lot about getting dialed in with things and getting dialed in
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with our business and our health, I wanted to kind of dive in deeper.
0:41
There's a lot of confusion out there. I hope today this will
0:44
help alleviate some of that. Here's something nobody told me when I was 25,
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and it's that the workout that built you in your 20s can quietly break
0:52
you down in your 50s. Sometimes when you're doing the same weight, same 5 days
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a week training, same go hard or go home attitude, you have
1:00
a totally different body underneath. And I don't know if you guys have seen it
1:04
on social media lately, but all the 40s and 50s and 60-year-olds are coming out
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and they're talking about how you need to work out less as you get
1:12
older in order to make bigger gains. I want to clear up the front.
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This is not an episode about doing less because you're too old. This is an
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episode about doing the right things in the right amount so you actually get the
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results that you're looking for. Here's what we're going to cover. We're going to talk
1:25
about lifting weights over training and why so many people over 40 are
1:29
getting better results lifting 3 days a week instead of lifting 5 or 6.
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I tend to go hard and I tend to go all in,
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but what I'm finding is that less is more because
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I think what's happening as we get older, our bodies don't want the stress
1:42
that we were causing it before. And you might've been in football
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or you might've been wrestling or whatever it was, and you worked out 5
1:51
or 6 days a week or cheerleading or gymnastics, but your body doesn't
1:55
cope the same way it used to. And our hormones have changed as well.
1:58
And it's all about the hormones. Hours of cardio that
2:02
you might used to be able to do is not your friend anymore. And sometimes
2:05
walking deserves way more respect because walking
2:09
can get you exactly where you want to be. And there is an athletic iron
2:12
deficiency that if you work out too much and in menopause or postmenopause,
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you can actually have a problem with that too. How much protein you're going to
2:20
need, we're going to discuss too, because there's a lot of myths around that.
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And then we're going to talk about some supplements. So let's go ahead and get
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started. Just a quick note though, before we start, I'm just sharing research
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and practical experience from my own experiences, not personal medical advice.
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If you take medication, have a heart condition, kidney issues,
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or anything else going on, even autoimmune, talk to your doctor because before
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you change your training or supplements, you really need to do it. Your health is
2:45
so important. If you don't have your health, you don't have anything. Let's go ahead
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and dial in. Okay. Dialed in today. And weight training after
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40, just so you know, it's non-negotiable. You have to weight train after you're 40.
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And the reason is, is that you're going to start losing muscle mass pretty
3:02
quickly. People think that muscle is just for show, or women sometimes
3:06
think they're going to bulk up if they gain muscle, but the reality is we
3:10
need muscle to function. Starting somewhere in your 30s,
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we begin losing muscle though. So you have to understand that.
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It's called sarcopenia. And if you do nothing about
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it, you can lose anywhere from 3 to 8% of your muscle mass every decade.
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So by the time you're 60, that's 24% of your muscle
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mass. And the rate speeds up after you've turned 60. And here's the part people
3:31
miss. We lose strength and power even faster than we lose size.
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So the muscle just gets weaker. Power is your ability to move quickly
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and as well as lift heavy things. It's what catches
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you when you trip on a curb. It's what gets you up off the floor
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when you fall down. I saw a person the other day and she was in
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her late 30s and she couldn't get up from a squatted position because she didn't
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realize she wasn't as strong as she used to be. So why does muscle mass
3:56
matter so much? Muscle is your metabol— muscle
4:00
is your metabolic sink. It is the biggest place your body stores and burns glucose.
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So if you are having difficulty burning fat,
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muscle is going to help with that. More muscle means better blood sugar control
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and better insulin sensitivity. And muscle also protects your
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bones. You know, there are people that are on medications that the medication side
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effects is to decrease bone density. So muscle lifting and lifting weights will help with
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that. When muscle pulls pulls on bones under load, it tells the
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bones to stay dense. That matters for everyone, but especially for women after menopause
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when bone loss accelerates. Muscle is also your
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independence. Your grip strength and your leg strength are some of the strongest predictors
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of how well and how long people live. Carrying your
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own groceries at 80 starts when you were lifting weights at 50. Muscle also
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changes your shape. 2 people can weigh the same and look completely different.
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One person can weigh 160 and be stacked, and another woman weighs 130
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and, and looks flabby. Strength training is It's how you change your body composition and
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not just the numbers on the scale. And there's a lot of recomposition discussions
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going on. You see before and after pictures where people,
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they were 140 and then they recomped and they're still 140,
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but they look way skinnier. It's a new thing. People aren't
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really looking at the scale as much as they're looking at the way their
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shape is and their, their muscular strength and how their body
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looks and fits in clothes. And here's the good news. Your muscle never stops
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responding to training. So there's studies that have
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put people in their 70s, 80s, and even 90s on strength training programs,
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and they gain strength and muscle. It is never too late. I have a friend
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that's 74 and she lifts weight professionally for bodybuilding. She started at
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69 and she looks amazing. I joke with her because I was on a cruise
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where I said, you know, the guys in the 20s and 30s are checking out
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your butt. And she's like, yep, that's what happens because she's in such phenomenal
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shape. But This is the big but. The way you
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train has to change because the thing that limits you at 50 is usually not
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effort. It's your recovery time. So if you work out every
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single day, what you're going to find is you're going to start cannibalizing your own
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muscle or eating at your own muscle, which defeats the whole purpose.
