If you're a woman over 45, strength training isn't just a great idea – it's absolutely crucial for your health and well-being! In this episode, I share 9 fantastic strength exercises to help you build and maintain muscle mass, keeping you strong, energized, and free from those dreaded aches and pains. I guide you through each exercise, explain why I love them so much, and tell you the minimum weight load you should be aiming for to get the best results.

After decades in the fitness industry, I can assure you that these exercises are your ticket to living the life you desire. Imagine lifting that heavy box with ease, reaching high shelves without discomfort, and watching your body completely transform. From the goblet squat to the barbell deadlift, these exercises are designed to make you stronger, leaner, and more confident. It's not just about looking good – it's about having the strength to live life to the fullest!

Want FREE access to my brand new four-week strength training plan, Strength Without Stress? Head over to hollyperkins.com/review where you can upload a screenshot of your review and gain immediate access. This is a limited-time offer before it sells for $197, so be sure to grab it now!

Topics Covered:

• The benefits of a goblet squat
• Strengthen your deltoids with dumbbell side raises
• Why I love cable lat pulldowns 
• A barbell deadlift and single leg deadlifts 
• The value of a straight arm plank 
• The truth about walking lunges and overhead pressing 
• Step ups and level change exercises 

Resources Mentioned:

• Listen to the first 28 episodes of Holly Perkins Health Podcast HERE
• Check out Lift to Get Lean HERE
• See the research the key to progressive overload HERE 
• See the research on the fundamentals of resistance training: progression and exercise prescription HERE
• See the research on the role of resistance training in the prevention and treatment of chronic disease HERE
• See the research on the effects of strength training on health HERE

Follow Me: 

Find me on Instagram: @hollyperkins

Learn more on my website: hollyperkins.com

Connect with me on Facebook: facebook.com/HollyPerkinsFitness/

Disclaimer: Content and information as part of The Holly Perkins Health Podcast is for general interest, education, and entertainment purposes only. The use of information on this podcast or materials or products linked from this podcast or website is at the user’s own risk. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical or mental health condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions.

When it comes to your health and the quality of your life, there are few things truer than the statement that every woman over the age of 45 should be strength training to preserve muscle mass. If you want to hear the nine exercises and associated weight loads that I tell my clients to focus on, keep listening. Every single woman should be committed to a strength training program. This is not my opinion, there's so much research to support it. Now, if you don't enjoy strength training, or you haven't adopted it yet, that's okay. But the truth is when we look at the research that's out there, and when I look back upon my 30 years in the industry, I can tell you, without a doubt, strength training is the best, most effective way to improve your health, transform your body eliminate aches and pains and completely eliminate the risk of injury, boost energy and stamina. And it will also help to balance out your hormones.

So today, I'm bringing you nine essential exercises that I believe every single woman should be doing. And I'm going to attach to that the weight loads that we would deem the minimum effective dosage. Now some of these wait loads, you might already be able to do them, some of them might be very far ahead of you incorporate them into your week somehow, and set out on a path to achieve the minimum effective dosage. So let's officially jump in, grab your notebook, number one goblet squat. Now the alternate to goblet squat could be a leg press. But I'm going to go with goblet squat because I do believe that an upright weight bearing closed kinetic chain exercise like a squat is something that every single one of us needs to be doing. Why? Because at some point in your life, you need to crouch down and stand up. And that goes beyond just sitting down into a chair.

So have you ever had to get down on your hands and knees, look under a bed or maybe dig in the back of your closet and find a box and you have to get down on your hands and knees and then you need to stand up with that box. Now that might be easy for you and me now. But when you're 72 or 78, or 84 or 97 This is a really important movement pattern. And goblet squat is my favorite squat variation for women for a number of reasons. One, I love the foot position because it's a little bit more forgiving on the unique structure of a woman's body, the way that we use our legs, the way that we use our glutes, the positioning and the rotation of our pelvis and our hip structure in general. I find goblet squat is just such a great, productive but also accessible squat movement pattern. A Barbell Front squat, a barbell back squat, even a dumbbell squat, I find is a bit clunkier than a goblet squat.

