Creating Active Lives

047 Stop Resisting Resistance Training with Heather Lock

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In this week's episode I am talking with Heather Lock all about resistance training. 

We discuss:

  • why resistance training is important especially for women
  • the reasons women resist this kind of training
  • how to add resistance training into your daily routine
  • why it's never too late to start and make a difference to your health


Moving away from the scales and focussing on strength can be challenging for some but hopefully hearing Heather discuss the benefits of resistance training will support you to give it a try. 


About Heather:
Heather Lock helps women over 40 take back control of their health and happiness. She understands that as we age, our bodies undergo many changes, and it can be difficult to know where to start when it comes to improving our fitness and nutrition.  Her approach is based on resistance training as it is a vital aspect of overall health and well-being for women as they age yet it can be intimidating for those who have never done this.  

Heather knows that for many women, looking and feeling fabulous seems like an impossible feat, but just 20 minutes a day, can provide quick improvements with fat loss, muscle tone and mental happiness. She also provides nutrition guidance to ensure women are fuelling their bodies with the right foods to support health. 

Heather’s programme is not just about losing weight, but about feeling confident and strong in mind and body.  She supports and guides women in making sustainable lifestyle changes that will have them looking and feeling fabulous.  Women ready to commit to themselves and their health can join Heather and start their journey towards a happier, healthier life! 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/heather-lock-60-day?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=android_app
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heather.lock.96
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/heatherlockonline?igsh=MXJhZmNtYjBncG5xbw==


About Sarah:
Sarah Bolitho helps fitness and health professionals develop their careers and grow their businesses by providing specialist training in teaching, assessing, and internal quality assurance, together with qualifications in exercise referral and disability.   

With over 30 years in the health-related fitness and physical activity fields, Sarah has a wealth of experience and knowledge.  She has worked in most roles in the industry from group exercise to personal training but specialised in working with specialist populations.  For over 25 years Sarah has trained fitness and health professionals to work with clients with long-term conditions, mental health issues, disabilities, older adults and pre/post-natal women.  She has a post-graduate diploma in exercise and health behaviour and extensive training in supporting behaviour change.  She has worked with awarding organisations to develop qualifications and training a

For more about the training and support Sarah offers, visit www.sarahbolitho.com or contact her at admin@sarahbolitho.com.

Follow her on social media
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fabnewlous_active_lives
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/fitnesscareer mentor
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbolitho

Sarah (00:03.542)

Hello and welcome to this episode of Creating Active Lives with me, Sarah Bolitho and my guest, Heather Lock. This is a bit of a passion of mine, so I do warn you all, I might get on my soapbox a bit and I suspect Heather might too. Heather helps women over 40, but probably any age really, take back control of their health and happiness. And she understands that as we age, our bodies undergo many changes and challenges. And it's difficult to know where to start sometimes with fitness and nutrition, particularly if that's not something that's been part of your life before. Now her approach is based on resistance training as it is so important and I have, we've recorded an episode earlier about older adults and how important strength training is, but actually it's important for women of all ages to be doing some sort of resistance training, yet it can be quite intimidating. People can get very nervous about doing it, particularly if they've never done it before. I think there's the image of coming out of a session looking like Arnie or Charles Atlas as somebody mentioned the other day for those of you who are older. So we are going to talk a little bit about walking, about getting your steps in and things like that, but the focus today is very much on resistance training and why so many women resist it because they do. So Heather, tell us a little bit about yourself and why resistance training is so important.

Heather (01:31.766)

I kind of always messed about with exercise and things growing up. My mum was really keen on taking me to acrobics and, you know, bums and tums and legs, bums and tums sessions locally and things like that. But it wasn't until I had my daughter when I was 30, that I really just got this rocket up my bottom of wanting to transform everything about myself. It was a real transition time. It's like, right, you need to be a really good role model for her and, you know, just pull your finger out and sort yourself out. So I got a personal trainer. I got an amazing transformation with my body, my mindset, just, you know, my nutrition, everything just sort of slotted into place. And I was like I absolutely love this. And why didn't anyone show me resistance training, you know, and how to why it's important and what it does to body? Why, you know, why was no one telling me this before? So at 32, I retrained as a personal trainer. And, and, yeah, nine years on, I've really honed in on helping women, I think going through it yourself and being really unhappy with my body and how I looked and how I felt and you know having all those struggles as well it felt like really important to me to niche within that area of helping women. This is you know I don't think there's many women out there that love their reflection and if I can do things like help them with their nutrition and eating and make it feel simple and give them back that control then that feels pretty good. So yeah resistance training is is just the best.

