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That’s a direct quote from a friend. I am not the one to give unsolicited advice when someone clearly isn’t interested in my opinion. So I just left it.

But you’ve signed up for my emails, and I take it as an agreement between the two of us that I can preach to you with a clean conscience.

First, lifting weights does way more than build muscle:

• Strengthens your bones
• Reduces the risk of falls
• Improves metabolism
• Reduces the risk of most chronic illnesses
• Improves brain health
• It makes you stronger so you can do more awesome stuff in life
• Increases life span and the quality of your years

 And second, building muscle is ridiculously hard.

Especially for women. And most men. Trust me, I’ve been trying for 25 years.

Thank you for giving me the permission to rant 🙂

-J

This recent study reduced patellofemoral pain in runners, but the adjustments are worth experimenting with if you’re dealing with knee pain in hiking.

The first intervention that reduced the knee pain was about lessening the impact. They used all kinds of tech-related cues to make that happen, but the two key low-tech cues were the instructions to run softer and make footfalls quieter.

The second intervention was about increasing cadence. “Cadence group participants received guidance regarding their cadence and ran with the help of a metronome with an adjusted cadence increased by 7.5 to 10%.” But hey, I’m sure there’s an app for that.

Both groups then ran with this new running pattern for the next six months and reported greater knee pain improvement than the control group (a group that did fuck all).

There is one caveat, though. The study group was only 30 people (13 women, 17 men). Still, if you’re currently dealing with knee pain while hiking, these strategies are worth trying in real life.

Practice softer stepping for the next few weeks to see if you notice any changes. And if not, increase your cadence by 7.5-10% (if you can) and see if that makes your knee smile.

-J

One of the most persistent fallacies of resistance training is that you must train four or five days a week to see significant progress in your strength.

It’s simply not true.

You can make incredible progress in just two 30-45min strength workouts a week.

As long as you do it right:

The weights, sets, and reps need to get progressively heavier.

Not in every workout or even every week, but the upward trend should be clear.

Challenge yourself, and find your limits.

Over the years of training women, I’ve noticed the lack of trust and belief in your strength and what your body can do*. Especially when starting out with strength training.

But you are stronger than you think. The next time you feel like you only have one rep left, see what happens if you try to do two more. Was the limit only in your head?

Focus on a couple of key movements. 

You don’t need dozens of exercises in your workouts. Sure, doing a lot of different things might be entertaining. But it’s holding you back.

Pick a few key exercises to get strong in and get after it. The big multijoint movements, such as squat and deadlift variations, upper body presses, and rows, are all great choices.

You can still do other movements. But only as long as it doesn’t diminish the effort you can put into the key lifts. The goal is to get strong in a chosen few.

You still want to do other physical activities during the week to maintain a well-rounded, healthy body.

But for strength, two days a week is plenty when following an intelligent plan.

Honestly, you’ll make more progress in two focused strength workouts than the folks who do five half-ass efforts a week.

-J

*This is in stark contrast with men. We are notorious for overestimating our ability. Both in strength training or fixing that plugged-in microwave in the bathtub.

With life’s never-ending demands from work, family, and the other dozen roles you juggle, setting ambitious fitness goals can feel like adding another pile of hay to an already full cart.

It’s easy to dream big – to imagine yourself reaching that summit or tackling a challenging hike. Yet, reality paints with a different brush.

Time, energy, and resources are finite, and your aspirations must align with what’s achievable in the current level of chaos you live in.

Recalibrating fitness goals isn’t a sign of defeat. It’s an act of wisdom. It’s about understanding and accepting that this journey is a path with no end instead of a race against the realities of your life.

It means setting goals that are not just ambitious but also adaptable. It’s about being proud of the progress you can make rather than frustrated with the progress you can’t.

After all, fitness is meant to add to your life: to bring strength, energy, and a healthy dose of swagger. Rather than it becoming yet another source of pressure.

If you’re ready to get strong but find it challenging to navigate those aspirations alone, it’s time to seek guidance.

It’s an opportunity to gain perspective, receive support, and, most importantly, find balance. It’s an opportunity to set ambitious goals and the actions that follow, with both wheels firmly planted in your reality.

-J

There are somewhere between a thousand and seven thousand hip mobility exercises floating around the internet. Some are great, some are better than nothing, and most are a waste of time. Out of the seven thousand, one stands above the rest.

And that’s the half-kneeling windmill. If you’re unsure what the hell that is, here’s Matt demoing it.

I like to take the rotation a step further by gradually reaching the ground arm towards and eventually past the toes on the leg that’s up. That gives a bit deeper hip hinge and more upper back rotation.

What’s so special about the half-kneeling windmill?

Instead of passively sitting in a stretch, you’re using the weight in the windmill to improve your flexibility and sort of “press save” on it, letting your body know you can control the newly found flexibility.

