#29: Why Your Energy Tanks After 40 (And How to Fix It)
You're training, you're eating right, and you're doing everything they say you should—so why do you still feel exhausted? Why do your workouts feel harder, your body feel weaker, and your progress seem slower?
What if the problem isn’t your metabolism? What if the solution isn’t more cardio, stricter dieting, or doubling down on what worked in your 20s and 30s?
In this episode, Keir Wotherspoon cracks open the real reason your energy tanks after 40—and it’s not what mainstream fitness advice would have you believe. He reveals a hidden factor that could be making you feel sluggish, weak, and constantly drained. And the good news? Once you know what’s causing it, you can start reversing it today.
What you’ll uncover in this episode:
🔹 The biggest lie about metabolism after 40—and what’s really happening in your body
🔹 The forgotten piece of the fitness puzzle that controls your energy, metabolism, and ability to burn fat
🔹 The dangerous fitness trap that’s leaving so many women weaker instead of stronger
🔹 The 7 fitness benchmarks every over-40 high performer should aim for (and why they matter)
🔹 How to reclaim your energy, strength, and resilience—without spending hours in the gym
This is an episode that could change everything about how you train, eat, and think about your body after 40.
Time Stamps:
00:00 - Welcome to The High Performance Gym Podcast – Who this podcast is for and why it’s different.
02:10 - The DIY Podcast Setup & A Bigger Lesson – Keir’s less-than-glamorous recording setup and what it reveals about taking action (hint: perfection is the enemy).
06:45 - The Energy Crash After 40: Is It Really Inevitable? – The frustrating reality so many face and why most advice out there misses the mark.
09:30 - The Hidden Factor Behind Fatigue & Slower Results – It’s not what you think, but it affects everything from how you burn calories to how you recover.
13:00 - The Truth About ‘Aging Metabolism’ – What’s really happening when you feel like your workouts aren’t working anymore.
22:00 - A Common Mistake That’s Making It Worse – Many people (especially women) unknowingly sabotage their energy and strength with this fitness approach.
27:15 - How to Reverse the Energy Decline – The key strategies to rebuild your vitality, boost your metabolism, and feel strong again.
42:00 - The 7 Fitness Benchmarks You Should Aim For – Can you check off all seven? If not, it’s time to level up.
52:30 - One Simple Challenge to Get Started Today – A small shift that could make a massive difference in how you feel.
55:00 - Take the Warrior Woman Scorecard – Find out where you stand and get a personalized energy & muscle health plan (link in show notes).
Resources Mentioned:
📊 Warrior Woman Energy Quiz – Discover your energy score and get a tailored plan
🏋️ LIFT Performance Academy – High-performance coaching for female athletes & professionals
Transcript
Welcome to the High Performance Gym Podcast where we discuss practical tools to train smarter, recover faster and perform at your best in everyday life.
Speaker A:So whether you're an athlete chasing big goals, a warrior parent, juggling kids, career and your fitness, or you're in your golden years and you refuse to fade away, we've got you covered.
Speaker A:My name is Katie Witherspoon and I'm a health and performance coach and founder of LIFT Performance Academy.
Speaker A:At lift, we deliver health and performance programs to female athletes and busy professional women of all ages.
Speaker A:For over 15 years, we've worked with more than 700 clients, athletes, business owners and high achievers to help them train both their bodies and minds.
Speaker A:Our female orientated approach combines evidence based sports and nutritional science with hormonal health that enables our clients to harness the menstrual cycles and perimenopause without burning out.
Speaker A:Right now we're offering a free workshop for women over 35 who are juggling demands of the career, family and fitness, but are held back by low energy mental fatigue and struggling to lose those extra 20 pounds.
Speaker A:You can find that free training in the show.
Speaker A:Notes I want to see a world where all humans align with their unique physiology, master their minds and use health and performance tools to reach their full potential.
Speaker A:So in today's episode we're going to discuss why your energy tanks after 40 and how to fix it.
Speaker A:Shave in your 40s and you feel like your energy is fading, your workouts aren't working and your body just isn't responding like it used to when you're kind of in your 20s, your 30s even.
Speaker A:So this episode is going to be for you to keep with the theme.
Speaker A:Now if you've been listening to the past couple of episodes, I'm going to give you context to everything that we talk about in this episode.
Speaker A:So whether you are highly active and competing sports and or events or you're running a business, maybe you're driven kids and try and just your best not to burn out or you're in between those types of things and you just try to lose some weight, getting shape and have energy just to play with your kids.
Speaker A:We've got you covered in this episode.
Speaker A:Just before we start I just want to kind of not so much give an apology but give you some context to the podcast and like the sound quality and all of these types of things.
Speaker A:Listen to the last couple of episodes and the sound quality and things might not have been the best, but what I want to kind of explain now is just the fact that like how this is all set up.
Speaker A:So this is in no means a professional studio or nothing like that.
Speaker A:I'm actually sat at the moment in my little boy's bedroom, surrounded by all his toys, sitting on a kitchen stool with his toy baskets actually piled up so I can sit as a kind of desk.
Speaker A:Now, it's not the best scenario.
Speaker A:In fact, it's actually, it takes me quite.
Speaker A:It takes me about half an hour to get set up just to start running this podcast.
Speaker A:Now, the reason I'm telling you this is because we always wait for perfection.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter what we're doing, what we're trying to achieve.
Speaker A:We're always waiting for the right time to make that thing happen.
Speaker A:But really what you really want to do is do it now.
Speaker A:Get started now.
Speaker A:It doesn't matter what's in the way.
Speaker A:You're never going to have the time, you're never going to have the right tools, you're never going to have the right environment.
Speaker A:You've just got to get stuff done.
Speaker A:So one of my goals is to have a good studio where I can then run a podcast from now that's not going to happen within the next six weeks.
Speaker A:This is going to be a long term project.