Sarah (03:28.066)

I mean, it is, I love it. And I think so many women will lose weight, they will get themselves to a healthy weight, but still not be happy with their bodies. And a lot of that is, it's not to do with the weight, it's to do with your body composition. And having muscles in good condition actually changes, you know, never mind weight, it changes the way your body looks.

It’s not just massive bodybuilders in the gym and all these big weights and grunting and huffing and puffing and of course resistance training you know it's about some form of resistance isn't it not just big heavy weights and I think this is where we need to educate particularly women about how they can build resistance training into their everyday life what they can do that doesn't involve going to the gym but more importantly the benefits of it why it's so important not just aesthetically so when we look in the mirror, we think, oh, you know, nicely toned, but also for what's going on underneath, for what's our functional ability and the anti-aging properties as well, isn't it?

Heather (04:38.729)

Absolutely. I've worked a little bit in a gym environment, but I've always been more about being mobile and out and about. And since lockdown, just taking it fully online. So I haven't entered a gym for four years and you just don't need to for resistance at all.

Sarah (04:57.342)

I think that's a really big kind of myth that we need to explode, don't we? You do not need to go to the gym, but you do need to be using some form of resistance to really get those muscles in better shape. And yes, strength is part of it, but also endurance, so you can do more. So what types of resistance do you use with people?

Heather (05:15.069)

Absolutely. Yeah, so within my workouts, I use a kettlebell, which is really fun and that does create the endurance. So gets your heart rate up, gets you puffing and panting, releases all those feel good hormones that make you feel like, yeah, I'm really, you know, really nailing this, but is really working the full body as well. So it's a fantastic tool to use. I love the kettlebell. And then we use things like resistant cables. So just you know, just really simple equipment. You don't need hardly any space at home to do things, but all those, like, dumbbells, bands, and kettlebells, that is enough to really create that resistance. And even body weight is a really good tool. The only thing sometimes with the body weight, it can be sort of higher impact moves, which as we get older, we don't love jumping around quite so much. Not everyone, but So that's when the weights are really useful.

Sarah (06:21.694)

Yeah, but it's, you know, for somebody starting off something as simple as a resistance band, as you say, even body weight, things like squats, you know, two thirds of your body weight is actually in your upper body. So when you're squatting and raising up again, you are lifting, you know, quite a lot of your body weight, press ups against the wall, press ups on the floor. So, you know, it doesn't have to be expensive or difficult to get started, you know, things like kettlebells, things like demos might well be the progression for you, but for a lot of people, you know, just a simple resistance band or two is going to make a big difference to your workouts and it means that it's quick, it's efficient, but more importantly it's not intimidating, but it's very effective, very effective.

Heather (07:07.773)

Yeah, exactly.

Sarah (07:12.402)

I teach courses using resistance bands and I'm in pretty good shape and even then, you know, after a couple of hours of using the bands, I'm feeling it the next day. I mean, I'm not like, oh, this is agony, I can't move, but it's like, oh, I can feel I've worked my muscles. And this is where it's so important. So what are some of the benefits then that people will get from adding some sort of resistance training into their routines?

Heather (07:20.027)

So the obvious ones which, you know, a lot of ladies are bothered about, not everyone, which is fine, is their change in their body shape. So not the weight, I really shy away, I hate, I'm not a fan of the scales. So I really get women to start doing body measurements, tracking and things like that. So they can see those, like how their body is changing over time with the resistance training.

