The Flipping 50 Show

If you’re stuck in this 10 (or more) pound weight gain, you exercise to the point of exhaustion, you’re awake with hot flashes, and baffled about what to put in your mouth right now, this is for you. If any one of those resonated with you or you’re experiencing belly fat and cellulite you’ve never had before… or it’s libido tanking… then keep listening. But if you are sailing smoothly through with no real complaints, I encourage you to stay tuned too. Whether it’s to support other women around you who inevitably will have problems, or that there may be a bumpy road ahead for you no matter where you are in the menopause or post menopause journey you are, you can arm yourself with the tools to exercise smarter, better, and feel your best. These Cool Exercise Answers to menopause Symptoms I cover in this episode: Menopause Symptoms #1 Belly fat  The exercise answers to this are on both ends of an intensity continuum. You’ll have to answer some questions for yourself. Are you exhausted, waking up either without energy OR waking up with energy but an hour later feel as you could take a nap? In that case the answer is to seriously back off of your intense exercise. This is a “restore before more” situation. Once you’re better and you’ve got energy all day, wake up feeling refreshed, then the best belly fat blast is High Intensity Interval Training. Menopause Symptoms #2 Hot Flashes  Intense exercise… don’t fool yourself into thinking a jog or a walk or barre classes, even weight training you do that doesn’t reach muscular fatigue will help. Too many women are quick to say, “It hasn’t helped me at all,” when the real issue is that their exercise is not of adequate intensity. It’s all over the literature in dozens of studies. Light to moderate exercise you’ve been fooled into thinking will get you results, will not. Menopause Symptoms #3 Low Energy/Fatigue – If you are sluggish, slow starting, slow in the afternoon, ready for bed early, never wake rested, the exercise answer is not to try to generate energy. Not yet anyway. I’ve said it for years and you’ve heard it: energy creates energy. That’s true but not potentially for you during menopause until you restore. So short and frequent low intensity exercise daily – as in a few times a day is best to start. You can begin to do more intense short sessions – I’m talking 10 minutes as you begin to feel stronger. This one -as most do – requires additional work on your nutrition – in this case if its adrenals you want to also have small snacks through the day – which is opposite of the no-snacking rule  you want to follow if you want to lose weight and fat. My TEDx talk makes this so very clear as I share my own story and that of two clients. Watch here: https://www.flippingfifty.com/TEDx Which brings me to… Menopause Symptoms #4 Weight & fat loss resistance   You’ve gained it and you can’t get rid of it. Of all menopause symptoms this one is probably most common. It’s moved in, taken up residence, and you can’t move it. What you used to do doesn’t work anymore. I’m going to repeat myself a little here. Because if you’re exhausted, you have to take care of that first. If what you’re doing isn’t helping even a little bit, that’s your body messaging that more is definitely not going to work. It’s crazy in fact to think that no results when you do a little will suddenly start giving results if you do more. You may need to back off, reduce your overall stress load first. You may need to get less overall volume of exercise and get the intensity up. How do you know which it is? It becomes very clear based on what’s happening for you and what have you been doing, consistently, during the last 4-8 weeks.  It’s something that for private clients we identify in minutes. You’ve got to be strength training. If you’ve believed for decades cardio burns more fat, you’ve been duped. It does not. As you lose muscle during aging unless you’re resistance training, you allow your metabolism to slow. That’s not a natural adaptation of aging that has to occur. It just will if you don’t do anything about it. Your muscles are going to age. But they don’t have to atrophy. Menopause Symptoms # 5 Sleep loss – Sleep loss of all menopause symptoms is most detrimental because it will lead to weight gain or low energy. It may be due to hot flashes or night sweats but often it’s not as easy as that. It’s a monkey mind that won’t shut off after you wake in the middle of the night to pee. It’s waking too early. Number one on the checklist for improving sleep with exercise is making sure you’re doing any exercise! Ten minutes a day improved self-reports of sleep quality by 33% in one poll by the National Sleep Foundation. Then make sure you’re following the “intense early and light late” tenant of Flipping 50. It has to do with cortisol levels early in the day up and late in the day down. The right exercise at the right time will help you do that. Late day exercise that’s too intense disrupts that lower cortisol level you want so that you can get to sleep. Take one step right now. Join the 5 Day Flip Join the Café while it’s open through July 15th during the ½ year enrollment! Save $80 on enrollment PLUS get the bonus 1/2 day retreat (she treat!!)  