Why Women over 40 Should be Lifting More weights and doing less HIIT or Cardio?

"I get this asked a lot..Shannon why do you recommend lifting weights more than HIIT or Cardio especially after 40?"

Now let me reiterate- if you love HIIT workouts do some HIIT workouts as I always say when it comes to exercise do what you like first and foremost.

I can program the best workout for you on paper and what would work the most efficiently for you and your injuries.

What isn't talked about enough or what most people don't understand or realize is that these types of workout are a stress on our body. Our bodies are so much more susceptible to stress going into perimenopause. When you have chronically elevated stress hormone (cortisol) all day long it causes muscle break down and fat retention along with terrible sleep and cravings plus it can put our adrenals into overdrive.

What most people and trainers don't grasp is we can program the best workout for you on paper and what would work the most efficiently for you but if you aren't going to do it or really hate doing it, it really doesn't matter and will create even more stress.

So if you love to walk then walk, if you love to do yoga, do yoga, if you love to ride your bike, ride your bike, if you like to do crossfit or HIIT still do those just maybe back off of them a little as they are a stress on your body.

HIIT and low calorie or low carbohydrates are a stress to your body. Now some stress is good. It's our fight or flight but if we are always in fight or flight or our cortisol levels are always elevated that is what causes Metabolic adaptation and all of those strategies we used in our 20's and 30's begin to work against us instead of for us and weight loss.

Can some women over 40 get results by just doing HIIT? Heck- yeah, of course there is always the exception to the rule and most likely a better option than just doing cardio as you get some strength in HIIT workouts- just not as much progressive overload to continue to build muscle or you may hit a plateau.

AND if you have chronic dieted throughout the years, done different supplements to lose weight but gained it back, gone crazy on your workouts without fueling your body properly, done yo yo dieting you probably fall into this category. Even someone like me that hasn't done any of that, felt the shift once I hit about 41. Plus the fact that my body with 2 ACL's, 3 Meniscus repairs and an overused shoulder from too many years of volleyball, coaching and basketball started to talk to me -I had to find a different way. I also realized not everyone should be lifting the same way or doing the same workouts all of the time. We all have different injuries, goals, starting points, and abilities so we need something Tailored and customized to us specifically.

It's one of the reasons I became a barre, mobility and yoga instructor. I wanted to move, feel better and be active but had to find some alternatives to always killing myself in my workouts and paying for it the next day. It's a huge reason why and how I came up with the M² method. It incorporates our 4 main pillars of movement Strength Training (Tailored Strength) , HIIT style classes or I call it conditioning/endurance training, Active Recovery such as Barre and Recovery like Yoga, Mobility and rest along with Nutrition, Mindset and Recovery.

M² or The inMotion Method is our foundational program. You can still do those fun HIIT workouts but it should be a smaller percentage of your workouts like 1-3x a week. We need to focus on getting stronger and building muscle (no you are NOT going to get bulky) vs. seeing how many calories you can possibly burn on your fitbit, apple watch or heart rate monitor in a 30 or 60 minute workout.

What you don't see on your watch or heart rate monitor is that you are burning at an accelerated weight the rest of the day from those weight lifting sessions when done correctly and building muscle which in turn helps our metabolism because we have more lean body mass and less body fat. The more muscle we have the higher our Resting Metabolic Rate is and the more we burn sleeping, sitting on our bumm and even working out which all helps get us to our main goal of wanting to lose fat and feel better!

Have questions on how to get started? We have our 14 or 30 day trial or some special to let you try our program as we believe in it but want you to as well without getting stuck in a contract or membership you won't use. I am here for you- even if you do not live in the area or become a member of inMotion. I want you to feel better and be able to find what works for you and what you can sustain to get you to where you want to be!