Posted May 02, 2024 | Share this:




Are you in your forties and finding that your body isn’t quite as forgiving as it used to be? You’re not alone. Our latest podcast episode of ‘The Satisfied Soul’ is a must-listen for anyone seeking to navigate the intersection of faith, mental well-being, and physical health as they age.

This week, we’re joined by Cara Foot, a personal trainer and the voice behind the ‘Grace to Conquer’ podcast. Together, we dive into the unique challenges of maintaining fitness over 40. Kara brings her expertise to the table, discussing how our bodies change with age and what we can do to adapt and thrive.

One of the key takeaways from the episode is the importance of hydration. As we age, our bodies lose lubrication, making us more prone to dehydration. Cara advises drinking 80 to 100oz of water a day, depending on your climate and activity level. But it’s not just about drinking water; it’s also about understanding how other beverages, like soda, can affect your hydration needs.

Supplements are another hot topic in this episode. Cara explains how Omega-3 and magnesium can combat inflammation and improve joint health, while collagen and protein support our muscles, skin, and hair. She shares her personal journey with supplements and offers advice on how to approach them wisely.

We also discuss the necessity of stretching and myofascial release. As we get older, the importance of a good stretch before any physical activity cannot be overstated. Cara and our host share tips on using foam rollers, tennis balls, and even rolling pins to release muscle tension.

But perhaps the most heartfelt part of the conversation is when we talk about embracing the changes in our bodies. Our host, Sara Jane, encourages listeners to own the fact that they might need ‘old lady cream’ for their aches and pains, and that’s perfectly okay.

The episode is filled with laughter, relatable anecdotes, and a wealth of knowledge that will leave you feeling empowered and ready to tackle your fitness goals, no matter your age. So whether you’re just starting your fitness journey or you’re looking to adjust your routine to suit your forties, this episode has something for you.

Listen in as we shake off the boring and find a love for truth and health that satisfies the soul. It’s time to embrace life in your forties and beyond with joy and vitality. Check out ‘The Satisfied Soul’ podcast today, and join us in discovering how to live a healthier, happier life.

If you’re more of a reader than a listener, keep scrolling for the full transcript.

 

 

>> Sarah: Hey, listeners, I’m back again with week two of fitness, and how it helps your health. With my friend and temporary co host for this month, Cara Foote. We are talking about fitness because we’re getting into the summer months, and Cara and I are kind of co leading a group of women in their faith and fitness journey. And so I thought, who better to join it, join me on my podcast than Cara, because she is a personal trainer. She actually has her own podcast. I wish she would record a little bit more frequently because I love listening to her podcast. But just like me, we’re moms and we’re wives and we’re business owners and we have things going on in our life that slow us down, and we don’t get to do the things that we enjoy nearly as often. And we both enjoy doing our podcast. What is the name of your podcast?

>> Cara: My podcast name is Grace. Grace. And then the number two. Conquer. C o n q u e R. Grace to conquer.

>> Sarah: Grace to conquer. And, I actually listen to it on Apple.

>> Cara: Yeah, Apple Podcast.

>> Sarah: Apple Podcast. Yeah, Apple Podcast. And then I think I’ve heard it on Spotify before, but, I, actually enjoy listening to it. And she talks a whole lot about fitness, and so I just thought it would be good for her to come join me because it’s very important for women to, oh, gosh, own their fitness in a unique way.

So this week we’re talking about fitness over 40, because we’re both over the age of 40.

