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There is so much information out there on what to do, what not to do, and if you're doing it one way, you're doing it absolutely wrong.
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From take 10,000 steps a day, lift heavy every single day, wear your weight vest, do yoga before sunrise, and honestly, it is a lot, and most of it isn't even true.
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We're gonna be going over what do you need in your week.
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As I've said in the previous podcast, in August, it's a hinge month.
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We are gearing up, and maybe some kids have gone back to school.
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Maybe you've dropped them off at college.
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Depending on where you are, you may be in the first couple weeks of school or approaching your first week of school.
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Now is the time to start looking at where you're at.
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Maybe you've taken a whole break from your workouts over the summer and enjoyed.
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And today I'm going to break down how strength training, cardio, mobility can fit into a real week, and I'm gonna walk you through why and give you a starting point wherever you're at.
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And by the end, you'll have real steps that you can take control of your fitness.
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Welcome to MilesFromHerView, the podcast powered by KatFit Strength, where busy women like you find practical solutions to fuel your fitness journey with authenticity and resilience.
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I'm Kat, your host, a mom of two active boys, a business owner, and an ultramarathon runner, and a strength trainer in her 40s.
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With nearly two decades of experience, I'm here to help you cut through the noise of fads, hacks, and quick fixes.
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This is a space where we celebrate womanhood and motherhood, all while building strength and resilience and reconnecting with you from a place of self-compassion and worthiness.
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Whether you're lacing up your running shoes to go out for a run, driving your kids to practice, or squeezing in a moment for yourself, I'm right here in the trenches with you.
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Let's dive in.
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Welcome back to MilesFromHerView.
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I am Kat, your host, and welcome if you're new here, and if you are a longtime listener, welcome back.
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We are still in August.
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It is the Sunday of the summer months.
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It is inevitable that the busyness will kick up.
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My kids are about to start school.
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We are already full throttle into sports and other extracurricular activities for them.
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And I too find myself being like,"How am I going to keep my health and wellbeing at the forefront while building a business, keeping the podcast going, keeping my training there, and getting my kids to every place they need to go?" So if you're sitting here and you're like,"Oh my gosh," if you're struggling,"how in the world can I even find a plan for myself?" We're gonna go over all of this today, and I want you to glean from it and apply what works for you.
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I'm a coach, and I am of the mindset that there is no one size fits all.
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Each person is a unique person.
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The fact is there's only 24 hours in a day and everybody does not have the same 24 hours.
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So So wherever you are right now, that's a real and valid starting point.
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This isn't about where you should be, it's about where you actually are today and building from there, and that is such a crucial point.
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None of this is meant to guilt or shame, but to start to help you have a roadmap of where you're at and where you wanna go.
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What I have found in the two decades plus of coaching from college athletes to individuals who are doing it all, is the failure to understand where they're starting from.
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They plan their weeks and apply fitness ideologies on where they want to go It is no fault of their own.
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This is, again, not a guilt or shame.
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I, myself, do that as well, and a lot of it has to do with what we're seeing.
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The 10,000 steps a day golden marker, must get your workouts in before sunrise.
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All of these things play into a misconstrued way of planning.
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A question I get constantly is,"I only have time for one thing, so which one matters the most, strength, cardio, or mobility?" And I totally get why I get asked that a lot, but it's actually the wrong question because these three aren't competing for a spot in your week.
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They are a system, and they hold each other up.
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So we're gonna dive into strength first that is why women come to me, is to put together a well-rounded strength program.
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Again, it also incorporates the cardio and the mobility, but they're coming to me primarily for the strength piece.
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So if you're in your late 30s and 40s or beyond, this one matters more than most of us were ever taught.
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So starting around your late 30s, your estrogen begins a slow decline, and estrogen does a lot more than most people realize.
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So it protects your muscle tissue, it maintains your bone density, it regulates where your body stores fat, and it supports insulin
Load full transcript
sensitivity, even your tendons and ligaments.
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So when that estrogen drops, you feel it.