Now, I have women in my community in their 30s 40s 50s 60s and 70s. I don't know if I've got anyone in their 80s I believe that I do doing goblet squat. It's absolutely one of the best exercises that you want to be doing. You've got to be able to do a goblet squat bodyweight plus 30 pounds at a bare minimum. And I might even say that numbers 35 or even 40 pounds. But I thought long and hard about these numbers that I selected. And this is based on my experience. Now it could be to 15 pound kettlebells it could be to 15 pound dumbbells put together. But generally a goblet squat is easiest and most productive when you're using one weight load and that would be 30 pounds. Write that down. So I'm not saying that 30 pounds is where you want to stop. It's actually where you want to start. So if this is a new movement pattern for you, you might start with five pounds or maybe 10 pounds and gradually over time. Progressively. I want you to inch yourself up to 30 pounds on your goblet squat comfortably doable for approximately at least a set of 12 to 15 repetitions and that is the bare minimum Effective dosage that you're really going to be able to get all the benefits from strength training on this particular movement pattern goblet squat.

Number two dumbbell side raise. It is a mechanically disadvantaged movement pattern. So because you have this lever length to your arm, and you add a weight load to the end of that lever length, when you're going through a dumbbell side raise, it's a great exercise to safely conservatively strengthen the deltoids as the primary muscle mover, as well as some of the other accessory muscles around your shoulder. But your medial deltoid is the biggest of the shoulder muscles, and particularly of the deltoids, there's three deltoids, but specifically, of the muscles that direct the movement around the shoulder, your medial deltoid is the biggest, the most powerful, and it's the one that needs the most love. Now, this is also the muscle that creates a beautiful shoulder. This is the muscle that makes you look more athletic. And this is the muscle that inserts mid arm intends to create some of that really nice definition through your arm and your biceps. This is the muscle that I often refer to when women say to me, I want my arms to cut, I want to have good looking biceps and triceps, I actually have them work on their deltoids because by developing your deltoids, the rest of your arms look amazing. And the minimum effective dosage here is eight pounds, an eight pound dumbbell with excellent technique.

So what you're going to find is that when you make the transition from five pounds to eight pounds on a dumbbell side raise, that's a big shift. Almost all of the women in my community, if they were with me here in the gym, and I guided them, they could do a five pound dumbbell sideways for a solid set of 15 repetitions. But when we go from five to eight, that is where I start to see technique loss for a lot of women. So the side bar the side note to this exercise on dumbbell sideways is I want you to be able to do one full set of 15 repetitions with eight pounds comfortably with excellent technique, you could muscle through 10 pounds of this exercise. And I see this all the time in my community. Because there aren't a lot of women that are doing a 15 pound dumbbell side raise with beautiful technique. And as you know, I am all about technique, first technique trumps everything, it's rule number one in my book lift to get lean. And so for Exercise number two and the minimum effective dosage of eight pounds, I want you to really be learning your dumbbell side raise with gorgeous technique.

Now today, we're not really talking about what gorgeous technique means. We can talk about that in other conversations, but this will at least get you started. Again, the numbers that I'm sharing with you today are what I refer to as a minimum effective dose, meaning you gotta hit this at a bare minimum. In order to avoid injury. age gracefully, transform your body into the aesthetic that you're looking for, to perform better to optimize hormones to reduce aches and pains boost energy. Okay, number three, this one will come to no surprise because this is probably in my top four exercises. So if I had to whittle the nine down to like four, I think this would be in the top four and that is drumroll cable lat pulldown

cable lat pulldown will always have my heart it is the most important back exercise that you can do. It's number one for your Mac. The reason why is that this downward action it is a downward pole at a slight angle of your torso strengthens the major muscle mover is your latissimus dorsi your lats which is the largest muscle of your upper back. But the reason why I love this one so much is because your latissimus dorsi your lats originate they begin down at your waist, they come up and they insert on the top of your arm. So when you do a lat pulldown, I tend to like a reverse grip but either a wide grip or reverse grip lat pulldown when you do it properly and you really get your technique down. It improves the function, the stability and the safety of your entire shoulder girdle as it relates to core function. If you're someone like me who does not work out in a commercial gym, you might not have a lat cable lat pulldown machine.

So there is an alternate, which is a proper chin up. So master your chin up first, and most women are not going to be able to just hop up on a chin up bar with their full body weight and do a full set of the minimum effective dose of chin ups, which I'll tell you in a moment with excellent technique. So if you are not able to do a lat pulldown, and you are learning to do a bodyweight chin up, you will get there progressively by using an assisted band, the minimum effective dose cable lat pulldown reverse grip or overhand wide grip 70 pounds. Now every cable lat pulldown machine is going to be a little different. So your machine might be a little heavier, your machine might be a little lighter, that could range from 55 to 85, depending on your gym equipment. But in all the gyms that I've been in on all the cable lat pulldown machines I've ever used 70 pounds is about the sweet spot where it's like, yep, that's the weight load. That is the minimum effective dose where if you can master it, you're going to see the benefits all over your life. pulling exercises are so important, because it's how you pull your body up against gravity. And it's an important movement pattern to really optimize your posture.