Speaker A:But because I'm doing this in the throes of resistance, I have all this resistance against us, because I have all this resistance against me.
Speaker A:Then when things start to improve and the podcast hopefully gets a bit bigger and I can actually get my own studio or whatever it is, then it's going to be so much sweeter that I've, I've achieved that instead of waiting for those things to happen, which it might likely never happen if you don't just start the thing.
Speaker A:So what I'm kind of saying is just start the thing, whatever that is, just start the thing.
Speaker A:Anyway, let's get into the podcast.
Speaker A:So I'm going to ask you a question.
Speaker A:Do you ever feel like you're kind of doing everything right?
Speaker A:You're working out, you're eating well, but you're still feeling tired, sluggish, like your body just isn't responding okay?
Speaker A:You may be thinking, well, this is just aging.
Speaker A:It's inevitable.
Speaker A:It's what happens, but it's not.
Speaker A:And that's what we're going to break down today?
Speaker A:Okay, that's what we're going to talk about today.
Speaker A:So when you talk about energy and how you're feeling as you kind of get older, energy starts to win.
Speaker A:And you know, maybe that you are doing, maybe that you are still exercise, you're still in the gym, you're competing in sports even.
Speaker A:You could be a recreation athlete, you could be in your business, you could be whatever that is.
Speaker A:But you just feel like your energy is getting, you know, your energy's slowing down, your body's slowing down.
Speaker A:And it's like, why is this happening?
Speaker A:I'm still doing all the right things.
Speaker A:I'm trying to sleep better.
Speaker A:I'm trying to work out what is going on.
Speaker A:Well, there's one thing.
Speaker A:Well, there's probably accumulation of things, to be fair.
Speaker A:But one thing that we are going to touch on today and this is vitally important, it's muscle loss, okay?
Speaker A:Muscle loss that is the fundamental problem.
Speaker A:So by the end of this episode, you're going to understand why muscle is the key to energy, longevity and feeling like yourself again.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:And how you can start reversal muscle loss, how you can actually reverse this process and become the best version of yourself.
Speaker A:Let's just touch on why muscle's important.
Speaker A:So you've got to think of muscle as your engine.
Speaker A:So the more quality muscle that you have, the more energy you're going to produce, so the more efficient your body is going to be of burn on fat and the higher quality of life that you are going to live.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So muscle just doesn't just look good.
Speaker A:It's muscle's metabolically active.
Speaker A:What this means is it kind of burns calories at rest, which is the sort of the superficial type of reason why muscle is good for you.
Speaker A:But muscle is actually a vital regulator and supporter of your hormones.
Speaker A:Now, I'm not going to kind of go too deep into this.
Speaker A:I'm just going to touch on some things to then give you some insights and go, okay, that makes sense.
Speaker A:So muscle is.
Speaker A:Is important for sort of boosting the function of your thyroid.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So you've got to think of your thyroid as your metabolism.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:The people, when we talk about metabolism, like burning calories, basically your thyroid is the kind of, is the key, is the key thing there, right in muscle mass because you're building muscle, making muscle.
Speaker A:This actually boosts the function of your thyroid, which essentially you could argue that actually boosts your metabolism.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Then we've got testosterone, growth hormone, which is your anabolic hormones, because the production of testosterone and growth hormones, essential for things like muscle growth recovery.
Speaker A:So recovery from these intensive training sessions that you're doing, maybe you're competing in a sport or you just train really hard in the gym, you need that recovery.
Speaker A:And testosterone and growth hormone are actually essential for recovery in men and Women in a.
Speaker A:Testosterone and growth hormone is essential for your energy and of course, your libido.
Speaker A:I don't.
Speaker A:Muscle is especially important for perimenopausal women.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So muscle, you got to think of muscle as your defense against fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, poor sleep, and the loss of bone mineral density.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So that for you, it's like when in perimenopause, the first thing I would say is obviously lifestyle is the.
Speaker A:Is the key factor, but start building some muscle.
Speaker A:Like, start building that muscle.
Speaker A:As we kind of go through this today, you got to really understand why that's more important.
Speaker A:And just as an FYI and a testosterone in perimenopause is your ally.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:I know a lot of women get fearful when they hear testosterone because they think testosterone bulk huge, massive gains.
Speaker A:Like, that's just not how it works.
Speaker A:Women and men produce completely different levels of testosterone.
Speaker A:Men are very predominant in testosterone where women aren't.
Speaker A:Women naturally can't produce enough testosterone to get those manly, bulky, you know, visions that you visualize of women being huge and bulky.
Speaker A:That just doesn't happen.
Speaker A:So testosterone for women is, you know, it's essential, especially if you're in perimenopause.
Speaker A:And here's the thing, right?
Speaker A:Muscle enhances insulin sensitivity.
Speaker A:Going to give you a little story now.
Speaker A:So actually talking to somebody yesterday.
Speaker A:So insulin sensitivity, what you got to think of insulin sensitivity is what is basically your body's ability to absorb glucose, okay?
Speaker A:So, you know, carbohydrates that you ingest, your death transfers into glucose, which then gets absorbed into your blood cells, gets stored as glycogen.
Speaker A:But you just got to think of it as basically your body's ability to absorb that glucose.
Speaker A:That's probably the best way to think about.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Now I was talking to somebody yesterday and she is pre diabetic.
Speaker A:She was told three months ago that she was pre diabetic.
Speaker A:She was talking to her.
Speaker A:She told me three months ago.
Speaker A:I talked to yesterday and she said, oh, look, I've lost a stone.
Speaker A:I'm going back for my annual annual review.
Speaker A:I'm going back for my checkup to get my bloods taken again.
Speaker A:And hopefully I'm not pre diabetic, but I've kind of come past that.
Speaker A:Now you've got to think of pre diabetic.
Speaker A:Diabetes is a disease, okay?
