Get Fit in Your 40s

Cardio vs Strength Training: Building Power and Confidence with Coach Tina Tang

• Become Fit Forever • Season 2 • Episode 1

Share episode

Welcome back to Get Fit in Your 40s — the podcast that helps you lose fat without giving up your favorite foods, without spending hours in the gym, and all while easing perimenopause symptoms naturally.

If you're ready to feel strong, empowered, and energetic in your 40s and beyond — you’re in the right place.

💥 In today’s episode, we’re joined by Coach Tina Tang, a powerhouse in the fitness world and proof that it’s never too late to feel athletic again.

Tina is a Fit at 54 online trainer who helps women over 50 build strength, power, and agility so they can move confidently and thrive in everyday life. She’s been voted Best Personal Trainer in Jersey City — twice! and hosts her own successful podcast, empowering women through fitness.

We chat about:
✨ What really changes in your body after 50 — and what to do about it
🏋️‍♀️ The difference between training for fat loss vs. training for strength
🔥 Why building power and agility is essential for longevity and injury prevention
💡 How to start lifting even if you’ve never done it before

👉 For more about Get fit in your 40s program

📞 Book a free call with us to kickstart your healing journey  

📥 Download your FREE guide: How to Optimize Hormones & Lose Body Fat in Perimenopause 

📲 Follow me on Instagram for daily tips, inspiration, and support → 

 Coach Tina's Podcast 


Let’s Connect:

I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions about this episode. Send me a DM on Instagram or book a call—let’s chat!

Doucky:

Welcome back to another episode of Get Fit in Your forties, the podcast that cuts through the noise and gets real about what actually worked for women navigating fitness hormones and energy shifts in midlife. Today we're diving into one of the most common questions I hear from women over 40. Should I be doing cardio or more strength? If you are feeling confused about what type of exercise will help you lose stubborn belly fat, boost your energy and feel stronger, you are not alone. The fitness advice out there can be overwhelming and often doesn't take into account the unique needs of our changing bodies. In this episode, we're breaking down the science and the strategy behind. Cardio versus strength training. What actually works, what might be working against you, and how to build a fitness routine that supports your hormones, metabolism, and long term health. Before I introduce you to our amazing guest speaker today, let me remind you about our four week program. Get fit in your forties, where we help you lose fat without cutting your favorite and traditional foods. Without spending hours in the gym while easing your perimenopause symptoms. For more information about our program, go to our website BFF zone, or check the podcast notes and check their next registration dates. Today we have Coach Tina Tang. She's a fit at 54 online trainer who helps women over 50 build strength. Power and agility so they can feel athletic, nimble, and strong for life. She has won the best personal trainer in Jersey City, not once, but twice. She has also a successful podcast which you should subscribe to. Welcome, Tina.

Tina:

Thank you for having me here.

Doucky:

Of course. Since we, launched the podcast, you were in our list immediately.

Tina:

I love that.

Doucky:

Thank you. So we launched the first season just to try things. and then we were like, okay, now we are ready to have our guest speakers. Yeah. And you were one of the first we called. I

Tina:

Feel very honored.

Doucky:

you are an expert in your field. I don't know if you remember, but I met you 10 years ago.

Tina:

Oh, I remember. we both used to work out with Nick.

Doucky:

With Nick, yep.

Tina:

And there was no gyms in Jersey City we would meet in the gazebo in Hamilton Park.

Doucky:

Yeah. So you have been part of my journey too,

Tina:

yep.

Doucky:

We are talking 2014.

Tina:

I think I was just starting out as a trainer.

Doucky:

Wow. So you were at the very beginning. I was at the beginning. So we're talking about your forties

Tina:

Yeah. I was 44.

Doucky:

my age, I'm turning 44 next month. I love it. We come full circle. That's amazing. So just to paint you a little bit of this picture, I. Didn't know how to work out when my daughter was born, my friend told me, what about you come. To work out in the park. There is a bootcamp in the park and I'm like, bootcamp. That word terrified me. I was like, you're crazy. Maybe it's a guy who's gonna be jailing at me to pushups. I, first of all, I didn't know what pushes me, Bo Peace. Squats I had, I was like level zero. I didn't know anything. And then she pushed me. She's let's go. It's gonna be fun. He's super sweet. You're gonna love him. And I was like, okay, let's go. So we went to this park and in my first class, I remember, yeah, he was very sweet. He told us to warm up, go around the park, the first half block, my knees were hurt. Like everything was hurting.'cause I was, I cannot say I was in a bad shape. I wasn't in shape at all. I never exercising my life. So that was my first approach to fitness and thanks to that experience. I was inspired by him and maybe he doesn't even know that he inspired me to pursue being a personal trainer And help people to change their life because he changed mine. And you were in that group.