So cable lat pulldown minimum effective dose 70 pounds with great technique comfortably for one set of 15 reps. And if you can do more than that great, but that's kind of the minimum effective dose. And if you're working with the alternate chin ups, the minimum effective dose is to get to your full body weight alone for 10 chin ups. And that's a stretch. Number four again, in no particular order is another beloved, traditional barbell deadlift. Not to be confused with a Romanian deadlift or what's called a stiff leg or a straight leg deadlift. This is a traditional deadlift where the bar is below you, and you've got knee and hip flexion. So both your knees and your hips are lowering you to the ground before you stand back up. Ideally, it would be with a barbell, I did not give a dumbbell variation of this because I ultimately I want you to be doing a barbell deadlift.

If you work out at home exclusively, I understand that you might not be able to do a barbell, but I am kind of moving into the belief that no matter where you're working out, even if you are working out at home, irrespective of your age, I want every woman working with a barbell. And again, if you're in my community, and certainly if you're inside of one of my programs, like the Masters, or the next level, or potentially the glutes project, you know that this year have been really providing a lot of information on how to make a barbell deadlift more accessible even if you're working out at home. So in a perfect ideal world, this is a barbell deadlift, and the minimum effective dose is 85 pounds for one set of 15 with great technique where you can do that set comfortably. If you can do 15 repetitions of a barbell deadlift at 85 pounds and you can do it comfortably, you're in a good place. And if we could all do that, the world would be a much happier place. And I can promise you will be a much happier person, because this is an essential movement pattern.

Number five, another one of my tried and true single leg deadlift, and that is different than the barbell deadlift. Number four, and it's actually more like a single leg Romanian deadlift, technically, but we call it a single leg deadlift. Okay, single leg s LD L is what I refer to it as single leg deadlift. It does require you to learn the movement pattern, you want to make sure that you're employing excellent technique on this exercise. For sure, absolutely. Without a doubt, minimum effective dose If you're following the way that I teach single leg deadlift, I offset the weight load. So what that means is you hold one dumbbell, when you are working on the opposite leg, if you're standing on your left leg, you hold the dumbbell in your right hand, it's an offset. Basically, you can do it with two dumbbells, you can do it with a barbell. But what I'm teaching here is a single dumbbell, because that's the best way to gradually progressively improve and get up to the minimum effective dose, which is a 15 pound dumbbell for 15 repetitions on each leg. That is where you're really going to start to see the power, and the value and the influence of strength training in your life, you'll start to notice that you feel better going up and down stairs, you'll start to notice that when you pick up something heavy, it's a whole lot easier, you'll start to notice that activities of daily living just become so much easier when you hit these minimum effective dose weight levels for these nine important exercises,

number six, is a straight arm plank. Now I don't talk about planks a whole lot. In most of my programs, there's almost always a plank in there. That is because I actually am not convinced that traditional ab exercises are all that important or effective. Now, I'm not going to say don't do them. But when you're mastering the other eight exercises that I'm talking about today, and you get up to this minimum weight load on each of these exercises, you're going to start to see that your core gets strengthened. And that typical isolated ab exercises like crunches and bicycles aren't as important. I'm not saying negate them. I'm just saying, I'm not convinced they're all that important when you're hitting these weight loads on your goblet squat, or your deadlift or your single leg deadlift or your lat pulldown, a heavy lat pulldown is incredible for your core. And so it ends up kind of reducing the importance in the value of typical crunchy crunchy type ab exercises. That being said, I do think plank type exercises are valuable. Of course technique is absolutely critical. And I am talking about legs extended the top of the military push up feet together two minutes nonstop is the minimum effective dose on a plank. Again, if you are here with me today, and some of these exercises are newer for you, and you hear me say this, please don't run over to your living room and see if you can do a two minute plank if you haven't been practicing your plank. And this applies to all of these exercises like don't get excited about this conversation and go, let me see if I can do 10 bodyweight chin ups if you haven't been practicing these things, okay? I want you to be able to do these things every single week, on an ongoing basis comfortably as part of your training program. This isn't just like, oh, I can do a two minute plank check. I never have to do it. Again. It's that these should be in your weekly training program every single week.