Speaker A:And what she was talking about was type 2 diabetes.
Speaker A:Now, type 2 diabetes is essentially sort of, you know, it's things like genetics, environmental factors, but mainly it's down to poor lifestyle choices that's that's kind of the onset of type 2 diabetes.
Speaker A:But what you've got to think about is what she was told.
Speaker A:So what she was told was she was given this advice by, I don't know whether it was for the doctor or what.
Speaker A:She didn't actually say who it was from.
Speaker A:She just said the person who was taking charge of this thing, she was told to eliminate her carbohydrates.
Speaker A:Actually, correction.
Speaker A:She wasn't taught to eliminate her carbohydrates.
Speaker A:She was told to reduce her carbohydrates because these carbohydrates then turn into sugars and causes diabetes.
Speaker A:Okay, that was kind of how she interpreted what she was told.
Speaker A:But this isn't strictly true.
Speaker A:Now why I'm not going to get into like the diabetes side of things.
Speaker A:What I do want to make absolutely kind of clear here is when you build muscle, like muscle has muscle improves your ability to absorb glucose, which basically enhances your insulin sensitivity.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Now what happens is you have this cell in your muscles.
Speaker A:It's called Glue 4.
Speaker A:And what this actually is, it's glucose transporter.
Speaker A:That's what it is.
Speaker A:Glute glucose transporter.
Speaker A:When you have more muscle mass, I would say more muscle mass.
Speaker A:Think of quality over size.
Speaker A:We're talking about the size of muscle here, talking about the quality of muscle.
Speaker A:This glucose transporter comes to the surface of the muscle.
Speaker A:So when you consume carbohydrates and they do get turned to sugars and that type of thing, because that's how your body kind of uses it and transports it and uses its energy, then because you have more muscle, you absorb this glucose.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Which means that your body is using that glucose, so improves and improves your ability to absorb glucose.
Speaker A:So from a diabetic standpoint, from this lady standpoint, if she started to actually start to focus on building more muscle, she wouldn't then be.
Speaker A:The chances are she wouldn't be pre diabetic.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:And the other thing for its muscle is vital for movement.
Speaker A:So we're talking about things like everyday life to athletic and your workout endeavors.
Speaker A:Strength, speed, power, endurance, like muscle is vital for these things.
Speaker A:Think of muscle as your armor against aging, disease, weakness and physical and mental decline.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:I'm hoping I painted a nice little picture there of muscle and how important it is.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:It's not just this thing that looks sexy in the mirror.
Speaker A:Like that helps.
Speaker A:Of course, you know, we all have this types, we all have this side of vanity.
Speaker A:Let's not kind of, that's not hide from that Fact that we do like to look better on the mirror, like I don't see a problem with that.
Speaker A:The problem is where that becomes that the sole focus.
Speaker A:But anyway, we're not going down that rabbit hole.
Speaker A:What I'm trying to kind of do here is just give you a picture of how important how, how, how precious muscle is.
Speaker A:Because here's the truth, right?
Speaker A:You lose muscle, really lose muscle at around 3 to 5% per decade after 30.
Speaker A:So what that means when you hit 30, your muscle mass starts to decline.
Speaker A:You start to lose muscle mass year upon year.
Speaker A:By the age of 40, this accelerates to about 1% a year, which is, that's, that's quite significant.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And then by 60, it literally just falls off a cliff.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:This is why like you'll see people, older age people like one day they're looking and then all of a sudden if it age by 20 years and they're looking frail, like that's how quickly it kind of, I'm not saying like obviously not over light, but what happens is as you kind of get older, it does fall off quite rapidly.
Speaker A:And this is what causes a lot of issues for old people.
Speaker A:So the kind of, the lose, the, lose the confidence because they can't, they don't have those, they don't have the muscle to balance, to walk properly.
Speaker A:The, you know, the fall over the bones become weak.
Speaker A:All of these declining effects of age happens at the kind of 60, at quite a rapid rate.
Speaker A:But here's the other thing as well.
Speaker A:So when we start losing muscle, we increase fat storage.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:So without enough muscle, your body starts to store more fat, which then becomes more difficult to lose.
Speaker A:So everyday tasks get harder.
Speaker A:So people think that they're unfit.
Speaker A:They're not unfit, they're just under muscled.
Speaker A:They have a higher injury risk.
Speaker A:So muscle actually used to beat the giants, the bones making you more prone to injuries, sprains and even bone fractures, which we'll kind of touch on as we kind of go on.
Speaker A:Loss of muscle tone.
Speaker A:When you lose muscle, you lose muscle tone.
Speaker A:A lot of coaches and trainers kind of try to get people to go away from this muscle tone.
Speaker A:And it's not strictly true.
Speaker A:When you talk about torn muscle, people think of like lean and ripped and that type of thing.
Speaker A:I don't see a problem with that because that gives someone a visual perspective of how that looks.
Speaker A:And why not call it muscle tone?
Speaker A:So let's just call it muscle tone.
Speaker A:So you use muscle tone and muscle shapes your body.
Speaker A:Like muscle is what gives you that that share and your metabolic health, right?
Speaker A:So things like we've said before, so you're at a high risk of diabetes, heart disease, all these types of metabolic deterioration, metabolic diseases.
Speaker A:But it also intensifies the symptoms of perimenopause.
Speaker A:Now the thing is, you might be thinking, well, I'm already training, I'm already kind of working out hard, but I'm still feeling fatigued and I'm still feeling tired all the time.
Speaker A:Why is that?
Speaker A:Let me tell you a little story now.
Speaker A:Sorry, I just had to have a quick drink there.
Speaker A:So let me tell you a quick story.
Speaker A:So we just moved on, we just moved house about six, seven months ago.
Speaker A:And where we live is at the top of this hill.
Speaker A:It's quite a big hill.
Speaker A:Now I love it because it means we can walk up this hill every day.
