ONLINE TRAINING, COACHING AND NUTRITION
for the 40+ woman!

When I started lifting weights 30 years ago, I was one of only a few gals in my neck of the woods who were lifting.

Oh yeah, I thought I was pretty hot stuff. I entered a bodybuliding show just shy of my 30th birthday…and won. Body building was in its infancy, so it was all new, fun, exciting. I weighted all of 108 pounds.

Then, for many years, I trained in smaller gyms, and again, I was out-lifting most women there…so I still thought I was pretty hot stuff.

Fast-forward 20 years and I became very ill, and I couldn’t train for about 8 years (which I describe in my book One Rep at a Time). A long, hard road, to be sure.

Me with Deanna and Leanne, two clients-turned-friends who both won the 10-Week Challenge and now are fellow competitors! They make me WORK!

But when I finally got my health back, I went back to the gym, and boy, was I in for a surprise. There were TONS of women lifting, and while I was glad to see it, my body and my results, paled in comparison. They were out-lifting me 2 to 1! 

That was when I realised, I had been a big fish in a small fish bowl for many years. All those years of training while living in remote areas – Banff, Whistler, Sun Peaks, my home gym – meant that I wasn’t keeping pace with the rest of the women lifters out there…and they had surpassed me!

So when I decided to go back into competition at the tender age of 51, I started looking around the Internet. I visited other gyms and watched and learned from other women who were big fish in their own right. And I was humbled….just when I thought a 25-pound dumbell shoulder press was great, these women were lifting, 40, 50 and more. (Yes, many of them were natural). And they weren’t overly huge, but they were extremely tight, toned and sexy!

So about 2 years ago, I upped the ante. I got serious. I no longer wanted to be a small fish anymore. And I teach this to all my clients ( this is what we’re working on in my latest group of 10 and 12-Week Challengers….Intensity!)

Sooooo many women are afraid of lifting big, and I suspect that way in the back in my mind, perhaps I was too. But there’s no easy road. Body parts droop and drop if you don’t work hard to keep them toned and lifted up!

Do yourself a favour: watch other serious women train in the gym, women with bodies that you would like. Even the internet isn’t a good place to look because the women are doing ‘promo’ videos and they’re there all day long, so they use smaller weights to be able to complete a days’ work.

Now, I’m glad to say I’ve increased my dumbell shoulder press to a clean 35 pounds….and I’m aiming for 40 pretty soon! And the extra effort is truly showing itself now in more rounded delts, firmer triceps and legs that (finally) are starting to grow. How nice! (Yes, I’m still only 112 pounds).

Now, if I could just lift up that saggy butt a wee bit more

🙂 karen

PS My 6-week Lift n Lose and Women on Weights in-gym programs start again November 5th! Come join us!

Last week in my Women on Weights class, we were chatting about weight loss when one woman said that while she knew alot about what I was saying (clean eating, carb cycling), she just didn’t want to put it into action. ‘Why?’, I asked.

‘Because I enjoy my social life too much.

She enjoyed going out in the evenings with her friends to their favourite haunt for a few glasses of wine. That was an important part of her social life.

I get that. I really do. When our life is set up around social outings, it can be a hard thing to change. But when we decide we want change, something’s gotta give. There’s always a compromise to be made.

Life is about compromises….we can’t spend our entire pay cheque or we won’t make the rent or mortgage. We can’t just blatantly say whatever comes into our mind or soon we won’t have any friends left! It’s the same with eating: we can’t just keep eating and drinking the way we have been if we want new results.

This woman knew this, and while she was stating the obvious, I applauded her for being so honest and forthcoming. (I only wish all my diet clients were this open about their eating.)

Here’s what I’ve learned: you don’t have to compromise in big heaps…sometimes a little compromise will do. Like instead of having 2-3 glasses of wine with your friends at night, have one. Or instead of going out every night, go out on weekends. This woman’s social life – and the wine that went with it – was important to her. So she wasn’t wanting to give it up. But pulling back the reins a bit is a good starting place. Baby steps…..

For others, baby steps won’t work. For some of us (like yours truly), we seem to have to do things to extreme in order to create change (but this can set us up for huge failure, so be careful!). But you gotta bend in order to shift something…

Find your bending point and lean into it. Like I always say, If you like how you look and feel, keep doing what you’re doing. If not, change it up. For me, I’ve found what works: I stay without alcohol during the week, but I allow myself wine on Friday and Saturday, and one cheat meal a week where I get to eat whatever I want.

Beyond that, I lose control, and staying lean ends up being a wishy-washy affair and I lose all my gains from the week prior. I – like you – work way too hard to keep a healthy physique to see it all washed away in a no-holds barred attitude. So a compromise is in order, if I want to see results.

Like the lottery ad says: Find your limit, play within it. Then compromise then goes from being constraining to empowering. You feel more free!

And it feels great to be in control of your eating and have a social life at the same time!

karen