Revisit: Fitness After 40: What You Need to Know with Stacy Sims

Summary

Podcast Summary: My So-Called Midlife with Reshma Saujani

Episode: Revisit: Fitness After 40: What You Need to Know with Stacy Sims
Date: February 25, 2026
Host: Reshma Saujani
Guest: Dr. Stacy Sims, Exercise Physiologist and Nutrition Scientist

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Episode Overview

In this powerful and practical episode, host Reshma Saujani and world-renowned exercise physiologist Dr. Stacy Sims tackle the unique challenge of navigating fitness, health, and energy after 40—especially for women. Together, they break down how midlife is a time of profound physical and cultural change, why women’s bodies require tailored approaches, and how to build routines that support strength, energy, and resilience. Stacy busts long-held myths about cardio, metabolism, and training, and shares actionable advice for movement, nutrition, and self-compassion in this pivotal life stage.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Cultural and Emotional Experience of Midlife

• Language of Difficulty:
  • Stacy describes midlife as “difficult,” noting the emotional challenge of finding identity and community, especially as an "older mom."
  • [06:01] Stacy Sims: “It’s just really confusing…where do I fit? …there’s lots of confusion in the identity.”
• Navigating Cultural Shifts:
  • Both discuss feeling out of place—caught between youth and older age, and juggling relationships with younger parents.

2. Women Are Not Small Men: Gendered Aging

• The Trajectory of Aging:
  • Women’s aging is marked by distinct physiologic shifts, especially around perimenopause and menopause, deeply affecting every body system—from metabolism to hair, skin, and muscle mass.
  • [09:40] Stacy Sims: “We see a change in muscle quality. One of the first things that goes is power and strength.”
• Scientific Research Bias:
  • Most studies focus on sedentary or male bodies, leading to misguided advice for active women.

3. Best Practices Before and During Menopause

• The Four Pillars:
  • Mindfulness: Develop stress-management strategies early to buffer emotional changes of perimenopause (e.g., breath work, solitude, journaling).
    • [14:10] Stacy Sims: “For me…getting up before anyone else in the house and going outside and having a cup of coffee without any noise…Just to be able to take that breath with no stimulation.”
  • Sleep: Build good sleep hygiene and coping tools now, as sleep disruptions spike in perimenopause.
  • Physical Activity: Prioritize quality movement over quantity.
  • Nutrition: Consider timing, composition, and cultural influences.

4. The Cardio Culture Trap and the Importance of Strength

• 80s/90s Cardio Legacy:
  • Both discuss their upbringing in “cardio culture,” where weights were avoided for fear of “bulking up.”
  • Long-term effects include hidden loss of bone density and muscle mass, despite looking “fit” outside.
• Dexa Scan Revelations:
  • [21:02] Stacy Sims: “On the outside, the women look super fit and thin, but on the inside, their bones are like chalk.”

5. Rethinking Workouts After 40

• Ditch the “Smashed” Mentality:
  • Pushing through grueling workouts is counterproductive in midlife and may increase stress instead of providing restorative benefits.
  • [25:49] Stacy Sims: “We’ve been conditioned to feel that we have to be smashed when we come out of a workout…the reality is, it doesn’t really do much.”
• The “Gray Zone” Problem:
  • Most midlife group fitness routines are not hard enough for adaptation and not easy enough for recovery—leaving you drained but stagnant.
• Optimizing Group Classes:
  • Tune into your energy before a class. Some days, use it for movement and community; on high-energy days, push hard on intervals, then fully recover.
  • [27:53] Stacy Sims: “You are paying to be there…you can make that class work for you.”

6. Essential Elements Most Women Miss

• Beyond Cardio and Lifting:
  • Add mobility, balance, proprioception, and jump (plyometric) training—vital for resilience, injury prevention, and maintaining bone density.
  • [29:19] Stacy Sims: “Mobility, balance, proprioception and jump training.”
• Easy At-Work Moves:
  • Use isometric holds at your desk (pulling shoulders back, core engagement, foot presses) and alternate standing/sitting.
  • [24:05] Stacy Sims details chair and desk-based isometrics.

7. Practical Roadmap for Strength Training Beginners

• Starting From Scratch:
  • Begin with bodyweight movements and household objects. Progress slowly before introducing weights.
  • [31:30] Stacy Sims: “Start with how are we moving, how are we squatting…as you get comfortable under load, that’s when you can start gravitating to dumbbells and kettle bells.”

8. Nutrition for Midlife: Myths and Musts

• Circadian Rhythm Matters:
  • Eat during daylight hours; fuel early for energy and hormonal health.
  • [34:12] Stacy Sims: “All of our cells have its own circadian rhythm…we want to fuel during the day for the stress that your body’s encountering.”
• Protein Is Essential:
  • Women become “anabolically resistant” and need more protein to maintain muscle and metabolic health. Aim for 0.8–1.1 grams per pound of body weight, spaced throughout meals and snacks.
  • [37:02] Stacy Sims: “Active women need at least 0.8 grams per pound of body weight, ideally 1 gram…”
• Don’t Fast Without Rethinking Results:
  • Fasted training can backfire for women, reducing energy and increasing hunger—especially after 40.
  • [34:12 ~ 36:56] Detailed discussion on fasting myths and why pre- and post-exercise nutrition is crucial for women.
• Feed Your Microbiome:
  • Focus on fiber and colorful produce at every meal to support longevity and reduce disease risk.

9. Breaking the Fasting Cardio Habit

• Nutrition Timing:
  • Always eat something—ideally protein—before and after training, with a post-workout nutrition window of 45-60 minutes.
  • [40:20] Stacy Sims: “For women, it’s more than muscle protein synthesis…we’re also able to build the muscle and signal to the body that we’re not in a famine state, which is how we get body composition change.”