 

and how it's very different, like we were saying earlier, to just doing the cardiovascular, like walking, cycling, swimming, where yes, you might be burning off some calories and losing some fat, but it kind of gets to a plateau where you have to then keep doing more and more and more, which is just something that is not healthy for us. So actually adds more stress. So this resistance boosts the metabolism for the more muscle. So it's like men, I think this is a good example. Men, annoyingly, can eat far more than us. And you know, when men decide to lose weight, they can just change a few things and all of a sudden they're shedding thousands of pounds, you know, over a few weeks. It's like, what? This is so unfair. But it's purely because they have more muscle mass than us. And that's why if we can build our lean muscle up and it's really lean, it doesn't bulk the body at all. It just pulls it all in tight. I think that's the best way of kind of visually looking at it.

And then that boosts the metabolism so that, you know, it's working all the time. It's burning calories after the workout, not just during the phase of your workout. So it's just so, so good for that side of things.

Sarah (09:19.838)

Yeah, that's it. And it's, as I say, as I said, for women to bulk up, or to get muscles, it's actually really, really hard. It's so much to do with nutrition, training so much and most of us, most of us haven't got the muscular makeup, the mix of fiber types that you actually need to get big anyway it is so hard. So, you know, anybody who's ever done any of these kind of bodybuilding, female bodybuilding, female fitness competitions will tell you their lives revolve around it. There's no time for anything else. So if you're worried that by adding a bit of resistance in, you're going to sort of, you know, be huge. It's you're not it's really, really hard. If that's what you want, then you need to see a specialist because it's so hard. 

But this is where I think we need to be focusing on, like you say, moving away from the scales, looking much more at our body composition and how we are. And I know women don't like looking in mirrors because I think a lot of women look in the mirror almost to find fault, to criticise.

Heather (10:31.773)

Yeah, exactly.

Sarah (10:33.29)

We need to start looking in the mirror and thinking, gosh, actually my arms are looking much more toned, my legs are looking much more toned. We need to start looking in the mirror and seeing the positive changes that doing resistance training brings about. Now, even if that means initially you look in the mirror and think I'd like my arms to be more toned, I'd like my legs to be more toned, don't be critical about your body, look at the areas that you'd like to improve and then work with somebody like Heather and she does online stuff to work on that because actually it doesn't happen overnight but you will gradually not only start to see the changes you'll feel the changes you'll be able to do so much more you'll just notice you've got more energy you'll notice that your weight management is better and this is where I think you know let's be a little bit kinder to ourselves but also let's look in the mirror and look at the positive things. Because we've all got things about us that are fabulous. And let's actually start noticing them. And there is the answer on, you know, quite up to a 10 out of 10. Let's say, right, what can I do? Can I do tricep dips? Curls, yeah, what can I do to improve my body shape? Because we all can, whatever age you are.

Heather (11:42.353)

Work your program.

Sarah (11:51.731)

It's so important, isn't it? So what would be your advice to somebody who's listening and thinks, gosh, actually, I need to start doing this, or I need to get my mum to start doing this, or I need to, me and my friends would like to start doing this. Where's a good place to start?

Heather (12:08.721)

Yeah, so, you know, there's a wealth of workouts out there. And if you want to just get started at home, and you want free workouts, you just can go on YouTube and try some out. I know even like on the smart TVs these days, they've got quite often, they've got a special channel for workouts, and there's lots of beginner workouts on there. So like honestly, there is so much out there just to give it a go and just get moving. Yeah I mean, sometimes there's too much information out there these days, so it's a bit overwhelming.

Sarah (12:38.474)

Yeah, or contact Heather, all her links will be in there. But another thing that people say, again, is this perception that exercise takes a lot of time. So how much should we be doing when it comes to resistance training? As women of all ages.

Heather (12:42.641)

So, the science sort of backed out there is that adding just two weight training sessions a week can reduce your body fat by 7%, which is a nice statistic. Not to mention all the other health benefits like your metabolism increased, bone density maintained, which is really essential. But yeah, like I practice little and often consistency, which  you're just chipping away at it every day and working certain muscle groups so that you can kind of really work that area. And 20 minutes is more than enough to see really fab results.