when you enroll through July 15, 2020. Use: 80offmember Show notes: Flippingfifty.com/menopause-symptoms

How do you choose an athletic shoes?  One of the last things you might consider before you start an exercise program is what shoes you should wear. However, your feet are your foundation and if you don't get this right every joint upstairs could suffer.  In this episode learn how to choose athletic shoes so that you are the most comfortable and supported throughout your workouts and look forward to lacing up. Know your feet Know the activity Try on a few pair Then, I recommend you buy more than one pair and rotate their use if you can.  Your Feet: Flat Neutral High Arches Ideally, you choose shoes for the activity you're going to do most. You don't have to have a shoe for every activity but some activities  have distinct differences. Choose the best athletic shoes to give you the strongest foundation. Special Foot Issues? If you've got special foot needs you want to choose an athletic shoe more carefully: Bunion? Get a wide toe box. Weak ankles? Get a wide heel base. Plantar fasciitis? You may want to look at a heel cup. Arthritis in the big toe? Extra padding. High arches? You may want additional arch supports. There are also orthotics you may want to consider. A podiatrist will advise you on them and create a mold to have them made for you. Three brands of athletic shoes often recommended by podiatrists: New Balance Saucony Asics Please leave a rating in iTunes! It really helps!  Visit Flipping 50 on iTunes Click listen in iTunes Click ratings and reviews Leave your 5 star rating (seriously I’d love it, but your authentic comments are what I need to grow and give you more of what you want and less of what you can leave!) Know how much I appreciate you doing this!

Are you doing the best workout for your body type? But before the episode, it's more than one thing. It's body type, it's hormones, it's your condition, your goals, and an integration of it all. If you're exhausted, it could be less about exercise and more about rest. https://www.flippingfifty.com/tedx to see my TEDx talk explaining more about hormones, exercise and menopause. This episode is in response to a subscriber question. In this episode: What's body type got to do with it? What type are you? Ectomorph Endomorph Mesomorph How do you need to workout to optimize your body type and get the results you want? Ectomorphs need to lift heavy. That "bulk building protocol" is your friend. Three sets of ten will help you add muscle especially if you bookend it with high quality protein. Endomorphs, or curvy girls, want to go heavier and thus do fewer repetitions. That may be after you progress if you're just starting. No one wants to start heavy. Mesomorphs are naturally more muscular, and athletic and they respond well to most anything. They really need the least of the bulk building protocol and should employ variety of heavy and light training days, even different sets within a workout. All of these are things taught and used in Flipping 50's STRONGER programs. Are you training? Learn more here: https://www.flippingfifty.com/getstronger This is a frequent question. Hormones also play a big part, as does nutrition. Sometimes it’s best to focus on one thing at a time. For you that may be exercise (it’s a good catalyst for other habits because it will naturally reduce stress, and improve sleep so you want to can make other better choices). Resources: https://www.flippingfifty.com/getstronger https://www.flippingfifty.com/specialist Please leave a rating in iTunes! It really helps!  Visit Flipping 50 on iTunes Click listen in iTunes Click ratings and reviews Leave your 5 star rating (seriously I’d love it, but your authentic comments are what I need to grow and give you more of what you want and less of what you can leave!) Know how much I appreciate you doing this!

