00:00For decades, women have absorbed the message that exercise is for getting smaller,
00:04flattening your stomach, and building your beach body.
00:07These days, we know that those are not the greatest benefits of exercise,
00:10particularly as we age.
00:12Surely, the real goal is in meeting a beauty standard,
00:15but staying stronger for longer.
00:17I have been bombarded with this message since my teens.
00:21I just thought, that's not why I'm doing this.
00:23Elizabeth Davies is a personal trainer, founder of This Woman Lifts,
00:27and author of Training for Your Old Lady Body.
00:29After leaving a career in law and retraining in fitness,
00:32she became frustrated by an industry obsessed with aesthetics,
00:35while ignoring the realities of ageing, muscle loss, bone health, and long-term independence.
00:40How do I want my life to look 20, 30, 40 years from now?
00:44And what can I do now?
00:46What's within my control now that can set me up for that?
00:50For me, that just encourages and nurtures a much better relationship for me with my body,
00:57because it's kind of teamwork.
00:58We're not me working against her.
01:01We're working together for the future.
01:03Today, we discuss strength training in midlife, body image, menopause, fitness culture,
01:07and why training for your future self might be one of the most important investments you can make in your
01:12health.
01:13Elizabeth Davies, founder, personal trainer, and author.
01:16Welcome to Well Enough.
01:17Thank you for having me.
01:19I want to start the podcast by drawing attention to your brilliant t-shirt,
01:23which says, training for my old lady body.
01:25I love this.
01:27And this is a phrase that's become so synonymous with you,
01:29because you very famously posted online,
01:32training for my summer beach body.
01:34F no, I'm training for my old lady body.
01:36It blew up.
01:38It landed so well with so many people.
01:40Why do you think that is?
01:41It really did resonate so widely.
01:47And I think that it is a culmination of us being bombarded as women for decades
01:55with this idea that our bodies are kind of primarily there for some aesthetic purpose.
02:02And I think the summer body, bikini body thing is so relatable for women.
02:10This urgency that we are conditioned to feel every year as we know we are inching towards summer.
02:18And this idea that we should be feeling this sense of shame about how we look
02:25and that we should turn to exercise as a means to fix that.
02:30I have been bombarded with this message since my teens.
02:34And the reason I fired off that message that then went to become viral
02:38was because I'd had enough too.
02:40And I was training in the gym and it just occurred to me,
02:43you know, it was May time, it was spring time.
02:45I was seeing a lot of that bikini body messaging.
02:48And I just thought, that's not why I'm doing this.
02:52There is a bigger picture.
02:54This is a long game and I'm done with it.
02:57And I was so thrilled that it did resonate and it got re-shared.
03:02It got kind of re-posted.
03:06Lots of people made their own versions of reels featuring it.
03:10And then it's given rise to the book.
03:12I love this.
03:13And it's funny to me because we know that women don't really like that messaging.
03:18You know, get your body perfect for the beach.
03:20No one's ever really responded well to that.
03:22But yet, it seems to be this perpetuated line,
03:26this perpetuated story that we're sold all the time.
03:28I saw it the other day.
03:30Someone was talking about you need to train your triceps
03:33because you don't want flabby arms at the beach.
03:35And then I saw on your Instagram,
03:36you were calling out that exact messaging.
03:38And it was funny because I tried to not internalize it.
03:42But then I found myself thinking about it over and over again.
03:45So it's really refreshing to then go onto a page like yours on Instagram
03:49and see you saying,
03:50actually, strong arms look all kinds of different ways.
03:53And you don't need to necessarily train tris for the beach.
03:56That's nonsense.
03:57Exactly.
03:58Because what I'm seeing,
03:59a lot of this isolation work, biceps and triceps.
04:02Yeah, that's fine.
04:04But actually, there are so many movements that we can train
04:07that bring in a lot more muscles
04:10that maybe, you know, the word functional is overused,
04:13but maybe are a little bit more functional
04:15that are actually going to make life feel easier.
