EP: 52: The Best Cardio for Women Over 40 to Get Toned

0:00Hello and welcome back to Becoming Her, Fitter, Better, and Stronger over 40. I'm your host and coach, Shauna. I am 46, a wife, a boy mom, and a fitness and nutrition coach, helping women like you become their best. And if you're listening in real time, we are just about to embark on a busy holiday season. And this episode is going to build beautifully on everything we've been talking about for the last few weeks. If you've been around for those episodes, you know we have been talking about using the holidays to set yourself up for future fat loss. Today, we're going to dive even deeper into that theme by breaking down something that I know a lot of us over 40 are confused about, and that is the best cardio, to get lean, to get sculpted, to stay strong, especially at this stage of life.

0:44You might feel relief, clarity, even freedom as you listen to today's episode, especially if you grew up in the 90s doing all the classes, the HIIT, the boot camps, the spin classes, the workout videos, and anything that taught you that sweating and suffering was the only way to see results. Today, we are going to rewrite that story in a way that honors your hormones, your metabolism, your nervous system, and the life that you're living through right now. So grab your favorite drink and let's get into it. Before we decide what type of cardio is best, we need to understand what's happening with our bodies after 40.

1:24There are four shifts that are completely changing how we respond to exercise now. First up is that we start to lose muscle more easily unless we are actively trying to preserve it. Muscle is your metabolism. It's your shape. It's your tone. When muscle goes down, everything gets harder. Second thing is that estrogen begins to fluctuate and starts to eventually decline. Estrogen is actually your protective hormone for muscle and metabolism support. So when it shifts, recovery, strength, and stress tolerance can all change. Then we have cortisol sensitivity that's increased. So we simply react differently to stress.

2:04High intensity, anything will spike our cortisol. And then you layer that on top of life stress, and your body holds on to more inflammation and makes fat loss much harder. And then fourth, we have hunger hormones that become louder and more reactive. When you do intense forms of cardio, your body burns through your glycogen stores or carbs quicker, and hunger rebounds stronger than it used to. The key is working with your body at this age and stage instead of working against it. So let's dive into the different types of cardio so we can start to understand how they work and how we can utilize them.

2:42First up, we have low intensity movement. This is something like walking and daily steps. Then we have zone two cardio, which is steady, but a little bit more moderate effort where you can still hold a conversation, but your heart rate's coming up and you get a little bit sweaty. Then we have our moderate to high intensity work, which is things like HIIT training, bootcamps, Tabatas, sprints, anything that kind of leaves you breathless. And then we have long endurance training. So things like long runs or long rides. Each of these has a different effect on your physiology. And we're going to break down all of that into detail.

3:18But first, we need to talk about something that most of us just were never taught. So our bodies uses two main fuel sources. So we have carbohydrates, and then we have fat. And which fuel you use depends on the intensity of your workout. Lower intensities, things like walking in zone two, burn fat for fuel. You have plenty of oxygen available so your body can tap into your fat stores efficiently. As intensity comes up, oxygen becomes limited and your body switches to burning carbs because carbs can be broken down quickly, even when oxygen is low. This is why intense cardio burns calories, but it doesn't burn fat.

4:00It burns glycogen. And if you're under fueled, your body may even start pulling energy from amino acids. Those amino acids come from your muscle. And that is not what we want over 40. So things like walking and zone two will protect your muscle. They keep hunger stable. They support your hormones and they help you burn fat without stressing the system. One quick thing that I want to clarify is that just because we are burning fat with an activity doesn't mean we're inherently losing fat. We have to be in a calorie deficit in order for us to lose body fat. However, when we're using a cardio activity that's using fat for fuel, it's going to do all the things that we just mentioned, like keeping your hunger stable, supporting your hormones, keeping you stress lower, and protecting your muscle.

4:48And again, that's the goal here at this Asian stage. This becomes even more important when we talk about something called AMPK and mTOR. Without overcomplicating it, I want to explain to you these two different pathways that your body uses. Your body uses two main pathways to decide what to do with energy. And your body constantly shifts between them based on what you're doing. So first up, we have AMPK, which is your energy management mode. It rises when energy is low or the demand is high. Things like longer cardio, high intensity training, low calories, fasting, stress, inflammation, all can increase AMPK.

