Why Strength Training After 40 is Non-Negotiable (and How to Start Right Now)

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Feeling the weight of knowing you should be exercising but struggling to actually get started? Maybe it’s gym anxiety, fear of injury, or just the overwhelming nature of it all. In today’s episode, Aaron Shaw, founder of Healthspan PhysioCoaching, dives into why strength training after 40 isn’t just a “good idea”—it’s essential for a vibrant, independent life. Aaron walks us through the real risks of staying inactive, the challenges of building a new fitness routine, and how aging changes our bodies in ways that make exercise even more critical.

This episode breaks down:

•The risks of not strength training and the dangers of being overweight or deconditioned.

•Common challenges that hold us back from starting, like self-doubt and fear of injury.

•The body’s changes after 40 (hello, slower metabolism) and why strength training can combat these shifts.

•Six practical tips to finally make strength training a habit—even if you’re starting from scratch.

Whether you’re a busy professional, a parent, or someone who just wants to stay active and independent, tune in to learn why the time to start is now—and how easy it can be to begin. Plus, Aaron shares access to his free, beginner-friendly program for anyone ready to make the leap into lifelong strength and health.

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Transcript

Do you find yourself thinking, I know I should be exercising, but I just can't get started. Maybe it's that anxiety related to go into the gym. Maybe it's fear of injury. Maybe you have an injury that you're just afraid to, you know, how to work around that. Or maybe it just feels like that's one more thing to do that you just don't have time. Your day's already overwhelmed. If this sounds familiar, today's episode is for you. We're going to break down exactly why building strength after 40 years of age.

is essential and it's a game changer. And even more importantly, I want to talk about exactly how to get started. This episode is going to be broken into four segments. The first, we're going to talk about the risks of not strength training, which related to being either overweight or frail or deconditioned. Segment two, I want to talk about the common challenges with starting something new like exercise. Segment three,

We're going to talk about how our bodies change, unfortunately, after the age of 40 and why exercise is crucial. And the fourth segment, the really the take home message here is I'm going to give you practical tips. got six practical tips for those who understand the need to exercise, but just can't get going. My name is Aaron Shaw. am from HealthSpan Physio Coaching and I

provide coaching programs, including free, a free self-guided program, which I'll talk about a little bit later. And my coaching clients really range from middle age and older. And these are people who have chosen to invest in their spouses. These are people who have chosen to invest in their children, invest in their parents by investing in their own health. And this is despite being my clients are

all incredibly busy, really have high stress positions, demanding jobs, crazy schedules. really with the exception of, I do have this concierge level of coaching clients where I do travel to see them on occasion, but all of my coaching is done virtually, very practical, very realistic. I have a smartphone app, do recurring video meetings and my coaching clients, some have never exercised a day in their life. Some, I got a couple who have actually been to the Olympics, so they are Olympians.

but they span the gamut and all of us know what it's like to be in our forties and in our fifties and in our sixties and struggle with getting started doing what we know we should be doing to extend our healthspan. So our healthspan is the duration of time within our lifespan that we are healthy, active, vibrant, free from preventable diseases as much as possible. And the foundation, the pillars, you will, of healthspan include

exercise, nutrition, sleep, emotional wellbeing, and preventative care. These are the things I talk about in this podcast and with my coaching clients. And today we are going to really lean into why strength training is essential for those of us that are over 40. And for some of us, 40 years old was, you know, a decade or more ago. But really when I'm talking about strength training, resistance training, I'm not talking about

bodybuilding and putting on a ton of size and being muscle bound or any of that nonsense. I'm talking about a very practical three days a week, investing in yourself three days a week of 30 to 40 minutes where you do some resistance training. And this is lifting things and pushing things and pulling things that are challenging. You know, it's a challenging resistance with these physical activities. An analogy would be, that sensation when you lift

and your luggage into an overhead bin on an airplane. And if you're like me, and that may be something that's pretty heavy, and it takes a little extra oomph to do that, that second or two of effort is resistance. And if you can picture that and envision that sensation that you've probably had before, if you do that type of effortful thing, 30 to 40 minutes, three days a week,

you're doing resistance training and you're going to get all the benefits of that. But you do have to start before it's too late. And, you know, on the one hand, I want to say, you know, it's never too late. And it's true that, you know, you can always have the gains, the benefits of strength training, but there are, sadly, there are moments in people's lives where it is too late and we don't, we don't want it to be too late. please, if you are 40 years old,