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And then you'll end up gaining fat because you have less muscle mass.
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Overtraining also increases cortisol. There's a reason Most
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people are recommending 3 days a week or 3 days with a light 4th day.
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Let's talk about the idea that if you overdo it, you start cannibalizing your muscle.
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I really focus on this a lot with people because the truth
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is, is sometimes we push so hard, we don't realize we're pushing to the
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point of hurting ourselves. Here's what's really going on. A workout doesn't
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build your muscle. Workout is the damage. So when you go lift weights and you're
6:41
sore the next day, it's because you did damage to the muscle. And then what
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the body does, it stimulates it. It tells the muscle, It tells the muscle to
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get, get back up, build it. And the muscle gets built afterwards
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while you rest, when you eat, and especially when you sleep.
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Training is the question. Recovery is the answer. So you
6:59
need to train, but you need to recover very well. When you stack hard sessions
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on hard sessions without enough recovery, and especially
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when you combine that with eating too little, a few things happen. You're going to
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increase your stress hormone. Now I am guilty of this big time because
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I tend to lift weights even when I'm fasting. It used
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to work. For me in my 30s and 40s, but in my 50s, I have
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found that when I eat— when I don't eat and I lift weights, I'm just
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destroying my muscle. Since I started eating much more high protein,
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my muscle is just coming back in droves and I feel stronger than ever.
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Your stress hormone cortisol stays elevated more of the time when you're older.
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Just realize that cortisol is a breakdown hormone. Its job is to free
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up fuel. One place it gets the fuel is by breaking down protein, including muscle
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protein. So if You need, if your body needs more protein
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to function, to have your brain function, et cetera, it's gonna go after your muscle.
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And here's the thing, there's research coming out, there's several
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different studies that's talking about that as we get older, we need more protein,
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not less. That way we don't break down our muscle protein. And ladies,
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I know that sucks 'cause a lot of ladies I know are mostly vegetarian,
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but you may need to up your protein count as you get older. Your sleep
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quality also drops, which is when growth hormone does a lot of its repair work.
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So you really need to focus on sleep. We could have a whole episode
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on sleep and we probably should. Your body starts treating training as a
8:22
threat instead of a signal to adapt. So then what happens
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is if you're working out all the time over and over again, and you're over
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40, you're actually hurting your progress. If you dial it back to 3
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days a week, you're going to find that you're going to gain more muscle and
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look better. And you're going to stop the cannibalization of your muscles.
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In spirit, yes, technically it's less that the gym eats
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your muscle and more that the chronic stress plus undereating, plus poor
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recovery tips you into a state where your muscle starts to break down
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more than it wants to build. But the reality is, is you've gotta slow
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down. And it's not slow down cuz you're older. It's slow down so
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your body can do what it's meant to do, and that's grow your muscle.
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A hard workout on its own is fine. A hard workout every day
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or 5 days a week on 5 hours of sleep is a calorie deficit
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at 55 or 45. That's where it goes sideways and
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you're killing your testosterone as well. Signs that you're past your recovery capacity. Is your
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lifts are stalling or going backwards. So if you're lifting
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and you're not able to progressively overload— when I say progressively overload,
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that means increase the weight— you may be going backwards.
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If you're sore for 3, 4, or 5 days and you're still pushing through the
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pain just to get the workout in, you're probably doing too much.
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So for instance, when I do legs, I make sure I have at least
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a 4 or 5 day break in between legs. When your resting heart rate
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is creeping up or your HRV is trending down, If you track
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it, you're going to have to be worried about that. You're wired to, but tired,
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which is causing more cortisol, bad sleep,
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cravings, irritability, and little aches turning into nagging injuries.
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You're working harder than ever and your midsection isn't budging. In fact,
10:02
it may be growing. And what also happens to men is they can
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actually, when they work out too high, their estrogen can increase and
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they can actually start getting man boobs. You've probably seen it in the gym because
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their hormones change too, ladies. It's not just ours. A lot of men need
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to go on testosterone because their testosterone drops so much and sometimes their estrogen
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increases and they— sometimes it's cortisol related as well.
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That's why you need to get a good doctor that can do a hormone study
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when you're in your— probably in your early 40s. 3 days often beats
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5 days, though, I will say, for people over 40, hands down. The thing everybody's
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been talking about lately is lifting 3 days a week instead of 4 or 5.
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Here's how I think what drives muscle growth is enough hard sets per muscle
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per week. But you got to take it responsibly. You got to take it close
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to failure. With great recovery. So the goal is not just to go
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into the gym and hammer out 3 or 4 sets of
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12 reps and it's easy. The goal is maybe your first
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set, you get your 12 in and then you increase the weight because it wasn't
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heavy enough. The next set, maybe you get 8 to 10 in and your last
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set, you may only get 3 to 5 lifts in before you're maxed out.
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And then you let your body recover. That actually is going to give you more
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growth than you've ever had in your life. And yes, women, we need
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growth. We need muscle mass. The number of days you spread that over matters.