And I don’t know about you, Cara, but first of all, let me just say, when I was in my twenties, I thought, oh, I am all that in a bag of chips. I know what I’m talking about. I have all the knowledge. Nobody can tell me what’s wrong or right. I got the answers. And looking back at, as a 30 year old, looking back in my twenties, I’m like, oh, my gosh, I was so stupid, I didn’t know anything. People started listening to me at 30 because they’re like, you have some experience. You’ve had some life. Go on. So I think I can listen to you now. And so I started enjoying my thirties. But really and truly, and maybe this is just how God designed us. The older we get, the more we enjoy stuff. I don’t know. But when I turn 40, and these last six years that I’ve been 40 in my forties, I have thoroughly enjoyed forties. It is such a great time of my life. Not just because my business is super successful, but just because I have made changes to my life to enjoy it more. And, that’s not to say that it doesn’t come with challenges, because when you hit your forties and those of you who are in your twenties and thirties, I’m so sorry. You’ll figure it out when you get here. But you think that you can do things, but when you’re 40, you’re, like, getting out of bed, like holding your back as you stretch. And you take like ten minutes to roll out of bed because you gotta. You gotta do all these different kinds of stretches in bed just to feel like you could sit up where you drink so much water because you’re so much more dehydrated in your forties than you were when you were younger. what else is the. We, my husband and I talk and joke about how stuff happens. Like, he sneezed one time and he hurt his back. He sneezed and hurt his back. So we joked about how he threw his back out from a sneeze. but things like that happen. Your, your body does not bounce back like it used to. And that’s really because the older you get, the less lubrication your joints have. In fact, you’re starting to rub, bone on bone. In some areas where your ligaments, and joints, the, the tissue that’s in between each bone starts to decrease so significantly. The things just, just, they don’t work the same way. I’m not as flexible as I used to be. yoga has helped, but yoga does not return the lubrication to your body. You just start to get drained of it. It just, it just, by the sheer fact of nature and how our bodies were designed, it just loses it until it no longer function in those ways. so, you know, we lose the lubrication, so we’re not as flexible, we’re more stiff. Our body aches in different ways. But there are ways to make you feel still feel good.

And so, you know, I just kind of wanted to talk with you about how, how it feels to be over 40 and doing physical health as well as what are some of the tricks of the trades to make you still feel good while you’re doing exercising?

>> Cara: Well, you hit on one of the biggest ones, which is water. And you’re right. When we’re in our twenties, we’re not aware of, like, I don’t know, I feel like most people anyway, that, are in their forties. When we were in our twenties, we weren’t caring about what we ate. We didn’t look at protein, we didn’t look, like I said, water movement, things like that, that were intentional. but yeah, there’s, there’s a few tricks that I have, I am not immune to just because I’m a trainer, I’m not immune to the effects of being in my forties, that’s for sure. I remember in my twenties somebody telling me that every decade you’ll feel like somebody flipped a switch. And I didn’t know what they were talking about until I went to being 30 because I could lose five pounds seemingly overnight when I was in my twenties and when I reached my thirties, I couldn’t do that. I had to really work at it. And it would take like maybe a week or a month. And then when I hit my forties, I can’t. It’s like you try and, try and try and, try and try to lose weight and you might actually gain weight.

>> Sarah: Yeah.

>> Cara: Because stress is a huge thing that affects us when we’re in our forties.