Tina:

I remember. And the funny thing is, he's not even a full-time trainer. He was a programmer who liked fitness.

Doucky:

And he was like so nice to everyone. I learned a lot. And he was our inspiration. So yeah. I don't know if he's gonna listen to this podcast, but thank you so much, Nick. Yes. Amazing. Okay, so now let's talk about you. what inspired you to start Iron Strong Fitness, which is your company

Tina:

it's gonna be very similar to yours'cause it only started in my early forties. For me. I was going through a very bitter divorce and then I had moved out, I did not really work out. I maybe used to go on the treadmill, like a lot of. People do. You know, when you don't know a lot about what to do, you just go on the treadmill for 30 minutes or 40, you know how it is.'cause it's a low barrier to entry. I know how to walk, I know how to run on a treadmill and that's what I'll do. during that time, where I was going through my divorce, I started going to the gym. not'cause people, as some people think divorce body. Women don't go for a divorce body. They go because it's something else, somewhere else to be, It's almost like a moving meditation. Your mind is not on whatever it is outside of the gym.'cause you have to pay attention when you're in the gym, whatever it is you're doing. If you're picking up a weight, you can't have your mind wander'cause you're, you know, you got something heavy in your hand or heavy for you in your hand, in your moving with it. So I would go to the gym and take classes. before Nick, there used to be a gym called Brick House and I would take. Classes there, which were called strength classes, but now I know it was probably a HIIT class. Yeah.

Doucky:

like another bootcamp.

Tina:

Yes. It was like another bootcamp inside a gym and I really enjoyed it I always ask the instructor, well, how do I do this? You know, after class, asking them a lot of questions. And so I thought, I think I wanna learn more how to do this for myself. I had signed up for a personal training intensive course, primarily as, self-development. if I take this course, I'll learn how to do things myself and why we do certain things. And back then, in the early, what was that? 2000 tens. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there, there wasn't really a lot of online courses so it was an in-person course in Manhattan, and it was run by Equinox. They, Equinox used to have a, what they call it, Equinox, Fitness Institute, and they taught it. It was an intensive for I think over a month, and you would just go on the weekends and that's where it started.

Doucky:

So

Tina:

at that time, I was going through divorce. I signed up for that and. Timing is everything that at that time also was post-financial crisis. So what I was doing before, which was a jewelry designer, I had stores in Manhattan.

Doucky:

And

Tina:

economy wasn't doing well. So I thought maybe I'll add in personal training to help. supplement my income since people aren't really shopping right now. when I started working at Equinox, I realized, it's hard to go to a place to do a part-time job and also run a different business. So I ended up devoting more time to the personal training. That's how I got started. Yeah. but I think sometimes when we make big changes, it's not when we're comfortable.

Doucky:

It's true. It's true. yeah, for me it was that too. I needed. To find my place after being a mother. So I was like, who am I anymore? Mm-hmm. Yeah. was like a very dark time for me. By that time, we didn't know about the hormonal changes either. I'm talking Only 10 years ago. Yeah. But it wasn't like An open conversation as we have today. Yeah. So I remember me crying in the bathroom, just feeling shame Because I was depressed, but I didn't know it. I was like, my husband, my mom cannot see me crying because I have a baby. that's not what everyone is expecting. So of course I gained weight. I didn't reconnect myself. I was in a very dark spot and exercise. When I exercised For the first time. it was painful. For everyone, the first time is, really painful, but then after a while. It got addictive because of the feeling afterwards. that feeling of, oh my God, I did it. It was so difficult for me. So that actually takes my mind off the issues that I was having at the time.

Tina:

teenage boys will come together to lift.'cause you know, part of it is they're thinking about. opposite sex. Yes. So for them, they're thinking they wanna build their body and so they will go together and go lift weights. Right. But, I think as younger women, we don't think about that. We'll get together to talk To shop, to do stuff. It's just not as ingrained. So for a lot of us who didn't. We're part of a sports team. You know, exercise is not something that's as familiar unless your mom brought you. But I think for a lot of, especially immigrant generations, working out is not a, is not a

Doucky:

No. That's something that you do if you have time. And we didn't have time for that supposedly, like we just needed to study, go to work. No time. who is wasting their time exercising? That was the culture. Back then. but talking about that fear. So what are the myths that you see in women over 40 and 50?'cause you've been working with that population, I guess because. You said if I can get stronger at this age, I can help others. To do the same. So I guess you encounter a lot of, hesitation maybe From women at that age.