These are the nine most essential strength training exercises that you need to be doing every single week for the rest of your life. If you can, every single week, you really should be able to do at least a two minute plank or more, right? And that is going to be that minimum effective dose where you're gonna get all of the benefits of that exercise. Number seven. This one is also in my top three walking lunges. I love walking lunges, I think that they are absolutely one of the most important exercises. Every single woman should be doing them. And I realize you might be sitting there saying, but my doctor told me not to do them because they're bad for my knees. I understand that. That is a comment that's floating out there in the world. And I hear you. You are the boss of you. You have dominion over your body and you can take this up with your doctor if you want. From my perspective, a healthy human body is able to do walking lunges. And if you can't do walking lunges because they bother your knees. That's because you haven't been doing walking lunges. If you can't squat because it hurts your knees. That's because you haven't been squat Eating. That's because you haven't hit these minimum effective doses that I'm talking about here today. And I know that might be a little scary to some people, but there's a lot of research to back it up. And I'm not the only one in my industry that will say it, go check out your favorite physical therapist or athletic trainer out there, they will say the same thing. And here is why a walking lunge or a goblet squat, actually a walking lunge even more so is the exaggerated movement pattern of climbing a flight of stairs, or going down a flight of stairs. So if you're going to tell me that you're never going to climb a flight of stairs, again in your life, okay, maybe you don't have to do walking lunges.

But if you're never ever going to climb even one stair and the rest of your life, you've got to be doing walking lunges. It is an incredible movement pattern. And yes, just like the other nine exercises that I'm talking about today, you've got to do it with good technique. You can do it in a repeatable Fashion Week after week after week. And it's where your fitness level is. It's where your current ability lives, week after week after week, after week, after week after week. This is not achieve these numbers at the cost of your technique. It's get your technique first. And then when you can achieve these dosages right, you're going to be bulletproof, you're not going to have knee pain, you're not going to have shoulder pain, walking lunges, body weight, nonstop for five minutes. One set number eight. This is another one that's up there with walking lunges. This is another one that's up there with goblet squat. And this is another one that's up there on my top five, maybe not the top three, but definitely in the top five. barbell overhead press. Yes, she just said it. And there's a lot of controversy over this movement pattern. Because there are some people in the industries that feel that overhead pressing is tricky on your shoulders, I'm not going to argue that I do agree that overhead pressing is a complicated movement pattern. It absolutely is. And if you have a history of shoulder issues, you have to workshop, this exercise at a lower weight load with beautiful, perfect technique. And here's why.

Again, you might be sitting there thinking, you know, I dislocated my shoulder in high school basketball, my doctor has told me that I'm not allowed to do overhead pressing exercises. We've all heard that right? A lot of us have heard that. But let me ask you this in your life at some point in your whole life ahead of you, where you have to pick up something kind of heavy, and put it up on a shelf? Or do you have a child or a pet or a grandchild that you want to pick up and put them up or play with them or lift them up or throw them up in the air? Right? Is there ever going to come a time in your life, where you need to pick up something that weighs more than two or three pounds, and you need to put it up on a shelf, you're going to have to make this movement pattern. And that is why we strengthen the movement pattern. Now I personally this is personal opinion and experience. I do love a barbell overhead press for a number of reasons. I do have colleagues in the industry who say it doesn't have to be a barbell, it could be dumbbells. And I'll give you that if your doctor is like Sally, do not do a barbell overhead press. That's cool. But you're never going to win me over saying that you shouldn't at least do a dumbbell overhead press.

Because again, it's like I said with walking lunges. A healthy human body is designed to put their arms up over their head, right? You're designed to be able to do this. And if you have limited shoulder function, and you get pain when you do this, that's because we haven't fixed you yet. That's because your shoulders aren't fully functional yet. And that's because you haven't been perfecting your technique on an overhead press. So maybe you start with three pound dumbbells, right and then maybe you work yourself up to five pound dumbbells. And then maybe when you get to 10 pound dumbbells, you transition to a 15 pound barbell, and then you get better and you refer you over time, strengthen and improve your technique. overhead pressing with a barbell minimum effective dose is going to shock you here.