That’s one of biggest, issues that I’ve had personally. so, you know, that being said, stress and inflammation are huge. Those go hand in hand. Any stress you have, whether it’s physical, emotional, m if you have stress at work, if you have stress in your marriage, if your kids are stressing you out, any stress you have can and probably will cause you to gain weight because you’re gaining inflammation. and so that’s really important to be aware of. something that a lot of people don’t start thinking about until they start having all the aches and pains and things are going wrong in their forties is supplements, things like, omega three, for example, that can be really beneficial for inflammation. and then there’s, you know, things like that that you can take to help with your, joints as well. And so, obviously they say when you’re younger, make sure you’re getting lots of calcium. But, one of the lesser talked about one is magnesium. Magnesium is super important as well, and that will help you, you know, your joints. And, it also is a great thing to take at night, because it will help you and your whole body kind of relax. And, so, you know, just for those aches and pains, water, like I said, is huge. generally speaking, depending on where you’re at, if you’re in the United States, because I know you might have listeners across the world, but amara, at some point you may hopefully, and so depends on your climate, because where we’re at here in New Mexico, we actually need to drink more water than maybe some would be in, one of the northern states where they have a lot more moisture. so you, generally speaking, at least 80 to 100oz of water a day, for a woman, especially in your forties, you can go up to a gallon. I’ve had some people question, once you start getting to the gallon, won’t your electrolytes be off and can it affect you negatively? And, you would have to be drinking a lot of water for it to like, long term do that. And you can add in sodium if you feel like, you know, you can add in just a little bit of salt and just normal table salt into your water. But water is huge. but also one of the other lesser talked about ones going into the nutrition side of it is protein. and collagen. Collagen is, like, the buzzword right now. Everybody wants collagen, and you just throw it in. Now, something about collagen is, a lot of times you can’t just have, Oh, and that, to be fair, there’s also, there’s collagen that you ingest, and then there’s also creams that, you know, as we reach our forties, our skin seems like it’s sagging a lot more because we have less collagen in our skin. So collagen is protein, and it affects our joints. It affects what, what Sarah was talking about. everything that helps kind of lubricate our joints, everything, our ligaments, our muscles, our skin and our hair, all of those have to do with protein. And which is, you know, collagen is part of protein. So if you’re getting enough protein, which most people aren’t, then that’s, that’s going to help you significantly. So if you feel like, you’re struggling with all of those things, like I said, that might be something to take a look at. And again, it’s always great to talk with a dietitian, and maybe a doctor, and check on that. Also, you know, I know Sarah’s been doing things like yoga, so yoga and pilates are also really great for when you are starting to have joint issues, and so is swimming. You don’t have to do, high impact things. You don’t have to run, you don’t have to go and do free weights and, you know, become a bodybuilder or something like that to start feeling better. you know, there’s a lot of cable machines, and just resistance machines that are really just, you don’t have to push a lot of weight around to see benefits, and that will actually help you. And when you, when you start doing things like that, you’re gonna see that. You’re gonna feel the results as long as you’re not overdoing it. So, again, it’s something, it’s, it’s case by case, you know, everybody is different. So.

>> Sarah: Yeah, I think, so I have, I did start doing magnesium, I don’t know how many months ago?

>> Cara: Like five or six months ago.

>> Sarah: Now something, I don’t know. Sometime at the beginning or the end of last year, I was, I was taking magnesium, and I restarted taking vitamins. Now, I haven’t been taking vitamins in years because I was like, I hate swallowing pills. It’s just ridiculous to have to swallow this to me. And the older you get, I swear, the more vitamins they think they. You need to take. And so I have, like, ten vitamins a day that I take that, you know, not only are doctor. Doctor recommended, but also because of my age and how things don’t work the way they are, I’m deficient in a lot of stuff. And, yeah, and. And if I were to be in the efficient area of those vitamins, I would be downing tons of vegetables all day long and, like, liver, that just an obnoxious amount. Whereas unfortunately, you know, swallowing a pill could get that same effect as opposed to eating that much of that stuff.

>> Cara: And whole foods is always better.

>> Sarah: But, yes, it is better. Yes.

>> Cara: Fish you need to have. So you wouldn’t have to have an omega three supplement, having to have all the fruits and veggies that you need, five cups of each every single day. And it gets expensive to do that, to be honest with you. But it’s just. That’s a lot of food. And it’s a lot.

> Sarah: It’s a lot. It is a lot. And so I do take omega three s every day because I just. I like fish, specific fish, but I don’t eat that every single day. And so, yeah, I take vitamins, take magnesium at night to help me sleep and to kind of relax my system. and I also take supplements as far as protein shakes because I know that I don’t, for the amount of exercise that I do and, just how active I am, I don’t have enough protein to kind of balance out what I’m doing. And so there are changes that I had to make as a 40 year old in order to, well, 40 plus year old in order to feel physically better. you know, because, like I said, your body has a lot of aches and pains.