Sarah (13:33.802)

Yeah, and that would be a little bit of warming up. You know, a few moves, target a body part or lower body one day, upper body one day. And you know, you've still got time for a nice stretch at the end of it as well, which stretching is a part of strength, is having flexible muscles as well as strong ones. So, you know, don't neglect the stretching. And again, I talked to Liz, my physio friend, she's one of the podcasts with the importance of stretching, you know, and we're using our muscles all the time, and yet we only ever think about stretching them after a workout. And it's like, well, you've been sat in a chair for eight hours a day. A, you need strong muscles to sit with good posture in a chair all day, but also you need to be stretching regularly in order to rebalance those muscles and things. And it's, like I say, it doesn't have to be going to the gym, and being there can be simple things that you can do at home. And this is, you know, you might decide actually, I want more, I want more of this and end up going to the gym or with a personal trainer. But you might find that there's plenty that you can do at home. That's really, really going to help you. And it's you mentioned bone density. And this is something we. It's really, really important for men and women, but particularly women, is your peak bone density is around your mid 30s. So you need to be doing resistance training in your twenties, certainly onwards, in order to build that bone density. Because when you get to mid thirties, it's kind of as good as it's gonna get. And actually when you're doing resistance training, because the muscle is pulling on the bone, it's providing a little bit of stress through the bone. So it isn't just bone loading movements like jumping, walking, and things like that. It is, the resistance training is acting as a kind of a positive stress if you like on the bones and tells them get stronger. We need you to be stronger in order to help us do this. So, you know, it's a big benefit. You've also got the fact that when you're working your muscles, when you're strengthening muscles, blood flow going back to the heart, the lower body is improved because those muscles are squeezing the good old blood back to the heart. So you know it has benefits for the circulatory system as well. So you know it's not like I'm going to strengthen for my muscles, there's so much more to it, there are so many more benefits aren't there and of course you know we talked about metabolism is you know muscle has a higher calorie requirement than fat. So the better your body composition the easier it's going to be to maintain your weight.

And these are the sort of messages I think we need to be getting across rather than just do strength training. Do you think that there's a lack of, there's a lot of information about what you should do and when and how important it is, but not necessarily why it's important. Do you think that's an issue?

Heather (16:25.701)

Yeah, I think it always pops into my mind when you talk about age for doing the muscle mass decline. I always think about my grandparents when they were in their later years. And you know, I just picture my granny just sat in a chair and quite frail and, you know, kind of given up, or not given up on life, but you know, that was it. That's kind of how you would think your later years should be like. It’s just not the case anymore. It's actually, okay, yes, maybe you need to slow down, but we actually still need to really keep our body, you know, we need to look after it. It's like sitting down all day is not gonna help. You know, you're gonna lose all your strength and energy, your metabolism, you know, just all those things will slowly decline unless we're actually actively doing something about it. So I think these days, you know, obviously we're living so much longer. I think women are getting more aware that they need to do more resistance. And, and yeah, okay. You know, like you said, your muscles, um, or you know, you kind of peak at sort of 30 is never too late to get started. Like I've had women come to me at 50, uh, really unhappy with their weight and how they felt and, you know, low energy and everything just really down on themselves and they tried the 20 minute workouts and within a month, their body was already changing so, so much and their energy levels, how they felt, they felt much happier, metabolism sped up, they were eating better, it all just kind of went hand in hand.

Sarah (18:08.63)

It's a kind of knock on effect, isn't it? And I often say, because people say, you know, I want to improve my diet. I want to get fitter. I want to get stronger. And it's like focus on one at a time because actually once you start to improve one and you notice how good you feel and how much better you feel, the other changes kind of happen organically, don't they? Because you start seeing, yeah. And then suddenly you'll eat something that you used to eat and you haven't for a while and you'll notice the impact it has on you, the negative impact, and that you feel sluggish, you feel less energetic and you start to think actually, you know, it's almost like initially I think there's a conscious, do I really want to eat this because I know I'm going to feel bad afterwards? But after a while it just becomes subconscious, is you start to choose either very small portions of things like that, but generally your diet improves, you walk more, you relax more. And I don't mean like we're talking about, you know, older people sit down and do nothing, but you actually do positive relaxation, which is, which is an important part of any activity program is proper relaxation, proper stillness and rest, because it really helps you to, it helps your body to kind of work behind the scenes in making those improvements. And that's, that's something I think is, is again, people think they, you know, they've got to do something all the time, but that’s not the case, rest is improved. Yeah. And it's, you know, there's a lot of research out there about benefits of exercise on mental health. And actually, a lot of it's focused on aerobic exercise on cardiovascular exercise, walking, jogging, running and things like that. But there is still there is evidence coming through now about resistance training and we know that actually I work in cancer rehab a lot of the research shows that resistance training on its own isn't necessarily good for anxiety and depression and people with cancer going through cancer treatments. But actually the combination of cardiovascular and resistance training is an absolute winner. It's that all round impact that's so important. So one of the things we did mention a bit earlier was sort of walking and steps. And again, how many steps a day? We all get fixed on these 10,000 steps a day. But actually it's not quite like that it's not quite as fixed as that is it and 10,000 steps a day for a lot of people is just not gonna happen.