Speaker A:I get a good workout, so I take the kids to school, we walk down the hill.
Speaker A:So about 10 minutes from school on the way back, I'll walk up it.
Speaker A:So every single day I'm getting like sort of 20 to 40 minute walk and I'm getting challenged to walk this hill.
Speaker A:It's great.
Speaker A:Now I was talking to a woman and she's probably in the 60s, maybe her late 60s, I would say a few, I think it was a couple of months back now and we had a bit chat and what she was saying was, she was saying, she was talking about this hill and she was saying, you know what, like I've lived here for 30 years and this hill never gets any easier.
Speaker A:She says, you know, sort of a few years ago she, I used to power up this hill and now she's just so hard, it's so difficult.
Speaker A:I'm so unfit.
Speaker A:But here's the thing, she's not unfit.
Speaker A:She hasn't really lost a fitness.
Speaker A:Yes, there might be a little bit of fitness lost there, but it's not really a fitness that she's losing.
Speaker A:What she's losing is muscle.
Speaker A:Okay, now I'm going to throw a little bit of science Easter fighting on and we'll try and keep it as really easy and simple as possible for you to learn.
Speaker A:But this is honest.
Speaker A:When you learn that, when you, when you, when you learn this, it's like, wow, that, that is, that makes so much sense.
Speaker A:So your muscle, okay, you have muscle mass.
Speaker A:This is made up of two types of fibers.
Speaker A:It's actually made up of three types of fibers which I'll touch on.
Speaker A:But I don't want you to get too worried about that.
Speaker A:What we're going to really focus on the two types of fibers.
Speaker A:So we've got type one muscle fibers, okay?
Speaker A:These.
Speaker A:Think of these as your endurance fibers.
Speaker A:Almost.
Speaker A:Type 1 muscle fibers are your endurance fibers.
Speaker A:These are things like walking, running, cycling.
Speaker A:Basically, when you're walking around every single day, you're using these type one muscle fibers.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Now these are fatigue resistant.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:What that means is, basically you can use these for long periods of time and they don't get fatigued because there's used oxygen for fuel.
Speaker A:So if you think about a long distance runner, a long distance runner can run for miles and miles and miles can run.
Speaker A:They can.
Speaker A:I think kind of what it is now, I think the body's capable of running something like, is it 300 miles without stopping?
Speaker A:Like, it's always the mind that gives in, not the body.
Speaker A:I'm sure it's 300 miles.
Speaker A:I can't remember the actual data is on it, but I'm sure the body could run 300 miles without stopping or 30 days or something like this.
Speaker A:I can't remember it was.
Speaker A:But basically what I'm trying to say is your body uses oxygen for fuel and those muscles are what moves your body.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:The problem is to have a low power output.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So low power output means it's just like it's sustainable.
Speaker A:There's no power there, there's no strength there.
Speaker A:It's just output.
Speaker A:Okay, Then we have type 2 air files.
Speaker A:Now these are the opposite of the giros files.
Speaker A:These are your power files.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So think about strength, power, functional tasks like throwing your kids around.
Speaker A:Well, chuck them up in the air or throw them on beds or whatever, and sprinting up hills to catch a bus.
Speaker A:Yeah, but that's your type one fighters.
Speaker A:Now these fatigue very, very quickly.
Speaker A:These use a different system to oxygen, which is your glycolytic system.
Speaker A:We're not worried too much about that, but let's just say you use in kind of carbohydrates on another fuel called creatine to fuel this type of work.
Speaker A:This type of muscle fiber, okay, these are bigger and stronger, but they need a lot more recovery.
Speaker A:Okay, so we have your endurance fibers, your type 1, and we have your type 2 fibers, which.
Speaker A:Your power strength fibers.
Speaker A:Think, think about that.
Speaker A:Where also in the middle, you have your type 2 fibers.
Speaker A:These are like your hybrid fibers.
Speaker A:And these are like things that you use sort of when you're doing team sports, middle distance run or like carrying like really heavy shopping bags around for a period of time.
Speaker A:Okay, so you have these type 2 fibers.
Speaker A:Now these type 2 fibers can be actually changed.
Speaker A:But let's not worry too much about the two type 2x fibers.
Speaker A:Like they're the middle ones, the hybrid fibers.
Speaker A:For simplicity, we're just going to remember type one, which is your endurance fibers, and type two, which is your power fibers.
Speaker A:Just bear with us because I promise this is going to make a lot of sense.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So these fibers that you have, these are predetermined by genetics.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So basically when you're born, you're given a certain number of these fibers.
Speaker A:That's just kind of how it is.
Speaker A:And this is probably why, or it is why people gravitate to sort of certain types of sports and exercise.
Speaker A:That's why certain people gravitate to things like long distance running or certain people gravitate more to like explosive sprint and all.
Speaker A:Maybe it's more team sports or whatever that is.
Speaker A:Whether it's endurance, whether it's the power sport, whatever it is, people just gravitate naturally to these things.
Speaker A:And a lot of that is determined by what they find most, most comfortable, what's most comfortable, but what comes more natural to them.
Speaker A:Okay, but this is why, like your type 2, like the type 2x5 is a hybrid fibers.
Speaker A:These can be changed depending on the sports that you're kind of doing.
Speaker A:Okay, but men have more fast twitch fibers.
Speaker A:So naturally men have more fast twitch fibers.
Speaker A:Like this is my understanding of the whole muscle fiber, Mako, is that men have more fast twitch fibers.
Speaker A:And now when you pair these fast twitch muscle fibers with higher levels of testosterone, then men are always going to be stronger, faster, and they're always going to be able to build more muscle than women if training is equal.
Speaker A:So if you had a man and a woman together and f trained pretty much the same, then that man is always going to be stronger, he's always going to be fast, he's always going to build more muscle just the way that he's genetically make up, you know, women.
