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Summary
On episode 325 of 40+ Fitness, Coach Allan answers a listener question from Kiki, who asked whether people over 40, especially women, should prioritize strength training or flexibility work. Allan’s short answer is both, and he uses the question to lay out five fitness modalities everyone over 40 should be paying attention to.
He walks through strength, flexibility and mobility, total body composition, balance, and life specific fitness, explaining why each one matters as the body ages and how they connect to real world tasks like lifting a grandchild or getting in and out of a canoe.
Allan also revisits his GPS model, grounding, personalizing, and self awareness, as a way to decide which modalities deserve the most attention right now, and explains how periodization lets someone focus on one or two modalities at a time without neglecting the rest.
Links
- https://40plusfitness.com
Key Takeaways
- Strength training is non-negotiable after 40 because of sarcopenia. Allan explains that the body naturally loses muscle mass and strength starting around age 35 unless resistance exercise counters it, and that losing enough strength eventually threatens independence, from opening a jar to standing up from a chair to lifting a bag of groceries.
- Flexibility and mobility matter as much as strength, not instead of it. Full range of motion in the hips, knees, and ankles prevents injury from incorrect movement, and Allan points to activities like getting in and out of a canoe as everyday examples of why mobility work still counts as real fitness training.
- Body composition should be tracked as body fat percentage, not the number on a scale. Allan warns that losing two pounds that are mostly muscle actually makes body composition worse even though the scale shows a smaller number, and recommends methods like calipers or a DEXA scan over relying on weight alone.
- Balance training prevents the sideways falls that cause serious injury later in life. Allan recommends practicing single leg stability along with lateral movement drills like shuffles and carioca, alongside strength work that also builds bone density, to reduce fall risk in the 60s, 70s, and beyond.
- Life specific fitness should be built around what a person actually wants to do. Whether the goal is keeping up with a grandchild, playing tennis, or trying masters track, Allan says the specific activity should dictate which mix of speed, agility, or hand eye coordination gets trained.
- The GPS model, grounding, personalizing, and self awareness, helps decide which modality to prioritize. Grounding means connecting to your why and vision, personalizing means turning that vision into SMART goals for specific modalities, and self awareness means honestly knowing your physical and mental limitations and capacities so the plan stays sustainable.
- Cross training works early on, but periodization drives results over time. Beginners see improvement doing a mix of everything, but as fitness improves, focusing on one or two modalities for six to eight week blocks produces bigger, more consistent gains than trying to improve everything at once.
- Removing decisions in advance beats relying on willpower. Allan describes keeping a gym bag by the door, or in the car so it is visible after work, so the choice to work out is made ahead of time, before end of day fatigue makes skipping the gym the easier option.
“Our body is never going to do more than what our brain believes.”
Coach Allan
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