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Fat gets redistributed seemingly just overnight, and muscles feel softer, even at the same weight.
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Recovery takes longer, and here's the part that matters the most.
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You cannot out-cardio or out-diet a hormonal shift.
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The one thing that actually works is building and maintaining muscle through progressive strength training.
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I like to think of muscle as your metabolic insurance policy because muscle is the largest organ in your body, and it is a metabolically active organ.
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So it stores glucose and keeps your blood sugar stable.
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It burns more calories when you're doing nothing, and it protects your joints by allowing your tendons and ligaments to become thicker versus weaker and brittle, and it helps produce more lubrication for your joints, so your joints feel healthier and happier as you progress through the decades.
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The more muscle you build now, the easier every year after this gets.
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And I'm not saying easier means you'll never have aches and pains.
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You will.
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That is a fact.
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I remember in my 20s having aches and pains from pushing myself really hard through workouts.
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We just wanna make sure that the aches and pains aren't this is what 40 is.
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Now cardio.
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Walking or running, that builds that heart and lung capacity.
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So it gives you something strength training alone just does not, and that is everyday endurance.
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It's the stamina to keep up with your kids at the park, to get through that long day, to not feel wiped out climbing a flight of stairs, and to be able to continue traveling this world mobility, whether it's yoga or Pilates, see, this is gonna help keep your joints moving through their full range of motion, and it helps your nervous system come back down after a stressful day.
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Here's how it all connects.
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Strength training loads your body.
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Mobility helps it recover and move well under that load.
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Cardio builds the conditioning base that makes the other two feel more sustainable.
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Pull one of those out and the other two are gonna get harder.
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So that's why we need all three.
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Not because a chart says so, but because your body is one connected system.
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Okay, I hear you.
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How do I fit it all into a week?
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Do you understand how many things I'm juggling?" I may not know how many things you're juggling, but contrary to what is being proclaimed out on social media, there are ways to get this done.
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The challenge is, and as I said, a lot of women come to me, the primary driver is for that strength training piece, but I can't have the other two fall off.
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Because, as I said, strength training loads your body, mobility helps it recover and move well under that load, and cardio builds that conditioning base that is going to help everything feel sustainable.
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So now we know that we need strength training, mobility, and cardio.
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What type of strength training do we need?
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For the most evidence-based is progressive strength training.
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And I'm going to demystify the word progressive I get questioned on it a lot, and I feel like it can scare individuals because it can be misunderstood.
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Progressive strength training simply means that you're systematically giving your body a little bit more of a reason to adapt over time.
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So that can look like adding weight, adding a rep, or adding a set.
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It's not maxing out every session.
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It's not focused on lifting exponentially heavy weight every time you step into the gym, that there's no end in sight, that you are just going to bulk up.
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It's about your body facing a slightly bigger ask than it did a few weeks ago.
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And there's many different ways that we can do this.
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Here's what I want to gently push back on what you're seeing online.
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You do not need to lift your heaviest every single time you train.
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A well-built program has lighter days and heavier days on purpose.
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That is not inconsistency, that's by design.
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Progressive in strength training looks like the weight that felt hard three months ago now feels manageable.
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Or you can do the same set with better form, or your grip doesn't give out halfway through.
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None of that is a number that shows up on the barbell, on the dumbbell, or the kettlebell, and that is completely okay it's not all about lifting the maximum amount you can.
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And the other thing I will say is, because it comes up as well, is that your workout should move through real movement patterns, not just random exercises, pulling off the best one to get a snatched waist or a sculpted bum or anything like that.
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But something that
squats, something that hinges at the hip, something that pushes, something that pulls.
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It's something that challenges your core, your grip through a carry.
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See, when a program hits all of those across your week, your body gets signal to adapt, and that's a good thing.
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These movements are also transferable into everyday life.
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So the work that you're putting in while you're strength training allows for more resiliency, independency with your body outside your workouts.
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Yes, aesthetic goals have a place, but if you are looking strictly for aesthetic goals, then we're moving a little bit more into that bodybuilding, that fitness modeling design of programming and not a functional body.