Heather (20:40.973)

It's not. No, no, they just don't have the physical time. I mean, so I do around that amount. But you know, it's not a it's not something that I feel I have to say, for instance, that takes quite a lot of my day, but luckily, I have the time to do it. So the dog walk is about an hour and 1020 and I walk really fast. And that doesn't get me up to 10,000 steps. So people that are working nine to five and going out all day doing then you know, at least an hour's walk, but more, to get your steps in is just probably very tricky. So I think that the thing around steps is just the general movement throughout the day is more important. So if you are eating meals and things, get moving in between, like after the eating stuff, it just opens up like all the floodgates of us to utilize those calories much, much better. So it's really good at preventing diabetes too. And so yeah, exactly. It just keeps everything working much, much better. So like if someone's sedentary or in sedentary role, which a lot of people are these days working in offices, they need to make sure that throughout the day, they're just having little breaks where they're moving around, you know, if they've got a lunch break, go out for a quick 10-20 minute walk. All those little bits add up so much over the week and then you know on your time off, yeah go book in a nice you know a nice long walk get out in the countryside because I think getting outside is a big one as well of you know very good for our mental health.

Sarah (22:08.835)

Hands up listening if you've heard me talk about getting outside into nature. Yeah, but it's ironic. I always used to think it was really ironic when they first started talking about steps because people working in offices often, you know, it's particularly with technology now. We email people, whereas before you'd have to go and walk and go and see somebody. But I used to think it's ironic that smokers probably have more steps because they're physically leaving the building and going outside several times a day. Whereas those who don't smoke aren't and it's just like don't I'm not saying smoke, please don't do that but think about that sort of pattern every hour get up and move walk around get your steps in because I think you know they're now saying that realistically between six and eight thousand is probably going to be as beneficial and actually if you meet the guidelines of 150 minutes a week of cardiovascular activity you're probably going to hit around eight thousand a day but that's a minimum of 20 minutes and moving around during the day. So every hour, if you've got any kind of activity tracker or watch or anything like that, it probably nudges you at 10 to the hour to stand up and move. But do think, right, I'm gonna stand up and I'm gonna get 500 steps in just by walking around the block or something like that. Because, A, it's good for your muscles to be out walking and moving like that, but also it's rounding out the sort of activity that you do because we need to move, we need to be strong, we need to have flexibility, so it's building all of that in however it works for you, I think is so important. You know, walking meetings, if there's two or three of you and you need a meeting and you're actually in an office, go for a walk because two birds with one stone. You know, walk to see somebody instead of sending an email or a text or something like that. And really, you know, look at little ways that you can build activity in. You know, go for a walk, do five press-ups against a tree or sit on a park bench and do five squats on a park bench or something. Or it's, you know, once you...

Heather (24:11.798)

Great idea.

Sarah (24:34.862)

I don't know if you find this, but I find once you actually start to be more active, once you start to get fitter, once your muscles, your heart, your lungs, everything's in better shape, you start to look for opportunities to be active. Don't you? Yeah.

Heather (24:46.378)

You know, you just want more of it. Yeah, you know you do. It feels also like, you know, when you're sort of sat around doing nothing, I know myself that if I've had a really lazy day, all I can think about is wanting to eat not good foods, like very carbohydrate type foods, sugary foods, you know, all those ones that give you that instant sort of pick you up energy boost.