 Natural Menopause Solutions Hot flashes, night sweats or kick-your-booty fatigue ? Those symptoms of menopause do not have to run your life. This episode is all about natural menopause solutions, that get you back on track, feeling 100% your sassy self again in no time. I’ve been sharing … well pretty much everything with you lately about what I’ve done to my hormones, for my hormones, and one of the things I’ve discovered thanks to my Dr is Macapause by Femmenessence. I felt better within a week … so I’m super excited to introduce my guest today to talk about it. My Guest:  Dr. Mona Fahoum who is a Naturopathic Doctor specializing in women's health, hormones and the microbiome. Dr. Fahoum’s philosophy is to use a personalized approach, creating a unique plan for each patient - whether that is to trust the body to do its job or use conventional or natural treatments to achieve wellness.  Dr. Fahoum is the Director of Clinical Services at the Bastyr Center for Natural Health, the teaching clinic for Bastyr University, she is the past-president of the Washington Association of Naturopathic Physicians, has her own private practice in Seattle and is also on the medical team of Symphony Natural Health, the makers of Femmenessence, which I personally use and have shared with many of you community members now also using (I’ll link to that in the show notes where all my resources are flippingfifty.com/resources)  is why we have Dr Fahoum here today. Outside of work Dr. Fahoum is a mom, avid snowboarder, soccer player and fitness enthusiast! Questions we answer in this episode: Q: So I love the part in your bio about creating a unique plan for each patient and then you go on to say even if that is to just trust the body to do its job! Much like the exercise prescriptions designed at Flipping 50  - we are on the same page. Can you talk a bit about what that means for you when you’re working with a patient? Q: my audience has heard how my doctor and OBGYN Shawn Tassone put me on both bio-identical hormones and suggested Femmenessence. Can you please go into some more detail for listeners about how each of them work and how they are complimentary? Q: Listeners will love the possibility that this may mean that not all women might need bio-identical hormones if Femmenessence gets them into balance -is that what you’re saying? Q: Hormone balance has become a bit of a catch phrase for women’s health over the last 5 years and yet it is used in very general terms or perhaps as a blanket statement. Can you break down specifically for the women listening how hormones impact the issues we experience during menopause and why imbalance is referred to as the root cause?  And if we can let’s start with what so many women experience -  hot flashes and night sweats?   Q: What about mood swings? Q: What about poor sleep and lack of energy? Q: What about weight gain and heart health… Q: what about bone density and correlating diagnosis of osteoporosis? Q: Finally, I am sure many of my audience have heard of or even use a product to support hormone balance and provide menopause solutions. I know my personal experience is all the proof I need to know how different Femmenessence is, but how would you explain the differences between Femmenessence and other products to my audience when it comes to hormone balance. “Femmenessence is that it is actually the only natural product that actually has demonstrated statistically significant effects on hormones in published clinical trials in both peri and post menopausal women.” Q: Can you answer this question that I know listeners who have followed me in using maca will want to know… if they’re adding maca to a smoothie daily or a few times a week following a workout, and begin to take Femmenessence, can or should they do both? Resources: https://ww.flippingfifty.com/resources Https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/programs Connect with Dr Mona: Instagram: @Dr.monfahoum

This is definitely a different Flipping 50 podcast. It's a whose behind the scenes backstage pass kind of podcast. We just surpasses one million listeners and in thanks I'm giving in to a request ... 20 of them that I get so very often. For all the what do you eat, how do you exercise, what time do you go to sleep questions... here are the answers.  We've grown our listenership and some of you want to know me better and so this is that episode.  Questions from you I answered in this episode: What do you eat in a day? How do you exercise differently now than when you were younger? How would you exercise if you were in your 20s now, knowing what you do now? How much sleep do you get? Do you drink alcohol? Were you always in shape? You run a business, travel a lot, and make tons of videos so like us you’ve got stress and you’re always so positive, how do you do that? What made you create Flipping 50? What do you do in your spare time? Or wish you had more time for? What questions do you wish people asked about exercise? Why does psychology play a big part in your coaching programs (for both fit pros and women)? What words describe your most important values that you have – aside from fitness and health of course? What’s been the hardest thing about building a business? What’s an ideal day look like for you? You’re ordering off a menu when you’re out, what do you order? Your splurge if you do? Your restaurant splurge if you choose to do it? What I Don’t Do Any More Than I Used to? What's My Go-To Exercise? What I’ve Done During COVID that I wasn’t before? What’s the One Question We Should Have Asked You? What’s been the most important message of 2019 and 2020 for you? I hope you hung around for this one. Because it may not be what you expected and it may be the most important answer to any question here. I hope it serves you well.  Doors to the Flipping 50 virtual membership are open twice a year.. and it’s almost here. If you happen to be listening at a time of year when it’s closed, you can still get on the notifications list and I’ll share with you first… when it opens.  Resources: https://www.flippingfifty.com/Cafe https://www.fitnessmarketingmastery.com/specialist  