Tina:

I remember getting a colonoscopy and having the consult with the gastroenterologist, And she was chatting. She's like, what do you do? When I told her what I did, you know, as a personal trainer, she said, oh, I like doing Pilates. I don't lift weights'cause I don't wanna bulk up. And this is a medical doctor, right? A woman around my age. I'm Gen X. we grew up thinking about cardio. We grew up with, low fat was the way to go. So we would eat snack wells. That was a big brand back then. Popular diets from the Cabbage Soup Diet or. South Beach Diet, which is, salads and protein, So basically I'm growing up in a time where we're taught about cardio and trying to lose weight. And I think the myths that still surround, I mean, even in other cultures, they think that. When women lift weights, we get big. As in they're thinking Arnold Schwarzenegger Big, which we in fitness know that

Doucky:

yeah,

Tina:

It was easy to put on weight, put on muscle that way. But I think what people don't realize are maybe there's the images of bodybuilding is even in the body building.

Doucky:

world when

Tina:

they compete, there's a lot of steroid usage. Mm-hmm. people use steroids so that it helps their workouts recover faster so they can lift more weights to get more muscle. Mm-hmm. in order to get that big, I think the average person doesn't realize it takes, drugs to help them get huge.

Doucky:

And you just have to. Fir first follow Tina in Instagram so you can see her if you're not seeing her right now in the video. she's very fit. this morning you were lifting like 140 pounds or something like that. and if you see me, I don't lift as much as she lift, but I lift pretty heavy too. You can see me like I pray every day. I could grow my muscles that easily as people think,

Tina:

Yeah. it takes a lot of work to grow muscle because you have to be consistently doing it. You have to eat enough, you have to eat enough protein. You have to be getting good sleep. I remember, I had met a woman, she's probably in her mid sixties, and she was a powerlifter. Someone who placed all the time in the powerlifting meets. She would get nine hours of sleep. She goes crucial to her lifting

Doucky:

being lucky her.

Tina:

Yeah. But that was priority for her. Oh, remember, she was retired too? Since, and she was in her sixties. But people don't realize that. She's like, sleep is so crucial for her to maintain and build muscle.

Doucky:

That is my goal right now. Now you told me that when I'm retiring, what is your goal? Duty to sleep nine hours so I can lift heavier.

Tina:

I remember her name, Ellen Stein. When you see her, she's a short woman. Very strong. literally Making records, like personal records or whatever the phrase is, lifting more than other people her age in competitions where all they do is lift weights.

Doucky:

Amazing. So you just mentioned something really interesting, there is a combination of factors for you to lift properly in that category, right? Like we have, eating 12, 1200 calories, they, everyone thinks that is like the magic number to lose body fat I wish with our work, we are doing that, changing the mindset of, it's not about getting Skinner but getting stronger. Yeah. but most of people out there wants to get skinnier. for social media we keep pushing. It's it's not about getting a skinner, it's about getting a stronger, but that is a reality, we're facing right now, 1200 calories. Low carb keto, intermittent fasting.

Tina:

the intermittent fasting One

Doucky:

low car, faster cardio. Yeah. So in that group of meats, what is better to do is either cardio. Or extra training. that is why we're here today, right? Why, we keep going to the treadmill, Pilates, yoga, what should we do?

Tina:

So I was trying to think of a good analogy. I think all of us. as women the ones who like to shop, You know how when you pay more for something nicer, you don't know, always do it because the materials nicer. I'll use, fitness wear as my example. Everyone knows Lululemon and there's other brands that look pretty, but I've tried the ELO yoga, the Lala. The material after time pills, it loses its elasticity. I think of our body like the materials. Lululemon costs more, but hands down it lasts for years. yeah. the elasticity, you don't lose elasticity. It doesn't pill I think of our body and what we do for it as the material, for a piece of clothing, right. The clothing has a certain fit, but the Lulus just always keep their. tightness, it doesn't fade. You don't get, the problems I have with fitness gear, like the pilling that happens with cheaper material. So when we put the work into our body, it's like creating the material for something that's gonna function and last for a long time. and I'm not gonna say that it's only about strength training, like in everything in life it is a little bit, of both Guideline to think about is what the World Health Organization and the CDC, regardless of what people think of these organizations, base their guidelines on a lot of research studies. Their guidelines for all adults over 18 is you should be getting 150 minutes Of moderate cardio each week and two days of strength training full body. That's the bare minimum for. diminishing, all cause mortality? in order to have a Better life in your body. you need some of both. I think most people, it's like only 25% of Americans follow both guidelines. Everyone does one or the other or none. So it's important to have both because cardio is for our heart health, right? to be able to do anything, you need your heart to be in good working condition, but without muscles. How are you gonna age? Like I always think about our grandparents and our elderly parents. My parents are both 88. When you imagine them moving, you think they're slow. When my, I think my dad, a couple times, a couple times visits ago, I went to visit him. He tripped over something. He fell and it was, you know, he didn't have a quick reaction. we picked him up. But you get scared because, for an 88-year-old to fall, it's,