10. The Truth About Metabolism

• Does It Really Slow Down?
  • Some natural decline (especially due to muscle loss, not age alone), but staying active and prioritizing strength can counteract much of this effect.
  • [41:48] Stacy Sims: “Yeah, we can say it’s an aging factor, but it’s not a definitive factor.”

11. Giving Yourself Grace: Mindset for Consistency in Midlife

• Don’t Push Through Pain:
  • Adapt your routine based on how you feel. Consistency, not intensity, produces sustainable results and reduces injury.
  • [43:39] Stacy Sims: “You have to give yourself permission to kind of assess how you are in the day…stop before it’s painful.”
• Being Satisfied With Less-Than-Perfect:
  • Even simple movement (like a solo dance party) counts as a win.
  • [46:41] Reshma & Stacy: “Because you moved. And it’s a win. And it’s a win. And take the win.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Midlife’s Ambiguity:
  “It’s like this big mishmash of where do I fit? …just really difficult trying to navigate.”
  — Stacy Sims [06:08]

• On Resistance Training:
  “On the outside, the women look super fit and thin, but on the inside, their bones are like chalk.”
  — Stacy Sims [21:02]

• On “Gray Zone” Workouts:
  “The reality of it is, it doesn’t really do much…In the high performance world, we call that the gray zone.”
  — Stacy Sims [25:49]

• On Adaptability:
  “Give yourself permission to not really push as hard as you would have 10 years ago. Because then you can be consistent. Because being consistent is really key for any kind of progress.”
  — Stacy Sims [43:39]

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Key Timestamps & Segments

• Challenges of Midlife for Women: [06:01–07:18]
• How & Why Stacy Got Into Women’s Health: [07:18–08:50]
• Gender Differences in Aging: [08:51–11:26]
• Mindfulness and Sleep Practices: [11:44–14:49]
• Cardio Culture, Bone Density, and DEXA Scans: [20:14–22:03]
• Defining & Applying Resistance Training: [22:03–25:10]
• How to Modify Group Classes & Avoid “Gray Zone” Training: [25:49–27:53]
• Routine Essentials – Mobility, Balance, Proprioception, Jumping: [29:19–30:50]
• How to Begin Strength Training at Home: [31:30–33:20]
• Nutrition Myths, Protein, Fasting, and Circadian Rhythm: [34:04–41:41]
• Metabolism and Muscle Loss: [41:41–42:45]
• Mindset: Consistency, Listening, and Self-Compassion: [43:27–46:44]

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Practical Takeaways

• Women in their late 30s and 40s should start prioritizing strength training, balance, and mobility to maintain muscle, bone density, and energy.
• Nutrition strategies should focus on protein and fiber, eaten throughout the day; fasting and fasted cardio are often counterproductive for women over 40.
• Mindfulness and stress management aren't optional; they support sleep and overall wellness.
• Consistency and listening to your body matter more than relentless intensity.
• Movement is always a win—perfection isn’t the goal.

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Final Thought

This episode offers hope, agency, and concrete tools for women seeking strength, vitality, and satisfaction in midlife. Listen to your body, rethink old routines, and fuel your future—on your own terms.

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Follow Stacy Sims on Instagram @drstacysims for more tips, recipes, and motivation.

Transcript

[Reshma Sajani]

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[Stacy Sims]

hey there, it's Julia Louis Dreyfus. I'm back with a new season of Wiser Than Me. The show where I sit down with remarkable older women and soak up their stories, their humor and their hard earned wisdom. Every conversation leaves me a little smarter and definitely more inspired. And yes, I'm still calling my 91 year old mom Judy to get her take on it. All Wiser Than Me from Lemonada Media is out now wherever you get your podcasts.

[Reshma Sajani]

Lemonada. Welcome to my so Called Midlife a podcast where we figure out how to stop just getting through it and start actually living it. Reshety I'm Reshma Sajani. I've been super honest with you on this podcast about how hard midlife has hit me in terms of my body. I try to eat well and stay active but like things just don't work the way they did 10 years ago. I don't look the way I did 10 years ago. I've got this persistent belly fat that I just, I can't get rid of and I hate it. I have trouble sleeping and I used to sleep like a log. I mean there's just so many things that have changed about my body that I'm just struggling to accept and understand. I thought I was doing all the right things and then I came across Stacy Sims. She's an exercise physiologist and a nutrition scientist who aims to like, revolutionize nutrition and performance for women. And let me tell you, she's done exactly that for me. Stacy gave a viral TEDx talk about how women are not small men. And that includes how we age. Women age differently than men. In this episode, she's gonna give you tons of incredible practical advice for all you midlifers, including best practices for aging, plus workout and nutrition tips for women over 40. You wanna listen to this episode? It has literally changed so many things about my routine. So I work out like pretty much five to six times a week. And I thought I knew how I was working out to like see the changes that I want to see, especially at this stage while I'm in like the thick of perimenopause. And I realized after talking to Stacy, like I didn't know everything. One of my favorite takeaways from this conversation was what Stacy had said about high intensity workouts. I was conditioned. We're all conditioned to think that we got to feel smashed after workout. Like if I'm not walking out a sweaty, gross mess, that I did something wrong, I didn't work out hard enough. Turns out that's wrong. That's exactly the wrong kind of workout for women in midlife. So Stacy told me I can still go to my Barry's boot camp that I love, but I gotta make some changes and adjust what I do there so I'm not completely drained and smashed when I walk out the door. Like, that's not the goal. And maybe even more importantly, I learned different routines for when I wake up in the morning and I'm gonna go work out instead of like pre scheduling all of my workouts. If I wake up one morning and I'm like, I'm tired. It's okay not to go to boot camp. It's okay not to go to the gym because my body is telling me, hey, Reshma, maybe not today. And I need to listen to her. See, I'm someone who has their entire life scheduled. I mean, I got my meetings, my workouts, my kids stuff planned out for like six to eight months. So if I wake up in the morning and the calendar says boot camp 9am, I go to boot camp. I don't listen to my body. And let me tell you, the thought of like listening to my body and ignoring my calendar, woo. That feels like crazy talk. Like there's no way I could do that. I've never done that for like 30 years of my life. But Stacy she gave me some new goals and I think she's going to do the same thing for you too. So you're really going to get something out of this conversation. So enjoy. So we start on this show by talking about how we feel about midlife. And so I wanted to know, like, what are the words you would use to define this period of your life?

