Strong Women! A question I am often asked is “What form of exercise should I be doing, especially as I hit my 40s and beyond?” Cardio (especially running) has always been at the forefront of the media when it comes to fitness whilst strength training has often been overlooked. However, just 30 minutes of resistance training three times per week is one the best things you can do for your health and fitness especially as we head into midlife. I’m passionate about this style of training and want to spread the word!
Back to basics!
Strength training which is also called resistance training or weight training is basically just using your body weight and/or resistance bands and weights to add load to your workout. For many years women have associated weight training with images of body builders and big bulging muscles but this couldn’t be further from the truth! Often we are talking 2-4 kg dumbbells mixed with bodyweight exercises. Over time you may decide to gradually increase the weights or the number of reps – this is called progressive overload and will help you get stronger and fitter. The increased load and demand on the muscles forces them to adapt and grow stronger over time. But the benefits of strength training don’t just stop at the muscular system…
So, what are some of the key benefits of strength training for women?
Well, they really are almost endless! Not only does it contribute hugely to building and retaining muscle tissue and very importantly improving our bone density (which naturally reduces as we age especially post the menopause) but it can also have such a positive effect on many aspects of the body including:
Reducing back pain by enhancing core strength and stability
Reducing the risk of trips and falls by building strength
Improving posture and balance
Enhancing mental wellbeing – lowering stress levels and releasing endorphins for that mental boost
Boosting our immunity, improving sleep
How about strength training and body fat?
You will be pleased to know that strength training can help if your goal is to reduce body fat. Whilst the workout itself may not burn as many calories as a run or a pure cardio workout, one of the key benefits of strength training is weight management – by increasing muscle mass and reducing fat. The increased muscle mass contributes to a higher metabolism or metabolic rate which helps regulate body mass long term & long after the workout has finished whilst the body repairs. However, it is important to make sure that whilst you’re asking your body to build extra muscle and work hard you fuel it sufficiently to do so – so a healthy, balanced diet with plenty of protein.
The next question is how to strength train and how often…
Research has shown that 30-45 minutes three times a week is ideal. Strength training three times a week gives your body enough time to recover between sessions whilst still pushing it enough to see the results. If you’re new to fitness and training you may need to start more gently with very light weights and build up over time. I have long since been an advocate of strength training, particularly for women, and with this in mind I built my platform – Caroline’s Circuits. My workouts are 4 times a week for just 30 minutes. They are interval strength training circuits which work different muscle groups and challenge the body – they give the perfect mix of strength and cardio for the best results.
The online workouts are Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday (they are all recorded and available to you within an hour of the session if you can’t make them live). Classes have been specifically designed to suit all fitness levels and create fitness habits which last & which produce results.
So, from the start – did you always know that sport was going to be your vocation? How did you get into fitness in the first place? What does it mean to you?
From the age of 12 I can’t honestly say that I knew I was going to become an Olympian. But what I did know is that I had I had fun doing sport. It allowed me to build a really big community around me, a diverse community you know, and that’s the power of sport. Sport allows you to meet people along the way – people with similar mindsets, similar focuses, and yeah, you know, that was for me, it was like my second family at the athletics track in Wembley where I grew up.
Fitness has always been magnificent for me because it’s it helps me not just my physical self, we all know that being fit and in keeping an element of fitness and a routine allows you to really look after your mental health as well and your well-being. So, all these things I learned from very young, like I said to you from 12 years old, right through to when I retired in 2006 35 years old, sport and fitness has been an integral part of my life. I qualified as a personal trainer in 1999 and again, that having my expertise and my experience and being able to give that to others has allowed them to thrive, but at the same time, it’s allowed me to broaden my horizons as well and recognise again, you know, the impact of physicality in today’s world.
How much of a role does our mindset play in our daily lives? And morespecifically mindset as regards working out and fitness?
People talk about mindset. Mindset is integral when you’re talking about you know, having that get up and go and that fire in your belly. Mindset is everything. And you know, sorry to harp on about it, but it definitely comes from you know, having that, that sporty background where, you have to dig deep some days. When I used to be out on the track on my own or with a group and it’s cold, it’s rainy, it’s wintry, you got to have a good mindset. You have to think to yourself, right what’s the next goal? You know, when you get disappointments, again, you have to think, how am I going to get over that disappointment and it’s about looking at your deep, deep, innate qualities that you that you have within yourself.