Speaker A:I'm sorry about that.
Speaker A:It's just, you know, it does kind of suck, I suppose.
Speaker A:But that is just the way that it is.
Speaker A:Men have more testosterone, they have more fast twitch fibers naturally.
Speaker A:So they're always going to be faster, stronger in comparison.
Speaker A:Okay, but this doesn't put you at a disadvantage.
Speaker A:I don't think that is like, like men.
Speaker A:That doesn't make men better.
Speaker A:It just makes men.
Speaker A:This is just how it is.
Speaker A:Like men are just this.
Speaker A:Do you mean that's just, that's, that's the way that it is.
Speaker A:But your superpower is Basically, women have more slow twitch fibers than men.
Speaker A:So men have more fast twitch men, women have more slow twitch fibers.
Speaker A:But your superpower is you can switch between using carbohydrates and fat as a fuel because you are actually really, really good at, at using carbohydrates and fat as a fuel.
Speaker A:Much, much better than men.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:And this is probably why women gravitate more to endurance style training and it's why women are actually pretty freaking good as like, like triathlons and these types of things.
Speaker A:They're really good at it and they gravitate to probably because of the muscle makeup.
Speaker A:So let's get back to this woman on the hill.
Speaker A:So this woman hill, in her mind she was unfit, she was losing her fitness.
Speaker A:But actually what she wasn't, she wasn't actually losing the fitness.
Speaker A:What she has lost.
Speaker A:She's lost a lot of these because of age, their age related decline.
Speaker A:She's lost a lot of these type 2 fibers.
Speaker A:Because she's lost a lot of these type 2 fibers.
Speaker A:She's then unable to power up that hill like she could do when she was younger.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Now this is very common in people of all genders.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Because as we kind of get older, we stop actually training these fast twitch fibers and we start gravitating more to a cardio based stuff and why I'm saying that there's nothing wrong with doing cardio by the way.
Speaker A:You know, if you are a long distance runner or triathlete, triathlete or whatever it is, like carry on doing these things but use this here.
Speaker A:What I'm telling you, what I'm explaining now as a way to enhance what you're, you're already doing.
Speaker A:But the problem is, and this is what I see a lot is, is the problem is many, where many women and men by the way, they're kind of in this fixed mindset that like calorie burning and high energy exercise leads to better fat loss and better fitness results.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So they're constantly chasing high energy activities to burn like more calories and to boost the fitness.
Speaker A:And we see this with kids a lot as well by the way.
Speaker A:But things like say, you know, when it gets fitter.
Speaker A:So what they do is they start going for runs, they start going for a long distance runs.
Speaker A:And kids do this as well.
Speaker A:We have parents in the gym or certainly not so much parents in the gym, but they'll ask us about fitness and what they're doing.
Speaker A:So should I get my kid to go and like run every day and I'M like, no, like don't get the kid to run.
Speaker A:Your kid plays football.
Speaker A:What your kid wants to be doing is strength work, explosive work, jumping, sprinting, those types of things, because they need to be, they need to be strong, they need to be explosive.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Other things, like excessive, like hits I work out, you know, you see this a lot and you know, especially women over 40 and women kind of in perimenopause or certainly kind of going down like around about that age and they're doing these like excessive hit style workouts, things like boot camps, spinning, you know, F45 and orange theory.
Speaker A:You know, if you don't know what those things are like, go and check them out online.
Speaker A:Basically they're just like sort of high intensity interval classes, but you know, for long periods of time.
Speaker A:And I'm not going to get into the actual, like the recovery mechanisms and why I think it's a bad thing.
Speaker A:But all I want to kind of touch on here is like these excessive high energy activities that don't build these type 2 fibers.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:The predominantly use these slow twitch fibers.
Speaker A:And while you might feel like you're losing weight or you're burning calories, or you maybe even think that you're getting fitter, you're actually leaving a lot of good stuff on the table.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So I hope that kind of made some sense.
Speaker A:You know, I think I don't want to go into the depths of too much about sort of the perimenopause side of things and why I'm against a lot of this excessive high intensity stuff.
Speaker A:I don't think it's a bad thing in terms of.
Speaker A:If it's a part of your socialization, then brilliant.
Speaker A:But if you're doing like sort of five, six, which a lot of women are doing like classes a week, are these high intensity things.
Speaker A:It's like, yeah, it's, it just, it's not doing you any favors.
Speaker A:So here's some common signs anyway that you kind of lose a muscle and energy maybe without even realizing that.
Speaker A:So just have a little think of these things.
Speaker A:So you're feeling weaker in your workouts, so.
Speaker A:Or you're avoiding workouts altogether.
Speaker A:You're tired all the time, even after you've slept.
Speaker A:You gain weight easily even when you're eating the same way.
Speaker A:So this is a really common thing.
Speaker A:So people are kind of getting older in the same amount of food or what they think eating the same amount of food, yet the weight isn't changing or actually getting a little bit heavier.
Speaker A:Yeah, because they're losing that muscle mass.
Speaker A:They're.
Speaker A:Because they're losing muscle mass, they kind of replace that muscle mass with, with fat mass.
Speaker A:Yeah, your recovery's taken longer, so your workouts are leaving you wiped out instead of energized.
Speaker A:You know, maybe she kind of goal for this long run or whatever it is I'm using.
Speaker A:I'm just using running as an example because I know it's very common and it's not that I want to pull people away from it.
Speaker A:In fact, what I, what I'd like to do and what if anybody's listening to this and you are like an endurance athlete, I think it's amazing.
Speaker A:I do think if that's something that you're doing, really keep on doing that because it's like it's your thing, it's your challenge.
Speaker A:Well, then start putting these things into practice that can make you even better.
Speaker A:I've worked with quite a lot of long distance athletes and when they start doing the strategies that I'm going to go through just now, then they improve the run times, they improve their endurance times and they just feel a lot better.