Please start resistance training now. If you're 50, start now. If you're 60, start now. 70, 80 years old, please start now. The pain of regret is going to be far more painful than tweaking your schedule, the pain of focusing your attention for 90 minutes a week, the pain of asking for help, the pain of whatever aches and pains it takes to create a habit of resistance training,

a routine that is sustainable, is something that pain is minor compared to the pain of not doing it. There are very real consequences to your health, to your healthspan, to your lifespan by not doing that. think about the, imagine a smoker in their 60s and 70s who is struggling to breathe, struggling with daily activities, they're coughing, they have COPD. Do you think they have regrets about the decision to smoke?

Of course they do. And do think that people in their last decade of life that are weak and frail and deconditioned, maybe they're just being crushed by the effects of heart disease or stroke or diabetes, would they be interested in turning back the clock a few decades to take better care of themselves? Yes, of course they would. You know, they regret not, eating better, doing things, physical things.

strength training, being more physical and dynamic with their bodies so they can be enjoying, the latter parts of our life. So an investment in your strength now will earn you a longer, more vibrant life, but you have to investment. You have to take the time to invest in yourself to earn that. Let's jump into section one here. The risks of not strength training and being

overweight or frail or deconditioned. This is just a few little quick science points here. It is far beyond, I think what some people get hung up on maybe is like the aesthetics of somebody who's, has a certain figure or is on the beach where they're not wearing many clothes. Like that idea, that's not what we're talking about here. We're not talking about modeling. We're talking about doing basic strength training, some

basic simple resistance exercises that will help us prevent the idea of being overweight frail decondition. Because the fact is, once you're past the age of 30, we lose about 5 % of our muscle mass per decade. This is just the curse of being lucky enough to continue to grow older. There are consequences to that. And so there's a natural loss of muscle mass.

about again, three to 5 % per decade after the age of 30. once you're well past 30, you can look back on 30. I mean, I don't know what I was doing when I was 30, but it seems like an awfully long time ago. And so the thought of like losing muscle consistently since that time is a real bummer, you know? But it's the reality, that's just kind of the way our physiology works. But of course, as we lose this muscle mass, what happens is we lose strength, we lose mobility, we're at a higher risk for falls.

which means we're higher risk for broken bones and fractures. So this is called sarcopenia. when we lose this muscle mass, lose all the metabolic, not all, but we lose a lot of the metabolic benefits of our muscles, which are muscles like the actual muscle tissue itself really helps with weight management, helps with blood sugar management, and really helps prevent chronic diseases and even some cancers just by having

muscle. There is a connection between muscle mass, so what percentage of your body is muscle, and longevity, the length of time that you live. So there are studies that link this together where the age-related diseases with muscle, basically have like this almost like a protective factor against some age-related diseases by having muscle. And as I said,

protects against or helps with insulin sensitivity and blood sugar control, so really reduce your risk of diabetes, which is a rampant problem here in the US. So that's the, I suppose, the sad truth of the risks of not investing in yourself and not doing strength training. there are common challenges with starting something new, like exercise. So I totally get it. think that this is,

a big hurdle to overcome for some people that if, if you can just kind of start the habit and kind of develop the habit of taking again, a limited amount of time at being thoughtful and consistent with this, great things will come, but there is a very real psychological barrier for a lot of us to really get started on, on a consistent exercise program. so it is completely normal to have this, almost feel intimidated.

if you haven't exercised in a while because, you know, it's fear of being judged, especially if you're going to be exercising in a public place and other people can see you. You can feel a little insecure, maybe a little shy about it. And if you go to a gym, it's, maybe pretty likely that you're going to look around and you're going to start comparing yourself to other people, which is not something you should do, but it's a very natural thing. But it's the psychological barrier. And that may even include just the fear of the risk of injury. So you may be afraid.

that yeah, I want to do this thing and I get it, that it's good for me, but I am just really worried that my shoulder is going to flare up or my knee is going to flare up again. So that is a very common challenge and something that we need to be mindful of as we start a new habit, as we start a new program. But it's okay because everybody has to start somewhere and it's really just about gradual progression and not being perfect. But I think what's really important here is that

If you're not active right now, the key here is breaking, really breaking the cycle of inactivity because it is a vicious cycle where it's, inactivity leads to low energy, which leads to low motivation, which leads to, even low self-confidence. And so it's really hard when you're stuck in this cycle that to pop out of it.