5:31It's amazing for metabolic health and endurance, but when it's elevated all of the time, your body says this is not the time to build muscle. The second pathway that we have is called mTOR, which is your build, repair, and strengthen mode. So mTOR gets activated through strength training, protein, having enough calories, having proper recovery, and it is essential for muscle tone, shape, metabolism, bone health, and aging well. So these two pathways are not enemies. They are just like a seesaw. They balance each other. You need both. The key is making sure that one is not overwhelming the other, especially since women over 40 naturally have more stress, lower estrogen, and higher cortisol.

6:15This is why walking and zone 2 work beautifully at this age. They gently activate AMPK in a way that supports your metabolism while still allowing mTOR to stay active so muscle can grow and repair. When you put this all together, the picture becomes clear. Walking and zone 2 are the most supportive forms of cardio for fat loss and tone over 40 because they protect your muscle, they support your hormones, they manage stress, they keep hunger stable, they improve fat oxidation, and they help your metabolism function better. High intensity cardio can be fun and it's empowering, but if it becomes your main cardio source, it can drain recovery, spike your hunger, increase inflammation, elevate cortisol, and interfere with building muscle.

7:02Your body now responds best to lifting, walking, sprinkling in some zone two cardio, having enough rest and recovery, and proper nutrition. That is how you get toned and stay toned and lean over 40. Now we understand the mechanisms behind different cardio and how they impact our bodies. But the other thing to understand about cardio is that your body does adapt to all of the different activities that you do. This is why periodizing it or phasing it to support your goals is important. This is where a lot of women get stuck because they think, well, if a little bit of cardio is good, then a lot is better.

7:44And then we just try to continue to push with cardio, not realizing that it actually works against us. Because your body adapts to cardio. This is called cardiovascular adaptation. And it's one of the biggest reasons that cardio should be phased. When you repeat the same cardio routine every day for weeks or months, your body becomes more efficient. So it improves oxygen delivery. It improves mitochondrial function. It reduces the calories needed to perform the task. That's what your body does. Your body is really good at adapting to the environment that it's in. So what that means is that over time, the amount of calories that you burn doing that specific activity actually decreases, which means your results might stall and you might have to do more and more of that cardio just to continue to see results.

8:33This is not the long-term smart strategy that we want to use over 40. Your metabolism should not depend on hours of cardio to maintain your body. This is exactly why we should periodize or phase cardio the same way we phase strength training and we phase nutrition. Something that I always mention to clients is that we want to do the most with the least. We want your body to be responsive to cardio, to calorie deficits. But if we stay in a deficit, if we stay doing tons of cardio, the body adapts to that. And then we have no levers to pull when we want to lose body fat. That's why having a periodized plan where we are cycling through phases is so important because it keeps your body responsive to these levers.

9:16Let's talk about what that looks like. In maintenance or let's say you're in a phase where you're lean building, your body needs energy for muscle repair and growth. So cardio should be light. You know, you can have a daily step goal, some light walking, maybe a couple of zone two sessions, but this is going to help to ensure that mTOR stays active. Remember, that's your pathway to build muscle. In fat loss, however, we can add in more cardio at that point and your body will be responsive because we haven't been doing it the whole time. Plus it allows you to be in a more sustainable calorie deficit.

9:51So we bring you into a calorie deficit, but then we add a little bit more activity to increase that deficit without having to take away more food. You can do this by adding in more steps. You can add in a few extra zone two sessions, but this deepens your deficit without crushing your recovery or spiking your hunger and allows you to protect that muscle. Then after a fat loss phase, we just do the same. We kind of pull back on cardio. You still have steps, but maybe they're just a little bit less. Maybe you have one or two zone two cardio sessions in your plan or none at all. This helps keep your metabolism responsive so that your future fat loss phases continue to work.

10:32Cardio is a should be a tool that you take out of your toolbox when you need. Strength training should be the foundation that you lean on for staying healthy and strong and lean over 40. Cardio is great to do for cardiovascular health. I'm not saying not do it, but we also want to be smart and strategic about the types of cardio that we're doing and how often we're doing it. So let's talk about putting all of this together. I want you to think about cardio in a different way. I want you to choose movement that supports the goals that you have during this season and also supports your stress and not necessarily increases it.