How has your view on sport changed over the years? How do you view exercise now and how do you fit it into your busy lifestyle? How do you find balance with your career, being a mum of 3 etc. What does self-care mean to you?
People do ask me all the time so how do you manage to you know run a successful career as a life coach, motivational speaker and mentor with three children as well. So how do I do it? Sometimes really bad if I’m being really honest. You drop the ball, we have all dropped the ball. I think there’s that level of pressure that you feel that you always have to be on your A game and, you have to always try and be on your A game but it’s okay. Some days you just aren’t up to it and your plate is overflowing and spilling and you’re you’ve got meetings coming out of here and there, you’ve got deadlines to meet, and it does become overwhelming. So, you know, it’s about again, having people in your corner, supportive people in your corner, for you to say to them, “look, I need some time out, this is a bit too much”. I think that’s when you talk about self-care. Self-care is recognising actually this is going down the road but I’m feeling a little bit too vulnerable and overwhelmed and then speaking up.
I always say vulnerability is strength because it is so you know, it’s about being able to own the fact of how you’re feeling rather than pretending that you can do it and then compromising your health. We are nothing without our health. You know, so it’s, again, that self-care to me would mean having timeout having a nice meal, you know, taking some time away from my phone, chilling reading a good book and just really just enjoying my own company. Not necessarily anybody else’s but enjoy my own company and seeing the value of who I truly am.
How do you motivate busy career women to set goals, find motivation not just for fitness but for their lifestyles and handle midlife struggles at work and at home?
Women come to me all the time, you know, in coaching and whether it’s to climb up the next ladder in their career they want that motivation to go the next step. And I often say to them, how important is this to you? And it sounds like a such a cliche question, but how important is this to you, tell me the relevance this will have on your life if you were to achieve this goal. And then you start to really unpack and unravel. Is this really that important to that individual? Or is it that individual is just saying that they would like that in the ideal world and that way, you really get to get the sense of how important is this what at what lengths are they willing to go to, to achieve this goal.
This is sometimes quite difficult for people because the reality sets in. The easiest thing to do is to start with the smart model. How specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and in what timeframe do you want to achieve this goal and then the aha moments happen during that period of time as well. So again, it’s about really thrashing out with the client, which is what I do, how important is this role to them, ask how, what, when, why, simple, simple little things that allow them to really dig deep into their goals, their own personal goals, whether that be a fitness goal, whether it be a career goal. I’ve got a woman that comes to me says she wants to start a family, but she’s conflicted as she’s worried about her career at the same time. And I’m like, okay, so let’s look at this. Look at the whole situation, put it on paper. I often think when you put things on paper, it allows you to see the vision a lot clearer.
As an expert with women in the menopause years what do you find clients struggle with the most? Tell us about your work in that area and what the common misconceptions are for women at this time?
A lot of my midlife clients are those who are menopausal or perimenopausal ladies who come to me generally for weight gain.
When it comes to personal training, they’re often talking about the midlife spread and, and I say to them – look, my biggest, biggest thing to everybody out there who’s reading this article is get yourself equipped with as much knowledge as possible so that you can then look at your options. We always feel powerful when we’ve got options that we can explore. We feel paralysed when we don’t have any options and that’s probably the biggest thing for me. Utilise what’s within our grasp. Find out explore, ask the questions, speak to other women then you know that you have supported other women but you’re also supporting yourself as well. Yes, I’m an ambassador for the menopause charity and I’m a patron for menopause mandate, but at the same time, I’m also a female that’s going through it and goes up and down – menopause is like a moving target. As a woman you think you’ve got it all right, and next, you know, you’re feeling low again. And you start to question Is this a lifestyle? Is this something that’s going on with your life? Is it circumstantial? Am I tired because of menopause? Or is it that I’ve taken on a lot of stuff that you know, sometimes it is without your control. So, it’s about really identifying what’s going on. I think being 51 that I am now allows me to be playing really smart and be honest with myself of how I’m feeling. So, this is how I how I live my life is also how I want to tell other women explore your options, and that way you don’t feel paralysed and fearful.