So for those of you who don’t know, Cara was talking about 75 hard. I have joined her in the 75 hard challenge. And let me tell you, it is 75 hard. Is hard. Is hard. Is hard. So, but it’s. Well, it’s doable. But I think mine is 75 hard ish. Cara is hardcore 75 hard, and I am doing the very best I can. So almost every morning, I get up and take a, 45 plus minute walk. On the days that I’m not doing the walk because I have other things going on, I’m still doing outside physical activity for 45 minutes. But the challenge is you do 45 minutes outdoors of physical activity. 45 minutes indoors of physical activity, you have some sort of diet ish type plan, like a structure in your meal plan, as well as you drink a hundred or not a hundred a gallon of water every day. And then what was the other thing that was like ten pages of. Oh, yeah, reading, reading ten pages. Ten pages of something every day. And so the reading on most days is easy. I love to read. It’s not a big deal. Now I have busier days where I’m, like, trying at like 10:00 at night to slam some pages in. But for the most part, everything has been okay. So in the morning, I get up and I take this 45 minutes plus walk. It ends up being like 55 minutes just because of where I’m walking. And that I actually thought was going to be the hardest thing. And Kara’s like, just listen to a podcast. So I have been running through podcasts like you would not believe during my 45 plus minute walk in the morning. Unfortunately, because I haven’t walked that much in so long of a time. Like, I walk, but not almost an hour’s worth of walk. Every morning, I’ve noticed some little aches and pains in places. So while we’re talking, I’m over here putting, a leave pain reliever lotion on different joints of my body. My husband and I joke, we call it old lady cream because I never, prior to 40, had to put this crap on my joints. But now I use old lady cream, and that’s okay. Like, yep, just do things differently once you’re past 45 or 40 years old.

>> Cara: The last, like yesterday and today, like, I’ll be sitting or, or laying in bed or something, and I get up and my knee is almost like, not 100% working. But, you know, when you haven’t been used to walking, especially that much, and when we walk, we, we have a significant, like, hills around us. It seems like so in any way that we walk, we’re going to be hitting a hill. And so walking up and down those and my, just on my left side today, my hamstring is, like, really tight. That’s the only thing I can think of that is doing that. But it’s. Yeah, it’s, no joke. That is. Gets easier, though.

>> Sarah: Yeah. So, I mean, I would say for fitness over 40, the big takeaways are lots of water because you have lost lubrication. So you need to drink lots of. And like Cara said, it depends on where you live. Do you know that if I lived in a humid state, like Minnesota, Tennessee, Florida, if I lived in a humid state, I would not have to drink as much water because my body is constantly getting moisture in my pores?

>> Cara: You’re not.

>> Sarah: We don’t.

>> Cara: If it’s hot, though, then you’re sweating more. So if you’re in a cooler climate and it’s a moist, moister climate, then, yeah, you’re not losing that water. And you don’t, you don’t need. You could do 50 to 60oz and you’d probably be great. I don’t know. Exactly, because I don’t know, you know, where people live, but…

>> Sarah: Right, but you and I live in a high desert.

>> Cara: Yeah.

>> Sarah: And, so we have to drink a ton of water because we’re dry heat, and so lots of water always replenish. And, and here’s a. Another thing that people forget is if you are somebody that drinks something else. So let’s say I drink, an eight ounce can of soda. My body, in order to flush the eight ounce can of soda, I have to drink double that ounces in water to flush out the toxin from the eight ounce can of soda. So you can’t say, I can drink 90oz of water and have two sodas a day. Well, no, you’re going to have to drink 90oz plus double the amount of soda you drink to flush all that toxin out in order to be replenished and your hydration to be where it needs to be. so water is very important. The other thing is, over the age of 40, stretching. Stretching is extremely important because I didn’t.

>> Cara: Specifically mention that I said yoga. And you’re right, because I, and I do. I have, like, reels where I. People even say over 30 if you. But they’re like, you’re born in the 1980s or the 1970s. They’re like, you can’t afford not to stretch. And oftentimes I say that you stretch more like a longer amount of time in your warm up than you would doing the actual physical activity that you’re going to do.