So that means there are times when you need to perhaps think about getting an exercise buddy, an accountability partner, a coach, a trainer, something to kind of help nudge you out of this cycle. But part of it also just recognizing that it's normal. So if you're in that low energy, low motivation, low confidence, on repeat, that is normal. It's okay. It is going to be just a barrier that we would need to, that you really need to kind of work on.

breaking through. Part of breaking through is also focusing on small wins when you first get started, which maybe you might actually find yourself sleeping a little bit better. There's a beautiful chemical reactions that happen with strength training that you may find your mood is actually a little bit better, which is awesome. And pretty soon you're going to actually feel physically stronger. where, you know, I just went through sort of like that negative cycle. There's a very positive cycle.

that certainly starts off with, again, these are small wins, but it's a virtuous cycle once you kind of get that flywheel spinning in the right direction, if you will.

Another thing that we should think about with these challenges with starting something new is making sure that we're setting realistic expectations. And this is a hard pill for many of us to swallow because we, and I say we, like many of the clients I work with, many of my patients, many of the people that I've, that I talk to on a regular basis about coaching and about health, they ultimately

When I, know, fine tune, like when was the last time you really felt healthy, strong, vibrant, and almost like the way you want to feel again. When we really get down to it for so many people, it's been, you know, five years, 10 years, decades since they felt physically confident and durable and really physically capable of doing things. And that amount of time

Under we have to understand that we have to set realistic expectations and there isn't a workout or a diet in the world that's going to like snap you back from years and years and years of this gradual loss of muscle mass, muscle strength, not great nutrition, maybe your body mass index isn't where you want it to be. You can't just flip a switch and do that. So setting realistic expectations will be very helpful in

setting you up for success. let's make a little point here about body weight. feel like this is 99 % of the clients that I work with are sensitive to their body weight, maybe obviously wanting to lower their body weight. it takes time to, sadly, it may not seem like much, much time, but it actually does take a little bit of time to gain weight. We gain weight by having a calorie surplus. And the math here is

is fuzzy. It's very complicated and unique process to each person, but generally speaking, broad strokes, generally speaking, a pound of body weight is the equivalent of 3000 to 3500 calories. So there's some research that will show that a pound of stored body fat, like specifically body fat, stores about 3500 calories, which means if

you gain five pounds over the holidays. That means you consumed around 15,000 more calories than you needed. Sounds like a lot. It really is a lot. Another way look at it is if you want to lose, let's say if you want to lose 20 pounds, you want to shave 20 pounds off of your body mass, you need to have a 50 to 70,000 calorie deficit. We're talking like

tens of thousands of calories on the way the other. The point being that this takes time. It takes months. It can take years of consistently working at these things, which is why having realistic expectations, please don't plan on losing five pounds a week or something like that, but setting small attainable goals is the win. Small little one pound here, one pound there, one more trip to the gym. These small attainable goals will

Again, get that flywheel spinning in the right direction, get some positive wins under your belt, and then it gets kind of takes on a life of its own in a positive sort of sense.

Let's move on to section three here, how our bodies change after 40 and why it's so crucial that we exercise. I'll be really brief here. Our metabolism slows. If you're over 40, definitely if you're over 50, I'm sure you're shaking your head like, no kidding. Our metabolism slows. If you're listening to this and you're not in your 40s, brace yourself. If you're not in your 50s, brace yourself and so on and so on. You would be better off. Don't wait until it becomes a problem to get a handle on.

You know, your health and metabolism when you will actually have a quicker response. our metabolism slows, there are hormonal changes. have decreased testosterone, we have decreased growth hormone. And so this makes really maintaining, you know, building and maintaining muscle that much more challenging. The good news is strength training can help mitigate some of these things. it will actually, know, these hormonal shifts, these hormonal shifts can be.

You know, managed in some extent by stimulating muscle growth, by, you know, creating this habit of strength training. And of course there's the importance of joint health, bone density, and, strength training, it builds muscle obviously, but also strengthens bones. So you're going to be, you know, you're going to be pushing, pulling and moving resistance with your muscles or as the motor, but it's your scaffolding, your bone, your bones that will be fortified by doing this sort of weight

weight-bearing resistive exercise. So there are real changes as we, again, we're past 40 years of age and it doesn't get any better, it doesn't get any easier, I should say, in our 50s, 60s and beyond.

