As you age, Pilates becomes a powerful tool to maintain strength, flexibility, and balance. By focusing on controlled movements and core stability, Pilates helps improve posture, reduce joint pain, and enhance mobility. It’s a low-impact workout that strengthens muscles without straining your body, making it ideal for maintaining bone density and overall fitness.
- How can pilates help women in their 40s and beyond increase their general muscle health?
As females, we experience change in our bodies at all ages and stages of life. Between the ages of 30 and 70, our bodies experience a new feeling of change we tend to ignore or hide due to a lack of education and communication around certain topics. Your body is shifting from fertility and reproduction to nourishment and conservation. Movement and specifically Pilates, can positively support these changes – making a significant impact on your energy, mood and wellbeing. It’s no secret Pilates improves our strength, but what you might not know is the impact of functional movement on your pelvic floor muscle strength, bladder function and muscle endurance and development – creating stronger, leaner bodies to feel the best version of yourself, again.
A decline in oestrogen in our 40s brings a decrease in muscle mass and bone density, which strength training can help to counteract. And strength training does not have to be lifting heavy weights – resistance training and low weight exercises can significantly improve your muscle mass and strength.
- What pieces of equipment make a great investment for women looking to increase their strength and stability?
A Theraband is a versatile piece of equipment to use in your workouts and stretching. It adds resistance, challenging and strengthening the muscles, while positioning your muscles and joints to move through greater ranges of movement.
A skipping rope makes for a great high intensity, low impact cardio workout. Aerobic exercise is essential to prevent high blood pressure. You might experience rising blood pressure. By integrating aerobic or cardio exercise twice a week, you can prevent high blood pressure.
A Swiss Ball is like a total body sculpting tool. It creates instability which challenges your centre of gravity and coordination. It adds weight for a low-impact, weight-bearing workout. Your muscles will fatigue quickly and effectively – meaning you can achieve a total body workout in as little as 15 minutes.
- How important is stretching in achieving strength goals in our 40s and beyond? How frequently should active women be stretching?
When our oestrogen hormones fall, we are prone to inflammation in our joints which creates aches and pains. Movement is essential to lubricate our joints and improve mobility. Strength training will help to strengthen the muscles which support our joints and stretching will help to relieve your stiff joints and tight muscles. I recommend 10 minutes of stretching daily, in order to release inflammation in your muscles and joints while providing active recovery to other forms of exercise. When we age, we become more prone to injuries and imbalances. Rather than resisting this, we can embrace it by prioritising stretching and tools for recovery to balance, reset and realign our bodies.
- What’s one activity women should adopt everyday in their exercise routine to promote muscle longevity?
Skipping! It combines strength with cardio, to improve muscle development, coordination and bone density. Breaking a sweat can help to minimise hot flushes and flashes. A combination of hot flushes and weaker bones can throw off your centre of gravity and balance. Skipping is a great way to integrate just 5 minutes of cardio into your day. You will increase your heart rate without placing pressure or impact on the bones and joints.
Don’t have a rope? Jumping is just as effective. Try a jumping series of lunges and squats (10 of each, 3 times through).
- What are your 3 top tips for boosting strength in our middle ages?
- Focus on resistance, high intensity, low impact workouts to help build strength and achieve a total body workout without driving your stress hormones. Life has enough stresses, movement should work to counteract this.
- ‘Over-exercising’ is real and detrimental to results. Aim for 20-30 minutes a day and incorporate a variety of movement forms to keep your body active without overdoing it.
- Adopt a holistic approach to improving your physical and mental strength. Beyond movement, incorporate a balanced and clean diet, with an abundance of plant-based foods, protein and healthy fats. Prioritise your sleep, healthy social relationships and tools to minimise stress.