Doucky:

It's like a glass. Yes. Clearly. Yes.

Tina:

exactly. we know that research tells us that we lose muscle, we lose our strength every decade that we go get older. I think it's about three to 8% of muscle that we lose. And I think what people don't realize,'cause it's. It's already hard enough to do all those things. Is that our power. So you can think of being able to move quickly. we lose that double the rate, which is why I know we were gonna talk about the importance of doing like agility or jumping alongside the strength. And you can almost think of it as, think of it as strength training being able to jump or do some kind of agility work, it takes strength to, to do that.'cause it's essentially strength. Moving strength faster.

Doucky:

It's true. that is really important to emphasize because it's not one or the other. I have been in this field for 10, 11 years, and you can find books that is defending everything including the things that I just told you about, like the 1200 calories, the keto, the intermittent fasting. There are books that are gonna tell you don't do a strong training because that is gonna hurt your joints or whatever. Yes. so it is important to emphasize that it depends on the person, but also it's a good to have the combination just to prepare you for the next 10, 20, 30, 40 years of your life. It's not only about appearance, it's about. Your performance just sitting down on the toilet.

Tina:

Oh, you made me think of an example, about sitting on the toilet. when we're younger, we never think about it. We just sit down in the toilet. and I had a, an online kind, I think she was mid sixties, but she was very active. she lived in Vermont, would hike all the time there, have a lot of mountains near there. But she came to me, she goes, oh, I feel like, you know, I need to work on my strength. Because when I sit down to go to the toilet, remember she's not like, she just sits all the time. She'd put her hand on the toilet seat to lower herself. So like her legs, you know, weren't, she did move all the time, but she didn't do strength training. When you start hesitating, let me put my hand on the guardrail to sit down or on the, she's like, even when she would sit down on the sofa, it wouldn't, it'd be like. not a controlled sit down, be like plop into the seat, right? So we don't think about losing strength'cause we kind of make adjustments in our life like, oh, this is get harm me, put my hand down. But she noticed that after she started lifting weight, she goes, I don't have to put my hand on the toilet seat now to sit down

Doucky:

So that is a good sign. If you're hearing this interview right now, if you're watching us, If you are getting up right now, you can try now. If you are putting your hands in the sofa to push yourself up, you need some training. Because it's gonna get worse. It's not gonna get any better. If you don't do anything about it.

Tina:

I think that's what we forget too.'cause we take for granted everything that we can do in our everyday life. this is not meant to be sounding morbid, but this is the youngest you're ever gonna be.

Doucky:

I know.

Tina:

every time things just get harder it's part of living and being on this earth, but in order to maintain a certain level of energy, of strength, it just doesn't come. We have to work towards it.

Doucky:

Exactly, the goal is. Being independent. Right When you're older. Sitting down and getting up from the toilet for me is traveling around the world and being able to lift my suitcase in any train without any help.

Tina:

Yep.

Doucky:

is

Tina:

a true test. Did you see when you do that and then there'll be someone like, can I help you? I'm like, no, I get this.

Doucky:

I can, excuse me. And especially you that you do, kettlebells and all of that, I find, fascinating. So you talk about agility training. that is something that is not super common out there. I have only seen it with you in your social and I love it. the plyometrics. That is another one that are explosive movements When you're working out, all have a function So plyometrics agility, strength, and cardio. explain a little bit more about plyometrics and agility.'cause I don't think it's part of the training of most of us.