Let's move on to some practical tips here. So I get, have six realistic tips for those who understand the need to exercise, but can't, can't quite get it going. So these are six things that are worth investing in. We're thinking about which one of these maybe rings true to you the most and start applying it. one, and these may seem pretty obvious, but I'm going to please.

Listen to them all. If you're still listening to me, it's probably because you, you maybe identify yourself as somebody who gets the need. Like I know I should be doing this, but I just, gosh, I just can't, can't get myself to do it or certainly can't get myself to do it consistently. Please listen to these. The first tip, start small. Begin with five to 10 minutes. Yes, just five to 10 minutes committing to a five minute exercise session helps build the habit. And I can.

assure you that once you have a habit built and you are doing five or 10 minutes every day or every couple of days, you are creating like the strongest foundation you could possibly have to a long, healthy, vibrant life. Because if somebody comes to me and they have no health habits whatsoever, the first challenge that we have is just creating a routine of sorts.

If on the other hand, somebody comes to me and they've been doing, 10 minutes of exercise four or five days a week, and they just want to know what to do next. is so much easier. is really kind of a fast track at that point. Cause now it's like being mindful of exactly what are you doing during those five or 10 minutes and we can, the results are going to be much, much faster. So before you get to that point, just recognize that five minutes of putting your life on pause.

in doing five minutes of resistance training. And I'm talking like air squats, pushups, planks, something, calf raises, simple things you can do anywhere. Do that five or 10 minutes, three, four, five days a week. That's small, but it's huge benefits to come. Number two, find a buddy or join a group. there is a

the power of accountability is real. So having a friend or joining a class, and certainly if you join a class, a recurring class, you will have your gym buddies or your class buddies, and they will be a sense of giving you little bit more motivation on those days that you may be struggling with it yourself to know that my friend's gonna really wonder why I'm not there, and when I go back next week I'm gonna get a hard time, so they're waiting on me, I'm gonna be there. But please, these groups are.

may not be the end all for your health journey, but if it's developing a community that is very, very powerful. And it can be more fun for those of you that like that community atmosphere with exercise. Number three, set action oriented goals. This could be doing five pushups, holding a plank for 30 seconds, something that is action oriented and very measurable.

When you accomplish these, you'll definitely have, well, just that you're going to have the sense of accomplishment when you achieve these. So as long as you're starting small and the action oriented goal is reasonable. So if you're coming off the couch and you have an exercise for decades, don't set the goal as a hundred pushups. Start off at five, be successful with that. Check the box. I was, I did it. Success. That's great. Don't say I only did five.

If you do five, it's five. If you hold a plank for 30 seconds, it is a win. Just accept the win, be good about it, celebrate it, move the goalpost a little bit. Make it 45 seconds next time. That's great.

The fourth thing to do is to link exercise to a daily habit.

If you, let's assume that you brush your teeth a couple of times a day. Please brush your teeth a couple of times a day. When you are brushing your teeth or the moment before you brush your teeth, do 10 air squats. This means like pretending you're sitting down on a chair, but there's no chair there. You stand back up. that 10 times before you start brushing your teeth. Do it 10 times after you're finished brushing your teeth. You're done. You're activating your glutes, activating your quads, you're activating your hamstrings, you're activating your, your

your nervous system, you're working on your balance, you're burning a few extra calories, you're kicking your metabolism in, and you're not adding anything new because you're brushing your teeth anyhow. So doing something, integrating this daily habit, this tiny little daily habit, adding it to a habit that you already have, or as they say with atomic habits, your habit stacking, makes it that much easier, easier to approach, and it's super practical. So you can understand

When you understand the need to kind of start with an exercise program, with doing more activity, these things are super important. We need to make sure that we don't devalue what may seem like it's not a big deal. If you do 10 air squats every time when you start and you finish brushing your teeth, let's say you brush your teeth twice a day, so that's 40 air squats a day, that's pretty good. You do that for a couple of weeks, you're going to be better at doing squats, hands down, and it's simple.

Tip number five, track your progress in a journal or an app. My clients have a smartphone app that I have. And so it's easy to kind of see the numbers, easy to see exercises that have done, been done or workouts that have been done or not been done. There's tons of technology out there, tons of free apps. There's wearables that will remind you how many steps you have. And it gives you this both a sense of progress

but also when you have it and also when you have a trend line that's improving because you have so many days in a row of doing an activity, you kind of want to keep that trend line going. can seeing the data from a wearable or a journal. If you want to handwrite a journal, that's totally cool too, is reinforcing.