>> Sarah: Yes. Because, like, you know, we’ve talked about several times, our bodies don’t bounce back the way they used to. When I was in my twenties, I didn’t have to stretch before I went to the gym. I just started working out on whatever gym equipment I wanted to be on, and I was okay. Like, I wasn’t having aches and pains later. But the older you get and, you know, my husband and I have talked about this because he is notoriously famous for not stretching. And then he’s using. He’s got. He’s got this massage gun at home, and he’s got these.

>> Cara: I don’t know what they’re called, but….

>> Sarah: They’re like, they’re like rock massagers. They’re like very thin pieces of granite that he takes, and he massages his face. Fascial tissue.

>> Cara: Yeah.

>> Sarah: Ah.

>> Cara: Self myofascial release is what he’s doing.

>> Sarah: Yes, but it’s because the man never stretches. He does. He just works out.

>> Cara: He’s like, doing both is actually super important. Myofascial release. Self myofascial release. Things like using a foam roller. and, you know, using things like, I even tell people, use a rolling pin. If your legs are feeling tight and sore, you can take a rolling pin and roll it down your leg, and just things like that. That can be very beneficial. But, yeah, we don’t think about that when we’re younger, do we?

>> Sarah: Yeah, no, we don’t. Or even not just, like a foam roller. You can actually get, like, tennis balls. My. I’ve. We’ve done this with my son. Tennis balls. Or even racquetballs. Racquetballs. Really good, because they’re more solid than tennis balls. And get up against a wall and put the tennis ball between you and the wall and just kind of roll your body around the wall with the tennis ball or the racquetball. It’ll help release some of those muscles.

>> Cara: You can get men, you know, the long socks that men tend to have. Yeah.

>> Sarah: Tube socks.

>> Cara:  We have a racquetball. I think we got it from, actually, a chiropractor a long time ago. and you put it in the middle of that sock, then you can hold that behind and get it where it needs to be and target that area. Or my husband likes to use, ah, a door frame because it has that little indentation, and he knows it’s going to there. And then he just kind of rolls up and down. I don’t like that. I feel like a dog scratching themselves on that. There’s. There are. There are balls out there you can get that are specifically meant for this, that are small, and they’re, kind of squishy. And you can just, like, with a foam roller, you can get down on the floor on your back, and roll around where you need to be. And it literally goes, because it’s kind of squishy, but it’s, like, firm enough. It’s getting where it needs to be. And I like that. That’s my person, that’s my preference. But I don’t even. I’m. I should be better about that, to be honest with you.

>> Sarah: Yeah. So I, like I said, water. stretching. Any kind of stretching. Do more stretching than you do weightlifting using foam rollers or the medicine balls or anything that you can roll your body muscles onto. And, then don’t be the least bit, like, embarrassed when you have to like me. Use the old lady cream. Embrace the fact that you are using icy hot or advil. What is it? Advil. Pain relieving lotion. It’s okay. Use.

>> Cara: Or a bath. Use a bath with epsom salt.

>> Sarah: Epsom salt? Yes. Use epsom salt in your bath. Or, a cold compress or even a hot pack like a heating pad. It’s okay. It is not an embarrassing thing. Your body just doesn’t work the same way it used to. So own it. So I just want to encourage everybody. if you’re over the age of 40, you know, it’s okay that your body does not work like it was in the twenties. It’s not supposed to work like it did in the twenties. You are in a different season in life. Embrace where God has you. Enjoy life, the. Where you’re at. Like, I love my forties. I don’t want to go back to 30. I don’t want. I definitely don’t want to go back to 20 or even my teen years because those were scary. But embrace it. just have other 40 year old friends that you hang out with and be old together while you’re exercising. I love that I have a 40 plus year old friend that I can talk about the aches and pains with. And we have so much fun enjoying each other’s company. So thank you, Kara, for joining me on week two.

>> Cara: You’re welcome. Thank you for having me.

>> Sarah: Bye.

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