In this episode I answer a reader question about Crossfit. But this could be any exercise you're thinking about twice right now. Got a gut feeling? My advice is definitely listen! "I have always loved working out. The last 8 years I have been doing crossfit. I started it at 50 and at 58 I'm questioning if I should keep doing it?? In the last year I haven't been able to keep my weight down and I also have an injury to my left foot. I injured it doing doubleunders ( jumping rope) and made it worse by not resting it when I should. During this pandemic I have been working out at home ( foot still not good ) and not sure if I should continue with CF classes after we are allowed back to the box ( gym ). I'm don't think I'm ready for pool aerobics, I would need something more challenging. Looking for help!!!" Jodi Resources: STRONGER  Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

I’m answering this subscriber question about wearing shoes when you workout today. I’m going to cover several different workouts and when you may indeed be better off with or without shoes. Rebounding- A reader saw me demonstrating a rebounder workout on my JumpSport rebounder wearing shoes (I’ll link to that in the show notes) and wondered because she goes barefoot if she should wear shoes or not? Pilates, Yoga – should you wear shoes when you workout? Weight training Walking and running Pool exercise  - should you wear shoes when you workout in the pool? Here’s my response to that and different instances when it may be best to wear shoes and others when you may go barefoot. Resources: JumpSport Rebounder STRONGER Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist Flippingfifty.com/barefoot

Why do you want weights while you walk? That’s the real question. Are you trying to increase intensity? Because the purpose, I want to make clear, should not be to turn your walk into a strength training session. That’s what I’m answering today. Should I add weights to my walk? I’ve been walking with ankle weights, one client told me. Here is my response to that. Should you hold hand weights while you walk? My answer: No. You’re more likely to gain some stress or strain in the neck, upper back, and shoulders where women have a tendency to carry tension already than you are to burn more calories or get toned arms from walking. Doing it anyway? In order to minimize injuries, keep any handheld weights to 1-2 lbs is best which makes the improvement you’ll make minor compared to a dedicated 5 minutes of arm exercises at the end of your walk with heavier weights. Don’t swing your arms, and definitely don’t be tempted to do bicep curls or something else while you’re walking. You will change your posture, gait, and forget potentially the purpose of why you’re walking. If you’re determined to try it: Try water bottles (or two)… the kind that fits into your palm and has a strap around the back of your hand. I have a small Camelback that holds about 12 oz. of water. Fill with water and try that. You’ll find if you’re not used to them it changes things. Increase weight by filling with rocks or sand. For the heaviest, fill with rocks, then sand, then water. Should you add ankle weights while you walk? My Answer: No. You’ll be more likely to change your gait, posture, and put torque on the knees. And yet there’s one instance when adding weights to your walk could work for you. Wearing a weighted vest as a way to add weights while you walk? Yes. With certain conditions however, like osteoarthritis of the knees, additional weight could cause earlier pain from your exertion. A heavy backpack is not the same. You’re changing your center of gravity, unlike when you have on a vest. That includes hauling a small child in a back or front carrier. You are changing your center of gravity, and that will change your posture, and gait which can lead to compensation and low back stress, or upper back and shoulder stress. No Guidelines on Walking with Weights There are no position statements or exercise guidelines in existence for carrying weights during walking. That alone tells us something. We’ve been walking and well aware of the value of it for physical and mental health benefits for decades. My recommendation is to leave the weights at home. Put on a weighted vest to perform your lower body weight training exercises at home. Especially if you’re at risk for osteopenia or osteoporosis, you’ll help yourself load your spine and hips more if you like me have temporarily selected to exercise exclusively at home. Resources: STRONGER Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist

Walking Workout Starting to Bore You? Walking is the new running for many with knee, hip, or ankle concerns. It’s the new elliptical and step-mill for many who’ve ditched the gym by necessity or choice. (see my announcement on Instagram). It’s a good choice for several reasons. Done right walking can be as intense or as easy as you need it to be. You can reduce cortisol, increase feel-good serotonin, and improve your sleep all the while slowly. walking away pounds or inches if that’s a goal. Already at optimal weight? Keep walking anyway. The health benefits are abundant and include improved blood pressure, cholesterol levels as well as depression and anxiety reduction. If you’re walking more but find yourself dreading the same walk today, I’ve got you covered. While I can’t move your front door and change the scenery, I’ve got 5 walking workouts you can play with this week. I do recommend you find ways to turn left if you’re always turning right and find new ways to walk the ‘hood. Consider a drive to a trail or path to shake up your route. The Long Slow Once a week choose a trail, or a new area to explore and lengthen your walk. I’ve explored new neighborhoods when I leave from the house when I go for longer walks. Sometimes I do an out-and-back route and others I just let myself get lost and figure it out. This longest walk of the week should be reasonable but stretch you. How do you choose how long to go? Take the walk distance you’re doing regularly, add a significant amount that still feels doable to it. Say you usually going on a 3-mile jaunt around the neighborhood at what feels like a brisk walk. For your long slow walk, you take it off the beaten path to a 4-mile scenic trail which will slow things down. It helps to have a GPS either on a phone app or a watch. I love my Garmin 920 for tracking distance and time whether I’m swimming, biking, running/walking, or stringing all three together. Alternatively, though just watch your time and determine half time so you know when to return and not put yourself in a position of doing too much too soon. Frequency: Once a week The Hill Habit Number two on the walking workouts list is your interval training with resistance workout. You need either one big hill or a series of hills for this one. You’re going to walk 10 or 15 minutes first then you want to find yourself at the base of a hill that takes you a minute and a half to two minutes to power up. Turn yourself around and walk back down or walk down the other side. Your recovery should take twice as long. Once you’re down, and you’re completely recovered, no longer breathless, begin it again. Do 4-6 repeats and then resume your walk to cool down 10 or 15 minutes. Each week increase your intervals so you’re eventually climbing the hill 8 times. Then instead of increasing the repeats, focus on reaching a higher point on the hill in the same amount of time. You may find you’ve run out of hill eventually. If you’re making it to the top in less than a minute, find a slightly bigger hill. Frequency: Once a week  The Walk-This-Way In this walk you’re going to connect your hip roll to your heel strike and the width of your gait. Warm up at your usual gait gradually increasing your pace until you’re warm. It’s 102 here so I don’t mean just that… muscles, joints ready to go! Then narrow your stance so you’re walking as if you’re on a tightrope or balance beam. You’ll notice your hips rolling more which is what you want. You are cruising along and that’s how it should feel. Begin to widen your stance again and you’ll slow down and the hips will roll less. Alternate these motions of tight rope walking and normal walking. Try to pick up the speed as you do the tight rope walking. Roll through the foot heel-ball-toe and keep low to the ground, minimizing any up and down bouncing. Your mechanics are more efficient in this position even though it may feel awkward the first few times. Frequency: any time The Swinger This one is all about arms. I notice so many walkers with artistic interpretation of arm swings out there! Here’s the 411. You want to swing from the shoulders. Your arms should hang down and move from the shoulder like a pendulum rather than be reaching movements. If you’re walking a slow easy pace you’ve got longer arms. If you’re walking a moderate pace you shorten your arm (aka your “lever”) If you’re trying to walk very fast or power up a hill without slowing down you have a 90 degree bend in your elbow and you’re increasing the rate you move those arms. Your arms determine your legs. Need more power or more speed in your legs you’ll initiate it with your arms. If you feel tension in your neck and shoulders after going for a walk it’s a sign you’re overcontrolling the swing from the top down instead of allowing them to swing like a pendulum. Do swing front to back. Don’t bring the arms across your body. Don’t hold onto hand weights. Do lift weights two or three times a week to compliment your walking and do far more good than carrying weights during walking ever will. The walk: Set out at a comfortable pace with long arms. Increase your speed for a block or so by bending your arms and picking up the pace to a speed you probably can’t maintain but will boost your intensity. Settle back down to a slower walk to recover. This is speed-play and you can pick a corner, a driveway or streetlight to target so you’re doing 30 second or more little “pick ups” during your walk. Frequency: once a week The My Way For runners this one is known as “fartlek.” It’s just speed play really. You can do it to landmarks along the way like lampposts, corners, or driveways. I like to do it to music. I’ll create a playlist of very fast (160-180 bpm) and more moderate tempo music (140-160) and match the tempo while I run. You can use the tempo for the entire song or for just a short, timed interval. The advantage of doing it “my way” is that your body never settles into a pattern and you don’t get tired, stiff or sore the way you easily can if you set out and go the same pace for an entire walk. What’s happening is that your fascia gets set and that’s often what creates stiffness and tension. You may think it’s the muscles, but it’s often that kind of “hairnet” of fascia lain over the top. In simpler terms, this just feels like play! It’s like being a kid again. When you feel like running run. When you feel like going slow, go slow. If you like me are strongly moved by music, I highly recommend using a playlist of various speeds of music and songs you love and are inspired by! Frequency: any time There you have it, 5 walking workouts to fall in love with. Are you walking more? Music? Podcasts? What’s your pleasure? Resources: Flipping 50 Fitness Specialist STRONGER https://www.flippingfifty.com/Walking-workouts