Tina:

Yes, it's, I think if you were someone who played soccer as a kid or were on the track team in high school, all the things that you did with your coach are the things that when I see adults try to do that, it gets very hard. so I haven't been doing that all my life. that I only started adding it into my workouts a couple years ago and I was working with a trainer. I don't even know how I'm, I'm like, I wanna, can we add more of this?'cause I am really bad at it. By jumping, you can think of something as simple as jump rope. So when I would jump rope, I would have to double jump before the rope came through. It'd be like jump, jump rope goes through, jump, jump rope goes through. So what you see boxers do, it takes a lot of hand-eye coordination, You have to get a rhythm and then it really gets your heart rate up to just maintain that, Patterned hop. the kind of things that I guess you've seen me do is you don't even need equipment. You could be just jumping in place, jumping on a box, agility. People probably seen it in class before when you're doing a skater jump. jumping from a right leg to the right side, then the left leg jumps over to the left side. And some of the things you've seen me do on my Instagram, literally, This is what I would redo if I had kids, or, if I could be. A parent of myself I would have myself do a lot more team sports. You see in adults how coordinated someone is and if you were exposed to it when you were younger, it just becomes second nature. sometimes I'll put certain drills when I teach a class, where you're doing fast feet, like stepping forward, stepping back, The people who have done it before as kids, It's just fast.

Doucky:

It's like riding a bicycle.

Tina:

Their bodies just remember, or there's one that almost makes me think of a salsa dance. So it's like you step out, you

Doucky:

I love that one. Like Chacha, for me, I call it like chacha.

Tina:

It's like the chacha. Yeah. But, if you dance, you can get the rhythm. But, trust me when I say if I have an adult. Try that. And they're not big dancers, It's literally like, what? Where does my feet go? Where does my feet go? Yeah.

Doucky:

why that important for us at our age and after 50, just to move in that fast

Tina:

things. I think, the complaint will be the knees or pelvic floor. Yes. So sometimes I'll, have someone in class be like, I don't wanna jump'cause I pee when I jump. So let's talk about the knees first. And that's very valid.

Doucky:

let

Tina:

So even when people go running, let's say you haven't been running and you decide, I'm gonna start being a runner, most people will go out, for 20 minutes. That seems like a good amount of time. So when we run, every step you take that your foot hits the ground, you're putting down between two and three times your body weight. In the one leg, right? Then you go to the other leg. So every time you run, think about your body weight hitting the ground, and gravity also pulling you down. So if someone who doesn't run goes for 20 minutes the next day, they're probably gonna have shin splints or be really sore in their hips or have their knee hurt. And it's because. You're doing something that your body was like, wait, I'm not ready for this. My knees weren't ready for it. My muscles, you know, everything on the supports knees, they weren't ready for it. So that's why, you know how they have that program couch to 5K. Which if anyone's done it before is very thoughtful'cause it has you. jogging for a minute and then walking. Jogging, walking, and gradually over time, adding more jogging time versus the walking time. And what they were really doing, I thought, oh, it's always been mental, but it's physical because you wanna build up your tendon strength, the tendons around your ankles, your muscles, your body needs to be ready for that.'cause it is high impact. It absolutely is high impact. same thing with, plyometrics. The, I think one of the questions like what's a good beginner activity? if you're standing in place and bouncing off the top of your feet. you can even have your feet not leave the ground. Just kind of the heel rises. The heel lowers. Right. You can hold onto something. But, if you are, you already do lift weights.'cause plyometrics, agility is not something you would do standalone. I would never be like, get older, just do that.'cause you need to be able to lift weights To also do plyometrics and agility.'cause it's basically strength training with your body weight. But in some ways even more impactful,'cause if you hop up from the ground and land, it's higher impact than, for example, the two or three times body weight. so if you're like a hundred pounds, that's like trying to say you're gonna squat 200 pounds, right? and I think in sprinting it's three to five times body weight, so I definitely cannot. squat. Three to five times my body weight. But I can jump'cause it's a brief moment. So you can see, because of that impact, it is strength training. You're training your bones too. Mm-hmm. Right. Because that impact is your bones having to. Support you with that impact. And that's why it is help, they'll talk about people like Dr. Vonda Wright will say that besides lifting weights, jumping and doing some sort of jump exercise is also very helpful for muscle and bone.

Doucky:

you learn that now before we were talking in social media, they say you shouldn't be doing heat training. No jumping. That is gonna stress your body, it's gonna increase your cortisol levels. Yeah. And of course we smile, with everything that we see in social media because we work with actual people and we know that is not the reality. Yeah. and it is not the. advice that we should give, right? Because everyone is independent. But what you're saying basically is the combination of everything is so important. Yeah. If you want to run, you have to strength training. Yep. If you're doing any type of cardio, strength training is going to make you. Have more endurance in your cardio activities. If you wanna be jumping, you have to do strength training so you don't hurt your knees and cuffs Yes. So it's not an isolated type of exercise

Tina:

No. And I always think about this. I think we forget, that the evolution of the human being is to survive. Right? And that means. Our bodies do everything it can to sustain. So if you do nothing, it's gonna get weaker.'cause it doesn't need to work as hard.