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I've been doing this for a long time, and I respect people come in wanting aesthetic goals.
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Oftentimes, it's what is pushed out.
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What we hear every day on social media is the snatched waist, building a bigger booty, but it comes down to a lot of clients are like,"Actually, I never really wanted that.
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I wanted to feel more functional in my body.
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I wanted to get through the day feeling lighter.
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I wanted to get to the end of the day without feeling as many aches and pains.
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I wanted to feel confident in my body to take all the groceries into the house in one haul without stumbling or at risk of tweaking my back." So That is where a good coach builds a program that has all of those movement patterns, builds strength, And you're not guessing whether your workouts actually add up to something.
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Movement.
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I'm not hitting 10,000 steps a day." Okay, I'm gonna say that is fine, How that became the golden rule is a Japanese scientist who helped engineer the pedometer saw that an average of 10,000 steps a day, the subjects in the study maintained a healthier body weight.
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And so that became kind of the marquee of what you need to hit, the metric that is golden standard of 10,000 steps a day.
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That's not the case.
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We want to be moving throughout our day.
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It would be awesome if you hit 10,000 steps a day, but this goes back to you need to know how many steps you're actually taking a day.
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Does not mean you need to be a slave to a pedometer or to an Apple Watch or any other device that is counting your steps, but we wanna look at finding movement breaks throughout our day.
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That is a great way to get that movement, to get that not the end-all be-all part of cardio, but we wanna increase that movement
there.
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A little bit more of a real-life application.
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If I have a client coming in and they're like, I'm overwhelmed, I have so much stuff to do, I need to strength train because I am in my 40s, I'm perimenopause, what do I do?" So we start with the layer of strength training, and then for that movement, I wanna know how much they're moving.
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So most of my clients, not all, tend to have some sort of wearable device.
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And so I look at the data.
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I tell them,"Don't look at the data.
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That's for me to geek out on.
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That's why you hire me." I look at the data.
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I wanna understand And so I see where they're at, and how can we find movement, just starting from movement within their days and increasing that, and applying various techniques before we start layering on more cardio.
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Again, we will start to have cardio in their plan, but we need to start where their focus is, and then work with their current schedule as to how we can layer on without it feeling overwhelming to find those increased movement bouts.
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One real quick tip here is a lot of work is desk bound, so you're sitting at your desk.
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Today I've been sitting at my desk a lot prepping the podcast to record, working on client workouts, and doing other various work.
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And what I do, it's not always set to a timer'cause I'm not someone who likes to be on a timer all the time, but when I hit a, block in my thought, I cue myself to stand up and walk about.
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Not with the intention of if this walkabout session I must hit a certain amount of steps, it's just I'm walking, I'm moving, I'm working my brain through whatever block it has.
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Or if I complete a task, I make sure I get up, maybe I carry my water bottle with me, and I'm taking a few sips of water while I'm moving about.
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This prevents me from sitting idle in a chair all day.
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It helps me sneak in that extra movement around my own workouts.
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So as I've mentioned at the start of this podcast, August is that hinge month.
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And we are about to hit a crazy busy stretch of the season.
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School's starting back up, sports schedules ramping up, work picking back up after the summer, and this is exactly the season where a lot decide that training still has to be paused.
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Or there's that motivation because the summer heat is starting to break, and the coolness is there, and so you wanna be outside more, and you start to go hard for the first two weeks, and the system breaks down because the system went from zero workouts or maybe one or two to six or seven days a week.
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And I wanna offer you a different frame.
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This is a season to recalibrate what training looks like, not a season to abandon it or go hard for the first couple of weeks and then abandon it.
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Here comes the practical aspect of it.
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If your child has practice, that hour in the car doesn't have to be spent sitting.
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Take a brisk walk around the fields or the neighborhood while you wait You can add interval walking in it a few minutes at a faster pace, a few minutes at your normal pace and back and forth.
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This is not asking for more time.