Walking tips?  You’ve been doing it since you were 2, right? Surely, you’ve got this, you might think. I’m all for walking during COVID19. You may have seen my post today (June 2020) about quitting the gym. For now, it’s the right decision for me. Maybe I’ll be back and maybe I’ll find other creative substitutes. My Walk One thing is for sure. I’ve fallen in love with walking again. It started when I was walking with my mom the week after my high school graduation. By the 4th of July I was jogging, and thus began a love affair with running. But I remember walks with my mom, everywhere. We walked those tree-lined streets of my small town, and of my grandmother’s even tinier town, and of the campus we both loved. Going home in the last few years the walks are slower and shorter around her retirement community. But my walks during COVID19 remind me once again, less is more. I’ve lost long runs and rides and swims for now. Because of it, not in spite of it, I’ve lost inches and a few pounds. I’ve recovered a lightness I didn’t realize was missing. My dog no longer wants to go further than around the block, but I’ve rediscovered I love exploring on my feet.  A Doctor or A Specialist?  Doctors often recommend walking as a best exercise. However, the blanket “walk” advice leaves a lot of information out. You’ve got less room for error after 50, especially if you’re in menopause. If you started walking during COVID19 or you haven’t yet and want to this replay from earlier in the year is oh, so appropriate for “now.” If you, like me, choose not to date “gym” just yet, these tips will help you This episode was originally sponsored by CBDforlife. That too may be a solution for inflammation, tension, and stress. In fact, as I increased my mileage, I’ve used the rub on my feet lately. A few restless nights I’ve used the eye cream to reduce puffiness around the eyes, too. The walking tips here will help you prevent the most common walking mistakes women in midlife make. #1 Too Much Too Soon I have to start with the best of all walking tips being don’t overdo it! Fitness mistakes like this are the #1 reason for injury. I so understand the desire to get results yesterday’s yesterday, however it just won’t work out in the long term. Just because you’ve decided to put a hold your gym membership and you can’t get to hour-long classes or chat sessions with your bestie, don’t immediately exchange them for long walks. You’ve got to have a foundation before you ramp up to more. “Smart starts” lead to flipping fantastic finishes. Have you ever tried to read the last page or last chapter of a book without reading the middle? It’s not satisfying. It doesn’t have the impact or desired outcome on you. Neither will your fitness program. Too much too soon is usually the cause of overuse injuries like tendinitis, most often in the IT Band, or bursitis of the hip, or plantar fasciitis. Flip: Walk frequently but for short periods to start. THIS is also excellent for your immune system, by the way. Add 2 or 3 minutes a week to your walk per week. So week one you walk 20 minutes, week two you walk 23 minutes. It may seem slow but in a month you go from 20 minutes to 32 minutes of walking, and that’s significant. Yet you’ve allowed your joints, ligaments, and muscles to adapt. #2 No Intensity Changes One of the best walking tips I can give applies to all exercise. Get a variety of intensity either into every walk, or as I program for my private clients, into your weekly walking schedule. One or two days do intervals, one day do a long slow walk (ideally on a trail) so it’s a hike with terrain changes and lovely scenery. There are 5 walking workouts I share with you elsewhere (search the site> coming soon). You need some intense walks, some easy walks, and some intermittent high and low intensity (interval) walking in your routine. You’ve got three energy systems. Walking at the same intensity all the time will ignore two of them. It’s not good to go all out all the time. It’s also not good to go super comfortable all the time. Common mistakes include: Always intervals Always long walks Have purpose to your workouts. Every single one of them. Even if you’re at your ideal weight and you “look fine and don’t need to lose weight,” your best aging happens when all systems are go. Think down the road. Pun, intended. Flip: Plan one long slow day, a short interval training day with at least 4 “repeats” of 30 seconds or a minute of fast or hill walking alternated with recovery, and a moderate intensity day in each week. See 5 Walking Workouts You’ll Run to For Results (coming soon - just use the search feature on this site to find it) #3 No Strength Training   Walking is cardiovascular exercise that - alone - will have very little positive influence on your lean muscle mass. You lose