Doucky:

If you don't use it, you lose it.

Tina:

It is absolutely true. If you don't use it, you lose it. So the idea of why strength training, we already know that we lose muscle when we get older. Just visualize an old person, Leaned over, hunched over and weak. if they fall, they're not getting up. And I know, I know. We joke about that. And then there used to be a commercial when I was a kid where it would show, I think it was called Life Lifeline or whatever. They'd show an old person falling and then be like, help, I can't get up. And that's one of the most common phone calls to the police department and emergency operators. an old person who's called, they literally fall in'cause the whatever. They just can't get themselves back up. And that's, that's straight up, your bone health and muscular strength. Being able to catch yourself before your fall. So having a quick reaction time. And we've all done this before where you tripped over something and your foot catches you from falling. You know, that's reaction time. That's agility or ply metrics when we get older You don't wanna always be asking someone, can you come over to help me take this out of my closet to bring it down?'cause we just naturally get weaker when we're older. what we do have control over is training our bodies so that we can either Slow that decline or create strength where you're stronger than the average person that age.

Doucky:

Exactly. And I think that is really interesting. What you're saying is preparing for the rest of our life, because People think the worst thing that can happen when you get older is dying. And that is not actually true. the worst thing that, should worry you is living in pain. Not being independent. being sick, all of that. So we're basically preparing to ease with whatever we can.

Tina:

It's true.'cause my parents are older and I think about other people my age, their kids have moved out. of the house, they're in college or have the first job, but now you have to start taking care of your

Doucky:

parents.

Tina:

I'm sure for a lot of people whose parents shouldn't be living alone, if you try to convince, that's like telling someone, telling you right now, you can't live alone anymore. You're like, what? I've spent all this time working and building this home. you're not telling me what to do. But that's what our parents think. Right? when they get older. even when. they're incapacitated and should have help. They are not gonna want

Doucky:

they're gonna refuse.

Tina:

And that's how we're gonna feel. It's hard to think of us as older, but that's exactly the direction

Doucky:

so that's what we should use for our seniors with our parents to convince them to start a workout routine, be more active. how do you convince, because your target is over 50? Yeah, because my target is over 35, over 40 and is difficult, difficult to get them to get workout, to lift weights. There's a lot of fear and I totally understand that because I was one of them. How do you convince a 50 and 60-year-old? I

Tina:

a good question. so I think it's hard to convince someone if they're not already convinced. I remember a business coach once said, when you're marketing yourself, you have to think of yourself as a drug dealer. If you are not gonna buy drugs, a drug dealer's not gonna convince you how to buy drugs. Exactly right. But if you want drugs, you are like, I'm gonna go, I know where she is. I'm gonna go buy, I want that drug. I'm gonna go get it. And I think, when it comes to women in their fifties or sixties, usually the wake up call is, they've

Doucky:

they've

Tina:

had a bone density test.'cause if you have osteopenia or osteoporosis, it is very hard to quote unquote reverse. And I know in social meal they're like, oh, do this and you can reverse. But you can imagine what happened there. Took time to get there. Where you're bone density is compromised, and especially during perimenopause and post menopause, because of. The role of estrogen in building bone and we just have less of it that's just the direction our hormones are going. I know you can get hormone therapy, but I don't know if hormone therapy will rebuild bone. I have a client who was told her osteoporosis. She came, she wants, wanted to start strength training.'cause her osteoporosis had gotten to a level where her doctor said, you need to have this type of. drug infusion. Mm-hmm. And when I looked up what the drug does, it doesn't build your bone. it simply slows your bone loss down. So they told her You need to be lifting weights and you're gonna be doing this drug.'cause essentially we're trying to slow down how much, how porus your Yeah, exactly. So when you get to that point, it's very hard. You can slow it down. I think to build it is gonna be hard. I can't, I don't scientific, I can't say it's impossible, but I think that's usually the wake up call. either having some kind of diagnosis or your doctor literally saying to you,

Doucky:

you need to go work out.

Tina:

I get people who start thinking about it or they're in their fifties and they know that their mom had osteoporosis. there's a big genetic component to it. for Asian women, they're 20% more likely to get it. here's the one part of your physicality where it's. Easier to be bigger in terms of not people who have had eating disorders in they younger years, or are super skinny or more at risk.'cause you can think of, of your bone density as supporting, your body against gravity. So the lighter you are, the

Doucky:

less,

Tina:

The mechanical aspects of our muscles moving against the bone triggers our bone building cells to.