[Stacy Sims]

Difficult. Here we say difficult.

[Reshma Sajani]

Tell me more.

[Stacy Sims]

I often have this conversation with friends because we're at a point where we should be old enough not to care about a lot of the small things, but we still do. And we also aren't aged enough for people to look at us as, oh, okay, you're in the older category. So it's like this big mishmash of where do I fit? Do I fit with people who are in their 30s and 40s or do I start looking for people who are at their end of their 50s and 60s? It's just really confusing from a managing standpoint. And then I'm the oldest mom, so it's like, okay, my friends are often 15 years younger than me because their daughters are the same age as mine, but I'm a later having a kid mom, so there's lots of confusion in the identity. So it's like really difficult trying to navigate. And yeah, it's, it's just interesting.

[Reshma Sajani]

How old are your kids?

[Stacy Sims]

I have one, she is 12. Ah.

[Reshma Sajani]

I got a 10 year old and a 5 year old and I'm turning 50, so I too feel like an old mom.

[Stacy Sims]

Oh, you feel it? Yes. You're right in it with me.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, I'm right in it with you. So you are one of the badass best experts in the world when it comes to women's health and physical training. I wanted to know, how did you get involved in this work? Like, how did this become your thing?

[Stacy Sims]

Um, I kind of fell into it. Like if someone were to ask me what my life plan is or was, I wouldn't ever imagine I'd get to this point. I just have always been, even from a really young age, the person asked why and wanted to find out why. And if it, if it didn't kind of fit into the moral ethos of being fair, then I'd want to know, well, why, why is this happening? So, yeah, throughout my academic and athletic career, I've always had these questions of, well, why is this happening? Why are we not seeing the results as women? Or why are you telling me to do this when I know that my body responds differently? So I've had that, that curiosity around it. And I'm like, well, if I have these questions, why? And I have the opportunity to answer some of them or dig into the research to see what's there and what's not, then obviously there are other people who don't know that because I have that innate opportunity by the nature of being involved in the certain bubbles that I am from an academic and a sports standpoint that other women don't have. So I'm like, I want to know these answers and then I want to share these answers. And so the more I shared, the more people wanted to know, and the more people want to know, the more research questions came up. So it just became this curiosity, growing thing into the community.

[Reshma Sajani]

One of the things you also talk about, which I didn't appreciate until I got older, was that men and women just age differently. Right. Men age in a linear fashion and women have a definite shift. Right. In their 40s and then I think again in their 60s. Tell me more about that.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah. So when we're looking at how women age, most of the research, if not all of it, does not take into account perimenopause into menopause, the whole transition. And we see every system of the body is affected. On the outside, you're seeing skin and hair changes. Right. And we're also seeing body composition changes that look very apparent, which is why women are like, why am I putting on so much belly fat? Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

Like I can remember from a time I turned 43 to 45, like, like literally a physical change in my body. Yeah.

[Stacy Sims]

And we know this from anecdotal stories and all of us talking. And then when you go to present the research, it's not done on active women, it's done on sedentary women, the general pop. So people are like, oh, well, it's just because they stop moving so much because they're getting older. It's like, well, actually, no, we see a change in muscle quality. We see one of the first things that go is people's power and their strength. So if you're feeling good, of course you're not going to move so much. But if we are looking at, how do we attenuate that? By implementing certain strategies, like putting in strength training so we don't lose the muscle quality or we're looking at doing some impact. So we are maintaining bone quality and we are reducing joint injury. If we're looking at women in their 40s, in through their mid-50s and saying, okay, this 15 year span is a time where we really need to look at Aging and perimenopause and what are our strategies then? We're setting ourselves up really well for 55, 60, 65, 70, where men don't have to start worrying about that until they're in their 60s. But when you start to argue that

[Reshma Sajani]

point so like nothing changes in their

[Stacy Sims]

body at all, not really, they'll start to lose some muscle mass and some strength and they'll start to put on some more visceral fat, especially if they're drinking, but not nearly at the rate of change that women have. So when you present this to people who are in the aging research, they're like, nah, it's just age. I was like, but you can't say that all of this happens in such a short period of time for women. And it's just age related. So there is that conversation that still needs to be had that aging for men is different than aging for women. If we want to age and not get old, we had to put these strategies in earlier in women than we do in men.

[Reshma Sajani]

I want to talk about that. What are some of those best practices? So like if you're listening right now and you're like 38, 39, right? You're, you're before that, that 45 year old cliff call it, how can you prep your body before menopause? Like what are the things that if you knew now, or maybe you did know then like you would do, I

[Stacy Sims]

might have known it, but I didn't start implementing it until I got to the situation and I was like, oh, okay, got it.

[Reshma Sajani]

Now you're like, here it is, here it is. Belly fat.