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Much less, but you need to make sure that you're not constantly
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destroying the muscle to the fact that it doesn't get to repair itself. As we
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get older, we recover a bit more slowly between sessions. So 3 well-designed
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full-body sessions, say Monday, Wednesday, Friday, give each
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muscle a stimulus 3 times a week with full rest day between. For a lot
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of people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s, that's the sweet spot. But maybe work
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legs one day, then upper body another day, then core another day,
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or work leg— work Push one day, legs another day,
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pull another day, and throw core on a couple days a week.
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Will you always see more gains working out less? Not automatically.
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Less only works when the sessions you do are high quality. You got to have
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a high quality session where you go for the full burnout. But if you currently
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do 5 sessions and every session you finish,
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you're exhausted, you're cutting to 3 focused ones very
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often produces way better results than the 5 sessions. And it saves you time.
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For the record, 4 days can work perfectly too,
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especially as an upper-lower split. The real rule isn't a number,
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it's train only as often as you can recover from and still progress.
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A few practical guardrails though, really realize this: most sets should end with
12:30
1 to 3 reps left in the tank. So again,
12:33
your last set, you're not doing 12, you're doing 1 to 3.
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I say 1 to 4, but 1 to 3, not grinding it to total
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failure every time. So your first set might be 12, and then if, if it's
12:44
real too easy, you up the weights and then you go to 8 and then
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the next set you get to 3. Start with roughly 10 hard sets per muscle
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group per week and adjust from there. So if you're going to do a 4-day-a-week
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workout, you could do lower body on Monday, upper body
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on Wednesday, lower body again on Friday, and upper
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body on Saturday or Sunday. And you can split and each, each muscle group gets
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10 hard sets per muscle group. Every 4 to 8 weeks, take a
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lighter deload week and let your body just completely relax. Now keep lifting
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weights, but do it with a little bit less load. You cut the
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weight or the sets by about a third to a half. And then also protect
13:23
your sleep like it's part of the program because it is. I have been guilty
13:26
of this. I've let people interfere with my sleep and I've let myself interfere with
13:30
my sleep before. And what I've found is when I do it, it ruins my
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whole next day. So I'm hardcore now on sleep. I'm usually in bed by 9
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o'clock at night almost every night now. So I'm very hardcore because sleep
13:42
is so important. Otherwise you sacrifice the whole next day. And I wake
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up at 5 o'clock in the morning. So if I'm in bed by 9,
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I get my 8 hours in. You also have to realize that training too hard
13:51
hits your hormones. So let's talk about hormones because this is where overtraining
13:55
gets really sneaky. The big concept here has a name.
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It's called low energy availability, which falls under something called RED-S,
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relative energy deficiency in sports. That's the abbreviation for
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it. Anyway, in plain English, it means you're burning more than you are taking in
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for long enough that your body starts cutting back on things it considers optional.
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And guess what your body considers optional when it thinks food is scarce?
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Reproductive hormones. Bone building, muscle building.
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It just won't do it. And then you'll get stagnant and you'll be like,
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oh, I wonder why I'm not building any muscle. Well, because you're not taking in
14:29
any food to build the muscle. And for women before menopause,
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overtraining and undereating can cause irregular or missing periods. And it's not
14:38
a badge of honor. It means estrogen is low, and low estrogen means you're also
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losing bone. So a lot of women I, I've worked out with before,
14:44
I lost my period. Well, yeah, but you also lost some bone. So realize that.
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In perimenopause, your hormones are already swinging. Piling heavy training stress
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on top can make sleep, hot flashes, mood, and belly fat even worse.
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So that's why in menopause, you need to look at overtraining as a bad
14:59
thing. You might make your hot flashes worse.
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And after menopause, estrogen is low for good reason,
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but it's low, so you lose some of its protection for muscle and bone.
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That's exactly why strength training becomes more important, not less, but it
15:14
also means recovery matters more. Lift heavy, but recover like
15:18
you mean it. And then also talk to a doctor about potential hormone replacement
15:23
therapy to help out. One more point for a woman in this stage is heavy
15:26
lifting is your friend, not pink dumbbells forever. Your bones
15:29
respond to real load. Work up to it with good form and ideally
15:34
with a coach at first if you need the help training and to get the
15:37
right form. I was in the gym this morning and I saw this girl
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in a pink outfit and she was skin and bones. She was— and
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I'm not trying to body shame her, but she was so skinny and she would
15:48
only pick up the 3-pound weights. And I think she was afraid because society has
15:52
put such a stigma on women that get big with muscles.
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But honestly, guys, you have to realize the people that are getting really bulky,
16:00
a lot of times they're on steroids. So don't think that just because you're lifting
16:03
heavy, you're going to turn into looking like a man. Most women don't have anywhere
16:07
near that testosterone. I'm on testosterone and I don't look like
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a man. I got nice muscle definition now, but I'm not looking like a man.
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And for men, chronic overtraining, especially high-volume endurance training
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and undereating, can lower your testosterone. And when you lower your testosterone, you tend
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to up your estrogen. You may get man boobs like I was talking about earlier.
