What “Personalized Fitness for Women Over 40” Really Means

Stephen Holt, Timonium personal trainer

Millions of readers of national fitness magazines including Shape, Women's Health, Fitness. Woman's Day, Family Circle, Runner's World, (and many others) have made their exercise programs both more effective AND more efficient with fitness and nutrition advice from "America's Baby Boomer Expert," Stephen Holt.

People ask me this question all the time:

“You say 29 Again specializes in ‘Personalized Fitness and Nutrition for Women over 40,” but exactly how is what you do different?”

The difference is that we understand and address these concerns many women over 40 have in mind when choosing a fitness program …

You Have Aches You Need to Work Around

Some women think aches and pains are just part of being over 40.

A small part of the issue is that, yes, there are some physical changes that come along with age. (Sorry.)
The main issue, however, is that being over 40 often means over 40 years of not moving enough. Or over 40 years of moving the wrong way. Your fitness program needs to help you move better and avoid anything that could make you feel worse.

You Need Flexible Scheduling

The baby sitter shows up a little late. Your daughter gets sick. Your son forgot his lunch. Things happen. Often at the last minute. We get it.

Any fully-booked personal trainer will charge you for any cancellation under 24 hours notice. That’s fair. That spot was reserved for you and could never be recovered.

But suppose you’re just a little behind. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could simply work out 45 minutes later? Or even the next day instead? Our flexible scheduling lets you do exactly that.

We’ll be expecting you to come within a certain window, but you’ll never feel pressure to show up at 9:00 AM sharp, for example. And when you come in, you’ll still get your personalized workout, not a cookie-cutter bootcamp or group ex class, and not a shortened, hurried version of your original workout.]

You Don’t Want to Get Bulky

Quick Lecture: One of the main reasons you’ve slowly put on weight the last few years is that you’ve slowly lost muscle and metabolic rate (the rate at which you burn calories) has gone down. Solution: Put that muscle back on – that won’t make you “bulky,” though.

Our exercises work Muscle Systems (specifically, Anterior Oblique, Posterior Oblique, Lateral, and Deep Longitudinal – feel free to ask me for more info) not individual muscles, so you will never look like a bodybuilder.

You’ll look and feel more athletic. Even if you’ve never felt athletic before.

 You Need to Function (Not Be Too Sore) the Next Day

You probably know by now that “No Pain, No Gain” is more of a bodybuilding saying that shouldn’t be applied to us regular folks.

Sure, doing a new and different exercise will probably make you a little sore the next day. That’s acceptable and expected.

What you don’t want is debilitating soreness. The type of soreness that makes you hesitant to sit. Or stand. Or makes you foggy-headed because you can’t think of anything else but how sore you are.

The integrated training techniques and compound movements we use are far less likely to make you as sore as isolated strength training exercises.

In addition, we work in circuits* of 4,5, or 6 exercises. This form of programming is less likely to make you overly sore AND less likely to lead to huge muscle growth.

[*Circuit just means you might do, say, 3 sets of 3 exercises like this: A B C A B C A B C as opposed to A A A B B B C C C. Technically speaking, it DOES NOT have to mean cute little weights, little to no rest, and pointless jogging in place. Got it?]

 

You Don’t Want to Be Yelled At

Isn’t there already enough yelling in your life? You certainly don’t want more at the gym.

Coaches and PE teachers yelled at you in school. How did that work out?

I have a few personal trainer friends who were real-life drill sergeants and are extremely successful with their extremely realistic boot camps. Apparently, there are plenty of people paying to pretend they’re soldiers and enjoy being called, “Maggots.”

That’s not our style.

You’re a grown up. You have your own goals and motivations. We’ll coach you. And maybe coax you. We might nudge you. But we’ll never yell, tease, badger or berate.

The Biggest Loser is interesting TV, but that type of “training” isn’t necessary for you to get the results you want.

We believe in encouragement. Not embarrassment.

What do you think? Leave a comment on our Facebook page.

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