Doucky:

the

Tina:

osteoblast, triggers them to build bone. Right. So it's strength train. Does that plyometrics because you know, when you do anything jumping impact, it gets stronger So I think it is gonna have to be education

Doucky:

So your, audience is approaching you because the doctors are prescribing, they have to do a certain training. maybe they have a wake up call. They are suffering from osteopenia or osteoporosis. That is a genetic component too. My mom has arthrosis. My grandma has osteoporosis. when I learned about that, I was like, I need to strain training. Like that is no question about it.'cause I don't wanna break my bones. I'm very. Scared of that. for my audience, 35 plus It is, I wanna lose weight, what should I do? I take that advantage. It's like you need to start training for your future. You're gonna get muscles. But the reality is. I'm giving them what they need instead of what they want, because it's not gonna be a byproduct anyway. If you lift weights and you eat all your protein, you're gonna get leaner. In your case, it's more, instead of being skinnier It's more about health.

Tina:

Yes. It is about muscle.

Doucky:

to survive and to be independent.

Tina:

To me, I get that we've had a lot of myths around the. Why not lifting weights? You get bigger, but when it comes down to it, especially when we get older, I can tell you being 54, even though I lift weights, I eat healthy. When I say that, I rarely eat out. I've always focused on my protein. I feel like every time I go to some doctor, they're like, this is okay, but you have this, and then anyone who's over 50 will know that. It's like always, why is there always something?

Doucky:

Yeah. I feel like I'm gonna win. I go to the blood work and I go to my doctor. I'm like, excuse me, I'm doing all the checks here. And he's like, you should eat more greens. I'm like, there's always something. I thought I was an a an A plus student.

Tina:

I was like, I'm already doing something. We'll be like, oh you guys, you're doing great. But something always comes

Doucky:

Always. Okay. for our besties who are over 50 you know that we have to combine all these type of exercises just to have a better life. what is your advice on a training program that makes sense? Mm-hmm. For women over 40 and 50. Yep. How we combine all of this exercises with the little time that it seems that we have. How do we see that? Tell me an example. How do you see it in a week? Okay. So our best is can have a structure and leave this session ready to take action.

Tina:

Okay, I love it. Let's do this. this is just a general guideline going along with what the WHO and the CDC says. on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, let's say Tuesday and Thursday are your strength training days. on Tuesday and Thursday, You're gonna spend 30 minutes lifting weights, Monday, Wednesday, Friday, you could be doing your 30 minutes of steady state cardio. this is a good place to start.

Doucky:

To start. Yes.

Tina:

On Tuesday and Thursday, bare minimum. two days of lifting weights. You wanna do full body and full body. think about the movements that your body can do. the six core things? squatting, so you can sit down on a toilet, helps you garden better. So you wanna do some sort of squat.

Doucky:

Mm-hmm.

Tina:

The second one is some sort of lunge. Even though some people don't like lunging, the more you do, the easier it gets. Like with everything in life, you do it more things get easier, your body gets stronger. So a lunge, squat, lunge, the third will say a push. So that means, you know how. When you're something's in front, you could, you're pushing something away or you're pulling something towards you. So you're gonna do a push, it can be pushing something overhead, so overhead press or a pushup or a bench press. So any sort of push. Now, don't stress about the exercise. Think about the general movements. you are gonna do a pull, which will be a dumbbell row or a lat pull down, or, even a bicep curl You're bringing something towards you. Oh, a hinge. so you can think glute bridge, deadlift, Or you can do what's very popular on Instagram a hip thrust. That's also

Doucky:

because want big glutes Tina,

Tina:

So that works too. And remember the hip thrust looks like a glute bridge except for your upper body is up on a

Doucky:

bench. Mm-hmm. And then.

Tina:

then. and six, some sort of core exercise. So I know people think caries, like when you carry groceries, that doesn't sound like it's a core exercise, but if you're carrying a heavy dumbbell for one minute across the gym, you're working on your core strength and your grip strength at the same

Doucky:

So.

Tina:

As long as you have those six elements on the two days, you're good. and then from there, those are bare minimums. I think it's a matter of preference. So some people are gonna prefer to have three days or four days of strength. And like I said, it's, I think it's very hard. I don't think I get it, the 150 minutes of moderate intensity cardio.