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Research has even described an exercise
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hypogonadal male pattern in long-term endurance
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athletes. So if you're running marathons as you get older,
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testosterone is going to drop. It might decrease your sex drive. It— and
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a lot of people are doing HIIT training and a lot of people doing CrossFit
16:45
and they do it every day and then they wonder why they don't have a
16:48
sex drive. Testosterone also drifts down naturally with age,
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roughly 1% a year after the age of 40. So guys, by the
16:56
time you're 60, you're gonna have 20% less testosterone potentially.
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And strength training is also important. Good sleep, enough calories and protein
17:04
for men, and keeping your body fat in a healthy range are the things
17:08
that support healthy testosterone. Grinding out more miles usually
17:11
isn't because it affects you too. It increases your cortisol, which can increase
17:15
your belly fat. It will also cannibalize your muscles, which can decrease your
17:20
muscle mass. So you might be thinking you're powering it out. And I think this
17:23
is actually worse for men than women, that you're pounding it out to, to get
17:26
to lose weight. And you're in the gym 5, 6 days a week. You may
17:30
just very well be overtraining. And when you lift so much that your body doesn't
17:33
have time to recover, you're not lifting smarter. You may be lifting harder,
17:37
but you're not lifting smarter. And you may be going backwards.
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The cortisol and fat question, chronically high cortisol is associated with,
17:44
with more fat storage around the midsection. More cravings, and more sleep.
17:49
So if you have belly fat, you're, you're stressing yourself out. Or you
17:52
may have stress at work too. Not, don't get me wrong, but a lot of
17:55
it we may be doing causing harm to our bodies. So when people say overtraining
18:00
can make you hold onto your belly fat, there's real logic behind it. I do
18:03
want to keep it honest though. A single hard workout raising cortisol is normal
18:07
and healthy, and that's okay. The problem is chronic stress with no recovery.
18:11
The workouts plus work stress plus poor sleep plus undereating
18:15
plus taking the care of the kids plus dealing with the pets. All at
18:19
once. Cortisol is one piece of the puzzle, not the whole thing. And now let's
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talk about hours and hours of cardio versus walking versus running.
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I want to be careful here because cardio is not the enemy. Your heart is
18:30
a muscle, and cardiovascular fitness is one of the strongest predictors of how long you
18:34
live as well. The problem is hours and hours of moderate to hard cardio as
18:38
your main strategy, especially for fat loss, especially over 40.
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Here's why: it competes with recovery from lifting weights.
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Your body has one recovery budget. Long, hard cardio spends
18:50
a lot of it, and it can interfere with muscle gain. This is called an
18:52
interference effect. Lots of endurance work can blunt your strength
18:56
and muscle gains, especially when the cardio is high
18:59
volume or done right before lifting. You should always lift your weights first.
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You can do a little bit of cardio after, but don't overdo it. And here's
19:06
another thing. There's a 30-30-30 rule that's going around that within
19:11
30 minutes of waking up, you should do 30 minutes of walking,
19:14
And 30 grams of protein and it helps you burn fat.
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So go for a walk within 30 minutes of waking and take in 30
19:21
grams of protein, whether it's eggs or some type of amino acid that
19:25
helps or some shake, but it will help you burn fat as well. And the
19:29
thing is, is if you're lifting heavy, I know some of my lift sessions
19:32
last an hour, hour and a half, and I lift heavy. And when I'm done,
19:35
I'm spent. And then if I was to go lift, I don't do cardio after,
19:38
'cause I'm spent after. If I go do cardio after, I know
19:42
I'm cannibalizing my muscle. It, what's your, your body needs the energy. What's it gonna
19:46
get? It's going to go straight for the muscle. And hardcore cardio can drive up
19:49
hunger. Many people burn 500 calories on the treadmill and then they eat 700 calories
19:53
without even noticing because they're starving. Your body adapts over
19:56
time. You get more efficient, so the same session burns less calories.
20:00
It's a lot of repetitive stress on your joints as well, so there's injury possibilities,
20:04
especially if you're running on tired legs. I think walking deserves a lot more
20:08
respect. Walking is the most underrated exercise for people in their 40s and
20:12
50s and 60s even. It's low stress. It doesn't eat into your lifting recovery.
20:16
It helps your blood sugar, especially after meals, and you can do it every
20:19
single day. Try this simple hack though. This is a really cool hack that
20:24
if you're trying to lose weight, if you walk for 15 minutes after each
20:27
meal, your biggest one, but 15 minutes after each meal, it's one of the simplest
20:32
ways to blunt a blood sugar spike and aim for at least 7,000
20:36
to 10,000 steps. To me, I get 7,000 steps when I'm doing nothing.
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So 7,000 to 10,000 steps a day is, is not that hard to do.
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Typically, if you're walking on a treadmill at a 2 to 3 mile pace,
20:45
you're going to get 6,000 to 7,000 in an hour.
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So you can't tell me you're not getting out for an hour. Go for a
20:53
walk a half hour in the morning, half hour at night, and you're going to
20:55
be at 10,000 steps most likely. So walking is important because— and get
20:59
a tracker. You need a tracker so you know exactly how, how much you're walking
21:03
and how many calories you're burning. So I'm closer to about 20,000 to 25,000
21:08
steps a day now. My light days are usually 15,000, but I
21:12
also have a treadmill desk and I will
21:17
eat, and then I go work on my treadmill and I'll walk for an hour
21:20
or 2 and not even realize it because I'm working while I'm doing it.