11:07Choose movement that's going to help you lift stronger. Choose movement that's going to help make your body responsive, not overwhelmed. You do not need to be breathless to burn fat. You do not need to earn your food. You do not need to punish yourself after meals. Your body thrives at this stage with more muscle, with strength training, with walking, with enough rest and recovery. This is how you get toned and stay toned. This is how you get lean and mean over 40. This is how you support your hormones and your metabolism at this age. I hope that brought some clarity as to how you can infuse your plan with cardio, but not necessarily feel like you have to lean on it all of the time.

11:49And again, like I mentioned, we want to use it as a tool and you want to do the most with the least so that you have runway to use later on when you need it. You want your body to be responsive to cardio and we want to also support the bodies that we have and the changes that they're experiencing. Me personally, if I were to walk you through what I do, when I'm in a maintenance phase, I bring my step goal to about 7 ,000 to 8 ,000 steps. I walk first thing in the morning and then I'll get steps throughout the rest of the day. But my main goal during a maintenance phase is to put on more muscle and to just give my body a little bit of a break.

12:26I'm eating enough, I'm getting enough rest, and I'm just using activity to support my overall health and wellbeing. When I'm in a fat loss phase, that's when I will push cardio up just a little bit. So my step goal then increases from 8 ,000 steps to 10 ,000 steps. Then I may even have incline walking. So that just gets me into that zone two cardio state. That just increases my deficit without having to take away more food, but it still doesn't spike my hunger. And it also doesn't make me tired for the rest of the day. I used to be that person that would be on the treadmill doing sprints or doing some sort of hit.

13:05And my hunger would always spike, and then I would feel exhausted for the rest of the day. And they've done studies with this. And when you expend a ton of energy with sprints, with a run, with a HIIT class, your natural tendency for the rest of the day is to conserve more energy. So maybe in the moment you're burning more calories than you would if you were walking. But overall, you kind of balance out because the rest of the day you conserve a lot more energy. And this isn't even a conscious thing. Oftentimes our body does this in an unconscious way. That's why I have found that the most supportive way for me to protect my muscle, to protect my stress, to protect my appetite, which is really important when you're in a deficit, because that can be the major reason why people fail and a deficit is hunger.

13:50I have found that walking and incline walking are just the perfect pair with strength building. I hope that just invites you to look at cardio in a different way and use it to work with you and not against you to get to your goals. So before we wrap up, if you are listening to this in real time, you know that we are about to enter Thanksgiving. It's coming up this Thursday. So I wanted to give you a few tips to enjoy the holiday fully while also still feeling good in your body afterward. word. The first thing I want to say is you are absolutely allowed to have a day where you simply relax. You don't track anything.

14:30You just enjoy everything without overthinking it. I want you to remember this and put this in your brain. One day will never undo months of progress. Just like one day in the gym or one healthy meal won't make you fit. One day not in your plan is not going to unravel all of the hard work you've done. But if you are that person who wants a little structure, not from fear, but just because it helps you feel a little bit better. I'm going to share a few tips and some things that I personally do when I'm going into a holiday or an event where I know that there's going to be some quote unquote treat meals.

15:07What I like to do is have a high protein meal before the event. So before the meal, going into a dinner starving can make everything a little bit more intense and make it very easy to maybe overdo it and end the day and maybe not feeling your best. So eating some protein beforehand helps to keep your hunger steady, keeps your blood sugar steady so that you can enjoy what you want and stay in control without feeling like you're out of control. I also do something that I call the one plate rule. So I will fill my plate with everything that I want and enjoy every single bite. But then that's it. I do one plate.

15:44Then I'll do the same for dessert. I pick out what I want, I fill my plate, and then that's it. It's not restrictive. It just gives me some boundaries that I feel good about. Then after dinner, if I can, I'll go for a walk, not to burn calories, not to undo anything that I did, but because walking helps shuttle glucose into muscles. So all the carbs that you just ate in that meal, if you start to walk, it's just going to shuttle them right into your muscles, which is what we want. It's also going to help support digestion. It's going to reduce any bloating that might be going on and it just is going to make you feel good.