[Stacy Sims]

So I think I always look at it as like, there's, there's four key things that women really need to be aware of. We think about our mindfulness and our, our ability to engage in socio cultural constructs and understand what is a trend and what is not really a trend and what is affecting us from a negative standpoint and what is affecting us in a positive standpoint. So we have a really good handle on who we are in our community and how we're giving back. Because if we are always reactive, then we're not ever able to have a mindfulness and be able to relax. And I think this is a massive problem right now across all age groups. But it's really particularly important for women who are in their late 30s, early 40s to get a handle on that because we see changes in mood and anxiety issues that come with early perimenopause, like the onset of perimenopause so understanding that we need to put some mindfulness practice in and be able to remove ourselves from that day to day stigma that causes the comparison and causes the stress that we can't do anything about. I often put guilt in that. Like I'm guilty of having guilt. Right. I think we all are. But when we think about it, definitely, it's like guilt is an emotion that only breaks us down. So we have to be able to take a removal step. So if we're able to put some of those mindfulness practices in, then it feeds forward into things like better sleep. We see that sleep is very, very important, but it becomes very fleeting when we get into perimenopause, especially later. Perimenopause.

[Reshma Sajani]

You don't have to tell me.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah, I know. We're waking up in the middle of the night going, what? My brain's going. So if we're doing things beforehand, maybe understanding mindfulness practices or some cognitive behavior therapy to retrain our brain how to sleep, which is very effective, instead of taking sleep meds, then when we get into the situation where we are waking up and our brain is churning and we can't get good sleep, then we have the tools to put into practice early. And instead of waiting until we get to a point where we absolutely can't sleep.

[Reshma Sajani]

So, Stacy, what is a mindfulness tactic that has worked for you or that you've seen people use?

[Stacy Sims]

I mean, there's everything from breath work. And we see a lot of people are, let's do box breathing. Let's really take a step away meditation. Some people are like, I just need to go for a walk outside with no noise, no music, no traffic. For me personally, it's getting up before anyone else in the house and going outside and having a cup of coffee without any noise, no conversation, no voices, nothing like that. Just to be able to like take that breath with no stimulation. So it's really what works for you. But there are so many different ways of doing it.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah. One of the things that's worked for me is also like when I go to bed at night, I just, I review the past day. Right. So then it's like I've processed all the thoughts and all the things that have happened to me. And I feel like I can go to sleep a little bit with my mind clear.

[Stacy Sims]

Yes. And I've gotten into the habit of writing down the sticky points of the day. It used to work for me where I could just walk away, but now I like write the sticky points and then they stick with me and so when I go to bed, that note is like right in front of me. So I have to say, okay, I have to visualize tearing up the note and like letting it fly away. Otherwise all those things are going to like be in my brain when I wake up in the middle of the night. So things change, right? So your strategies also change with the times. And then when we get into that aspect and then we get into having a handle on sleep, we can review the other real important things, and that's physical activity and nutrition. And they're very polarizing. Both of those two can be polarizing from all the conversation in social media and challenging what we thought was the gold standard when reality is it's been generalized from male bodies.

[Reshma Sajani]

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[Stacy Sims]

ever find yourself scrolling through headlines, especially health headlines, and just thinking that can't be true? Well, I certainly do. 2025 brought us some ridiculous far fetched health claims and some especially terrifying changes in public health. What's in store for us in 2026? I'm Chelsea Clinton and we're back with season two of my podcast that Can't Be True. Follow along and catch up on season one wherever you get your podcasts.

[Reshma Sajani]

I want to talk about culture because we talked about the role of like science. But culture plays a big role too. So like we both grew up in the 80s and 90s and remember it was all about cardio. I remember seeing like Levia John with her step aerobics, right? And so I grew up doing cardio. Right. And I remember I was always kind of like, culturally turned off of weights because there's this fear of bulking up.

[Stacy Sims]

Right.

[Reshma Sajani]

What do you think the consequences of that are now?

[Stacy Sims]

Oh, my gosh. I see it in DEXA so much now because I work with a company that one of the intakes is with Dexa, and when I take on people, I want them to have a dexa.

[Reshma Sajani]

What's a dexa? Sorry?

[Stacy Sims]

DEXA is a bone mineral density scan. So it's a total body like. Like checking out bone density and body composition.

[Reshma Sajani]

Okay.

[Stacy Sims]

So I'm seeing that in our age group, you know, late 40s upward, there is a significant loss in bone mineral density. So that means that the bones aren't strong, but also an increase in that visceral fat. So that means that the fat has shifted, and it's around the organs. And on the outside, the women look super fit and thin, but on the inside, their bones are like chalk, and they have a high amount of metabolically active stored fat that is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. So it's like, okay, on the outside, this cardio culture has really pushed women into thinking they have to look a certain way. And Kate Moss and all those supermodels, right?

[Reshma Sajani]

Yes. Heroin chic. That's right.

[Stacy Sims]

It's still in right now because. Yeah, now we have the Ozempic craze that is reinvigorating the ballerina figure and. Yeah. And the cheekbones and everything. So it's a problem.

[Reshma Sajani]

So, like, resistance training helps with basically, bone density, everything. So what exactly is resistance training? Like, what type of workouts does it consist of?