21:22
Some people watch movies. It's a very easy way. And then at night I walk
21:26
as well. I walk for about 30 to 45 minutes every night now. But walking
21:29
versus running, if you love running and your body handles it well and your joints
21:33
are good, if you really love running and your bone and cartilage has adapted to
21:37
the load, then go for it. But if you're carrying extra weight, 20,
21:40
30, 40, or more extra pounds, and you have joint pain,
21:43
you aren't sleeping, or you're trying to build muscle and lose fat, swap running
21:47
temporarily, at least for brisk walking or incline walking. I love
21:51
incline walking. Throw— if you need to, you can even throw a weighted vest
21:55
on. Cycling is good too. Rowing. Just get moving and
21:59
get the heart benefits with, with less of the impact and less recovery cost.
22:03
Cortisol is less about the impact itself and about the intensity and
22:07
duration. So if you're running 3 miles at a, at a time and it's
22:10
stressing your body out, long hard sessions push cortisol up more
22:14
than easy ones. Easy walking, if anything, tends to help you bring stress down.
22:19
If you do it in nature, it has even more of a stress reduction feeling.
22:22
The cardio mix I like after 40 is most of it's easy walking,
22:25
easy cycling. Zone 2 is where you need to be, where you can still talk,
22:29
a little bit out of breath, but zone 2, it depends on the person.
22:32
You get there between 2.5 and 3 miles per hour when you're walking.
22:36
I'm usually 2.5 because I have short legs, but so I have to walk twice
22:40
as fast to keep up, but 2 to 3 hours a week spread out is
22:43
great. So you don't have to walk that much. Now, Now walking to
22:47
me, if you're going to walk, I think you should do it daily so you
22:49
create the habit and it doesn't hurt you to walk daily. It's not like it's
22:53
a cardio that's going to cannibalize your muscles. In fact, it may help them loosen
22:57
up some of the lactic acid that's in there. And a little of it can
22:59
be hard as well. One short interval session a week, 4 to 6 hours of
23:03
HIIT training, 30 to 60 seconds hard with easy recovery. That's great for your
23:08
heart. And HIIT training is fantastic for, for fat loss as well,
23:11
but separate it from lifting when you can do it. Don't do it on the
23:14
same days you lift. Definitely don't do it right after you lift. I know it's
23:18
convenient if you're at the gym already. But when you do that, what you're doing
23:21
is you're sacrificing muscle. You're going to have to work harder to recoup
23:26
that muscle. It is harder to gain muscle as we get older. It just
23:29
is. So you don't want to burn it or cannibalize it because it's going to
23:33
take you longer to get it back. Let's talk about iron because this one flies
23:36
under the radar. People who train hard, especially endurance athletes,
23:39
are more likely to run in low on iron. Sometimes it's
23:43
called anemia or exercise-associated iron deficiency.
23:47
A few reasons happen. So after hard exercise, your body releases
23:51
hormones, and some of those hormones block iron. So if
23:55
you train hard and eat hard and then eat your iron-rich meal right
23:59
after, you may absorb less of it. So you could have spinach after and
24:03
you're just not absorbing it. And sometimes repeated pounding,
24:06
like long-distance running, can break down red blood cells in the feet. I see this
24:10
happen in women that are in their 50s and 60s, and they go to dance
24:13
classes every single day, and they have no muscle left because they're
24:17
breaking it down, and then they get lightheaded or they get they faint because they're
24:21
low on iron. And there's also, you know, you lose iron through
24:25
sweat and gut, small portions, but they add up with high
24:29
training. And your diet, a lot of us aren't eating as we get older because
24:32
we're like, I need to cut the fat. And the funny thing is, is if
24:35
you just increased your protein, you'd increase your muscle mass and then the fat would
24:39
just melt off. It's kind of magical how it happens. And here's
24:44
the other thing, symptoms including fatigue that doesn't match your training, or shortness of breath,
24:48
you need to talk to your doctor, go to the hospital if it gets really
24:50
bad. If your hair is shedding or you have brittle nails or
24:54
restless leg syndrome or your workouts suddenly feel really hard,
24:58
that could be an iron deficiency. I had a person, a friend of mine that
25:01
actually had to go to the hospital because she had it, because she worked out
25:04
3, 4 hours straight in a day. It's jumping around exercises.
25:08
It's not healthy for us as we get older. Now about menopause, I want to
25:12
clear something up because I've heard this a lot. Women are at a much higher
25:16
risk of iron deficiency before menopause because of monthly blood loss. After periods stop,
25:20
iron levels usually rise, and postmenopausal women's iron drops to about
25:23
the same as men's, about 8 milligrams a day instead of 18. The tricky
25:27
window is actual perimenopause, when periods can actually get heavier
25:31
and more irregular. It's really common, and sometimes your iron crashes
25:35
fast. So if you're postmenopausal and you've been diagnosed as low
25:39
on iron, that that's worth a real conversation with your doctor about
25:43
why. And it can be diet or overtraining, but it can also
25:47
point to blood loss somewhere else like the gut, and that needs to be checked
25:50
too. So get tested first for iron before you start taking supplements.