Speaker A:They're feeling stronger when they're running.
Speaker A:This is the thing.
Speaker A:So like if your recoveries take a longer, like you are going for these long distance runs or even you just go into the gym and you just feeling fatigued and you should be feeling energized, like, yeah, your recovery's taking too long.
Speaker A:That's the kind of sign that you could be losing muscle mass.
Speaker A:Obviously there could be a lot of other things as well.
Speaker A:You know, you look at your stress levels and all that type of thing as well.
Speaker A:You fuel what you recover like you fuel for recovery, but your recovery is actually taking longer.
Speaker A:So how are you going to fix it?
Speaker A:Because I know that's why.
Speaker A:How are you going to fix this?
Speaker A:Okay, so move one's training.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:We've got to be able to train to develop these type 2 fibers.
Speaker A:How do we do that?
Speaker A:Well, the first thing or the first thing is to lift.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:To lift weights, getting strong, deadlifts, pull ups, squats, lunges, anything that you're kind of putting your body under resistance.
Speaker A:Like it might just be starting with body weight.
Speaker A:Squats.
Speaker A:No.
Speaker A:Resist.
Speaker A:No, no.
Speaker A:Like external resistance, like holding a dumbbell or barbell or all.
Speaker A:It could just be your body weight.
Speaker A:That might be your level of where you're at, but it's putting your body through the stages of resistance and always challenging your body through lifting.
Speaker A:The second thing is jumping.
Speaker A:So explosive movements.
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be anything too impactful.
Speaker A:So it could be just something really light like skipping.
Speaker A:Skipping is fantastic.
Speaker A:Like, if all you did to jump was skip, get a bias, skip the rope and skip.
Speaker A:Honestly, it's absolutely incredible.
Speaker A:Alpha all ages, anybody can skip.
Speaker A:And maybe you might need to learn how to do it, which actually, if you listen to the last podcast on neuroplasticity, then jumping and practicing jump.
Speaker A:Practicing skipping will actually benefit you mentally as well as our physically sprinting.
Speaker A:So sprint is fantastic for firing up these type 2 fibers and developing these fast, explosive movements.
Speaker A:You know, when was the last time you done some sprints?
Speaker A:It doesn't have to be sprints on a path.
Speaker A:You know, what I would say is start on a bike.
Speaker A:Bike's a good place to start, like an exercise bike.
Speaker A:And then maybe if we start building that capacity up and start building that strength up, then you can then go to things like hill sprints or stairs, because it's a lot less impact on your knees and it's a lot less stressful actually on the muscles.
Speaker A:And then you can start maybe like sort of flats like cross flat surfaces, but just sprinting where you kind of.
Speaker A:You go on at your maximum capacity for short periods of time.
Speaker A:You know, when you talk about sprinting, you talk anywhere between sort of what, like 10 seconds to a minute?
Speaker A:Like, no longer than that minute would be like, advanced.
Speaker A:10 seconds is a great place to start and make a muscle.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Being really focused, intentional of actually making muscle.
Speaker A:I actually have three principles which I'm not going to cover on this because it will go too long.
Speaker A:Three principles of making muscle.
Speaker A:The first one is I'll go to depth, but I'll quickly tell you.
Speaker A:So the first one is mechanical tension.
Speaker A:The second one is muscle damage, and the third one is metabolic stress.
Speaker A:So basically what you're doing is you're working across the rut ranges and you're being intentional about actually making muscle.
Speaker A:But the key is progressive overload and adaptation.
Speaker A:What do I mean by that?
Speaker A:A breath runner is an example here.
Speaker A:So I always use running as an example because it's the people can really relate and visualize this the very first time that you ever go out for a run.
Speaker A:It's probably the hardest thing you've ever done in your life, right?
Speaker A:It just wipes you out straight away.
Speaker A:It's very difficult on your cardiovascular system.
Speaker A:Your muscles burn and it's just really hard.
Speaker A:But then you go to the second time, it's a little bit easier.
Speaker A:Then you go to the third time it gets easier all the time.
Speaker A:Every time you go for a run, it gets easier, easier and easier and easier.
Speaker A:The reason it does that is because your body's adapting to that stimulus.
Speaker A:Right?
Speaker A:Your body is adapting to that thing that you're pushing it through.
Speaker A:Now what happens with running is where do you stop?
Speaker A:Like eventually you can, you can only run so far and you can only run so fast until that stimulus actually stops.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:You end up running no.
Speaker A:What?
Speaker A:A mile used to be hard, then that becomes easy.
Speaker A:So two miles becomes hard, then that gets easy, three miles and so on until you're running like 20, 30 miles.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So the adaptations to running is very kind of few and far between as you get more advanced with that.
Speaker A:But when you're talking about strength training and you're talking about like developing these fast twitch fibers, you're talking about these adaptations happening all of the time.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So if, take for example, you start squatting his body weight, okay.
Speaker A:That becomes easy.
Speaker A:So what do you do then?
Speaker A:Well, I'm going to start using 5 kilo dumbbell, another 10 kilo dumbbell, then a 15 and a 20.
Speaker A:Now before I know it, I've got a bar, my back and I'm squatting 30, 40, 50, 60 kilos.
Speaker A:And then you know, five years down the line I'm squatting 100 for reps.
Speaker A:Like can you see how that will mean by that's what progressive overload and adaptation is.
Speaker A:Because once your body adapted, it stops changing.
Speaker A:And this is why when you're running, it stops changing.
Speaker A:You can only run so fast and you can only run so far.
Speaker A:Until your body has adapted to that, you can't physically change anymore.
Speaker A:You physically can't get any better.
Speaker A:This is why when you start doing strength training, this actually helps your running.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:The second thing is fueling.
Speaker A:You've got a few property for muscle development.
Speaker A:Protein is your key nutrient.
Speaker A:Your body needs like people.