This means that the body doesn’t see the increased flexibility as a threat and then try to stiffen you up again to keep you “safe.”

That’s what I see training many hypermobile women: there is plenty of flexibility to go around, but because there’s no strength to control it, the body will tighten things up. More stretching will usually only make things worse.

Anyway.

Once you’re confident in the half-kneeling windmill, pair it with the get-up. You’ll get a big hit of core, shoulder, and hip strength, along with all that mobility.

-J

Here are my five go-to exercises for women over 40 who want to hike (and recover) with confidence.

1. Single leg squat: Targets your quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Muscles that are essential for uphill climbs and stable descents. Single-leg squats also challenge and build your ankle strength and balance. Less rolled ankles, more forward motion.

2. Single-leg deadlift: Strengthens your posterior chain (a fancy way of saying your backside), propelling you up steep inclines and providing the control you need to not feel like an escalating snowball during descents. Like the single-leg squat, the deadlift improves your balance and builds ankle strength, reducing the risk of falls and injuries.

3. Kettlebell swing: How could I not include this one? I use swings with clients mainly to improve power and explosiveness, both of which you need to propel yourself forward and up. But you’ll also get plenty for the posterior chain (here’s that fancy term again) strength. I also love swings for improving both aerobic and anaerobic fitness.

4. Pallof press: Targets your core, especially the muscles that rotate the trunk. A strong trunk is vital for anyone not planning on hiking with the rigidity of the Statue of Liberty. A strong core also makes carrying the pack easier. And as you’re marching with a nicely rotating trunk and arms, your hiking is more energy efficient, and you won’t hate life every step of the way.

5. Single arm row: Strengthening the upper back and shoulders prepares you for carrying that 30-liter Patagonia backpack over the horizon and beyond. You’ll also be able to sustain the load of your gear for longer without all kinds of neck and shoulder pain. Plus, single arm row works on those core muscles, too. And they make your arms look nice, which is important for hiking.

Coming up tomorrow: my favorite exercise for loosening up the hips, upper back, and the rest of the body.

-J

If you’re constantly injured instead of improving, something’s not right.

That sounds obvious. But when you’re in it, it’s easy to get stuck in limbo, thinking that everything’s right when it isn’t.

-J

When struggling with knee pain, we’re quick to look at things we should add to the routine:

• More fish oil
• More backwards walking
• More deadlifts

And those are all solid options. But often, the answer is more simple than that.

It’s about looking at what you’re doing already and seeing if anything might contribute to that knee pain.

If you’re currently doing a lot of jumping, whether that’s box jumps, plyo lunges, or squat jumps, stop for a week or two and see what happens.

If the knee pain subsides, you’ve found the problem.

This doesn’t mean that you’re forever banned from doing jumps. But it’s easier to get rid of the knee pain when you first stop doing the stuff that’s hurting.

Then, build some strength and take a closer look at your landing techniques. It might be that both of those are fine as it is, you just need a break to let the pain settle

Either way, introduce the jumps back in gradually.

-J

Discomfort is an unavoidable part of long hikes. I don’t need to tell you that.

So, you do what you can to prepare your body for the hike. Hoping that the preparation you’ve put in is enough to carry you through.

But what’s often overlooked in training for long hikes is the mental stamina to tolerate discomfort. The strength and focus you can use to turn down the volume when faced with physical and mental obstacles along the way.

Not only does this mental strength make the hike easier.

But because your mind isn’t overwhelmed with struggle, you can focus more on what’s around you.

-J

Most hiking programs emphasise climbing and hiking uphill. As important as that is, it doesn’t prepare the legs for downhills.

And that’s totally fine if you’re never planning on coming down. Or if you’re sledding down. But in most cases, when you hike up, you hike down.

The lack of downhill training results in the feeling of your legs turning into aspic during a long descent. Leaving you concerned if your lower body will still exist under you after the next step.

Putting more focus on eccentric training in your workouts will help your legs feel less like aspic and more like a medium-rare meatloaf in descent.

The good news is that you’re already doing some eccentric training in your strength workouts. Eccentric training is the lowering part of a lift.

In steps-ups, eccentric training is you stepping down.

In any squat variation, you’re doing eccentric training during the squatting down part of the, well, squat.

In deadlifts, the eccentric part is your hands going closer to the ground.

How to get more out of your eccentric training?

Slow down. Take 3-5 seconds when lowering the weight in each rep.

Start by doing five reps per set and increase the reps to 10-12 over time.

Just a word of warning: eccentric training will make you sore, especially when you’re just starting out. I mean, really sore.

To make the next day’s trips to the toilet feel less like entering Satan’s private bathroom, only use eccentric training with one lower body exercise. Keep the other exercises at a faster pace.

The good news is that as your body gets used to the eccentrics, the soreness will ease up. Both in training and on the trails.

-J