25:55
And don't take iron just in case. Too much iron is generally harmful,
25:59
and that's especially true for men and postmenopausal women. And eat iron-rich
26:03
foods like red meat, shellfish, beans, lentils, and spinach.
26:06
That helps. And vitamin C as well helps. It's time to think smarter and
26:10
stop hurting ourselves just because we think that's how we did it before.
26:14
I understand you might be going and then all the 20-year-olds are jumping around and
26:18
they go for 2 or 3 hours of class, but you're not 20 anymore.
26:20
So realize it's okay to be older. Enjoy it. It's actually kind of fun.
26:24
Eat iron-rich foods and meals in the morning away from hard training.
26:28
That helps as well. So now let's talk about the big one, protein.
26:31
How much and how often do you Protein,
26:35
if you're lifting after 40 and you're undereating protein, you're leaving results
26:38
on the table, period. What I'm hearing from most people is as
26:41
we age, our muscles become less responsive to protein.
26:45
So we actually have to take more in. It's called anabolic resistance.
26:49
So we actually need more, not less protein. So people in
26:52
their 40s, 50s, and 60s and above, they're talking now
26:56
that we should be taking about 0.8 grams of protein
27:00
per pound of body weight. And that's for people that are
27:04
not lifting heavy. That's just a basic workout.
27:08
Maybe they're walking during the week. If you're trying to gain muscle mass,
27:12
we're— you should be looking closer to 1.2
27:16
to 1.6 grams of protein per pound
27:20
of body weight. The general rule is if you're eating less than 1 gram of
27:24
protein per pound of your goal body weight, You're probably
27:29
losing muscle. So say you're a woman aiming for 150 pounds. That's roughly
27:33
105 to 150 grams a day of protein. And that's
27:37
a lot. A man is probably eating anywhere from 150
27:40
to 225 grams of protein a
27:44
day. What I found is as I eat more protein, I don't have any room
27:48
for anything else. So I'm pretty much on a protein with a few veggies here
27:51
and there. I've been juicing a lot. Because the juice helps me,
27:54
but I've been juicing a lot just to get the nutrients in.
27:58
The juice is maybe 150 calories, but I need
28:02
those nutrients because I eat so much protein now. It's interesting how much
28:05
my body composition has changed and how quickly. I think I
28:09
was one of those people that was starving myself so much that my muscles were
28:13
just cannibalized. I would build more muscle and then it would just cannibalize it away.
28:16
Now that I'm eating protein, it's amazing how strong and
28:20
beautiful my muscles are getting. But 30 to 40 grams per meal 3 to 4
28:24
times a day is what people are recommending. Older muscle needs a bigger dose per
28:28
meal. So to flip the muscle building switch than the younger ones. And there
28:32
was an interesting article I read yesterday about how the best way
28:36
to lose body fat and maintain it is to cycle 30 to 40
28:40
grams of protein per meal. And then on top of that,
28:43
do intermittent fasting every once in a while. And that is the best
28:46
way to decrease body fat at the same time you're increasing muscle mass.
28:50
That dose should be rich in amino acids called leucine as well.
28:54
L-E-U-C-I-N-E. I-N-E. It should be about 2.5
28:57
to 3 grams per meal. Leucine is really good because you get that roughly 30
29:02
to 40 grams of protein from eggs, dairy, meat, fish, or whey.
29:05
That's where leucine is. Breakfast is where most people fall short. Greek yogurt,
29:09
eggs, cottage cheese, or a protein shake fixes that fast.
29:13
I think everybody should be eating eggs for breakfast. Now, there was a time when
29:16
eggs were really expensive, but they're not anymore, so it's time to go get some
29:18
eggs. And how much is too much for healthy people?
29:23
If you take over 2.2 to 3 grams for months
29:27
and months, it can do damage to your kidneys. But that's also if you're not
29:31
building extra muscle and it's not getting utilized. The big caveat is if you
29:34
have chronic kidney disease or reduced kidney function, protein needs to
29:38
be guided by your doctor, and your doctor should set that level. The old myth
29:42
that you can only absorb 30 grams per meal is not true. You absorb all
29:45
of it. The larger dose just gets used more slowly. Even a 100-gram
29:50
dose kept building muscle when you take it in. It just takes longer to digest
29:53
and get used up. So don't stress if one big meal, meal is big,
29:57
just hit your daily total and spread it reasonably out so that your body can
30:01
utilize the protein. One other thing I heard is that if you take a casein
30:03
protein, if you're going to do cottage cheese during the day, the best time is
30:06
later in the day because a lot of times we burn muscle
30:11
if we don't have protein to support it overnight. Cottage cheese is one of those
30:14
foods that will take longer to digest. So your body will have
30:19
access to that protein overnight. I thought that was interesting, but there's also supplements
30:22
that are worth it and that we should talk about as well. First, supplements are
30:26
the last 5%. So if you're lifting weights, if you're
30:30
eating your protein, if you're getting your sleep, and if you're walking every
30:34
day or every other day, that's 95% of your body, the way
30:38
you're going to look. No pill fixes a program that's out of balance.
30:41
That's what we keep getting sold. We keep getting sold Ozempic shots.