Speaker A:This is what happens when people kind of get older.
Speaker A:And this is from observation and like from working with people from for the past 15 years, the protein intake starts declining as they get an order.
Speaker A:But actually you need to start eating more protein as you get more, not less.
Speaker A:Because of that age related muscle loss, which is actually, I didn't mention before was actually called sarcopenia.
Speaker A:Age related muscle and strength loss.
Speaker A:Then you want to be able to have more protein, you want to eat more protein.
Speaker A:As you kind of get old, it becomes really important because muscle protein is like the fuel to build your muscle.
Speaker A:So think of it that way, like fuel Protein is the fuel to build your muscle up.
Speaker A:Okay, so here's a couple, here's an example.
Speaker A:Here's a, a quick protein sort of hack or some guidelines, if you like, aim for 30 grams of protein a meal, give or take.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So when you're having a meal, if you're having sort of three or four meals a day, a good place to start is to have about 30 grams of protein a meal.
Speaker A:If you want to take that little bit further, you can then get a bit more specific and have 1 gram and 1.2 grams per pound of body weight over the course of the day.
Speaker A:So, for example, if you weigh 100 pounds, you're having about 140 grams of protein every single day.
Speaker A:Okay, now there's some kind of nuance here that, you know, if you kind of hold on a lot of body fat, would you then have, would you then into that in the percentages or the, the, the pounds, the formulation of that protein intake?
Speaker A:I wouldn't, I wouldn't, if I'm honest.
Speaker A:I would go with lean mass.
Speaker A:But if it was a case of what you've got like 40, 50, 60 pounds to lose, then honestly, I would just go for the 30 grams a day.
Speaker A:But if you are an athlete, then you are like trainer, you've got quite low levels of body fat already.
Speaker A:Then using your lean mass or your body weight as a guide to, to use that for your protein intake would be a good place to be.
Speaker A:And the third thing is recovery, because sleep is where the magic happens.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:So when you sleep, this is where your body recovers, this is where it regenerates, this is where it builds muscle.
Speaker A:When you're in the gym, when you're training, you break your body, you tear muscle down.
Speaker A:You are basically destroying your body.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:When you start recovering, that is where your body starts to rebuild again.
Speaker A:Focus.
Speaker A:You've just been in the gym, you've just done a heavy squat, okay?
Speaker A:You broke, your body down, your muscles torn.
Speaker A:You need to fix that muscle.
Speaker A:It fixes when you sleep, okay?
Speaker A:It fixes through strategies as well, like protein fueling properly.
Speaker A:But mainly the recovery happens when you sleep.
Speaker A:When you sleep is where you bill.
Speaker A:Now, let me give you a little bit of context to this.
Speaker A:I did say I'll give context to different types of people and why, you know, muscle is really important.
Speaker A:Let's just say for the athletes or your fast twitch muscle fibers for the athlete, regardless of what sport that you're doing, you want to be faster, you want to be stronger, you want to Be more powerful.
Speaker A:Right now, let's just say you're an endurance athlete.
Speaker A:If you get, if you build these fast twitch fighters up, you are going to improve your running times, you are going to be able to run faster, you are going to be able to sustain a higher output for a longer period of time, which improves your running times.
Speaker A:All right, now let's take football for example.
Speaker A:Maybe you're a football athlete or you have a daughter who plays football.
Speaker A:Now what she doesn't want to be doing is she doesn't then want to be going outside and going for long distance runs because that doesn't have any relevance to her sport.
Speaker A:What she wants to be able to do is develop these fast twitch fibers which is going to make her faster, more powerful, explosive.
Speaker A:Can you see where I'm kind of going with this?
Speaker A:That's what that athlete wants to be able to do.
Speaker A:So as an athlete, regardless of your sport, develop those fast twitch virus.
Speaker A:You will do so much better as a business owner.
Speaker A:Let's say you don't do any sports, but you're a business.
Speaker A:Why is muscle important?
Speaker A:Well, muscle is important for sustaining energy like we've just spoken about.
Speaker A:Yeah, it gives you more, some more mental clarity.
Speaker A:There's a lot of research now around like strength training and how it develops cognitive function in kids and adults across the board.
Speaker A:It's like phenomenal what kind of research is actually coming out now.
Speaker A:But it gives you more focus on mental clarity and it gives you a stronger ability to be able to handle stress.
Speaker A:Building a business is probably on par with bringing up kids.
Speaker A:It's one of the most stressful things that you can do.
Speaker A:It really is.
Speaker A:But you need to be, have these mechanisms in place to be able to deal with stress.
Speaker A:And building muscle is like, it's like your armor.
Speaker A:That's the way, the best way to think about if you're a business or you, your parent and you want to be able to have like an armor, like muscles, your armor, the everyday warrior.
Speaker A:Okay, so you're just somebody who wants to lose some body fat.
Speaker A:You want to have energy to play with your kids.
Speaker A:You want to look better in your shirt or in your dress and you want to take your top off and feel or you just want to feel better within your body.
Speaker A:You just want to look and feel strong, not skin.
Speaker A:Like muscle shapes your body.
Speaker A:Like muscle is so important for shaping your body.
Speaker A:Feeling strong, feeling confident, and just getting through life as a warrior.
Speaker A:Okay, so let's wrap this up.
Speaker A:Muscles aren't just for looking sexy in the mirror.
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:They do help you to look sexy in the mirror.
Speaker A:Unless why not let have that be a part of it?
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:I do.
Speaker A:There's a side of vanity that I like and I'm not going to be embarrassed by that.
Speaker A:I'm not going to be ashamed by that.
Speaker A:Because part of why I pray is so that I can go on holiday.
Speaker A:If we do go on holiday, or saying just take my top off or whatever it is and just feel good about myself.
Speaker A:Right.
Speaker A:So let's, you know, it's not just about that, though.