04:19But I'm so glad that you can see through that
04:21because I feel that because that is a message
04:25which is now encouraging women to pick up weights
04:28rather than encouraging women to starve themselves
04:31or do excessive cardio,
04:33it's kind of getting a free pass.
04:36Just because you are kind of putting a pair of dumbbells
04:39in somebody's hands
04:40does not make this message any more empowering.
04:44We are still saying in order to show your body,
04:47you need to look a particular way.
04:50And it's a disgusting message,
04:51which is just holding women back
04:53and it's serving as this big distraction
04:57from the much bigger picture,
04:59which is for me,
05:00how do I want my life to look 20, 30, 40 years from now?
05:05It's a really interesting distinction
05:07that you made there actually,
05:08and one that I hadn't considered that much
05:10because I'm really for women's strength training
05:13and I'm really excited to see more women
05:15interested in becoming strong.
05:17However, that pervasive message of why you're doing it,
05:21you know, to achieve a particular body type or aesthetic
05:23is very much still there.
05:26At what point did you think,
05:27I'm going to start pushing back against this?
05:30I've been pushing back against it for years.
05:33I probably joined Instagram about nine years ago,
05:38coinciding with me leaving law
05:41and setting up my personal training business.
05:44I was sharing this stuff right from the start,
05:47but of course my platform was small,
05:49my audience was small.
05:51But I remember calling out a brand
05:54that was constantly talking about
05:55how their leggings sculpt your bum
05:58and flatten your tummy.
06:00this idea that to even show up for exercise,
06:04we should be looking a particular way.
06:06A lot of my messaging has remained the same.
06:09It's just now more people are seeing it
06:10and sharing it, which is nice,
06:13but it's just decades of being subjected to this stuff.
06:18And I think once you start to see it
06:21and you start to question it,
06:23you really cannot unsee it.
06:26It is everywhere.
06:27It is so insidious.
06:29It just kind of every year
06:31in a slightly different guise.
06:34Nobody is calling it a bikini body anymore.
06:38We've swung to the summer arms
06:40and it's the same stuff.
06:43Yeah, there's always a changing beauty standard
06:44as well, isn't there?
06:45You mentioned law.
06:46I want to go back to that and ask you,
06:47because you trained as a barrister
06:49before moving into fitness.
06:50What made you decide to leave law
06:52and start doing the work that you do now?
06:54It's quite bizarre, isn't it?
06:56So, yeah, I was a barrister for over a decade
07:00and the kind of moment of epiphany for me
07:06happened when I was in a gym, commercial gym.
07:10I was about 18 months postpartum with baby number two
07:13and I was in a circuits class.
07:15And this particular class,
07:16the instructor had laid a skipping rope out
07:20as one of the stations.
07:21And I remember seeing it and thinking,
07:23oh, I haven't done that in a long time,
07:24but nevermind.
07:26It got to that station and I was really clumsy.
07:29I was uncoordinated.
07:30I couldn't even clear the rope.
07:32And then I finally managed to start jumping
07:34and was mortified to realise I had wet myself.
07:37I felt so alone in that experience,
07:39so embarrassed,
07:42so unclear of to whom I should turn
07:45for advice or support or guidance.
07:47And it just made me realise
07:50that women are really underserved
07:53by mainstream fitness.
07:55You know, given how prevalent incontinence is,
07:59you would expect that a woman would be able
08:03to then say,
08:04oh, actually, this exercise isn't feeling great
08:06for my pelvic floor.
08:08Have you got any suggestions of what I could do?
08:10There is no way I would have felt comfortable
08:13asking the instructor that.
08:15And even now, would I feel comfortable?
08:18Probably not.
08:19It kind of made me think,
08:21there's something I can do here.
08:23Already, I had the two young kids
08:25and I was feeling that my law career
08:27wasn't necessarily sustainable with that.
08:29And this moment of epiphany realisation
08:32made me think,
08:33actually, maybe this is an area
08:35where I could make a bit of a difference.
08:37I hope that you're enjoying this episode
08:39with Elizabeth Davies
08:40and we'll get back into it in just a second.
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