[Stacy Sims]

The basic idea of resistance training is pushing and pulling a load that is against your body weight, because we don't. I was at a conference, and one of my friends was. Was giving a keynote, and he goes, we are in a situation right now that is exactly what our bodies do not need. We are sitting down in a comfortable environment. So that means we're not moving. We're not challenging our body at all. It's just there, and the body's like, what's going on? Then there are nibbles for us to have when we're not hungry, so we're not in tune to our hunger. And then there's people with water bottles all the time who are sipping, sipping, sipping, and don't have the opportunity to understand what it means to be thirsty. And that's the situation we're in all of the time. Right. We sit in these comfortable environments and never have a challenge so part of that is resistance training. Like when you get up from your chair to stand, that's a little bit of resistance training. That's a test. Sit, to stand. But when you're standing and you're pushing up from your chair and you're aiding yourself to get up, that's reducing the load. So we have to look at that. If we are in our 50s, sure, no big deal, we can get up. But when our 80s, if we have to push off the chair handles to get up, that's a problem. So when we talk about resistance training, it's how are we challenging our body with some kind of load every day to just keep improving and keep telling the body, here's a challenge, let's overcome it. Because we have to do that. Especially when we are looking at how our society is now and how we are designing ourselves to be in a lazy environment. Environment.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's right. Is there anything you would recommend for the people that are listening if they are in a job where they're sitting most of the day, to do some of that resistance training while they're sitting in their seats at work?

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah, we look at isometric work. Like isometric training has come back and it's really interesting when we're seeing isometric hold. So if you're at your keyboard and you're in front of your computer and you find yourself slouching, it's okay. Let's pull our shoulders back upright, pull our bellies in. Maybe we squeeze our butt and we hold that, and we try to hold that for a minute, and then maybe two minutes and then you relax. And they can do single foot isometric hold. So you're pushing down on one foot and so you're activating all the way through the glute, the heel, through the calf. So you can do these isometric holds. That is a challenge to the body and it also helps with blood flow. So you're not going to get the pooling. Of course, if you can get up and walk around. Cause one posture is in good standing. Standing up all day isn't good. Sitting down all day isn't any good. So you have the opportunity, if you stand up so that you can do single leg stand on each side. Right. So you're balancing. You're using isometric holds. So don't be afraid of not doing a typical concentric eccentric. So think about a bicep curl. Up, down, up, down. If you're doing isometric holds throughout the day, that's also beneficial.

[Reshma Sajani]

Got it. Okay. What type of workouts should women over the age of 40 focus on. So I was thinking about you this morning because I know you said like, I love a Barry's boot camp and those classes where you go in and you get your energy level and I walk out and I'm drained. Right? That's what I've been doing since I was like in my twenties. Today I did an hour and a half tennis clinic, but I did it with a bunch of 60 year olds. So I felt like maybe that was right because. But one of the things you said, right, is that like you're kind of not supposed to do those anymore, right? Like those aren't the best workouts for you at this age. Tell me more.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah, we've been conditioned to feel that we have to be smashed when we come out of a workout. We have to be a big sweaty mess and completely drained. And the fitness industry is kind of geared that and we see that women in their early to mid-40s have a lot of buying power, but also at this point where our bodies are changing so much. So the fitness industry has grown, grabbed onto that and said, okay, these are the things we're going to do because we hear that, you know, some resistance training is great and some cardio is great. Let's combine them. Let's make this class. It's going to make you burn and it gets smashed. And the reality of it is it doesn't really do much. It's great for community and culture and having to show up and own it. That's fantastic. But we have to think about what are we doing to our bodies when we go into this kind of intense, but not high enough intensity to invoke change. And, and it's definitely making us feel smashed. In the high performance world, we call that the gray zone, where it's too hard to be easy for any kind of recovery benefit or mental benefit, and it's way too easy to be hard to cause adaptations that we want. So we try not to have our athletes stay in that gray zone unless their race capacity has to be in that gray zone. So for endurance. So when we look at that and we pull it into general population, especially when women who are at this time in our lives where our bodies are highly stressed from hormonal perturbations, plus all the things that we have with being parents, either young or teenagers, maybe we have older parents that are of a worry. We're at a point in our career where things are highly stressful and we have an increase in our sympathetic drive. So that's. That Tired but wired state. We try to go use exercise to kind of decompress, and people are like, oh, it's my stress. Relax, release. But that kind of exercise just adds to that sympathetic drive.

[Reshma Sajani]

So what am I supposed to do then? What's my workout?

[Stacy Sims]

So if you love the Barry's boot camps and you love the Orange theories and the F45s, you love these group workout classes. I always tell women, remember, you are paying to be there. So you want that class to work for you. So you have to make a decision. You wake up, you go, how do I feel today? I feel a bit flat. I don't have much energy, but I'm going to go to this class because I always go and I see my friends. So then you just use that class as movement, right? You're just going to move through it all. Get your heart rate up. Don't really hit it too hard. Just use it for movement and community. But if you wake up and you go, I feel like I'm on fire today. I want to go. I have all this angst and I want to get into this class. Then on the interval parts, go hard, go super hard. Try to hit a 9 on a scale of 1 to 10. But then you want to recover. So when they're having the high reps and you're having all these high kicks and all these things that you're supposed to be doing, it's like, okay, I can hold that for a minute or two minutes, but then I'm gonna actually take a minute and just really bring my heart rate down. So the next time we have to go into another interval, I can hit it harder. So you can make that class work for you.

[Reshma Sajani]

So, Stacy, I work out a lot, so I wanna tell you what I typically do, right? I'll do two days of working out with my trainer. So we're just doing weights one day arms, one day, legs. I'll do one day of tennis, I'll do one day of Pilates, and then I'll do one day of some sort of cardio. What am I missing?

[Stacy Sims]

Mobility, balance, proprioception and jump training.

[Reshma Sajani]

Okay, where do I find that?