Doucky:

but I mean, it is better than zero, right? Oh, it's better. Yeah. Absolutely is better than zero and it's a good starting point. And if,

Tina:

uh, to make it easier, This is what I love about chat, GBT, so you can just type in those words. Squat, lunge, hinge, push, pull. Core or carry and ask Chad, GBT to write, you say, I want a 30 minute workout with these six movements, and Chad, GBT will write out for

Doucky:

And then you just start right there

Tina:

you just start right there. And I think the other important thing is, that when people ask what strength training is, it's not just lifting, but there's something called progressive overload. Everything's gonna feel heavy for you, but let's say chat, GBT told you to do 10 reps of everything and you pick a weight that you're comfortable with. If you find that the 10 reps like I could probably do another five more, that's when you know it's time to pick up another weight. So I always like to say whatever reps, you know how many time you're gonna do it. You wanna think the weight should be, so the last two are very challenging, and over time that weight is gonna feel easier and then you're gonna move up. to the next week,

Doucky:

Yeah. That I tell my clients is when you are making. Uh, ugly faces. Yeah, that's right. Like the last two. Yeah. You're making this ugly face. It's like, okay, so that is the right way for me. Yeah. but it is easy and you can chat with your bestie on phone. Yeah. You are picking Barbie dumbbells and that is not the right way for you. Yeah. Right.

Tina:

You just made me think of two other myths that you might hear online. So there are a lot of people in the. Metaverse. The menopause universe.

Doucky:

menopause universe.

Tina:

Oh, they were talking about that you need to lift heavy. And I've had conversation about this with one of my other, over 50 trainer colleagues and I think that can be very hard to understand for people. So lifting heavy.'cause they always say, oh, it has to be very heavy. there's no right or wrong number. it's about when you start making faces that's lifting heavy.

Doucky:

Mm-hmm. that's why we have wrinkles. Sometimes I look at myself lifting and I'm like, that's why I have the 11 in my forehead.'cause I'm lifting heavy and I'm good with that.

Tina:

One of the other things I'm sure you talk about with your besties is the reason why you want muscles is it does help your metabolism. So your metabolism is a combination of things like basically all the energy your body uses to move around every day, to run across the street, to sleep. the more muscle you have, the more energy. your body needs to use. So it literally is burning more calories. someone who might just do only cardio all the time, you are burning calories at that moment. your heart is working, but then later on. You haven't had changes in your body in terms of having more muscle, where you're using more energy just in your everyday life. But when you have muscles from strength training, your body is using more energy even when you're not exercising. because muscles require energy just to even be there, and it requires energy to make them as well.

Doucky:

Exactly. It's all around, the perfect exercise for you, right? Yeah. You burn more calories at rest. You have a faster metabolism. It's healthy for you. You're gonna prevent osteopenia, osteoporosis, all great things.

Tina:

That's right. And the only thing that's not, great about it is sometimes you're just not gonna feel like doing it. But you just gonna

Doucky:

it, but you just have to do it. And that's why you need a coach or a community that supports you, right? Support and accountability, I think is key. If I didn't have Nick at the beginning of my journey and all the coaches through this time, I wouldn't have gotten to this point where I'm confident to go and perform. one of the issues that I see a lot is like, I'm gonna do it by myself. nothing beats a coach that you know that is going to check with you, yeah, at the end of the week, It just takes the friction out. Of course, you have a lot of things on your plate, and you are gonna make sure that you're doing things the right way. Yep. So you don't have to go through this journey alone. No. a lot of us who are on that journey. Exactly. I try to do it alone many, many times. It doesn't work that way. great. So we have come to the end of this episode. Do you have, any last message that you wanna. Share with our followers and listeners today, something to motivate them to take action and start exercising

Tina:

Yes. I worked with this woman, she was 67 and only started working out when she was 57, and now she. Uses, barbells. She, I think, lifts probably five days a week, but her beginning was just taking a walk every day. For a year. then after that, she felt comfortable going to a Zumba class. the next year she started taking a Zumba class a few times a week. And then from there in the Zumba class, she met someone who's like, oh, you wanna lift weights with me? So I think that community aspect, but you don't have to go all in, you just, it's literally. And when I work with someone new to strength training, even if one day a week, you know that's what you're doing. So it's never too little in your start.

Doucky:

And it's never too late.

Tina:

And it's never too late.

Doucky:

Yeah. Like we started in our forties. You can do it too. That's right. thank you so much for listening to our episode. Please check the note where you're gonna find, of course, Tina information, if you wanna get in touch with her. Her Instagram is so inspiring, and she has programs that can help you get stronger as always, if you need support, you can Book a one-on-one call with us Thank you. And see you in the next episode.

People on this episode

Head Shot

Kausar

Host
Head Shot

Doucky

Co-host