30:45
We keep getting sold pills, but a few of these These, they can help and
30:49
I get it. People sometimes need assistance, but it shouldn't be your primary objective
30:53
because then people are on Ozempic and they have Ozempic face because
30:56
their face loses all the muscle and it loses all the
31:00
fat and then it just melts. Let's work on the things
31:03
we have complete control over. And that's your lifting, your protein,
31:07
your sleep, and how much you walk. Those things, that's 95%.
31:11
And your food is probably 80% of it. People just don't realize that.
31:15
But creatine is important. Now I'm going to talk about some supplements, but don't
31:18
think you can supplement yourself into a healthy body. It's just not possible.
31:22
Creatine is the most researched sports supplement so far on the planet. In adults
31:26
over 50, if you combine creatine with lifting, it helps with strength, muscle,
31:30
and likely bone too. Here's the other thing. They're also researching it now for brain
31:34
benefits, especially for women after menopause. The dosing is 3
31:38
to 5 grams a day, every day, any time of the day. And there's no
31:41
loading phase. There used to be talk that there should be a loading phase.
31:44
There are still some circles that say you need 10 grams of creatine a day.
31:47
Depends on what circle you're in. But plain creatine monohydrate,
31:51
the fancy versions aren't any better. That's all you need is creatine monohydrate.
31:56
You can put it in smoothies. There's a lot of creatine powders out there.
32:00
I like to take it with urolithin A. The urolithin A is really good for
32:04
the mitochondria. It's up to you. And it doesn't damage healthy kidneys.
32:07
Creatine doesn't. It raises a lab marker called creatinine.
32:11
So tell your doctor you take it because that may, that lab marker may go
32:15
up. It may add a pound or 2 of water weight too in the beginning.
32:19
But that's just inside the muscle and it's actually a good thing. It'll help with
32:22
recovery a little bit. So realize that again, don't look at the scale, look at
32:26
your body. Your body's probably looking beautiful because you've been doing everything you're supposed to
32:30
do, lifting weights 3 times a week, walking 5 or 6 days a week and
32:34
upping your protein. I mean, you'll be amazed how quickly the shift happens
32:37
too. If you really get dialed in and that's what we're talking about today,
32:40
getting dialed in, you'll be amazed at how quickly your body shifts.
32:44
Essential amino acids are important too. If you're hitting your protein target from real food,
32:48
you probably don't need separate amino acids. Acids. Whey basically is a complete
32:52
amino acid supplement. I'm not a big fan of whey though, I will say,
32:56
because a lot of the whey shakes have a lot of sugar, and when you
32:59
have all that extra sugar, it can cause inflammation as
33:03
well. I'm more of a Perfect Amino type of person or
33:07
an amino acid type of person. If your appetite's small— I don't have a big
33:10
appetite and I'm struggling as it is just to get the protein in,
33:13
so sometimes taking additional branched-chain amino acids or the Perfect
33:17
Amino, which is a brand. It's a great way to go. I think it helps
33:21
out a lot. Berberine is great too. Now it's a compound that's been called nature's
33:25
Ozempic lately on social media, but let's, let's be real. What it does well,
33:29
studies have shown that it lowers your blood sugar and improves insulin sensitivity,
33:33
and it helps cholesterol and triglycerides. So if you have high cholesterol, if you're
33:37
on cholesterol medicine though, make sure you ask your doctor before you start taking it,
33:40
'cause it can mess with that. It acts like a, like the diabetes drug metformin
33:45
is what it does. It has an effect, but even though it's small on weight
33:48
loss, typically typically a pound over several months. It is nothing like a GLP-1
33:51
though. People keep calling it nature's Ozempic, and that's, that's false advertising.
33:55
It really is. But it also does some things for your gut. If you've had
33:59
gut issues like I've had in the past from antibiotics,
34:02
it does help the gut barrier. Do your research on berberine because
34:06
there— it does more than just lower blood sugar. It's a really good supplement
34:10
to take just for longevity as well and for your gut health. There's no good
34:14
evidence it builds muscle, but since it acts on some of the same pathways as
34:17
metformin, There's a theoretical question about whether it could slightly
34:20
blunt training adaptations. So you might be able to grow more.
34:24
It's not proven. It's not truly a muscle supplement, but it may assist, basically.
34:28
This one, you should probably take 500 milligrams 2 to 3 times a day with
34:32
meals. So it's a multiple time a day thing, just like the creatine is.
34:35
Creatine, you could do it in one dose or you can do it spread out
34:38
over 2. It can cause GI upset though. So, and it interacts
34:43
with a lot of medications, including diabetes drugs. So be careful 'cause it can drop
34:46
your blood sugar too low. If you're on blood sugars, or again,
34:49
if you're on some type of medicine for your cholesterol, don't use
34:54
it or talk to your doctor first before, let them prescribe you that.
34:57
There's over-the-counter supplements that we need to be careful of as we
35:01
get older, but even when we're younger, 'cause some of them can cause a lot
35:04
of harm. Let's talk now about vitamin D. Since most people, as we
35:08
get older, we're really low in vitamin D and it causes bone loss. But when
35:12
you take vitamin D3, you should also take K2 with it just
35:15
so it gets absorbed. And vitamin C helps as well. You're— you need to get
35:19
your levels tested and supplement correctly based off your levels. Omega-3 fish
35:23
oils, that's going to help improve muscle because it's also an anti-inflammatory.