[Stacy Sims]

Well, you can work it in with your trainer. Because if you're like, okay, I have a trainer and I need to really start working on mobility. So I want to get in range of motion. So this isn't stretching. This is actually like using big resistance bands to kind of distract the joints to be able to get into better range of motion. You can use that into a warmup. So if you're going to do heavy squats. You want to get into the hip capsule and open it up. You want to get into the knee and you want to open it up so that you can get full range of motion and you're not going to injure yourself. As well as being able to stimulate the joint and joint capsule so that you're reducing the risk of the joint injuries that we see. When we get into perimenopause, we look at proprioception. So if you're looking at squats, maybe you're instead of just doing our heavy squats, we're doing some contrast training. So this is heavy squat into some plyometric work. So you're taking some of that heavy movement and putting into fast twitch. So that really stimulates proprioception. So you have to work with your trainer on that. Jump training, this anybody can do. We look at it as low jumps. So maybe a couple of inches where you're landing hard flat footed so you're absorbing the impact in your bones and not how we've been taught through our muscles.

[Reshma Sajani]

And that's not bad for your knees or is it?

[Stacy Sims]

It's not, no, no. People are like, oh, I can't do that because it hurts my knees. It's like what, you know, a couple of inches of a jump isn't. We're not saying jump off a high stair or do a box jump. We're looking at absorbing that impact in our skeleton. So Maybe it's not 2 inches, maybe it's just an inch. We don't want to invoke pain, but we want to have a really hard ground reactive force through the skeletal system so that we can maintain a stimulus for bone density.

[Reshma Sajani]

So if someone's listening right now and they're like, okay, I'm not doing nothing, like I'm maybe I'm going to the gym, jumping on elliptical. But how does someone start and they're just intimidated by it. What would you say?

[Stacy Sims]

I tell women that the bedrock of anything is, is strength training. So if you have no history in strength training whatsoever and you're intimidated to go to the gym and start strength training, then we can start at home. Home. Like there are several different really fantastic programs that you can get online that start with body weight and movement. So you're learning how to move under some load and as you're learning that and you're learning the range of motion and then you're learning what it means to add load, that's all resistance training. Because you know, I'm on one end where I'm talking about lifting heavy and doing plyos. But I've been in this world for many, many years and it's taken a very long time to learn proper how to do that without getting injured. So if you're someone who's sitting on the couch and you're like, oh, how do I get started? Don't have the eye to going to the very extreme end of lifting heavy and plyo work. Let's first start with how are we moving? How are we squatting? How are we putting a backpack with some canned goods in it to add a little bit of load? Or maybe I am holding my squirmy little two year old in the front and doing some front squats. Right? So there's ways of moving with a little bit of load and as you get comfortable under load, that's when you can start gravitating a little bit more to dumbbells and kettle bells and then you can get into barbell work. So it is a journey. Hey everyone, it's Leah Greenberg and Ezra Levin. You might know us as two of the lead organizers of the no Kings protests. We're also the co founders of Indivisible, the grassroots movement organizing against Trump's regime. And this is what's the Plan?

[Reshma Sajani]

Your weekly guide to the state of our democracy and how we fight back.

[Stacy Sims]

This is not canned talking points. It's a real live discussion space for the pro democracy movement.

[Reshma Sajani]

We wrestle with strategy together.

[Stacy Sims]

We take your top voted questions and

[Reshma Sajani]

real quick time, and we talk about the most impactful actions we can take. Right now. Democracy is a participatory sport.

[Stacy Sims]

The fascists win. When we sit on the sidelines, what's the Plan Is about how we get into the game. What's the plan? Available Friday, January 23rd.

[Reshma Sajani]

Wherever you get your podcasts, subscribe, recruit,

[Stacy Sims]

discuss, organize and win. That's the plan.

[Reshma Sajani]

Okay, I want to talk about food and nutrition.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

So what are the three things that you would want women in midlife to focus on when it comes to their nutrition?

[Stacy Sims]

Very first is circadian rhythm. So I know that's a weird thing to put in nutrition, but yeah, tell me. Yeah, so we look at a lot of the chronobiology work and we see that all of our cells have its own circadian rhythm. So that's our 24 and a half hour cycle as well as whole body and the way that it can get reset through light and dark and food intake. So if we are delaying food and our body has seen light, but we haven't had any food, there's a misstep in our circadian rhythm, and we start to have issues sleeping. We start to have issues with our appetite hormones. We start to have issues with our normal hormone pulses. And this includes our natural rise of cortisol and our drop of cortisol, our testosterone, our estrogen. All of our hormones that are involved in the endocrine system have their own kind of daily pulse that we see in response. So when it comes to nutrition, I really want women to understand, you want to fuel during the day for the stress that your body's encountering. So that could be just normal life stress, where you're like, okay, I got to get up and have a busy day. I've got to get the kids out the door. I've got to get to these meetings. I've got to do this xyz. So you want to fuel for that because your body's using energy. If you're adding training in as well, you want to fuel for the training, and you want to recover afterwards. I know that I've gotten slammed recently for talking about women shouldn't fast, but there's a rationale behind it, because if we're talking about fasting in general, what are we looking for? Like, what are the nuances that people are so attached to fasting? It's body composition change, and it's for autophagy and longevity. Well, we see that exercise is a stronger stress for autophagy or stronger stimulus for autophagy. We see that exercise also is one of the keys to aging. Well, and then when we talk about fasting for body composition change, the research shows that in women, if you do a training session fasted, you actually have a higher hunger and move less later in the day because your body is stressed from no food. But if you have a little bit of food beforehand, you can hit the intensities you need to. And it feeds forward to more fat burning at rest, a better hold on your appetite hormones, and you actually have more energy to hit all of the nuances of movement throughout the day. So that's why I'm like, circadian rhythm. We want to work and fuel appropriately for the stress. Now, how we fuel, that's a whole other cultural kettle of fish.