So actually just kind of moving around at that afternoon time, which can be really tricky in the office, you know, actually then getting up, having a glass of water, getting a moving and things, actually that will have really helped to curb that sort of comfort eating.

Sarah (25:21.662)

Yeah, it is. And you know, it's for me, I'll always say, particularly people, but I really like these foods and I really think so. Fine. But make your main meal healthy and then have a much smaller amount afterwards. If you still want it, quite often, if you've got a balance of your meal, right? Actually, your body's not kind of saying, oh, I need a bit more energy because you've got that balance. You've got that satiety going on, which means that your body instinctively says no I don't need that.

Heather (25:35.621)

Exactly.

Heather (25:50.909)

Yeah. Which people can believe, but it's so true and like with my clients as well, like I get them to eat three really good meals, you know, right balance. And then like, oh my God, you've cured my evening munching on the sofa. I honestly thought, you know, I was never gonna get like break free of it, but just changing those three meals, just completely stop, you know, stop them eating that.

Sarah (26:16.682)

It's giving your body what it needs, isn't it? And when you do, it's kind of like, I don't need anymore. It's full and it brings the right fuels in. And again, I think this is something that it doesn't necessarily happen overnight, but I see I meal prep. I have my meals prepped. I'll make big batch of soup, big batch of soup that's enough for the week. I have my breakfast that's enough for the week.

And it means I haven't got, I mean, I'm terrible about decisions. If you sit me down and say, what do you want? It's like, I don't know. What do I feel like? Whereas if it's there, then we eat it. There's no decision making. It's lunchtime, heat it up, eat it, job done. Um, same with, you know, evening meals. I'll often, I'll, I'll cook something and I'll make enough for three meals. So I'll freeze one and then I'll say have the one on the Monday and the Wednesday and then the Tuesday meal will be Tuesday and Thursday. I don't eat the same thing every single day, but for me, it, it takes away the, the kind of munching while you're thinking about what to eat, which is another thing, isn't it? Yeah. And nutrition is important, isn't it? In our body composition. And I know it's something you talk about well. So why is good nutrition so important when we are looking at improving our body composition? And I don't mean perfect nutrition, I mean good.

Heather (27:43.345)

Yeah, sure. No, absolutely. I am all for people enjoying themselves, you know, and making sure that they can still have their meals out and, you know, and have family meals as well, which often look like kind of, you know, sausage mash and, and then do you know, something like that. But it's all about just finding the balance around it and making sure there's lots of lovely lean protein. So we're talking chickens, chicken, fish, oily fish, you know, beef, all those things, even tofu and legumes and lentils, you know, and dairy. There's loads of protein out there and making sure that we're getting a good portion of that for each meal as well is really important. And then the other thing which we really need to get better at doing because a lot of people, their plates will look very beige with kind of, you know, a lot of lot of sandwiches are getting munched because it's just such an easy go to.

 

And again, that's not something to not include, but it needs to have more of a balance about it. So if you're thinking about a plate, you need to have lots of different salads, lots of different vegetables. It should look really colorful and enjoyable, which actually is really good for our brains as well. So if you're looking at a colorful plate, it's gonna satisfy you so much more. So making sure that you've got two or three vegetable salads on your plate, at each meal, some fruits, and then getting that lean protein and the good fats. And you'll find, people find, they aren't then relying on the bread sauce and all that on kind of, you know, sugary breakfasts and things like that, like that. They don't miss it either. It's not like they're completely cutting it out. It certainly still gets enjoyed, but you just, the energy and everything, the digestion and the bloating, everything, you know, just improves and you've got to get that protein in order to see the muscle strengthening up.

Sarah (29:43.35)

This is it. Protein is so I mean, the main role of protein in the body is growth and repair. And this is where if you are looking at resistance training, if you're looking at what a lot of women will call tone in their bodies, but, you know, being having a better tone to all your muscles and things like that. This is where good quality protein is so important. Like you say, the other thing it does, if you have a good quality protein at every meal and that could be vegan sauces always go for good ones, don't go for the mass ingredient ones. It creates it. Yeah. But you know, the thing is protein helps with what we call satiety. So keeping you feeling full for longer. So a well balanced plate will keep you feeling full for longer. So you don't have those, oh, I'm really hungry again.