Which charitable causes are you passionate about and why?
Like I said, I’m an ambassador for the menopause, charity, diabetes UK and women’s aid. These three charities are very dear to my heart. I’ve been with them for now for the last few years. And I guess the reason why I joined these charities is because they all resonate with me, and I think it’s important to pay it forward and give back to charities or to organisations that you feel have helped you in your life or potentially will help somebody else in their life. So that’s why I belong to those three charities. I’m the one of the patrons along with Lisa Snowdon and Davina McCall of the menopause mandate. So that’s where I am my charity, charitable work and actually, that’s the thing that gives me a lot of hope and I have a lot of passion and purpose around, I absolutely love belonging to three charities.
What’s next for you?
People ask me all the time in life what’s next for you? I guess I just want to stay true to myself about where my passion lies, really honing in on what’s important to me. Making an impact on society is a big thing. I don’t have a lot of followers, but I have a lot of followers. You know, I have a lot of people that when I speak, I think listen to what I say. And like I said, all you want to do is impact one person’s life and that can have the ripple effect that took them to spread the word to help other people. You’d be surprised to know in my years of mentoring, how many young people’s lives are transformed, and just from them being around me, and that’s what I want to continue to do. I also want to continue to grow me as an individual. I want to be global with my public speaking. And I want to be recognised as a really, as a strong female, a strong black female that is there to use her voice and to make a change and make a difference.
If you could share one motivational tip, what would it be?
The one motivational thing that I leave everybody else with is a dream is nothing if it’s left on the pillow. Make it happen. It’s down to you. Don’t blame anybody else. Don’t look at anybody else. A dream is nothing if it’s left on the pillow. It’s down to you to go and get it or make it happen. Thank you.
In case you want to listen to Michelle’s great words here are the audio files from our chat for you.
Have you been exercising for a long time and of late seem to have plateaued? Or did you start your fitness regime in January and now 6 weeks in you are not seeing the results you were hoping for and feeling rather demotivated?
This week I am going to give you some reasons why this could be and some tips to make sure you keep seeing the results you’re after.
Firstly a couple of key questions:
If you’ve just started, remember that its early days and results take some time – depending on your goal changes can be difficult but stick with it, you are most certainly on the right track and the hardest step was to get started. You always need to stick at a new program for at least 3-6 months to start seeing those gains…
A key question – are you consistent in your exercises routine? How many sessions a week are you managing? Consistency really is key when it comes to improvements – so make sure you are planning your workouts.
Secondly, are your workouts still challenging you? The weights you were using at the start might not be challenging you in the same way any more, maybe it is time for an increase? (Did you see last week’s blog all about when and how to increase your weights? Read it here).
Also are you varying your workouts or doing the same program time and time again? The body will only change if you move outside of your comfort zone – otherwise it will stop making adaptations if it’s too comfortable. Remember what your goal is. It’s good to stick with a set program but make sure you also include some cardio with your strength training and vice versa – interval training is brilliant for keeping the challenge on. And remember to switch up your upper, lower and full body workouts.
Change just one thing at a time – maybe it’s the duration or the intensity or the load. Don’t change everything at once or you risk injury or being demotivated when it’s too much.
Next up –how’s your nutrition? You can’t outrun a bad diet and however hard you train it’s essential that you are fueling your body correctly. Are you having adequate protein? Is your diet healthy and balanced? Are you drinking plenty of water? Look at portion sizes and try to cook your meals from fresh.
Finally, are you letting your body recover properly? This encompasses not only rest days (active recovery days are good too when you can walk, stretch etc) but refuelling (as mentioned above), hydrating and sleeping. When we sleep our muscles not only repair but grow. Without enough sleep you can’t expect your body to have the energy it needs to perform in workouts, for potential changes to take place and time to recover afterwards.
When it comes to seeing results it really does come down to consistency, challenge and recovery. So keep going, the benefits will come, 100%.
As always if you have any questions please do get in touch.