[Reshma Sajani]

Do you want to try to get

[Stacy Sims]

into it a little bit? We can put parameters on it. Yeah, let's put the parameters.

[Reshma Sajani]

All right.

[Stacy Sims]

So as we get older, both men and women become more anabolically resistant. So that means we don't respond as well to protein and resistance training for women. We see that again in the perimenopausal into post menopause transition. For men. It's a little bit older, so women need to put a precedence on protein. So we know that the research is looking, with really good nitrogen studies and looking, looking at actual tracing of amino acids that active women need at least 0.8 grams per pound of body weight, ideally 1 gram per pound of body weight. As we get older and into training blocks and looking at higher stress and the fact that our body needs more protein to induce lean mass, we're looking more of that 1.1 gram per pound of body weight, or around that per pound. Yeah, 2.2 grams per kilo. And it doesn't have to be one big whack. We can look at every eating opportunity we have adding a little protein. So people are like, whoa, I have to have 150 grams of protein a day? How do I get that in? It's not about having a big lump of meat on your plate. It's like, okay, well, what am I having for breakfast that has some protein in it? We have some chia. We have some oats, we have some yogurt, we have some nuts, we have some whole grain toast with all of that. All that has protein in it. At lunch, we look at multi colorful fruit and veg, and then we have some lean protein dinner. The same thing. We want to try to get about a palm and a half size or, you know, a cup of different kind of legumes with that palm and a half size of lean protein. So that gives you 35 to 40 grams at each meal and then having about, you got it, 15 grams at each snack. So every eating opportunity, have a little bit of protein. And that is how we really try to increase the protein intake through women. And then the other thing that we want to do is take care of our gut microbiome. So you're reaching for colorful fruit and veg fibrous foods at all your eating opportunities. So if you're thinking about, what am I going to eat? Just keep those two things in your head, fiber and protein. And then that kind of follows with not having exclusivity to your diet. Gives you more flexibility in the food choices that you have to fit in with where you are with your family or the culture within which you are circulating.

[Reshma Sajani]

This was a game changer for me, Stacy, because I listened to one of your podcasts and what I would do is I'd wake up in the morning, I'd have some water, a cup of coffee, and I Hit the gym and I'd be exhausted. And I know, I know. You're like, oh, God, we've all done it.

[Stacy Sims]

We've all done it.

[Reshma Sajani]

I know. But I think a lot of people listening to this show probably do it, right? Because for I, again, going back to culture, be on an empty stomach. You'll burn more calories. Right. Literally. I feel like that's what I was told. So what I did, what you said to do, put a little protein powder in my coffee in the morning right before I go to the gym. And then the other thing that you said, which I think is really important for everybody who's listening, is to eat within 45 minutes after you finish your workout. Right. That that's really important to build that lean mass. Why is that important for women?

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah, it's more nuanced than just protein intake and muscle protein synthesis, because if we're looking in that siloed approach, you have up to four hours for really instigating and still having to signal for it. But for women, we have to look at how fast we return to baseline, meaning our blood sugar comes back down, and that's within 45 to 60 minutes. So we're losing the opportunity to refuel our liver and our muscle. We also have to think about the hypothalamus, which is the central region in our brain that's responsible for understanding our circadian rhythm, temperature control, hormonal control. And if it doesn't get food after a big stress of exercise, it's like, oh, wait a second, I need some nutrition, and there isn't any. Are we in a famine situation? I better start conserving. So for women, it's more than just muscle protein synthesis. It's also the signals from the hypothalamus to regulating all the other systems in the body. If we give it a little bit of food, not only are we protecting our endocrine system, including our immunity and our thyroid and all of the things that come with being healthy, but we're also able to build the muscle and signal to the body that we're not in a famine state, which is how we get body composition change.

[Reshma Sajani]

Got it. I want to ask you, is it true that your metabolism goes down the older you get, or is that another lie?

[Stacy Sims]

There's mixed evidence in that. So we see part of the downturn is because people don't move as much. So they're talking about how your metabolism turns down, but that's because we're losing lean mass, and lean mass is both bone and muscle. So we're having a downturn in the amount of energy that our body needs because we're losing more and more high, high energetic tissue. When we're looking from, like, a resting metabolic state, it is the same thing, Right. We're losing lean mass. When we're looking at thyroid and thyroid function, we start to have a little bit of a downturn. So people associate that with the downturn in metabolism. But if we're taking care of ourselves and we are keeping lean mass or building lean mass, that's bone and muscle, and we're not having perturbation in our thyroid because we are eating when we need to, we don't see as much of an impact. So, yeah, yeah, we can say that it's an aging factor, but it's not a definitive factor.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yeah, it can be counterbalanced. Okay, so what's your final Advice? I'm turning 50 this year, and my goal is to be the strongest I've ever been, to feel, like, the best, to have my body just be. And I'm not gonna lie, it's hard. Like, so I'll give you an example. Like, I started this year, and I said, all right, I'm gonna do Pilates. And I started doing Pilates. And. And the combination of having a new puppy and my baby sleeping on my arm and then doing a new workout, before I knew it, right, My back was out, and my entire right side of my body felt like I just like, every time I feel like when you're older, it's like our bodies punish

[Stacy Sims]

us a little bit.