muscle easier than you gain it after 50. To preserve it, and to gain any, you absolutely must strength train. [If you care about your health, longevity, and fitness over 50 and you are not measuring body composition as frequently as you weigh yourself, what are you doing? Get a scale that measures body fat and lean muscle now. If you lose weight, and its muscle you will decrease your metabolism now, and increase your odds of frailty and dependence on others in the decades ahead.] You’ll decrease your percent body fat by increasing your lean, and that ultimately will support a higher metabolism that then helps fat loss. Not Strength Training? Or not seeing results? Was your program built for women in menopause and beyond? This is your program. Weight loss? A walking for weight loss walking tips bible would say know fat loss, not weight loss, is your first and highest priority. You can lose weight, but if it’s muscle you are also losing metabolism and will gain fat. Don’t go walking down that road after 50! Your posture and power in push off during walking will improve too so every step is more effective and efficient. #4 You Do Intervals Immediately Similar to #1, you’ve got to have a foundation. Speed is known to cause more injury than resistance. Before you try something, anything, fast, you have to learn the proper way to do it slow. The desire to use intervals when you walk, especially if you’ve been doing them elsewhere – say attending a spinning class or doing elliptical – may be strong. Resist baby.  Every mode of exercise has nuances and the body needs a chance to get used to it. Even if you feel you could do more your body has parts that need to adapt. Flip: Return to #1 and review. Make sure you’ve been walking regularly for a few weeks before you ramp up interval training. #5 No Warmup and or Cool Down Sure, it’s just walking, but you want to begin it slowly. You may not need a static stretch before you start. However, if you have a history of ankle, knee, or hip issues I would definitely take a few minutes and stretch before you go. By the way, ankle-related issues are an age-related problem. Don’t read that to say you’re bound to have them. But doing range of motion exercises, and warming up before doing more than daily activities of living, can help you maintain range of motion as you age. Be sure to take 5 or 10 minutes to stretch at the end of a walk. Your muscles are warm and ripe for flexibility and mobility benefits of stretching. You can do a joint and muscle specific stretch or hit several muscle groups at once (for example, a warrior pose from yoga). Now, how does that help weight loss? Warm ups and cool downs certainly aren’t “calorie burning” necessarily. A warm up does help you burn more energy during your workout. Best walking tips ever, right? But, hey, if you’re sidelined because you tried to take short cuts? Your fitness will suffer. No idea how to do warm ups and cool downs or pull it all together? And no idea why they could be the secret to better results? You might like this. #6 Same Route Every Time One of the best walking tips I can give you is to regularly change the direction, duration, and scenery. Convenient as it is to head out your front door, you may need to branch out. I walked 4 times last week – all of them from my front door and no two were the same. Walking on the same terrain repeatedly can be a problem. You’d notice it more if it were a sharp grade on the side of the road, but you may miss it when it’s just a rolling hill walk on what seems like a flat surface. On a track for instance you may notice every other day runners are told to run clockwise or counter clockwise. That can be a problem for runners who go every other day! Not helpful! The same walk with no change can cause you to overuse the same muscles and joints if you do it often enough. It may be so subtle you won’t notice it happening. Flip: Change routes, walk the route backwards, walk on the other side of the street (for safety you should walk toward oncoming traffic if you’re on the side of the road or walking a bike path). #7 Focus on Calorie Burning If you’re only paying attention to calories you’re very likely going to go long all the time or go hard all the time or both. Which, in return will commit several of the first six mistakes I’ve listed. It’s important to know your hormone status, or start listening to clues so you understand it. Are you constantly stressed? Can’t get up in the morning? Then a short and slow walk a couple times a day may be best for you. Calories don’t control your weight (or fat): hormones do. So pay attention to hormones. You can learn more about hormones, their signs and symptoms and what that means for exercise here. There you have it, my walking tips for making COVID19 a walk in the park. Make It More Fun How can you make your walk more fun, less work? Take Flipping 50 with you! I love, love catching up on podcasts during my walks! Download to your phone by subscribing on iTunes (or where you listen to podcasts) and each episode is time stamped so you can listen to one for a short walk or choose a longer episode or two short ones for a longer walk. Resources: CBDforLife.com/us Use Flipping50 for a special podcast listener discount Please leave a rating in iTunes! It really helps!  Visit Flipping 50 on iTunes Click listen in iTunes Click ratings and reviews Leave your 5 star rating (seriously I’d love it, but your authentic comments are what I need to grow and give you more of what you want and less of what you can leave!) Know how much I appreciate you doing this!