From my perspective 35 pounds, I feel every single woman should take as long as she needs in life to be able to achieve one set 15 reps 35 pounds of a barbell. So if your barbell weighs 15 pounds, you would add a 10 and a 10. Now, your barbell weighs 35 pounds in total. Now some of you might already be able to do that, some of you might not even be able to put your arm up over your head comfortably. And so it's going to be a journey, it's going to be maybe even a two year adventure to get you up to 35 pound barbell press, but I know your life is going to be better, I know you're going to feel better. And exercise number nine, I actually debated on this one, I actually had a different exercise in number nine. And then at the last minute, I was like, Nah, I gotta change this, because this one is also in the top five for sure. Because this is so absolutely essential, just like a walking lunge, step ups, whether that's on to an exercise bench, or a chair, or even your stairwell.

Now, step ups, like lat pulldown are a very important exercise movement pattern is absolutely essential. A step up is what we call a level change exercise. So what that means is you're taking yourself from a level and you're pushing yourself up to another level, you're stepping up on to something. And you can only reinforce or strengthen that movement pattern, specifically by doing a step up. Okay, I do it on an exercise bench. You could do it onto any surface. But it's important that you are moving your body weight from one level to a new level. Why is that important? Unless you're going to tell me that you're never going to climb a flight of stairs ever again in your life, you need to be doing step ups. And so as we age, if you don't want the activities of daily living to be taken away from you, we all know someone who's older, that really struggles going up and down stairs. And we all know that that is a huge risk of injury as we're getting older. In fact, you know, people as they are aging, and as they are deciding on their sort of final living arrangements for life, a lot of people choose single level homes for this very reason to eliminate stairs having to go up and down stairs. And that's totally fine. And okay. Wouldn't life be a whole lot better?

If you could fly up and down a flight of stairs, a piece of cake. I mean, that sounds good to me, I want to be able to go up and down stairs easily, safely, comfortably. And a bench step up or a step up of any type of Step Up is going to help you do that. So if you're not doing this movement pattern, why would you be able to climb a flight of stairs with good technique or strongly or safely if you're not practicing it? Now, walking lunges, and a goblet squat will help you. But there's something called specificity and movement pattern. There is a very specific movement pattern of climbing a flight of stairs, it's called a level change. And so eight version of events step up is one of the best ways that you can do this minimum effective dose is bodyweight plus 30 pounds, one set of 15 repetitions on each leg. So you could do body weight plus 15 pound dumbbells for a total of 30. You could do body weight plus a 30 pound barbell 15 repetitions on each leg. So one set again with great technique.

And now again, you might be sitting there saying that it really bothers my knees, stepping up really or even going down stairs really bothers my knees. And I hear you that is a reason to be careful. That is a reason to practice. That is a reason to gradually work yourself up to this minimum effective dose. I'm not telling you to go do it right now. I promise if you commit to and you take the time to learn these nine exercises with beautiful technique, and then over time you increase the resistance the effort level of each of these nine exercises. I promise you that at some point in the future that knee pain will go away, that hip pain will go away. The shoulder issues will go away. It might take a very long time. And if you've had traumatic injury in your past like a car accident or have severe trauma to a joint, you might not be able to get rid of aches and pains 100%. But I promise that if you commit to these with excellent technique over time, a lot of those things are going to at least get down to the bare minimum.

If you think about it, if you have ever had an injury to a muscle or a joint, generally what does your doctor do? He or she sends you to the physical therapist, for what, for rehabilitation, how strength training, the truth is strength training, fixes everything, and a lot of those aches and pains are going to get down to the bare minimum. I hope you enjoyed this episode and feel excited to tackle the moves so that you can achieve that minimum effective dose of strength for each. Remember, technique is everything. So be sure to increase your weight loads, gradually ensuring that you've got great form except for the last two to three reps of every set. And if you're sitting there thinking, yeah, Holly, this all sounds great. But my doctor said, I've got arthritis in my knees or my hips, and there is just nothing I can do. I'll leave you with this. Just try just humor me. Just try these moves by starting gently with your body weight only on some of them. Then increase gradually and slowly as you can. I promise if you perfect your technique. Over time, you will see a market improvement and how your body moves. And that is how you create the body that you need to keep up with this awesome life that you love. And don't forget, if you want access to my four week strength without stress program for free, be sure to rate and review this episode right now. Grab a screenshot and then send it to me over at Holly perkins.com forward slash review and you will get immediate lifetime access for free. And stay tuned for another brand new episode on Tuesday of next week. Stay strong my friend