Anyone who reads my blog regularly will know I am a huge advocate of strength training – the benefits are endless. From stronger muscles, improved bone health, mood boost and immunity enhancing, strength training really is wonderful! And the best part is that you don’t need to lift heavy weights to reap the benefits of strength training, but you do need to keep challenging yourself. Your body needs to be challenged and it is this challenge which creates change – this is called progressive overload (more on this later).
When lifting weights, that fatigue feeling you get towards the end of a set is called exercise induced fatigue or peripheral fatigue and it is this which causes muscle tissue break down. Contrary to how this sounds, this is actually very beneficial because as the muscle tissue repairs, it repairs in an enhanced state, making the muscle stronger than before. The key here is that it happens during recovery so you must make sure you’re giving your body adequate rest time to reap these benefits.
Over time, to keep seeing improvement and changes, you need to keep applying the principle of progressive overload. Now what does this mean for you in your training? It could be that over time you gradually, and I do mean gradually, increase your weights, it could be increasing the number of reps or sets you are doing or by changing your program.
There is no specific formula on when to do this. My advice is when you’re new to strength training, start small. Start with light dumbbells (I recommend everyone to start with 2kg) and focus 100% on your technique. Then measure how you are finding your sets – if you can do all the reps without any difficulty then it’s time to switch up. My advice is that the last 2-3 reps should be a challenge. However the key is to move up weights slowly, small increments will help ensure that your form stays good while you build strength. It may also be that you can increase for some exercises but not others – ie you may feel stronger in your lower body than upper body so adjust accordingly.
A couple of questions to therefore ask yourself before you increase the weight are:
Is it still challenging me?
Could I keep going and going?
Do I use the same weight every workout? And have done for months?
Am I still seeing results? Or have I plateaued?
And remember by increasing the weight does not mean you will bulk up!
It is important to highlight that when you do increase your weight there is a chance you might feel it in the 24-48 hours post exercise (also know as DOMS). This delayed onset of muscle soreness is totally normal and it will go – it is greatly helped by going out for a walk and loosening off the muscles, stretching, epsom salts in the bath etc.
I hope this is helpful! Any questions always feel free to contact me!
It’s that time of the year where it can feel a little bit “no man’s land-ish”! The first month of the year is done yet it’s still pretty wintery, January is over and you might have lost a bit of the momentum and enthusiasm for the new year and feeling a bit flat. Rest assured you are not alone in this – this week I am going to highlight just some of the reasons you might be feeling like this and what you can do to get back on track – these tips relate to your fitness but also apply to many other aspects in your life too:
First of all, is it a lack of commitment or consistency? Making the resolution or choosing the goal is the easy part, sticking to it is that hard bit! Without commitment, focus and consistency it is very easy to become distracted and lose motivation. My advice here is to choose a reward that really means something to you when you reach that goal to help you get that motivation back.
Secondly goals – are the goals you have set yourself realistic? Or maybe too ambitious? What’s your “Why” for getting started? Setting yourself unachievable goals is sure fire way to reduce motivation. If your resolutions and goals are too ambitious and unable to fit into your lifestyle, it can make it very hard to keep on track, keep up the necessary motivation and therefore things start to slip. So, take a look at the goals you have set and spend some time re-establishing – think short, medium and long term and make sure you reward yourself for reaching them.
Did you set yourself a solid plan? Make sure you write it down, keep a journal, track your progress…
SLEEP – So key to progression. Without rest days for repair and recovery it’s impossible to move forward. When we sleep better, we make better food choices, we move more – it goes on!!
What does your support network look like? If you are trying to make lifestyle changes and form new healthy habits all by yourself without the support of family and friends, you’re making life much harder than it needs to be. Bring them in on the plan, share your goals and aims and ask them to support you through it. Maybe it’s your other half getting up early with you once a week to get that workout in or it’s meeting a friend to do a class or a group dog walk. Whatever it is that is going to help you create those habits, do it!
Are you doing something you enjoy? If it’s fun you are way more likely to stick with it!
And finally focus on the positives – if you have time out don’t see that as failure – start afresh the next day – whether that be in your fitness routine or your diet etc. It’s never too late to start again. And you can’t make all the positive changes overnight, it’s a gradual process leading to great results. No one is perfect!
If you have any questions please do get in touch.
For more workout ideas and to find out a bit more about me check out my Instagram.