35:27
It helps with your muscle building and your response to protein,
35:31
plus it's got heart benefits. You might as well look into your omega-3s. Most people
35:34
are taking that anyway. Magnesium is another thing that most people are
35:38
deficient in, and it helps with muscle function. I like magnesium glycinate
35:42
in the evening because it's my best choice because I have sleep issues. It helps
35:46
me fall asleep easier. I take it about an hour before bed, otherwise it takes
35:49
too long to kick And a quality protein source. Honestly, one of the most useful
35:52
supplements for hitting your protein numbers is protein source. You can throw a protein
35:56
source in a, in a smoothie. You can put it in your coffee.
36:00
I put collagen in my coffee. I'm drinking way more coffee now and
36:04
I'm drink— and I have collagen because it helps. Collagen is going to help with
36:07
your joints and your skin and any of your connective tissue. I will tell you,
36:11
as I get heavier lifting, I, my joints do swell up a little bit.
36:14
I'm really big on making sure I get enough collagen protein. Protein.
36:17
HMB is one too. It may help a little with muscle preservation
36:21
in older people. I've heard people talk about it.
36:24
It's, it's good for people that are anywhere from undertrained to sedentary.
36:28
It just helps keep your muscle mass. So if you're going through healing
36:32
from an injury, HMB may help with that. So look
36:36
into it. There's some studies. But for people already lifting and eating enough protein,
36:39
the benefit is small, but it may help if you're going through an injury and
36:43
you can't work out the way you Caffeine is also a cheap, proven performance
36:46
booster before training, just not late in the day. I don't recommend having
36:50
much caffeine after 2 o'clock, cuz it wrecks your sleep unless it's
36:54
decaf. And there's no point then, cuz it's not really helping your, your training.
36:58
One quality tip though, supplements aren't tightly regulated. So look for
37:01
third-party testing or NSF certified for sports
37:05
or Informed Sports. There's, there's different types of certification.
37:09
Your 20s versus your 40s and 50s, Plus how training actually
37:13
looks different as we age. In your 20s, you get away with a lot.
37:16
You recover faster, your hormones are on your side, and you can handle
37:19
higher volumes, 5 or 6 days a week, more running, more intensity. You can handle
37:23
it and your body responds. That's great. But now we
37:27
need more recovery time. And if you skip the recovery, your strength and your muscles
37:31
suffer. So in your 40s, the same principles apply, but it
37:34
just dial it back just a little bit and you'll see bigger gains.
37:38
Other types of exercise I love for the 40+ crowd is Pilates and yoga.
37:42
You could do yoga. Yoga every day. And Pilates is a strength training though,
37:46
so be careful with that because that could actually replace one of your weightlifting sessions.
37:49
Swimming's fantastic too. On days I'm not lifting weights, I'm swimming.
37:54
And then I walk every day. I'm not saying you can't work out 5 or
37:58
6 days a week. I'm just saying don't lift 5 or 6 days a week.
38:00
A simple week for 40+, here's a schedule. Let's say you do full body
38:04
strength training on Monday, you do it on Wednesday, and you do it on Friday.
38:07
And then on Tuesday, you take a walk or you go for a swim.
38:10
And Thursday, you do an easy cardio, some type of short interval training. Then Saturday,
38:15
you do a nice long walk, maybe go for a hike. And Sunday is your
38:18
rest day. You stretch, you do extra yoga. It can be your easy walk day,
38:22
whatever works. But that's an easy week. You'll find you'll have more
38:25
time, more energy, and more strength. If you're getting exhausted
38:29
all the time from working out and you're beating yourself up,
38:32
give yourself some grace. It's okay. This is part of aging. It's okay.
38:36
The deal is, is you have to listen to your body. So here's what
38:39
you can take away this this week. You gotta lift weights. You just need to.
38:42
If you wanna have longevity, you gotta lift weights. It's the most important thing
38:46
you can do for your body as you age. Train hard, but recover harder.
38:49
For many of us, 3 focused days beats 5 exhausted ones
38:54
all the time. And walk every day. I recommend walking every
38:58
day. Eat your protein spread throughout the day. Eat more protein. Eat more protein.
39:01
Supplement as you need, but eat more protein. And then watch
39:05
for signs of burnout or low vitamins and, and make sure you get your blood
39:09
work done regularly every year. Men and women. I know a lot of men don't
39:12
it, but they need to. The goal is, is that at this stage of life,
39:15
it's, it's not to punish your body into shape. It's to give the right signals
39:19
and then get out of the way so your body can respond and heal itself
39:22
and grow. I hope this episode helped. If you have a friend that's overtraining
39:26
or going for a 2-hour burnout cardio session every single
39:30
day and nothing's changing and they're beating themselves up, this is the reason why.
39:33
There's lots of information out there now where people are talking about slowing down
39:37
actually gives you more benefits. Benefit. I hope this helped. I hope you can see
39:41
that it's time to give yourself some grace and you'll see more growth and more
39:45
benefit by taking it easy on yourself. So love yourself, take care of yourself.
39:49
This is Diva Mia. Have a wonderful day.
39:51
Thanks for tuning in.
39:54
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