If You’re Exhausted By The Thought Of How To “Strength Train” But You Also Want Toned Arms And Legs, Just Do This Exact, Simple Workout 3 Times A Week.
It’s not the working out that exhausts us. It’s the guesswork.
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by The Candidly Team
When it comes to health and weight loss, there’s a phrase we’re profoundly sick of hearing. The phrase is:
Eat less. Move more.
Why do we hate it? Because it smugly reduces one of the most complicated equations, especially in middle age, to 4 words that feel hopeless. It makes it seem like it should be so easy, except it’s one of the harder things to do as an adult human woman.
We have been writing a lot about simplified, doable ways to lose weight over 40 – HERE, HERE, and HERE are some examples. We mostly focus on thoughtful ways to eat a ton of protein and the miracle of walking, but there is a third category that, we’ll be honest, we ourselves are often stumped by, so we didn’t have a lot of wisdom to share with all of you.
And that category is strength training.
As a quick reminder, here are some quick and dirty benefits of strength training for us, post-40 gals:
It creates more muscle mass which in turn creates a more robust metabolism - healthy metabolism means an easier time keeping your weight where you want it.
It increases bone density. We know this sounds boring and old-person, but strong bones are critical in preserving our bodies now, before it’s too late. They help us do things like “move” which is pretty important.
It scientifically improves our mood. Most of us are desperate to feel happier and more content internally, and picking up heavy things is clinically proven to do this. It helps anxiety, depression, and overall diminishes cognitive decline as we age. Read THIS and THIS if you’re dubious.
Lifting weights reduces the risk of chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, and arthritis.
In conclusion, WE’RE SOLD. We have just found it so hard to figure out a strength training method that works for us. We hate going to disgusting gyms. There’s 478 “experts” who make it seem wildly confusing. We don’t know if we should use light weights or heavy weights. We don’t want to get bulky but we don’t know where to start.
So all we can say is, we found this trainer online, who does gloriously simple routines, where we sort of don’t have to think. We’ve been following this exact routine, at home, 3 times a week, with only 10 lb weights* and a yoga mat* and it’s the first thing we’ve stuck to when it comes to weight lifting in a long time. Maybe ever.
We don’t even know this woman and we’re not trying to promote whatever she’s got going on, but this routine has been such a simple way to approach strength straining, and because the guesswork and confusion is gone, we are actually doing it. No excuses. Try it. You sort of won’t believe how great you feel after only a week.
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