Heather (30:14.399)

Yeah, pre-packaged stuff, not good.

Sarah (30:33.398)

But because it's so important in that growth and repair of muscles, it means that your body's getting the fuel it needs to really keep those muscles, to keep your whole system in good order. And you know, if you're going to be doing resistance training, you've got to be looking at, you know, an appropriate way of eating to support the growth and the condition of muscles. So it's, you know, it comes, comes back to like a healthy balanced life, doesn't it? Shocker.

Move more, eat better, I think for a lot of people. And it's not like you say, you can still go out to a restaurant, you can still have bangers and mash, but choose better quality bangers. You know, make the mash yourself. Add vegetables to it. Yeah.

Heather (31:15.461)

a lot of vegetables on the plate. I think that's key. You know, half your plate should actually be vegetables, which is really shocking for a lot of people because a lot of people might put like a couple tablespoons of peas on there or something and be like, yeah, I might have my vegetable calp for today.

Sarah (31:21.358)

But it's like I say, the better kind of, what's the word, quality, the better health your body is in physically, the more you will get in tune with it, the more you will, you'll hear what your body's telling you it needs. And you know, sometimes it might need five or six minstrels, it just might. But other times, yeah, it's like if I've had a bad week or, you know,

Heather (31:52.945)

Yeah, sometimes a month.

Sarah (31:59.458)

mean bad but if I've been away or I've been stuck in hotels and I'm limited to what I can choose things I will start craving things like lettuce and vegetables I will absolutely crave them and it's my body saying no we need this we need this we need to get that hydration back we need to get the fiber back we need to get our energy levels back and protein as well but I'll be looking at pure protein rather than you know something like a Bolognese or something, it'll be, no, I really need those prawns or I need that fish. And I know that, you know, when I'm training, I, again, my body will sort of say, I need this, you know, give me that. So I do, I think you do start to listen to your body a lot better, don't you? When, when your body position is better.

Heather (32:45.937)

Yeah, yeah, it's amazing. Like, you know, like with clients and things, they sort of often talk through like how the week's gone and stuff like that. And sometimes they look back and go, do you know what? I can't actually remember. I can't believe that I used to eat how I used to eat. Like, you know, I can't actually imagine, I've been doing this now for a month or two and I can't imagine myself going back to feeling like I did then you know, very quickly your body, your brain, like takes on those new habits and goes, yeah, this is, you know, this is what I need.

Sarah (33:22.551)

That's it. And it's, it's not an overnight. You won't like do a couple of strength training sessions and change overnight. It it's like anything really, it creeps up on you. And it's almost like one day you realize, gosh, I am feeling better. It's not like you, you don't wake up and go, Oh, today's I'm completely different to yesterday, but you're something will happen. Something will happen, you'll do something and you'll think gosh I'm feeling completely different, I'm feeling better, I'm looking in the mirror and smiling and it'll be little subtle things that creep up and then something will trigger it or somebody will say something or you'll notice something and you'll go wow this is actually really working and this is the thing isn't it and to me this is where you know all you women out there and all your men who've got women in your lives get resistance training because it's one of the simplest ways of really improving your body composition and from that you start to improve your body image, your confidence, but also the way that you function every single day will improve, not just now but your if you like it's like a savings account for your health in the future. Yeah, so

Heather (34:22.099)

It is true, it is true. 

Sarah (34:43.03)

Anyone out there who's thinking, I'm still not convinced, what would be your kind of, your real sales pitch to convince them that, get strong.

Heather (34:50.357)

Well, I think as we're getting older, especially for women, so with our hormone changes, our metabolism slows down, I think everyone that's kind of moving into their 40s, stroke 50s, really do notice the changes in their body. And I think we're much more concerned about health as well. I think we're winging it beforehand. Maybe we care a bit, but I think  once you get into your 40s and you're noticing that your body isn't bouncing back quite the same with, you know, abusing it, you think, right, okay, I think I do need to get on top of, you know, I'm just sort of eating too much sugar and things like that. And with the resistance training, you know, it is a preventative along with your nutrition of diabetes too. I was a health and wellbeing coach for a bit doing that NHS prevention scheme, which I think is amazing. Like, you know, to prevent something with lifestyle changes, things that you can actually take action with yourself. I think that's the thing of empowering women enough to take action on actually their health and their wellbeing. Like it comes as a whole package and we can't just be going to the doctors anymore. We need to actually understand what we need to be doing, you know, in order to live for another 50 years or so, you know, happily without struggling.