[Reshma Sajani]

Yes. You're smiling. You know what I'm talking about, right? And so then I feel like it's like, you know, it's useless. Like, it's not gonna happen. I'm not gonna. I'm not. So give me some hope.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah, no, there is hope, but we have to allow ourselves a bit of a fudge factor. Like, I joke around. I'm like, yeah, I'm 51, so that means that I spend more time mobilizing and warming up. But I feel like I'm always fighting off an injury. Like, right now, I have a torn hamstring and a torn meniscus. Why? Because I thought it was going to be strong enough to do a competition when I hadn't actually been training that well for it when 10 years ago, I could have gotten away with it now? No. So you have to give yourself permission to kind of assess how you are in the day. So today I woke up and I was like, oh, I just. Just really need to get rid of this energy. But then I started moving like, oh, my God, I can't do any high intensity. I'm just going to go do some strength. That's great. So you have to give yourself that kind of permission to know that there are days where, yeah, you can push hard, but there are days where you really have to listen. Whereas 10 years ago, you could have pushed through it, can't do that now. And know that when you start looking at doing something new, stop before it's painful. Like, we don't. Like, our generation has been conditioned to no pain, no gain. Let's push, push, push, push, push. But when we're at this point, when our bodies are on the cusp of not being as resilient as we want it to be, it's better to stop before you hit that line of I'm exhausted. Or stop before you hit that line of pain. Not all the time, but for the most part, give yourself permission to not really push as hard as you would have 10 years ago. Because then you can be consistent. Because being consistent is really key for any kind of progress. Because if we push too hard, we get injured. That's. Then we're out. And it takes a long time to recover from an injury. So our consistency is down. So it's being consistent. And how are we going to be consistent? By listening to what our bodies are telling us.

[Reshma Sajani]

I love that. I love that. Because I'll be honest, I don't listen to my body. I'm like, it's on my calendar. I'm supposed to go to the gym and work out today. And I just, I don't. And I think what you're saying is so important and so profound, and I think something that we deserve.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah, exactly.

[Reshma Sajani]

So.

[Stacy Sims]

So even if it is on your calendar, like, I block in wellness meetings so I can go to the gym, see friends, get a workout. But if I front up, I'm like, I'm really tired. Like today I'm like, I just can't do this workout that we had planned to do. I'm just gonna do strength training. And my friends are like, great, I'll do some strength training, then I'll finish with this part, and you can join us in this high intensity or not. So we had our. Our moments together where we're like, yeah, okay, we're pushing the strength training. And then they went off and did the finisher of high intensity. And I'm like, I'm not. I can't do it. But that wellness meeting stayed on the calendar. I went I showed up and I did what my body needed to do. So if you know that you have to go to the gym on that day, you go and you go to the gym and go. On a scale of 1 to 10, physically today I'm about a 3. Mentally, I might be a 2. Let's warm up and see if any of those change. If they don't change, then you modify your workout to work how your body wants you to do on that day.

[Reshma Sajani]

Or you have a solo dance party by yourself.

[Stacy Sims]

That. That's right. I love that.

[Reshma Sajani]

And you moved.

[Stacy Sims]

That's right. Absolutely.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's right. Because you moved.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

Because you moved. And it's a win. And it's a win. And take the win.

[Stacy Sims]

Yeah.

[Reshma Sajani]

This was so great. Thank you so much, Stacey.

[Stacy Sims]

You're welcome.

[Reshma Sajani]

Thank you so much, Stacey, for joining us today. Check her out @drstacysims on Instagram for more tips, recipes and motivation. Like she's my new obsession. One last thing, thank you for listening to my so Called Midlife. If you haven't yet, now's a great time to subscribe to Lemonada Premium. You're gonna get bonus content like Brooke Shields talking about her experience with postpartum depression. Just hit the subscribe button on Apple Podcast or for all other podcast apps, head to lemonadapremium.com to subscribe. That's lemonadapremium.com thanks and we'll be back next week. I'm your host Reshma Sajani. Our associate producer is Isaura Azevez and our senior producer is Chrissy Pease. This series is sound design by Ivan Chris. Ivan also composed our theme music and performed it with Ryan Jewell and Karen Waltock. Our VP of new content is Rachel Neal. Special thanks to our development team, Oha Lopez, Jamila Zara Williams and Alex McGowan. Executive producers include me, Reshma Sajani, Stephanie Whittles Wax and Jessica Cordova Kramer. Series consulting and production support from Katie Cordova. Help others find our show by leaving a rating and writing a review. And let us know how you're doing in Midlife. You can submit your story to be included in this [e-mail] midlife follow my so Called Midlife wherever you get your podcasts or listen ad free on Amazon Music with your prime membership. Thanks so much for listening. See you next week. Bye. Want to listen to your favorite Lemonada shows without the ads? Subscribe to Lemonada Premium on Apple Podcasts. You'll get ad free episodes and exclusive

[Stacy Sims]

bonus content from shows like Wiser Than

[Reshma Sajani]

Me with Julia Louis Dreyfus, Fail Better with David Duchovny, the Sarah Silverman Podcast Podcast, and so many more. It's a great way to support the work we do and treat yourself to

[Stacy Sims]

a smoother, uninterrupted listening experience.

[Reshma Sajani]

Just head to any Lemonada show, feed on Apple Podcasts and hit subscribe.

[Stacy Sims]

Make Life Suck Less with Fewer Ads with Lemonada Premium. Are you looking for ways to make your everyday life happier, healthier, more productive, and more creative? I'm Gretchen Rubin, the number one best selling author of the Happiness Project, bringing you fresh insights and practical solutions in the Happier with Gretchen Rubin Podcast podcast. My co host and happiness guinea pig is my sister, Elizabeth Kraft.

[Reshma Sajani]

That's me, Elizabeth Kraft, a TV writer

[Stacy Sims]

and producer in Hollywood. Join us as we explore ideas and hacks about cultivating happiness and good habits. Check out Happier with Gretchen Rubin from Lemonada Media.