Alex Beck

Doing the same f$& boring exercises over and over and over again 💪🏼😅

Getting better at them.
Adding a little more weight.
Doing another rep.
Improving your technique.
Controlling the movement better.

Then doing it all again next week.

Your training doesn’t need to constantly surprise you to be effective. Some variation can absolutely have a place in a good programme - but constantly changing exercises for the sake of novelty isn’t what drives progress.

Consistency + progressive overload might not be very exciting. But they work 😉 🙌🏼

“I used to be able to hike for hours”

“I used to be able to get up from the floor easily”

“I used to be able to run 5km pain free”

“I used to be able to climb stairs without my knees complaining”

“I used to have much better balance”

I hear some version of “I used to be able to…” all the time.

Sure, our bodies change as we get older. Pretending otherwise would be silly 🤪

We gradually lose muscle mass, strength and power with age, particularly if we’re inactive. Balance and aerobic fitness can decline too. Injuries, pain and years of avoiding certain movements can add to that.

But a lot of this is modifiable.

🏋🏼‍♀️ Resistance training helps maintain muscle and strength.
⚡ Power training helps preserve our ability to produce force quickly.
❤️ Cardio helps maintain the fitness to walk, hike, travel and keep going.
🥚 Adequate protein supports muscle maintenance and growth alongside training.

Exercise can’t prevent every injury, disease or age-related change. But there are a lot of things I’d rather keep practising now than discover I’ve stopped being able to do later 😅

“I used to be able to…” Hopefully becomes:

“I still can”💪🏼

Midlife comes with some (weird-ass) changes, but doesn’t require a whole new set of fitness rules 😅

1️⃣ Eating less isn’t always the answer.
Yes, you need an energy deficit to lose body fat. But constantly pushing calories lower can affect training, recovery, hunger and your ability to preserve muscle.

2️⃣ Please don’t stop doing cardio.
Your heart would quite like you to keep doing it, please and thank you 😅 Cardio supports cardiovascular health, fitness and metabolic health. Strength training is hugely important as we age. We want both.

3️⃣ Protein matters - but 150g isn’t a magic number.
Needs depend on body size, activity and goals. Around 1.6g/kg/day is a useful evidence-based target for many people who train.

4️⃣ You don’t need to be scared of carbs.
Carbs don’t suddenly become problematic at 40. They’re useful fuel for training, especially higher-intensity work.

5️⃣ Your strength training needs to actually challenge you.
Muscle needs a reason to stick around. Train with enough effort and progressively challenge yourself over time.

6️⃣ Sleep deserves more attention than another supplement.
Poor sleep can affect appetite, food choices, recovery and training performance. And midlife can make good sleep complicated enough already.

7️⃣ Can we stop blaming cortisol for everything? 😅
Stress matters and can affect sleep, appetite and behaviour. But cortisol isn’t a rogue hormone depositing belly fat because you had a stressful Tuesday.

Women and men experience different hormonal and physiological changes through midlife. Those matter and should absolutely be considered.

The fundamentals still matter too ❤️

Strength. Cardio. Protein. Enough food. Sleep. Consistency. And some patience.

Less exciting than a midlife hormone hack. Quite a lot more useful 😉

Just like having a baby doesn’t make me an expert in pregnancy, personal experience alone isn’t the same as professional expertise 🤍

Personal experience is incredibly valuable, don’t get me wrong 😉. It helps us empathise, relate and understand what someone may be going through.

But if you’re trusting someone with your health, it’s worth asking what their recommendations are based on 📚

Are they keeping up with the evidence? Do they understand the physiology? Can they adapt their advice to you, rather than what worked for them?

We should all be choosing our health professionals for more than their personal story 🌿

Your body deserves that 💛

Turns out the prompt needed a few more questions 😅

Can I ruin the “I’ll start when things calm down” plan for you?

I’ve been coaching for nearly 10 years, and I’m still waiting for someone to tell me, “Alex, life has finally settled down” 😅

Instead, it’s Easter… then summer holidays… then back to work… then Christmas… then a new project… then the kids need something… then someone gets sick… then another holiday is around the corner.

None of those reasons are made up. They’re VERY real.

The problem is that life has an incredible habit of replacing one busy season with the next.

That’s one of the reasons I love structured group training. You don’t have to decide every week if you’re going to exercise. Monday is Monday. Thursday is Thursday. You show up, I tell you what to do, and before you know it, training has become part of your week instead of another decision you have to make.

At some point, you have to accept that this isn’t a busy season. It’s your life 😉

Cupboards full of supplements. An unused cheap gym membership. Mindless snacking. Café lattes that somehow didn’t “count” 😅

Sound familiar?

That used to be me.

For years I thought I needed a better workout, a better plan or the next thing that was going to finally make everything click.

Looking back, none of those things were the real problem. I was inconsistent.

Fitness is hard because you don’t get instant results. You don’t lift weights for a week and suddenly become strong. You don’t eat well for a few days and completely change your body. The results come from doing the simple things over and over again, long after the excitement has worn off.

That’s why I don’t sell quick fixes. I help people build habits they can actually stick to.

I’m living proof that it works. Not because I’m more motivated than anyone else, but because I finally stopped looking for the shortcut and started showing up consistently.

We’re not training for next weekend. We’re training for next year 🙌🏼