Sarah (36:18.802)

Exactly and you know for a lot of people retiring you know they could have another 20 30 years of life and you want to be living it to the fullest And it's you know we're not saying I wish we could but we're not we're not saying start strength training in your 50s And you'll have a body of a 20 year old, but what we're saying is Whenever you start training, you'll have a really good body for the age you are.

And that's the key is the improvement in, you know, body composition, definition, but also the way your body moves and functions. And for me, when my body is moving and functioning well, I look at it differently. I look at it much more positively. I don't look at it and think, oh, there's a bit there and there's a bit of my love handles. I look at my body and think, wow, how amazing that for me in my 60s, my body is moving and functioning so well I don’t need to go to the doctor, I can still do everything, I can hike up a mountain, I can walk my 10,000 steps a day and I look at my body much more positively, not because of the way it looks, but because of the way it functions and I think for me that's a huge shift isn't it that you gain from things like stress training.

Heather (37:28.041)

I just popped into my head, one of my clients is actually 70 and she looks absolutely amazing. She's so gorgeous. And she came to me a few years before that. Actually, was it? Well, roughly about 68 and she's really into the science of it all. And so she had a health test done, you know, where they check your, I don't know, they check your cholesterol, your body fat, your BMI you know, all those sort of things, those health checks. And then she had one done a sort of year later and she had really high cholesterol, like worryingly high, her weight, she was overweight, you know, just not eating well, all those things. And then within a year, her cholesterol had totally normalized, which I think is amazing. And actually the results came back saying that she'd decreased her body age by 20 years. So in actual fact, even though her physical age was 70, oh, you know, her age was 70, she had decreased everything so that her body was kind of feeling like it was 50. So if that's not something to give, you know, 20 minute workouts ago, then I don't know what it would be.

Sarah (38:25.262)

Wow.

And this is the thing, isn't it? And if that can happen when you're in your late 60s and 70s, then just, it can happen in your early 60s, in your 50s, in your 40s. You can always improve kind of what they say, your metabolic age or your metabolic age of your body. So, it's never too early to start and it's never too late to start either.

Heather (38:47.878)

Yeah, that's it. Yeah.

Sarah (39:07.87)

And I think that's one of the key things I want to get across to people, particularly women, when it comes to strength training. You are never too young for strength training and you are never too old. You can start at any age and you will get benefits. But the earlier you start, not just, you know, you're not just getting the benefits, but the longer the benefits will keep going. As long as you do. So any last message then for all the women out there?

Heather (39:29.117)

Yeah, I'm getting, oh, my daughter's 12. And actually, I think they're a bit more aware of it these days. So she does workouts with kettlebells and things at home, and they do include the strength training at school. So I think it is becoming something that the younger lot are going to be including much more and have that awareness. It's us, kind of 40s and over, that need to need to start giving it a go, I think.

Sarah (39:49.549)

We need to, as I say, we need to stop resisting resistance training because actually it's a huge part of staying physically young, even if we can't say chronologically young, it's a huge part of it. So Heather, thank you so much for coming to talk to us today. And if people want to find you, they can find you on Facebook, Heather Lock online on Instagram. I'll put all the links everywhere, but if people do want to find you then just mention you heard the podcast and have a chat with Heather because she knows her stuff and we're all about leading happier healthier lives at whatever age you are and That includes getting stronger. So Heather, thank you so much for coming in

Heather (40:41.326)

Well thanks Sarah, absolute pleasure, I really appreciate being given the opportunity, it's great.

Sarah (40:46.798)

Thank you. So you've been listening to Creating Active Lives, Stop Resisting Resistance Training Women with me, Sarah Bolitho, and my guest this week, Heather Lock. Thank you for listening and we will see you soon.

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