16:19Then the next day, and this is really important, I absolutely do nothing corrective. So there's no corrective workouts. There's no fasting. There's no punishment. There's no doubling down on cardio. Instead, what I do is I know that I have some extra fuel in my tank. So I go to the gym and I see how strong that I can lift. That's what I like to do. I like to turn this into an empowering situation, not anything to do with feeling guilt or shame, using that moment to say, okay, I have some extra fuel. Now let's put it to good use. Let me see how strong I feel today. And it's a really good way for you to reframe having food because food should not be punishment.

17:01It shouldn't be something that you have to earn. It is fuel at the end of the day. So if you've had some extra, then go see how strong you are. And you'll probably be surprised and it'll probably help you understand why being in a maintenance phase is so important to have that extra fuel to support building more muscle and to give you that energy that you need for lifting heavier and recovering better. This approach lets me enjoy everything while still honoring how I want to feel physically and mentally. So you choose the version that supports you. Like I said, you can go all in if you want to and recognize that one day is not going to unravel, undo everything.

17:40Or if you want some gentle guidelines, you can do that too. Whatever feels best. But just remember, one day is not going to undo everything. So before we close, I have something really exciting for you. It is Thanksgiving, so of course we have Black Friday. And I have some amazing Black Friday deals that I want to offer you because I'm just so thankful. So first up, I'm offering 40 % off of my two workout programs that are hosted inside of Solon. So this is an app where you can go and get your workout program from me and keep it for life. It's a one-time purchase with lifelong access. You'll have a home or gym option, and they all have all of the exercises set for you.

18:19How many sets, how many reps, et cetera. The demo videos are of me, and I'm giving voiceover on how to perform each exercise so that you get the most out of these programs. and they both have PDFs and guides that will help you along your journey. Like I said, it's a one-time purchase with lifelong access and they're both 40 % off. I wanted to share quickly a review from one of the women who did purchase one of my programs just so you can get some insight as to what her experience was like. She writes, I am so happy that I came across Shauna on Instagram. She is exactly what I've been looking for.

18:53I just turned 42. I couldn't believe how much my body has changed in the last year. Everything that I used to do was no longer working. I was lost and struggling. I started to listen to her podcast and then signed up right away when I heard she was starting a challenge. I couldn't believe the difference in my body in just eight short weeks. I only lost a few pounds during the deficit, but the difference in my muscle tone was crazy. After the challenge, I immediately started the membership. I'm staying consistent. I plan on doing another deficit after the holidays while I continue to stay in a reverse maintenance diet to build muscle.

19:28I know this takes time. I'm patient, but I also can't wait to see how I look from a year from now. Finally, a program that actually works. I will continue to recommend Shauna. She's amazing and I'm so thankful for her. And I'm so thankful for her as well. And I'm so thankful for this community. And like I said, my goal is to empower every single woman to feel her best and feel her strongest. If that is you, come and grab one of these programs at 40 % off so that you can get a head start on building your best body over 40 for the new year. I also have a brand new mini course. It's called Soft to Sculpt It, and it includes three powerful trainings.

20:08Number one is on how to optimize your metabolism. Then we have how to build to burn in the gym. And finally, how to phase your way to success with nutrition. This is hosted on my website, So you will have access to this course forever. And after each powerful training, you also have access to several resources. And if at any time I add to this mini course, you always have the updates with no charge. Again, it's lifelong access. And because it's Black Friday and because it's an introductory offer, I'm offering it for 75 % off. So it's originally$27.99 and you can grab it for$7. dollars. My suggestion would be to grab the course and then also grab the workout program and you are going to have everything you need to start taking action towards being your best.

20:56It's the most affordable and empowering time of the year to get the tools that are going to carry you into the new year strong and confident. And before we go, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for listening every week. Thank you for inviting me into your routines. Thank you for being a part of this incredible community of women who are choosing to get stronger instead of smaller. My heart is so full knowing with the new year around the corner, there are more and more women beginning to understand how to build their strongest, fittest, healthiest bodies over 40. They are beginning to have hope again and feel happy again.

21:28And it's truly an honor to walk this journey with you. And remember, if you ever have ideas or topics that you want me to explore, please message me. I would love to hear from you. And if you haven't already, please subscribe. And if you found this show helpful, please leave a rating or a review. I would be so thankful. And I just want to say happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a blessed and beautiful holiday and enjoy each other. Enjoy your loved ones. Make memories. And until next week, keep getting stronger.