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You're just using the time you already have differently.
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I do understand, and I sometimes do this as well, when I drop a kid off at practice, it's time for me to sneak in that extra errand.
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But if you find yourself where you have that time, get out and walk.
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Make it social.
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Maybe there is a parent that you've always wanted to chat with, or maybe you have a friend who also has a kid practicing at the same time close by, connect with them.
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It gets movement and connection in the same window.
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And that combination is what makes it sustainable for the longterm.
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Now for strength, if you're unsure whether you're lifting heavy enough or how to build something that actually progresses instead of staying flat week after week, this is where working with a professional can pay off.
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So coach can tell you when to push, when to pull back and can build a program that keeps adapting as you do.
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So if you don't want to go the professional route, another way is start with a squat, start with a pushup incline and work your way to the floor.
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If coming from the floor is challenging rows.
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So bent rows, seated rows shoulder press lunges.
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These are all great movements around three sets between eight to 10 and working at an RPE, a rate of perceived exertion around a seven or an eight.
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That means that the last couple reps are becoming a little bit challenging, but you still can complete them with solid form.
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And for mobility, a slow flow yoga or a meditative yoga class or a Pilates session that gives you the stretching and the range of motion work in a format that's also feels restorative.
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Like walking.
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This one can be social to go with friends, turn it into something you look
forward to instead of one more thing you have to squeeze in.
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None of this requires a perfectly clear schedule.
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It requires you knowing your week and knowing your starting point, and building these three pieces around the life you already are living, not a life you wish you had time for.
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I'm gonna take a quick break here and tell you about my Essentials Coaching Program.
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If what you just heard about progressive strength training resonated and you're ready for a program that actually adapts to you instead of a generic plan pulled off the internet, this is it.
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Essentials is my online strength coaching program built specifically for women who want to train with purpose.
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We all progressive programming, video form feedback, and a coach who's paying attention to what your body needs each week.
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You can find all the details in the show notes by visiting www.kat.fit and you message the podcast if you have questions.
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All right, let's get back to it.
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Now, I don't want you to leave this episode with just information.
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I want you to leave with a plan that you can actually start today.
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So here's what I want you to do.
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Step one, get honest about your starting point.
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This is not a judgment.
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This is not a what you did or didn't do.
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You're not in trouble.
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Just get honest.
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Where are you actually are right now?
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Have you trained consistently or are you coming back from time off?
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Write it down.
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This is your baseline.
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Again, no judgment.
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It's just where you are.
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Step two, look at your real week, not your ideal one.
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So find the pockets of time that already exist.
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You're not creating new time.
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You're repurposing the time that you already have.
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Step three, put three things on your calendar: one strength session, one cardio window built into an existing po- pocket of time, and one mobility session.
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Treat them like appointments because they are.
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Step four, pick one movement pattern to focus on first if you're strength training on your own, a squat, a hinge, a push, a pull.
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Master the form before worrying about adding weight.
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Step five, decide if you want guidance.
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If you're unsure about load, form, or how to structure a week that actually progresses, that's exactly what coaching is for.
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You don't have to figure it out alone.
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So takeaways.
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You don't have to overhaul your life to fit in strength, cardio, or mobility.
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You need to know where you're starting from.
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Understand that all three work together.
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Use small windows in your week that already exist.
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So wherever you are starting today, that's a valid place to begin.
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Thank you so much for joining me on this episode of MilesFromHerView.
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Thank you for tuning in to MilesFromHerView, powered by KatFit Strength.
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If this podcast inspires you, don't keep it for yourself.
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Hit follow or subscribe to stay updated on the new episodes and leave us a review to help more women and moms discover this space.
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Your feedback fuels this podcast, and I'd love to hear what's working for you or what topics you want to dive into next.
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You can connect with me on Instagram@KatFit Strength or share this episode with a friend who is ready to embrace her strength.
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Remember, fitness isn't about perfection.
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It's about showing up for yourself and finding strength in every step of your journey.
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Until next time, keep moving forward one mile at a time