Speaker A:Muscles are vital for your defense against aging, disease, weakness and physical and mental decline.
Speaker A:They won't get on a serious note like, yes, trained for those muscles in the mirror.
Speaker A:Absolutely.
Speaker A:But let's be really serious and say look like muscle is vital for.
Speaker A:Against aging and disease and weakness, old age, weakness and physical and mental decline.
Speaker A:That should be enough really, to really motivate people to actually do it.
Speaker A:Here's your challenge.
Speaker A:Because here's a challenge.
Speaker A:Whether you are competing in sports or you compete in business or you just want to feel 10 years younger, let muscle maker and strength trainer your priority.
Speaker A:Yeah, let make that be a priority.
Speaker A:I'm just going to give you now seven fitness benchmarks for men and women.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So you might want to grab yourself a pen here.
Speaker A:Okay, Seven fitness benchmarks.
Speaker A:I've used fitness as.
Speaker A:I don't really like the term fitness, if I'm honest.
Speaker A:But let's just use fitness as that sort of umbrella term.
Speaker A:We could think of it as functional fitness.
Speaker A:You can think of it as performance, you can think of that as whatever you like.
Speaker A:But let's just call safe seven fitness benchmarks, okay?
Speaker A:For people over 40.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:So if you be able to deadlift 1.5 times your body weight for one rep.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:So if you wear 60 kilos, then your target is to be able to deadlift 90 kilos for one rep.
Speaker A:If you're a guy two times your body weight.
Speaker A:Okay, so again, if you wear 60 kilos, then 120 kilos for one rep.
Speaker A:Number two, run one mile in eight to 10 minutes.
Speaker A:All right, I'd kind of argue here that maybe guys probably could be a bit faster.
Speaker A:Maybe you could go six to eight minutes.
Speaker A:Women go eight to ten minutes.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:Now you might be thinking, oh, well, isn't that endurance?
Speaker A:Well, not really because what it is is those hybrid fibers.
Speaker A:So Those hybrid type 2 fibers, that's kind of what you're developing there.
Speaker A:So basically you're trying to run for speed here.
Speaker A:Yeah, you're not trying to.
Speaker A:The first time you do it may be absolutely exhausting.
Speaker A:But then again, that adaptation, you adapt to it.
Speaker A:Your isn't, your adaptation isn't to run further, it's to run faster.
Speaker A:So we're developing that speed.
Speaker A:Okay, number three is for women to perform 10 pushups from the floor, guys, 20 pushups from the floor.
Speaker A:Number four, this is across the board.
Speaker A:Hike comfortably for five miles.
Speaker A:Okay?
Speaker A:Yes.
Speaker A:That is more endurance based.
Speaker A:It absolutely is.
Speaker A:But if you think about hiking, let's take about, let's talk about this woman on the hill again.
Speaker A:Like at some point through that hike, you are going to be using these fast twitch fibers.
Speaker A:Especially when you're going to places like the lake district or anywhere where you've got massive hills like, you are going to need to rely on these hills, rely on, on these motto fibers.
Speaker A:So if you can hike comfortably for five miles, you're going to be in a good place.
Speaker A:All right, number five.
Speaker A:Women carry half your body weight for 100 meters.
Speaker A:Yeah.
Speaker A:So if you wear 60 kilos, then you want to be able to carry 30 kilos for 100 meters.
Speaker A:All right?
Speaker A:This develops your grip strength, it develops your shoulders, your back strength.
Speaker A:It's just a phenomenal exercise, really.
Speaker A:Is carrying stuff heavy stuff is amazing for guys, I would say maybe 3/4 to 1 times your body wear.
Speaker A:So if you wear 60 kilos, a good target for you would be able to carry 60 kilos for 100 meters.
Speaker A:Okay, number six, hip thrust.
Speaker A:Women, hip thrust 1.5 times your body weight for 10 reps.
Speaker A:All right, guys, I'm going to say exactly the same here and I'm going to tell you why.
Speaker A:Because most guys avoid training the glutes.
Speaker A:All right.
Speaker A:They will train squats maybe.
Speaker A:I do see guys training squats a lot.
Speaker A:Some guys do lunges.
Speaker A:I hardly see anybody at all.
Speaker A:Train on the butt.
Speaker A:My challenge to you is to train the butt.
Speaker A:Women and guys train your butt.
Speaker A:You train your butt is one of the best, the best investment you can make.
Speaker A:Okay, so hip thrust 1.5 10 Joe body weight for 10 reps.
Speaker A:If somebody, if you can do that, you're going to have such a strong ass.
Speaker A:Okay, number seven, the final one.
Speaker A:Women perform one full pull up.
Speaker A:Okay.
Speaker A:One full pull up.
Speaker A:So from a dead hand or full pull down to the bottom again for one rep.
Speaker A:Guys, five reps, okay.
Speaker A:We could go to 10.
Speaker A:Let's keep it a five for now.
Speaker A:If you can do five full pull ups, you're going to be in a pretty good shape.
Speaker A:Okay, so hope you've written that down.
Speaker A:That was your challenge and we're just going to kind of leave it there.
Speaker A:So if any of this hits home and, you know, please share it with someone who, who wants, who needs to hear it.
Speaker A:If you want to know where you stand, you can take my Warrior Woman Scorecard, Energy Scorecard or Warrior Woman's Energy Quiz even to assess your energy and your muscle health.
Speaker A:I'll leave that in the show Notes.
Speaker A:That's a free scorecard.
Speaker A:A free quiz you can take takes about 10 minutes and it gives you like a tailored plan based around the answers that you give.
Speaker A:If you have a question, use the email provided in the Show Notes.
Speaker A:Send me an email, you know, with whatever question that you've got.
Speaker A:And I just want to say thank you for your interest and health and human performance.
Speaker A:And remember to always believe in yourself and never give up on your dreams.