The last, the sixth tip here to summarize the sixth tip.

For those of you that understand the need to exercise, but you can't get it going, I really want to make sure that we are focusing on how it feels, the feel-good benefits of exercise. As I mentioned a few minutes ago, there are very real, amazing chemical reactions that are feel-good chemicals. So it feels good to engage in physical activity. It's a positive feedback loop to engage in activity and

Of course it feels so good to be done as well. So it is good for us to think about how it feels during this journey because exercise will improve your energy overall. will reduce stress. It will boost your mood. And maybe instead of jumping on the scale every single morning, so anxiously seeing if you've lost a pound, maybe take the time.

after a workout or, to really just kind of look in the mirror and just kind of just take pause for second and say, you know, gosh, like that feels pretty good. Like I just did the thing. I did a challenging workout and I overcame my inertia and I got off the couch and I, instead of, sitting around and being exhausted and kind of stuck in that loop of misery and low energy, like I pushed through, I did something and it feels pretty good. Like take pause and at least acknowledge that.

because it just feeds that cycle to have this as a sustainable habit. So the one thing I would today, the one thing I would suggest you do to extend your healthspan, the one thing you can do if you are 40 years old and older or older and you are just struggling to start a routine, a strength training routine,

despite completely understanding the benefits of doing it. Do this. And that's one thing I've actually got two things for you. One thing you can do is download my free three week Kickstarter program. If you're at zero, if you just don't even know where to start. I don't want to talk to anybody. I don't want to pay for anything. If you want a free simple thing to start.

I'll leave the link in the description. You can press the button and you've got three weeks of exercises, three workouts, three days a week, and you just follow along. It's led by videos. You don't have to think twice about it. And it's just a very simple way to kind of, and again, it's a Kickstarter, so kind of dipping your toe in the water, if you will. No obligation. It doesn't mean anything. Just give it a shot.

The one, the other one thing I would consider doing of all of those tips would be to set a realistic, but ambitious goal for yourself to take on over the next month. Write it down and write down a goal that again, we're just talking one month. I'm not talking for the next 12 months. And then the next year I want to do this and I want to climb mountains in two years. Like none of that matters. What matters is thinking about.

the next month, what is a realistic goal for you to have? I write this down. So for example, it could be.

I have the goal of going to the gym three days a week for the next month. What you do during those days, don't worry about it. Just literally show up, go to the gym, walk in, play around with some machines, do a couple planks, walk out the door, call it good. Build that habit. That's just an example. Or you could set the goal of, as I mentioned before, know, doing 10 body weight squats before and after brushing your teeth.

you could set the goal of doing three minutes of planking throughout the day. Again, no equipment necessary. You can do this anywhere. But if you did several doses of 30 seconds of doing a plank, so again, you're just getting down kind of in that push-up position, but you're on your elbows instead and you just engage your core a little bit. Full body engages for 30 seconds or a minute here or there. Do that for three minutes a day. That's it. Just start. This is

the essence of self care. People depend on you and you have to be, I mean, if you have loved ones, if you have family, if you have friends, you have kids, you have parents, and you know, lot of people in middle age have both, you know, they've got kids they're trying to deal with, children they're trying to care for and parents they're trying to care for.

For you to be any good to anybody else, you have to be good to yourself. You have to have a certain amount of physical durability. Your metabolism has to be working right. Your muscles and tendons have to be activated. Your blood sugar has to be under control. Your heart has to be healthy. All of these things happen through resistance training. So please.

Don't let yourself go, don't shorten your quality of life, your independence. this is not fair. You know, it's not fair that people around you, it's not fair to yourself, people dependent on you. So try some of these tips. If you have any questions or you really don't know how to really get started, or if you want a conversation, I'm having to have one with you. That's perfectly fine. The key here is when in doubt, get some support. I've mentioned my free coaching program. That's a great way to start.

talk to a friend, go to your local gym, there are personal trainers and fitness instructors, but please start. The consequences for not starting again, especially if you're in your forties and above are dire. It's literally life and death. So please get started. When in doubt, leave me a comment, leave me a question. I respond to all my questions, all questions that are asked. And until next time, start a habit, be strong, be healthy.

Cheers.